Castle of Secrets (29 page)

‘But you found
your way there with Simon. Don’t bother to deny it. I saw his carriage leaving
Hull
with you inside. At the
time I was more interested in finding my wife and child. But since following
the false scent laid by my dear brother-in-law, then returning to the Vances to
punish them for telling me lies, only to find they had fled in the meantime. I
decided to visit the castle and find out what I want to know.’

‘How did you
get in?’

‘Simon hasn’t
changed his habits. The kitchen door was unlocked, and the servants’ costume
ball was about to begin. A mask, a wig, and a cavalier’s clothes let me pass
unnoticed. You’ve been elusive. I thought I would find you downstairs. But it
seems you have lost your taste for dancing. You are waiting for Simon, I
suppose. And I – I am waiting for an answer to my question. Where are my wife
and child?’

‘You will
never find them,’ she said.

He took off
his mask and his face was hard.

‘Believe me, I
will.’ He levelled his pistol. ‘Now where are they?’

‘You would do
better to leave them alone. They do not want you,’ she returned.

‘They do not
have a choice in the matter. They are my property. They belong to me.’

To her
surprise, she heard Simon’s voice cut through the air, and she felt a wave of
relief as she realized that he had arrived.

‘My
housekeeper does not know where they are. I sent her home so that she would not
be involved. I have put Anna and the boy beyond your reach, somewhere you will
never find them. Now drop the pistol.’

Morton turned
and levelled the pistol at Simon instead.

‘Not until you
tell me where they are.’

‘That I will
never do,’ said Simon, walking forward.

Morton cocked
the pistol.

‘What good
will it do to shoot me?’ asked Simon. ‘If you kill me, you will never find out
what you want to know.’

‘I will never
find out if you live. I know you, Simon. You’d rather die than see your
precious sister resume her duties as my wife, so I might as well kill you,’
said Morton.

‘Then do it,’
said Simon.

‘
No
!’
cried
Helena
.

Morton turned
the pistol back to her, but he spoke to Simon.

‘You might
play with your life, but I’ll wager you won’t play with anyone else’s.’

‘You’re
bluffing,’ said Simon. ‘You have only one shot in that pistol. If you shoot
her, I will be on you, and I will make sure you pay for your crime.’

‘You’ve
gambled with me often enough to know that I don’t bluff,’ said Morton. ‘Besides
—’ He pulled a second pistol from his cloak ‘ — I have two pistols. One for
her, and one for you. So tell me, Simon, are you willing to let her die? If you
are, say nothing. If not, then tell me where Anna is. I’ll let her go, and you
will have saved your housekeeper’s life. You might save Anna’s life as well, if
you can reach her before me. No one has to die here tonight.’

‘Don’t listen
to him,’ said
Helena
.

Simon’s eyes
turned to her, and she saw something in them she had not expected: she saw
fear.

‘I cannot let
him kill you,’ he said.

There came the
sound of another pistol cocking, and all three of them stopped in surprise.
Helena
turned her head in the
direction of the sound and saw that, standing behind Morton and almost
invisible in the shadows, was Miss Parkins. And Miss Parkins was holding a
pistol to his head.

‘You will
never have my lady’s child,’ she said, and her voice was as dead as a
sepulchre.

Morton
recovered his composure.

‘If you pull
the trigger, you will kill me, but not before I kill her,’ he said.

‘Do you think
I care about her? A servant?’ said Miss Parkins. ‘I care about one thing, and
one thing alone: the oath I swore to my lady. I promised her I would care for
her children. It was I who nursed Miss Anna as she lay feverishly in the
castle, brought low by your whippings, and when I saw what you had done to her,
I swore that one day I would have the whipping of you.’

She stood
there like an avenging demon, and Morton faltered.
Helena
saw it, and without thinking she
knocked the pistol out of his raised hand. He lifted his other hand, but Simon
was upon him and wresting the second pistol from him, sending it hurtling to
the floor.

‘Curse you!’
said Morton, as Simon held him fast.

‘There will be
no bloodshed here,’ said Simon to Miss Parkins. ‘Give me your weapon.’

She did not
respond.

‘Anna is safe.
Now give me the pistol.’

Slowly Miss
Parkins handed it to him, and he put it in his pocket.

Helena
breathed again. She was
about to pick up the two dropped pistols when a voice came from the shadows:
‘Let him go.’

It was Maria.

Morton
wrenched himself free of Simon and ran over to her. He was about to take the
pistol she was holding out to him when there was a loud
crack!
and
Helena
turned to see that Miss
Parkins was wielding a whip. The maid’s eyes were flaming and her expression
was one of judgement. With one fluid movement, she unfurled the whip and sent
it darting out like a demonic tongue. It wrapped itself around Maria’s wrist
and Maria, shocked, jerked her hand in an attempt to break free. But the jerking
motion caused the pistol to go off and everyone froze with shock.

And then Morton’s
hands rose to his chest as a look of surprise spread across his face. When he
removed his hands, they were covered in blood.

‘No!’ cried
Maria, as he began to fall.

She caught
him, and his weight dragged her to her knees.

Helena
looked on in horror as
Morton’s blood seeped across the flagstones.

‘Don’t leave
me!’ said Maria.

‘Never thought
. . . you . . . would be the one to kill me,’ he said to her in surprise.

Then his eyes
closed, and Maria began to cry.

Helena
stood rooted to the spot.  It had all
happened so quickly that she was still having difficulty in taking it in. It
was only a few minutes since she had been sitting in the library, looking
forward to Simons’ return, and now here she was in the hall, with Morton dead
at her feet. Simon was rooted, too. But Miss Parkins was fully in command of
herself.

