“Murphy, if you can calm down a minute, I have news.”
“What sort of news? Is it good or bad?”
“Well, to be honest, I think it’s mostly bad,” I said.
Murphy’s cavorting turned to twitching and quick jerks from side to side. Given his nature, I think it took more effort for him to stay still than to scuttle half crazed around the room.
“Let’s have it then — no point putting off the inevitable.” He closed his eyes tightly and turned his head slightly to the left, as if this would somehow soften the blow of whatever I was about to say.
I was getting sore on my elbows so I dropped down with my chin on my hands. I was eye to eye with him, only a few inches between us, and for no apparent reason I whispered when I spoke. “Sam and Pepper are traitors. On top of that, I think some of the birds might be against us. I know for sure of at least one hawk who’s working for Sebastian. I haven’t had time to find out much else. Just getting to my room was an adventure in itself, and I’ve been sleeping most of the day.”
Murphy looked stunned as his eyes squeaked back open. He was still for the first time since I’d met him. “That is bad news now, isn’t it? We’ve had our suspicions about the birds, but Sam and Pepper? I can hardly believe it.”
“Believe it,” I assured him.
“Ander will want to know about this right away,” said Murphy. “I suppose I should go and tell him.”
He started to leave, then stopped. “Oh, I almost forgot — it was Yipes who sent me. He said to tell you he was sorry for slamming the door on your head. It made rather a loud noise when it came down, and he ran off into the trees to hide, afraid someone or something might have heard. By the time he came back to check, you were gone. He will be pleased to hear that you’re not injured in any way.”
Murphy bolted for the window. He was sitting in the sill by the time I had my wretched, sore body up to its knees, leaning over my bed.
“How’s the stone looking?” he asked.
“I haven’t looked, but we’re talking, so I guess it must still be all right.”
“Best to keep an eye on it every few hours if you can,” said Murphy. He was fidgeting back and forth, looking out the window and then back at me. “It will be a shame to lose you. Maybe we’ll get lucky and it won’t wear out.” And then, with a final flip of his tail, he was gone.
Just as well — I had a busy afternoon planned.
CHAPTER 16
PERVIS RETURNS FROM HOLIDAY
My first encounter with just about everyone occurred in the main dining area. I arrived shortly before dinner, and it was bustling as usual with activity. Servants were bringing out food for the buffet — meats, cheeses, fresh fruits, and vegetables, most imported from Ainsworth and all on gorgeous white china. My father was the first to greet me as I pranced into the room.
“Alexa! How’s my girl? We arrived only a few minutes ago.” He embraced me, lifted me high off the floor, and whispered in my ear, “Let’s have a little talk after dinner.”
I gave him a reassuring nod and straightened my shirt when he put me down. “You must go to Turlock more often. It brings out your sentimental side.”
Father amply countered, “I’m just happy to be back so I can give you all my washing. I was down to my last clean shirt.”
“Poppycock! You missed our little lady as much as I did.” It was Ganesh, pulling me close to his side and rubbing my head with the knuckles of his other hand. “Next time, we’re taking you with us. Any excitement while we were gone?” Ganesh released me and bent down on one knee so that we were eye to eye.
“I wandered around town looking for trouble, but I couldn’t find any, so I read a book about a man who got lost in a mist.”
Ganesh laughed and looked over at Grayson. “What kinds of books are you letting into our library these days?” Grayson replied with only a grunt and a shrug of his shoulders.
I made my way to the table of food. It all looked so good, I snatched a plate and filled it with fresh bread, blackberries, and apple slices. Grayson was holed up over the strawberries, plucking them out with a tiny fork one by one and popping them into his mouth.
“I haven’t seen you much in your father’s absence,” he said to me. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen you at all.” He looked around the room and then whispered to me. “Let’s keep that between you and me, shall we?” He put another strawberry in his mouth and continued to talk while he chewed. “Say, did you stop by the library this morning? I had the strangest encounter with the cats, and someone was about the place but ran off.”
