The Morrow Secrets (8 page)

Over the days that followed it proved impossible to explore the Spires. Snowdroppe demanded their presence and, what with Tallitha’s duties and their schoolwork, there was no time to slip away. Deciphering the sampler was uppermost in Tallitha’s mind and she carried it with her always. On the third morning after they had discovered the floor plans, Tallitha sat in the school room waiting for her teacher and brother. She had a few minutes to spare and could not resist taking out the sampler and the book of old scripts. She hoped that buried somewhere within the pages would be the clue to interpret the stitches. But the book required a basic knowledge of the ancient language and Tallitha was stumped.

‘I’ll never be able to do this,’ she said, slamming the book shut with annoyance.
Then she stiffened. Tallitha sensed she was no longer alone. A noise at the back of the schoolroom confirmed her fear. It was Benedict who had just tripped over the leg of a chair.
‘What can’t you do?’ he asked, extricating himself.
He must have snuck in without her noticing. Tallitha stood up too quickly, knocked the desk and everything fell on the floor.
‘Oh! Bumps, you gave me a fright. Why are you always sneaking about?’ she asked, throwing him a vexed look.
Benedict looked hurt. Tallitha thought he resembled a helpless puppy that had lost its mother.
‘I’m not sneaking about,’ he said pathetically.
‘Well what are you doing?’ Tallitha snapped.
‘I’m here for lessons, like you. What’s that?’
Benedict bent down and picked up the sampler.
‘That’s my needlework, give it to me!’ Tallitha shouted, trying to grab it back.
But it was too late. Benedict was already taking in all the details.
‘Where did you get this from?’ he asked, studying the lettering.
‘That’s for me to know and you to find out.’
‘There’s no need to be like that. Do you have any idea what it says?’
‘It’s in Embric script and before you interrupted me I was just about to translate it,’ she said petulantly.
Benedict stared at Tallitha. She really hadn’t a clue what the sampler said. Perhaps this was his opportunity to get closer to his cousins. He pushed his hair out of his eyes.
‘It’s not Embric, this is old Ennish script and it’s the name of a place,’ he said guardedly.
‘Oh really,’ said Tallitha sarcastically, ‘and what do you know anyway?’
‘Well I know it says Hellstone Tors,’ said Benedict giving Tallitha a sidelong glance.
Benedict was such a swot. Of course he would know how to translate the script! She grabbed the sampler back from him and tried to sound uninterested.
‘Thanks a lot, but where is that anyway?’
‘You’re telling me you’ve never heard of Hellstone Tors!’ he said in amazement.
Tallitha shook her head. She was cross that Benedict knew something she didn’t.
‘It’s over the mountains, far away from Wycham Elva to the North West,’ he explained.
‘Where’s that?’ asked Tallitha, becoming curious.
‘It’s in Breedoor, a wild, strange sort of place,’ he said, observing her reaction.
But Tallitha had no idea what he was talking about.
At that moment Tyaas came bounding into the schoolroom, flinging the door wide open.
‘Amazing, guess what? Old Raisethorne has a sore throat. So, no school today, or tomorrow! Oh hi Bumps, how’s things?’
Tyaas looked from one to the other. Something was definitely going on so he pulled up a chair and sat down.
‘I was explaining what these words mean.’
Benedict pointed to the sampler and repeated what he had said to Tallitha.
‘You mean this weird place called Hellstone Tors is somehow connected to us,’ said Tyaas.
‘Of course. Didn’t you know either?’ Benedict asked incredulously.
Tyaas shook his head. Now Benedict had their complete attention.
‘So come on, Bumps, if you know so much, why don’t you tell us,’ said Tallitha, becoming irritated.
Benedict blushed slightly. Tallitha could sense he was in two minds about what to say to them.
‘Come on,’ said Tyaas, poking Benedict. ‘You can’t leave us in the dark.’
Benedict pushed his hair out of his eyes, bit his lip and thought for a moment.
‘OK, you asked, don’t ever forget that. There’s an old story and it isn’t a happy one,’ Benedict shifted in his seat. ‘Many years ago there was a terrible feud in the Morrow family. On their mother’s death, Fedora and her half-brother Edwyn quarrelled over who should rule Wycham Elva. Fedora demanded her birthright as the woman, but Edwyn had always been jealous of his half-sister and insisted that he should inherit and they fought bitterly. Edwyn’s hatred ate away at him and he arranged for his sister and her husband to be poisoned.’
‘Wow,’ said Tyaas, ‘some family! Why have we never heard this stuff before?’
Tallitha shrugged her shoulders. ‘What happened next?’ she asked.
‘Fedora survived but her husband, Rufus, died. The people of Wycham Elva rose up against Edwyn and they installed Fedora as the Grand Morrow. Edwyn called upon dark forces to execute his escape, fleeing with his gruesome entourage to the northern lands. Now his descendants rule Breedoor.’
