“Yes. Since Abbe’s introduction of the rather splendid light-gathering paraphernalia, nothing new has really been brought about, and that surprises me. Unless you have kept more abreast of developments? No? What a shame. So we find that we are somewhat stuck. Yet...”
On they talked, explaining things to one another that each already knew. Theodore was happily absorbed in the scientific chatter. Somewhere in the bushes, he could hear the others crashing about. Captain Everard and Percy were engaged with Oscar on some kind of mission to rig up hidden traps which sounded likely to end in disaster, if not for themselves then for the next unwary walker to happen along the paths in the grounds.
Still, it was keeping Oscar busy, and that was the main thing. Theodore spared a thought for his wife, who was apparently going to work out a way of getting them all into the gatehouse to search it. Confound Lady Katharine! She was holding everything up, he felt. He could barely call up a mental image of her face, she was so unassuming and silent and so very, very invisible.
He heard Percy calling to Captain Everard. The captain answered. Then they called for Oscar.
But there was no answer from him.
Twenty-seven
Adelia ran as fast as she could through the twisting corridors of Tavy Castle. It wasn’t the largest place in the country but when you wanted to get from one point to another in a rush, you realised then how awkward a space it was. It had never been designed; it had evolved. She was also hampered by the soft indoor slippers that she was wearing rather than decent boots, and she soon abandoned the Persian shawl she had artfully wrapped around her upper body earlier. She did not have time to stop and explain herself to the servants whom she pushed past. She had to get to the tower.
She burst into the lower room where Percy kept his books and found it empty. When had Oscar taken The Countess? If it were only a few moments before the maid had told Adelia what he had done, then they were sure not to be too far ahead, due to The Countess’s age. She could not move fast.
Adelia grabbed the door at the bottom of the stairs that led to the room above, which was Theodore’s commandeered laboratory space, but it was stuck. Or locked. She rattled the handle with a roar and pulled at it so hard that it opened with a screech and she burst through. The stairs here were made of stone, and wide, but they curved in a gentle spiral around a central stone pillar. She had always hated spiral stairs and so she kept to the outside where a rudimentary handhold was made of rope attached to the wall at intervals by large iron hoops. She hitched up her skirts in her right hand, and kept her left on the rope handhold. The stairs, as was usual in old castles, curved in a clockwise fashion, which was supposed to make it harder for invaders to draw their swords as they came up from below.
Adelia wished she was carrying a sword right now.
She could hear them. And she was hardly being stealthy now, so there was no reason for her to stay silent. She shouted out, “Stop! Oscar Brodie, you stop right where you are!”
She heard The Countess say something but her high reedy voice was indistinct as it bounced off the stone walls. Oscar grunted like an animal. Adelia ran up another half dozen steps and it was a miracle that she was still hanging onto the rope handhold at the side, because she only had a split second’s notice that something was coming down before it was upon her.
It?
Her.
The Countess slid down from three steps above, screaming in absolute terror as she flailed her arms to steady herself. Adelia hung on with her left hand, and reached out with her right. She didn’t so much catch The Countess as simply become a barrier which broke her descent. Adelia’s right foot slipped as it was on the narrower part of the spiral stairs but she kept firm where she was, and deflected The Countess who came to a halt up between the outer wall and Adelia’s own body.
The Countess was crying in shock. Her thin hands clawed at the rope and Adelia’s dress. “He pushed me! It wasn’t an accident! He pushed me.”
“I know, I know, and I’m here to help you.”
“Help me? Don’t worry about me! Stop him!”
“Let me get you back down.”
“I cannot...” The Countess gasped, her face twisting in pain as she leaned on Adelia and tried to stand on her own feet. “Oh! Oh, my!” Adelia wrapped her strong arm around the older woman’s waist, and supported her. The Countess felt like a bird and trembled throughout her whole body.
There was nothing for it but to inch down the steps, step by step, allowed The Countess plenty of time to stop and rest until they had finally gained entry to the laboratory once more, and The Countess was able to sink into the armchair that still remained there from her visit the previous day.
“I am fine, I am perfectly fine,” The Countess snapped, though her face was twisted with pain. “Now go and see to that evil young man, that snake in the very heart of our family! Betrayed! I cannot believe it. When did he turn? When?”
Adelia realised that of course, Oscar would still be above them as there was only one set of stairs in the tower. And she was suddenly afraid. The Countess needed to remain where she was, at least for a little while, to get her breath back. Surely the woman had sustained injuries in her short fall, especially at her age, when bones were more likely to break. Adelia did not want to move her again until Doctor Netherfield or Theodore had attended
