The Morrow Secrets (6 page)

‘Today Great Aunt Sybilla told me Great Aunt Agatha had been briefly married, but that the marriage hadn’t ‘properly taken’, whatever that means. She said the husband, Machin Dreer, had upped and left a few months after the wedding, vowing never to return to his horrible wife and from that day forward he has been as good as his word! Isn’t that odd, all the sisters seem to have misplaced their husbands, one way or another.’ But Tyaas was quiet. Tallitha poked her brother for a response, ‘Tyaas, are you listening?’

Her brother sat with his head in his hands.
‘It’s all very well for you but I’m left here to play with the Cotters’ and Minkles’ children from Wycham village. Hattie and Maisie are fine, but when the girls aren’t looking, the boys punch me! It doesn’t hurt but it isn’t fun,’ he grumbled.
Tallitha knew how to cheer Tyaas up. ‘But I have a plan,’ she said encouragingly, putting her arm round her brother’s shoulders.
Whilst Tallitha had been wiling away her mornings in the sisters’ apartment it occurred to her that Asenathe must have had a suite of rooms somewhere in Winderling Spires. If only they could find these rooms, they may hold clues as to where she had gone and Tyaas could help her find them.
The Spires had two floors below ground level which housed all the workings of the enormous house. On the lower floor were located the vast array of store rooms and the cold inhospitable cellars and the floor above contained the enormous kitchens and the Housekeeper’s office. Tallitha knew that was a good place to start. She suspected that a complete set of plans must be kept in Mrs Armitage’s office so she could organise the servants’ rotas with all the cleaning and household maintenance. The problem was that the children had never been allowed down to the lower floors. Tallitha knew something about the layout because Cissie often amused them with stories about the ‘goings-on’ downstairs. There were boiler rooms, coal stores, pickling and jam stores, laundry and drying rooms, a number of wine cellars, plus crockery rooms, three kitchens and an array of sculleries. All they had to do was to locate Mrs Armitage’s office and parlour.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ she said, ‘if we can find Asenathe’s apartment, we may find out what happened to her.’
Tyaas turned to his sister and his eyes lit up with excitement. ‘Do you mean we’re really going to explore the house?’
‘Yes I do. But first we must find the floor plans. Mrs Armitage must have a set in her office. The problem is, we’ve never been down to the lower floors and we certainly can’t go during the day, it’s much too risky, so we’ll have to go at night,’ she said eyeing Tyaas from under her messy hair.
‘Wow! Exploring the Spires in the dark! When shall we go? What about tonight?’
Tallitha shook her head. ‘We’ll go the day after tomorrow when Mrs Armitage is visiting her daughter. Cissie said she sometimes sleeps in her parlour when she has an early start, so we can’t take the risk. Best try when she’s away.’
‘What about the shroves?’
‘They’re so tricky,’ replied Tallitha. ‘They mostly sleep in the cellars, but Cissie said they have shrove holes all over the house, so we must be careful.’
Tyaas needed no more persuasion. ‘The servant’s staircase by the hall clock is hardly used except by Mrs Armitage, so I guess it leads down to her rooms. Tomorrow morning I’ll watch to see who uses it.’
Tallitha nodded. It was an excellent plan but she had also been developing one of her own. Whilst building her knowledge of the intricate passageways and staircases over the intervening days, she had decided to find her own way to the sisters’ apartment without Marlin. He was a hindrance, spying on her every move and preventing her from exploring the Spires alone. So when the next morning arrived, Tallitha left early to avoid the old shrove.
She followed the pins and the marks she had made on the walls and after going up the wrong staircase a couple of times she found herself at the foot of the Crewel Tower. The sisters had certainly chosen one of the most outlandish settings of Winderling Spires for their retreat. The north staircase was carved with panels of ornate birds and spiders set into the banisters and newel posts. Wooden falcons, eagles and ravens sprouted from the railings along with leggy arachnids and their nests of grotesque spiderlings. Tallitha thought they were curious and wonderful. Even if she disliked the sisters, she admired their ornate taste.
As she wandered up the staircase counting the spiders and trying to name all the different species of birds, she came face to face with Marlin, coming from the opposite direction, bumbling along on his spindly legs. This was her opportunity to dismiss him from his role as chaperone. If he didn’t like it he could take it up with Great Aunt Agatha. But by then it would be too late. She ran up the stairs to greet him.
‘Good morning Marlin,’ she said sarcastically.
The shrove hopped about when he saw Tallitha.
‘Well as you can see, from now on, there’s no need for your guidance. I can find my own way to my grandmother’s apartment.’
