Castle of Secrets (26 page)

‘Even when she
reached the castle she did not feel safe. She was terrified that her husband
might follow her, and so I took her to the attic, and I called on Mrs Carlisle
to take care of her and the boy.’

‘So that is
why the maid heard crying in the attic,’ said
Helena
. ‘It was George.’

‘Yes. The
rumours spread. It was easy to dismiss the sound as ghosts amongst the
villagers, but I knew that if Morton came near, he would know well enough what
it meant. I moved Anna and the boy to the secret room, but even so, Anna did
not want to stay at the castle – she lived in hourly dread of him finding her -
but she was by this time too ill to leave. She had caught a fever, travelling
through the cold and the snow. And so I asked your aunt if she would take
little George to
Hull
,
where Mr and Mrs Vance would care for him. She agreed readily. She felt sorry
for my sister and nephew. She was to stay with George until my sister was well
enough to join her in
Hull
, and then my sister would go to
Italy
, where she has a godmother. Anna
would be able to raise her son in safety, somewhere her husband would never
find her.’

‘But I still
don’t understand about Mary – Maria,’ said
Helena
.

‘She is
Morton’s mistress, and would do anything for him. I followed you this morning –
I left the castle in time to see the carriage disappearing into the distance,
so I saddled a horse and rode after it. I lost it for a time, and rode
aimlessly across the moor, but then I caught sight of it heading towards the
stage post. When I arrived there, Eldridge told me he had taken you to Mary’s
cottage. I rode across the moor and saw you setting out in the trap, and I was
finally able to catch up with you at the inn. I saw Maria clearly as I
relinquished my horse to one of the ostlers, and I recognized her at once. I
assumed you must be in league with her.’

‘And so you
followed me into the inn.’

‘Yes. I wanted
to know who you were and what you had told her. I also wanted to know where
Morton was. I knew he would not be far from Maria.’

‘I have met
him, I think,’ said
Helena
.
‘He is tall, with dark hair and a slack face?’

‘Yes. That is
the result of the drink. But how did you meet him?’

‘He and Mary –
Maria – took a cottage near the castle. I met Maria when I was out walking one
day. It came on to rain and she invited me into her cottage.’

‘That was a
fortunate meeting for her. Otherwise, if she had not come across you
accidentally, she would have had to approach you at church.’

‘She
introduced me to Morton, but she said he was her brother. She tried to find out
where my aunt had gone by saying Aunt Hester had left a book in the cottage.
She asked for a forwarding address.’

‘Ah, that was
clever.’

‘I knew the
talk of the book was a ruse, but at the time I thought —’

‘Yes?’

‘I thought
that you had done away with my aunt, and I thought Mary was worried about my
aunt’s disappearance, too.’

‘And now? Are
you convinced I have not done your aunt any harm?’

‘Yes, I
believe I am.’

He smiled. She
had never seen such a smile on his face. It was like a sliver of sunshine on a
squally day.

‘May I know
your name? Your true name?’ he asked.

‘It is
Helena
.’

‘I am pleased
to meet you, Helena Carlisle,’ he said. ‘Even though you have caused me a great
deal of unease over the last few weeks,’ he added with a wry smile.

‘Did you
suspect I was an impostor from the beginning?’ she asked curiously.

‘No, not then.
I thought there was something you were hiding, but when I saw you had no
wedding ring I thought you were lying about being married. You seemed very
young, and I thought you had lied about your age in order to secure a
position.’

‘I was
dismayed when you looked at my finger,’ she said. ‘I began to realize it would
be difficult to keep up the pretence. When did you begin to suspect I might be
in league with your brother-in-law?’

‘It is
difficult to know. From the beginning, I felt that something was not right, but
I did not know what. You were more outspoken than my previous housekeepers, and
you asked more questions. Then, too, you seemed very interested in the attic.
It could just have been a natural desire to explore the castle, or indeed it
could have been fear: you could have heard the rumours about ghosts and wanted
to set your mind at rest. But when Miss Parkins found the handkerchiefs in your
room embroidered with the initial C we began to be more suspicious, although we
still could not be certain. Neither of us realised the truth, that the C stood
for
Carlisle
. We both thought it stood
for a Christian name: Catherine, Caroline . . . we thought of every name, and
tried to remember if Morton had known any women whose names had begun with C.
We could not recall one, but he had many women and we did not know them all.’

‘I was alarmed
when I knew Miss Parkins had been in my room, and it was worse when I realised
she had found the handkerchiefs,’ said
Helena
. ‘She made me feel like a mouse
being watched by a cat. I was frightened of her.’

‘And you were
wise to be so. She is a formidable adversary. She came to the castle with my
mother, when my mother was a bride, and she was devoted to her, as she was
devoted to my mother’s children. If you had meant harm to my sister, Miss
Parkins would have stopped at nothing to protect her.’

The carriage
turned to the right and ahead of them there was softer countryside. They were
leaving the moors behind. In the distance, a town could be seen. Smoke was
rising from the chimneys. To the people who lived there, it was an ordinary
day. They were paying visits, shopping, visiting the circulating library, going
riding,  attending to business . . . but to
Helena
, it was a day of hope and
revelation.

‘Why did you
not turn me out of the castle?’ she asked, as the carriage finally turned into
the main road and bowled along between houses and neatly kept gardens.

