by Ali McNamara
‘Hey, boy, it’s OK,’ Finn says, kneeling down next to him. ‘We’re here now.’
I hold my torch up to the wall next to him. ‘It’s a dead end,’ I say, not trying to hide the disappointment in my voice. ‘That’s why he didn’t go any further.’
‘Right, now we’ve found Fergus, let’s get back up to the surface. We don’t want that gap to close up and trap us in here.’
‘It won’t close on its own,’ I assure him. ‘This isn’t magic, you know. The reason the stones widened was because I set in motion some sort of pulley system that the monks must have installed to keep the passageway secret, should anyone come across it.’
‘Yes, I knew that,’ Finn says, standing up. ‘Of course I did.’
‘Good, then you won’t mind if I press this –’ Holding up my phone, I study the next set of repeat engravings from my photos of the high cross, and I press a series of smaller crosses etched on the wall around the alcove that Fergus had been sitting in.
The wall the dog had been cowering against a few moments ago slides open.
‘Are you coming?’ I ask an astonished Finn.
‘Do I have a choice?’ he says, as he and Fergus follow me down the next part of the tunnel.
We don’t encounter any more dead ends for quite some time, until we suddenly come across a simple, but very solid wooden door blocking our way. There doesn’t appear to be a handle or lock like a normal door would have, only a series of black iron bars fastening the wood together, and some wrought-iron decoration.
‘What’s the code this time?’ Finn asks, his eyes searching the wall for crosses that I can press.
‘I’m not sure. There don’t seem to be any engravings this time.’ I look at the photos once more, and then I scroll back to my photos of Father Duffy’s books. ‘The next symbol on the cross is a sort of scroll – the same one is on the books too. I wonder if that’s relevant?’
Finn holds his torch up to the door. ‘What about that iron decoration in the middle – is that anything similar to your photo?’
‘It is a bit. I wonder . . . ?’
I run my hand over the black metal detailing in the centre of the heavy wooden door, and I find that it moves slightly under my touch. ‘It’s loose,’ I tell Finn, as I move my hand backwards and forwards over the scroll until something begins to shift.
‘Keep going,’ Finn encourages as Fergus barks.
I move my hand in a clockwise direction over the metal, but nothing happens, so I change to an anti-clockwise direction and suddenly I hear a click.
‘Let’s give the door a push now,’ Finn says, moving in behind me. But I don’t need Finn’s extra strength, because the door is already swinging open.
I hurry into what at first appears to be a cave, but as I hold up my torch, and Finn does the same with his, I realise we’ve arrived in the cellar of The Welcome House.
Wondering how I hadn’t noticed the door the last time I was in the cellar, I close it to and hold my phone up to study the back of the door. It’s covered in stone so it blends in with the rest of the cellar. There are two Celtic crosses etched into the wall either side of the doorway.
‘We’re back in The Welcome House,’ I tell Finn eagerly. ‘I was right: this is the secret tunnel that leads from the original house out to the abbey. This must be why that rumour started that if you came down to the cellar you didn’t come back. You didn’t disappear, like people thought; you just came out the other side in the abbey. I can’t believe we’ve discovered the monks’ secret. How exciting is that?’
‘Very,’ Finn says, in a much calmer-sounding voice than mine. ‘I’m assuming that those steps over there lead back up to the house?’
‘Yes, they come out in the sitting room, behind the bookcase.’
‘And I’m assuming that when you came down here last time you locked the cellar door behind you?’
‘Yes I— Oh . . . ’ I say, as I realise where Finn is going with this.
‘I can only surmise from your tone that you didn’t happen to bring the key with you on this little trip?’
I shake my head.
‘So other than going all the way back through that tunnel, how are we supposed to get into the house?’
Forty
‘How long do you think Kiki will take to get here?’ Finn asks as we sit on the floor of the cellar waiting for her to arrive.
‘Not too long. But she doesn’t have the car, so she’ll probably have to walk up here.’
‘She might ask Eddie?’ Finn says hopefully.
‘No, I told her to come alone. The less people that know about this, the better.’
