Secret Reflection (12 page)

The cross-town excursion meant she’d missed dinner and had only arrived back in time to say goodnight to Nancy and Tom.

‘Just give me minute,’ she muttered and marched through to the dressing room to change out of her uncomfortable clothes.

A short while later, dressed in her softest denims and a loose burgundy sweater, she came back and sat cross-legged on the bed opposite the mirror.

‘So, Madam—’

Kelly held up her hand for him to stop speaking. ‘I thought you were going to call me Kelly …’

He swept his hand before her in a flourish and bowed, ‘My apologies, Kelly. You must forgive more than a century of ingrained manners. While I have observed the changes in people over time it is very difficult to break with how one is reared. I mean only the utmost courtesy.’

With a sigh, she acquiesced. ‘You’re right, I’m sorry too.’

He smiled, and without warning a sudden warmth stole up her spine to heat her cheeks.

Despite the smile, his eyes remained filled with sadness and for a second Kelly truly wanted to believe in him, wanted to prove that he really was a lonely man who’d been trapped in a time warp. She wanted to save him.

‘Did you enjoy your outing?’ he asked, reminding her of her mission.

‘It was just business for the most part,’ she replied as she reached for the envelope that contained the photos of the sneaky cameras and listening devices. When she glanced at him again she could see the curiosity in his expression but for some reason he held himself back from asking her what they were. While she had no plans to tell him about the theatrical agents, she was interested to know his reaction to her information on the spy equipment.

She hopped off the bed and approached the mirror. ‘Ever seen one of these before?’ She held up a picture of an infra-red camera, supposedly the size of a pea.

John appeared to lean closer while he studied the photograph, a perplexed frown knitting his brow. ‘Alas, Kelly, I am flummoxed,’ he said after a moment’s hesitation. ‘Can you give me some clue as to its purpose?’

‘It’s a camera, one that can take pictures in the dark.’

The frown deepened. ‘You mentioned cameras in a previous discourse, however you failed to explain their purpose when our conversation diverted in another direction. If you would please detail the device’s purpose, I would gladly help in any way I can.’

Hmmm
, Kelly thought, she had hoped to catch him unawares but he was obviously wise to her ploy.

‘Okay,’ she sighed in resignation, ‘a camera uses light to burn an image on paper,’ she turned and grabbed a magazine from the table, ‘like this.’ She flipped several pages to show him photos of women, a church, and a car.

‘Are you saying this small device does it. Not a painter?’

‘Oh no, painters are few and far between in this day and age.’

He nodded his head sagely and as she watched a glimmer of recognition formed in his expressive eyes. ‘Ah – this makes a Daguerreotype? They were the rage in Europe when I was a youth … although the image was much darker than yours, and of course there was no colour, only shades of black and grey. I had a portrait done with my mother and father on their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. As I recall, the equipment needed to make such a picture almost filled a room. And there was a Mr Frith who made pictures …

‘The changes I have missed,’ he lamented.

Kelly drew her brows together wondering if this was another example of his skill as an actor. She honestly couldn’t detect any sign of duplicity, but even if he had been born over one hundred and fifty years ago, surely he would know about hand-held cameras? What else didn’t he know about? She stared at him for a long minute acknowledging that she’d have to do lots more research about his supposed ‘time’ if she were to trip him up on details.

She went back to the computer and tapped in a memo:
Make a timeline of inventions from 1840 onwards – might be a way to expose trickery
.

‘I am aware that I am placing undue pressure, but will it be possible for you to begin your search for the journal this evening? Your hosts are undoubtedly sleeping, it would appear the perfect time to commence, would it not?’

Again he smiled, and in that instant Kelly knew she was in deep trouble because every time he smiled at her she forgot her own doubts and wanted desperately to believe everything he said. The persistent tingle low in her belly didn’t help matters at all.

As a diversion, she went to her briefcase and extracted the copies of the house plans she’d borrowed from the builder before leaving this morning. While they were not the original blueprints, they did show much of the basic architectural design and each successive page highlighted changes and additions.

