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AFTER I PUT ON MY LOVELY green velvet pelisse and the green kid gloves to match, I draped Tilda’s long woolen coat over my arm and a muffler to wind around her neck, and we set out again. Belowstairs, I found Mildred, the young girl who’d shown Tilda and me up to our bedchamber the day we arrived, and suggested that she also don a warm wrap before joining James and me in our search of the huge house.
Milly seemed pleased to have something better to do than sit below stairs and watch the bell board in case her ladyship or a guest rang for one of the housemaids to come up.
“Since her ladyship put all you ladies in the same bedchamber,” Milly said, “we ain’t had much o’ anythin’ to do. ‘Course Lady Westcott’s been a-wantin’ this and that but mostly we just try to stay warm, same as ever’one else in the house.”
“I hope you have had enough to eat,” I said, handing off Tilda’s wraps for her to carry over one arm for me.
The girl shrugged. “Ain’t never enough to go ‘round but we gets at least one bowl of gruel ever’ day.” Her head wagged. “Sure is a mystery where all that food in the larder got off to, don’t you agree, James?” She glanced up at our escort, the footman called James. He was an especially tall fellow with reddish-brown hair and an easy grin.
Shrugging, he said, “Not a great deal more has gone missing since Robert and Joseph took to guardin’ the storehouse nights.”
“A pan of Cook’s quick bread went missin’ this very mornin’!” Milly declared. “One of the maids had only jes’ took it outta’ the oven and set it on a chair to cool, then when she come back, it was gone!”
My ears perked up. Had Tilda somehow made her way to the kitchen and helped herself to a pan of freshly baked bread? Perhaps she was hiding somewhere within the servants’ quarters. I asked Milly what she thought of that notion.
“All the rooms where we maids sleeps is full, miss. Her ladyship put on extra help especially for the house party. Wouldn’t be no place where your maid Tilly could hide. Without being seen, that is.”
I said no more but I still rather hoped it was Tilda who had made off with the quick bread this morning.
We three soon entered the tower staircase off the main floor of the house, and began to carefully climb upward, but instead of exiting at the landing on the second floor leading to the suites occupied by the house guests, or even the third floor where most of the rooms were being used by Lord and Lady Montford, James said he was taking me all the way up to the top of the tower, where he said there was a series of small rooms that were currently not being used.
“Most only has a cot and a stool. Back when this house was a fortress, soldiers and guards was stationed atop the tower to protect the estate from warring marauders. There’s also a coupla’ smaller towers on the backside of the house. We can check there, too, if’n ye’ like.”
To go all the way to the top of the house, front and back, sounded like a good plan to me despite that fact that the higher we climbed, the colder the air became. I could only imagine how chilly the rooms in the little-used towers would be and sincerely hoped Tilda had not sought refuge there.
“Sure am glad I put on my cloak,” Milly said, pulling both sides of the long, somewhat tattered, garment closer about her slim body. She cast a sideways glance at my pretty fur-lined pelisse. “That be the finest thing I ever seen, miss. I wager it come from a fancy shop up in London-town.”
“Thank you, Milly. Yes, I did acquire my pelisse in London.”
“That spotted fur is right pretty. Looks to be real warm, too.”
“Indeed, it is warm.” I was being especially careful to lift my long skirts with each step I took on the narrow stone staircase in the tower. I did not wish to trip over, or drag, the white ermine fur circling the bottom of my lovely pelisse upon these dust-laden stairs.
I believe Milly also noticed the thick layer of dust at our feet for she said, “If Lady Montford ever come up this high, I’ll wager she’d have us up here a-washin’ these steps. Never seen the like.” She waved a hand before her nose. “Even smells dusty up here.” Proving her point a second or so later, she sneezed. And, then sneezed again.
James laughed. “Make no mistake, ladies, other side of the house be ever-bit as dusty as it is here. More so, come to that.”
“Nonetheless, I would, indeed, like to tour the opposite side of the house, James,” I stated firmly. “Tilda could be hiding anywhere. She is quite a resourceful young lady. And, fearless,” I added.
