The Secret of Dinswood

by Ellen Alexander

  “I think I’ll stay inside and work on the puzzle some more,” Emma said, reluctant to go back outside in the cold. The combination of the warm fire in the lounge and the huge meal they’d just eaten were making her kind of sleepy. An afternoon nap sounded very appealing.

  “I’m going to stay in too. I thought I’d sit by the window and sketch the great view outside,” Martha said, indicating the lounge window closest to them.

  “I’ll go outside with you,” Doug said, rising from his position on the floor. “I’m getting stiff from sitting around. Besides, I need to put the sled away.”

  The afternoon passed quietly for Emma and Martha. Martha pulled a chair up by the window and set to work sketching with the charcoals Emma had gotten her. Emma worked on the puzzle a while longer before finally curling up in a chair by the fire and falling asleep. Outside the sky began to turn a slate gray. Darker clouds were rolling in, and the wind began howling at the windows. The snowstorm was on its way.

  After Doug put the sled back in the shed, he and Sebastian decided to make an igloo. They started by packing a huge mound of snow and were in the process of digging out the center when they noticed that the wind had picked up and it was getting colder.

  Straightening up from his position on his knees, Doug sat back on his heels and looked at the sky. “Looks like the snowstorm is moving in. Maybe we ought to get back inside before it starts.”

  “Okay,” Sebastian readily agreed. “I’m starting to get kind of cold anyway.”

  Once they were back inside the castle, Sebastian turned to Doug and asked, “What do you want to do now?”

  “Well, I told Dad I’d spend some time with him this afternoon. We’re going to play chess on the board I made for him. Do you want to come?”

  “Naw,” Sebastian answered, not really in the mood for chess. “I think I’ll look through the cookbook Martha gave me.”

  “Okay, I’ll see you later then.”

  With that, the two boys parted ways. Sebastian headed to his room to get his cookbook, and Doug turned toward the stairs. He was halfway up the first flight when something made him check his jeans pocket. He put his hand in the right pocket and then the left. Both pockets were empty. He was certain he’d put the knife Emma had given him in one of his front pockets. Surely, he hadn’t lost it already. Then he remembered that he’d used it outside to cut a twig to help dig out the igloo. He must not have gotten it back in his pocket securely. Turning around, he retraced his steps, intending to go back outside and look for it.

  A blast of frigid air struck Doug the moment he stepped outside, stinging the exposed flesh of his face and hands. Pulling the knit cap he was wearing down further on his head, he hurried to the tree where he’d cut the twig earlier. Once there, he looked all around the base of the tree, but the knife was nowhere to be seen. The red knife should have been easy to spot against the background of white snow, but Doug couldn’t see it anywhere. Reasoning that maybe he’d dropped it on the way to the area where they’d built the igloo, Doug followed the footprints he and Sebastian had made not long ago. About halfway between the tree and the igloo, he found the knife. Breathing a sigh of relief, he picked it up and put it in his jacket pocket, zipping the pocket shut as an added precaution. He’d take the knife inside and dry off each of the blades one at a time. He didn’t want it to rust or tarnish from the moisture.

  The first snowflakes were just beginning to fall as he made his way back to the castle. He was just about to start up the front steps when he caught a flash of red out of the corner of his right eye. Turning his head quickly to get a better look, he could see someone in a red knit cap moving behind the chapel. Certain that it was the same person that he’d seen when he’d been outside with Emma on Thanksgiving Day, he was determined to follow this time.

  The person was moving away from the castle and into the woods. Doug suspected that the unknown person was a man. This was confirmed a few minutes later when Doug was standing behind the chapel examining the boot prints the man had left in the snow. The prints were much too large to be that of a woman. Doug looked off into the woods in the direction he’d last seen the man. He had tried to keep an eye on the man, but his view had been blocked as he’d gotten closer to the chapel. Although the man was no longer in sight, he’d left a clear trail of footprints. Without hesitation, Doug began to follow the trail.

