The House of Hidden Wonders

by Sharon Gosling

  Zinnie looked over Sadie’s head to Nell, who was doodling with the chalk on the slate and humming to herself. “She’s all right here, isn’t she? Without you, I mean?”

  “She’ll be fine. Everyone here loves her. She’s even managed to charm Mrs Collins.”

  Zinnie smiled. “That’s good. Come on then.”

  “What are we going to do about Nell?” Sadie asked, as they hurried back towards the castle.

  “You heard her – she wants to come home,” said Zinnie.

  “But we don’t have a home,” Sadie pointed out. “Not really.”

  “Well, I’m not smart like you, Sadie. I can’t read books or write letters. The doctor isn’t going to offer to train me in medicine. I’ll never go back to the orphanage, and I can’t stand the idea of the poorhouse, so I’ll make a home as best I can, where I can. For me and for Nell.”

  “The doctor said she was there when Lady Sarah offered to make you a maid in her house. Why can’t you do that?”

  They had reached the Mile. Zinnie stopped and turned to Sadie. “Nell’s too young to be taken on as a maid. I can’t leave her, can I? Anyway, there’s still Aelfine to think of.”

  “You can’t look after her properly, Zin!”

  “She doesn’t need me to! She can look after herself. She just needs to be with people who understand her, that’s all. She just needs help. Nothing that’s happened is her fault, it’s MacDuff’s!”

  “I know, but—”

  “What do you think would have happened to you if I’d listened to what everyone else thought?” Zinnie demanded. “If I’d listened to what they say about the Irish here, and even more what they say about a girl who knows every plant and how to use them? Or Nell? What if I’d listened to people who murmured about Nell?”

  “I know,” Sadie said, resting a hand on her arm. “And you’ll never understand how much that means to me, Zinnie. But it’s different with Aelfine. You must see—”

  “It’s not different! She’s different, that’s all, and that’s what people don’t like. They never do. She’s not sick or stupid, Sadie. She doesn’t need a doctor and she doesn’t need to be locked up. She just needs patience and to be given a chance.”

  “But we can barely help ourselves. How are we going to help her?”

  “We do our best,” Zinnie said shortly. “Isn’t that what I’ve always done for you? For Nell?”

  Sadie’s eyes filled with tears. “It is. I know it is.”

  Zinnie took a deep breath and pulled Sadie against her. “I’m so proud of you, do you know that?” she said into her sister’s ear. “You’re going to train with Doctor Jex-Blake and you’re going to be a doctor, Sadie. A doctor! Imagine!”

  “But what about you, Zinnie?”

  Zinnie patted Sadie on the back. “Who knows? Maybe after all this is over I can set myself up as a professional finder-out of things. Not just for Conan Doyle but for whoever wants things found. Might earn enough to get a real room somewhere.”

  “With Aelfine and … and Nell?”

  Zinnie finally pulled away and looked down at Sadie with a frown. “Do you really want her to go into an orphanage? Would you really put her in one of those places?”

  “No,” Sadie said, wiping her eyes. “But Doctor Jex-Blake said … she said there might be a way of arranging a private adoption. So she’d be in a proper house, with a proper family. We could still visit her, Zin, and she’d be safe and looked after.”

  Zinnie frowned. “A private adoption?”

  Sadie nodded. “She said she’d arrange it herself. So that we’d know they’d be good people.”

  Zinnie looked away, up at the looming bulk of the castle. “Well,” she said quietly, “I suppose that’s something to think about.”

  Sadie looked relieved. “Then you will? You will think about it?”

  “Of course I will. But it would be Nell that gets to decide anyway.”

  “She’ll do anything you tell her to, Zin. You know that.”

  They reached the mouth of Writers’ Court with Zinnie deep in thought. She’d been imagining the seance as a sort of line, beyond which everything would go back to normal. But she was beginning to realize that things would never be the same again. Their lives as they knew them were coming to an end and the sisters would never again be together in quite the same way.