“Not me. It must have been one of the students from downstairs playing a prank on you or trying to steal books,” I said. I was getting far too comfortable with lying to everyone, and it bothered me. Was there ever a time when lying was a good thing? Without knowing who I should trust and who I shouldn’t, I couldn’t just blurt out the whole adventure and hope Sebastian wasn’t in the room. My father, Ganesh, Grayson, Nicolas, Silas — they were all here, and I could not conceive of any one of them being Sebastian. The only person missing was Pervis.
“Where’s my favorite man in uniform, Mr. Kotcher?” I asked.
“Still on holiday in Lunenburg visiting friends. He’s due back tonight, though, so don’t get too awfully excited,” said Nicolas. He was looking as handsome as ever.
“Wait just one minute. You mean Pervis has friends?” I asked.
“Apparently so,” chuckled Nicolas. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that. Move it along, Grayson — I’d like at least one strawberry to garnish my plate with.”
Grayson just kept on poking berries with his little fork and ignored Nicolas entirely.
We sat around the table and enjoyed a lovely dinner. I ate and ate and ate, my hunger satisfied for the first time in days. My body was much less sore now and my strength edged back to within range of normal.
I was seated next to Silas, who leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I must speak with you privately after dinner.”
I nodded my agreement but added, “My father first, then I’m yours.”
“A game of chess after dinner, Alexa?” said Silas a few minutes later.
“Sorry, Silas, she’s already promised me a stroll around Bridewell. Maybe after that,” said Father.
I replied to Silas, “Yes, that would be nice. But I warn you, chess is my game. Father and I started playing when I was only three.”
“Well then, maybe you won’t mind playing me sometime, now that I’m back from visiting my chums.” It was the familiar slippery voice of Pervis Kotcher, coming from the entryway where he had meandered in, unnoticed. His face was smeared with an awful smirk, and he was advancing on the buffet with an annoying saunter. He was clearly drunk. “That is, if you’re willing to wager. I play chess only when something of value is at stake. I find it adds a whole new dimension to an otherwise boring diversion.” He was piling meat and potatoes enough for a family of four onto his plate.
“But enough about a silly game,” he continued. “On to more important topics, shall we? Say, for instance, the attitude over in Ainsworth toward Bridewell these days. Getting a bit hot under the collar around those parts now, aren’t they?” Pervis seated himself opposite my father at the end of the table, swaying to and fro, using his fork to poke and stab as he continued his tirade.
Ganesh interjected, “Pervis, we’re in mixed company. I’m warning you —”
“Warning me to what? To keep my mouth shut about the discord you and the rest of the idiots running this place have caused with Ainsworth? All of Lunenburg is talking about it! The people in Ainsworth are ready to run this place over, and they’ve got plenty of manpower to do it.”
“Pervis!” shouted my father, but he would not be stopped.
“I could give Ainsworth the keys to our beloved Bridewell with what I know, so you might start treating me with a little more respect.”
Ganesh rose, standing over Pervis like a giant oak tre
e over a craning woodchuck. “That’s it, Pervis. You just crossed over the line to a place from which you will never return.” Six guards rounded the corner and positioned themselves inside the room; two remained at either side of him.
“Hold on now, I was just running off at the mouth — really now, this is ridiculous. I can help you defend this place — really I can, I —” Two guards lifted Pervis out of his chair against his will. He kicked and screamed obscenities, flipping his plate of food into the air. Around and around the plate went, sending food everywhere, then smashing into bits against a stone pitcher of water on the table.
“Take him to a holding cell and search his room,” Father said. It appeared that Pervis had pushed things too far, but somehow the whole scene seemed wrong. Pervis certainly was out of line, but he wasn’t anything more than a drunken buffoon returning from holiday. While it was true his behavior was beneath even him, he was hardly a threat in his current condition. Maybe Ganesh and Father had finally become so tired of his ranting they couldn’t take another outburst. One thing was for sure — the animals were right. Warvold’s death had sent things rapidly spinning out of control. A cyclone was building, and Bridewell was at its center.
