by J. N. Cao
“Yes?” the innkeeper said.
“Did a Ralph and Roger come by here?”
The innkeeper paused for a moment before saying, “Why, yes they did.”
“And when did they leave?”
“May I ask who’s asking?”
“Ralph’s nephew.”
“I see. Well, they left early this morning.”
“Thank you.”
“Ronald,” the innkeeper called.
A little man at the counter came to the innkeeper, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Show these gentlemen to their room,” she said as she handed him the keys that she took from the key rack. “And Ronald, I have an appointment now, so I’m leaving you in charge.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Ronald then turned to Matilda and Will, “Follow me gents.”
Before Ronald led them upstairs he added, “We also have a bathhouse downstairs if you wish to use it.”
“You do? A bath would be wonderful,” said Matilda.
“Let me show you,” Ronald said.
So they followed Ronald through a corridor into another section of the inn.
“That’s for the ladies,” Ronald pointed to a door as they walked right past it.
They finally stopped at another door.
“Come this way,” said Ronald as he opened the door with a sign that said, ‘MEN’.
They stepped inside and followed Ronald around a folding screen. Immediately, Matilda saw six bathtubs, with a man in each one bathing and chatting. She averted her eyes, looking for something else to stare at, but her gaze accidentally fell on two other men who were bathing standing up against the wall, using buckets of water. She averted her eyes again, and one naked man walked right past her.
Ronald turned to them, “It is currently full right now, but there are fresh towels, soap and sponges over there. You will need to fill up the tubs yourself, so everything you need to do that is over there. Do you have any questions?”
They shook their heads.
“Right, I’ll take you to your room now.”
The rest of the afternoon, Matilda and Will were in the marketplace gathering their supplies. Then at one point, they went separately.
As she walked along the stalls, Matilda wondered how she was going to have her bath without being discovered. She then figured that she would have to wait until late at night to have the bathhouse to herself.
“Sir, would you like to try this pear ale? Has a hint of ginger in it,” invited a seller.
Matilda took the cup and started to drink. Suddenly, the seller’s children, who were chasing each other around the stall, ran past Matilda and one of them knocked her elbow. The knock made Matilda spill the ale over her mouth and nose. Instinctively, Matilda tried to wipe the ale with her hand, and she accidentally removed her moustache. Her eyes darted to the seller, who was busy talking to a customer. She then fixed her moustache back on and left the stall, unaware that the two men in fine clothes she had seen that morning were watching her from a distance away.
As Matilda approached the White Horse Inn, Captain David and his men were just coming out of the entrance. Trying to maintain her nerves, Matilda walked right past them and into the inn.
Matilda entered her room, sat on her bed, and pulled out the map from her bag. Wrapped inside the map was also the letter from Victor Harte. She reread it. She was never inclined to discard the letter as she felt that it was personal and should be sent to the addressee.
Matilda studied the map to find out where Ralph and Roger might be heading to next. But what she did not know was that they had not gone very far.
Chapter 9
The Manor
On the edge of town was a manor where a middle-aged couple lived: Gilbert and Katherine Harcourt. It was evening and the Harcourts were in the drawing room. Gilbert, who was tall and thin, was about to leave, and his wife, a lovely looking woman with honey coloured hair, was handing him his cloak.
“When will you be back?” Katherine asked Gilbert.
“Maybe very late so don’t wait up for me. I can try to leave early, but you know how Mr Kingsley can be.”
“Oh, no need, dear. Don’t worry about me. If Mr Kingsley wants to keep you a bit longer then it is just polite to stay,” Katherine said.
“By the way, did you hear some strange sounds coming from the cellar?” Gilbert said.
“Sounds?” Katherine said.
“Yes. I thought last night I heard some voices, though very muffled, and some thumping here and there. Or was I half dreaming.”
“Oh, that must have been Beatrice. I told her that there were some rats down in the cellar. I’ll tell her to take care of them at a better time, not during the night when you are sleeping,” Katherine said.
Then a maid walked into the drawing room.
“Miss Norwood is here to you, Madam,” the maid said.
“Yes, let her in.”
The innkeeper of the White Horse walked in.
“Ah, Rose. Lovely to see you. Sorry, I can’t stay long. My carriage is waiting for me,” Gilbert said.
“I won’t be keeping you,” Rose said.
“Goodbye, dear,” said Katherine.
Katherine and Rose watched Gilbert leave through the front door. As soon as Gilbert was gone, Rose quickly turned to Katherine, “Well, have you checked on them?”
“No, it was not easy to get rid of Gilbert,” Katherine said.
“Well, we’d better go now,” Rose said.
Katherine, Rose and two male servants made their way into the cellar beneath the manor. Tied up and gagged were Ralph and Roger, sitting on the cellar’s floor.
Ralph made some unintelligible sounds through the cloth in his mouth. Katherine made a head gesture to a servant to remove the cloth.
“Who are you? Why are we here?” Ralph said once his mouth was free.
“Hey, I know you,” said Roger. “You’re the innkeeper lady. What do you want with us?”
“We overheard you talking about a certain map from Victor Harte. Is that true?” Katherine said.