  She was so preoccupied by this thought that Sadie had to pull her out of the way to stop her walking straight into the man leaving Mary King’s Close as they got to it. He was obviously in a hurry, charging up the broken stairs as if he were running from something. He was as out of place as Lady Sarah had been when she and the doctor had visited – more so, in fact, because he wore a top hat and cloak that flowed out behind him to become one with the shadows around him. He carried a heavy stick, topped with the silver head of a wolf. It was his face, though, that made Zinnie gasp. She turned away into the shadows, pulling Sadie with her as he strode past.

  “What?” Sadie hissed. “What is it?”

  “That was Phineas MacDuff!”

  “What’s he doing here?”

  Zinnie wracked her brain. “Talbot must have told him about his visit yesterday. Why would he bring—” But she knew, before the thought had even had time to settle in her mind. “Oh no!”

  She began to run, Sadie close behind her. They flew down the steps into the underground maze of Mary King’s Close, struggling to hurry between the people crowded on the floor. Zinnie made straight for the street itself. It was still deserted but sounds were emanating from below – men’s voices, bellowing. Bursting between each yell came a resounding screech.

  “That’s Ruby!” Zinnie hurtled down the steep alleyway, pulling out her little knife as she went. She reached the floorless room and could see, ahead, figures moving in the gloom: two men struggling. One of them had hold of Ruby and was trying to wrestle her into a cloth sack. The other was Talbot. He had Aelfine by one arm as she kicked and screamed, struggling to get to her pet. With his other hand, he was trying to help with the frantic monkey.

  “Let them go!” Zinnie bellowed. “Let them go, right now!”

  She dropped her bag and lunged at Talbot. She slashed at his arm and he roared as the blade cut deep enough to draw blood. He let go of Aelfine and she was flung backwards, stumbling towards the hole’s edge.

  “No!” Zinnie threw herself at Aelfine, grabbing at her as she plunged over the broken boards. She caught hold of the girl’s arm but couldn’t stop her falling. Over the edge of the void they both went, brick dust billowing around them as they plummeted into the dark. Zinnie heard Sadie scream her name. A second later, she crashed down beside Aelfine, landing on what felt like a jagged pile of bricks and broken wood. She hit her head against something hard and saw stars sparking in the darkness. Her ears rang, and for a second she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t hear. Then sound rushed back in again – Sadie screaming, Ruby shrieking like a demon, Talbot and his man yelling.

  Zinnie rolled towards Aelfine, patting for her in the dark. Her head hurt. So did her shoulder.

  “Aelfine,” she whispered, and tasted blood in her mouth.

  Aelfine whimpered slightly. A shadow loomed far above them, at the edge of the hole. Zinnie covered Aelfine’s mouth with her hand as Talbot searched the darkness for them. If they didn’t move, if they didn’t make a sound…

  Ruby was still squawking, but it was muffled now – they’d managed to get her into the sack. Zinnie held her breath, tried to ignore the ache in her head.

  “Let’s go,” Talbot said abruptly. “We’ve got one of them. We’ll come back for the other with the rest of the men. If she’s still alive. Or maybe she’ll come looking for us instead, save us the trouble, eh?”

  His shadow disappeared, but still Zinnie held her breath. The monkey’s screeches faded along with Talbot’s footsteps as he retreated with his prize.

  There was a second of stillness. Then Sadie appeared at the lip of the void, her breath coming in harsh sobs.r />
  “Zinnie!” she cried. “Where are you? Are you all right?”

  Zinnie levered herself up, one hand against her sore head. “I’m all right. Aelfine… Are you hurt?”

  The girl sat up as Zinnie reached for her. “Ruby,” she said tearfully. “They’ve got Ruby.”

  “I know – I’m sorry. But we’ll get her back, I promise. Can you stand?”

  They got up carefully, Aelfine still crying, although from what Zinnie could tell that was more about the loss of her pet than it was about being hurt.

  It took them ages to find a way to climb out of the hole. Sadie helped to pull them out.

  “You could both have been killed,” she said, her voice still shaky as she hugged them.

  “Yeah,” Zinnie winced. “Let’s not do that again if we can help it.”

  “Ruby,” Aelfine moaned. “I’ve got to go after them. I’ve got to get her back!”

  She went to follow the men, but Zinnie and Sadie both held her back.

  “Stop,” Zinnie said hoarsely, still winded. “Aelfine, you can’t go after them. That’s exactly what they want.”

