Amanda took a deep inhalation, and much of her usual calm returned.
‘Yes, Granny.’
‘Better now?’
‘Yes, thank you.’
‘Be all right on your own, bian?’
She smiled. ‘Perfectly. I’m going to take your advice.’
‘Splendid,’ replied Granny. ‘We’ll be off then: afternoon tea with Josephine.’
‘Josephine?’
‘Baker, dear. She has some interesting ideas about the phylogeny of the cheetah.’
Having pronounced this non sequitur, she and Grandpa promptly vanished back to their current plane of existence.
After they had left, Amanda did indeed manage to sleep, pinned down by Tempest draped across her waist, snoring softly.
By pudding that evening, she was alert and ready for the next download of data from Uncle Mike.
‘I was curious about Growan House,’ said Hogarth. ‘In particular, where the resources came from. So, I asked Elodie …’
***
‘How was the school funded?’ he asked. ‘There would have been teachers’ salaries, heating and lighting costs, accommodation, classroom facilities. Considering they were providing education free of charge.’
‘As I said, I was brought up to make myself useful and be unobtrusive. I undertook little tasks such as bringing the post up to the office in the mornings and taking letters to the post box, putting up posters, carrying messages — a sort of gopher. There’s a lot you can see through an envelope. And people who feel secure tend to leave things lying around. There wasn’t always someone in the office when I'd bring up the letters.’
‘So you found out how they were getting the money?’
‘Donations. Most of the parents didn’t have much, so they handed over family treasures. Nothing of great value in the main, I think, but somehow it was like an act of tribute that bound them to the Dowrkampyers. But there were company donations too.’
‘Really? To start a school?’
‘Oh, you’d be amazed,’ said Marielle, ‘what people will give to be associated with a title, like Lord, however spurious. Like moths to a flame,’ she added with a teasing smile. There was something about the way her lips moved around the word ‘moths’ that distracted Mike, to the point that he almost responded that she would know all about that. His professional self intervened, but Marielle had been watching him, and now commented with a winning twinkle,
‘Well done, Chief Inspector.’
Hogarth found himself unable to resist the beginning of grin before Elodie made her presence known with a little cough. She looked like she had been observing this little exchange with patience, even a hint of amusement. Still, she was serious again as she took up her thread.
‘Also, parents were encouraged to get employers to donate. Sponsorship to get their company name on the literature: newsletters and programmes for plays and fêtes, sports days and musical evenings.’
‘Growan House had all that then?’
‘Oh yes, everything you’d expect from a school. It was just that for some students there were extras. Extras that came at a cost, sometimes a terrible one. At first, no one said anything to me, but I’d hear words. I’m pretty sure they were Cornish. The family would speak the language between themselves, when they wanted to be sure no one would know what they were saying. At first, I’d just thought it was like pas devant les enfants.’
‘Not in front of the children.’
‘Exactly. But I kept hearing certain words over and over. I wrote them down.’
***
‘This, my dear listeners, interested me intensely, as you might imagine,’ said Hogarth.
‘Do you have the list?’ asked Amanda excitedly. ‘May we see?’
Hogarth produced it and placed it on the table. A total of fourteen words and phrases. Amanda and Trelawney leaned over it.
‘Kevrin. That means secret,’ translated Amanda.
‘Gans rach. That's careful?’ asked Trelawney.
‘That’s right.’
‘I don’t know what these next three mean.’
‘Dorgel ... cellar, basement, vault? Arbrovji is laboratory. Hus is easy: that’s a spell. But this: effeyth aral ... maybe, side effect.’
‘Klav – that’s sick,’ said Thomas, ‘Gorfen is finish. Over to you Miss Cadabra, for the next few.’
‘Mernansow is deaths. Peryl is danger and assaya arta is try again. Hwithrans means research, but this is surely ....’
‘A name. “Gronetta?” Look, the next word is “Flamgoyne”. Who else could it be but Gronetta Flamgoyne? Erstwhile matriarch of the witch-clan.’
‘And finally, “Cardiubarn”. Easy enough.’
‘Just so.’ Trelawney looked up at Hogarth. ‘Sounds like something nasty was going on in the cellar.’
‘So,’ put in Amanda, ‘at that time, these Cornish words were all Elodie had to go on. Please continue with the story, Uncle Mike.’
***
‘At first, it was just what I picked up from the office, but then there was more,’ related Elodie. ‘I’m quiet, so people talk to me. I’m good at listening. All my life people of all ages have confided in me, often saying, “I’ve never told anyone else this but …” And it wasn’t just that. As I told you, the students couldn’t even be real friends with one another. You got sort of extra points if you reported someone for saying something against the school or the Dowrkampyers. And sometimes it’s so much easier to tell things to a stranger anyway. It was partly desperation and maybe not wanting to put those close to them in a difficult position, I don’t know, but ….’
‘I understand. So …?’
‘So the children — the élite of Growan House — the ones who got sick, they started to tell me. What was held out to them and the risks involved. They even had some sort of parental consent. They were all as keen as mustard. I don’t think a single lamb went unwillingly to the ... into the programme.’
‘What were they promised?’ asked Hogarth.
‘That’s where the Dowrkampyers were careful and clever. They promised nothing. Just suggested what might be possible.’
‘What was it
