by J. N. Cao
This can’t possibly be about the map, could it? thought Matilda.
“I don’t know, but I think they got into a bit of trouble,” Matilda told Will.
Matilda then dropped her bag on the ground and sat down on it. She was deep in thought for a moment, and then looked up at Will.
“I will stay here. You can go. Sorry about what happened.”
Matilda looked down again, in thought.
“You’re going to get your uncle and cousin out?”
“Yes.”
“It’s not going to be easy doing it alone.” He paused. “I’ll help you.”
Some hope touched Matilda, and she looked up. “You would?”
“Yes. You did help me get out of that shed, although it was meant to be you in there.” He chuckled. “But nonetheless, you did try to save me, and I’m not the kind to leave when a friend’s in trouble.”
Matilda got up, smiling. “Thank you, Will. Come, let’s build a fire. We have to think of a plan.”
“There’s something I don’t understand,” said Will in the middle of their discussion.
“What?”
“Why did all this happen? Are you telling me that you absolutely have no idea why they would kidnap your uncle and cousin? Nothing at all in their history that could have caused this?”
Matilda paused and thought of lying about Ralph and Roger being riddled with debt, but something inside stopped her. She did not feel like lying to the person who was helping her save her uncle and cousin, and who she felt had just become a friend. She knew Ralph would not be happy with letting an outsider into his plan but what did it matter? She, herself, was not part of Ralph’s plan either.
So Matilda explained to Will about the map. But she did not tell him that had she gotten the map from the Duke, instead she said that it was a map her family had found.
“Victor the Vicious, I always wondered if the story was true. This is all very exciting,” said Will after he heard Matilda’s explanation.
Matilda smiled in agreement.
“And it explains a lot about you. You were always so secretive about your journey,” said Will.
Matilda gave a small nervous laugh, knowing that there were more secrets that she had not yet revealed.
Chapter 10
The Rescue
The next morning Matilda climbed a tall, thick tree behind the manor. She sat on a branch that gave her a good view of the house and its grounds. She also held a small branch of leaves to conceal herself.
“I can see a maid,” said Matilda to Will. Will was standing on a branch just below her.
“And she’s leaving the manor,” Matilda said.
Matilda paused for a moment.
“There is another maid. I can see her in the kitchen.”
Matilda then looked higher, to one of the bedroom windows.
“I can see the woman from last night, not the innkeeper, and she’s sitting in her bedroom reading … something.”
Matilda could see that Katherine had suddenly gotten up from her seat, taken the piece of paper from the table and was hiding it behind her back while she faced the bedroom door.
“It’s definitely the map she’s reading. And a man just walked in, Gilbert, I believe,” Matilda said. She watched Gilbert say something to Katherine and then leave the bedroom. Katherine then folded the map, turned to the wardrobe next to her and knelt down. Matilda guessed that Katherine was hiding the map underneath the wardrobe.
“Any sign of the innkeeper?” Will asked.
“No, she might have gone back to the inn. Perhaps to check if I’m still there.”
“So, based on the people in the house so far, I think we can still carry out the plan,” Will said.
“Yes, it is just the maid that we have to deal with, but they should not be too difficult. We must go now. We don’t have much time,” Matilda said.
During that morning, Gilbert had been inside a bookstore in the marketplace. When he stepped outside, making his way towards his carriage, a little boy ran up to him.
“Please sir, my mother collapsed. Can you please help me?”
“Goodness, where is she?” Gilbert said.
“This way.”
The little boy then led Gilbert along an alleyway. By the time Gilbert turned the corner, the little boy had already disappeared.
Matilda then appeared, a cloth wrapped around her mouth, and held a dagger at Gilbert.
“Turn to the wall,” she ordered.
Gilbert turned out around to escape but was blocked by Will, who also had a cloth masking the bottom half of his face.
Gilbert obediently turned, facing his body to the wall and with his hands up. “Please, let’s not get too violent. If it’s money you want, then just take it. I won’t scream.”
Matilda and Will stood behind him. They were looking for something in particular.
Gilbert, who had his eyes shut tight, was waiting for the worst. Then he noticed that they had not done anything yet. “Well gentlemen, my money bag is in the left pocket. I’m in a bit of a hurry you see.”
“Give us your ring,” Matilda said.
“My ring?”
“Now!” Matilda said.
Gilbert quickly pulled the ring off his finger and turned to hand it to Matilda.
“Now turn around,” Will said.
Gilbert returned to facing the wall again. And as soon as he did, Matilda and Will darted out of the alleyway.
As soon as Gilbert heard that they had gone, he turned away from the wall. He felt his left pocket and found that his money bag was still there.
“Anything the matter, master?” asked Gilbert’s coachman when he returned to the carriage.
“Nothing, I just experienced a very unusual robbery.”
“Should we report this?”
“Not now, I’m already late.”
Back at the manor, Katherine was not very pleased with Miles and Rod. She had discovered last night that one of her prisoners was not in the shed. Then her maid came to her with a letter and a ring. She recognised the ring to be her husband’s, and the letter told her to go to a certain place if she wished to get her husband back safely.
