Page 110 of A Fearless Heart
“The few we’ve got left?” Cady countered. “They’re working day to night on their own tasks and barely have time to glance outside. No, I think that the killer would be perfectly safe so long as he didn’t move in broad daylight. Remember, he doesn’t have to go into the main house at all. He can access that area through the gardens.”
“But the walled gardens all have locked gates.”
“I suspect those locks have been broken.” She turned to Bond. “Pack some things for me, just what I’ll need in the carriage back to Kent.”
“You’re not going alone,” Trevor said, standing up. “I’m coming too. Be absolutely embarrassing if my sister had all the fun.”
“Aye, and you’ll have Jem and me and Rook as well,” Bond announced.
“Bring only what we need,” Cady said, already moving. “I’m not waiting foranyone.”
* * * *
“Ah, I see that you’re in need of a wash,” his captor said. “Rather disgusting, the minutiae of human existence.”
“Feeling fine, all the time,” Gabe responded, his voice slurring. His mind was not operating well, and that line seemed awfully funny. Though he hung his head, too tired to look up, he laughed at his own absurdity.
“Solitude is getting to you already, is it? After only a few days. I always thought this place would make a splendid oubliette, but I must say I’m impressed by how quickly it’s broken you.”
“I’m not broken.”
His captor sighed. “Says the man who’s tied to a chair, covered in soot, and slowly starving to death. No food or sunlight or hope of rescue. If you’re not broken yet, you will be soon.”
“I’ll outlast you.”
“Poor man, last to see the truth. I even encouraged some of your allies, offering help to find you. Alas, I think it will come too late.”
“Too late, too late, will be the cry…” Gabe wasn’t sure if he was awake or dreaming.
“I may have to adjust the dosage if I ever need to do this again,” his captor said. “I’ll come back to check on you later, see if you’re sane or dead or somewhere in between. Good day.”
“Don’t leave me!” Gabe yelled suddenly, the reality of being left alone in the near dark hitting him again. “Where are you going? Don’t leave me here!”
“Don’t yell, Mr Court. It’s unbecoming of a gentleman.”
Gabe winced as the door was slammed shut, and he was alone again.
Chapter 36
They reached Calderwood when thesun was just setting. Jem had driven a small, light carriage with a team of four horses, instead of the usual two (Cady didn’t ask how he’d procured it). And the weight was lightened further by having no luggage at all—it was just Cady, Trevor, and Bond squeezed into the single seat, while Jem sat up front to drive, Rook next to him. The result was like flying across the fields and forests, everything moving too fast to properly see. Other drivers cursed them loudly, and Jem narrowly avoided a few collisions. Cady clamped her jaw shut to prevent her teeth from clattering together, and Trevor moaned that he’d never recover from the jarring in his bones.
But they got there, and that’s what mattered.
Cady didn’t want to wait a moment, but Bond and Martha joined forces to sit her down to drink some water and eat a few bites before she charged off into the gardens.
“We’ll need lanterns,” Cady told the flabbergasted Mr Rundle between bites. “Everyone should have one or two, so that we can leave a few at certain points.”
“Where are we taking the lanterns?” he asked, still trying very hard to keep up with the information that kept pouring onto him.
“The passageway that accesses the hot walls and the furnace has two entry points: the far end of my glasshouses, and then another by the false ruin that’s actually the trap door for the coal. A team ought to take shovels or picks and break apart the structure to widen the opening. Rook is probably skinny enough to drop down then and see what’s below.”
“And you, my lady?”
“I’ll take Trevor and Bond and we’ll go through the passage from the glasshouse to light the way.”
However, when Cady and the others reached the doorway, they could get only a short way down the passage before it was blocked by rubble.
“This is strange. It wasn’t like this before I left,” Cady said.