“’Spose it was Tilda what took Cook’s quick bread this mornin’?”
“I couldn’t say.” I shrugged. “But, I . . . rather hope she did.”
Milly grinned. “If I knew where she was a-hidin’ I’d be a-takin’ her somethin’ to eat meself, I would.”
“That is very kind of you, Milly.”
“Do you think she . . . done it, miss? I mean, killed that old man like they say. With the fire tool?”
“No!” My head jerked ‘round. “I do not believe she did it; at least . . . not of a purpose. It could very well have been an . . . accident . . . or, I-I suppose, someone else could have killed him. Tilda would never do so!”
“I heard one of his lordship’s pistols went missing,” put in James. “Gun case door was standing wide open in the study. Pistol was gone.”
Not wishing to level an accusation at anyone, I did not reply to James’s remark, but I hoped that the theft did not mean that the killer was now also armed with a pistol.
“Perhaps Mr. Torbitt had enemies whom we know nothing of,” I said instead, “or, perhaps . . .” I very nearly said ‘Perhaps Lord Montford killed him,’ but caught myself before the words fell from my lips. It had occurred to me that not a one of us knew exactly where he had spent yesterday afternoon. Perhaps he had nurtured a vendetta against the old man. Lady Montford chose her guests for specific reasons; perhaps he had reasons of his own for including one or another of the houseguests.
Milly’s head shook. “Two folks getting’ kilt here in less than a sen’night seems mighty suspicious to me. What think you, James?”
Without turning around, or even glancing over a shoulder, the footman said, “Ain’t none of my bi’ness. So long as no one comes at me with a knife, or a pistol, then I’ll jes’ keep my nose to meself. Carry on, same as I always do.”
“Well,” said I, “I am in hopes that we find Tilda before too very long. She has done nothing wrong and has no reason to be frightened to the point of hiding away. She belongs with the rest of us. Warm before the fire in the drawing room with plenty of food in her belly.”
James did glance over his shoulder. “So, are you sayin’ his nibs is convinced she done in that old man?”
I sniffed piously. “I daresay that does appear to be his lordship’s belief. However, he is wrong and I intend to prove it.”
Moments later, we reached the top-most step of the dusty stone staircase. By now, we were all three swatting at and pulling down feathery cobwebs crisscrossing our path and becoming caught in our hair. Fortunately James, in the lead, was doing most of the swatting and pulling. Once we all three stood clustered upon the tiny landing at the top, it also fell to him to push open the heavy, planked wooden door that, I thought, must have been there for several hundred years and was now preventing us from stepping onto the narrow passageway that would eventually take us all the way around the topmost level beyond the tower. Once our guide shoved the heavy barricade aside, he stood back to allow me to step into the constricted passage ahead of him. Beyond us in the dim light, I spotted a series of low doorways leading inward. Before moving forward, however, I glanced down at the floor at my feet, and paused.
“I do not believe she is up here,” I declared.
“Why not?” Milly asked. “If I was to hide somewhere, this is where I would . . .”
I pointed to the dust-laden flagstone floor ahead of me. “There are no footprints in the dust.” I turned to James. “Advance a few steps away from us, if you please.”
He did so, then paused to look back at Milly and me.
“You see,” I said, a finger indicating the distinct outline of prints his boots had made upon the dust-covered floor. “Shoe prints. And none leading further on.” I turned back. “Come. Let us not waste another minute here. I wish to go to the opposite side of the house while there’s still a bit of light. If she is hiding indoors, I am convinced that is where we will find her. Not up here where it is freezing cold and filthy dirty.”
We all began to troupe back down, our heads bent as we stepped carefully in order to avoid tripping over an uneven flagstone and thereby bumping into one another and perhaps, causing one or another of us to tumble to our deaths. The tower was illuminated only by the occasional shaft of light that managed to seep through the cloudy windowpanes at our side. Windows that, I could not help noticing, were sadly in want of washing.
