The Reluctant Widow (13 page)

“Yes,” he interrupted, in no way damped. “But do you know what is in that cupboard?” She looked at him suspiciously. “Nicky, if you have placed something horrid there just to see me go into strong convulsions—”

“I tell you I’m not bamming, ma’am! Why, is it likely I would do such an unhandsome thing?” “Yes,” said Elinor frankly. “Extremely likely!”

“Well, I would not. Watch!”

He stepped up to the panel which formed the door of the cupboard, and slid it back. Elinor looked warily inside, but the cupboard was empty. She glanced inquiringly at Nicky, and found that his innocent blue eyes were fairly blazing with excitement. “For heaven’s sake, tell me instantly what it is!” she

“Watch!” he said again, and stepped into the shallow cupboard and dropped onto his knees and with some difficulty prized up a triangular section of the oaken boards that formed the floor. These were so cunningly joined together that when the trap door they formed was in place only a close inspection revealed the fact that the floor was not solid. With starting eyes Elinor watched the section come up and a dark, narrow cavity appear at her feet. _ “It is. easier lifted from below,” Nicky explained, propping the triangular section up against the wall.

“Easier lifted from below!” echoed Elinor, in a failing voice.

“Yes, for I have tested it. I dare say in the old days they may have had some contrivance for opening it on this side, for you can see how the boards have shrunk so that I can get my nails under them, and that cannot have been so when the place was used in earnest. Look, Cousin Elinor, do you see? It is a secret stair, going down the big chimney stack!” “Good God!” she said faintly.

“I knew you would be surprised!” He nodded. “I wonder if Ned knows of this.” She regarded him with a fulminating eye. “If I find that your—your odious brother knew of such a thing and left me here at the mercy of any marauder who has a fancy to steal into the

house at dead of night—oh, it is too abominable of him! Where does that horrid little stair lead?”

“I don’t know yet I would not explore it until you had seen it, for it is your house, after all, and it would be rather too bad if I were to keep all the fun to myself.”

“That was thoughtful of you. I am so much obliged to you!” Elinor said feelingly. “I wonder if there is any hartshorn in the house?”

“Oh, now you are quizzing me again! But do not let us be wasting time! Shall I go first?” “Down that dreadful stair?” gasped Elinor. “Do you imagine, you horrid creature, that I am going to set foot on it?”

He looked at her in a little surprise. “Will you not indeed? Oh, you are thinking that it is bound to be dusty! Well, I dare say it may be, but I shan’t regard that. Do you stay here and I will soon find where it leads!”

She started forward and clutched his sleeve. “Nicky, for heaven’s sake do not venture down there without even a candle! You do not know what you may discover!” “Fudge! I am sure there is enough light for me! It must lead into the garden, of course, but how is it we have not seen the door? There is nothing to be afraid of, Cousin Elinor!” “You cannot know that! You may fall and break your leg, or find something there—Oh, I wish you will not go!”

He grinned at her. “Don’t I hope I may find something, that’s all! If there is a skull, I will fetch it up to you!”

“Do not dare do anything of the sort!” she said, shuddering. “If you are set on going down, only let me call Barrow to go with you!”

“Barrow! No, I thank you! I don’t mean to tell him of this!” said Nicky, disappearing through the gap.

Elinor waited at the top, quite sick with apprehension and calling from time to time to know if he were still safe. He assured her that he was and that there was light enough penetrating through the opening for him to see his way. She retired to a chair and sank into it to await events. It seemed an age before he reappeared, but he did so at last, and stepped into the room, brushing the dust from his clothes. “It is the most famous thing!” he informed her. “It is just as I supposed! The stair goes down the chimney stack—it is the bakehouse chimney, you know. And there is a door at the bottom, only it is so covered over with creepers you would never see it unless you searched particularly for it! I wonder how they hid it in the old days.”

“I wonder,” said Elinor, gazing at him in a fascinated way. “I suppose there is no difficulty in opening the door from outside?”

“Oh, not the least in the world! There is a latch. You have only to part the creepers and you may see it as plain as anything! Cousin Elinor, I was never more pleased with anything in my life! It is first-rate! Why, we have nothing like this up at the Hall!”

