Medium Dead: An Alexandra Gladstone Mystery (14 page)

“I don’t understand Lucas’s fascination with the graveyard,” Nancy said just as the back door to the kitchen opened and Rob and Artie entered. They were ushered in by a distant rumble of thunder and a whooshing wind. They’d come for their supper that Nancy and Alexandra had invited them to eat in the kitchen.

“Yes, it’s quite odd that he’s always going there,” Alexandra said. “Hello, Rob, Artie,” she added when she saw the boys.

“Lucas talks to ghosts,” Artie said as he scrambled into a chair and sat, swinging his legs that didn’t reach the floor.

Rob cuffed him lightly on his head. “Mind yer manners, boy, and wait until yer invited to sit.”

Nancy was about to set two bowls of oxtail stew out for the boys, but she stopped before she got to the table, still holding a bowl in each hand. “What did you just say, Artie?”

“Say ‘Excuse me rudeness,’ ” Rob prompted.

“Excuse me rudeness,” Artie said.

Nancy set the bowls down and ignored the apology. “Did you say Lucas talks to ghosts?”

Her scrutiny and Rob’s scolding had made Artie uncertain as well as uncomfortable. He glanced at Rob, as if he’d find a hint of how he should reply, but Rob refused to look at him.

“I…I only said it ’cause ’tis true,” Artie said. “I wouldn’t lie, Nance, honest I wouldn’t.”

Nancy made no reply except to shake her head, but Alexandra put a comforting hand on Artie’s thin shoulder and asked, “What makes you think Lucas can speak to ghosts?”

“I heared ’im, that’s how I know. Heared ’im plain as day.” Artie gave a nervous glance in Rob’s direction, but Rob responded with nothing more than a blank stare.

“I see,” Alexandra said. “And did the ghost say anything in response?”

“It was something that made Lucas laugh.” Artie was still nervous and was squirming in his chair.

Alexandra persisted in her questioning. “What did the ghost say that made him laugh?”

“I…doesn’t know fer certain what it all meant,” Artie said, growing more uncomfortable by the minute.

Rob spoke up for the first time. “Jist so’s you knows, I heared it, too. The spirit voice, I mean. Talking to Lucas.”

“I see,” Alexandra said with a well-practiced calm. “Did it sound something like the spirit voice we heard last night when we were hiding at the top of the stairs?”

“Oh, no!” Artie said. At the same time, Rob snorted with laughter.

“So you think ghosts are funny, do you?” Nancy said.

“Ghosts ain’t funny, but we knows that weren’t no ghost what was talkin’ last night,” Artie said.

“What makes you so sure?” Nancy asked before Alexandra could say a word.

Rob came out with another snort. “ ’Twas a trick. I can show how they done it if you wants.”

Nancy’s eyes had grown wide with renewed interest. “Of course we wants, er, want.”

“Can I have me supper first?” Artie asked.

“Of course,” Alexandra said before Nancy could interfere. “And make sure you eat slowly so you don’t end up with a stomachache.” She ignored the annoyed glance Nancy shot her way. “Bring out two more bowls, Nancy, and we’ll have our supper with the boys,” she added.

When everyone’s meal was on the table, Nancy sat down next to Alexandra and across from the two boys. “So it was all a trick?” she asked.

“Mmm,” Rob said, slurping the stew. He added something else that was impossible to understand as he chewed a chunk of potato together with a morsel of meat.

“Don’t try to speak with your mouth full, please,” Alexandra said.

“Tell me, what was the trick?” Nancy asked, just as Rob took another big bite. He glanced at Alexandra, chewing earnestly, but said nothing.

“ ’Twas the way she got in that was the trick,” Artie said.

“How was that?” Nancy asked. “And are you sure it was female?”

“Female, all right,” Rob said, swallowing. “Didn’t ye hear the voice?”

By this time, Artie had picked up his bowl and was drinking from it. Alexandra cautioned him to put the bowl down and eat in a proper manner. Rob cuffed Artie’s head again, then got his own reprimand from Alexandra. Nancy, in the meantime, was growing more and more impatient. She’d hardly touched her stew at all.

“If Alvina found a way to creep into the house, who’s to say other ghosts and spirits can’t get in?” Nancy said.

