Saraband for Two Sisters

Angelet kept close to me. I sensed that she was a little nervous and I wondered whether I should have suggested she share the adventure. Cautiously I opened the kitchen door and, lifting the candlestick, shone the light over the wall, past the great fireplace to the shelf on which stood the pewter goblets.

“There’s the caldron which fell the other night,” I said. I lowered the candle. “And there’s the door. Come on.”

I went to it. It was shut and there was a key in the lock. I turned it and the door opened. I was in the cupboard.

“Hold the candle,” I commanded Angelet and when she took it I pushed aside the coats and revealed that other door. The lock had not been mended but the heavy bolt was drawn across it.

‘What are you doing?” whispered Angelet.

“I’m going to draw the bolt,” I said.

It moved easily, which surprised me, for I had imagined it might be impossible to move if it had not been drawn for a number of years.

I opened the door and as I did so there was a rush of cold air. I looked into darkness.

“Be careful!” cried Angelet.

“Give me the candle.”

It was a sort of corridor. On the ground were stones and the walls were of stone, too.

“Come back!” screamed Angelet. “I can hear someone coming.” That brought me out into the cupboard. I too could hear footsteps. I shut the door behind me and drew the bolt. As I did so Mrs. Cherry came into the kitchen. She gave a little scream and Angelet said, “It’s all right, Mrs. Cherry.”

“God have mercy,” she whispered.

I said quickly, “We thought we heard someone down here-and we came to investigate.”

Mrs. Cherry’s eyes had lost their bland benignity. She could have been very frightened. “It’s all right though,” I went on. “It must have been mice in the wainscot or some bird outside... .”

She looked around the room and I noticed that her eyes went to the cupboard. “I reckon this comes of people not putting up caldrons in their right places, that’s what I reckon. People get nervous, that’s what, and then they mistake noises in the night.”

“I suppose that’s what it was. But we have satisfied ourselves, Mrs. Cherry. So there’s no need to worry.”

“I wouldn’t like to think of anything wrong in my kitchen,” said Mrs. Cherry. “There is nothing wrong. We’ve satisfied ourselves. Well say goodnight now, and I’m sorry you’ve been disturbed.”

I slipped my left arm through Angelet’s right and, holding the candle high in my right hand, I led my sister out of the kitchen.

When we were in the Blue Room I set down the candle, sat on her bed, and laughed.

“Well, that was fun,” I said.

‘Why did you make up that story about hearing noise? Why didn’t you tell her what we were looking for?”

“I felt it would be more fun not to.”

“What was it you found, anyway?”

“The door opens onto a sort of alcove with a stone floor.”

“Well, what’s so interesting about that?”

“My explorations did not go far enough for me to answer.»

“Oh, Bersaba, you are mad! You always were. What Mrs. Cherry thought of us I can’t imagine.”

“She was a little upset. I wonder why?”

“Most people would be after they’d had a fright like that.”

“What would you say if I told you I thought that might be a way into the castle?”

“I’d say that you were making it up.”

“Well, of course, there is a way to prove it though. And there isn’t another way in, is there? I mean, that high wall with the glass on top goes all the way around.»

“Richard had the wall put around because it wasn’t safe. And there is another door. I found it one day when I was in the copse. Why should there be a way into the castle from the house?”

“I don’t know. I just wondered.”

“Oh, dear, I shall never sleep tonight. Shall I have a little of the sleeping draught?”

“Well perhaps you are overexcited. It might be a good time to try it.”

I went to my room and brought out the bottle.

I gave her the appointed dose and said I would sit with her until she slept. Within fifteen minutes of taking it she fell into a deep sleep. I sat there for some time thinking about die cupboard and the bolted door. I believed that there was a corridor into the castle and I had discovered it.

I awoke in the night and went into Angelet’s room; she was still sleeping. In the morning I asked if she had slept through the night and she assured me that she had.

Civil War

THE next day I made an excuse to go to the kitchen, and then I noticed that the key to the cupboard had been removed, and guessed that Mrs. Cherry or someone had suspected my interest and was determined that my explorations should cease, I was almost certain that there was a corridor leading from the kitchen into the castle, and since the castle was forbidden as unsafe, naturally the existence of the corridor would be kept a secret.