Outside the manor, and behind some nearby bushes, Matilda and Will watched Katherine, Miles and Rod ride away in a carriage.
When Matilda and Will were sure that Katherine and her men were gone, they stepped out of their hiding place to begin the next task.
Matilda went to the front door of the manor and knocked.
The maid answered, “Can I help you?”
“Sorry. But I live just down the road there and I am locked out of my house. And my child, who is only two, is inside. Can borrow a ladder so that I can climb in from the back?”
“Oh dear! Yes, you can borrow the ladder. Wait here.”
Matilda moved in closer to the door, “I’ll help you.”
“No, no. You stay right here.”
And the maid shut the door. Then Matilda quickly ran down the front steps and to the hedges where Will stayed hidden.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, not expecting Matilda to be back so soon.
“She won’t let me in,” Matilda said. “Quick, we have to get in from the back.”
So they ran to the back wall of the garden.
Will held out his hands together and Matilda stepped on them and looked over the wall. She saw the maid come out of the manor and then go into the shed, then Matilda quickly climbed over the wall. Once she had landed in the garden, she ran over to the shed and locked it while the maid was still inside. Matilda heard the maid pulling the door handle and yelling to be let out.
With no key to unlock the garden door and the ladder still inside the shed, Matilda let Will inside the manor through the front door.
The manor was very quiet, with no one inside but themselves. They separated and looked for the cellar. Eventually, Matilda found a door that led to another level beneath the house.
“Will, I found it. Fetch me a lam
p.”
Will came over with a lamp. As they were about to descend the stairs together, they heard the sound of someone unlocking the back door.
Matilda darted to the windows and peeped through it carefully.
“It’s the other maid!” she said to Will.
“Quick, you go down into the cellar and get them out. I have to get the map upstairs. I think I know where it is,” Matilda said.
And with that, she rushed upstairs. Will quickly climbed down the stairs.
When he got to the bottom, he saw two people tied up, on the floor. They started to make incomprehensible sounds once they saw him.
“I’m here to get you out,” Will told them as he put down the lamp.
Then he started to untie Roger. Once freed, Roger removed the cloth from his mouth. “Who are you?”
“I’m Matthew Dudley’s friend,” Will said as he untied Ralph.
Ralph and Roger exchanged confused looks. Then they grabbed their bags, and all three hurried out of the manor through the front door.
Meanwhile, Matilda was feeling underneath the wardrobe of Katherine’s bedroom. She felt something wooden and polished so she pulled it out; it appeared to be a large jewellery box. She opened it and sure enough, lying on the top was the map. She took the map and then something else caught her eye. It was a letter that began with, “Cecilia …”
Her eyes dropped to the bottom of the letter where it finished with, “Victor.” Then she flipped the letter to the back and found that it was addressed to Cecilia Harte and Matilda recognised the address. Her mind raced. She found more letters, addressed to Cecilia from Victor, inside the box. Some were very unusual letters. They were written in black ink, but on them were also other messages written in brown ink.
Matilda jumped at the sound of women’s voices downstairs. She put the opened box on the floor and then left the room. She came to the balcony above the stairs and looked down. Both maids were coming out of the cellar door below and making their way towards the stairs. Matilda quickly went back into Katherine’s bedroom, opened the bedroom window and threw a chair outside, where it landed on the garden lawn with a loud thump. She heard the maids react to the sound downstairs. With no time to lose, Matilda left the bedroom, and as she approached the stairs, she saw the maids retreat to the back of the manor. Once they were out of sight, Matilda raced down the stairs and then out the front door.
Some time before this, Will had led Ralph and Roger into the forest. Will went to a tree and removed some leaves at the base to reveal a hollow where Matilda’s and Will’s bags were hidden.
“So, explain to me why you saved us and who is this Matthew Dudley?” said Ralph, as he sipped some water from his leather vessel.
“He told me he’s your nephew,” said Will.
“Look, I only have one nephew here, and that’s Roger,” Ralph said, pointing to Roger.
Will was baffled at what he was hearing. “I had the impression that Matthew’s family didn’t care for him, but this is ridiculous.”
“Oh no, the map!” said Roger. “She has it.”
“I have to go back inside,” said Ralph, getting up and starting towards the manor.
“Matthew has gone to get it.”
Ralph stopped in his tracks and then turned around. He peered at Will with suspicion and then marched over to Will, pulled him closer by the shirt and said, “All right, Skinny, how do you know so much about us?”
“Why don’t you ask him?” said Will, pointing somewhere beyond them.
Ralph and Roger turned around and saw Matilda jogging towards them.
Ralph let go of Will. “Come on, Roger, we’re about to find out who this Matthew Dudley is?”
“Yeah, no one is going to know about the map but us,” said Roger, following behind Ralph. “Except Matilda and ——” Roger stopped talking as he approached the young man with the moustache. A realisation overcame him: the young man looked awfully familiar.
Ralph reached him first and immediately pointed two fingers at the young man, saying, “All right! Who are you? And how do you ——”
Roger suddenly ripped the young man’s moustache off.