“How wretched for you!” said Elinor.

“Well, I do think it is unfair that a paltry fellow like Eustace should have such a bang-up thing, when I dare say he never made the least use of it! Only think what Harry and I could have done if we had had such a passage up at the Hall!”

“I prefer not to think of it,” said Elinor. “But I wish with all my heart you had got it up at the Hall!”

“Yes,” he said wistfully. “But it is of no use to be thinking of that. Only it does seem rather too bad that I never knew of it till now. By Jupiter, I wish Harry were here! If he had but seen this when we were boys he would have thought of something famous to do with it, for he was always the most complete hand, you know! Why, we might have given Eustace the fright of his life! Harry is one of my brothers, you understand. He is in the Peninsula, and I do wish he were not! You would like him excessively!”

“I am sure I should,” said Elinor sympathetically. “He sounds to be a delightful creature. But

meanwhile I shall be obliged to you if you will instantly find a hammer and some strong nails and secure that hidden door!”

“Nail it up! But Cousin Elinor, do you not realize that the man you found in the house last night must have entered by this way?” he exclaimed.

Elinor closed her eyes for a pregnant moment. “Yes, Nicky, I do realize that,” she said. “And since I have not the least desire that he should repeat his visit, I wish you will secure that door!”

“Well, I am by no means certain that that is what we should do,” he said, frowning. “The more I think of it the more I’m persuaded there is something dashed smoky about the business. Only consider, Cousin! A man who must needs come creeping into a house by a secret stair can be up to no good!”

“Very true. There is a want of openness about such behavior that strikes one forcibly, and makes me, at least, disinclined to pursue the acquaintance.”

His brows were still knit. “Why should he have done so, if he did not know that Eustace was dead and you here in his place? Or do you suppose that he was not a friend of Eustace’s at all, and wished to get into the :house without his knowing of it?”

She thought it over. “No,” she said at last. “He must have perceived the light shining under the door into the bookroom and thought that your cousin was there, I have no doubt that he was coming toward that room when I stepped out of it. Indeed, he must have heard me walking about in the room! Had he not wished to be seen he must have hidden himself, for he certainly had time enough to have done so. I am persuaded he expected to see your cousin.”

Nicky’s eyes had begun to sparkle again. “Jupiter, only fancy if we should have stumbled on some plot he and Eustace were hatching between them! I wonder what it can have been. Depend upon it, he came by the secret way so that the servants should not know of his visit! Tell me again just what he said to you!”

She complied with this request to the best of her ability. He listened attentively, questioning her closely upon the various heads of her narrative. He shook his head over it “It’s deuced odd!” he said. “Mind you, though I own I don’t see what he would be at, I don’t believe he was so innocent as you think! Well, if he were he would not have been on such terms with my cousin as he described! Said he had been ultimate with him, did he not?” “Yes, decidedly. In fact, he spoke of being aware of the confusion your cousin’s affairs must be in, and he offered to assist me in getting his papers into order.”

Nicky looked fixedly at her. “He did, did he? Now, why should you need the help of some stranger when it is perfectly well known that my cousin had any number of relatives whom you would apply to if you needed help? By Jove, you have hit upon it, ma’am! Your precious visitor came here to get something from Eustace, and his wanting to go through his papers proves it! Oh, this is famous! Let us go downstairs at once and hunt for what it may be!” “No, that you shall not!” declared Elinor roundly. “Your brother left all those papers in my charge, and no one must look at them but himself and the lawyer who is joined with him as an executor to your cousin’s will! Besides, it is nonsense! What could there be that anyone should want?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll swear there is something! Of course, it may not be a paper. I wonder if Eustace had stolen something of value. He was always under the hatches, and—” “I will not allow it to be possible!” said Elinor. “Do you wish me to believe that your cousin was a common thief? Such a notion must be absurd!”

“Well, he stole Harry’s best fishing rod once,” argued Nicky. “Harry drew his cork for it, what’s more, and he ran to my aunt saying how brutally he had been used. He was the most cow-hearted fellow imaginable!”

