Voices in a Haunted Room

As we went out I heard Aunt Sophie say: “Now, my dears, we can proceed with our lesson.

You begin, Dolly. You must talk more in company. There’s no need to be shy, you know.”

Jeanne smiled at me as she shut the door.

“It gives her great pleasure,” she said. “They are a pleasant pair. Little Dolly is a mouse. Alberic, he can roar like a lion. They amuse her, and they are coming along with their talking. Dolly is quite good but there is a shyness she must overcome.

Alberic ... he is not so afflicted.”

“It’s wonderful that she has found this interest.”

“That and the house. She needs to be interested. It is what I have always wanted for her.”

“You have been wonderful, Jeanne. You know how we appreciate you.”

“We owe so much to Monsieur Jonathan. He brought us out of France. We could not have long survived. We shall never forget.”

“It is the sort of adventure which he does very well,” I said shortly.

“He is like his father, who has been the good husband to Madame Lottie.”

“Yes,” I said. “Oh, I see you have the curtains up in the gallery.”

“It was so bare without them. They were such good curtains. Mademoiselle d’Aubigne would have had new ones but I saw that a good cleaning and a little stitch here and there, and they would be as good as new.”

“Always practical,” I said. “And they certainly look magnificent. They’ve restored that look to the gallery. That mystery. To think that it all comes from curtains!”

“Shall we start at the top and work down?”

“Excellent,” I replied.

We climbed the stairs.

“You do not find them too much?” she asked.

“Not if I pause here and there. I’m really very well ... just || weighty.”

“I understand. And what joy for you when this little one comes.”

“Oh yes, I long for it.”

We were passing the room. The door was shut. I would steel myself to look at it later.

We went up the stairs to the next floor.

“You will see that we have done much,” said Jeanne. “But there is still much to do.”

“It is miraculous.”

“I do not wish to finish too soon.”

“You like to keep the interest going for Mademoiselle d’Aubigne.”

Jeanne nodded. “There are many discussions and we discover what can be done about this and that. It adds a great excitement.”

“Of course.”

“You see we have new curtains in some places ... but in many we have used those which were already here. And much of the furniture too. We have done rather well-with what your mother has given us from Eversleigh.”

“Indeed you have.”

We were down to the first floor. She showed me the big bedroom with the four-poster bed in it, which Sophie had taken for hers when they had first come to the house.

“She no longer sleeps in this room. She has moved and I have the room next to her. If she wants me in the night she has only to knock on the wall. I have given her a brass poker. It rests by her bed.”

“Does she need you in the night? She’s not ill, is she?”

“Oh no, no. It is just in case. She is nervous since the trouble started. While we were in France we never knew from one night to the next whether someone would be coming for us. I always had my bed in her room then, so I was within call. She is nervous if I am not at hand, so I thought of the poker.”

“Dear Jeanne, you think of everything. She has taken one of the other rooms then.”

“I will show you. Come.”

She led me along the corridor. I felt a little fault, for she had opened the door to that room which was so well known to me. I saw the bed with the blue velvet curtains-now cleaned and seeming a brighter shade of blue. I looked at the court cupboard, now polished and shining.

”So,” I said faintly, “this is now her bedroom.”

Jeanne nodded. “And mine is next to it. We made a discovery here ... such an interesting one.”

“Oh?”

“Come. Look here ... by the door. It is very cleverly done. You can hardly see it.”

“What is it?”

“A hole in the floor ... right against the wall. Do you see it?”

“Oh ... yes.”

“It’s the end of a tube. A kind of speaking tube.”

My heart began to beat wildly.

“Are you all right, Madame?” asked Jeanne.

I put my hand to my stomach. “It was-just a flutter.”

“Sit down on the bed. You are overtired, I think. You must go back in the carriage.”

“Oh, no. I’m perfectly all right. Tell me about this speaking tube.”

“It is cleverly constructed. When I first noticed it I had a vague notion that I had seen something like it before. I put my hand to the hole and shouted down it.

I could not hear my voice, but I knew that it was coming out in another part of the house. We were immediately over the kitchens, so it seemed likely that the other end of the tube was in the kitchens. Someone must have had it put in when the house was built ... perhaps someone who wanted to send messages from the bedroom down to the kitchens.”

“It’s ingenious,” I stammered.

“Are you sure you feel all right?”

“Quite sure. Do go on about the tube.”

“Dolly was here at the time. I made her shout through the tube and I went down to the kitchens. I heard her voice and discovered exactly where it was coming from.