Eloisa's Adventure (11 page)

“Look,
Eloisa -” Whatever else he had been about to say was cut off by a
loud crash from the floor below.

They
both turned to look at the noise before they were distracted by the
sound of footsteps on the floor above.

“Someone’s up there,” Simeon growled as he dropped the basket
at his feet. “Stay here,” he ordered, but didn’t wait around to see
if she would comply. Before she could speak, he vanished into the
gloom and abandoned her at the top of the stairs.

“Simeon?” Eloisa called, but the only sound she heard in
reply was the thudding of his boots on the floorboards as he
disappeared after the intruder. At least she hoped it was the
thudding of
his
boots, and not somebody else’s.

She
stared into the gloomy hallway below. Had someone thrown a pot of
some kind from the floor above? Had they been trying to capture
their attention, or had they intended to hit one of them with
whatever it was they had thrown? She rather suspected it was the
latter.

She
looked about her. Now that she was alone, she was at a loss to know
what to do. Simeon had said that she had to stay where she was.
Unfortunately, she knew that if she did that then the unknown
intruder would know where to find her, especially while she was
holding a candle. It stood out like a beacon in the impenetrable
blackness and made it impossible for her to see anything beyond its
feeble glare. She looked at it and quickly put it on the floor. The
thought of standing alone in the dark in this house was terrifying,
but she forced herself to take several steps away from it. It was
only when she reached the shadows that she realised she had left
the baskets behind.

As
quietly as she could she carefully fetched them and moved to stand
with her back against the wall. As she waited, she listened to the
haunting wail of the wind outside. She curled her arms around her
waist protectively and remained perfectly still. Silence settled
over her, but it wasn’t a reassuring peace. As the minutes ticked
by, the air shifted and turned into an insidious blackness that
threatened to suffocate her.

Please come back, please come back, please come back,
she chanted silently as she strained to her any
sound from the floor above. Unfortunately, she couldn’t hear a
blessed thing apart from her own heartbeat, and she wasn’t sure
whether that was reassuring or not.

Suddenly, the flurry of movement beside her captured her
attention. Everything within her froze. She immediately melted back
against the wall and tried to make herself as invisible as
possible. Her breath lodged in her throat as she stared in horror
at the silent figure that appeared out of the blackness and moved
steadily toward her. As stealthily as a ghost, it glided toward her
on feet that were as silent as Simeon’s, but she knew it wasn’t
him.

The
closer the figure got, the more she became aware of the fact that
this man was shorter than Simeon. To her utter horror, she heard
the familiar thud of Simeon’s boots approach from the opposite
direction. Her gaze remained locked on the man who was creeping
past her while her mind raced frantically.

What
should she do? Should she call out to Simeon to warn him? If she
did that the man, who was only an arm’s length away, would know
exactly where to find her. She couldn’t run the risk that he wasn’t
armed and dangerous. That being the case, she couldn’t remain
silent and allow Simeon to walk straight into his intruder. She
glanced about her but the only thing she had to hand was a vase on
a table that sat several feet away, and the baskets at her
feet.

She
slowly and silently picked one of the baskets up and watched the
intruder hesitate at the top of the stairs. When lightning flashed
across the sky outside, the huge stain glass window lit up and cast
the hallway in shadow. Eloisa briefly got an impression of a
slightly hooked nose, and a dark sweep of bushy grey beard turning
toward her before the world went black once more.

Rendered
practically blind by the darkness that fell over them, she lifted
the basket in one wild swing and flung it in the direction of the
man’s back.

Simeon
appeared in the hallway just in time to watch the intruder struggle
for balance at the top of the stairs before he disappeared into the
gloom. Several heavy thumps and grunts warned him that the man had
hit the stairs hard on the way down. Simeon paid little attention
though. He was focused on the woman who stared at him with wide,
terrified eyes instead.

“That
was him,” she whispered tearfully. Guilt lay heavily on her
shoulders at the thought that she might have hurt the intruder.
Thankfully, after a few moments of fraught silence, the rapid clip
of boots on the tiles on the floor below broke the silence. She
immediately heaved a sigh of relief that. They both watched the
man’s shadow race across the chequered floor and disappear toward
the back of the house.

“He
wasn’t hurt,” she gasped.

“You
should have hit him harder,” Simeon growled.

“Are you
not going after him?” she asked when he made no attempt to charge
down the stairs after their quarry.

Simeon
gave her a somewhat rueful look. “I don’t think he will want to
challenge us tonight. Not after falling down there. If he is stupid
enough to run around this place after dark, he can do it by
himself. I damned well nearly fell down the stairs back there
myself. I am not going to chase after him on a fool’s errand.
Besides, if he goes into the secret passageways, he will vanish in
an instant.”

He
didn’t add that he couldn’t stand the thought of being locked in
one of the rooms while Eloisa was alone in the house. He had to be
free to protect her. If anything did happen to him, she would be at
the intruder’s mercy until she could run for help and, given the
ferocity of the storm outside, God only knew when that would
be.

The
sudden slam of a door downstairs made them both jump.

“He is
leaving,” she gasped

She
hurried after Simeon, who raced across the upper hallway and
charged into one of the rooms that overlooked the yard. By the time
she reached him, his curses blistered the air. She peered around
him to see what had made him so angry, only to hear the rapid clip
of his horse’s hooves fade into the distance.

“He has
stolen my horse,” Simeon growled. “Damn that bastard. He has stolen
my bloody horse.”

“Did you
get a good look at him?” Eloisa demanded.

“No, he
is heavily disguised,” Simeon snorted in disgust.

