‘Nice to see you too,’ Maddy replied. Then she had a thought.
‘Are there any other keys anywhere?’
‘Keys for what?’
‘I don’t know. Keys. Like that bunch of keys in the utility room. Are there any other keys anywhere else that belong to the house?’
‘Far as I know, that’s all the keys there are. Now, I’m going to do you and Ben a chicken casserole for the weekend, so if you wouldn’t mind moving away from the kitchen table. I’ve just cleaned it and you’re contaminating everything with your grubby fingers.’
Maddy looked down at the dirty marks she’d left on the kitchen table. She huffed loudly, put her hands down by her sides and went back into the cellar. As she tramped down the steps, she heard Esther muttering to herself about cellars and dirt and children.
The small metal door had been set into a stone wall, the same type of wall as all the others in the cellar and, indeed, in the whole house. The false brick wall must have been built later, to cover up the door. She supposed she could knock the rest of the brick wall down and then try knocking down the stone wall, but if it was anything like the other walls in the house, it would be too thick and strong. She rattled the door knob again, in frustration.
Madison began to clear away the bricks that had fallen in front of the door, throwing them into the space between the two walls. Maybe she could get a locksmith in? They’d be able to open it, surely. Yeah, that’s what she’d do.
The soonest a locksmith could come out to the house was four thirty that afternoon. Maddy rang around several firms, but that was the best she could get. She’d just have to be patient. She had a shower and washed her hair, sticking all her filthy clothes in the basket with a pang of guilt at the dismissive way she’d talked to Esther. But then Esther was no better; she was always so rude. She just brought out the worst in Madison. The woman was a nightmare.
Maddy remembered Ben was supposed to be going to the cinema with friends after school, so she wouldn’t be able to show him the secret door. She’d have to wait until later. Maybe the door would be open by the time he got home and then they could see what lay behind it, together.
The locksmith was half an hour late. He drove up to the house in a small red van with a picture of a large brass key emblazoned on its side. A tall middle-aged man in a blue boiler suit unfolded himself from the tiny vehicle. His receding grey hair was styled into a DA and he had a matching grey luxuriant moustache.
‘Sorry I’m late, love.’ He spoke in the local Gloucestershire accent. ‘It’s been one of those days, you know?’
‘S’okay. Come in.’ Maddy gestured for him to follow her.
‘Nice place you got here. Couldn’t trouble you for a cuppa could I? I’m gasping and they ran out of milk at the last place.’
‘Yep, no problem. I’ll show you the door first, and then I’ll come back up and make some tea.’
‘Blimey,’ said the locksmith, as he followed Maddy down into the cellar. ‘You gonna murder me and hide my body in the basement? This is a bit spooky down here innit?’
‘The light’s broken, so it’s a bit dark. But I’ll leave you my torch while I make your tea, if that’s okay.’
‘You from London are you?’
‘Yeah.’ She shone the torch at the hole in the wall. ‘There’s the door. It’s got a keyhole, but no key. Can you open it?’
‘Interesting.’ He studied it. ‘Give us your torch then. I’ll see what I can do. Might need a couple of biscuits to go with that cuppa though,’ he chuckled. ‘Milk, no sugar thanks.’
Maddy went upstairs into the kitchen, sloshed some water over a teabag and mashed it around with a few drops of milk. She grabbed an unopened packet of chocolate digestives and headed back down into the darkness.
‘Have you got a key for it?’ she asked, passing him the tea and biscuits.
He took a sip of tea and opened the packet of biscuits.
‘Oh yeah,’ he said slowly. ‘I’ve found a key for the lock.’
‘Oh my God! You’ve actually done it.’
‘Yeah I’ve done it. But you won’t get that door open.’
‘What?’
‘No, you ain’t gonna get him open. Not from this side anyway.’ He looked quite pleased with his pronouncement.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, he’s been dead-bolted from the other side. He’s got a bolt at the bottom, here. And one up here.’ He looked at Maddy. ‘Is this an external wall? If it is, you could go outside and have a look for the other side of the door.’
