Warned by a Ghost Read online

  The uninvited guest ran towards him.

  “Ivan!” she exclaimed. “How could you give a party without me? I would have been here earlier, but it took longer from London than I anticipated. Say you are pleased to see me!”

  It was then that Sedela realised that this was undoubtedly Lady Esther Hasting.

  She looked at the Marquis apprehensively.

  It hurt her to see that there was anger in his eyes.

  The bitterness was back in the tightness of his lips and the expression on his face.

  Even as he felt the fury rising within him, the Marquis knew that it would be a mistake to have a scene in front of his relatives.

  He had earlier become aware that a number of them were surprised when they arrived to find that she was not included in the party.

  They had, however, been too tactful to enquire as to why she was not present.

  Esther, having greeted him, was now looking up at him.

  She was well aware that she glittered like a peacock amongst a number of small ordinary birds.

  In a firm controlled voice that Sedela admired the Marquis said slowly,

  “I am afraid, Esther, you are too late for dinner. We have just finished.”

  “I am not hungry,” Esther replied, “just thrilled to see you again and to be here among so many old friends.”

  She moved as she spoke towards several of the Marquis’s relatives, kissing them affectionately and she was saying flattering and gushing things to them.

  She made it impossible for them not to accept her graciously.

  “I hear tonight you have fireworks,” she purred in a lilting voice. “How delightful! And what could be a more perfect setting for them?”

  There was no answer to this and the Marquis then walked swiftly through the front door.

  Sedela knew that he was making straight for the other side of the lake where the fireworks were ready, the men only waiting for the order to begin.

  It was not yet quite dark enough. The sun had only just set and the first evening stars were coming out in the sky.

  It had been the Marquis’s idea to set them up on the other side of the lake against the background of the great oak trees in the Park.

  He had pointed out to Sedela that, as they burnt themselves out, they would fall into the lake and harm no one.

  “I am always afraid when there are fireworks that the children who are staring up at them might receive an eye injury.”

  “It is clever of you to think of that,” Sedela agreed, “and, of course, you are right.”

  The fireworks, and there were a great number of them, were therefore arranged on the further bank of the lake.

  Those who had been eating and drinking in the tents were to sit on the grass on the near side and from there the ground sloped up to the level of the courtyard in front of the house.

  Here a large number of chairs had been placed for the guests the Marquis had entertained for dinner.

  As they moved towards the chairs, Lady Esther went with them.

  Watching her, Sedela had to admit to herself that she was indeed exceptionally beautiful and she wondered if seeing her again would make the Marquis forgive her.

  She knew, however, that if he did so he would once more be in danger.

  Whatever else Lady Esther might be, Sedela was convinced that she was evil.

  She could not explain how she knew this, but it vibrated out from her, even though every word she spoke was honeyed and charming.

  If he did go back to her, Sedela thought, he would most definitely be hurt.

  Although he might not think so at the time, it would inevitably ruin his life.

  She sent up a frantic prayer that the Marquis would be saved.

  She was only thankful that at this moment he was on the other side of the lake and it was therefore impossible for Lady Esther to get near to him.

  It took some time for everybody to be seated.

  Sedela made certain that the most elderly of the Marquis’s relatives were comfortable.

  At the same time she was acutely aware of Lady Esther.

  It grew darker, but her diamonds still seemed to be twinkling like the stars that were now filling the sky.

  Then at last the first firework shot up from the ground and as it burst its light was reflected in the lake.

  There was a wild cry of delight from the children.

  The Marquis then let the fireworks off one after another.

  They were certainly very beautiful and of every possible colour they poured down like falling stars.

  And finally they sizzled out harmlessly in the water of the lake.

  There were also fireworks, which, set up on the bank, looked when they were ignited like a golden or silver fountain.

  There were others that zoomed up into the sky making a loud screeching noise and then they vanished in a kaleidoscope of colour.

  It was very exciting and everybody watching the performance was enthralled.

  The display had lasted for about twenty minutes when a footman came to Sedela’s side.

  “There’s been an accident, Miss Sedela,” he said in a low voice.

  “An accident?” she exclaimed.

  “I thinks as ’ow you’d better come at once, miss!”

  “Yes – of course.”

  She rose from the chair where she had been sitting and, without saying anything to the two elderly ladies on each side of her, she followed the footman.

  He had already moved away from her.

  As she hurried running behind him, she noticed that he was not wearing livery of any sort.

  She thought that he must be one of the temporary servants whom Hanson had hired for the evening.

  There was, as she knew, a large number of extra staff, especially in the dining room and kitchen.

  The footman continued to walk quickly ahead of her.

  He hurried round the side of the house and onto the lawn and Sedela supposed that the accident must have occurred outside.