‘Because if
you were innocent, I did not want to deprive you of your livelihood, and if you
were a pawn of Morton’s I wanted you close by, so that I could watch you. I did
not want you going to him with the things you had seen and heard. And so I
bided my time.’

‘Until I
showed my hand by taking your carriage?’

‘Yes.’

‘And so now
what do we do?’

‘We go to
Hull
. We hope to arrive before
Maria and Morton. We tell Anna she can delay no longer, and we put her and her
son on a ship bound for
Italy
.’

They fell into a companionable
silence. Now that she was no longer afraid of him,
Helena
felt herself relax in his company.
There was a softer side to him, one she had only glimpsed, but one she would
like to know better.

But that was
unlikely, she told herself. She would have no reason to remain at the castle
once she had found her aunt. She would have to leave, and, unless she visited
her aunt in the future, she would never see him again. She felt her spirits
sink. He had become important to her, and she could not bear to think of their
parting. She looked out of the window in an attempt to distract her thoughts.

They were now
travelling along busier roads, which were better kept than those on the moors.
There were less ruts, and the potholes were few and far between.
Helena
watched the scenery
change, going from countryside to town, and finally to coast. As the coach
crested a hill, she saw the sea sparkling blue and placid beneath her. There
was the cry of sea gulls, and the smell of salt was in the air. She licked her
lips, and found that she could taste it.

‘We are almost
there,’ he said.

Helena
felt her interest
quicken. She would soon see Aunt Hester again! And she would see Lord Torkrow’s
sister. She wondered what Anna would be like. She tried to remember the
portrait, but she could remember very little, and besides, Anna had been much
younger there. She was dark, that much
Helena
remembered, but little more.

The carriage
rolled to a halt outside a small cottage. The coachman opened the door and let
down the step.
Helena
climbed out. She was immediately hit by the wind, which tried to whip the
bonnet from her head, and she held on to it, to prevent it blowing away. Her
cloak was whipped around her ankles, and the sound of the wind battered her
ears.

‘It is often
blustery on the coast,’ he said, following her.

They went up
to the door. As he lifted the knocker he looked all round, and
Helena
, too, was vigilant,
knowing that, at any moment, Maria and Morton could appear.

The curtain
moved a little and
Helena
caught sight of a face at the window. It was an elderly woman with an anxious
look. As soon as the woman saw Lord Torkrow, however, her look of anxiety faded
and was replaced with a smile. A minute later the door opened.

‘My lord,’ she
said. ‘We did not expect to see you.’ Then her smile faded. ‘Is something
wrong?’

‘I think we
had better talk inside,’ he said.

He stood back
so that
Helena
could precede him. The
woman gave her a curious look, but no more, and
Helena
found herself in a cosy hall. There
was a staircase rising to her left, and ahead of her was a door leading to the
back of the house. Beyond the staircase was another door, and it was through
this that
Helena
was shown. She found
herself in a whitewashed room, which was furnished with a blue sofa, blue
curtains and a blue rug. Standing by the sofa, her knitting abandoned, was Aunt
Hester.

‘Aunt Hester!’
said
Helena
, going forward and taking
her hands.

‘My dear
Helena
!’ cried her aunt in
astonishment. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I wanted to
see you, and I arrived at the castle to find you had gone.’

‘My poor
Helena
. You went all that way
for nothing. It was good of Lord Torkrow to bring you here,’ she said. She
looked searchingly at
Helena
. ‘I can see from your face there is a lot you have to tell
me, but now is not the time. I fear you bring bad news with you?’

‘We do,’ said
Lord Torkrow. ‘Morton is on his way here. Where is Anna?’

Aunt Hester
glanced at a door behind her, and Lord Torkrow went through.
Helena
followed him into a small
room at the back of the house. It was brightly furnished, and there was a
cheery fire in the grate. A woman and a little boy were playing on the rug in
front of the fire, where the boy was lining up a row of toy soldiers. The woman
looked up.

‘Simon!’ she
exclaimed, jumping up in delight and embracing. ‘I am so glad to see you.’

As
Helena
witnessed the warmth
between brother and sister, she thought that she had never known he could be so
affectionate, and that to be loved by such a man would be something indeed.

Anna’s face
became anxious. ‘My husband has found me?’

‘Yes, my dear,
he has.’

‘I know it
would happen,’ said Anna. ‘I am only grateful it took him so long. At least I
have had time to regain my health.’

She looked at
Helena
.

Quickly, Lord
Torkrow introduced
Helena
and explained her presence, then said: ‘There is no time to lose.’

Anna nodded,
her expression grave.

‘We must go,’
she said. ‘Once we are out of the country we will be safe from him. I have a
bag packed already. I have had it packed ever since I arrived. Come, George, it
is time for us to go on our journey.’

‘To stay with
my godmama?’ asked the little boy.

‘Yes, to stay
with your godmama in
Italy
.’

‘I’m going on
a ship,’ the  boy said to
Helena
. ‘A big ship. It’s going to take me over the sea to a hot
country where there are lots of flowers and we’re going to live by the sea. We
can go out, not like here. Here we have to stay indoors.’

A shadow
crossed his face.

‘But when we
are in
Italy
, we will not have to hide
any more,’ Anna told him.

She took him
out of the room to put on his outdoor clothes.