She laid the A3 sheets on the floor before the mirror. ‘All right, where do you suggest we start?’

John crouched within the mirror as if a window was all that stood between them. Tilting his head, first one way then the other, he gestured to the middle blueprint. ‘When the last, short-lived search was conducted twenty years ago, only the downstairs rooms in
the east wing were inspected, therefore, unless items of furniture have been moved without my knowledge, we do not need to make a further search there.’

‘We?’ Kelly thrust her hands on her hips and gazed at him quizzically. ‘I thought you were stuck in there and that was why you were getting me to look.’

‘Certainly you will look, however, if you procure my mother’s hand mirror from her suite, I can accompany you, in a manner of speaking.’

‘You can?’ It was the craziest thing she’d ever heard! But then again, the hand mirror might help her prove the hoax. If he could also appear in that one at will, she could easily have it tested.

‘I see that you do not believe me. Perhaps you might retrieve the mirror and I will demonstrate?’ He gestured to the blueprint again. ‘If you follow the central hall to the left, it is in the next-to-last room in the east wing. It is marked as the Dowager’s Suite on the map.’

Her hand rose protectively to her throat. It was late, and she hadn’t ventured beyond this wing of the massive manor house. She didn’t even know if the power was connected to that part of the place; workmen’s barriers blocked that side of the staircase.

‘Maybe it would be safer to wait till morning,’ she murmured, thinking out loud.

‘Are you afraid, Kelly? I can assure you that no ghost will accost you in my mother’s rooms.’

She gave an involuntary little laugh.
Afraid? Her? Preposterous!

‘I don’t fear ghosts – I don’t believe in them.’ She pointedly glared at him. ‘I was thinking more in terms of the builder’s equipment, lack of light and rickety stairs.’

‘Ah,’ he nodded. ‘I expect you will find candles in the bureau on the landing. They will light your way. The workmen appear to have finished much of the refurbishment. They were painting and papering today so it should be safe to venture beyond the barricade.’

‘And what if Nancy or Tom catch me?’ she said, trying a different tack.

John smiled broadly. ‘What? Are you some errant miss to be punished for sneaking out of your dormitory after curfew?’

Kelly pursed her lips.
He’s right
. There was no reason why Nancy or Tom would bar her from looking at the rest of the house. In fact, they’d given her carte blanche to do so.

She took a deep breath and stared at John for a long minute before checking the floor plan once again. ‘Okay – the second last room on the left? No sweat. I’ll be back soon.’

With more courage than she really felt, Kelly stepped out into the hall and made her way down the short flight of stairs to the bureau. Just as John had said, one shelf yielded a bundle of fat, white candles and a box of extra-long matches. She lit a match and touched the flame to the wick of a candle, then stuck a second candle in her back pocket along with the box of matches. She’d seen too many gothic movies not to take insurance when venturing about in a strange, supposedly haunted, manor house. Despite what John said she knew he couldn’t protect her from any ghosts or ghouls that might accost her, especially if he remained locked inside a mirror!

Peering about, she felt quite ridiculous. All the cliché scenarios from her late night movie habit suddenly loomed as not quite so far fetched. A tingle of fear danced up her spine.

She expected, as she edged past the barrier into the closed-off wing, that she would have to fight cobwebs and keep her distance from doorways and paintings where hidden dangers might lurk. Instead, however, the overpowering smell of turpentine and fresh wallpapering glue made her feel nauseous as she moved down the long hall. The canvas drop sheets that covered the floor softened the sound of her footfalls as she crept along. Every few yards she would come across an empty room, freshly painted with a large brass number fitted to the centre of the half-opened door.

At the end of the hall the last three doors were closed and as she turned the handle on the left-hand, next-to-last door, a small spurt of fear raced up her spine. Fittingly, the door squeaked long and loud as she swung it wide. She lifted the candle higher and as the room slowly came into focus, she could have sworn she’d stepped back in time. Quickly, she lit the second candle and held it high, and the room was flooded with a pale, muted light.