  She wanted to ask him who had been injured and how, but he was moving so quickly that she could not catch up with him.

  They passed the herbaceous borders and crossed the bowling green and Sedela wondered how an accident could have happened in this part of the grounds.

  She suspected that it must be one of the young guests and she had seen them larking about after leaving the big top.

  That was before they went into the ballroom for supper.

  By now the footman in front of her had reached the rhododendron bushes, which formed the first part of the shrubbery.

  Sedela was now able to see him clearly because the moon had come out, its rays spreading a silver light over the garden.

  She thought that if he disappeared through the trees she would have difficulty in following him.

  She therefore quickened her pace.

  As he passed through some rhododendron bushes, she parted her lips to ask him to go a little slower.

  It was then suddenly, as the leaves began to brush her bare arms, a heavy cloth was thrown over her head.

  She felt herself being picked up in a man’s arms.

  She was so taken by surprise that for a moment she could not even cry out.

  When she tried to do so, she found the cloth that covered her head was so thick that her voice was lost in it.

  The man carrying her was holding her very firmly.

  This combined with the shock of what had happened made it difficult for her to breathe.

  Her arms were held close to her sides.

  She tried to kick with her feet, but found that it was impossible.

  She could then feel that she was being carried uphill.

  She thought that the man was now walking on a path.

  There were severed paths, she knew, that led through the shrubbery up into the woodland beyond.

  She could not think why this was happening to her.

  But it was terrifying to realise that the man carrying her was so big
and strong.

  She felt that it would be impossible for her to escape from him.

  Suddenly he came to a standstill and for the first time she heard her captor speak.

  “Open the door!”

  It was an order given in a low voice.

  Then, so suddenly that she screamed, she was flung onto a floor.

  The cloth that had covered her was jerked away from her body.

  “Keep quiet!” a voice said harshly. “If you make a sound, you will be silenced in a manner you will find most painful!”

  As the man finished speaking, he closed the door.

  Sedela found herself in complete darkness and for a moment she was too frightened to move.

  Then she heard the man speaking.

  She knew that he was just outside the door he had slammed shut.

  She could not hear what he was saying and with an effort she rose to her feet.

  Putting out her hands in front of her she moved a few steps through the darkness.

  Her fingers touched the door that she had heard shut.

  Now she knew where she was.

  But she did not want to think about anything except to hear what the man was saying.

  He was speaking in a very low voice.

  She put her ear against the wood of the door and could just hear him.

  “What do you mean,” he was asking, “he will not let me have it?”

  “’E said, my Lord, ’e wanted another twenty pounds as them snakes be ever so difficult to get ’old of.”

  As the other man spoke Sedela recognised that it was Lord Bayford who had carried her here.

  She held her breath, trying to hear everything that was being said.

  “I have given him the money already,” Lord Bayford protested angrily. “Where is he now?”

  “’E’ll be at the bottom at the gate into the garden.”

  “And he has the snake with him?”

  “Aye, my Lord.”

  “Damn him for his impertinent greed!” Lord Bayford swore. “I will go and get it!”

  He paused and then said,

  “Now you stay here. Don’t let anyone see you. If the girl tries to escape, which is unlikely, hit her on the head with this bludgeon.”

  “Very good, my Lord.”

  “I will be as quick as I can.”

  Sedela heard Lord Bayford walk away and there was silence.

  Then with a feeling of indescribable horror she guessed what he intended to do.

  She knew exactly where she was.

  She was in a small wooden house among the trees. It had been built for Ivan by the woodcutters when he was a little boy. Made from trunks of trees split in half it had two windows, one on either side of the door.

  These had strong wooden shutters over them, which were closed from the outside.

  The door itself had a strong lock and Ivan had proudly kept the key.

  It had been his fortress, a place that was all his own. It was where he took his friends when he was home for the school holidays.

  There they could plot anything they wanted without being disturbed.

  She supposed that Lord Bayford, being Ivan’s friend, must have been shown the wooden house when he stayed at Windle Court as a boy.

  Her intelligence told her exactly what Lady Esther and Lord Bayford were planning.

  For some reason they must have thought it was she who was preventing the Marquis from returning to London.

  She must therefore be disposed of.

  It was, she knew if she was honest, quite a clever plot.

  Somehow Lord Bayford had found out that there would be a circus with performing snakes and he had purchased one of the snakes.

  Later it would be difficult to hold the circus man guilty of anything more than carelessness in letting it escape.

  She would be found sometime in the wooden house dead from a snakebite.

  And there would be no one to tell the Marquis how it had come about that she had been bitten by the snake.

  Lord Bayford and his accomplice would have unlocked the door after her death and disappeared.

  Later it would be accepted that she had gone there for some reason that no one could explain.

  And that the snake, which had escaped from the circus, had been hiding there.

