The Vulture of Sommerset

by Stephen M. Giles

  ‘I . . . I don’t know for sure,’ said Adele. While she had no doubt that Isabella had been kidnapped, speaking of it openly was too great a risk. The traitor, and surely it was time to call her by name – Florence Puddle – must not suspect anything. Hannah was such a timid girl and so devoted to Isabella. If she became aware of her mistress’s fate the traitor would only have to glance at her to know something was wrong.

  ‘I shall pray that she turns up soon, miss,’ said Hannah with a sniff. She felt the dagger pushing into the small of her back, concealed beneath her apron, and it thrilled her. ‘To think I was just with her last night. She looked so pretty, too – just like an angel all dressed in white.’

  Adele lifted her head like a dog picking up a scent. ‘What time did you see her? Please, Hannah, it could be very important.’

  ‘Oh, that’s easy,’ said Hannah. ‘Miss Isabella sent for me around nine. I remember because I was just getting ready for bed. She told me to call Paris first thing in the morning and find out what time the shipment of dresses was due to arrive.’ Hannah sniffed again and wiped her eyes. ‘Miss Isabella could hardly wait to get them!’

  ‘Yes, I remember,’ said Adele, the tension leaving her voice. Clearly Hannah had seen Isabella before she and Milo had taken the decoy from the library and set the trap for the traitor. The faint hope that Hannah might have seen something of interest was washed away. ‘Thank you, Hannah.’

  A few parting words were exchanged between Adele and the maid before they exited the music room together. Hannah took the mop and bucket back to the hall cupboard then reported to the dining room to help lay the table for supper. She was determined to perform all of her duties until the time came to seize the Vulture. After her encounter in the music room she was certain that the statue was still concealed within the grand piano, so her task would be an easy one.

  Meanwhile, on the other side of Sommerset House, Adele was frantically searching for Milo. The girl’s heart was lurching madly and her skin tingled. Where was he? There was so much to tell him! Then she remembered – Milo had said he would wait for her in the library! Adele quickened her steps until she was practically sprinting down the long corridor, the identity of Sommerset’s traitor dancing upon her lips.

  TO CATCH A MAID

  ‘I’m not the traitor! You’ve made a terrible mis take. Please, please believe me. I’m not the traitor!’

  The hour was late, nearly eleven, and Florence Puddle had been tied to a chair in the library for over two hours protesting her innocence and denying all knowledge of Dr Mangrove and the secret room. Her anguished cries rolled through the eastern wing like a thunderclap, and Hannah Spoon was finding it rather difficult to bury the laughter bubbling deep inside her as she skulked towards the door at the far end of the hall. Only when she had slipped into the music room and shut the door did she allow the laughter to spill out.

  Oh, how easy it had been. Those stupid brats had swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker. And all it had taken were a few choice words in Miss Adele’s ear and a few sheets of black paper planted in Florence’s room! Shortly before dinner Hannah had gone up to the third floor and fetched her supply of black notepaper and the white ink pen she had used to write the ransom notes. She had concealed them in her apron and waited until the dining room was buzzing before slipping away to the servants’ quarters and sliding the evidence under Florence’s mattress.

  The Winterbottoms had looked so grim all through dinner that Hannah was certain something was afoot. Not long after dessert Miss Adele, Master Milo and Mrs Hammer appeared in the kitchen where Florence and two other maids were cleaning up, and announced that they had recently received a troubling report about Florence’s activities and they wished to conduct a search of her quarters – immediately. Naturally Florence was horrified by the charge but did not object to a search of her room. After all, she had nothing to hide! When the mattress was lifted and the evidence of Florence’s treachery was revealed, the maid began to shriek and cry, claiming to have no knowledge of how the paper and pen got there.

  ‘They aren’t mine!’ she sobbed. ‘Please believe me!’ On and on the girl wailed as she was led away to the library for questioning. The police were to be called but not before Adele and Milo had had a chance to grill Florence about the location of the secret room. It was Mrs Hammer who suggested they restrain Florence with rope.

  ‘She’s a dangerous creature,’ said the housekeeper gravely, ‘capable of foul deeds. It is better to be safe than sorry.’

