Gifted

by Campbell, Jamie

  Through the dust and dirt that had accumulated over the decades shone strong sunbeams that lit up the room. Overhead were long, thick wooden beams that ran the length of the house and criss-crossed the room. They were high up, Blair wouldn’t need to duck to walk underneath them.

  Cobwebs hung from every corner but they appeared to be vacant, like the spiders had moved on a long time ago. Charlie was relieved, if she had even seen one little sign of a spider or mouse, she had planned on getting out of there pretty fast. She had seen enough horror movies to know that attics were definitely not good places to be.

  They stood and walked around the room. It was really quite pleasant up there. There was nothing on the floor, save for dust, the whole room was completely empty. Blair stared at the ceiling before looking over the walls. They appeared to be well sealed and looked in good condition. He decided the room really only needed a clean for it to be usable. He assumed it must have been used at some stage as another room, it was too well built just for storage.

  “What do you think this room used to be?” He asked Charlie who was looking out of the back windows.

  “Didn’t they used to put the maids and butlers up in the attic rooms?”

  “That’s right, they made them schlep all the way up to the top of the house. Work downstairs and live way, way upstairs. Guaranteed to be cold in winter and hot in the summer. Do you really think the good Lord and Lady had maids and butlers?”

  “Maybe. They would have had to have a housekeeper in the very least. Can you imagine Lady Reign with a feather duster and apron? She doesn’t sound like the floor-scrubbing type somehow. I doubt she would have her daughters do it either, they would have had to maintain their good status. Only commoners clean their own house.”

  “True. I don’t know how we commoners cope with it all. I think Cate will be pleased with this room. If we can install a more workable way of getting up here, it will be a good space. Needs a hell of a clean though.”

  “Where are those maids when you need them?” Charlie joked.

  “I think we’re looking at them. I’d prefer to be called ‘domestic staff’ though if you don’t mind. ‘Maid’ seems so last century. Hey, have you noticed something?” Blair looked at the far end of the attic room, Charlie followed his eye line to see what was catching his eye.

  “No, what should I have noticed?”

  “The room isn’t symmetrical. Look at the front, the windows are all perfectly spaced until you get to the end one - it’s too close to the wall. The back is the same. The room is too short.”

  “Maybe they misjudged.”

  “Builders don’t misjudge. Remember, measure twice, cut once. Wait here for a second, I’m just going to run downstairs and take a look from outside. I’ll see if they’re evenly spaced.”

  Charlie held the ladder again as he hurried down and out of sight. She walked over to the front window and looked out onto the yard below, waiting for Blair to appear. After a few minutes she watched him as he ran into the yard and stood staring up at the roof. He shrugged his shoulders and ran back inside. She waited by the ladder again and tightened her grip when she heard his approaching footsteps. He was faster climbing the rungs on his second attempt, even though he was panting from his run downstairs and back.

  “Nope, it’s perfectly symmetrical from outside. This room isn’t long enough,” he said excitedly.

  “It has to be, the wall’s right there. Maybe it’s an optical illusion or something.”

  Blair ignored her and went to the wall on the left hand side of the room. He started knocking on the hard surface with his knuckles, listening for any changes in the consistency. He continued his knocking all along the wall for several minutes as Charlie stood by and watched, starting to lose her patience. Finally, he reached the end.

  “This is a false wall,” he declared with certainty.

  “Blair, you’ve gone crazy. Why on earth would they have a false wall up here? It’s doesn’t look fake, look the wood’s exactly the same as all the other walls.”

  “I’ll grant you that - it’s an excellent concealment the way they’ve matched the wood. It’s still false though, listen,” he knocked on the wall and then on the back wall. “You can hear the differences between the outside wall - which they are both meant to be - and an inside wall.”

  “So maybe there are pipes or a hot water system or something behind there. If they used this room for the staff, then they wouldn’t want that kind of thing actually in the room with them.”

  “Like they had a choice in the matter? No, the hot water system is downstairs - I’ve seen it already in the cellar. I think we should try and see what’s behind this wall.”

  “We can’t just go banging holes in the wall to satisfy your curiosity.”

  “I’ll fix it again afterwards.”

  “So we open it, and then what? What are you expecting to find?” Charlie was starting to lose her patience.

  “Buried treasure of course! Seriously, who knows? I just think it’s weird there is a false wall here. After everything else that’s going on in the house, don’t you think it’s strange?”

  “Whatever. Do what you want, just don’t be disappointed when all you have is a mess and an empty wall cavity.”

  “I’m going to need some tools. I’ll be right back,” Blair ignored the way Charlie rolled her eyes at him and took off downstairs again. She could tell he was like a kid in a lolly shop, it only took him moments to run downstairs and grab his tools before returning.

  He stood at the foot of the ladder and passed up his equipment piece by piece to Charlie who took it only reluctantly. She didn’t want to have any part of this. Finally, after everything was handed up through the hole, did he climb the ladder himself again.