The room, the furniture and decorations, all looked as if they had been lovingly restored and placed to resemble a museum display. There were even roses in the large oriental vase that sat upon the small writing desk by the window. The drapes, the gilt edged bedspread, even the tassels that held back the bed curtains appeared, in the candlelight, to be authentic.

‘Nancy must have spent a fortune in here,’ she said out loud.

‘Actually, these are mostly my mother’s belongings.’

‘Crap!’ Kelly yelped, almost jumping out of her skin. A bolt of heat surged through her.

John’s voice came from the direction of the dressing table across the room, where a large china pitcher and bowl sat beside a tray that held an ivory brush and comb set. Not without some trepidation did Kelly approach the table. There, within a gold and ivory hand mirror some four inches by six, the image of John Tarrant looked back at her, blocking her own reflection.

For a second she had a vague flashback of a television show from her childhood, where the host used a magic mirror, similar in size and shape, to ‘see’ all the children of her audience. Once the host even said her name.

‘How … ?’ she began, somehow unable to comprehend even though he had told her it was so.

‘As I have said previously, if I knew the how, I might have gained the means to break the spell that holds me. Alas, I do not. It is my fondest hope that you shall, God willing, find the answer to that very question.’

With a slightly shaky hand she reached over to pick up the mirror, a small sigh drifting past her lips when all she felt was the cool metal and ivory of the handle. It was very heavy.
Perhaps it contained more than just a thick pane of glass and a layer of highly polished silver?

‘Thank you,’ he said once she had lifted the mirror upright. ‘I rarely use this; whilst the cherubs on the ceiling are well executed they hold little interest after so many years.’

Kelly’s gaze went skyward to see a row of baby-like angels, facing this way and that, scattered along the cornices, joined one to the other by a giant ribbon painted to resemble a length of rich blue satin.

‘My mother was a devout woman. She particularly favoured angels and such.’

The candle fluttered and for a moment Kelly’s breath caught. In the half-light of the flickering flame, she saw the naked vulnerability return to his eyes.

He must have loved her very much
.

Again the flame fluttered, nearly extinguishing before it rose brighter than before. ‘There’s a draught in here,’ she murmured with a shiver.

‘Yes, from behind the fire grate. I suspect there are loose bricks in the chimney. I intended to have it seen to the week Elizabeth … ’ He was silent for several seconds before continuing, ‘Edward refused to fix it; Mother’s discomfort was another blow he could not resist … The room has barely been occupied at all since my mother’s death so it likely went unnoticed. I am certain your friends will have it repaired.’

‘Yes, I’m sure they will,’ Kelly replied. ‘So, I’ve seen the mirror, what happens now?’

‘I believe, if you bring the hand mirror from room to room, I should be able to direct the search in places where I cannot normally venture. For example, if you had scrutinised the plans closely, you would have seen that on the first landing of the servants’ stair, there is a small opening which leads to a hidden passage that gives access to all the rooms in the Master’s wing of the manor.’

‘A secret passage?’

‘Indeed.’

She let the mirror drop while she thought about the possibilities.
Maybe that was how they did it! But
… the rational side of her brain jumped in …
if they were using the secret passage to orchestrate this hoax, why would he tell her about it? It didn’t make sense
.

‘Kelly!’

‘Oh – sorry,’ she said as she lifted the mirror so he could again see her face.

‘If I might be so bold as to suggest we go to the servants’ stair, I will direct you to the door.’

She shook her head vehemently. ‘Nuh-uh. I came up here in the dark, despite my better judgement, but there is no way I’m going wandering through secret passages tonight. I’ll do that in the broad light of day.’

He grinned at her. ‘You are aware, of course, that it will be dark inside the passages regardless of the time of day.’

‘I don’t care. You’ve distracted me enough as it is.’ She spun the mirror till it faced the floor. To think she was beginning to truly believe his wild stories.
I need my head read
.

‘Time to get some sleep,’ she announced. But as she went to place the mirror back where she’d found it, she heard John’s plaintive cry.

‘No! Kelly, do not leave the mirror here.’

She flipped it around again. ‘What does it matter tonight? You can go back to the mirror in my room, can’t you?’