  This all flashed through her mind.

  She knew that it was no use screaming or calling for help.

  If she did, the accomplice on Lord Bayford’s orders would strike her until she was unconscious.

  ‘I want – to live – I must live!’ she thought. ‘If I don’t, once I have – gone they will – hurt Ivan.’

  It was the thought of him that spurred her to try to think of some way that she could escape.

  She knew the wooden house well and she was well aware that it was impossible for the shutters to be opened from the inside.

  She could not open the door either.

  Now that her eyes had grown used to the gloom she looked up.

  There were small gaps in the roof and glimmers of moonlight were showing through them.

  She guessed that the tree-trunks had warped and shrunk over the years and perhaps the winds and storms of winter had moved them a little.

  She stared at the roof wondering if she was strong enough to swing herself onto one of the crossbeams.

  Then she realised that the centre of the roof was in complete darkness.

  She knew why that was.

  The crest of the Windles was an arrow and they had used it since the first Windle had been created an Earl at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.

  Thanks to being an outstanding marksman with a bow and arrow he had saved the life of the young King Henry V.

  He had swiftly shot a French archer, who had drawn a bow on the King at short range, and killed him before he could release his arrow.

  It was for this he received his Earldom and took as his crest an arrow together with the motto, I shoot straight.

  It had considerably amused Ivan’s father, the old Marquis, to have an arrow erected on quite a number of his buildings, even on the stables.

  So Ivan had demanded that he too should have one on his wooden house.

  It was the estate carpenter who had put one there for him.

  Unfortunately, Sedela remembered, because it involved making a small hole in the roof the rain had seeped through and it had soaked various books and other treasures that he kept in his wooden house.

  To protect them subsequently two flat boards had been placed under the arrow and they rested on the two beams, which were the main support of the roof itself.

  It was almost as if her Guardian Angel was telling her what to do.

  Sedela knew that if she could climb up onto those flat boards she would be safe from the snake.

  The difficulty, as she knew of old, was the smooth bare trunks that the house was built with.

  Quickly, because she was frightened and knew that she had but a very short time to save herself in, she put out her hands to feel her way.

  She found a chair and pushed it close against the wall.

  It was an ordinary upright chair but stoutly made.

  As she stood on it, she sensed that it would support her.

  She stretched up her arms, but she still had a long way to climb to reach the roof.

  So she kicked off her slippers.

  Gripping with her hands and her stockinged feet, she tried to lift herself up.

  Fortunately she was very light and she was used to climbing up onto the back of a horse without assistance.

  Moreover the long rides she had often taken alone had kept her fit and supple.

  Three times she fell back attempting to climb the wall.

  She had learnt as a small child to fall from a horse without hurting herself, so she managed to get up quickly and try again.

  At last she caught hold of one of the crossbeams.

  For a moment she just swung in the air.

  Painstakingly and by sheer d
etermination she managed at last to hook one leg over it.

  After that it was easy to edge her way slowly to where the wooden boards lay beneath the arrow on the roof.

  The space where she could hide was less than a foot in height.

  It would have been impossible for anyone larger than she was to insert herself between the boards and the roof.

  It was a very tight squeeze, but somehow she managed it.

  Only when she was actually lying on the wooden boards did she feel that she could breathe again.

  Her heart no longer felt as if it would burst.

  She was only just in position when she heard a voice outside the door.

  Lord Bayford had returned.

  She heard the other man give an exclamation and Lord Bayford hushed him into silence.

  Then, as she lay squeezed in her place of safety, she knew what they were about to do.

  Lord Bayford was carefully untying the lid of the basket in which was the cobra that he had bought from the circus.

  She heard him whisper something to his accomplice.

  Then there was the sound of the key turning in the lock.

  Sedela held her breath in case he had a light with him.

  If he had, he would realise that she was no longer lying on the floor.

  Then the door opened, but there was only a glint of light from the moon outside.

  Against it she saw the shadow of a man’s arm and a basket.

  She remembered one like it containing the performing snakes in the circus.

  She had watched fascinated as the cobras uncoiled themselves and rose up from the basket and they had swayed to the sound the Indian charmer made on his pipe.

  The basket jerked and Sedela thought that Lord Bayford had punched it with his fist.

  Then she was aware that something had been shaken from it and was hissing in anger.

  The arm and the basket then disappeared and the door was slammed shut.

  Lord Bayford and his accomplice did not speak and she heard their footsteps as they hurried away.

  Sedela drew in her breath.

  The cobra was still hissing angrily below her and there was the rustle of dried leaves as it slithered over them.

  She tried to remember if snakes could climb and had the idea that they could.

  She closed her eyes and began to pray.

  There was nothing else she could do and she believed fervently that God could hear her.