Marlin screwed up his beady eyes and shrunk back against the banister as Tallitha elbowed him to one side. She could hear his oaths and mutterings all the way up the crooked staircase.
‘I’ll be back for ye,’ he squawked and shook his fist, determined not to let Tallitha get the better of him.
‘Who cares,’ shouted Tallitha and stuck out her tongue at the nasty creature as she raced ahead to the Crewel Tower.
That morning there was an unusual amount of activity coming from the sisters’ dressing rooms. As Tallitha entered the apartment she could hear their animated chatter and the creaking of wardrobe doors while their maid servant, Dora, ran between the dressing rooms, flustered by their incessant demands. Eventually the sisters emerged in their finest and strangest day outfits. Edwina wore an otter-brown velvet suit with bright green gloves and a yellow feather boa. Sybilla wore a dress of dogwood rose with blue gloves and a purple feathered hat. The sisters were extremely pleased with their appearance and were obviously dressed to go out. Tallitha tried to keep a straight face.
‘You’ll have to occupy yourself today. There’s a sampler for you to copy, over on that dresser’ said Sybilla, waving her gloves dismissively.
‘The organising committee of Wycham Fair have asked us to judge the needlework competition and we’re going to choose the prizes. Florré will bring your elderflower cordial at eleven o’clock. We should be back in time for lunch,’ said Edwina excitedly.
Tallitha had never seen her grandmother look so animated and cheerful.
‘Do hurry up sister,’ snapped Sybilla, ‘or we’ll be late.’
With a swirl of cloaks and pungent lavender perfume, the sisters kissed Tallitha on each cheek and departed. Kisses from those beasts!
‘Eerrrh!’ thought Tallitha, ‘how ghastly!’ as she wiped away the traces of their sticky lipstick.
Tallitha could not believe her good fortune. For days she had been trying to engineer a reason for the sisters to leave their apartment so she could snoop about and just when she was not expecting it and was absorbed with plans about the night-time exploration, off they went!
Tallitha wasted no time. She hurriedly climbed the library ladder, using the lever to guide her along on the squeaky rail. She flew past poetry and geography, flora and fauna, gazetteers of the world, maps and travelogues. But nothing looked remotely interesting as a source of information about Asenathe. She went up and down the shelves getting ever more dusty, tired and hot. There were thousands of books and Tallitha realised the search would take much longer than a couple of hours. She needed days! Feeling disheartened she climbed down again.
It was almost eleven o’clock so she sighed and picked up the sampler. It was a complicated monogram of interwoven stitching in old script. As she looked more closely she could just make out the letters as an ‘A’ and an ‘M’ and her heart almost missed a beat. Perhaps this was Asenathe’s sampler and if so what did the other lettering say? But she couldn’t translate the words. Old Ennish was difficult enough to speak and she had never seen any of these words written down before. The stitches had an unusual twist to them too. She thought they might be milanese or goblin, but they were unlike any other examples she had seen. The colours were striking, ‘Turkish Rose’, ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ and ‘Candy Apple Red’on a rich vanilla background. Tallitha was stumped! If the sampler was Asenathe’s and the sisters knew it was hers, why had they left it for her to copy? Maybe they didn’t know it was hers? Maybe it wasn’t hers? Maybe it had been left by someone else? So many questions, she thought, without any answers!
Later, after Florré had delivered her drink, she climbed the ladder once again, but this time she knew what she was looking for, the reference books on the ancient tongues of the Northern Wolds’ people. She spun round the circular library and located the books on one of the top shelves. There were three volumes and after making sure she had the correct edition, she hid the copy in the deepest pocket of her dress and clambered down the ladder. Hardly pausing for breath, Tallitha took up her needle and began to copy some of the glorious stitches from the mysterious sampler and waited for the sisters to return.
They were an age, and time seemed to stand still in the warm drowsiness of the late morning. Tallitha was bored and fanned herself in the heat, letting her mind wander to Great Aunt Agatha’s daughter and the mystery that surrounded her disappearance. Hours drifted by and unusually the spiteful sisters missed their lunch. Tallitha was impatient to do her research so she picked up her sewing, including the sampler, and wrote a note to that effect. Marlin could go hang himself! She would find her own way back without him. That would teach the nasty little shrove and Great Aunt Agatha too.
As Tallitha left the apartment she noticed a movement on the landing. It was Florré curled up in the gloomy recess just outside the sitting room door. He unfurled himself like a cat when he heard the door open, poised, ready to pounce. Tallitha raced past the shrove, averting her face, but as she sped down the passageway she could feel his eyes boring deep into her back. Had he heard her sneaking about? Had he been spying on her? She shivered momentarily and picked up pace, moving more assiduously down the inky-blackness of the corridor. The shroves were always lurking, lying in wait for her. If ever she had any real power in Winderling Spires she would dismiss them all at once.
