Scotland Hard (Book 2 in the Tom & Laura Series) (36 page)

“I am sorry, Daisy. I thought you were a thief and now it is clear that you are sick in the mind and a pawn for the real thieves. Untie me and we can go and stop them. No one need get hurt.”

“You felt the effects of their test explosion yourself. It shook the castle at the same time as we kissed last night. Surely, someone must have told you about it?”

Dougal frowned. Word had reached Glen Russell that morning of a massive explosion the previous night somewhere near
Inverness
. Buildings had collapsed and people were killed. Everyone assumed it was some sort of natural disaster.

“Why would my father do such a thing, even if such a thing were possible?” Dougal asked hesitantly.

“You tell me, Dougal. We came to rescue Tom and Laura and found ourselves involved in this mess. Right now, my friends are risking their lives to steal this device and prevent a catastrophe.”

Dougal’s frown deepened.

“They will never manage to steal it, it is very heavy.”

“Then you do know of it?” Daisy said accusingly.

“I know of the Hans Clerkes device, which I thought to be an absurd toy. And it is true he took one of those devices north with him a few days ago. But I cannot believe that my father is involved in treason against the Crown. Even though he curses the English all the time; it is just the Scottish way of letting off steam.”

“If Tom and Laura told you themselves that they were kidnapped and sold to your father, would you believe them?”

Dougal thought about it and then nodded his head.

“I certainly do not care if you try and steal Clerkes’ devices. My father has wasted far too much time and money on them as it is.”

“Will you give me your word you will not do anything to hinder or stop us?” Daisy asked.

Dougal felt an emotion run through him he had never experienced before.

“Does my word mean that much to you?” he asked softly

“Oh yes, Dougal. I believe that your word is your bond,” Daisy said fervently.

“Then I give you my word. Untie me, Daisy and let us go and uncover the truth behind all this.”

47.
      
Caught

“We goin’ to do it then?”
Alice
asked and the other girls nodded in agreement.

“A train is coming,” Edith said, her eyes unfocussed on anything that was happening locally. What she saw in her mind was the train carrying Trelawney, speeding towards
Perth
. The image was overlaid with soldiers commandeering a platform and stacking boxes of ammunition as they awaited the train’s arrival.

Farseeing never came with commentary, but in Edith’s case it always related to her, so she knew with certainty that this train and its passengers would impact on her life. She came back to the real world and the girls around her.

“Soldiers too, I think they are going to attack Glen Russell.”

“Even more reason for us to do some spying of our own,” Lucy told her. “We don’t want Ebb and Tricky beating us to it, do we? The two of them and their fancy spy friends shouldn’t get all the credit for stopping Lord McBride.”

The girls had previously decided that if the world was going to end in Lucy’s predicted fireball, it was up to them to do something to stop it. Since the only place that they could think of that could cause such a disaster was Lord McBride’s factory, they had decided to go and investigate.

Alice
told the other girls what little she knew about the reactatron engine and it had become their best guess as to what was going to explode. All of them remembered stories of steam engines exploding and killing people.

They were forbidden to leave their dormitory once night descended, but the door was not locked, so all that was stopping them was the fear of being caught.

They pretended to go to bed at nine. Madam Hulot came around just after nine to check they were safely tucked up in bed, as was her habit.
Alice
managed a loud and convincing snore as Madam Hulot poked her head around the door.

The girls dressed at ten o’clock and were nerving themselves up to creep through the castle’s corridors to the factory. They were under no illusions about the level of punishment they would face if they were caught, and Lucy in particular, was shaking from a mixture of excitement and fear.

“Come on then,” Gwendolyn ordered the others impatiently. She was terrified of going out as well, not in fear of punishment, but in fear of what she might see if she touched the wrong wall, table, or tapestry. The manifestations that plagued her were always at their strongest in the night.

There were only a few Readers in the world compared with the other branches of magic and there were even fewer of Gwendolyn’s ability. The number of Readers born into the world was low, and many of those killed themselves young, unable to face the sights that greeted them everywhere they went.