Were we in London on a damp cloudy day such as this, the gaslights on every street corner would already be lit even though it was not yet teatime. Here, not a one of us was carrying a lit taper. The narrow shafts of light coming in through the tall narrow windows we passed were scarcely bright enough to allow us to see anything beyond that which was directly before our noses. I tried not to think what my hands might be touching on the walls at my side and was glad I had had the foresight to pull on my gloves before we set out. Although, I did not wish to soil them, either.
All I really wanted at this juncture, if I could not actually locate Tilda, is to at least find a clue that would tell me she was still somewhere within the huge house, alive and well, and unharmed. Unfortunately, it was beginning to appear that today that would not be the case.
Indeed, our search for Tilda that first morning following Mr. Torbitt’s death was to no avail. We found nothing on the topmost floor of the main tower and I soon became convinced that my frightened little maid was also not hiding anywhere within the tiny rooms located on either side of the two towers at the rear of the house, which were narrower and far more cramped than the main overlook, and no doubt, also, far colder.
When I, and my two escorts, James and Milly, reached the opening to the second tower, we quickly determined by the absence of footprints on even the lower steps of the steep stairwells that apparently no one had so much as climbed to the top of either structure in a good many years. Consequently, we decided to waste no time in tramping upward ourselves.
Instead, we decided to search the large circular buildings that comprised the four corners of the huge house. However, after reaching the first rotunda, which in itself amounted to a time-consuming journey lasting well beyond the hour when a bite of luncheon might have been served, we found it and all three of the other circular chambers not only locked, but two of the locks were frozen in place, meaning it was not likely anyone was hiding within them; for clearly the locks could not be replaced if someone had managed to enter and were hiding within.
Those chambers beneath the eaves above the main portion of the house, meaning those rooms situated above the drawing room, dining hall, the library, and two other enclosures used for I-knew-not-what remained still to be searched. As were all the chambers lining the three floors of the opposite wing of the house, which included that area of the castle from which I had observed the clergyman exit and disappear from view on the first morning after we arrived here. All told, a daunting task, indeed.
Searching the entire house had already begun to feel overwhelming, even to an adventurous soul like me, and perhaps also Milly. I gathered James was close on to admitting defeat when he began to make remarks such as . . . “Perhaps she fled the house altogether and is hiding in the barn, or the woods, or became lost amongst the trees, and has already froze to death. A young girl who don’t know her way around is likely to jes’ run in circles, then lay down and die,” he declared, in case his dire predictions had not yet registered with us.
“Hush!” I exclaimed irritably, although what I really wanted to do was hit him. “Tilda is not dead!”
Glancing towards Milly, I noticed her hazel eyes roll skyward. She gave me a speaking look and when she noted my lips purse, she boldly took the lead hurrying down a long corridor that, I assumed, would eventually take us to the opposite wing of the house. Presently, we were traversing a narrow passageway on the backside of the main floor and had just passed up a stairwell, that, judging from the slight aroma of whatever had been served up for luncheon, I assumed descended to the kitchen and servants’ quarters below. Beyond it were several closed doors.
Suddenly I cried, “Why are we not searching these chambers?”
Milly shrugged. “We can’t open ‘em. We dinna’ bring the latch keys.”
“Are all of these rooms locked?” I paused to clasp the handle to one. To everyone’s surprise, the hinges creaked as the door freely swung open. I deemed this an excellent choice for a hiding place, it being near the kitchens, and said so. However, the rancid odour that greeted us inside the small, dank chamber instantly changed everyone’s mind.
“Oh! It smells horrid in here!” cried Milly, hastily retreating back out into the corridor.
Pinching my nostrils together, I followed suit.
James didn’t even step inside the room. “I can smell it from here,” he said.
“Why does it smell so dreadful in there?” I asked, waving a hand before my nose.