She had the whip all
ready, thought
Helena
, recalling Miss Parkins’s words:
“When I saw what you had done to her, I swore that one day I would have the
whipping of you.” She must have seen Morton arrive, and come to the hall
prepared to carry out her threat.

‘Something must be done,’
said Miss Parkins.

Simon shook himself, as
though clearing his head.

‘She must be charged with
murder,’ said Miss Parkins, looking balefully at Maria.

Maria did not even look
up, but went on weeping.

'No,’ said Simon, taking
the whip from Miss Parkins and coiling it round his hand. ‘I will not have
Anna’s name tainted with scandal, and so the true circumstances of the evening
must never come out. Anna has a chance now to come home and to live in
England
, where she can raise George in peace
and safety, and where, when he is older, he can claim his inheritance. I will
not have his future ruined by this night’s work.'

'What do you mean to do?'
asked
Helena
, looking at him.

‘I don’t know. I have not
decided yet. Say that Morton's death was an accident, perhaps.’

'She will never let your
sister live in peace,' said Miss Parkins, her eyes still on Maria.

Helena
looked at Maria and saw that she had
become quieter. Her sobbing had all but ceased, and now she sat quietly on the
floor, looking at the man in her arms.

'I think she will,' said
Helena
. 'She has too much to lose if she
tells the truth.'

Simon nodded.

'Maria,' he said.

Maria turned red-rimmed
eyes on him.

'If you give me your word
you will never return to Stormcrow Castle and that you will never harm any
member of my family, then I will see to it that you go free.'

She nodded dully.

‘You give me your word?’

‘Yes,’ she said.

'Very well,' said Simon.
He thought. 'Then we will say this: that you were my house guest; that you
expressed an interest in learning to shoot; that Morton said he would teach
you; that your aim went wide, and that you shot him by mistake. Do you
understand?'

'I do.'

'Good. Then I will send
Eldridge for the undertaker. I will send for Sir Hugh Greer, too. I do not want
anyone to suspect that anything is amiss.' He turned to Miss Parkins. 'I need
you to get Maria out of the hall —’

‘You can put her in the
housekeeper’s room,’ said
Helena
.

Simon agreed. ‘And
Morton’s body, too. We don’t want any of the servants coming upstairs and
stumbling across it.’

Miss Parkins inclined her
head.

He turned to
Helena
, and saying, 'Wait for me in the
library. I would like to speak to you when I return,' he set off for the
stables.

Helena
walked across the hall, her body
feeling heavy. A reaction was starting to set in, and she felt cold. She went
into the library, where the fire cast a mellow glow over the furniture and the
clock ticked contentedly on the mantelpiece. To her surprise, she saw that only
a quarter of an hour had passed since she had been sitting there last, waiting
for Simon’s return.

She went over to the fire
and knelt down in front of it, feeling glad of its warmth. She thought over
everything that had happened, until the jumble of images at last began to
resolve themselves into an orderly pattern, and she felt her lethargy leave
her.

It was some time before
Simon joined her. As he entered the library she could see there were lines of
strain on his face. She stood up, lifting her hand to soothe them away, but
then dropped it again, for she knew she must not touch him.

‘I have sent for Sir
Hugh,’ he said.

‘How is Maria?’ she
asked.

‘Still quiet.’

‘Do you trust her?’ asked
Helena
.

‘No. I think it possible
that, once she recovers from Morton’s death, she will want revenge, so I
propose to have her watched, to make sure she can do no more harm.’

‘What will happen now?’
asked
Helena
.

'We will hold the funeral
as soon as possible. Morton has no family, so I propose to bury him here. He is
my brother-in-law, and it will not seem too strange that I should do so. The
funeral will be a quiet affair. I doubt if many people will come, for my
neighbours did not know him, and I do not intend to noise it abroad: the sooner
it is dealt with, the better.'

'I understand.'

There came the sound of
voices from the hall, and the sound of footsteps: Sir Hugh Greer had arrived.

‘I must leave you,’ said
Simon, stepping back.

The door was thrown open
and Sir Hugh strode into the room, blowing into his hands.

‘Now then, Pargeter,
what’s all this? There’s been an accident, I understand.’

‘Yes.’

'It’s a good thing your
man found me on the road or he wouldn’t have got hold of me until tomorrow. I’m
due at the Bancrofts’ in an hour, so you’ll have to be quick. What’s happened?'

'Unfortunately, my
brother-in-law has been shot. He was showing one of my guests, a lady, how to
fire a pistol. She  had never held one before, and although she did her best to
follow his instructions, her aim went wide.'

‘Dead?’ asked Sir Hugh
succinctly.

‘Dead.’

‘Never put a gun into the
hands of a woman,’ said Sir Hugh, shaking his head. ‘They mean well, bless ’em,
but it’s asking for trouble.’

As the two men talked,
Helena
resumed her role as the housekeeper
and quietly withdrew.

It was a cold, dreary day when Morton
was buried. As Simon had foreseen, few people attended the funeral, and none of
them accompanied him back to the castle afterwards, although he had been
scrupulous about asking them. There had been a little gossip, but it had soon
been overtaken as a subject of interest by news of Mrs Willis’s expectation of
a happy event.

‘We all
thought her husband was too old,’ said Mrs Beal to
Helena
at breakfast a few days later, ‘but
there, she’ll be delighted, poor thing. Always wanted children, she did. “It
must be awful to be alone in the world,” she said to me once. She was thinking
of it even then. Two years married and not a sign of a child. But now . . .
yes, it’s a happy event.’