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“Are you forbidden also, or are you not minded for creeping about secret stairs?”
“Mr Plummer, I have been known to fall down entirely ordinary stairs, ten feet wide and perfectly straight. To attempt a narrow, winding stair would be tempting Providence, I feel.”
“You are wise. The stairs are far too dangerous, to my mind. When the house was first built, a chambermaid tripped on one of the spiral stairs and fell all the way to the basement, breaking her neck. Ever since then, they have been closed up and the servants forbidden to use them. The family know of them, of course. How did you discover them, for they are well concealed?”
“Them?Oneof the spiral stairs?” Excitement pulsed through her. “There are more?”
He leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “Four in all. Would you like to see the others?”
Wordlessly she nodded.
“If you can find an excuse to go to the Blue Saloon, I will show you.”
Instantly she rose and crossed the room to where her mother sat, placidly chatting to Mr Leadbetter, who had appeared from somewhere with a posy of daffodils in his hand.
“Mama, Mr Plummer wishes to tell me about the drawing of Lincoln Cathedral in the Blue Saloon. May we go and look at it?”
“Of course, my dear,” she said, smiling indulgently. “Just leave the door open. Enoch will be in the entrance hall.”
Julia curtsied demurely, and led the way down the corridor.
“Your mama is very trusting,” he said, and she could hear the amusement in his voice.
Opening the door to the Blue Saloon and ushering him through, she said, “She still hopes to make a match of it. Besides, you’re the rector, and thus an upstanding and honourable gentleman. Aren’t you?”
“Naturally, and if there are any angry bulls to be found in the Blue Saloon, I am the very man to protect you.” Another burst of laughter emanated from somewhere upstairs. “Who are they terrorising now?”
“Each other. Mama forbade them from leaping out at the servants, so now they take it in turns to sit in one or other of the rooms connected by the stair, while the other tries to guess which room to jump into. It may seem a pointless sort of game, perhaps, but Angie is always ready for a game, no matter how simple, and as for Rosie, this is the first time since we moved here that she has laughed. Poor sweet Rosie! She has found it all overwhelming, and I have to tell you that your brother’s attentions were by no means the least of it. Even Mama is relieved that he seems to have drawn back.”
“Yes, poor Michael! Your sister is so lovely and well-mannered that he was tempted, but he could not bring himself up to scratch in the end. It seems they are both happier for that choice. Ah, here is the drawing of Lincoln Cathedral, which is rather a good one, except that the artist has placed the clock on the wrong tower. That disposes of the Cathedral. Now, the door to the stair is in that pillar. Can you see it?”
“No, but now that I know how the one in the library works…” She felt around the decorative leaves that covered the lower part of the pillar until she found the latch. “There! Oh, it is just the same. I suppose it connects to the bedroom just above.”
“And the basement and attics. Shall we explore? Then I can show you the other two stairs.”
She hesitated for a moment. There was no need for him to show her, after all, for he could tell her where the other two stairs were. Besides, although Mama did not mind her being alone in a room with James when the door was open and Enoch right outside, she was very sure that she would object to her scuttling about in the basement and attics with him. But he was already lighting a candle.
“We shall go down to the basement first, and I shall lead the way so that if you trip I can catch you, but you must be very careful. These stairs are dreadfully narrow. Pull the door shut behind you.”
He entered the stair, and with a bubble of excitement rising inside her, she followed him in and closed the door. At once the darkness enclosed her, the wavering candlelight already several steps below. Fear caught at her, but he turned and smiled up at her.
“All right?” he said, holding out his free hand to her. “Keep to the outside, where the steps are widest.”
She took his hand, warm and reassuring, and picked up her skirts with her other hand. Slowly, step by winding step, the candle flame dancing, they made their way down into the darkness. The air was dank and cool, years of accumulated dust clouding up around their feet. Twice they stopped while he cleared away a cobweb across the full width of the stairs. At the bottom, he pushed open a door and Julia’s nose was assaulted by a familiar smell.
“The apple store!”
He chuckled, raising the candle high to show her the towering wooden racks, half empty now. “Pears, too, in the autumn, but I expect they are all gone now. Onions and roots in the next room, potatoes the one after that. There is a proper ice house, too, connected by a tunnel. Do you remember the small mound in the centre of the parterre, the one with a temple to Diana on it?”
“Diana? Oh, the goddess statue. That’s the top of the ice house? How ingenious.”
“It’s not a very good ice house, more artistic than functional. The one at the Manor is better. The other stairs are at the other end of the basement, so we must creep like little mice in case there are any servants about. The senior servants have rooms down here, as well as the boot room and mending room, so they come and go.”
He took her hand again, and since it was still dark, she made no protest. As they crept along, from time to time they passed an open door where a window flooded them with light, or occasionally a lamp lit up a dark passageway, but most of the basement was as black as night.
At the furthest end a pillar, decorated in a more austere style than the ones above, revealed another stair, and James led her upwards.
“We are now just outside the dining room,” he whispered as they rose one floor. Up again and then, “The big oval bedroom — your parents, I presume.” Up yet again, and he threw open the door to a room filled with light. They were in an unused bedroom with the afternoon sun pouring in through the windows.