“I dare say, but there is a difference between a boy’s borrowing what does not belong to him, and—”

“He didn’t borrow it! He stole it and swore he had no notion where it was! Only Harry had a pretty strong guess where he had hidden it, and he found it. If you don’t believe me, you may

ask Ned! And though it is not a thing we speak of in a general way, it was for stealing that he was expelled from Eton. At least, he would have been, only that Ned prevailed on them to let him remove him with nothing said as to the cause.”

“Good God!” said Elinor bitterly. “A pretty husband I was married to, to be sure!” “Oh, he was a shocking fellow!” said Nicky cheerfully. “So you see—” “I do not care how shocking he may have been. I will not permit you to tamper with his papers!” said Elinor, with resolution. “It would be most improper in me. Besides, I do not set the least store by all this nonsense! You have refined too much upon what must have some quite simple explanation.”

“I’ll lay you odds you are wrong!” offered Nicky. “Of course, if you think I should not look at Eustace’s papers I will not do so. I think I should go back to the Hall, and tell Ned what we have discovered. I dare say he may have returned by this time.”

“Yes, I think you should,” said Elinor thankfully. “But I wish you will secure that door before you go!”

“No, no, we must on no account do so!” he replied. “I am in great hopes that that fellow will come back again. Indeed, I would wager a pony he will, and we don’t wish to scare him off!” He smiled engagingly at his fascinated hostess. “Now, do we, Cousin Elinor?” “Certainly not!” she said, rising nobly to this occasion. “If he should come again I will offer him refreshment. If only I had thought of it earlier! I do trust my inhospitality may not have given him a distaste of this house!”

“I knew you were a right one!” Nicky said. “But do be serious, ma’am! You see, if I am in the right of it, and I do think I may be, he will come to get whatever it is he wants, and we must lie in wait for him and catch him red-handed. I know Ned would say so!”

“I can readily believe he would,” said Elinor sardonically.

Nicky replaced the trap door and shut the cupboard. “I do not see that there is anything more we can do here at this present,” he said. “Let us go downstairs again, Cousin. And you must not say a word of this to the Barrows, you know, for besides that we do not wish anyone to know what we have discovered, ten to one they would take fright and run away, leaving you alone here, and that would not do at all.”

“At last you have uttered a sentiment with which I find myself in profound agreement!” said Elinor. “But do not delude yourself into fancying that I mean to spend another night in this house with that dreadful door unsecured, for nothing would induce me to do so! Though, to be sure, I have not the least expectation of receiving another such visit from that man!” He followed her down the stairs. “Well, if you have not, you cannot have the least objection to my leaving that door open,” he said reasonably.

She entered the bookroom and sat down by the fire. “I should not, I know,” she confessed. “But females have such unaccountable fancies! You will think me as paltry a creature as your cousin, I dare say, but I must Own that there is something very disagreeable to me in the thought that there is a way into this house which is used by one who you have assured me must be an ugly customer. In fact, even now in broad daylight I find I cannot be easy in my mind, and quite dread being obliged to go upstairs.”

“Oh, you need be under no apprehension, ma’am!” he assured her. “There can be no fear of anyone’s entering that door during the daylight! But I’ll tell you what! While I ride back to the Hall to tell Ned about this, I’ll leave Bouncer to guard you. You will be quite at your ease then, for he is pretty fierce, I can tell you! He took a bite out of the blacksmith’s leg only the other day. He is a splendid dog, and only quite young yet!”

She looked dubiously at the dog, which was stretched out before the fire fast asleep. “Well, if you think ... But perhaps he will not stay, if you go.”

“Yes, he will. I have been training him to do all manner of tricks! Here, Bouncer! Here, boy!” The hound awoke and sat up, dipping his ears and panting fondly at his master. Nicky patted him invigoratingly. “Good dog, Bouncer!” he said. “Now you stay here and guard her! Do you understand, sir? Sit! That’s it! On guard, Bouncer, mind!” He straightened himself, regarding his pet proudly. “You can see how he understands me, can you not?” he said.