A realisation came over Ralph and Roger.
“I told you we should drink inside our room,” Roger whispered to Ralph.
“We don’t know what you are talking about,” Ralph said coolly.
“Search their bags, Miles,” Katherine ordered.
Miles grabbed their bags and laid them on the table, and then he rummaged through them. Eventually he found the map and presented it to Katherine.
Katherine and Rose studied the map. They looked at each other, unsure of what they were seeing.
“Where did you get this map?” Katherine said.
“Well, it’s a map that we bought from some merchant,” Ralph said.
“Yes. Nothing special,” Roger added.
Katherine gave Miles a meaningful look.
Miles pulled out a knife.
“Try the fat one,” Katherine said.
Miles pointed the knife at Roger’s neck.
“All right, all right! We got it from the Duke,” Roger cried.
“The Duke?” Katherine said.
“Yes. So you had better go ask him,” Ralph said.
Katherine took the knife from Miles and held it to Roger’s neck again, “Tell me! What do you know about this map? And it had better reconcile with what you two babbled on about last night.”
“Ah! All right! Easy on the knife. Yes. It’s Victor Harte’s map,” Roger cried again.
“But it doesn’t say anything about Victor Harte on the map,” Rose said.
“That’s true, so it may not even be his,” Ralph lied.
“So you’re telling me that the two of you are following a map that you’re not even sure is genuine or not?” Katherine asked.
“Yes,” Roger cried.
“Do you take me for a fool? Miles! Cut his thumb off!” Katherine said.
“There was a letter!” Ralph cried.
“What letter?” Katherine said.
“There was a letter from Victor Harte to his wife, Cecilia Harte. The letter was found together with the map,” Ralph said.
“And where is this letter?” Katherine said.
“We don’t have it,” Ralph said.
“Then where can I find this letter?” Katherine said.
“We don’t know, and you can kill us and we still won’t know,” said Ralph.
“It could still be with the Duke,” said Roger to Ralph, but then he thought for a moment and mouthed ‘Matilda?’
“Katherine, his nephew is in my inn right now,” said Rose pointing to Ralph.
“Nephew?” Ralph said to Roger.
“I think we can bring him in and see if he has anything useful to say,” Rose said.
“What nephew are you talking about? I only have one and he is here,” Ralph said.
Rose smirked. “He’s lying, Katherine. His nephew specifically asked for them.”
“Miles! Rod!” Katherine called, and they came to her, waiting for new orders. Katherine turned to Rose to let her speak.
“Go to my inn tonight and bring back a male from room twelve,” Rose said to the servants. “He is the shorter one of the two and has a moustache. And don’t forget to bring his bag because we will be searching through it.”
✽✽✽
Matilda opened her eyes in the dark. It was past midnight. She crept over to Will’s bed. He appeared to be sleeping, she thought, so she grabbed her bag and left the room quietly. She then made her way to the bathhouse, which by now was empty.
Meanwhile, outside the White Horse Inn the two men in fine clothes had just stopped their horses. In front of them, some distance away, was a wagon drawn by two horses, parked just in front of the inn. One of them was an older man in his early fifties, who turned to his companion, “I still think what we’re about to do is not honourable. Surely we can persuade her into handing us the map.”
“She’s a thief, Sir Laurence,” said the younger man in his early twenties. “There’s no need to handle this honourably. Especially when our country is at stake.”
Sir Laurence gave a light sigh, “I followed her earlier. She’s in room twelve and here is the key.”
They climbed down from their horses and started for the inn, but then the younger man turned to Sir Laurence.
“Sir Laurence, you should stay here,” he said.
“Don’t you want me to come with you?”
“There’s no need. A girl in a room alone can’t be too much trouble. Stay here and watch the horses.” And with that, the young man made his way into the inn.
Back inside room twelve, Will felt someone cover his mouth with a cloth. His eyes opened and saw a man grab hold of him. He managed to get up but was hit from behind by another man and passed out.
“Oi, where’s the other one? We’re supposed to get the shorter one,” Miles said.
“I don’t know. Maybe we should wait for him to come back,” Rod said.
Then they heard someone gently opening the door.
“Shh, hide,” whispered Miles.
A tall, dark figure walked into to the room. Suddenly, Rod jumped from behind the door and knocked the figure on the head with a hard object.
The figure fell to the ground, unconscious.
“There’s the other one,” said Rod. Then he looked closely at the man that he had knocked out. “He doesn’t have a moustache.”
“Maybe one of them recently shaved,” said Miles. “Can you tell which one is shorter?”
“They are about the same I think. Lay them on the floor,” said Rod. “I think that one is a bit shorter.”
And with that, they left the room, carrying Will with them.
Matilda was on her way to her room from the bathhouse when she saw Miles and Rod carrying Will down the stairs in front of her. They had not seen her. She quickly hid at the corner of the corridor and watched them.
When Miles and Rod reached the bottom of the stairs, the innkeeper assistant, a chubby man with white hair, came out from the room behind the counter.
“What are you two doing?” he said.
“We are here by Miss Norwood’s orders.”