“At
least he isn’t in the house any more. We can secure it
now.”

He
looked at her and shook his head in disgust. “It is five miles to
the nearest village at the very least and he -” he pointed one long
finger at the window, “- has just stolen our only way out of
here.”

“Well,
we will just have to walk then, won’t we?” Eloisa
challenged.

“Yes,
but what if he comes back meantime? What then? What if something
happens to one of us? Walking five miles to the bloody village is
going to take far too long for help to come quickly.” He saw fear
appear on her face the more he spoke and struggled to control his
temper so he didn’t scare her unduly. It was unfair of him to worry
her in such a way but she clearly had no idea of how dire their
situation had become. Without a way out of there, they had to walk
through the woods – out in the open – with nothing but trees to
shelter in; trees that their intruder could also hide in. They
could be hunted down like foxes and nobody would be any the wiser
unless a hunter found their bodies in the spring.

He
wasn’t sure now whether it would be safer to stay where they were
until someone came to look for them, or better to get out of the
house now, while their intrude was also running. The sudden
increase in ferocity of the rain that pelted the window made that
decision for him.

I hope the bastard drowns out there,
Simeon thought in disgust.

“So,
what do you want to do now?” Eloisa asked when he neither moved nor
spoke.

“We have
to secure the house. Lock everywhere up. Check that all the windows
are locked and he can’t get back in. He is going to have to break
in if he wants to take shelter here. Then we can wait until morning
and leave at first light. This storm should have gone by then. We
will have to walk into town though, so get plenty of rest.” He eyed
her dress somewhat doubtfully but didn’t say anything. He could
tackle that little problem when the need arose. “For now, let’s go
and find the Dowager’s room.”

Rather
than follow him though, Eloisa remained where she was.

When he
reached the door and realised that she wasn’t following him, he
turned to look at her. “What’s wrong?”

“You
chased the man upstairs,” Eloisa declared quietly.

“Yes,
there is a third floor, but it is dustier than this floor. The
Dowager’s old rooms are at the other end of this
corridor.”

Eloisa
nodded. “There is another flight of stairs?”

“Yes,
the old servants’ stairs. I used them when I chased him,” Simeon
replied. “Why?”

Eloisa
walked slowly toward him. Even standing next to him made her feel
infinitely safer. “Because when you chased him upstairs, he came
back,” she nodded in the direction of the Dowager’s rooms. “He came
from that direction.”

Simeon
frowned at her. “He didn’t come down the main stairs? I thought he
must have doubled back on me.”

Eloisa
shook her head. “He came from down there. Now, I am not squeamish,
you understand, but I think that the hidden corridor, or stairs, or
whatever, must be down that way somewhere. I just have no intention
of sleeping alongside it.” She glanced at the room behind her.
“This will be fine for me.”

Simeon’s
mind raced with possibilities and, not for the first time that
evening, he cursed the fact that there was very little light within
the house.

“If I
need to leave in a hurry, I can either use the main stairs, or the
servants’ stairs, which I presume will take me back down to the
kitchens?” She lifted her brows and watched him nod. “Then I would
prefer to stay here.”

Simeon
opened his mouth to argue, but couldn’t really fault her logic. “I
will take the room directly opposite then, but will leave the door
open. If anything happens, anything at all Eloisa, just
scream.”

“I hope
he has gone for good,” Eloisa replied with a shiver.

“I am
sure he has, darling,” Simeon murmured soothingly, although rather
doubted it. “I am going to secure the house though, so will take
this candle and leave that one with you. Keep the baskets in here
with you and lock the door.”

While he
spoke, Eloisa began to knock on the walls.

“What
are you doing?”

“Searching for empty spaces,” she replied reasonably. “A
secret passageway would make the wall sound hollow, wouldn’t
it?”

“Well,
yes, but -” Simeon frowned as he studied her. Rather than argue
though, he started to knock on the walls and slowly began to make
his way around the other half of the room.

Neither
of them had found anything untoward by the time they met beside the
windows.

“It’s
safe,” she declared with no small measure of relief.

“Just
keep your door locked, and don’t open it until I knock three
times,” Simeon ordered. He turned to make his way toward the door
only to stop and look back at her. He read the unspoken question in
her eyes. Before she could say anything, he nodded and stalked out
of the room.

She
reached the doorway in time to see him pick up the fruit that had
fallen out of the basket she had thrown at the intruder earlier.
Once the hallway was clear of debris, she accepted the basket off
him with a nod.

“I will
wait while you lock the door.”

“You
shouldn’t go by yourself. If he is still down there, anything could
happen to you and I wouldn’t know about it,” Eloisa said
quietly.

She
didn’t relish having to walk around this house any more than she
absolutely had to, but hated the thought of Simeon lying injured
somewhere while she was blissfully tucked up in bed, completely
unaware of his downfall. She just couldn’t bring herself to be that
selfish.

“I will
come with you and carry the candles. You can lock the doors and
shutters and close the curtains. Then we can both get some sleep,”
she declared firmly.

“Are you
always this argumentative?” he asked as he followed her to the top
of the stairs. He had to admit that it would ease his mind a lot if
he had her beside him, but wasn’t going to tell her
that.

“It’s
not being argumentative,” Eloisa challenged piously. “I am just
being logical, that’s all.”

“Fair
enough,” Simeon grunted. “We will start at the back door and then
work our way up. It’s going to take a while to go through each
room. We just need to make sure that the downstairs windows are
locked and there is no way inside. Upstairs isn’t so much of an
issue given there is no way to get up to the second floor from the
outside.”