Luckily, Finn was able to get a phone signal when we went all the way to the top of the cellar steps and held his phone aloft. So he’d rung Kiki and I’d told her where we were, and what she needed to do to find us. After that, all we could do was sit back and wait.
‘Yes, you’re probably right,’ Finn agrees. ‘So, you’ve found the secret passageway that the monks used to hide people away on Rafferty Island, but you’ve not found any more of the elusive illuminated pages.’
‘I know. There was nothing in the tunnel that could have been used to hide them, was there?’
Finn shakes his head. ‘Nope. If there was, I didn’t see it.’
I sigh. ‘Maybe it was just wishful thinking on Father Duffy’s part?’
‘Perhaps. Or maybe someone got to them first.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Think about it, Ren,’ Finn says, stroking Fergus’s head, which is resting on his knee. ‘If you could find this passage, why couldn’t someone else know it was here too?’
He’s right. I’d been congratulating myself as if I was some kind of genius for figuring out the secret passageway, but it hadn’t been that hard.
‘My guess is whoever looks after this house knows all its ins, outs and secret tunnels.’
‘You think they might have got to the pages first?’
‘It’s possible.’
‘But why? What would they do with them? They can’t have sold them or donated them to a museum, otherwise we’d know about them. I did some research before I started this search and there’s no record of any pages ever being found from the Book of Tara, but Father Duffy insists there are several missing.’
‘Looks like you’re back to square one. Find the caretaker of The Welcome House and you might find the missing pages too.’
Suddenly we hear noises coming from the top of the staircase. It sounds like things being thrown to the ground.
‘It’s Kiki! She’s moving all the books from the shelves.’
I dash to the top of the stone steps. ‘Kiki, is that you? We’re right here, behind the door.’
‘Yes, Ren, it’s me!’ Kiki sounds out of breath. ‘Give me a minute!’
The sound of books being thrown to the ground stops and then we hear a dragging noise.
‘She’s moving the bookcase,’ I tell Finn, who’s waiting at the bottom of the steps with Fergus. ‘It might take her a while. It’s really heavy.’
But far sooner than I’d expected, I hear a key being put into the door and turned, and then the staircase is flooded with light as the door swings open.
‘Ren!’ Kiki flings her arms around me. ‘How did you get here?’
Fergus bounds up the stairs behind me and through the door, and I hear Finn following on.
‘Let’s get everyone out and then I’ll explain,’ I tell her, moving forward into the sitting room. ‘Oh, Eddie,’ I say, surprised to see him there. ‘I didn’t know you were with Kiki.’
‘Just as well I was,’ Eddie says. ‘That bookcase weighs a ton.’
‘Eddie was passing by on his motorbike and saw me walking up here,’ Kiki explains. ‘He insisted on bringing me the rest of the way.’
Finn looks at his watch. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be working, Eddie? If we weren’t so grateful for being let out of that cellar, I’d tell you off for being with Kiki on the hotel
’s time.’
‘So where does the tunnel lead to?’ Eddie asks, looking with interest through the cellar door.
‘Long story,’ Finn says, looking at me. ‘Shall I pop the kettle on and then we can tell you all about it.’
‘No, let me,’ Eddie says. ‘You two look like you need a sit down after all your adventures.’
I let Finn tell the lion’s share of the story to Kiki and Eddie, while we sit drinking tea in the dishevelled sitting room.
Something was bugging me, and I wasn’t sure what, so I was happy for Finn to do most of the talking.
‘Just as well we were here to help,’ Eddie says, smiling at Kiki. ‘How’s your tea?’ he asks me. ‘You’re a bit quiet, if you don’t mind me saying, miss?’
I stare down into my half-drunk mug of tea.
‘Where did you get this from, Eddie?’ I ask, looking up from my mug at him. ‘The tea, I mean.’
Eddie looks puzzled. ‘The kitchen, where else, miss?’
‘But Finn said we were out of tea this morning. He said he’d used the last teabag at breakfast, and we’d need to get some more.’