‘Are they related to us?’ asked Tyaas.
‘Distantly,’ replied Benedict.
‘What sort of dark forces?’
‘Edwyn made a secret pact in return for his freedom and the lands of Breedoor. He had to give up something precious...’
‘Who to?’ asked Tyaas.
‘What did he give up?’ asked Tallitha excitedly.
‘I don’t know everything,’ Benedict replied, smiling. ‘Anyway it’s supposed to be a secret pact, so maybe no one knows.’
‘What about Asenathe, Great Aunt Agatha’s daughter?’ demanded Tallitha, ‘where is she?’
‘Asenathe?’ asked Benedict, colouring slightly.
Maybe Benedict didn’t know everything after all. So Tallitha told him what they had discovered about Great Aunt Agatha’s daughter.
‘So you see, we have to find her. She may be in Hellstone Tors. This is the first real piece of information we’ve had,’ she said excitedly.
‘So what are you going to do?’ asked Benedict.
‘Well, we have a plan, haven’t we?’ she said smiling at Tyaas. ‘First we’ll find her old apartment in Winderling Spires. It’s somewhere on the fifth floor. There may be more clues there. Then we’re going to Hellstone Tors,’ said Tallitha excitedly.
Benedict shifted uncomfortably, kicking his feet on the underside of the chair. ‘That won’t be as easy as you think,’ he said fidgeting.
‘Why not?’ asked Tallitha, ‘what do you mean?’
Benedict was proving more interesting than she had imagined. ‘It may be the reason she never returned.’
‘Well...?’ asked Tallitha impatiently.
‘There’s no known route to Hellstone Tors, at least over the top of The-Out-Of-The -Way-Mountains.’ His cousins were hanging on to his every word. ‘It’s impassable.’
‘So why did she start out,’ asked Tyaas, ‘if no one knows the way?’
‘Maybe she went through the caves. But that’s dangerous, full of creatures you wouldn’t want to meet,’ explained Benedict, observing their reaction.
‘Wow!’ said Tyaas. ‘Amazing!’
This was his idea of bliss. Already in his mind’s-eye, he was climbing down dangerous caverns, fighting wild creatures and winning heroically. ‘But that sounds great,’ he said, completely gripped.
‘There’s no map. If Asenathe reached Hellstone Tors she must have been taken there by someone. Breedoor is a dark place,’ said Benedict mysteriously.
‘That’s what makes it so exciting. We have to pursue this mystery to the end!’ exclaimed Tyaas, banging the table.
‘So many strange things have happened to us. First we discovered Asenathe’s book and then the sampler,’ said Tallitha lowering her voice.
‘And the shroves have been behaving oddly. I don’t know how they fit in, only they scared us both,’ said Tyaas.
‘Perhaps someone is leaving these clues so we’ll find them,’ said Tallitha thoughtfully.
‘But there may be no way back,’ said Benedict, shifting uneasily.
‘We can’t let that stop us. Everything that has happened so far is pointing us in the direction of Breedoor,’ exclaimed Tyaas.
‘It’s an inhospitable place. I’ve heard people talking and if I was to go with you...’ suggested Benedict.
‘Who says you’re coming with us?’ snapped Tyaas, looking at Tallitha. ‘Well he isn’t, is he, Sis?’
They didn’t know Benedict that well. But perhaps he could be useful.
‘Maybe we need Benedict’s help,’ Tallitha replied.
Tyaas raised his eyebrows at his sister but there was no stopping her.
‘Without his help I wouldn’t have understood the script, and he knows a lot of stuff we don’t. We’ve hardly been outside Winderling Spires and never on our own.’
Tyaas mouthed the word ‘NO’ to Tallitha, but as usual she wouldn’t take the hint.
‘We can do it by ourselves,’ insisted Tyaas, staring hard at his sister.
‘But can we? Let’s be honest. Without him we would have missed this clue,’ she said, waving the sampler in Tyaas’s face. ‘Granted he isn’t much good at anything that doesn’t involve books, like climbing, sorry Bumps,’ she said turning to their cousin, ‘but he knows too much now to leave him behind,’ she said firmly.
For some reason, Tyaas was uncertain about Benedict. ‘I’m not sure,’ he replied.
‘He must come with us, he can help us. Come on Tyaas, don’t be a stick in the mud,’ said Tallitha sighing.
Tyaas felt put on the spot. Benedict knew their plans and if they didn’t include him he might tell one of the grownups, and Tallitha always had to have her own way.
‘OK, I suppose so, but it will be dangerous and you’ll have to learn to climb and stuff,’ he said reluctantly to Benedict.
But Benedict wanted something in return. ‘I’ll come with you, but on one condition, and it isn’t negotiable. I hate the name Bumps. It’s a nickname you came up with. I want you to call me Benedict from now on.’
Poor Bumps, they hadn’t really meant to upset him. Had they? ‘OK, sure,’ said Tallitha.
Tyaas shrugged his shoulders.
All three took a vow to discover the way to Hellstone Tors and shook hands on it. Whatever danger lay ahead, they were all in it together ‒Tallitha, Tyaas and Benedict. But Tallitha secretly thought he would always be Bumps to her.