  Florence was tied to a chair beside a case of first editions and the library was cleared before the questioning began – only the children and Mrs Hammer were to be present. But the girl’s shrill protests were so loud that nobody was left in any doubt about what was happening behind the library’s carved oak doors. By that time most of the staff had retired to their quarters to gossip about the shocking turn of events and Hannah was free to slip away and complete her mission.

  The lid of the grand piano was surprisingly easy to lift but the dim light of the music room made the object of her search rather difficult to spot. Hannah’s eyes roamed the strings and bridges hidden within the instrument’s mahogany case until she spotted a dark bundle resting against the hammers. The blood surged in her veins as she lifted it out and gently lowered the piano lid. Then she carefully laid the red velvet bundle down and began to unwrap it. This time she was determined to see the bird before taking it to Dr Mangrove. As the last fold of crushed velvet was peeled back Hannah gasped. The Vulture!

  ‘At last!’ she hissed, staring at the silver bird in triumph. ‘What a beauty you are!’

  When Hannah crept into the domed entrance hall clutching her prize, the sobs of Florence Puddle were still coming from the library. It was music to Hannah’s ears! With the Winterbottoms busy interrogating the ‘traitor’ and Mrs Hammer hovering over the action, Hannah had no fear of discovery. By the time those idiot children realised that Florence was not guilty, she and Dr Mangrove would be halfway to Budatta.

  She stepped into the elevator and turned to her left, slipping her hand around the gold and silver bar. Her pulse began to quicken. She had taken that journey down to the secret room dozens of times but it never failed to excite her. How delicious it was to have such a secret – a world hidden beneath the ground – and right under their stuck-up little noses too! Hannah tightened her grip on the ribbed bar and turned it anticlockwise. It twisted easily, clicking into place. The doors shut and the elevator began to drop into the darkness. With the bird finally in her grasp nothing could stop her now!

  Hannah’s mind left the gloomy elevator shaft and drifted to the golden sands of her future, where she would be rich and free. But the trip was a short one as the maid suddenly found herself tumbling to the floor, the Vulture very nearly slipping from her clutches. The elevator had stopped! Cursing the turn of events and fearing some sort of dreary technical fault, Hannah got to her feet, only to be greeted with even worse news. The elevator was moving again. But now it was heading north – back up to the entrance hall!

  ‘Surprise,’ said Milo darkly when the doors parted and Hannah Spoon found herself staring out at the trio of forbidding faces. Miss Adele looked disgusted, Master Milo furious and Mrs Hammer utterly ashamed. Hannah’s mind at that moment was a crowded room where everybody was shouting at once for her attention. Yet despite the confusion, Hannah quickly noted that Mrs Hammer was clutching a rolling pin and Miss Adele a length of rope.

  ‘You have something that belongs to us,’ said Adele. The red-haired girl stepped into the elevator where Hannah was still standing like a statue, and grabbed the Vulture from her arms. The maid resisted at first, clutching it tightly, but Adele was in no mood to play, ripping the bundle free of her hold. In truth, Adele was reeling. Only moments ago one of the greatest mysteries of her life had been solved. She’d already suspected that the elevator had a part to play in the kidnappings, but Adele never would have guessed that the door Theodore Bloom wrote
of, the door she had been searching for, was the elevator itself. Nor could she have imagined that the elevator went down beneath the house! It seemed utterly impossible and yet it made perfect sense. Aunt Rosemary had been snatched from the entrance hall, as had Dr Mangrove’s first victim, the maid Abigail O’Rourke, and when Isabella vanished her ribbon was found just outside the cage door. How logical it seemed now!

  ‘Have you nothing to say for yourself, Hannah?’ said Mrs Hammer.

  ‘What gave me away?’ It was the only question the traitor gave a fig about.

  ‘The dresses,’ said Adele bluntly. ‘You told me that Isabella had spoken to you on the night she vanished about the dresses coming from Paris. At first what you said made perfect sense – Isabella did have a shipment of dresses due to arrive any day now. But then I remembered the night of the dinner party for the duchess. Her daughter Lady Charlotte convinced Isabella that nobody was buying their dresses from Paris anymore. Isabella was humiliated and I distinctly remember her telling me that she was going to cancel the order. That’s when I knew you were lying.’