“Again? Well, just keep the noise down. You’ll wake up the customers,” he said, and returned to his room.
Meanwhile, outside the inn Sir Laurence was still waiting for his young companion to return. The street was quite dark, with only a few lights from buildings and the clear moon. Sir Laurence stood between the horses, almost unnoticed. Then suddenly two men came out of the inn carrying an unconscious young man. Sir Laurence was startled by this but was relieved that the young man was not his companion. Still, he stood there completely baffled by what was happening in front of him.
He noticed another person spying on the two men through the small opening of the entrance door. The two men had just finished loading the unconscious man into the wagon and had started to climb onto the front of the wagon. Sir Laurence saw the other man emerge from the door and quickly make his way to the rear of the wagon. He realised that it was Matilda, who then climbed on the footboard of the wagon with quick, nimble steps and held on to the handles.
Then the wagon drove off down the road, and Sir Laurence quickly went inside the inn to find his companion.
Eventually, the wagon arrived at the manor. Matilda gently stepped down from footboard and darted behind some hedges nearby.
Katherine and Rose came out of the manor and hurried to the wagon. Matilda was only a few feet away and could hear them talking.
“We got him, madam,” said Miles to Rose.
“Take him to the cellar,” Katherine said.
Miles and Rod opened the rear doors of the wagon and carried Will out.
“Wait,” Rose said.
She held Will’s face and turned it from side to side. “This is not him!”
“Is he not that Burley’s nephew?” asked Katherine.
“Burley?” thought Matilda.
“No,” Rose replied, and then she turned to Miles. “Did I not say get the shorter one, with the moustache?”
She was after me! thought Matilda.
“But neither of them had a moustache, and he was the shorter one of the two,” Miles said.
“What? That can’t be right,” Rose said.
Yes. That can’t be right. Who else was in the room? thought Matilda.
Just then they heard a carriage approaching the manor.
“Oh no, it’s Gilbert!” Katherine said. “And we can’t go to the cellar, Gilbert will see him.” Then she turned to Miles and Rod. “Go through the back and put him in the shed.”
Miles and Rod quickly carried Will around the corner of the manor and disappeared.
“We have to get this sorted quickly. Gilbert is already getting suspicious of those two down in the cellar. What would he think if he finds strange men hidden around the house? Please stay. Once he gets into bed we will sort this out before day breaks.”
“I’m with you, Katherine.”
The carriage stopped, and Katherine and Rose came over to Gilbert, who was getting off. At this moment Matilda quietly left her hiding spot and followed Miles and Rod.
“What are you two doing out so late and what’s that wagon there for?” asked Gilbert.
“Oh, I was just getting Miles and Rod to unload some, er, pots for the garden, very heavy, which I forgot to do earlier,” Katherine lied.
“Well, you had all better come inside. It’s a cold night,” said Gilbert.
Meanwhile, Matilda stood outside the door that led into the manor’s garden. She had just watched Miles and Rod carry Will through that door. The door was unlocked, and she opened it slightly and peered inside. It was dark, but she could see lights coming from a small shed. She quickly went through the door and hid behind some garden bushes, and waited for Miles and Rod to come out of the shed.
Soon enough they came out.
“Lock the back door Rod, and I’ll meet you inside,” Miles said, and then he left for th
e manor.
Matilda watched Rod come over to lock the garden door, which was not very far from her hiding spot. When he had finished, he quickly went inside the manor.
Now the garden was dark, with the only light coming from the moon. Matilda stealthily went over to the shed. She felt the door and found a latch. She then undid the latch and slowly opened the door. The shed was pitch-black inside.
“Will?” she whispered. “It’s me, Matthew.”
A muffled voice followed. Matilda stepped inside. She left the door open for some moonlight to shine in. She could see his silhouette sitting on the floor and felt for his face. She found the cloth covering his mouth and removed it.
“What’s going on?” he said. “Why am I here?”
“No time for that. We have to get out of here,” Matilda said.
Matilda untied Will and helped him up.
“We can’t leave through the garden door, it’s locked,” said Matilda. “There might be something in here that we could use. Like a ladder or something.”
The shed was small, so soon enough they found a ladder and used it to climb over the garden wall.
They escaped into the woods behind the manor.
“Why aren’t we going back to the inn?” Will asked.
“Because they are expecting us there.”
“What do you mean?”
“The innkeeper was involved in kidnapping you.”
“What? Why?”
“Although I believe it was me that they were after. So I’m sorry that this happened to you,” Matilda said.
“Wait, so they wanted you but they got me instead. Then why … how … how can this happen? Weren’t you in the room?”
“Yes, that is the strangest part. The thing is, I wasn’t in the room at that time, but apparently someone else was in there,” Matilda said.
“That’s the strangest part? Everything about this is strange. And where were you while I was being kidnapped?”
“I was going to the loo,” Matilda lied.
“And why would they want to kidnap you?” Will said.
“I’m not entirely sure. But it may have something to do with my uncle and cousin. And I am certain that they have my uncle and cousin in their cellar.”
“Your uncle and cousin? In a cellar? Why?”