After lunch they met in Tallitha’s study before setting off in search of Asenathe’s apartment. Tallitha and Tyaas had copied down what they could remember of the floor plans.

‘It’ll be tricky,’ said Tyaas, ‘the house has so many floors. Some wings have seven floors, some up to ten. The staircases lead all over the place and never end up where you’d expect.’

‘We’ll have to discover the house as we go along. Some of the plans could be out of date anyway. Mrs Armitage and the servants know more about the house than we do, and perhaps some of the abandoned wings aren’t written down at all.’

They set off, passing Snowdroppe’s rooms on the third floor and retraced their steps up the staircase where they had seen Grintley. This led them to the rear of the house. There was a large central staircase and a landing with eight main corridors leading from it: two to the North-West wing; two to the South-West wing and so on.

‘Let’s go down there,’ said Tallitha, pointing down a long purple corridor, ‘from the floor plan it should lead us directly under Asenathe’s rooms.’

They crept down a series of dark corridors before hearing a noise coming from one of the bedrooms. It sounded like the servants chatting to one another.

In the corner of the room by the side of the fireplace was a small wooden staircase.
‘By my reckoning we should be somewhere below Asenathe’s suite,’ said Tallitha making her way to the staircase. ‘Come on, let’s try up here.’
They followed Tallitha up the dusty steps, trying to avoid the cobwebs and the scuttling mice. The staircase kept going up and up, twisting into the darkness way above them.
‘Where are we?’ asked Benedict, sulking. ‘This hasn’t been used for years. Errr, there are so many spiders’ webs,’ he cried, flicking away a long-legged spider that had lodged in his hair.
His clothes were covered in dirt and he was hot and sweaty.
‘Shhh!’ said Tallitha sounding irritated. ‘Have you any better ideas? Let’s just see where it leads and stop complaining.’
But Benedict continued to moan, much to Tallitha’s annoyance.
At the top of the staircase was a metal door that had rusted on its hinges. Tallitha could smell the fresh air and sunlight shone through the cracks.
‘Come on, push really hard,’ said Tyaas.
All three put their combined weight against the door and it finally scraped open. They tumbled out onto a balcony covered in creepers. The smell of honeysuckle filled their nostrils as they clambered towards the edge and took in the view of the rolling countryside.
‘It’s so far down!’ exclaimed Tyaas.
The walls were covered in creepers which cascaded onto the balcony floor and trailed down the house like twisting snakes. Benedict wobbled and covered his eyes.
‘Ohhh, I feel sick,’ he whined.
‘Then come away from the edge and help,’ shouted Tallitha covered in leaf litter as she frantically pulled vegetation from the wall. ‘Look‒here’s another door.’
Hiding behind the thickly tangled creepers was a dirty glass door covered in sticky creeper ooze that had trickled down and encrusted the window in sap. Tallitha leant hard on the door, gave it three hard pushes and it crunched open.
‘It’s so dark in here,’ she said as she stepped into the circular room.
Inside there were boxes and trunks haphazardly piled in heaps.
‘Where are we?’ asked Tyaas picking his way past the trunks and sitting down on a shabby four-poster bed.