‘I don’t know’, said Maddy, disappointed. If it was an external wall, then there would be nothing interesting on the other side of the door. It would just lead outside.
‘Let’s have a look.’ The locksmith shoved half a biscuit in his mouth and followed the wall round to the right. ‘There’s a corridor here,’ he mumbled through a mouthful of crumbs. ‘And look, there’s a room off your corridor but it starts about fifteen foot away from your wall. That metal door don’t lead outside, it leads into a room.’
‘I knew it!’ Maddy said. ‘How can I get into it though?’
‘You can’t,’ he said. ‘That’s a solid metal door and this is a load-bearing wall. You mess with this wall and your stately home won’t be looking so stately.’
‘There must be some way.’
‘Well now, there’s a few options, but you’ll have to get the professionals in and that’d eat into your bank balance and it’d take a fair few days to sort out,’ he continued. He looked like he was settling in for a long enjoyable conversation, but Maddy was so impatient she wanted to scream. He continued talking in his ponderous manner, alternately swigging tea and munching biscuits.
‘Now I reckon this is a listed building, so they probably won’t let you do any of this anyway, but hypothetically you could take down some of the wall and put in a steel - that’s a large supporting beam - and then …’
Maddy tuned his brain-meltingly boring conversation out of her head. She had an idea that was far quicker and easier than any of his complicated theories.
‘Yeah that’s great,’ she smiled, cutting him off in mid-flow. ‘So what do I owe you for opening the lock?’
He looked a bit taken aback at the interruption. ‘Oh okay. Glad I could help. Here’s your key. I’ll go upstairs and fill out the paperwork.’
Maddy couldn’t wait for him to go. She was going to get that door open today, even if she brought the whole house crashing down. She was on a mission.
*
Once the locksmith had left, Madison returned to the cellar. She climbed on to a crate and reached up to one of the dirty windows at the top of the wall. Unhooking the rusty metal latch, she gave the window a push. It was stiff, but yielded open. A small shaft of afternoon light shone into the cellar. Maddy realised she should have opened the windows earlier and then she would have had some extra light down there instead of just relying on the torch.
Next, she went upstairs and out of the back door, looking along the outside of the building for the open cellar window. She spotted it at ground level on the north western side of the property. That shouldn’t be a problem, she thought. I think I can get close enough.
Her Land Rover had been delivered the previous weekend and Travis had given her a couple of rudimentary lessons. She still didn’t know exactly what to do with the pedals, but figured she’d be able to work it out. Maddy opened the wooden doors to the garage and climbed into the pristine vehicle, starting the engine and putting the gears into reverse. Trying to remember what Travis had told her about the clutch and accelerator, she released the handbrake, shot backwards out of the garage and stalled.
Calm down, she told herself and tried again. She shot out a bit further this time, but didn’t stall. In first gear and then second, she headed carefully towards the main driveway and drove effortlessly up a smooth grass bank which led round to the side of the house. She nosed the Defender as close to the open window as she could
get. It now sat on a high bank, above the low window. The Land Rover was too wide to drive along the narrow gravel pathway which ran next to the side of the house.
Madison turned off the engine, jumped out, walked to the winch at the front of the Land Rover and grabbed the end of the cable. She slid down the bank and fed the cable down through the open window. Then she went back down to the cellar and secured the cable to the metal door, tying it around the large brass door knob. She had no idea if her plan would work, but if it did, it would be quick and save her a lot of hassle.
Once back outside at the Land Rover, she locked the cable tight. She climbed back into the driver’s seat, started up the engine and put it into reverse. Releasing the handbrake, she eased down gently on the accelerator. The vehicle went backwards a few inches and then stopped. Maddy put a bit more pressure on the pedal until the engine roared loudly. She stopped for moment, drove forward a smidge and then reversed hard again.