Her remark caused Rob to spew out the stew he had in his mouth, spreading it across the table. That brought another reprimand from Alexandra and an impatient grumble from Nancy as she stood and retrieved a dish towel from the cupboard to clean up the mess.

“I told ye, that weren’t no ghost what got in. It was a real person what got in through the scullery,” Rob said, wiping his mouth.

“The scullery?” Alexandra said. “The same way we got in, you mean? No, I don’t think so. We would have seen her. Or him, as the case may be.”

“Went in ahead of us, way I seed it,” Rob said, “but didn’t use them outside stairs like we done.”

“The only other entrance is through the kitchen, and anyway, no one has been in through there in years, not since my father had plumbing for water installed in the house. I think the door is even boarded closed, isn’t it, Nancy?”

“ ’Tis indeed,” Nancy said with a nod. “My own mother and I nailed the board on there. The old doctor asked her to do it, and I helped her pound the nails myself.”

“A bit of bread and jam to finish the meal would do me good,” Artie said.

“Nailed ’em yerself, did ye?” Rob said with a laugh. “Well, that explains a lot.”

“What do you mean?” Nancy asked, while at the same time Alexandra gave Rob a questioning look.

“What I mean is ye got yer good points, Nance, old girl, but carpentry ain’t one of ’em. Them boards musta been loose.”

“They’re still up there, aren’t they? One board crossed over another, sealing the room off,” Nancy said with a defiant sniff.

Rob got up and walked to the corner of the kitchen where the old scullery door was partially hidden by a recently purchased contraption for washing clothes and wringing them dry between two rollers turned by hand. He walked around the washer and pulled the crossed boards from the scullery door with one gentle tug.

“The nails you used was too short,” Rob said. He placed the crossed boards on the door again and secured them with a hard push. “They come off easy, and they’s just as easy to stick up again.”

“Is they any jam?” Artie asked.

“Someone would have had to come into the kitchen to take down those boards,” Alexandra said. “Why wouldn’t they have used the outside stairs the way we did?”

“Why, indeed,” Nancy said. “And, I might add, it would be impossible to get into the kitchen, since I’m always careful to see that the entrance is locked.”

“Dr. Gladstone told us about ye sneaking up the stairs through the secret passage. Didn’t ye ever climb up them stairs that leads from the scullery to the dining room? It ain’t just stairs to the landing, you know.”

“What does that have to do with this?” Nancy asked.

Rob laughed. “Well, the truth is, Nance, it wouldn’t matter how bad ye are at carpentry, whoever that was tryin’ to be a spirit didn’t need no door. She coulda just climbed in that little window into the basement.”

“The window opens into the scullery,” Alexandra said, “and we did used to climb in that way. Remember, Nancy?”

“Oh, I remember well enough,” Nancy said, “but what I should like to know is how you knew about it, Rob? I don’t like the idea of you climbing into the house through windows, and I’m quite certain Dr. Gladstone doesn’t approve, either.”

Rob shrugged. “Never said I climbed in. Just said I knows ’tis there. Not that I’m sure yer ghost used the window, mind ye, but it coulda. I’m just pointing out that the house ain’t as safe as ye might think ’tis.”

Alexandra remembered again that her mother had suggested the passageway from the dining room to the scullery and kitchen so food could be brought into the room without the maid having to use the main stairway. After her mother’s death, her father had taken to eating at the table in the drawing room or in the kitchen, a practice that Alexandra continued. That old stairway, like the one on the outside of the house, had fallen into disuse when the entrance to the scullery from the new kitchen was boarded up. The combination dining room and family gathering place was never boarded up, but her father kept the door closed and seldom, if ever, entered. It reminded him too much of his wife and of happier days when she was still alive. Alexandra had thought no one knew about the stairs except her and Nancy. It appeared that Rob and Artie had known about them, so perhaps someone else—a would-be ghost—had been able to find them as well.

“For a bit of bread and jam, I’ll tell you more about Lucas and the spirits,” Artie said.

Nancy was busy scowling at Rob. “You couldn’t have known about the stairs if you hadn’t been nosing around where you shouldn’t be. What kind of example are you setting for young Artie?”

“Artie’s lucky to have me, ’e is. And I sets a good example. Watched me put them boards back in place when we finds ’em on the floor this morning when we brought the milk in before ye was even outta bed. Heard me say we needs to nail ’em up ourselves. Ain’t that so, Artie?”