“Ow!” cried Matilda. Then she quickly covered her mouth and snatched the moustache back from Roger.
Ralph and Roger gaped at Matilda. She tilted her head around Ralph to see if Will was watching, but he was sitting against a tree and was too far away to see anything. Besides, Ralph’s body was covering Matilda. She put her moustache back on.
“Matilda!” Ralph said.
“Shush! He might hear you. He doesn’t know who I am,” said Matilda, gesturing with her head towards Will.
“Matilda, why are you doing this?” said Ralph. “Why aren’t you with Grandpapa?”
“They’re fine. I wanted to go with you, so I left.”
“Oh, Matilda,” Roger said shaking his head, “ever since this map came along, you have changed.”
“No, I haven’t. I’m still the same. I just haven’t had the opportunity to show it.”
“Listen, missy, you get your bag and march right back to Grandpapa,” said Ralph.
“But Uncle Ralph, why can’t I come?” said Matilda. “I deserve to, since I got the map.”
“But it is dangerous!” Ralph said.
“Dangerous? Oh, so it’s not dangerous for you then? Don’t forget, I saved you twice from danger.”
“She’s right you know,” added Roger.
“Why are you dressed like this anyway?” Ralph said.
“I am an outlaw now.”
“Outlaw? So the Duke found out?” asked Roger.
“Yes.”
Ralph thought for a moment and then breathed out a big sigh. “All right, you can come.”
Matilda smiled. “You won’t regret this.”
“All right, don’t get so confident just yet. As I am the oldest, and your uncle, I’m still in charge here.”
“So what are we going to do about him,” said Roger said, gesturing with his head towards Will.
“He’s coming with us,” Matilda said.
“No, no, nope,” Ralph said immediately. “No outsiders!”
“But he knows all about it,” said Matilda. “I agreed to let him come if he helped me save you, and he did, so I must keep my word,” Matilda lied. Well, half lied. Although Will had not explicitly asked to join her, he had expressed great interest in the journey last night, and she knew he would be ecstatic if he were invited to join them. Who wouldn’t be? And she felt that he deserved to come after all the trouble he had gone through, saving Ralph and Roger.
Ralph sighed again and rubbed the back of his head. Then he tilted his head back in thought. “You have the map with you?”
Matilda pulled out the folded map from her pocket and then cheerfully waved it at him. Ralph took it and put it in his pocket. “And I guess you made another copy for yourself?”
Matilda smiled in agreement. Ralph shook his head at Matilda and then walked towards Will. Matilda and Roger followed.
Will saw them approaching him and got up. “So, finished your family talk?”
“Yes, we have,” answered Ralph. “And Mat… Matthew here told me how you helped him save us, and we thank you for that. And we are happy for you to join us on our journey.”
“Really?” Will said.
“Yes, and you will get your share of the treasure. But this journey is strictly secret. I don’t want any more people knowing about this,” Ralph said.
“Yes, sir,” said Will with a huge grin. “And I’m Will,” he said, extending his hand.
“Yep,” uttered Ralph, who rolled his eyes as shook hands with Will. Then he walked past Will towards the road. Will looked at Matilda and smiled with a shrug. Roger then came over and shook Will’s hand, “And I’m Roger.”
“Come on, lads!” they heard Ralph call from a distance.
Chapter 11
To Oxford
Now the four of them were on the road to Oxford. Will was telling
Roger how he and Matilda had managed to break into the manor, as they strolled. Walking not far behind them were Matilda and Ralph.
“So now that he’s part of the group, why can’t you tell him that you’re Matilda?” Ralph said in a volume that only Matilda could hear.
“I don’t want him to know that I’m an outlaw,” said Matilda in a low voice.
“But didn’t you tell him that you stole the map from the Duke?”
“No, I told him that Grandpapa found it but is too old to go on this journey. Doesn’t that sound nice and clean?” she said. “Besides, I’ve only known him for about three days, I really don’t know how he would react if he found out that he has been travelling with an outlaw.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Ralph said.
Then he continued, “Matilda, you’re not ashamed of what you did, are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Matilda, I have told you before. You were pressured to steal the map and then you saw, like you’ve said, an opportunity and went for it. Sure, the map belonged to Victor Harte, but he’s dead now. And who’s to say it belongs to the Duke? I believed that it fell into the right hands. You are not a criminal.”
Matilda sighed. “I don’t know. But I’m not going to focus on that right now.”
They walked on until it was getting dark, and since they were not near any village or town, they decided to make camp. Luckily the sky was clear that night. After they had finished their dinner, or what was left of their little provisions, all four sat around the fire. Matilda sat between Ralph and Will.
“I found something interesting in the manor,” started Matilda. “That woman from the manor, the one named Katherine, she had letters from Victor Harte to his wife hidden in her room.”
“You don’t suppose that Katherine woman is Cecilia Harte?” asked Will.
“Very likely,” said Matilda.
“I bet it is, she wanted that letter so badly, probably to find out more about her husband, or should I say, former husband,” said Ralph.
“She’s a nasty one, and the same goes with her friend, almost cut my throat,” said Roger. “See, you can even see a mark here.”