  The snow was coming down harder and faster now; the wind, which was still at his back, was blowing hard enough that it made little eddies in the snow. Doug knew that if he didn’t hurry, the combination of the wind and snow would begin to obliterate the trail he was following. Doug’s fears were realized when a few minutes later, the trail disappeared altogether. Uncertain of what to do next, Doug paused for a moment, but the force of the frigid wind made it difficult to remain still for very long.

  With a shiver, Doug pulled the hood of his coat up over his knit cap and tied it with fingers stiff from cold. Then he took his gloves out of his pockets, being careful not to pull out Emma’s knife as well, and hastily put them on. After zipping the pocket up again, he looked around and saw nothing but trees and snow. He had just decided to give up and go back to the castle when he thought he saw another flash of red not too far ahead. Quickly, he set off once again, putting all of his effort into keeping the red cap in sight, but this was becoming more and more difficult in the worsening storm.

  What followed was an extended game of cat and mouse. Doug would follow the moving red cap for a while and then he would lose sight of it. He would be on the brink of giving up when he would catch sight of it again and then he would follow once more. The game continued on in this fashion until the red cap suddenly stopped moving. Doug stopped in his tracks too and strained to see through the swirling snow. Several questions raced through his mind in quick succession as he watched the now stationary red cap. Why had the man stopped in the middle of the woods? There were no structures around that Doug could see. Had the man discovered he was being followed and was now waiting for Doug, intending to grab him as he came by? Frantically, Doug tried to decide what to do, but his mind, numbed with cold, seemed unequal to the task. One thing was sure, he couldn’t stand there indefinitely; he needed to keep moving or he’d freeze to death.

  Almost unconsciously, Doug started forward, hoping to at least get a closer look at the man before heading back to the safety of the castle. If the man was unaware of Doug’s presence, the wind would mask the sounds of his approach, and he could use the intervening trees as cover. Cautiously, Doug continued forward, but as he got closer, he realized that there was something wrong. The red cap still hadn’t moved, and it appeared to be up in a tree. Had the man climbed a tree in order to ambush him? Even to Doug’s cold, fogged mind that didn’t make any sense. The mystery resolved itself when Doug finally got close enough to see that what he’d been stalking wasn’t a man in a red knit cap, but a cardinal!

  Astounded and dismayed, Doug once again stopped dead in his tracks. For a moment, he was too stunned to think, then reasoning returned, and he began to wonder just how long he’d been following this stupid bird instead of his true quarry. Doug howled in frustration when he realized he’d probably been following the bird from the moment he’d lost the man’s trail in the snow. He hadn’t actually seen the man after that and had been curious as to why the man had seemed to change direction so often. Now it all made sense.

  As Doug stood there working things out in his mind, the snowstorm reached blizzard proportions. The wind began blowing the snow so hard that Doug could no longer see more than a few feet in front of his face. Quickly, Doug decided it was time to cut his losses and head back to the castle. The problem was he had no idea where he was or in which direction the castle lay. All of his attention had been focused on keeping the red cap, or red bird as he now realized, in sight, and he had not been keeping track of where he was going.

  Trying to remain calm, Doug reasoned that if he walked into the wind, he would be going in the right direc
tion, because up until now, it had been at his back. With firm resolve, he turned around and gasped as a blast of wind nearly knocked him off his feet. The snow felt like icy needles as it struck his face. Leaning into the wind and tucking his head down in an effort to protect his eyes and face from the icy pellets of snow, Doug struggled forward. He knew he was in serious trouble when several minutes later, the castle was still nowhere in sight. Even allowing for the fact that he had been walking at a much slower pace since he’d turned back, he should have reached the castle by now. Instead, he was still surrounded by trees with no recognizable landmarks to guide him. His hands and feet were already numb with cold, and he knew if he didn’t get out of the weather soon, he would die of hypothermia.