Then out of the darkness she heard Florré’s wicked laughter echoing down the empty passageways. The shrove was stalking her, slinking along, always just a shadow out of sight. Tallitha followed the small pins and the marks on the walls, dashing headlong down the unfamiliar corridors and staircases until eventually, sometime later, she found the east wing. Breathless she raced towards the safety of her apartment and banged the door tightly shut behind her. Panting and scared, she kept her body firmly wedged against the door.
‘Oh my word girl, what a fright you gave me! What on earth’s goin’ on, you scared me ’alf to death!’ exclaimed Cissie, sitting down on the bed and clutching the washing to her chest. She was red in the face from bending down, sorting piles of laundry.
‘Oh Cissie,’ cried Tallitha, the panic rising in her voice, ‘that was awful!’
‘Whatever is the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’
‘I’m sorry I scared you,’ she exclaimed catching her breath, ‘but it was so dark and scary outside the sisters’ apartment and Florré was behaving oddly. Then I thought... oh I don’t know what I thought, it was all so peculiar,’ spluttered Tallitha.
‘You should ’ave waited for Marlin to bring you back. You’ll get into trouble, Miss,’ said Cissie shaking her head.
‘I wanted to find my own way back. But something’s wrong, he scared me.’
‘Oh those damned shroves. Take no notice Miss. They’re all cut from the same strange block. Them shroves have a shifty way about ’em. Always have, always will. But you know that don’t you Miss? Don’t pay no mind,’ replied Cissie, folding the laundry into neat piles.
‘But there was something different about Florré today, something menacing. The way he followed me, it was creepy,’ said Tallitha chewing her fingers.
‘Followed you, Miss? Surely not. You’re imaginin’ things.’
‘I’m not!’ insisted Tallitha, her eyes glued to the door expecting the evil shrove to burst in at any second.
Cissie continued folding the children’s clothes whilst keeping an eye on Tallitha. The girl seemed oddly preoccupied and she was clutching some needlework in her hand. It was true she looked shaken but then she could be dramatic when she wanted to be. Cissie decided that it served Tallitha right. She shouldn’t be going off on her own, exploring the upstairs passageways, after all the Grand Morrow had forbidden it. ‘What you got there then?’ asked Cissie.
Tallitha smoothed the sampler between her fingers. She wanted to ask Cissie about Asenathe so she sat quietly, deciding how to frame her question. Cissie knew Tallitha of old and could tell she was up to something.
‘You look like you’ve got summat else on your mind.’
Tallitha knew she had to be careful. Cissie might tell her great aunt Agatha.
‘I want to ask you something important,’ she said, cautiously peering out from under her messy hair. ‘Is there a secret in our family?’
Cissie stopped sorting the linen. She had always dreaded this question and suddenly here it was. She would have to be careful.
‘Well, all families ’ave their secrets, Miss. Now what shall I do with these clothes? They’re much too small for you,’ said Cissie, trying to change the subject.
‘Yes I know they do. But this is a big secret Cissie. B.I.G.,’ said Tallitha, spelling out the letters with emphasis.
‘How should I know, Miss?’ said Cissie abruptly.
Tallitha knew she could wheedle it out of her. Her methods were tried and tested.
‘This ‘secret’, has something to do with someone very important, who isn’t here anymore.’
She studied Cissie for any flicker of reaction. Her nurse had stopped fussing with the clothes and was now standing quite still, staring out of the window.
‘This... girl... may have left the family for some reason,’ suggested Tallitha, twisting her hair in and out of her fingers.
The very mention of this girl made Cissie jolt slightly
‘I don’t know anything about that, Miss. It was before my time here. There are rumours. I’m not sure I can say...’
‘Oh Cissie, you do know something, I can tell,’ said Tallitha excitedly, jumping up and down on the bed. So she was on the right track, she just had to prod and poke a bit more.
‘You see, Tyaas and I found an old book with a girl’s name in it,’ said Tallitha coming up behind her nurse. ‘The name was… Asenathe Morrow.’
Cissie went bright red in the face and turned quickly to face Tallitha.
‘Have you been upstairs? You know you shouldn’t ’ave. The Grand Morrow will be very cross,’ exclaimed Cissie.
‘Then don’t tell her. Come on Cissie, I want to know the truth,’ demanded Tallitha.