“What did you say that for?” May-Jewel asked as they withdrew from the kitchen.
“Master isn’t Alex’s title, and the servants should know that they aren’t accountable to him but to us.”
Molly hastened after them to say, “Mum–Mistress, I mean, did Charles tell ye that if ye be lookin’ aboot the manor to stay clear o’ the upper west wing? The floorin’ an’ stairs be rotten there.”
“No, Molly, he didn’t,” Katherine responded more kindly, sorry for her biting tone a minute ago, “but thank you.”
Nodding, Molly returned to the kitchen.
“I don’t believe that the stairs and the floors in the west wing are bad. I think there are just too many rooms, and Molly and Charles didn’t want to clean them all,” May-Jewel whispered, laughing. “Decayed flooring indeed!”
“Hmm, I hope you’re right. Let’s go.”
They resumed their survey mechanically moving through the empty servant’s wing.
“These look more like monk’s cells than actual living quarters,” May -Jewel tiredly concluded.
They entered the back staircase that led to the upper west level.
May-Jewel stomped on a few of the steps. “These stairs seem firm enough, and I’ll wager that the floor is sound too. Shall we go up?”
But Katherine wasn’t thinking about the floor or its firmness. She was thinking about Selina. “You know,” she said as they started up, “it would be easy for one to come and go throughout the entire manor and not ever be seen. See, even the windows lining this corridor are so caked with dust that one couldn’t see in from the outside. Here, let’s open a few and let a little light and air in this mausoleum.”
But their action did little to change the dreariness of the hallway.
May-Jewel looked out one of the windows and remarked about parts of a stone foundation she saw in the distance. “Was that the old kitchen?”
Following May-Jewel’s glance, Katherine nodded. “I suppose so. Let’s move on. There’s nothing interesting here.”
They resumed their inspection by opening more doors.
“I’m going to see personally that this house is scrubbed and scoured from the garret to the wine cellars, if there are any,” May-Jewel said, wiping her fingers clean from having touched a dusty cabinet. “And then I’ll invite enough people to stay here and fill all these rooms.”
“You do that.” Katherine responded, opening every other window as she moved up the hall.
Her sister ignored Katherine’s patronizing tone.
Stopping before a set of double doors, May-Jewel pulled them both open. The light from the hall exposed a huge room. “Well, here’s one room that’s different. Perhaps this is another ballroom.”
Some twenty feet further down the hall, Katherine opened a second set of double doors. A rush of air pushed against her as if an imprisoned ghost of a dancer had finally escaped its sealed doom. The eerie spaciousness of the barren room was uninviting, yet Katherine slowly walked in and stood stationary in the middle of its grayness. Air from the hall flowed in and swirled against the lacy cobwebbed walls before pirouetting over the dusty surface of the parquet floor.
“Oooo!” May-Jewel squealed, waltzing around Katherine. “What grand dances could be held here! You can almost hear the music.”
But Katherine didn’t hear any music. A cloud moved in front of the sun, and the light from the hallway suddenly diminished, holding her in an icy grip of darkness; she shivered. “Come on,” she said, pulling her sister back into the hall. “There are other rooms to investigate.”
Not eager, but willing, May-Jewel exited the room and closed the doors.
They followed the corridor toward the front of the manor. Each door opened onto an empty chamber. A few rooms were furnished with the same type of antiquated furniture found in the sisters’ rooms. But a few didn’t have any furniture at all. The two descended the main staircase. They walked over the mullioned pattern that the sun coming through the windows had etched on the floor.
“I noticed that there was a door out in the back corridor, in that long span between the staircase and the kitchen that I’m curious about.”
“What door?” Katherine asked. “I didn’t notice any door.”
“You were too busy insulting me at the time.”
Katherine ignored her remark. “Show me then.”
The muted light in the back corridor made it difficult at first to find the door. It was recessed and concealed by the shadow of the stairs. May-Jewel opened the portal, and the women silently peered into the darkened void. Katherine’s mind was immediately filled with the terror of the night before. A stubborn refusal registered on her face. Before she could give utterance to a protest, May-Jewel confronted her.
“Oh, yes, you are!” she exclaimed. “You’re going in there with me.” But the doubt in her sister’s eyed didn’t diminish. “Nothing can happen,” May-Jewel attempted to convince her, “if we stick together. Think of your mysterious maid. This could be where she’s hiding.”
Katherine’s pained look turned to one of resignation. “All right,” she said, “but I’m bringing a light.”
May-Jewel waited as Katherine ran back to the kitchen and secured a lit lantern.
“Being Mistress does have some advantages. Molly retrieved the lantern for me but didn’t feel she had the right to ask me what I wanted it for.”
May-Jewel smiled and said, “I think you’re going to like being the Mistress of Wistmere after all.”
“Oh, come on.”
They hadn’t gone but a few steps into the darkened hallway when they realized that the floor of it began to slope downward. The corridor was only about ten feet long and ended at the top of a set of stone steps.
“I thought this passage simply led outside,” May-Jewel murmured, brushing cobwebs from her arm, “though I must confess that I had hoped it would lead to a hidden room!”
Katherine held the lantern higher. The