  Blair stood in front of the wall trying to work out exactly how he should go about getting through to the other side. He didn’t really want to damage the wall, as it stood you couldn’t tell it didn’t belong there. The wood, the grain, the staining was all exactly the same as the other walls. It was like it was meant to be there, like the exact same materials were used for both. He decided on cutting out a small hole at knee level in the corner. At least then he would be able to see through to the other side and work out whether he needed anything bigger.

  He picked up his drill and made a small hole, dust went everyone from the power tool. Once through, he inserted his saw into the round hole and made a square hole the size of his fist. He blew away the dust and peered through. All he could see was darkness.

  “Can you please hand me the torch?” He asked Charlie, she reluctantly obliged, she didn’t want to be seen as an accessory to his crazy ideas and condoning of his behaviour.

  He shone the torch through the gap and awkwardly put himself in a position to be able to balance the light and see at the same time - it wasn’t easy. He tried to make sense of what he was seeing, it took a few glances to work out the objects. He pulled his head back and looked around at Charlie.

  “Want to see?”

  “What’s in there?”

  “You won’t know until you look,” he teased, he knew she was secretly dying to know what he saw. She took the torch from him sharply and knelt right down.

  “There’s stuff in there!” She exclaimed, surprised he had actually been right.

  “I know. I’m going to make the hole bigger, see if we can get in there.”

  “Do you really think we should? If it’s been walled up, then maybe it’s for a good reason.”

  “No way can we just walk away from this. Besides, we can always take out this whole wall and make the room bigger again. Cate will appreciate the extra space. Plus, it will make the room symmetrical again - I hate asymmetry.”

  “Fine then.”

  Blair picked up his saw again and started to enlarge the hole. He took it right to the floor and back up again to make it big enough for them both to crawl through. When finished, he grabbed the torch and squeezed through, beckoning Charlie to follow.
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  The room was tiny, just big enough for them to both stand in. The sun light didn’t reach any part of it, they were relying solely on the small torch to see around the room. They shone it over the floor slowly to see what it held.

  There was a blanket covering something rectangular. Blair tugged on the corner, sending dust swirling around the room. Charlie sneezed and covered her mouth and nose with her hand to stop herself from inhaling any more. He dropped the blanket onto the floor, it was almost disintegrating in his hand as he moved it. Underneath was a wooden chest with a heavy padlock securing the lid. There was nothing else in the room besides the blanket, chest and year’s worth of dust.

  Charlie backed out of the space so Blair would have enough room to drag the chest into the attic. It only just made it through the wall, even the slightest bit larger and it would have hit the sides. He placed it in the middle of the room and found a hammer in his tool kit. He repeatedly hit the rusty padlock until it relented and broke open. He was careful not to damage the chest itself, it was made out of a dark cedar wood. Slowly, he raised the lid and opened the chest. They stood there staring at the contents for a few moments before starting to pull them out piece by piece.

  They laid each item out onto the floor, handling them delicately. Everything looked old, really old, like they could easily crumble at any minute. They managed to empty the chest without any damage. They surveyed their find. Inside the chest had been a number of personal items. There was a hairbrush, a dress, a book, a hand mirror, and a bookmark. Nothing about the objects looked like they warranted the indignity of being walled up.

  “What do you think all this is?”

  “No idea, obviously they belonged to a woman - or a girl. The dress is pretty small.”

  Charlie gently picked up the dress and held it against her body. It was now a light brown colour but she could tell it used to be a delicate pink. It was covered in lace all around the bodice and had little rosettes underneath the bust line. She guessed it would have been in the style of the 17th or 18th century. Her point of reference came solely from the period movies she loved watching.

  “It’s my size.”

  “Try it on,” Blair suggested.

  “I might damage it.”

  “It looks sturdy enough.”

  “It’s all dirty.”

  “So are you, go on.”

  Giving into temptation, Charlie quickly took her clothes off and slid as carefully as she could into the dress. She had been right, it was her size. In fact, it fit perfectly - even the length which she usually struggled with. She stood there admiring the dress, it was made out of light cotton and upon closer inspection had a floral print on the skirt part. It flowed from the bodice down to the floor. The sleeves had a slight puff to them, emphasising the shoulders and showing off the delicate arms. The bust area was gathered and framed the neck.

  “I love it.”

  “I can’t believe it fits. What are the chances?”

  “Even the length fits, if I had to wear this I wouldn’t have to shorten it. I have to take everything up normally,” she did a little twirl. “I don’t want to wreck it, I’ll take it off now.”

  Charlie changed back into her clothes and draped the dress over the open chest so it didn’t have to go back onto the dirty floor. She picked up the book and read the spine - ‘The English Garden’ by Herman Reamus. She flicked through the first few pages of the book, working out that it was a ‘How-to’ of gardening. It outlined all types of different flowers and plants, some pages had black and white sketches.

  “It’s a gardening book.”

  “Gardening? What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “Maybe it belonged to the same person - it might have been their favourite book or something.”

  “I’m guessing all this stuff belonged to the same person. The hairbrush, mirror, dress - it all reeks of personal mementoes. What should we do with it?”