  “But they’ll hurt her! They’ll—”

  “They won’t,” Zinnie said. “She’s too valuable to them for that. We’ll get her back, I promise. I promise. But you have to stay here. You have to hide. You can’t let them get you.”

  Aelfine collapsed in a heap and cried as if her world had ended.

  “That’s it,” said Sadie, wrapping her arms round Aelfine as the girl sobbed. “We have to cancel the seance. MacDuff knows it’s Aelfine down here!”

  “We can’t cancel,” Zinnie said. “If we don’t do this now, he’s going to get away with everything he’s done and Aelfine will still be in danger.”

  “But Zinnie, how can we carry on?” Sadie demanded. “If he knows it’s Aelfine, whatever we do, he’s going to work out that the seance is some kind of trick. He’ll have his own plan, won’t he?”

  “I know that,” Zinnie said. “But I’ve got a plan too. And I need your help to make it work. I need both of you,” she said, crouching beside Aelfine and putting her hands on the sobbing girl’s shoulders. “We can beat him and we can get Ruby back, but only if we do this – together.”

  “I can’t,” Aelfine said, still crying. “I can’t be the ghost without Ruby. I can’t.”

  “You can,” Zinnie promised. “I know you can and we’ll be here to help you. This is the only way, Aelfine. If we don’t do this, you’re never going to be safe and we might never get Ruby back.”

  That made Aelfine sob even harder. Zinnie pulled her into a hug.

  “Aelfine,” Zinnie said softly. “What was your ma’s name? I never asked you.”

  “Eliza,” the girl wept, between gasps for breath. “Eliza Dumas.”

  “We can do this,” she told both Aelfine and Sadie. “Together, we can do this. I know we can. We’ll do it for your ma, Aelfine. We’ll do it for Eliza. She deserves that, doesn’t she?” Zinnie looked at Sadie over the distraught girl’s head.

  The sound of her mother’s name seemed to have a calming effect on Aelfine. “Yes,” she said. “We’ll do it for Ma. And we’ll get Ruby back. We will.”

  Sadie hesitated for another second and then nodded. “All right. What do you need me to do?”

  Zinnie got to her feet. “First of all, Aelfine, I’m sorry – this is horrible – but I need you to tell me exactly where you saw MacDuff take your ma. Can you tell me where he left her body? Can you remember?”

  Aelfine looked away. “Yes. I remember. She’s under the bridge at Dean, near the tree that has one –” she hiccupped a little but carried on – “one branch broken.”

  Zinnie hugged her tightly. “Thank you. I’ll never ask you about that again. I promise. You’re so brave, Aelfine. Are you ready for the next thing?”

  Aelfine blinked, nodding.

  “I need you to show Sadie how to get into that room on the other side of the hole without coming through this way. All right?”

  Aelfine sniffed and gulped. “Yes,” she said, looking at Sadie. “There’s a lot of climbing.”

  “That’s all right,” Sadie said with a sigh. “I have a feeling that climbing is going to be the least difficult thing I’m going to have to do for this ‘seance’.”

  “Brilliant,” Zinnie said. “As for the rest of it … you’re going to need these.” She retrieved the bag she had brought from MacDuff’s place and opened it, taking out the dress and scarf. The crystal ball and handkerchief she stuffed into her own pocket.

  Aelfine gasped. “These are my ma’s!”

  Zinnie hugged her. “They are. I’m hoping the clothes will fit Sadie. She just needs to borrow them for tomorrow night.”

  Aelfine stared solemnly at the clothes, as if thinking hard. Then she looked up at Zinnie. “You want Sadie to pretend to be my ma. And you want me to show her how to be a ghost.”

  Zinnie smiled. “I said you were clever, didn’t I?”

  “Well, Aelfine might be,” Sadie said. “But I’m as much in the dark as ever. What are you both talking about?”

  Zinnie grinned. “I’ll explain. Then you both need to get some rest. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day and we’re all going to have to be at our sharpest.”

  Later, once they had reached the hidden rooms beyond the broken floor and Zinnie had explained what needed to be done, she left the two girls alone and set off on her own errand.

