The younger girl, the one who sometimes could hear Elaine, whimpered, but was bravely holding back her tears.
Elaine’s heart melted for her. They were all covered with streaks of dust and looked exhausted and the food-sack tied to the older girl’s belt looked sadly empty. Poor little things, she thought. They needed a refuge, but her rooms wouldn’t do. She frightened them, and the old man who looked like Bernarr slept there.
“S’not my fault! There’s draughts,’ the boy holding the candle said, his youthful anger at being blamed for something he didn’t do overriding caution and the need for quiet.
The others said nothing but watched the stub of the candle anxiously. It was plain they were afraid of being left in the dark.
Elaine remembered a place they could hide that should do very well. Bernarr had brought her there just after she’d arrived. ‘It is warded so that when you wish to be private no one will bother you here.’ He’d smiled proudly. ‘It shall be your own sanctuary.’ She’d felt no need at all for such a place, but he’d been so proud of his gift that she’d smiled and leaned up to kiss his cheek, a kiss he’d claimed with his lips.
‘Come with me,’ she whispered to the girl who seemed to hear her. ‘I know a place where you’ll be safe.’
Neesa stood up, looking down the dark passageway. Her crying stopped and she smiled.
‘What is it?’ Mandy hissed; her eyes glittered in the candlelight as she tried to look in every direction at once.
‘Let’s go this way,’ Neesa said like someone in a dream. ‘It’s the right way.’ She walked off.
Kay and Mandy looked at one another, but Rip pushed himself to his feet and started after Neesa. ‘C’mon,’ he said impatiently.
Mandy got up and followed. ‘You coming?’ she threw over her shoulder at Kay.
Rip was moving carefully so as not to put out the candle, their only source of light. ‘Wait!’ he said to Neesa and his breath blew it out.
Mandy gasped and Kay cried out in fear.
‘Don’t make noise!’ Rip admonished. ‘I’m in front of you. Hold hands! We’ve got to stay together.’
‘It’s your fault!’ Kay snapped.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Rip said tiredly, ‘it was going out anyway. Be careful! Right, everybody here?’
‘Yeah,’ Kay muttered, fear reducing his voice to a hoarse whisper.
‘Then let’s go,’ Rip said. ‘Every time Neesa’s had this feeling it’s led us somewhere safe.’
‘I wouldn’t call this safe,’ Kay sneered.
‘It’s safer than the halls,’ Rip reminded him, ‘or the room we were locked in.’
‘We can’t get out!’ the other boy shouted.
‘Shhh!’ Mandy said. ‘We couldn’t get out before either. Unless you’ve got a better idea put a stopper in it, Kay.’
They were silent then, moving carefully in the pitch-darkness. They slipped down corridors so narrow they had to turn sideways and went up and down stairs both narrow and creaky until at last Neesa brought them to a halt.
‘Here,’ she said softly.
The others stood still and listened to the sound of her apparently patting the walls. There was a muffled click and they all flinched as a narrow crack let in a blinding light. Then Neesa impulsively pushed open the panel and led them through. She squealed with delight at what she found.
Though everything was covered with dust and the air was stale from long disuse, the room was undeniably cosy, and well lit from a high window.
‘We won’t run out of candles here,’ Mandy said, smiling.
Everywhere they looked there were candlestands with branches of candles in them. There was a full scuttle of sea-coal as well. Plumply cushioned chairs and sofas abounded and there was a feeling of peace about the place.
‘Now all we need is something to eat,’ Kay said. ‘And water. Got any feelings about that?’
Rip raised one eyebrow and was immediately pleased with himself for having done so for the first time. So instead of getting annoyed at the other boy’s attitude he thought about the question. ‘Yes,’ he decided. He picked up the empty sack and looked at Kay. ‘Want to come?’
For an answer Kay plucked two candles from a stand and lit them from the strikebox. He wasn’t about to refuse to do something the younger boy was willing to try.
Rip peered out through the hole in the carving. This is fun! he thought. His young mind had a problem understanding all the terrors that were around him since he had awakened in this place, but spying on people from a hidden location was something he could finally grasp, and it felt like a game to him.