  ‘Then old Eagle Eyes saw you sneaking into Florence’s room at suppertime,’ said Mrs Hammer. She was referring to Tobias Eagle, an 83-year-old footman with a habit of peering through his keyhole whenever anyone passed his door. ‘He told me you were acting most peculiar, looking about the hall making sure there was no-one about, then slipping into Florence’s room and shutting the door.’

  ‘Once Mrs Hammer told us what Tobias had seen we checked her room ourselves and found the black paper and white ink,’ said Milo. ‘After that we had no doubt that you were trying to frame Florence. So we decided to let you believe that your plan had worked. We publicly accused Florence and made a big deal of searching her room just like you wanted us to.’

  ‘Florence played her part beautifully,’ said Adele.

  ‘That’s right,’ said Milo. ‘When she learned that you had set her up, she was very happy to help out.’

  ‘Oh, Hannah,’ cried Mrs Hammer, unable to hold it in any longer, ‘you silly girl! Why did you agree to work for that villain?’

  ‘Yes, Hannah, why?’ said Adele. ‘I liked you very much. You were always so patient with Isabella, even when she didn’t deserve it. Were you pretending the whole time?’

  ‘You looked at me and all you saw was another uniform,’ said Hannah sharply. ‘I wasn’t a person, just a maid. But Master Silas saw more. You brats had only been at Sommerset a day or two when your uncle asked me to spy on you – to tell him what I saw and heard. He was pleased with my reports too. Doubled my wages, he did. When the master died I thought my one chance to make something of my life had vanished. Then in the summer I got word from Dr Mangrove. He sent me a lovely pair of earrings – real diamonds and all. Told me he needed a partner, someone to help him bring this house to its knees. It felt like a miracle!’

  Mrs Hammer cringed at such talk (especially from one of her own maids), but held her tongue. The girl’s story was as fascinating as it was shocking.

  ‘Dr Mangrove offered me a way out. Compared to a life of scrubbing dishes and washing windows and obeying Miss Isabella’s every command, what Dr Mangrove asked me to do was a walk in the park!’ As Hannah continued to tell her tale she reached behind her ever so carefully, her hand searching for the dagger sheathed in the strings of her apron. She felt the smooth ivory handle and eased her fingers around it. ‘I did what I had to do and I’m not sorry. Miss Isabella always thought she was so much better than me.’ She began to lift the knife until the short blade was free of the apron strings. ‘But she’s not. None of you are; you’re just the same as me. Flesh and blood.’

  Like a tiger Hannah pounced from the elevator, but before she could lift the dagger a hand was wrapping itself around her wrist as another set of fingers dug the knife from her grasp. Milo had ducked around her so quickly she had barely seen him move.

  ‘You really are evil,’ said the boy, passing the knife to Mrs Hammer. ‘What were you going to do, stab us all?’

  ‘Yes!’ shouted Hannah.

  Adele appeared shaken by the hatred in her voice but Milo did not flinch. He ordered her to turn around and put her arms behind her back. With Mrs Hammer holding her at knifepoint Hannah had little choice but to submit.

  ‘What are you going to do to me?’ she hissed.

  ‘Mrs Hammer has called the police. She will take you to the kitchen and hold you there until they arrive,’ said Milo. He looked at the Vulture bundled in Adele’s arms. ‘By the time they get here Adele and I will have taken care of your partner, Dr Mangrove.’

  ‘Taken care of him?’ Hannah let out a mocking laugh. ‘Dr Mangrove will crush you! Besides, how do you plan on getting down to the secret room?’ She smiled crudely. ‘There’s no way you could have seen what I did . . . the hall was empty when I came in!’

  ‘You mean turning the third bar on the left in an anticlockwise direction?’ said Adele casually. ‘We were watching you the whole time, Hannah. Florence was by herself in the library from the very beginning – well, not completely alone. She had Thorn for company. We were worried that if he saw you he might bite your leg off.’

  ‘The minute the elevator starts dropping Dr Mangrove will hear it,’ spat Hannah. ‘He will be waiting, and the second he sees your faces you are dead.’

  ‘That’s enough,’ said Mrs Hammer sternly. ‘There’s more venom in you than a rattlesnake, Hannah Spoon!’