  The silent, frozen trees seemed to mock him as he frantically looked around for some kind of shelter and quickly saw that the woods had none to offer. With an effort, Doug managed to quell the panic that was threatening to overwhelm him and decided that if he just kept going, he would eventually come upon the castle. After all, the castle was enormous and would be difficult to miss, even in a blizzard. Doug had to admit the error in his thinking when he passed a tree stump he’d seen earlier and realized he was walking in circles.

  For a moment, Doug considered staying put and waiting for someone to find him, but he quickly rejected that idea when he remembered that no one knew he was outside in the storm. Sebastian thought he was with his dad, and his dad would think he was still with Sebastian. Emma and Martha probably wouldn’t miss him until suppertime, and he’d most likely be dead by then. No, he had to keep going, but walking was becoming more of an effort with each step. He had already lost all feeling in his toes, and he was exhausted from battling the wind. Determined not to give up, Doug set out once again, saying a prayer as he went.

  He’d no sooner finished his prayer, when he remembered the knife Emma had given him had a compass in the handle. Berating himself for being such an idiot, he struggled to unzip the pocket containing the knife with his frozen fingers. Finally, he had it in his hands. Reasoning that he had been moving east when this whole disaster had started, he now needed to proceed in a westerly direction, and he should eventually come upon the castle. The only problem would be if in his wanderings he had gone too far south. In that case, he could miss the castle entirely by passing to the south of it. If he had wandered too far to the north, he would at least come across the road leading to the school from Windland. At any rate, he was out of options and walking on a westerly tack seemed to be his best chance of survival. Summoning up his last bit of strength, Doug started off once more, this time with the compass as his guide.

  Just when Doug began to fear that he’d passed to the south of the castle, the large, gray stones of the east wall came into view. A relief so great washed over Doug that, for a moment, he couldn’t move. Giving out a loud whoop of joy, he struggled through the storm to the castle entrance, saying a silent but heartfelt prayer of thanks as he went. Just inside the doors of the main entrance, Doug fell to his knees, the little red pocketknife clutched tightly in his frozen fingers. That knife had saved his life, and he vowed then and there that he would always keep it with him. Giving the face of the compass a quick kiss of gratitude, he staggered to his feet and walked slowly to his room.

  The rest of Christmas vacation passed quickly. Doug had decided not to tell the others about being caught out in the blizzard. Looking back, Doug realized how stupid he’d been. Only a fool would go wandering around in the woods during a blizzard, and he wasn’t about to admit he was a fool to anyone.

  Classes resumed again the first week of January, and they were all soon too busy with schoolwork to give the treasure hunt much thought. They still planned to look through Lord Dinswood’s collection of books if ever the opportunity presented itself, but that seemed less and less likely with each passing day.

  The new semester saw the beginning of instruction in ballroom dancing in the PE classes just as Miss Grimstock had promised during the school tour back in September. The first day of class after Christmas vacation, Miss Krum told the girls that they would be having PE with the boys for the next several weeks so that they might learn to dance in, as Miss Grimstock had said, “a proper manner.” Emma was surprised to discover that it wasn’t exactly ballroom dancing that they would be learning. Although they would be taught the waltz, they would also be taught steps used in English country dancing, a type of dancing that was popular in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England. Miss Krum explained that instead of a prom their junior and senior year, they would attend an actual ball. They would dress in the costumes of the period and dance to the music of a small, live orchestra. Every year, they would be taught three dances, so that by the time they were old enough to attend the ball, they would be able to perform an adequate number of dances. Unlike most of the students, particularly the boys, Emma was excited about learning the dances and found herself looking forward to her junior year. As she’d done the very first time she’d seen the ballroom, she imagined herself being swept along in the arms of a handsome young man, only this time, the young man she envisioned was Doug.

