Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
Trevarron House was ominously quiet that night.
Aunt Bill had given me a map of the second floor with a room marked out for me to hide in. I knew the layout of the house, but the usage of the rooms had changed since I’d been here last.
I stood nervously inside the empty bedroom, waiting.
We had spent the rest of the day at Nancy’s cottage, readying ourselves for our mission, and now we had sneaked back into the house through an open window off the scullery, downstairs. Aunt Bill had suggested it, and William knew the house better than anyone.
Violet and Hermione now occupied the suite of rooms that used to belong to William’s sister, Edith.
I knew that there was a bedroom and a sitting room, and then another bedroom that led off what had been Edith’s room.
In 1755, Edith had used it as a dressing room.
Not that she had much occasion for spending hours getting dressed in fancy outfits, because Edith was a lonely bookworm who loved horse riding and poetry.
Aunt Bill had marked that room as now being occupied by Lady Hermione, with Violet in the connecting bedroom. The sitting room was used by both of them, and Aunt Bill had marked her own small bedroom along the corridor.
I stood in the small, unused room two doors away from Violet’s quarters, listening.
I’d snuck up to the second floor via the back stairs, and then lingered behind the door in the stairwell while I waited for Aunt Bill to make her move. I watched through the crack in the door. As she’d thought, a footman stood on guard outside Violet’s room.
William had wanted to come with me up to the second floor, but Aunt Bill had insisted that he would be more use waiting for us in the tunnel.
He’d baulked at that, but Aunt Bill was insistent that it would be better for her and me to get the ladies down to the scullery quietly and without fuss, and for William to take care of us in the tunnel.
I knew now that Aunt Bill was more than capable of taking care of herself and us, and she’d politely been implying that she suspected having William with us would have resulted in a noisy fight.
I had to agree. Our aim was to get Hermione and Violet out of the house, not let William indulge his desire for violence and revenge.
We had to channel his considerable powers into helping us in the best way possible, and Aunt Bill was right, we’d definitely need him in the tunnels.
I had no idea what state they were in, and if there had been cave-ins, we were going to need someone strong who could move earth and stone with his bare hands if need be.
I knew enough about the workings of manor houses to know that footmen did not generally stand on sentry duty outside ladies – and children’s – bedrooms. That was not normal.
If anything, a lady might have a lady’s maid stay in her rooms with her, and a child might have a governess deliver her lessons.
But, other than that, there was no need to be guarded.
Unless, of course, someone was so controlling that they wanted to make sure their possessions stayed exactly where they had left them. And that someone definitely didn’t want them to escape.
Sure enough, at nine pm, Aunt Bill opened her door and stuck her head out.
‘James, dear. Could you ’elp? I’ve ’ad a terrible accident!’ she called out towards the footman.
‘What is it?’ The man turned to her, but his tone was sulky. He made no move towards Aunt Bill.
‘Oh, dear, come quickly!’ Aunt Bill sounded panicky. A burning smell wafted down the hall. ‘I’ve knocked my reading lamp over an’ the fire’s spreadin’!’
The footman swore under his breath and ran down to where Aunt Bill stood, looking very convincingly worried, in her doorway. Smoke was now billowing out into the hall.
‘Oh, bless you, my love,’ she crooned as she stepped into the hallway. I saw that she held a poker in her right hand, concealed in her skirts. ‘Quickly, now!’
‘I’ll get help,’ I heard James say as he stepped past her.
‘We’ll see about that,’ Aunt Bill said, as she brought the poker quickly up and then down, hard, on the back of his head.
I could see enough from where I stood to know that he fell forward, and Aunt Bill stepped neatly over his inert body for a moment, and then reappeared in the hallway, pulling her room door closed behind her and locking it.
‘Oh my…’ I strode down the corridor to her, hardly believing what I’d just seen. ‘What did you just do?’
‘He’ll be fine,’ Aunt Bill said, grimly. ‘Come on. We have to do this quickly now.’
‘Did you set your room on fire?’ I asked, wondering who this version of my aunt was.
‘No. Just a small part o’ the curtain. I put it out. I ’ad a bowl of water ready,’ she said, giving me a wicked smile. ‘I want to save Violet and Hermione. I don’t need to burn the ’ouse down.’
‘Oh.’ I didn’t know how to respond, though the mention of burning made me remember that, at some point in history, Trevarron House had suffered a huge fire. You could see it in the remains of the house, in my time. The stone was blackened in parts, the windows were gone, whole walls were missing.
Still, I didn’t have time to think about that now.
Aunt Bill opened the door to Violet and Lady Hermione’s rooms and I followed her inside.
Both Lady Hermione and Violet were dressed and ready in coats and bonnets, and they stood by two small bags. Both of them looked anxious and drawn.
‘Milady, Miss Violet, this is my niece, Tegan,’ Aunt Bill said, kindly. ‘She’s going to ’elp us get away. It’s time now. Come.’
Lady Hermione looked doubtfully at both of us.
‘I don’t know if I can,’ she said, in a small, timid voice. ‘If Albert finds us… he will be so angry. I don’t know what he will do.’ Her voice broke and she held her daughter to her.
‘What’s ’ee going to do if you stay, Milady?
’ Aunt Bill said, gently. ‘It’s not going to get any better, is it?
I’ve just conked James over the ’ead with a fireplace poker.
At the very least it looks fishy, an’ I’ll get the sack for that.
So this is me ’elpin you. Now or never.’ She took Hermione’s hand.
‘I know it’s scary, my love. I’m scared, too.
But I’m more scared o’ what ’ee’s going to do to your poor girl. ’
‘My aunt’s right,’ I said. ‘Come with us. We have to try. We’re going to get into a secret tunnel and take it all the way to a cottage in St Nantes, and there’s a carriage waiting for you to take you to your family in Leeds. Albert is away in London. This is the best chance we have.’
Hermione looked doubtful, but Violet took her mother’s hand and turned her little face up to her.
‘Please, Mama. I don’t want Papa to hurt me,’ she said, in a pure, sweet voice. ‘And I don’t want you to cry anymore. Please. Let us go,’ she said, softly.
My heart broke for this brave little girl. Aunt Bill closed her eyes for a second; I could see that she too was struggling with the same feeling.
‘Yes. You’re right, my darling.’ Lady Hermione took a deep breath. ‘Let’s go.’