  As Zinnie made for Dean Village, part of her wished she’d asked Aelfine to come with her. But it would have been an awful ordeal to put the little girl through. Besides, Zinnie needed to know that it was possible for anyone to follow the directions Aelfine had given her.

  The clouds had cleared and, as late as it was, there was still light in the sky. Soon it would be midsummer and once they were past it the days would begin closing in towards winter. Life in Mary King’s Close was hard enough in good weather but, when the winds blew cold and brought the ice and snow at the tail end of the year, summer there felt like paradise.

  Zinnie shivered at the thought of spending another winter in the close and wondered how many of her sisters would still be there with her. Part of her wished none of them would be, that Sadie, Nell and Aelfine would have found better places to be. She would miss her family terribly. But if they were safe and happy, she told herself, that would be fine.

  Later still, Zinnie hurried back the way she had come in darkness, hearing the bell of St Giles clang out ten o’clock. She went into Writers’ Court and ran up the stairs to Constance McQuirter’s room, banging on the door only briefly before pushing her way in.

  “No, no,” Constance said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “No need to wait for an answer, Zinnie. Just come straight in. My door is always open for you.”

  “Just wanted to check you were here, that’s all,” Zinnie said. “And that you haven’t forgotten your engagement for tomorrow evening.”

  “‘Engagement’,” Constance repeated with a hoot of derisive laughter. “Talk about ideas above your station, Zinnie my girl. You almost make it sound respectable.”

  “Oh, I can make it sound a lot of things,” Zinnie said. “But with you involved, ‘respectable’ could never be one of them.”

  “Watch it,” the woman warned. “I’ll be there. Then we’re square and even, done and dusted. Right?”

  “Might be,” Zinnie agreed. “All depends how well you sell it.”

  The would-be medium threw up her hands in frustration. “Well, it’d be a damn sight easier if I knew what it was I was trying to sell and that’s no mistake!”

  “Trust me, you’ll know,” Zinnie said. “I’ve got to go. Things to do. Meet me at the top of the close at ten tomorrow and I’ll take you down to where you need to be.”

  Zinnie turned for the door but Constance called her back.

  “Wait,” she said. “Zinnie – there’s something going on, isn’t there? Something more than just pulling the wool over the eyes of gull
ible rich folks.”

  Zinnie paused for a moment. “Aye,” she said. “If you’re not careful, McQuirter, you might end up doing a good deed. That’d be a first for you, wouldn’t it?”

  At eleven o’clock the following night, Zinnie and Sadie stood side by side at the point where the steep ingress of Bank Street meets the Royal Mile. The rain was, for once, holding off, and the two girls were dry enough as they waited, ignoring the raucous calls of the hawkers packing up the last of their wares around them.

  The first carriage to stop in front of them was Conan Doyle’s. He jumped nimbly down to the pavement, slamming the door behind him as he waved the driver off.

  “Ladies,” he said, offering a brief bow. “And so here we are.”

  “Did you bring candles?” Zinnie asked. She had instructed him to tell all the attendees to bring at least one.

  “Indeed I did,” said Conan Doyle, producing two fresh candles from the pockets of his jacket.

  A second carriage rattled to a halt beside them, far grander than Conan Doyle’s. The footman jumped down to open the door and Lady Sarah appeared, wrapped in a voluminous teal-coloured cloak of satin that gleamed in the moonlight. She stepped out, and there behind her was Doctor Jex-Blake, dressed far more soberly in a plain grey dress beneath a black travelling cloak.

  “Zinnie.” Lady Sarah greeted her warmly. “And this is your sister Sadie, isn’t it? We haven’t been properly introduced, dear, but Sophia has been singing your praises. You’re a promising potential student, so I hear.”

  Sadie bobbed an awkward half-curtsey but said nothing, obviously a little awed. Lady Sarah certainly did cut a striking figure amid the common bustle of the late-night Mile. Zinnie again tried to imagine her traipsing across sand or over mountains, and failed.

  Another carriage pulled up and two gentlemen that Zinnie recognized from Lady Sarah’s party alighted, both looking distinctly wary of their surroundings.

  “Ah, Mr Danvers, Mr Arbuthnot, I am so glad you decided to join us,” said Lady Sarah with great enthusiasm. “But not your good lady wives?”