After Pervis’s crazed dinner antics, I was ready to walk around town with my father and breathe some fresh air, although, strangely enough, I felt a measure of discontent knowing our head guard was drunk and detained while danger swirled around Bridewell. If the convicts were to advance tonight, I’d want Pervis sober and at the main tower barking orders to his men. Unless, of course, he was Sebastian, in which case things were going rather well.
“What was that all about?” I started the conversation as we paced the cobblestone pathway along one of Bridewell’s winding side streets.
“We’ve been talking about locking him up for a while now, Alexa. Ever since Warvold died, he’s been totally impossible. We all thought — I mean Ganesh and Nicolas and I — we thought a few days away would calm him down. But showing up drunk and filling the room with all that rubbish was the last straw. We’ll have to find a way to get by without him.”
“You’ll get no argument from me about Pervis, though I do worry about our safety with our head guard behind bars. Especially if what he said was true.” The one man I loathed more than any other … and I was practically advocating his release! It was strange how circumstances were having a way of changing the way I felt about people.
“He’s just trying to stir up trouble. I can’t tell you much about our dealings with Ainsworth. True, things have been somewhat tense with them. With Warvold passing, they’ve tried to assert more control. But it’s nothing we can’t handle.” Father sounded confident that everything was fine, but given what I knew, it was not comfort I was feeling. I knew problems were afoot, bigger problems than even he was aware of.
“So you stayed out of trouble while I was gone? No trying to jump over the wall?”
Trust no one. But this was my father, how could I not trust him?
“I stayed out of trouble like you asked,” I said. “But now that you’ve returned, I really must get back to breaking things. I have a reputation to protect.”
Father stopped walking and smiled while he rubbed his chin. He seemed exhausted from worry and lack of sleep. I felt sorry for him just then, which was something I had never felt for him before.
“Just be careful, all right? And don’t go snooping around where you know you shouldn’t. Agreed?”
“I’ll do my best.” It was not the answer he was looking for, but he accepted it. We held hands a moment longer and then he returned to the lodge.
I walked to the center of town where the main courtyard was. Along the way, I passed three hawks. They were circling closer than usual. Could it be that Ander had sent them to watch over? Or were they on patrol for Sebastian? In either case, it seemed unlikely that the birds could communicate much with either party, so they didn’t alarm me a great deal. Silas awaited my arrival as promised and wasted no time getting straight to the point.
“Alexa, thank you for coming,” he said. He was nervous, edgy, unsure of how to approach the subject he was trying to delve into. “Here’s the thing, Alexa — I’ve been working for your father for a little while now. I admire the man — Ganesh and Nicolas, too. I think they will do great things for us all. The thing is, Alexa, I don’t want to get you into any trouble with your father, but I feel I have an obligation to him.” He was really nervous, looking down and around in circles, hardly catching my eye.
“What is it, Silas?” I asked.
He looked up at me with his deep brown eyes, a frown on his face, clearly having trouble forming the words he needed to. “I saw your mother yesterday morning when I was delivering mail in Lathbury, and I picked up a letter for you. I knew how much you wanted to hear from her, so I was excited to find you as soon as I could. I looked everywhere. I even asked Grayson, but he just shrugged me off and said you were probably spying around the lodge somewhere. I called your name all over the lodge and walked down nearly every street in town, but I couldn’t find you. I was planning to tell your father I thought you were missing when he returned, but I checked your room this morning and there you were, sound asleep.” He paused, advanced to a bench, and sat down. “Naturally, I’m wondering where you were.”
Silas was a kind person, and I liked him very much. He was what you might call simple, but not stupid simple. He liked easy answers to life’s complications, and he was unaccustomed to confrontation in any form. These things were clear from my brief encounters with him, and I thought humor was my best chance to give him an answer he could live with.