Eddie shrugs. ‘I don’t know, do I?’ he says, looking at Finn and then Kiki. ‘There was tea in the kitchen when I got there.’
‘Maybe Eddie found some that you’d missed?’ Kiki suggests. ‘Why does it matter so much, Ren?’
I look suspiciously at Eddie, who doesn’t return my stare. He looks down into his own empty mug now, no doubt wishing there was something left for him to drink.
‘Eddie, when we came up from the cellar, you asked where the tunnel led to. How did you know there was a tunnel that led from the cellar? I never told Kiki when I spoke to her on the phone. I only gave her directions where to find us.’
‘I must have guessed.’ Eddie looks distinctly uncomfortable as he fidgets in his chair.
‘It’s funny you should say that, Ren,’ Kiki says, looking at Eddie, ‘because I was going to ask how you knew where the key for the cellar door was.’
‘You told me, that’s how,’ Eddie says, his face reddening.
‘No, I didn’t. I told you I was going up to The Welcome House because Ren and Finn were stuck in the cellar, and as soon as we got here you rushed upstairs to get the key while I was busy pulling books from the shelves. I didn’t have time to ask you how you knew where it was.’
‘Eddie?’ Finn asks, looking at him. ‘How did you know?’
‘Maybe I should be getting back to work,’ Eddie says hurriedly, standing up. ‘Donal will be wondering where I am.’
‘Donal will be wondering where I am too. But I’m in charge and I say you stay here for now.’
‘Wait there a moment,’ I say, standing up. ‘I’ll be right back.’ I dash upstairs to the bedroom where Finn and I had slept last night and I pause at the door.
I thought so.
I walk calmly back downstairs and enter the sitting room, but I don’t sit down.
‘Finn,’ I ask, ‘did you make the bed before we left this morning?’
‘What?’ Finn asks, looking at me like I’ve flipped.
‘Did you make the bed we slept in last night?’
Kiki gasps in delight.
‘No, sorry,’ Finn says, mystified now. ‘We were in a bit of a hurry.’
‘I didn’t make it either, and yet it’s been made. How do you explain that, Eddie?’
Eddie doesn’t speak. He just looks down into his lap.
‘Eddie, are you the caretaker of The Welcome House? Has it been you all along?’
Forty-One
We all stare at Eddie.
‘Don’t be silly, Ren,’ Kiki says. ‘How could it be Eddie? He’d have told us ages ago if it was, wouldn’t you, Eddie?’
Eddie looks at Kiki, ‘I’m sorry, Kiki,’ he says quietly. ‘I never wanted to hide it from anyone, especially you.’
‘It is you then?’ I say gently, as Kiki looks like she might burst into tears. ‘You’re the one behind everything?’
‘Not everything,’ Eddie says, looking at me now. ‘I only look after the house, I’m not a thief or anything.’
‘We never said you were.’ I turn to Finn; he looks as shocked as I am. ‘Perhaps you’d better tell us the whole story, Eddie?’
‘I will, but you must all promise this goes no further than these four walls, OK?’
We all nod. ‘Of course,’ I promise. ‘You have our word.’
‘Right then.’ Eddie takes a deep breath. ‘The protection of this house has been entrusted to my family for as long as anyone can remember. I didn’t know anything about it until me da, on his deathbed, told me that it was him who looked after the place. My face looked much like yours all do now when he told me.’
Eddie pauses for a moment to remember.
‘I had no idea me da was the mystery caretaker everyone talked about. He wasn’t the type of fella I expected would look after a house. Me da was a bricklayer by trade, straight as a die, and a man of few words. Me mam would never have believed he came here to clean and change beds!’ Eddie smiles for a moment. ‘But da said it was an O’Grady tradition for the eldest male of the family to care for this place. He didn’t know when the custom began, though he thought it might have been when the monks abandoned the abbey. They’d have wanted to leave the house with someone they trusted to protect it and its secrets. All I know is, generations of O’Gradys have taken on the role without questioning why. Me granddad had passed it on to me da when he could no longer do it, and now it’s my turn. Me da made me promise I wouldn’t tell no one, not even Orla. He said when the time came I was to pass the job on to my own son, if I had one, but in the meantime I was to keep it a secret. So I’ve been doing it ever since.’ Eddie shrugs. ‘That’s it. That’s the whole story.’
