Page 113 of The House of Hopes and Dreams
I hesitated – the door to the rest of the wing was locked, but even so, I thought I’d better close the panel again before I left the room, in case the workmen delayed my coming back. It was a bit of a struggle, more from disuse than anything, I think, but I managed.
Back in the turret it was like a different world. I could hear voices and the lift door opening below, so the men were still at it. I hurried along the landing and down the backstairs to the kitchen, where I’d grabbed a torch and was just about to run back, when the phone rang.
I hesitated, but it was just as well I answered it, because it was Carey and the moment I heard his voice I excitedly poured out what I’d found.
‘I only came back for a torch, so I could have a look if there’s anything in there.’
‘I should be back in just over an hour, Angel. Couldn’t you wait till then? Or is that too much to hope for?’ he added, sounding amused.
‘Ican’twait,’ I confessed, ‘but I’ll only shine the torch in and if there’s anything there I’ll leave it where it is till you get back.’
He laughed. ‘I doubt there will be anything there at all, so don’t get your hopes up.’
‘There might be, because after all, Lady Anne put the clues in the window that led me there.’
‘True, but her idea of what was important enough to conceal might not be valuable jewels,’ he suggested. ‘By the way, I’ve bought that bed frame and two of the chairs I wanted and I was only ringing you because there’s a small lot coming up soon that you might be interested in. A couple of broken Victorian leaded light panels with some very pretty moulded opalescent glass flowers in the central section. Would you like it for the pieces if it’s cheap?’
‘Yes, please,’ I said, momentarily distracted by a different kind of treasure.
‘Right – better go. Back soon.’
Since it was his house and would be his treasure, should anything be there, I knew in fairness I really ought to wait for Carey before opening the panel again, but I simply couldn’t resist any longer!
All was quiet in the turret room, though I could hear voices moving away, so the workmen were probably going for a break and we’d just missed each other.
I noticed Fang was following me only when I opened the door into the haunted room, because he started whining on the other side when I shut it. There was no point in opening it for him, though, because he wouldn’t enter the old wing.
Perhaps he knew something I didn’t.
The room was much as I’d left it, with the curtains drawn and the blinds up, though a weak wintry light was now banding the wooden floor.
I kneeled on the bed and opened the cavity quite easily this time, before shining the powerful torch into it.
It was larger than I expected, perhaps five feet square, so a man could have crouched there to hide, even if not in any comfort.
At first glance it seemed disappointingly bare. I directed the brightbeam into every corner and finally along a kind of step or shelf just below the opening … and there, at the back, spotted a long, narrow shape – a package of some kind. I reached down and picked it up, finding it disappointingly light. It certainly wasn’t the Jewel! I shoved it down my dungaree bib before leaning in further to see if there was anything else I’d missed, perhaps hidden by the jut of the shelf.
Behind me, Fang’s whines turned all at once into a volley of sharp barks. Then suddenly my legs were grabbed and I was violently tipped forward into the hole.
For a brief instant I seemed to fly. Then my head hit the far wall and everything went black.
I managed to open the panel quite easily this time and shone my light inside, finding it to be quite large. At first it appeared to be entirely empty, until on looking downwards I saw a small packet resting below the opening on a stone shelf.
I seized it, but it was disappointingly light – certainly not heavy enough to contain the Jewel! In fact, it felt more like a roll of paper sewn into a wrapping of some thick material.
It was quite dampening: Father might have been quite right about my pregnancy giving me fantastical notions after all, though at least I had found something!
I cast the lantern about once more, to be certain there was nothing further there, and then closed the opening.
Until I’d examined my find further, I didn’t want to share my discovery with anyone so, tucking it beneath my shawl, I made my way back to my bedchamber, where I snipped the stitches of the wrapping, revealing, as I expected, a roll of paper. It was long, and covered on both sides with writing in a fine italic hand, though in an archaic form, with many strange spellings, that was at first difficult to decipher. But eventually I made out at the top the words: ‘Being the true confession of Lady Anne Revell, in the year of our Lord, 1655.’
I could not imagine what Lady Anne might have had to confess, unless they were sins of a religious nature? I determined I would secretly decipher and copy it out in the evenings after I retired to bed, the only time when I was sure of being undisturbed.
39
Down and Out
I don’t know how long I was out for, but I woke in a crumpled heap in utter darkness, dazed, confused and with a grazed forehead.
