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“She’ll eat almost anything, but is quite fussy about her beverages,” Izzie noted.
“Ha. Ha. Hand over the sake.”
Zoe returned to the few things she’d experienced in England during her short time there. One weekend she and Mason had driven from Windsor to Cornwall. “It was beyond my expectations. When you see the countryside in a film or on television you simply cannot get the full effect.”
“Sounds like someone is a bit smitten with the Commonwealth.” Fergus grinned.
“I’d been to London a few times, but never long enough to really see England. And when I was there, it was all business. Even dinners, lunches. I prayed for room service!” She snickered.
“I’m pleased you got to see more of it than the inside of a hotel or office building. The Greater London metropolitan area has been catapulted into the twenty-first century.”
“But not without a whole lot of kickin’ and screamin’.” Fergus laughed. “I think the 30 Saint Mary Axe building was the kicker.”
Zoe chortled. “Yes, the Gherkin building.”
Izzie gave a shudder. “I’m all for modernization. But I think it’s hideous, especially among all the other buildings. Frank Lloyd Wright would have been apoplectic.” Izzie fondly referred to the brilliant work of the man whose architectural philosophy was about joining harmony with humanity and the environment. “A far cry from his vision of organic architecture.”
“Isn’t the Gherkin a pickle? Doesn’t that make it organic?” Maggie wisecracked.
“See? Everything always goes back to food with that one,” Izzie joked.
As dinner began to wind down, Myra spoke directly to Zoe. “We have a special group of women here. A few are unavailable, but I can promise you we will do whatever it takes to fix the problems you’ve uncovered.”
Izzie, Alexis, Maggie, and Annie shouted, “Whatever it takes!” Their robust enthusiasm startled Zoe. Myra placed her hand on Zoe’s shoulder. “After Fergus and Charles clean up the kitchen, we are going to have a meeting and discuss everything.”
With that, everyone got up from the table and proceeded single file to scrape their plates, making sure the wooden skewers were securely disposed of so as not to get the dogs into a dicey situation. Lady, her pups, and Rufus were extremely well-behaved dogs, but better to be safe than sorry, and keep temptation at bay. Izzie wrapped the wooden sticks in foil, placed them in a brown paper bag, tied it in plastic and took it immediately outside to the large trash container secreted behind wooden panels. She checked to be sure the lid was on tight. She brushed her hands and said out loud to no one, “Don’t any of you critters get any ideas.”
Once the kitchen looked as if no one had set foot in it, Annie put bowls on the kitchen table for their after-meeting ice cream treats. Spoons. Check. Napkins. Check. Two for Maggie. Make it three. Check.
Myra took Zoe by the elbow and shuttled her toward the rear entry area. Fergus and Charles got in front and opened the big wooden door leading down a very precarious set of stone steps stained with over a hundred years of who-knows-what. “Mind your head,” Fergus said over his shoulder.
“And your feet,” Charles added.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Annie said, noting the perplexed expression on Zoe’s face. “Not quite a dungeon.” She chuckled.
The hanging bare lightbulb may have suggested the opposite. “Myra, we really should have a proper light fixture here.” Charles looked up at the light.
“And ruin the mood? Don’t be ridiculous.” Myra chuckled.
As they made their way to the basement, Myra explained how the farm was once part of the Underground Railroad and a few of the tunnels were still intact. “Annie and I stumbled upon them when we were kids. Our friend Charlotte lived here on the farm. Her father was one of the caretakers. We would meet her out by the back buildings and play. Then one day Annie discovered a wooden hatch under a pile of old hay. The three of us could barely lift it.” She chuckled. “After a lot of heaving we pulled it open, sending all three of us backward. There was a very old, and I do mean old, ladder leading to the level below. We weren’t sure what to make of it. We were excited and scared witless at the same time. Of course Annie wanted to climb down immediately, but her good sense kicked in.” They were halfway down the stone steps as Myra related the rest of the story. “We sat around the edge and concocted stories. Over the years we’d heard rumors about the railroad and the property, but it had been over one hundred years and no one had been below. Or, so it seemed.
“When I got back home, I asked my father about it. The Underground Railroad, that is. I told him we were reading about it in school. Which wasn’t a lie. But I didn’t want to tell him about the hatch. I thought we might get into trouble. And whenever Annie is around, well, trouble seems to find her.”
“Oh, you shush, now,” Annie admonished her friend.
Myra gave her a loving smile. “That is part of your charm, my dear.” She continued her story. “The next day we went back to visit our new discovery only to find Rigby, Charlotte’s father’s helper, nailing the hatch shut.”
“How did he know?” Zoe asked.
“We were very bright young girls, but the operative word is ‘young.’ We hadn’t covered our tracks very well.” Myra shot Annie a confident look. “That won’t ever happen again, I can assure you.”
“You’ve got that right, my friend.” Annie raised her eyebrows in acknowledgment.
“When I inherited the farm, I had the tunnels inspected and repaired. Not all of them. Just enough of them.” She had a sly twinkle in her eye.
When they reached the lower level, another wooden door could be seen on the left and a very shadowy corridor lay ahead. It appeared to disappear into the darkness. Zoe didn’t ask any more questions.
As old as the door looked, it featured a very modern, intricate electronic lock that required a fingerprint and a secret code. Zoe remained silent, taking in as much as she could, her leather portfolio tightly tucked under her arm. This was all beginning to feel quite surreal. Izzie inched closer to Zoe and whispered, “Just follow my lead.”