Artie was too preoccupied with scanning the cupboard for a jar of jam to answer, but he hurried back to his chair at the table when a gust of wind tossed something against the kitchen door, making a crashing sound. A few drops of rain splattered the window.

“Well, I never connected them boards to the spirit at first,” Rob continued. “Just thought they fell down by theirselves, but then I got to thinking if they fell down, they wouldn’t have propped theirselves against that laundry contraption all careful like. No, ’twas a person what put the boards there, and she musta been in too much of a hurry to put ’em back proper when she left. Now, don’t look at me that way, Nance. A ghost wouldn’t need to take down no boards, ’cause it wouldn’t need a door. One thing I needs you to understand, Nance, is that the spirit that come in the house weren’t no real spirit.”

Alexandra’s face was creased with a troubled frown. “Are you sure about this, Rob?”

“I’m thinkin’ spirits don’t leave footprints,” Rob said, “and they was footprints aplenty when I brung the milk. That old scullery has a dirt floor, you know. Can’t step in there without gettin’ yer shoes dirty.”

“I saw no footprints when I came down to start the fire to cook breakfast.” Nancy sounded somewhat defensive.

Rob gave her a self-satisfied grin. “ ’Course you didn’t. That’s ’cause I cleaned ’em up, knowing you’d have a fit if ye seen ’em, ye would.”

Alexandra felt a knot in her stomach, thinking that someone had been in her house uninvited. In the next moment, it occurred to her that perhaps the individual had been invited after all.

She turned to Nancy. “Did you have anything to do with this?”

“What? You think I would be so careless as to leave footprints?”

“No, that wouldn’t be like you, but I can well imagine you inviting someone to play the part of a spirit.”

“You would think that of me?” Nancy sounded indignant. “If I am persuaded to have a séance, it will be a
real
séance. I wouldn’t think of staging it. What good is that? After all ’twas for investigative purposes I did it. I wanted to find out if spirits could really be summoned. Now I’m convinced they can’t.”

“Investigative, was it?” Alexandra said, remembering Nicholas’s words.

“That’s right.”

“And as you now know, the investigation revealed that spirits aren’t real, at least not the kind who walk and talk.” Alexandra turned to Rob. “It is commendable that you were thinking of Nancy when you cleaned up the footprints, but I can’t help wishing you’d left them. I should have liked to have a look at them.”

Rob shrugged again. “ ’Twas nothing special about ’em. Lady prints. High-born lady, I would say, judging by the fact that they was most likely high-priced boots that made ’em. And, beggin’ yer pardon, Dr. Gladstone, but they wasn’t yer own prints or Nancy’s. I been here long enough that I knows yer footprints when I sees ’em. Never seen either of ye wear them fancy lady boots.”

Nancy sniffed but said nothing.

“You must tell us anything else you may know,” Alexandra said.

“Well,” Rob said, sounding a little reluctant. “They’s one more thing I has to say if you’ll allow it.”

“Of course,” Alexandra said.

“Beggin’ your pardon, Doctor, but ye’s wrong when ye says spirits ain’t real. Now, I knows the one what came here weren’t real, but I heared Lucas talkin’ to a real one with me own ears.”

“So you said,” Nancy added. “That’s what started all of this talk. Can you explain that ridiculous statement?”

“Best way to explain is to show ye if ye ain’t too scared. Be my guess Lucas is out there now talkin’ to spirits. We could go out there and listen if ye’s a mind to and got the guts to do it.”

Nancy’s reply surprised Alexandra. “I’ll get my cloak. This is something I want to hear. Will you come with us, Miss Alex?”

“Perhaps we should wait until the storm—”

“Don’t leave me here alone,” Artie cried.

“Ye can come with us,” Rob said. “Just try to keep up.”

“I’ll need a bit of bread and jam to give me the vigor I needs for that,” Artie said.

Thunder rolled across the ocean, moving closer to the village of Newton-upon-Sea as the small group left the Gladstone house, walking toward the graveyard. Artie, whose legs were deemed too short to keep up, was riding astride Lucy, at Alexandra’s insistence. He rode in contented silence, chewing his bread and jam. Alexandra had urged the group to wait until morning to go to the graveyard, but the boys insisted that the spirits came out only at night. In the end, she’d given in. It wouldn’t hurt to find out what Lucas was really up to, she’d told herself. Now she was beginning to regret it.