James laughed. “Pipes from the kitchen and the scullery leads straight up here where the foul air is funneled out-of-doors. Appears them pipes ain’t been cleaned in a while. Probably plugged up with grease and what-not. Odour has no place to go, so it jes’ swirls around in there ‘til someone notices the stench and goes in to open a window.” Grinning, he moved further away from the foul-smelling room. “I guess you ladies don’t like the scent of rotting vegetable peelin’s and chicken hide.”
“Why don’t you go in now and open a window, James? We can close it when we come back this way,” I said. When he made no move to do as I asked, I added, a bit more sternly this time, “James, do go inside and fling open a window. It will only take a moment.”
When he instead stood his ground and puffed out his chest, I feared a gold button on his waistcoat might pop off. “Opening them windows ain’t one o’ my duties, ma’am.”
Milly spoke up. “Cook usually sends up a scullery maid, or even a stable boy. They don’t mind the smell.”
My head shaking, I turned to go, a finger motioning for Milly to follow me. I was not at all certain James would deign to come with us now, or ever. Or, that I even wanted him to.
In what seemed like a good long while, we three finally did reach the opposite wing of the huge house. The air here was so cold I expected to see ice cycles hanging from the beams overhead. Instead most of the chambers we entered, apart from being cold, merely contained the odd piece of furniture, some overturned; I spotted a chair with a missing leg, other pieces were draped with Holland cloths that I am certain were once crisp and white but were now yellowed and torn, some so tattered they’d slipped to the floor with dust and debris covering them. The air in all the closed up chambers smelled damp and musty. The floor about the furniture was so thick with dirt, rodent droppings and dead insects that I did not wish to set foot inside a single room.
Plus, I saw no need to, since once again, it appeared nothing had been disturbed, or cleaned, in at least a quarter century. I spotted no shoe prints, no pieces of burnt coal lying upon, or anywhere near, the hearth, no crumbs from discarded bits of food. But, of course, if bits of food had been scattered about, it would likely find its way to a rodent’s nest the second the crumb hit the floor.
I was quite certain Tilda would not be hiding here, for I knew she would not wish to sit upon a single piece of soiled furniture, or consume a morsel of food within these filthy rooms. I wondered how Lady Montford could rest easy knowing that this portion of her enormous house was so dreadfully unkempt. But, then, perhaps she had never ventured beyond the elegant side of the house where she and her titled husband spent their days and nights; consequently was unaware of the deplorable condition of the remainder of her home.
Heading down a long corridor on this cold, snowy afternoon, the un-lit and un-used portion of the house we were now walking through quickly grew dark, plus we all three soon began to remark on how fatigued and hungry we felt. At length, I saw nothing for it but to give up for the day, and return to the occupied wing of the house.
“You want we should set out again on the morrow, miss?” Milly asked before she and James took their leave of me when we all entered the dimly-lit hallway on the opposite side of the rambling stone building.
Nodding, I said, “I shall ring for you to come up, Milly. Dress warmly. I do hope tomorrow’s search will prove more successful than today’s has been. Will you return Tilda’s coat to our bedchamber, please?”
“Yes, miss.” Milly nodded. “I’ll also ask below stairs if any of the other maids has seen anything that don’t seem right; somethin’ out o’ place or such like.”
“Thank you, that will be most helpful, Milly. I would like you to plan on joining us tomorrow, as well, James, if you would, please.”
The tall young man dipped his head. “Very well, miss.”
The pair hurried on past the drawing room as I stepped inside, realizing too late that I was still clad in my velvet pelisse and kid gloves, which to the others would appear that I had been taking a leisurely and rather lengthy (as I had been gone all day) stroll out-of-doors. I wished now I had removed my outer garments and also handed them off to Milly to return to our suite.
At once I noted that every one of the houseguests were clustered about the bright red and gold flames upon the hearth at the top of the room. Even as I was mentally preparing to answer the queries of one or another of them regarding my whereabouts, I noted, as I drew nearer the group, that they were every one aiming hard, even loathsome, looks my way. What had ruffled everyone’s feathers today, I wondered. Had another deadly event taken place in my absence? And, if so, what?