The girls trickled out of the door like droplets of water sliding down a windowpane, slipping into the corridor. They hugged tight to the wall, with the exception of Gwendolyn, who managed to avoid touching the wall though still staying as close as she possibly could.

Madam Hulot walked the corridors of the castle that night for a very different reason. The day had left her tense and dissatisfied. She had not satisfied her need for emotional release by hitting the children enough. The nails on the soles of her shoes clacked on the stone floors as she walked through the castle at a quickening pace. She carried a long walking stick with a wide brass tip that sounded a counterpoint to her shoes. It hit the floor once for every two sets of clacks from her shoes.

It was her habit to walk the corridors until sufficiently exhausted to allow her to return to her room and obtain a fitful sleep. This usually took at least half an hour, but on this particular night she had already been walking for over an hour and still felt agitated.

The castle in Glen Russell was a large building and it should have been possible for the girls and Madam Hulot to walk along its many corridors for days without ever seeing each other. However, fate can be cruel, and the girls found themselves face to face with their tutor when Madam Hulot turned a corner and came perilously close to tripping over them.

Alice
reacted first and turned to run away, Madam Hulot instinctively hit her over the head with her walking stick.
Alice
fell to the floor clutching at her head and screaming in pain. The other girls knew defeat when they saw it and stayed where they were.

“How dare you leave your dormitory?” Madam Hulot shouted. “Walking the corridors of the castle like women of the night soliciting men.”

Alice
tried to strike Madam Hulot down with a telepathic message, but her head hurt so much from the blow that she couldn’t concentrate. She vomited as waves of nausea rushed over her.

“We are truly sorry, Madam Hulot,” Edith said as calmly as she could. There was a cold feeling in her belly and she was having trouble breathing.

“You do not know the meaning of the word sorry… yet. But I swear that you will. Come with me and pick up your disgusting companion from the floor.”

Madam Hulot hurried the girls along a corridor and down a long spiral stone staircase. Deep beneath the ground, the staircase ended in a bleak corridor with a single oil lamp flickering on the wall. She took a large iron key from a hook on the wall and opened a small door recessed deep into the stone.

“We shall see how spending a night in this dark and ice cold cellar helps you understand how naughty you have been. Tomorrow morning I shall return with a martinet and teach you the errors of your ways. If you think my little cane hurts, wait until you discover the sting of the martinet.”

“Please, Madam Hulot,” Lucy pleaded and received a blow to her thigh with the walking stick that made her scream in agony. Her hands rubbed at her thigh in a vain attempt to ease the pain.

“Get in there now. Say not another word,” Madam Hulot commanded.

The girls, half carrying a still dazed
Alice
, entered the small stone cell. It was bitterly cold inside and there were neither windows nor lamps. In the dim light from the corridor, Gwendolyn noticed a large iron candleholder high up on the cell wall. There were no candles in it.

Madam Hulot became a dark shape looming in the doorway like a character from a shadow theatre.

“I think after a night in here you will welcome my return with gratitude, until your chastisement begins, at the least.”

With those final frightening words, Madam Hulot closed the door on them and the girls heard the sound of the key grinding in the lock. They stood in almost total darkness with only a dim glow from the corridor beyond outlining the edges of the door.

“Are you all right,” Edith asked
Alice
a few moments later.

“Me head’s split open and I can see stars, but I ‘pect I shall recover,”
Alice
replied phlegmatically.

“You are lucky to see only stars,” Lucy said weakly from the floor. “I have just seen our flesh boil from our bones in the second before this castle collapses on top of us. If we don’t get out of here before morning, we will certainly die in this place.”

“There’s nothing like a bit of cheery talk to comfort us when we’re trapped in a cold dark cellar,”
Alice
mused.

Tom paced the bedroom impatiently. A quick glance at the grandfather clock in the corner told him it was already five past ten and they were late for their rendezvous. He glanced over to the bathroom door, which was closed.