“I travel alone in secret, for I am Alexa, the spy of Bridewell!” I proclaimed in my best comic voice, but he didn’t laugh. Instead he glared at me, and I began to feel uneasy about his motives. I tried my next tactic. “It might be hard to understand, but Grayson and I have an unwritten rule when my father travels and I’m stuck in Bridewell. He pretends to watch over me, and I play spy as much as I want. It’s a game, you see? I thought Grayson sent you to flush me out. He’s used that trick before, but obviously not this time. Sorry to have worried you.”
Silas looked relieved. “Next time I call for you and you hear me, do me a favor and assume I’m not playing a game.”
“It’s a deal. And I really am sorry,” I said. I hated lying to everyone, and I think the extra apology was more for me than Silas. I knew the day was coming when all my lies would be revealed, and each time I told one I felt worse.
We talked a spell longer and then Silas got up and started to leave. “Oh, I almost forgot,” he said, reaching into his breast pocket. “Here’s that letter from your mother.” He handed it to me and walked off, the lightness of his step clearly showing the weight of the world lifted off his shoulders.
I sat thinking a moment longer, twirling the unopened letter with my fingers. I thought back on everything that had just happened, and I couldn’t help but feel that Pervis’s imprisonment had been too sudden — and perhaps even wrong. I was surprised by this thought, and by my next thought, too:
I had to go see him.
CHAPTER 17
THE CHESS MATCH
The emotional distraction I expected my mother’s letter to create forced me to shove it into my back pocket unread. I started off in the direction of Renny Lodge, intent on visiting Pervis, but completely unsure of how such a meeting would go. I stopped in one of the classrooms and grabbed a wooden chessboard and a leather bag of matching pieces.
The holding cells were in an area of Renny Lodge that was dark and uninviting. There was one advantage, though, which I found refreshing just now — it was belowground, in the basement, and thus cool. Even as dusk approached in Bridewell, the soggy air belowground was a welcome change from the dusty, dry air above. It reminded me of how it felt to be in the tunnels, which in turn reminded me of Yipes, Darius, and the rest. I found myself missing them.
Turning the corner at the last step, I held back and
reviewed the scene. Two guards were present, one at the door into the cellblock, the other at a desk, busy with reports of one kind or another. I recognized the man at the desk, but not the other.
“Hello, Mr. Martin. It’s been a while since you’ve had any business down here. How’s our guest doing?” I said.
“Alexa, what are you doing here? This is no place for you to be roaming around. You should go exploring somewhere else, especially given the cargo this place is holding,” said Mr. Martin. The man at the door stood motionless and said nothing.
“Has he sobered up yet?” I asked. The man guarding the door smirked and let out a small laugh.
“Let’s just say he’s been spending a lot of time with his face in a bucket,” said the guard.
“Can I see him? He enjoys playing chess, and I thought a game might take his mind off his troubles.”
“Now why would you want to make Mr. Kotcher feel better? Everyone knows you two hate each other,” said Mr. Martin.
“I know he’s a brute, I just —”
“Hold it right there,” Mr. Martin interrupted. He was offended, out of his chair and leaning against his desk with both hands in front of him. “We work for him, so as you can imagine we’ve got mixed feelings about the current state of affairs. A lot of people think he’s difficult to deal with, and he surely can be. But he’s got his good points, too, not the least of which is an everlasting love for Bridewell and all it stands for. If we lose him we lose a measure of security, especially if he leaves and stirs up trouble in Ainsworth. Just you remember that when your father runs him out of town.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Martin. I’ll try to choose my words more carefully in the future.”
“You sound more like a politician every day,” said Mr. Martin.
“So, can I go in and see him? I promise not to do anything stupid,” I said.
Mr. Martin rolled his eyes. “Oh, all right. But behave yourself — if you only desire to cause him more misery, I won’t hesitate to report you to your father.”
The Dark Hills Divide Page 11
