Page 91 of Secrets and Seashells at Rainbow Bay
We follow her down two flights of stairs, until we come to the locked solid wood door we’d encountered on that day.
‘I didn’t know Arthur had a key to this door when we were here before,’ Tiffany says. ‘It’s only recently he’s been using these keys a lot. That’s how I knew where he kept them.’
‘But which key is it?’ I ask her, looking at the huge array she has in her hand. ‘Do you know?’
Tiffany shakes her head. ‘Nope, I just know it’s one of these. Arthur says there are keys to open anything in the castle on here.’
Tom examines the lock on the door. ‘Can I see them?’ he asks, holding out his hand.
I nod at Tiffany and she passes Tom the keys. He looks through each key until he finds a suitable one, then tries it in the lock. On only his third attempt he’s successful.
He unlocks the door, opens it, and we peer inside. There’s a staircase leading immediately down from the doorway, and luckily a corresponding light switch, that when flicked floods the staircase with light, allowing us an easy descent into the basement.
‘Ladies first,’ Tom says, holding out his hand.
‘Thanks,’ I reply, wondering what we’re going to find down there.
I walk cautiously down the stairs, followed by Tiffany and then Tom. When we get to the bottom we find a spacious room filled with various large trunks: the kind you see people using when they are going on long voyages on ships. The trunks are all different sizes and colours, but the one thing they have in common is that they are all locked with sizeable and strong padlocks.
‘Any idea which one the picture might be in?’ I ask Tiffany.
‘Sorry,’ Tiffany says, shrugging. ‘Like I said, Arthur is the only one who comes down here.’
‘Looks like we’re going to have to try them all, then,’ Tom says, shaking the keys. ‘Who wants to start?’
After we’ve narrowed down our search by eliminating all the keys that are going to be too big to fit in the padlocks, we try each key one by one.
It takes us until our fourth key to find one that fits.
‘Yes!’ I shout as my key turns satisfactorily in the lock. ‘We’re in.’
But inside the first trunk we only discover some clothes. They are antique clothes, probably belonging to a past Countess and Earl, interesting, but sadly not what we are looking for.
Our next success opens a trunk containing some silverware and china. Tom examines the contents with much excitement.
‘There’s some valuable stuff in here,’ he reports, carefully returning it all to the case, ‘but sadly nothing we’re looking for.’
We try again, and this time unlock a trunk that according to Tom contains some very old artefacts – including a bronze chalice, some unusual pewter plates and a large rusty iron key.
‘This must be the ceremonial key that Arthur was talking about,’ I tell the others while they examine the chalice and the plates. ‘Apparently it’s presented to each new owner of Chesterford – Arthur is going to present it to me the day the new tea room opens.’
We put the items carefully back in the chest – wrapping them in their worn protective fabrics – and it’s on our next successful key-turn that we finally find it.
‘This must be the one!’ Tiffany calls, as Tom lifts a few framed photos from the trunk first. ‘These are the last Earl’s bits and pieces. I recognise some of his things.’
Tiffany pores over the chest, moving things around until she finds it. ‘Here,’ she cries triumphantly, lifting up a small painting. ‘This is the picture I was talking about.’
Tom and I examine the painting with Tiffany. It is indeed a very good likeness of the little dog, looking a lot healthier and robust than its stuffed version had.
But after we’ve studied it for a few minutes, we realise that it is just that – a painting. It gives us no further clues; we still don’t know where the missing diary is, why the dog’s collar has a key attached to it, or even why we are actually here.
‘It was worth a try, I suppose,’ I say with a sigh. ‘The painting might have had something on it that could have helped us.’ I look around at the trunks we have yet to unlock. ‘What else is down here, do you think?’ I ask. ‘I’m intrigued to see what else is hidden in this cellar.’
‘Do you think weshould?’ Tiffany asks anxiously. ‘I mean, it’s stuff Arthur locks away.’
‘If it was anything personal to Arthur surely he’d hide it in his own cottage,’ I say, taking the keys over to a small but battered-looking trunk. ‘Everything we’ve come across so far has been to do with the history of the castle. And if it’s to do with the castle then I’d like to see it. I’ve been wondering whether to put on an exhibition of sorts,’ I explain to them as I try a couple of keys before finding the correct one to unlock the padlock. ‘You know, the sort of stuff you see displayed in glass cabinets because it’s delicate or valuable. We don’t have anything like that here, and it seems a shame to keep some of these things we’ve found today locked away where people can’t see them.’
I open up the lid of the trunk and I’m surprised to see tissue paper. Then I realise the tissue paper contains fabric. Carefully, I fold back the paper to find a beautiful powder-blue silk organza dress. ‘This looks like it might have belonged to Clara, don’t you think?’ I say, holding up the dress for the others to see. ‘It’s the right era.’
