Page 143 of Once Upon A Haunted Castle
“Here m’lady,” Sonia said at the pantry door, handing Laura the basket and escaped fruit. Laura bit into the apple in her hand.
“Come, m’lady. You shouldn’t be in here, not alone.” Sonia, her brows pinched together in a panicked expression, reached out for Laura. The girl’s feet shuffled as close to the edge of the door sill as she dare get, careful not to cross the threshold. Laura could almost feel the girl’s quickened heartbeat.
“Sonia, I’ll be fine. What has you so agitated?”
“You mustn’t be in there. It’s dangerous. I’ll not leave until you come out of the room.” Sonia glanced at the kitchen then focused on the doorway to the courtyard and wrung her hands.
Herbert was right. The villagers are a superstitious lot. The girl must be apprehensive being in the area because of the deaths. There was only one way to ease Sonia’s mind. Laura stepped out of the room.
“That’s much better, m’lady. It’s not safe for you in there.” Laura walked with Sonia to the courtyard.
“You go on before Mrs. Turner catches you.” She ate the apple and watched the girl enter the guesthouse.
Laura returned to the pantry more determined to find the answer to the murders and stop these foolish fears.
Finished with her apple, she put the core on top of the barrel of salt inside the pantry door and went to the back of the pantry. Crates filled with kitchen ware that hadn’t been unpacked were hidden behind a short wall of boxes. Searching this area satisfied her compulsive need to be thorough even though it would likely yield nothing.
Too dark to see anything in this section of the room, Laura brought the lantern behind the wall and held it high as she examined each crate. Finished, she set the lantern next to her and knelt to search the floor. The light flashed on something metallic stuffed under a box. It was caught on a piece of cloth. She worked the piece free and pulled out a rag and round jeweled pin. A dark gem caught the weak lantern light.
Laura stopped and listened. Boxes scraped the floor on the other side of the waist high wall. Nothing unusual for a pantry. “Mary? Jamie? Is that you?” No one answered.
Now on her feet, she turned to go to the door. Instead, she faced a wall of boxes where the path had been. Had she gotten turned around in the dim light? She turned in a circle searching for the path. There was none and she couldn’t comprehend how that had happened.
She stepped back against the boxes and sniffed the air, trying to place the odor that wafted into the confined space. Rotten eggs?
Someone grabbed her hair and yanked her off balance. Hair combs flew in every direction. Her hands flew over her head as she tried to release her hair from the person’s grip. The attacker tried to pry the jewel from her hand, but she held it tight. He pulled her head back further. The pin and rag dropped onto the floor somewhere near where she stood and used both hands to free her hair.
Still bent backward over the crate, a cloth was forced over her mouth and nose. The odor was nauseating. She pulled at the hand holding the cloth. Her heart raced and her vision blurred. Poison. Stay calm. Fight the instinct to breathe.
Pulled back further, her foot shot out and she kicked over the lantern. She gasped for air and got gulps of the sickening poison.
Wisps of smoke filled the small space. Whoever held her pushed her away and she fell to the floor.
Stunned and disoriented, she grabbed on to the edges of a box and dragged herself up in time to glimpse the silhouette of a man in the doorway before the door banged shut and the bolt slammed into place.
Laura pulled herself up onto the box and threw her legs over the other side then stumbled to the door. She pulled on the handle. It didn’t budge. A small lick of flame erupted on the other side of the boxes. The smoke got thicker.
Using her skirt to protect her mouth, she ran her hands along the wall until she reached the barrels. Her fingers brushed the top of each one until she finally found the apple core. Her relief was only momentary. She wrenched off the barrel’s lid.
Coughing, the smoke now black and thick sucked her strength. There was not time to stop. She pulled up her skirt, filled it with salt and spread it over the fire.
Weak and lethargic from the poison, she thought she saw a man reaching for the whiskey. Evan? She tried to get to him, but her cough was deep and constant now. Her movements were slow and labored.
Overcome by smoke, she fell to the ground and saw the rag with the jeweled pin. She grabbed it before everything went black.
Jamie paced infront of the fireplace in the Great Hall and waited for Laura. He had gone to the pantry and found it locked up tight.
“Come quick,” a woman’s voice called to him.
He stopped and turned to the door. No one was there. “What is it?”
“Come quick. The pantry,” the woman shouted, her voice fading.
“Wait. What’s this about?” He rushed into the hallway. Had she rushed on to the pantry? He immediately lost interest in the woman when he saw smoke coming out from under the door.
“Fire,” he yelled and pulled the bolt. It didn’t budge. He ran into the kitchen and scanned the room for anything he could use. A mallet, used for setting stones, leaned against the wall. He grabbed it along with a bucket of water and rushed back to the pantry.
He pounded the bolt until it released. Slowly he opened the door. Overwhelmed by the smoke, he covered his mouth with his shirt sleeve.