The engine growled and then, as Maddy put more pressure on the pedal, it grew more throaty and insistent. The wheels churned up grass and mud. Something was going to give, but whether it would be the engine or the door, Maddy couldn’t tell. Suddenly she heard a loud bang. The cable went slack and the Land Rover shot backwards across the lawn. Before she had a chance to slam on the brakes, the vehicle lurched to a sudden stop and skidded around sideways. At the same time she heard a reverberating clang from the house. Maddy’s heart boomed. Had it worked or not?
She turned off the engine and jumped down onto the grass. Darkness had bloomed and she could just about make out the mess of turf and mud in front of her, where the tyres had wrecked the immaculate lawn. There was no time to worry about that. She had to see if she’d done it or not, to find out what lay beyond the door. She jumped off the high bank, ran inside and grabbed the torch, heading down into the cellar again, fingers crossed her efforts had been worth it.
Maddy held the torch out in front of her, surprised to see her hands shaking. The metal door had been ripped from its hinges, dragged across the floor and up the wall. It had gone as far as it could and now completely blocked the window.
In addition to the hole in the first brick wall, there was now a small, door-shaped hole in the second stone wall. Thick dust swirled, but Maddy ignored her dry throat and walked towards the newly made entrance. She peered inside.
Straight ahead she saw shapes covered with white sheets. On top of the sheets, rested a haunted house-worth of dust and cobwebs. Maddy lifted up the pick axe and used the handle to waft away the thick strands of cobwebs in front of her. To her left she could just about make out some other large objects covered in layers of dust and spider webs. But it was like trying to see through a thick night mist.
She stepped closer and saw something surprising. It was a single bed and next to that, a bedside table on which sat a metal cup, a candlestick and a book. Strange that someone would have slept down here. She drew closer still and saw something else, something so gruesome she couldn’t help but scream a shriek of terror.
She stumbled back out of the room and up the stairs, slamming the cellar door shut, turning the key and locking it with shaking fingers. She made it into the kitchen and stared glassily around her, the grisly image still imprinted in her brain. She had to get out of the house.
Madison tripped and staggered through the hallway and out of the front door, letting it slam behind her. She ran down onto the large front lawn. It was almost pitch black outside now and Maddy would have given anything for a bit of reassuring daylight. Her first instinct was to run the half mile to Morris and Esther’s house. They would sort this out with their no-nonsense approach. But she dismissed the thought almost as soon as it popped into her head. She couldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing her at a loss and needing their adult help.
Maddy sank down onto the grass and hugged her knees to her chest. She knew that what she’d seen wouldn’t hurt her, but she was freaked out just the same. For down there in the scuttling gloom, when she’d looked at the dust-covered bed, she’d seen something odd peeking out from under the covers. She had drawn closer and shone her torch directly at it.
The beam had illuminated the bone white face of a grinning skull. A dead person. A skeleton. Lying in the bed as though asleep.
Now, outside on the lawn, Maddy realised her breathing was rasping and shallow and she tried to take a steadying breath, tried to calm down. She couldn’t tell Ben about this, he’d freak even more than she had. He was pretty sensitive and she didn’t want to give him nightmares. It would certainly give her nightmares, probably for the rest of her life.
How would she ever find the courage to go back into the house? She couldn’t let Ben know why she was out here. He’d be home soon. Oh my God, a skeleton bricked up in the cellar! It was like something you read about or saw in a horror movie. Here she was, all alone in the grounds of a spooky house, no one else around and at least one dead body down there.
She remembered other stuff down there too - things covered over with dust sheets. She shuddered again and squeezed her eyes tightly shut. How could she live here now? With the creepiness of that. She remembered the cellar window was still open with the metal door jammed up against it, still attached to the winch cable. Well no way was she going anywhere near it tonight. It would have to stay like that.
Why had she been so desperate to look behind the door? She should have just left it alone. She could have carried on living in ignorant bliss. But no, she had charged ahead without thinking of any consequences. She shivered. Why couldn’t she get the image of that grinning skull out of her head? It was just a skeleton, it couldn’t hurt her. But why was it there? Why would someone shut another person up in a cellar?
