“Nearly there, I think.” Daniel propelled me forward, his arm still around my waist. “Then a bath and a hot drink will soon bring us to rights. Ah, this way. I believe we follow this wall and it will lead us to the gate.”
As Daniel took my hand and guided me away from the cliff path, there was an ominous rumble of thunder overhead. A few moments later a flash of lightning lit up towering wrought-iron gates. Daniel felt for a latch but the gates refused to open.
“Blast and damnation!” he shouted. “These infernal gates must open somehow.” He shook them in frustration but they refused to budge.
“They knew we were expected today, didn’t they?” I asked. “I don’t see any lights.” I was soaked to the skin, my teeth chattering now, my hair plastered to my face, and my clothes clinging to me. All I wanted was to get indoors to a fire and a cup of tea.
“I don’t understand it. I know the family is not usually here at this time of year, but there has to be a caretaker on the property,” Daniel snapped out the words. “But we have no way of alerting anyone, unless we walk back into town and see if we can reach the place by telephone.”
This suggestion didn’t seem too appealing. “Everything seemed to be closed for the night in town. Besides we can’t walk all the way back,” I said. “We’re already soaked to the skin. I don’t suppose it’s any good shouting.”
“No one would hear us with this infernal racket going on.”
Thunder growled again and once again the scene was illuminated with a lighting flash. It revealed a long driveway behind those gates and in the distance the great black shape of what seemed to be an enormous castle. I stared in amazement.
“I thought you said it was a cottage.”
“I wanted to surprise you,” Daniel replied in an annoyed voice. “The wealthy who own summer homes in Newport call them cottages but they are actually mansions. This one is called Connemara.”
“Holy mother of God,” I muttered. “We’re not getting a whole mansion to ourselves are we?”
“No, we’ve been offered the guest cottage on the property. If only we can find a way in.” He rattled the gates again angrily.
I had been experiencing a growing sense of anxiety. It wasn’t just the howl of the storm and the flashes of lightning. God knows I’d seen enough storms on the West Coast of Ireland. It was something more. “Daniel, don’t let’s stay here,” I blurted out suddenly. “Perhaps we should go back into town after all. There is bound to be a hotel or inn of some sort where we can spend the night. The house clearly doesn’t want us.”
Daniel gave me a quizzical smile. “The house doesn’t want us?”
“I’m getting this overwhelming feeling that we shouldn’t be here, that we’re not wanted.”
“You and your sixth sense,” Daniel said. He was still prowling, staring up at the gates and the high stone wall. “You’ll feel differently when we’re safely inside. I am determined to find a way in, even if I have to scale that wall.”
A great clap of thunder right overhead drowned out his last words and simultaneously the world was bathed in electric blue light. I was staring up at the house and I saw a face quite clearly framed in an upstairs window. It was a child’s face and it was laughing with maniacal glee.
I let go of the bars of the gate as if burned. “Come away!” I shouted. “We shouldn’t be here.”
Two
“Easy now.” Daniel grabbed me as if he sensed I was about to bolt like a spooked horse. “I didn’t think a wild Irish girl like you would be frightened of a little storm.”
“Didn’t you see it?” I asked.
“I can’t see a blasted thing,” Daniel said. “It’s pitch dark.”
“The face at the window. I saw a face at that window in the turret, Daniel.”
“Then at least the place is occupied,” Daniel said. “Let’s hope the person saw us and is sending down someone to unlock the gates.”
“It was a child and it was laughing. A rather alarming face, actually.”
We waited. No lights shone out. The storm raged on, the wind howling through the trees and making them dance crazily. I kept staring up at that turret, waiting to see the face again.
“I’m damned well going to scale that wall if I have to.” Daniel eyed the solid eight-foot stone speculatively.
“And what good would that do? If the gates are locked, you won’t be able to let me in and I certainly can’t scale a wall like that.”
“I thought lady detectives could do anything a man could do. Didn’t you tell me that once?”
I was in no mood to be teased. “I’m going back to town,” I said. “If we stay out in this much longer we’ll catch our death of cold.”
“Give me a boost up,” Daniel said, ignoring me. “I think I could climb it right here.”
“And if you can’t open the gate or get back over? You propose to spend the night on one side of the wall with me on the other?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll rouse someone in the main house.”
He started to climb the rough stone of the wall.