Chapter Twenty-Three
Selena found Mrs. Hillman and Dr. Scott in the morning room, finishing their breakfast, with Wells standing at attention at the back. The sun shone in through the casement windows, bathing the room in its brilliant light.
The aromas of bacon and eggs from the warmers on the buffet table were too tempting to resist. Selena quickly filled a plate.
“Good morning,” she said, taking a seat at the table.
Mrs. Hillman and Dr. Scott returned her greeting.
This would be the ideal opportunity to bring them both up to date about what I learned, Selena thought, if only the butler weren’t in the room.
She didn’t want him thinking she suspected Sam and Gladys of anything, lest word might somehow get back to the pair.
“Mrs. Hillman,” Selena said in a congenial tone, after taking a bite of toast, “How are you?”
Mrs. Hillman looked up from her cup of tea. “Well enough. I wish I could say the same for the colonel. And please don’t get started about that toasted cheese sandwich. Dr. Scott has already filled me in and once again, I say the two of you are barking up the wrong tree.”
Selena caught Dr. Scott’s eye, surprised that the doctor had mentioned the sandwich in front of Wells.
His brow furrowed and he shrugged slightly.
It occurred to Selena that the doctor might have broached the subject before Wells had entered the room, and that Mrs. Hillman might have continued to talk about it unfettered.
But then, maybe it didn’t matter? Wells must have been in his late fifties or sixties.
He had worked at Darkmoor Park for ages and could hardly have been Joe Webster.
And the butler was so honest and steadfast, Selena couldn’t imagine that he would have been behind the poisoning.
Dr. Scott gave her a slight nod, as if to say, It’s all right. Go on.
“But, ma’am,” Selena replied, “Dr. Scott detected the presence of arsenic in the sandwich.”
“That is just a theory,” Mrs. Hillman pointed out. “He has no proof.”
“A mouse died,” Selena pointed out. “And the colonel became ill.”
Mrs. Hillman waved an unconcerned hand. “Mice have very short lives. That one may have died a natural death. If it was indeed poisoned, it probably ingested it in the servants’ hall, which is regularly baited, and died in Colonel Blackwood’s room.
As for the colonel, I believe he suffered from indigestion last night.
We have been eating so many rich foods all week, one of us was bound to fall ill. ”
Selena released an exasperated breath. She wanted to bring up the threatening notes, but perhaps this was not the time. That subject, however, was apparently out of the bag as well.
“And if you’re about to bring up that business about the notes you’ve received, don’t bother,” Mrs. Hillman said. “Those notes were nothing but a prank.”
“‘A prank’?” Selena repeated, her mouth agape. “How so?”
“It was just Billy. He’s at that age, you know—thirteen years old, and boys will be boys.
He got up to all sorts of mischief when he was a young lad.
One day, he put pepper in my tea. Another time, he put a mouse inside a cook pot, scared his poor mother out of her wits.
He got a sound whipping for that. But he’s Mrs. Nash’s son,” she added by way of explanation to Dr. Scott, “and he’s a good boy at heart.
He’ll grow out of it soon, I have no doubt. ”
Selena ate her eggs, struggling to think of a convincing argument. “Billy has played tricks on me, too—I can’t count how many times he’s jumped out at me in the corridor to make me scream. But I doubt that he could write threatening notes like those.”
“Billy’s been to school, and I assure you he’s quite capable,” Mrs. Hillman insisted. “Dr. Scott showed me the notes. The handwriting is nothing but a scrawl and the wording is so simplistic.”
“Pardon me, ma’am,” Wells said, stepping forward. “Would you like me to have a word with Billy about this?”
Mrs. Hillman shook her head. “Thank you, Wells, but no. I’ll take care of it.” To Selena and the doctor, she added, “Please, don’t let the machinations of a hall boy bother you.”
“Mrs. Hillman,” Selena said calmly, hoping to appeal to her sense of reason.
“I understand your reticence in these matters and why you don’t wish to believe that anything untoward is going on at Darkmoor Park.
But two people have died. And too many strange things have been happening the past few days. ”
“We cannot simply pretend that all is well,” Dr. Scott affirmed gently.
The light in Mrs. Hillman’s pale-blue eyes dimmed and the corners of her mouth turned downward. She sighed. “Fine. I am not an idiot. This has indeed been a trying and heartbreaking time. But everything you’ve brought up is mere conjecture! You haven’t any proof!”