“I’m thinking now ’twas not a good idea to start this short little journey,” Nancy said, echoing Alexandra’s thoughts as a few cold raindrops splattered the group. She raised her umbrella, but the wind was bullying them by now, pushing their bodies and toying with the umbrella.

“Don’t be a mouse, Nance. A little cold rain won’t hurt you.” Rob thrust his chest out in a gesture as blustery as the wind.

“ ’Tis not the rain that bothers me so much as the wind, and there’s bound to be lightning soon enough. ’Twill worsen, you’ll see,” Nancy said. “Should have listened to Dr. Gladstone and stayed home.”

Alexandra remained silent under her own umbrella. When she saw Artie shivering, she stopped Lucy long enough to climb on the mare’s back with the boy so she could shelter him with her umbrella.

By the time they reached the graveyard, neither the wind nor the rain were any worse, but the rumble of thunder had increased, and lighting gave sporadic illumination to the scattered tombstones.

“Young Lucas is not as foolish as we are,” Alexandra said, searching around her. “I don’t think he came out in this weather.”

“Why, ’tis hardly raining at all,” Rob said. “Not enough to keep the ijit away, I’d wager. The wind don’t bother the likes of ’im no more than it does me. We both growed up here, where the wind from the sea never tires of its keening. Many’s the night me and Artie spent with no shelter but for a few boards propped against a wall. You’re used to riding out in the storm, too, ain’t ye, Doc? What with people gettin’ sick in all weather?”

“Being used to it and learning to like it are two different things, Rob.”

Nancy chuckled as if to signal her agreement, but she ended the laugh with a sharp intake of breath just as the sky grumbled and spit a stream of fire. “Look at that!”

“You see a spirit?” Rob asked.

“Lucas?” Alexandra asked.

“I…I’m not sure. ’Twas there,” Nancy said, pointing into the darkness. “I saw it when the lightning flashed.”

“I’ll see if I can find it,” Rob said, walking into the void.

Artie grabbed at the folds of Alexandra’s skirt and clung to her just as he had earlier. “I ain’t going,” he said.

Another flash of lightning illuminated the graveyard, and Nancy gasped again. “Alvina’s tombstone!” she said.

Alexandra ignored her as she called out to Rob, telling him to be careful, lest he stumble over a tombstone in the darkness. Just as she spoke yet another angry streak lit up the night. In that brief moment of illumination, she saw something as well, a young boy—
Lucas,
she thought. But there was something else, a dark figure standing next to him. The figure was difficult to distinguish, as if it were not really there, and it appeared to be reaching for Lucas.

“Dear God in heaven!” Nancy cried. “ ’Twas Lucas, and he was with a ghost!”

“I think it was Lucas, all right, but I’m not certain about the other figure,” Alexandra said. She tried to move toward the two forms, but Artie was clutching her skirts so tightly it made movement difficult. The rain, along with a shrieking wind, had increased. Rob, by now, had completely disappeared into the darkness. She was about to call out to him to come back to their little group when an eerie, mournful screech came from somewhere near one of the graves and hung in the air, dying slowly.

“Not certain? You say you’re not certain?” Nancy spoke with a hoarse whisper. “That sound is coming from something inhuman. And that tombstone! I don’t like what I saw.”

“Calm yourself, Nancy,” Alexandra said as she took a step toward the sound, while Artie still clung to her. “Who’s out there?” she called.

A dark mass rushed toward her, and she stumbled backward. At the same time Nancy screamed.

“It’s the devil,” Artie whispered. The dark mass lunged closer until it materialized into the shape of Rob. He was breathing hard and shivering. A flash of lightning revealed water dripping from his hair, his face, his coat.

“Sumpin’s out there,” he said. “Sumpin’ like I ain’t never seen before. I could hear it whispering evil things.”

“What sort of evil things?” Alexandra asked, as Nancy moved closer to share her umbrella with Rob, although it was impossible to imagine how it could help, since he was already as wet as any human could be.

“Things about death and murder and dragging people into hell.” Rob’s voice was unsteady, as if he might start crying any moment.