“Laura we have to go.
Cam
and the others will be waiting for us,” he called. He wanted to scream and rant, but that might that give them away and he knew it would only encourage Laura to take even longer.

“Thomas,” Laura’s voice drifted through the door sounding completely unconcerned about the time, “They cannot start without us, and I am not at my best when I feel dirty. We do have all night to save
London
, you know.”

Tom put his forehead against the nearest wall and felt the cold hardness of the granite. He would have banged his head against it like a frustrated child except that he knew it would hurt a lot.

“See, I am ready,” Laura said as she stepped grandly out of the bathroom. She raised her arms in the air and turned in a circle for Tom to admire her. From Tom’s point of view, she looked exactly the same as when she had entered the bathroom over two hours before.

“I can see we shall have to work on your level of attentiveness,” Laura said wryly as she took in his confused look. “A gentleman always compliments a lady when she has gone to some effort to please him with her attire.”

“Err, you look lovely…, as always,” Tom said quickly.

“And would you care to itemize the many changes I have effected upon myself since I entered the bathroom?”

“Laura…, we are late,” Tom said with some urgency. “You look as wonderful as ever….”

“That is my whole problem,” Laura said in exasperation. “What is the point in spending two hours on my appearance when you don’t even notice unless I am stark naked? And even then you turn your back on me as if my form offends you in some manner.”

Tom tried to think of a logical answer to Laura’s question, but none came to his mind.

“We are late,” he said again, and somewhat desperately.

Laura resisted the urge to stamp her foot in frustration and instead moved over to Tom, taking his arm in hers.

“Then we had better get a move on,” she said briskly and dragged him towards the door.

“Stop!” a demanding voice shouted at Tom and Laura as they approached the stairs. They turned to see an annoyed looking Rhona behind them. “And just where do you think you two are going?”

“I thought you told us we were guests in this castle and not prisoners,” Laura pointed out. “We are going for a late night stroll around the castle.”

“I have had orders from Mr. Campbell that you two are not to roam at night. He is concerned for your safety, I expect. The stone floors and stairs can be slippery if you are not use to them,” Rhona said, sounding somewhat embarrassed.

“And how many other guests are forbidden to leave their rooms?” Tom enquired.

“Only the young girls in Madam Hulot’s care,” Rhona admitted. “And I suspect that is more because she likes to have an excuse to beat them, than that they might hurt themselves.”

“Rhona, listen to us please. The Laird is about to do something terrible and it is up to all of us to put a stop to it,” Laura explained gently.

“I shall scream for Mr. Campbell and the other servants if you do not return to your room this minute.”

Tom took a step towards her and she took a deep breath preparing to scream. Laura pulled Tom back and Rhona relaxed and breathed out slowly.

“You say the only reason we cannot wander the castle is for our own safety?” Laura asked.

“That is correct, ma’am,” Rhona confirmed and gave a little curtsy, glad to be back in her normal maid role, if only for the moment.

“And you can walk all around the castle because you know it so well?”

“My mother and father are both in service here in the castle and I have walked its rooms and corridors since I was a wee bairn,” Rhona said proudly.

“Then you can guide us through the castle safely and we can have our walk. And Mr. Campbell will be satisfied that you have carried out your orders?”

“I suppose that might be true,” Rhona conceded uncertainly.

“I suggest you take us down to the laboratory and back. That will be a fine walk and Tom and I want to learn the route, as the layout of the castle is proving to be quite confusing.”

“Aye, I suppose so,” Rhona said doubtfully. “But what about all this nonsense you keep spouting about the Laird?”

“It is just our English sense of humor,” Tom offered.

“Follow me then, and stay close,” Rhona ordered reluctantly.

The girls sat in the centre of the room.
Alice
’s bottom was already aching from the cold stone beneath it. Lucy moaned, as she saw the vision of their imminent deaths replayed over and over again in her mind.

“Anybody got any ideas how to get out of here?”
Alice
asked hopefully