  As Adele handed the rope to Milo so he could bind Hannah’s arms she whispered to her cousin, ‘I think we should fetch the pistol before we go down.’

  They had been so focused on entrapping Hannah and reclaiming the Vulture that the children had not really discussed the next part of their plan.

  ‘No,’ said Milo, curling the rope around the maid’s wrists, ‘there isn’t time. Besides, we have the only weapon that counts with Dr Mangrove – the Vulture of Sommerset.’

  ‘Children, perhaps you should wait for the police to arrive,’ whispered Mrs Hammer, the dagger trembling in her hand. ‘Hannah is right about one thing: Dr Mangrove won’t go down without a fight.’

  ‘Then we shall give him a fight,’ said Milo. He was just tying off the rope when Adele had a sudden change of heart and told him to untie the maid.

  ‘I’ve got an idea,’ said the young girl vaguely. She placed the Vulture of Sommerset on the table next to the stairs and then proceeded to circle around Hannah Spoon, looking her up and down. ‘It will take some doing but I . . . I think it could work.’

  ‘What are you gawking at?’ snapped the traitor.

  Adele’s cheeks were flushed but she held Hannah’s stare. ‘Take off your dress,’ she said.

  When Dr Mangrove heard the familiar squeak of the elevator cables he began the slow shuffle from his desk to the passageway on the opposite side of the chamber. He had been tangled up in his own thoughts since Hannah left on her mission, and had said little to his captives, so Isabella was not surprised when he passed her without a second glace.

  ‘I’m certain it’s the police!’ she shouted, but the old man ignored her.

  Dr Mangrove stopped at the entrance to the tunnel and watched as Hannah descended, as if from the heavens, bathed in the soft glow of the single torch. While the doctor’s vision had deteriorated rapidly over the last few days along with the rest of his body, there was no mistaking the maid’s dark uniform or the cap upon her head or the Vulture clasped between her hands – he also noticed the cloth used to wrap the statue crumpled on the floor near the hem of Hannah’s wide skirt.

  ‘You have done well, my dear,’ he purred. ‘Bring it to me.’

  Hannah stepped from the platform and walked down the dimly lit tunnel towards him, her head bowed, eyes fixed upon the Vulture, which she held out in front of her like an offering. Dr Mangrove’s withered heart began to hammer. Finally the Vulture was here! He looked upon the silver bird as one might a newborn babe – for he knew that from it great things would come. So complete
was Dr Mangrove’s ecstasy that he did not notice the wisps of unruly red hair springing free from the army of pins under the maid’s lace cap, or the bruises upon her pale face or the shaking in her hands.

  Finally she stood before him, head down, stealing glimpses of the darkened chamber from the corner of her eye. She spotted the weapons mounted upon the wall, the dank pit in the middle of the floor, the glass wall and her aunt and Levi caged behind it. It was worse than she could ever have imagined!

  ‘Did you have any difficulties?’ said the doctor. He raised his finger and placed it under her chin. ‘Why so shy? You should be very proud of yourself, my dear.’

  Flinching under the monster’s touch Adele knew it was time. She lifted her head and confronted the landslide of flesh upon Dr Mangrove’s face. There was no time to be shocked. The doctor let out a hiss and lunged for the Vulture, but as his fingers touched upon the bird’s silvery skin something flew out from behind Adele’s wide skirt and snatched it away. Dr Mangrove turned and saw that the phantom thief was a boy. The boy.

  ‘Now!’ shouted Milo.

  Taking her cue Adele flew at the doctor, her arms quickly colliding with his chest. The old man tumbled over, spilling to the ground.

  ‘I knew you would come!’ cried Isabella, jumping up and down. ‘Look, Aunt Rosemary, Levi – we are saved!’

  Milo was running across the chamber towards his shackled cousin just as Adele headed for the glass wall to liberate the other captives. There was no time to waste – every second counted. She passed Dr Mangrove’s crumpled body, noting briefly how still he was. She wondered if he could be dead . . . It was possible, given his age. The girl was not immediately aware that her feet were no longer on solid ground. She did feel a tug at her right ankle, but it happened so quickly that by the time Adele understood that Dr Mangrove had grasped her leg she was already plummeting towards the chamber floor.