- Episode 4: The Hidden Passage
Episode 4: The Hidden Passage
by Steve Wells
As told to Steve Wells over a glass of single malt whisky made from a ferment of Earl Grey tea and primrose honey mixed with secret recipe of herbs and spices. (The honey came as a gift from Mrs Williams; an apiarist of great repute whose bees were known to gather their nectar in the woods and fields by the great lake to the East of Falling Plate Hall.)
-o-O-o-
The Story so far.
Lionel Morland and his daughter Julia are visiting Laycock Abbey. Suspecting that Mr Talbot is an alchemist, Lionel and Mr Talbot's housekeeper, Mrs Higgins, went to investigate. They discovered that Mr Talbot is indeed an Alchemist but are now trapped, locked in the Alchemist's workshop.
-o-O-o-
That night Julia did not sleep well. Whenever she was just about to fall asleep it seemed as if she could hear muffled voices from behind the wood panelling of her bedroom. By about two o'clock she was beginning to wonder whether she had been affected by her father's taste in horror stories. Eventually, when she fell asleep, she dreamed of hidden rooms and dark secrets.
It all seemed rather silly in the clear spring light of the following morning. The bell high over the front door of the Abbey chimed to announce the arrival of a visitor. A pause and it rang again, and again.
"Surely", thought Julia, "Mrs Higgins will answer it soon." But the bell tolled on. With Mrs Higgins unaccountably missing and Mr Talbot nowhere to be seen, Julia stepped into the breech, went to the front door and, visitor as she herself was, welcomed the new arrival. He was a young man, tall and would have been counted extremely handsome had it not been for that slight stoop which all country doctors achieve having bent down over sick beds for several years.
"Welcome to Lacock Abbey, Sir. I'm afraid Mr Talbot doesn't seem to be about at the moment. Have you come far?"
"No, just up from London by the overnight train" He looked at her slim figure and wondered who she might be. "er... I'm Dr Cameron".
"Oh, you are most welcome. I am Miss Morland. I too am a visitor here..." She sighed, "...but Mr Talbot should be here to welcome you. I don't know where he is. In fact everyone seems to have vanished: including my father." She sighed again.
As she sighed, Dr. Cameron's eyes misted up and he mused on that truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in possession of youth and great beauty must be in want of a husband. He determined to offer whatever help he could in the search for Mr Talbot, Mr Morland and a husband for Miss Morland.
Deciding that the conversation needed restarting, Julia asked for news of London.
"Well, the town is talking of disgrace in high places. It's difficult to know what to make of it, but it seems that Sir James Effingham is disgraced."
On hearing the name of her patron, Julia exclaimed out loud, sighed twice and seemed about to swoon (in her most practised way). Dr Cameron was simply not equal to the situation and in later years he was to say that this was the moment when he first became interested in flower painting.
At first Julia ignored him, thinking of him simply as the bringer of bad news. Soon however, the Scots charm of the doctor broke down the barriers They talked long about Dr Cameron's life in Scotland, about how a young medical student, Dr Finlay, was soon to join him to take some of the work of the practice, and about how this would allow him to devote himself to his love of photography and (latterly) flower painting.
Julia told of the voices she had heard in her sleep. Indeed she insisted that Dr. Cameron should come with her that very moment to listen to see if they were still there. Cameron was not altogether happy about this. It was not that he was afraid of the possibility of ghosts but, given his strict upbringing in the "Kirk", he felt that somehow to enter a lady's bedroom, even though invited, was to suffer the possibility of eternal damnation of the soul. He continued in mental turmoil as they climbed the stairs and arrived at her door. By this time he had no choice, He entered the room, but kept his eyes averted from the bed. In this way he hoped to save at least a few millennia of purgatory.
They stood and listened. They heard the voices. Julia thought they were less strong now than they had been. Dr Cameron, overcoming his mental fears, tapped the wooden panelling and, finding a hollow place, pushed gently. The panel moved revealing a dark, low passage.
The voices were much louder now. Julia forgot to sigh.
They entered the passage, feeling their way in the darkness. The passage descended within the walls of the Abbey. It turned a corner and there, ahead of them they could see a crack of light round an ill fitting door. From the other side of this door came the voices.
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