“Not yet,” Selena admitted. “But we’re working on it.”
“And what is it that you wish of me?” Mrs. Hillman demanded.
“To summon the parish constable? Impossible. We’re still trapped here, and, in any case, Mr. Johnson has gone away.
” She picked up her napkin and toyed with it distractedly.
“I said I’ll talk to Billy, and I will. I’m sure the notes were just a prank.
In the meantime, this is a holiday house party.
Isn’t it bad enough that I have lost two friends?
Must I truly spend the rest of the week worrying that some villain in disguise is here to kill the colonel and wishes the both of you harm?
It sounds like something out of a Gothic novel!
I want to go on as we planned and I don’t want to alarm anyone! ”
“But—” Selena began.
“Not another word on that subject!” Mrs. Hillman slapped her hand on the table emphatically and then glanced out the window with a sigh.
“Oh! How annoying it is to go so long without any news! I can’t properly enjoy breakfast without a newspaper to read.
To think that we’ve been cut off from the world for nearly a week.
Perhaps by tomorrow, the snow will have melted enough that the trains are running, and I can send someone to the village for a newspaper. ”
Dr. Scott’s teacup slipped from his hand into its saucer with a clatter, sloshing tea onto the tablecloth. A flush crept up his neck. “Pardon me. Just call me butterfingers.”
“Happens to me all the time, Doctor,” Mrs. Hillman said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Selena was so annoyed by Mrs. Hillman’s refusal to take their warnings seriously, she required a moment to switch gears to this new topic.
She’d been too preoccupied this morning to give any notice to the weather.
But she saw now that most of the snow was already gone from the trees, and the snow on the ground had melted away considerably since her trek with the doctor the day before.
“Now, Selena, let us talk about today’s activity.” Mrs. Hillman set her napkin on the table. “I want to have dramatic readings tonight after dinner. I sent everyone to the library to find a passage in a novel to read aloud. Perhaps you can go in and see if anyone needs help selecting a book?”
Selena was too frustrated to care. “Yes, ma’am,” she managed, finishing off a last bite of eggs and toast and pushing back her chair.
“Wait, before you go!” Mrs. Hillman added. “There’s something I wanted to tell you.”
Selena struggled for patience. “Yes?”
“It’s for that school activity you asked about. I thought of another place where we might have a dragon,” Mrs. Hillman said.
That grabbed Selena’s attention. “Where?”
“In the catacombs.”
“The catacombs?” Selena had never been there.
“I haven’t been down there in ages,” Mrs. Hillman admitted, “but I have a vague recollection of a dragon motif on one of the tombs. It is not a pleasant place, but it might be an interesting history lesson for the girls.”
A glint appeared in Dr. Scott’s blue eyes. “How does one gain access to the catacombs?”
“The entrance from the old abbey church was bricked over centuries ago when the structure was torn down,” Mrs. Hillman explained, “but there’s a door in the chapel, just behind the altar, to an underground tunnel that leads to the catacombs.
As I heard it, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, monks and priests used the secret passageway to escape and hide in the catacombs. ”
Selena tried not to show her rising excitement.
She recalled that Mr. Clarke, on the afternoon of his arrival, had been seen heading in the direction of the chapel.
Was it possible that he’d found the door leading to the underground burial site and had hidden his cash there?
“Are there a great many tombs in the catacombs?”
Mrs. Hillman nodded. “Oh, yes, they are quite numerous. The coffins of the hoi polloi are stacked here and there on shelves and in open chambers, but the burial crypts were for the more important people in the family.” As Sam and George entered the room and joined Wells by the back wall, Mrs. Hillman turned to the butler.
“Wells, you may clear now. And please send the coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and biscuits to the library, will you?”
“Right away, madam.” Wells motioned to the footmen to begin clearing up.
Selena and Dr. Scott rose and excused themselves. As they headed down the corridor, Dr. Scott said under his breath, “I had brought all that up in confidence with Mrs. Hillman, but then Wells walked in.”
“I figured,” Selena whispered back. “I wouldn’t worry about it. Wells is very discreet.” With a sigh, she added, “Mrs. Hillman can be the most frustrating woman on Earth, though. For her to think those notes were a prank.”
“She has very determined views,” he agreed.
A shiver of apprehension raced through her. “Are the notes a warning to stop searching for the hidden money? Or to stay out of Joe or Maisie Webster’s way?”
“Perhaps both.”