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“As you can see,” Pierre glances around us. “All we have are questions but no answers. My own favourite theory is that there must have been a secret cellar or attic where she hid the boys. And I think the clue is in the division of the house. Why chop right through what would have been the grand ballroom? They demolished the best part of the house. Unless it had a secret door to somewhere and they knocked it down to hide the evidence.”
“So, what’s the hidden water?” I start to ask.
“Hidden Water?” Hal suddenly grabs my hand to tilt the phone screen towards him.
“Et un abri caché,” He reads aloud. “vous devez suivre les épines et les piqûres jusqu'à l'eau cachée,”
And the words, the sound of the words finally registers.
“L’eau Cachée,” I repeat and this time we all hear it.
“Low Catch.” Pierre’s hand goes to her mouth. “OMG, I bet that’s an anglicisedL’eau Cachée. Hal your house is called the Hidden Water.”
Hal still has his hand over mine on the phone. “And yours.” He looks at me. “Labri Catch, is theL’abri Cachée, the hidden shelter.”
“So, I was right.” Pierre is up on her knees, again, excited. “Whatever the secret is, it starts here. Because it would have been Ada Montague or her daughters who named these two houses. I bet if you explored, you’d find a secret room, maybe a cellar or an attic. I think the boys were kept here.”
“We don’t have any attics,” I say. “Or cellars.”
“We have a cellar but it’s tiny.” Hal finally removes his hand from mine.
“Unless,” Pierre persists, “it used to be a big cellar, and it was demolished when the house was split.”
We all turn our heads to look at the window that faces towards Low Catch.
“There must have been a secret entrance into the cellar, which is why Ada left the clue in that letter, so if she died someone could find the boys.”
“I still don’t see how that could have been kept a secret. But you’re welcome to look through my cellar.” Hal pushes himself off the floor and stands up.
“Tonight?” I ask.
“If you like,” he says stifling a yawn.
“No.” I get up too. Not long ago, after he asked me to leave him alone and not be neighbourly, I promised myself never to go to his house. And no matter how pleasant this evening has been, I don’t want to push it. Anyway, he’s clearly tired. “The cellar will still be there tomorrow, and you guys can all use a good night’s sleep.”
Everyone already on their feet, Pierre says. “Elodie, you’re not going to stay up and clean.” She fixes me with a sharp look. “Go to bed.”
They pull on their coats and Pierre hugs me goodnight before the two of them leave. Hal is the last.
“Uh…” I begin. “Before you go.”
He’s almost at the door but stops and half-turns to look at me.
“I wanted to thank you for your help today.”
He makes a dismissive gesture with his hand, as if to say it was nothing.
“Hal?” I walk a little closer to him. “I know we started on the wrong foot, but I really would like it if we could be…”
I want to say friends, but in the end settle for the lesser, “If we could be on better terms.”
He gives me a half smile, he’s still a bit awkward, no not awkward. Inhibited. As if there’s a barrier between us.
I try again with a lighter tone. “And I promise tomorrow, I’ll make a more conventional dinner.”
And his half-smile widens into a full one, flashing, dazzling, it starts on his lips and reaches all the way to my heart.
“I’ll look forward to that,” he says, which means he’s planning to be here all day tomorrow and have supper with us.