“Could you make out who it was?” Alexandra asked.

“Weren’t no who, ’twas it. Most unhuman thing I ever seen, and I seen it, I did, with me own eyes.”

It was going to be difficult to make any sense of what had occurred with Rob being as frightened as he was, Alexandra realized, but she tried again.

“I thought I saw Lucas with someone. Did you see him as well?”

“I seen ’im, all right. Just for a second when the lightning flashed. Seen ’im talking to that ghost. You musta seen ’im talkin’ to it, too.”

“But there doesn’t seem to be anyone out there now.” Alexandra had to shout to be heard over the howl of the wind. “Did you see where they went?”

“I seen ’em disappear into the air. That’s where they went. Just disappeared. That thing picked Lucas up in its arms and disappeared him just like it disappeared itself.” Rob was shivering so hard he could hardly speak.

“We’re going back to the house,” Alexandra said. “I don’t know why I was so foolish not to stop this nonsense. Rob, you ride Lucy with Artie and take my umbrella. I’ll share Nancy’s.”

They progressed in slow, slogging motion toward home, heads down against the increasing deluge and the wild, whipping motion of the wind. Nancy walked beside Alexandra, scolding Rob.

“Stay under the umbrella, young man. Do you want to catch your death?”

“If that’s to be, then I’ve already caught it,” Rob said. “I’m already swimmin’ in me duds.” He ended his statement with a sneeze.

“See! See what I mean,” Nancy scolded.

“Don’t
you
see?” Rob said. “I’ve caught me death already. It’s best I just keep the umbrella over Artie. ’E’s got his whole life ahead of ’im.”

Alexandra accepted Nancy’s scolding and Rob’s drama as at least adding a bit of normalcy to their miserable journey. Nevertheless, she was worried about how the damp and cold might affect all of them. She glanced up to look toward the house to try to judge how much longer they would be subjected to the cold wind and rain. It was impossible to see the house through the gloom, but there was something in front of them—another dark mass moving toward them, only this time the corpus was larger and moving faster.

“Sumpin’ ahead of us!” The shout came from Rob, who had seen the same thing.

“ ’Tis a ghost!” Artie said in a voice so low it could barely be heard above the sound of the storm.

“ ’Tis no ghost, ’tis a man!” Rob said.

“A man on horseback!” Nancy added.

“Who’s there?” came a voice from out of the storm.

Alexandra recognized the voice immediately. “Nicholas! Is that you?”

They heard a command, muffled by the storm, heard the sound of hoofbeats grow louder, saw man and horse advance closer.

“Alexandra! Nancy! What…” Nicholas rode up in front of them.

“We’re trying to get home out of the storm,” Alexandra said. “What are you doing out?”

“Looking for you,” Nicholas said, reaching for Alexandra, ready to hoist her up with him onto his horse.

“No, take Nancy,” she said. “And why were you looking for me?

“I was worried about you, for one thing.” Nicholas got off the horse to help Nancy up, then remounted and pulled Alexandra up in front of him.

Alexandra started to protest. “Three of us are too heavy for your horse to—”

“It’s only a short distance.” Nicholas pulled her up into the saddle and urged the animal forward. When they arrived at the stable, Nicholas helped Rob remove the wet saddles and blankets in order to put the horses away before the two of them joined the others in the house.

Alexandra was busy drying Artie with a towel while Nancy encouraged the coal fire to burn brighter as Rob and Nicholas entered the house. Zack had positioned himself flat on his belly between Alexandra and Nicholas, with his eyes on Nicholas.

“I’m a bit confused,” Nicholas said. “Rob tells me you were in the graveyard so you could hear some young boy he calls ijit talk to ghosts.”

“I’ll explain later, but for now, we’re all going to change into dry clothes. I have some of my father’s clothes upstairs you can wear.”

“I saw a young chap running away when I was searching for you. Was that the so-called ijit?”

“Lucas?” Alexandra said. “Was it Lucas?”

“I have no idea who Lucas might be,” Nicholas said. “All I know is that it was a chap of sixteen or so with shaggy hair and a kind of lumbering gait, running in the rain as fast as he could.”

“That was Lucas,” Alexandra said. “Was he alone?”

“As far as I could tell. But he kept looking over his shoulder as if he thought someone might be following him. I saw him go into that little house at the edge of the village. You know the one, I’m sure. They tell me women go there to buy lace.”