  Charlie ignored his question for a moment and picked up the mirror. She held it up with her hand. It was made out of silver and had flowers etched all along the handle like it was a creeping vine. The mirror itself was barely usable. It was cloudy and black in parts. Charlie’s face look distorted when she peered into it. She turned it over. On the back was an intricate web of engraving. Leaves and flowers criss-crossed and interlocked. You could look at the pattern for hours and still not take it all in. In the centre were etched some initials - ER.

  “I think we should keep it secret for a bit,” she said distractedly. “Keep the whole thing up here while we work on the place. I’m sure the more we find out about this house, the more stuff is going to make sense.”

  “I get the feeling you’re right. I’m disappointed we didn’t find any gold or jewels though,” he made a dramatic frown and stuck out his bottom lip. It made Charlie laugh.

  “Maybe in some of the other rooms we’ll find a secret passageway which will lead us to all the real treasure. Then Cate will be able to live like a Lady too.”

  “Do you think Lady Catherine Sinclair will let us commoners stay here then? Of course, she’ll have to address us as Sir Blair and M’lady Charlotte.”

  “I’m sure money won’t change her. And don’t call me Charlotte or I will have to put you in the cavity and wall you up.”

  “I promise I won’t do it again, Charlotte,” he smiled and started to pack away the items, replacing them all back in the chest. She went to slap him but he held up the mirror in front of himself as a shield. She relented and helped him to tidy up. She had hated her full name since she was in primary school and they had studied Charlotte’s Web. She did not want to share a name with a spider and had insisted that everyone call her Charlie ever since. She had even begged her parents to let her change her name for good. The other kids had teased her too, there had been one boy in particular that had been ruthless in constantly telling all his friends she belonged on a farm. She still cringed every time she had to write her full legal name.

  They were interrupted from their cleaning by the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. Blair went to the window and saw Cate’s car making its way up the driveway. He checked his watch, it was late afternoon - they had spent all day in the attic without even realising it.

  “Cate’s home. We missed lunch,” Blair lamented.

  “What time is it?”

  “Almost four.”

  “Really? Gee, where did the time go? How did we forget to eat lunch?” Charlie didn’t even notice being hungry.

  “Guess we were on a mission. I’m starving though now that I think of it.”

  “Me too. I say we call it a day up here. We can come back tomorrow with some super heavy duty cleaning products. Those windows are mocking me with the amount of dirt they have.”

  “Done deal, come on.”

  They slowly climbed down the ladder and closed the cover, leaning the ladder against the wall for the next day’s use. They made it out to the driveway just in time to help Cate carry some parcels into the house. Rahni happily skipped inside, she was dressed as a purple fairy princess - complete with a glittery tiara. Her face was covered with a painted pink butterfly.

  “Have fun?” Charlie asked her sister as they entered the kitchen.

  “Fun’s not quite the word. I’m exhausted - I have no idea where kids get their energy from. Wherever it is, I want some of it! Did you have a good day? Your clothes are filthy.”

  “We were in the attic all day. There’s a whole bunch of dust and dirt up there. We only really scratched the surface today.”

  “What do you think of the room? Is it usable?”

  “Definitely. It’s just one big room that is as big as an entire floor. Once it’s cleaned up you’ll be able to use it just like any of the other rooms.”

  “What about the roof? Is it really low? Did Blair have to duck to walk around or anything?”

  “Nope, they are normal height, he didn’t have any trouble at all. What are you planning for the room?”

&nbs
p; “I haven’t decided yet - I wanted to see exactly what I was dealing with first. When I played with the idea of opening a Bed & Breakfast I was thinking that it might be good as one of the guest rooms. Put a bathroom in and stuff. Do you think it would work?”

  “It’s big enough to. We’ll just need to sort out access to it. You can’t expect guests to climb up a ladder! Especially if they have luggage.”

  “I agree, plus I don’t think you could get insurance cover for that,” Cate laughed at the idea. She could picture a city slicker trying to negotiate the ladder in high heels and a pencil skirt.

  Rahni’s voice interrupted them, she was calling for Charlie from the living room. Charlie responded and went into the room to sit on the lounge next to her niece. Blair was already sitting in the arm chair watching cartoons with her.

  “Did you have fun at the party today?” She asked.

  “It was good, we played pass the parcel and I won!”

  “Wow, what did you win?”

  “A bracelet,” she held up her wrist, “See?”

  “Impressive.”

  “Alice said I had to tell you something.”

  Charlie and Blair exchanged a glance, suddenly nervous about what they were about to hear from the little girl’s mouth.

  “What’s the message?”

  “She said you look just like her in that dress. Who do you look like Auntie Charlie?”

  The hair on Charlie’s arms stood on end. “I’m not sure. Do you think next time you see her you could ask for a name?”

  “I can try, sometimes when I ask questions she leaves. You’re not wearing a dress.”

  “I know, I did have one on today though - I changed... because I was so dirty,” she quickly added.

  Rahni looked her up and down. “You’re still dirty,” she observed dryly.

  “I know, can you imagine how dirty I must have been before!” Charlie laughed, trying to avoid an interrogation from the seven year old, she had forgotten Rahni had inherited both her parent’s intelligence.