‘In the north-eastern corner, under one of the turrets,’ said Tallitha peering into the shadows.
They crept through an archway into a windowless library piled high with bookcases and rolls of dusty yellowing manuscripts. Tallitha hesitated and put her finger to her lips.
‘Sssh, did you hear something?’
She pointed back into the darkness of the circular room, then retraced her steps, stood for a moment and listened. It was ominously still. She felt her skin prickle and sweat began to run down her neck. Whatever was lurking nearby was not going to reveal itself. She shuddered and went back to join the others.
‘I suppose I must have imagined it,’ she said glancing back into the gloom.
Benedict was busily poking about, inspecting the wooden panels and peering behind the bookcases.
‘What are you doing?’ asked Tyaas, coming up behind him.
‘Looking for the secret panel, it’s bound to be in here somewhere. They’re all over the house.’
‘How do you know?’ asked Tallitha, sounding impressed. ‘We’ve never seen any.’
‘I’ve been doing some of my own research,’ he said mysteriously.
Benedict pressed a section of the panelling and it slid to one side to reveal a cramped dusty cavity.
‘Wow! See Tyaas, I told you he was helpful,’ said Tallitha.
Benedict stepped inside the gap and the others followed in single file. Their clothes and hair were soon full of dust and webs.
‘This is grim,’ said Tyaas shining the lantern into the cold, grimy space. ‘It seems to go on a long way.’
They slid along the rough wall feeling the surface for any change in its contours. Then the cavity came to an abrupt end. There was solid wall in front of them.
‘It’s a dead-end. We must have missed an exit further back,’ said Benedict.
‘Wait, look at the wall. Is there anything unusual?’ asked Tallitha.
Benedict inspected the stone wall and shook his head. ‘There’s nothing there.’
‘Wait. Let me look,’ she insisted. Tallitha took the lantern and climbed over her brother.
‘There has to be a way out. We just can’t see it yet. Keep looking, Benedict.’
Tallitha moved the lantern higher and noticed a square stone jutting out at least a head height above her. ‘Lift me up, Benedict!’
As Tallitha touched the stone it moved and other stones began jumping out of the wall, making a series of sudden popping noises. The stones created a stepping-stone effect leading upwards and slanting to the left.
‘It’s a small staircase. Let me go first,’ said Tyaas excitedly.
‘I’m not sure we should go up there,’ said Benedict looking alarmed.
‘We have to find out where it leads,’ said Tallitha. ‘We can’t stop now.’
Tallitha and Tyaas climbed up the stones while Benedict waited at the bottom holding the flickering lantern. They scrambled over the last step and pulled themselves over the edge. There before them was a long wooden ladder.
‘Come on Benedict, it’s easy. Climb up and pass the lantern,’ said Tallitha.
‘But I can’t see,’ he complained pathetically. His face looked forlorn and miserable in the gloom. ‘It’s too hard,’ he said like a spoilt child.
‘Stop moaning. You wanted to come with us,’ said Tyaas, ‘this is only the beginning.’
Benedict eventually reached the top of the ladder but there before him was another narrow staircase.
‘Come on, hurry up Benedict,’ said Tyaas as he disappeared up the stairs.
Benedict’s legs ached and he was filthy. Yet up and up they clambered, way up into the leaden darkness that seemed to go on forever.