“His mother’s house. Thank God he got away.”

“Away from what?” Nicholas asked.

“The ghost,” Nancy said.

“Excuse me?” Nicholas sounded more confused than ever.

“I told you, I’ll explain later,” Alexandra said. “For now, you’ve got to change out of those wet clothes.”

A few minutes later, Nicholas was in an old dressing gown that had belonged to the first Dr. Gladstone and that Nancy claimed made him look elegant. Rob wore a shirt and trousers several sizes too big for him, secured at the waist with a scarf tied in front and with pant legs rolled high. Artie looked like a monk in a black shirt that came down to his ankles.

“I say, we look as if we belong in a circus, except for you two in your fresh frocks.” Nicholas clutched his borrowed dressing gown in the front in an effort to keep it closed. “But those towels on your heads do look a bit like Arabian turbans,” he added. He backed up closer to the fire. “Now tell me the story.”

“I’ll fetch tea whilst the doctor tells you all about it,” Nancy said and disappeared through a doorway.

Alexandra took a deep breath and told Nicholas the story of how they had decided on the unwise jaunt because Rob and Artie had said Lucas talked to ghosts. “We wanted to witness it ourselves,” she said, “since the boys insisted the ghosts out there are real, unlike the one we saw during the séance.”

“That one weren’t real fer sure, me lord,” Rob said, and proceeded to tell him how they had found the entrance to the scullery had been violated, along with signs of someone having been on the inner staircase.

“I ain’t going back to the graveyard,” Artie said, speaking for the first time since Nicholas’s arrival. “Just wish I hadn’t brought home that fancy ’rooch Lucas gave me. That’s what started it all.”

Nicholas, who had been listening with amused interest, raised his eyebrows. “ ’Rooch?” he said.

“He means
brooch,
” Alexandra said, grateful to see that Nancy had entered with a pot of steaming tea.

Nicholas’s eyes widened. “Good God! Do you still have it?”

“Of course,” Alexandra said, puzzling at the look on his face. “I put it there in that box on the mantel until I could determine who might be the owner.”

Nicholas gasped when Alexandra produced the jewelry. “I’ve seen it before. MaMa said I would recognize it.” He took it from Alexandra and examined it closely.

“It belongs to Her Ladyship?” Alexandra asked.

“It does!” Nicholas said as the angry wind blew a puff of smoke from the chimney into the parlor. It looked like a dark specter swirling in front of them.

“So Her Ladyship was in the graveyard just as we thought,” Nancy said. “Could she have been the…the one who…?”

“Nancy!” Alexandra’s voice was sharp. “A lot of people visit the graveyard. You’ve no right to attach any meaning to that.”

“My mother was there, all right,” Nicholas said. “I followed her there just recently. And she told me she went there looking for this.” Diamonds in the brooch were effervescent in the light of the fire as he raised it for all to see. “But she wasn’t the one who lost it in the graveyard. She’d loaned it to someone.”

“Loaned it? To whom?” Alexandra asked just as a clap of thunder answered the howl of the wind.

Nicholas seemed reluctant to say more. “I’m not sure,” he said finally as his gaze slid toward Artie and Rob. Alexandra interpreted the nuance.

“Well, it doesn’t matter, does it?” she said. “You can take the brooch back to your mother when the storm abates.” She turned to Nancy. “Take the boys to the kitchen for hot milk, then show them to the bedroom at the end of the hall. I’ll not send them out to try to make it to their room above the stables in this weather.”

Nancy opened her mouth to protest. She knew full well that Alexandra was sending the boys away so Nicholas could speak freely, and it was clear that she didn’t want to miss anything that was said. She closed her mouth without speaking, however, except to urge the boys toward the stairs and to answer a question from Artie by telling him he’d had quite enough jam.

When they were all three out of sight, Alexandra turned to Nicholas. “Your mother loaned it to Her Majesty, didn’t she? Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?” She removed the now soaked towel from her head and shook her hair out.

Nicholas nodded and pulled her toward the fire. “You must dry your hair, else you’ll catch pneumonia.”

“One doesn’t get pneumonia from wet hair,” Alexandra said, “and don’t try to change the subject. Why did Her Majesty go to the graveyard?”