Voices in a Haunted Room

“Oh dear,” said my mother lightly, “are you so eager to leave us?”

“I do not wish to encroach ...” replied Sophie.

“My dear Sophie, we are overjoyed to have you.”

Sabrina, who had appeared to be dozing, suddenly said: “Enderby is a strange house.

But when my mother was mistress of it, it was a very happy house. It was only after she died that it became morbid again.”

“Well, you know the old house better than any of us.” said my mother. She turned to Sophie. “Dickon’s mother was born there. She lived her childhood there. So she can tell you what you want to know about it.”

A glazed look came over Sabrina’s eyes. “It is so long ago,” she said. “Oh years and years and yet sometimes I remember those days more clearly than what happened yesterday.”

“I look forward to seeing this house,” said Sophie. “I will talk to Jeanne, and tomorrow, if that is possible, we will see it.”

“We could send over to Grasslands for the key,” said my mother.

“May I come with you?” I asked eagerly. “I should love to have a good look at the house.”

“Won’t it be rather tame going in through the front door after climbing through the window?” asked Jonathan.

“It is really something of an adventure setting foot in that house.”

So it was arranged.

Dinner was over and my mother said: “Sabrina is very tired. I shall take her to her room. And I daresay Sophie would like to retire also, wouldn’t you, my dear?”

Sophie said she would.

“Claudine will take you up.”

“I can find my own way,” said Sophie.

I went to her and laid my hand on her arm. “Please, I should love to see Jeanne again.”

Sophie gave me that rather special smile which I noticed she rarely gave to anyone else, and we went up the stairs together.

Jeanne was waiting for her in the nursery rooms. “Jeanne,” I said, “how good to see you!”

She grasped my hand and I studied her intently. There were grey strands in her dark hair. She had lived through much stress and strain.

“Mademoiselle Claudine,” she said, “I am happy to be here and have Mademoiselle Sophie safe.”

“Yes, your ordeal must have been terrible.”

Jeanne nodded to me meaningfully. “You are tired,” she said to Sophie.

“A little,” admitted Sophie.

“Then I shall say good night,” I said. “If there is anything you need S) “Your mother has taken good care of us,” Jeanne told me. “I have heard of a house,”

said Sophie to Jeanne. “I will leave you to talk about it,” I said. “Don’t get too hopeful. Enderby isn’t everyone’s home.”

Then I said good night and left them.

On the way down I met my mother on her way from Sabrina’s room. She put an arm round me and held me close to her.

“I am so glad you are back ... and happy. Oh yes, I can see you are happy. It was wonderful in London, wasn’t it? You with David jj “It was perfect,” I told her.

“What a pity you had to cut it short.”

“I couldn’t really see why.”

“Dickon is deeply involved with ... affairs. I worry sometimes. He has secrets ... even from me. I think the death of the Queen will have some important effect on things over here. In any case, you and David can go back to London later.”

“Of course.”

“What do you think of Sophie?”

“She was always a little ... strange.”

“I thought she seemed more-friendly ... more shall I say-normal. She must have suffered a great deal.”

“I suppose all that would change anyone. Wasn’t it wonderful about the jewels?”

“It was a terrible risk. However, you’ll hear about it. We don’t want to go through it all in front of Sophie. Jonathan will tell you all about it.”

The men were in the punch room, where a fire was burning in the fireplace. They rose as we entered.

“Come and sit down,” said Dickon. “Unless you are tired.’”

“I’d like to talk a little,” I said. “There is so much to hear about.”

Jonathan had come swiftly to my side; he laid a hand on my arm. “Come and sit down,”

he said; and I sat between him and David. My mother took the chair opposite Dickon.

“I didn’t want to talk too much in front of Sophie,” said my mother. “It must have been a nightmare she has been living through all this tune. Just think of it. Day in, day out ... never knowing when the mob would turn against them. Jonathan, do tell Claudine and David the story you have told us.”

“I had better start at the beginning,” he said. “We had already made arrangements for getting across when we left the house that day and made our way to the coast where the boat was ready waiting for us. It was a fishing boat and the owner was doing a very brisk business with émigrés. He was able to change our money into French currency, and there was a small rowing boat in which we were taken ashore at a very lonely spot on a dark moonless night.