  After explaining everything to the class, Miss Krum told them to line up across the width of the ballroom. Then Mr. Dorfman brought in the boys’ PE class. The boys were instructed to line up opposite the girls, their partner for the duration of the ballroom dancing unit would be the girl across from them. As Doug didn’t have PE the same time as Emma and Martha, Emma didn’t really care who her partner was. She just hoped she didn’t end up with someone too clumsy. Emma didn’t have to wait long to see who her partner would be. The first boy to enter the ballroom was Doug’s roommate Phil, and upon seeing Emma, he quickly took the spot across from her. Sebastian entered next, and without hesitation, selected the position opposite Martha. Emma was glad that she and Martha at least had partners that they knew. She could tell from Martha’s expression that she was pleased as well.

  Over the next several weeks, they were taught the steps to such dances as “A Trip to Highgate,” “The Barley Mow,” and “The Touchstone.” In addition to learning the dances, they also learned the names of the steps, holds, figures, and orientations involved in each dance. Phil, who was almost as tall as Doug, with blond hair and blue eyes, proved to be an able partner. He never stepped on Emma’s toes and seemed to have no problem remembering the steps to each dance. Martha, however, wasn’t as fortunate. Sebastian frequently forgot the steps or turned in the wrong direction—this usually resulted in him either bumping into Martha or tromping on her feet. To Emma’s amazement, Martha was surprisingly patient with Sebastian, never once calling him an idiot. In truth, Sebastian was trying his best, and whenever he made a mistake, he was genuinely contrite. Emma could only assume that Martha realized this as well and had decided to cut him a little slack. Martha’s patience paid off too, as gradually Sebastian began to get the hang of it. By the last couple of lessons, he even appeared to be enjoying himself.

  Finally, the last day of the dance unit arrived. The students spent the entire class period practicing the three dances they’d learned to music coming from a CD player. Except for the lack of costumes and live musicians, the atmosphere was like that of a real ball. The students were more relaxed and conversed freely as they danced. Emma had wanted to ask Phil a question for a long time but had never had the nerve. Realizing that today would most likely be her last opportunity, she was determined to talk to Phil the first chance she got. The opportunity came during the very last dance. The students had learned the waltz step and had chosen a waltz as their last dance. Now Emma could talk to Phil without the danger of being overheard.

  As Phil swept her over the dance floor, Emma swallowed nervously and without looking up at him said, “Phil, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you.”

  Phil’s only response was to look at her with raised eyebrows.

  Now that she had his attention, Emma continued, “Do you remember the dance the night of the October Fest?”


  “Yeah,” Phil replied, his curiosity evident.

  “Why didn’t you or Tom dance with me?” Before Phil could reply, Emma continued on hurriedly. “I mean, you guys asked Martha to dance, and you both knew me as well as Martha, so I just kind of wondered why you didn’t ask me to dance too.” She knew she was rambling, but she just couldn’t seem to stop herself.

  Phil gave her a look that indicated the answer to her question was obvious. “Well, Doug’s my friend,” he answered, as if that explained everything.

  Thoroughly confused, Emma asked, “What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “Well, Tom and I figured you were Doug’s girlfriend. It wouldn’t have been right for us to dance with you.”

  Emma’s eyes widened in dawning comprehension, but there was still something she needed the answer to. “Who told you I was Doug’s girlfriend?”

  Phil swirled her around before replying, “Nobody, I guess. We just figured you were.”

  Emma was getting frustrated. Each of Phil’s replies kept leading to another question, but now that Emma had begun this interrogation, she was determined to see it through to the end. She desperately needed an explanation for what had turned out to be the worst night of her life. “Why would you figure that?” she asked, finally looking Phil in the eye.

  Phil shrugged his shoulders, obviously tiring of the whole subject. “You know, the way he’s always with you and stuff like that.”

  Emma realized that that was probably all she’d get from Phil. At least it did explain why no one had danced with her that night. It hadn’t been because she was ugly or poor, as she’d thought. Most likely everyone else had assumed, as Phil and Tom had, that she was Doug’s girlfriend. Emma tried not to read too much into that, just because it was the perception of others didn’t make it true. After all, Doug had never actually told Phil that Emma was his girlfriend. Still, Emma felt a little thrill at even being labeled Doug’s girlfriend, and she was glad to finally have a reasonable explanation for that horrible night.