We sit in silence for a moment, trying to take this in.
‘Is that why you said the person you saw early one morning was tall and broad, so it would deflect suspicion from you?’ I ask, looking at Eddie’s slight frame sitting in the chair.
Eddie nods.
‘And why you tried to scare me off with tales of bad things happening in the cellar?’
‘Sort of. I made that sound a lot worse than it was. There are tales of people disappearing down there – I just embellished them a little. I thought it might scare you off from investigating the house any further. But it didn’t, did it?’ Eddie says ruefully. ‘You kept pushing and pushing to find the truth.’
‘Sorry about that,’ I say, meaning it. ‘I was prepared to give up the search for the owner after Donal gave me grief at the quiz. He made me think hard about why I was doing this and whether I should carry on with it.’
‘Why did you then?’ Eddie asks. ‘I tried everything to put you off.’
‘It was Father Duffy. He told me all about the illuminated manuscripts the monks left behind, and how pages of them were missing. Much like your family secret, these manuscripts have been passed down from priest to priest. As each new priest took over Ballykiltara church, they were shown the manuscripts and told the tale of how the books were originally created over on Rafferty Island while the monks hid from the Vikings. I wanted to help him find the missing pages, to give something back to the Celtic monks who worked so hard to complete these beautiful books.’ I hesitate. ‘You see, even though I’m English, I’ve been told I might be distantly related to one of the monks who came to Tara from Lindisfarne.’
‘I told you, I knew you had Celtic blood when I first met you,’ Finn says, smiling at me. ‘It’s partly your hair, but mostly your attitude.’
‘Thanks!’
But instead of making fun like Finn, Eddie frowns. ‘What sort of pages are you looking for?’
‘Illuminated pages – intricate drawings and paintings on old paper.’
‘Like biblical stuff?’
‘Yes exactly that, why?’
‘Because I think I know where they are.’
He jumps up, but then hesitates. ‘If I find them for you
, do you promise not to tell anyone what I’ve told you about today – about me and my family?’
‘Eddie, we’ve already told you we won’t say anything,’ I assure him.
‘Not even to Father Duffy? If this is what you’re looking for, he’ll wonder where they came from.’
‘I think he’ll just be pleased to have them back. He won’t worry too much about the source.’
‘OK then,’ Eddie says, and we all watch in silence as he goes to the back of the bookcase. I think he’s going to disappear down into the cellar, to follow the tunnel that Finn and I came through, but he doesn’t; he crouches down behind the empty bookcase and begins to feel underneath it.
‘Here,’ he says, pulling something free. ‘I think this might be what you want.’
Eddie hands me a flat brown paper package. I look at him in astonishment, before I begin to prise it open gently, in case this is what Eddie seems to think it might be.
Wrapped inside several sheets of brown paper is a battered leather folder held together with leather cord. With the others watching my every move, I manage to untie the cord. Then using the cotton gloves Father Duffy left behind, I open up the folder. Inside I find a sheet of parchment that looks very much like the pages in Father Duffy’s books; it’s covered in tiny, ornate script, and one of the letters at the beginning of the page has been illustrated with brightly coloured inks that don’t seem to have faded at all. I gingerly lift the first page, and find another piece of parchment, and underneath that one another, all covered with script and illuminated illustrations.
‘There must be about a dozen pages here,’ I say excitedly. ‘This is it! These are the missing pages!’
‘How did you know they were under there, Eddie?’ Finn asks.
‘Because I put them there,’ Eddie says. ‘I was told about the passageway that you two went down when I was told about the O’Gradys looking after the house. Part of our job in protecting the house over the years has been to protect those documents too – until their rightful owner would come along to collect them, me da said. They used to be kept in the passageway, tucked in a little alcove. But I was worried that water might seep into that passage and ruin them, so I moved them into the house. I had to hide them somewhere, so I thought why not hide pages underneath pages.’