118 
Mysteries Solved and Puzzles Remaining
Walking home as late afternoon began to give way to evening, Jocelyn, Amanda, and Catharine were all quiet, pondering the many things Maggie had shared with them and their implications. It was clear a change was coming to Heathersleigh. Jocelyn and Amanda were especially conscious of it, for the heartbreak of the accumulated years of their separation could not help in some ways but make the grief of these recent events keenest in their hearts.
“All Grandma Maggie’s talk about the past,” said Catharine as they approached the Hall from across the meadow, interrupting Jocelyn’s and Amanda’s thoughts, “makes me curious about the Hall’s history all of a sudden too. Let’s go walk through the secret passage again.”
“Where does it go?” said Amanda.
“Just you wait—I’ll take you through all sorts of twisting and turning narrow passages.”
“I’ve been curious about the keys Geoffrey gave me to see where they might work. But let’s hurry, before it gets too dark and spooky.”
They walked inside and began climbing the stairs.
“Are you coming, Mother?” asked Catharine.
“Of course. You don’t think I would miss out on such an adventure, do you?”
They made their way up, passing through the family portrait gallery. They paused before Lord Henry’s portrait. Strange sensations came over them as they stared up at the subtle expression of mystery and recalled Maggie’s story.
“A scary-looking old gent, if you ask me,” said Catharine. “I’m not sure I altogether like the idea of being related to him!”
“Although the family resemblance is clear,” remarked Jocelyn. “I think I can faintly see both your father and brother in his face.”
“And look at those two, Amanda,” said Catharine, moving a few steps farther down the corridor, “—see . . . the Bible is there in that one painting and gone in this.”
Ten minutes later, with candles in hand, for there was no electricity in the secret passage, Catharine pulled back the swiveling bookcase in the library, and the three entered the dark chamber behind it.
“Do you remember when George discovered this?” asked Jocelyn. “Your father and I were sitting in the library reading, when all of a sudden one of the bookcases began to move, and out of the wall popped George. I don’t know who was more incredulous, him or us!”
“I didn’t pay much attention,” replied Amanda. “I wasn’t paying much attention to anything back then. I was never in here once.”
“Well, then this will be even more of an adventure for you.”
“I can’t believe all this has been hidden behind these walls and I never knew it.”
“I hope we don’t stumble over any old bones from Lord Henry’s stew.”
“Catharine!”
“He might have cut up some of the local children, you know.”
“That’s not how the old rhyme went.”
“Maybe not, Mother, but remember what Maggie said about the servant lad that was never seen again.”
“That’s not exactly what she said, Catharine,” interjected Amanda. “You’re exaggerating to scare us!”
“What better place to hide the bodies,” Catharine persisted. “I’ll bet that’s why he had all these passages built. One of these days we are going to discover a secret door into a crypt full of bones.”
“Catharine!” Jocelyn exclaimed a second time. “You are dreadful! How did you get so ghoulish?”
“Probably from George. He always teased me about ghosts in here,” laughed Catharine. “I wish he was with us now. I miss him.”
The reminder quieted the trio. They walked awhile in silence, with fearless Catharine leading the way.
“One of these days, Amanda, I must show you the chest George found up in the garret,” Catharine said at length. “It’s full of all sorts of old things about the Hall.”
“What kind of things?”
“Records, journals, ledgers, architectural drawings, everything just thrown into a huge chest. I doubt if it had been looked at in fifty years until George opened it.”
They arrived at what to all appearances was a dead end.
“Where does it go from here?” asked Amanda. “Did you take a wrong turn?”
Without saying anything further, Catharine reached out, turned a latch from somewhere not readily visible, then pulled and swung the end of the wall toward her. Amanda watched in astonishment as Catharine led them through the opening, and was even more shocked a moment later to find herself following her sister into the middle of the old tower at the northeast corner of Heathersleigh Hall.
“I can’t believe it!” she exclaimed. “That is amazing. I had no idea we were going in this direction. And George discovered this?”
“He got into the labyrinth somewhere from the garret and first found his way to the library. Then eventually, after considerable more snooping and exploring, he found the handle I just used, turned it, and there he was in the tower.”
“But it only opens from the inside,” now added Jocelyn. “Look—”
She closed the door behind them.
“—once it’s closed, it just looks like part of the wall.”
“It’s exactly as I remember it,” said Amanda, looking around at the tower room. “I would never have known there was a door there.”
“Except . . .” added Catharine, stepping toward it and sliding back a small panel in the door they had just come through that at first glance appeared immovable, “—for this.”
“A lock!” Amanda exclaimed. “A hidden lock.”
“Without any sign of a key,” said her mother.
From her pocket Amanda immediately retrieved the keys Geoffrey had given her.
“Then let’s try this,” she said, and inserted the larger of the two into it.
“A perfect fit,” she exclaimed. “I thought it might be for something in here!” She turned the key and again the door they had just closed swung open into the darkened passageway behind it.
“Ever since George discovered it,” said Jocelyn, “we’ve only been able to open the door from the other side with the latch. I always wondered what happened to the key.”
“Another mystery solved,” said Catharine.
“Is everything about the old place suddenly coming to light?” added her mother.
“Not quite everything, Mother,” replied Catharine. “Like where were these keys the day Geoffrey took them? And why hadn’t we known about them before?”
As they talked Amanda was poking around the tower.
“I think the answer to that mystery is right here,” she said, removing a loose stone in the adjacent wall. It revealed a small cavity with an empty iron key hook inside it. “As I told you before, the whole thing is my fault. I’m afraid I locked him in here from the main stairway over there. He was probably alone for three or four minutes. He must have found this loose stone and then seen the keys. And now that I recall the day, it seems I might have heard him fiddling about with something that might have been keys.”
“Where were you?”
“Just outside the door there, on the landing of the stairs.”
“I suppose that’s it, then,” said Jocelyn.
“But what could this small key be for?” said Amanda. “I don’t see anything else in here.”
“The tower’s only got the two locks,” said Catharine. “George and I explored every inch trying to find a key to the hidden door. There’s nothing besides the main door where you say you locked Geoffrey in—and its key is still there outside in the lock as always—and the hidden door you just opened with the new key.”
“Hmm . . . that is odd,” said Jocelyn. “And it’s such a small key.”
Amanda set the ring on the iron hook.
“Well,” Catharine said, “I suppose we ought to save some mysteries about the place for our children and the next generation.”
They descended a few minutes later by the main tower stairs, leaving the two keys in what was apparently their original resting place. Catharine’s comment had caused Amanda to grow quiet. Thoughts of marriage and children and future generations were confusing and painful right now.
With her younger sister’s thoughts drawn into similar channels, and not realizing how painful her words would be, Catharine now blurted out as they went, “Amanda, let me get this straight . . . we haven’t really talked about it other than a little the other evening, but I’m still confused. Now . . . you’re actually married, right?”
Amanda nodded, though the reminder was like a knife plunging into her heart.
“How will that affect what Maggie told us? The future, I mean . . . if you have, you know . . . a husband?”
“I don’t know, Catharine,” said Amanda, shaking her head. “I’m afraid that is more than I can think about now.”
“But then where . . .”
Gradually Catharine began to realize the awkwardness of her inquiry.
“What will you do?” she added after a moment.
“I don’t know, Catharine . . . I just don’t know.”
It was silent as they reached the ground floor.
“What about you?” Amanda asked, trying to change the subject. “Are you really going to university?”
“I don’t know,” Catharine replied. “Like you, I’ll have to wait and see. Everything is different now. But I think I would like to.”
Indeed, more than any of them could realize, everything in their lives was bound to change now.