God, maybe her ancestors were a bunch of psychopathic nutters. That would be just her luck. Yes, Maddy, here’s a beautiful house in the country and a few million quid, but your family were murderers and you have to go and live with the corpses of their victims.
Should she call the police? She didn’t want to. Mainly because she knew she and Ben shouldn’t really even be living here on their own without proper adult supervision. They were lucky Vasey-Smith had sorted it for them so no nosy social workers would come sniffing around asking questions. Maybe she should call the solicitor and ask him what to do? Oh God, she felt like her head was going to explode.
If she hadn’t fallen so in love with the place, she would just move out. But then she’d lose her allowance and the inheritance and they’d have nothing. She couldn’t lose all that just for the sake of a skeleton. They couldn’t go back and live with Trevor and Angie. Quite honestly, she’d rather sleep on the streets. She shivered and shuddered again. She’d just sit here until Ben came home and by that time, she might feel brave enough to go back inside. Yeah right.
Chapter Fourteen
1881
*
The small group were mesmerised by their discovery. The underground city was real and the implications of this were only just beginning to sink in. Careers would be made this day.
‘Here is the staircase, Alexandre said. ‘Shall we descend?’
They trooped down the long, almost vertical staircase.
‘Stay together, everybody,’ Alexandre’s father called out. ‘We do not know how big this place is. We already know it stretches for some miles and it would not do to get lost down here.’
They passed small rooms, large rooms, tunnels, artefacts and yet more staircases leading downwards.
‘I think we should go back up and work out how we are going to map the area,’ Harold said. ‘The place is so very vast we will need to work out a way to systematically mark out routes and catalogue our finds.’
‘You are right,’ Alexandre’s father agreed. ‘I am starting to get disorientated. Let us return to the surface for now.’
Alexandre blinked and squinted in the bright sunshine as he emerged from the deep hole in the ground. It felt wonderful to breathe in the afternoon air and feel t
he warmth of the sun on his chilled face.
There was so much to talk about. They sat around the remains of last night’s fire and told Jacques, Isobel, Leonora and Freddie what they had seen. Harold suggested a way to tackle the mammoth task ahead of them.
‘I think it would be prudent to explore one floor at a time to get the measure of how wide an area we are looking at. Alexandre, you walked for several hours before you reached us, but the city may also stretch out in other directions.’
‘Yes, that would be sensible,’ agreed Alexandre’s father. ‘But I am afraid that, for the first time, my curiosity and excitement are overcoming my pragmatism and I am desperate to discover how far down it extends.’
‘I am in agreement with you, Didier,’ said Maman. ‘I am simply dying to find out how deep down these caverns actually are.’
‘Good.’ Alexandre’s father seemed to reach a conclusion. ‘Harold, if you are happy to do it, will you start mapping the first level? In the meantime, Marie-Louise and I will descend to the lower levels to count the number of floors.’
‘May I accompany you, Didier?’ Victoria asked. ‘I too am bursting with curiosity.’ She glanced at her husband as she said this and Harold raised his eyes heavenward.
‘Of course,’ Papa agreed.
‘May we come too?’ Jacques asked, speaking on behalf of himself and Freddie.
‘I do not see why not. As long as you stay close. Leonora? Isobel? Are you coming?’
Leonora smiled and nodded, but Isobel shook her head vehemently.
‘Isobel,’ Leonora said. ‘I need you to accompany me. It will be fun I promise you. We shall hold hands and explore together.’
‘I am afraid,’ Isobel admitted, hanging her head.
‘Then we shall admire you all the more for overcoming your fear,’ Leonora encouraged. ‘Just come down to the first level with me and see what you think. If you do not like it, we shall come straight back up. Besides, if you do not come then one of us will be obliged to stay above ground with you and you will be denying that person the opportunity to satisfy their curiosity.’
Isobel was silent for a few moments and then reluctantly smiled at Leonora. ‘Very well, I shall not be a stick-in-the-mud. I shall be brave.’