Page 6 of The Book of Lost Stories

Stygian Depths

Resolutely Malvina took up the candle, descended into the lower chamber and looked about her carefully. Though bare except for a tattered arras depicting in faded colours some long-past battle, faint marks of footsteps in the thick dust led from the stair …

The Travails of Lady Malvina by ORLANDO brOWNE

Her inspiration kindled afresh and her resolution strengthened by the hope of possible remuneration, Alys threw herself into her writing at every conceivable moment.

Thus it was that she carried a near-completed novel with her in her valise as she embarked on her first visit to the nearby watering place of Harrogate in the company of Lady Basset, when the squire, having a dislike of all such places, refused to go.

How Lady Basset had managed to persuade Major Weston to let his daughter accompany her, leaving only Miss Grimshaw to minister to him in her place, Alys could not imagine.

Perhaps the fact that he owed to the squire’s generosity the very roof over their heads and, if not precisely the food on the table, most certainly the bottles in the cellar, may have had something to do with it.

However it was, Major Weston, fixing his daughter with a sunken and glittering eye as he reluctantly informed her of the treat, added dampeningly, ‘But you need not be in too great an excitement over it, miss! The rector gives me to understand that Harrogate is a place of decorum and taste, inhabited mainly by aged valetudinarians in search of a cure for rheumatic disorders.’

That it sounded unlikely in the extreme that she would be in much danger of being carried off by a young suitor seemed to cheer him a little.

Still, he forbade Alys to do anything more adventurous than attend on her aunt while she took the waters, went to church, or engaged in any other similarly innocuous pastimes.

She was not to dance, or go to balls, but that would have been impossible in any case, since she did not have any suitable gowns, and Lady Basset was clearly in no fit case to keep late nights.

‘Oh, thank you, Papa! Indeed, I will do just as Lady Basset wishes,’ she promised, quite dizzy with delight, for even this, compared to the daily round that had continued with monotonous regularity for as long as she could recall, was the height of dissipation.

‘You had better, for Mrs Franby has friends there, so I am bound to hear if you misbehave.’ He looked at her doubtfully, then added reluctantly, ‘Go to the corner cupboard and bring me the small wooden box on the middle shelf, for I suppose you had best have your mother’s trinkets: trumpery stuff, but she wanted you to have them. ’

*

‘And it was the first I had heard of it,’ Alys said, showing the little box inlaid with strange figures to Letty as soon as she had quitted her papa’s chamber.

‘You know how he will never talk of Mama, except to complain that my grandfather would not give her her portion once they were married, and did not even reply when informed of her death.’

Letty exclaimed over it. ‘It is a very fine box. From the East, you know. I saw another such a one as a girl.’

‘It is pretty, and since it was my mama’s I must value it, since it is the only memento of her that I have, although I am very sure that once she must have had more jewels than these strings of glass and carnelian beads, and that Papa has sold them.’

‘Perhaps there are more in the other compartment?’ Letty suggested and, with a dextrous twist and a light pressure, she revealed a hidden cavity.

‘Good heavens, Letty. I would never have known that was there.’

‘Nor would I, I am sure, had I not been shown the trick of it. And look, there are one or two papers and something wrapped in a bit of silk.’

Unwrapped, the treasure trove proved to be a large and rather bizarre pendant ornament of gold, inset with a medallion encircled by seven emeralds. A sizeable and very ugly baroque pearl was suspended from it.

‘Good heavens!’ Letty said faintly, peering over her shoulder. ‘And is that a naked man in the centre of it? Perhaps you should let me—’

‘How interesting, Letty. This central part looks to be quite ancient, and I believe the figure holding a trident must be Neptune, or Poseidon, as the ancient Greeks called him.’

‘ Did they? ’

‘Yes, I read it in some old book up at the Hall. It is just as well some of the Basset ancestors did not neglect the library, or my education would be sadly limited.’

‘And it would be my fault,’ cried Letty remorsefully. ‘My lack of accomplishments and learning have meant that I have failed you most dismally, Alys.’

‘What rubbish is this, Letty? You have practical skills of much more value, besides firm principles and a loving heart. What better qualifications could you have?’

Letty sniffled and dabbed at her eyes with a wisp of muslin.

‘You are very kind. But I feel that any gaps in your education must be put at my door, and I do not know how I will contrive to find another situation if – when – the necessity arises. I … I find myself thinking about it sometimes, for though I am sure my nephew and his family would take me in, I should not like to be a burden, dependent on them for every crust.’

‘We will cross that bridge when we come to it, Letty, so do not worry your head about it in the meantime,’ Alys said, embracing her fondly. ‘As to my education, I have gleaned what knowledge I need from books, and if there are gaps, I am not aware of them.’

‘Well, it is certainly clever of you to recognize the figure on the medallion,’ agreed Letty, ‘and if it is Roman or Greek, I expect that explains why he is not wearing any clothes, for they do not seem to have had much idea of modesty in those times.’

‘It is not done in such detail that it would make you blush anyway,’ Alys said with a twinkle, holding up the ornament so that the green stones caught the light. ‘The setting is not as old, do you think?’

‘No, but I am sure it is a fine old piece, even if to our modern eyes it seems a trifle barbaric. I remember my dear mother telling me that men used to wear such ornaments, suspended on gold chains.’

‘There is no gold chain here,’ Alys said regretfully.

‘Well, this is very odd, is it not? Papa can have had no notion of its existence, or I am sure he would have sold it long since. I wonder if Mama knew of it. Perhaps it is an heirloom of the Hartwoods, but if so, why should it be hidden away in Mama’s jewellery box? ’

‘Perhaps the papers beneath it will shed some light on the matter?’

‘Oh, yes, I had forgotten those.’ Alys unfolded them and read the few pages with knitted brows, before looking up.

‘Well, Mama certainly knew about the jewel, for these are the notes Papa sent her before they eloped, which she must have hidden in here. They are very terse and unloverlike – how can she have been so easily taken in?’

‘She was but seventeen when she met Major Weston, and I dare say he was very handsome then, and in his regimentals. Besides, there is no saying but that he really loved her, Alys.’

‘From what he has let fall, he loved the notion of marrying an heiress the more. He certainly can’t have considered how such a sheltered young girl was unfitted to follow the drum. But, of course, his hopes came to naught.’

‘And the poor lady dead of a fever not a fortnight after you were born,’ Letty agreed. ‘It is a great tragedy.’

‘Yes, and it is quite unfair of Papa to suggest my grandfather might have come round and done something handsome for us, had I been a boy , not a girl,’ Alys said bitterly, returning the papers to the secret compartment.

Then she took a last look at the jewel before wrapping it up and popping it back on top.

‘Should you not tell the major of our discovery?’ Letty suggested timidly.

‘Certainly not! If I did so, he would just sell it and squander the money. Besides, if it does turn out to be a family heirloom, it ought to be returned to the Hartwoods; so for the present we will keep it just as our secret, and you must look after the box until my return from Harrogate.’

‘From … Harrogate?’ Letty quavered, and Alys broke the news of her projected holiday, and the less glad tidings that her companion was to stay at home and try and fill her place during her absence.

*

The anticipated day of departure finally dawned and Alys put on one of the new dresses fashioned by Miss Grimshaw’s nimble fingers from muslin bestowed on her by Lady Basset.

At parting the squire kindly gave Alys a few guineas, saying she was bound to want something to spend on feminine fallals in the shops there, which led her to kiss his cheek and thank him sincerely, which seemed to please him.

James was in London, or he might have escorted them, but Sir Ralph sent a manservant in his place and they set out in very good time.

It was a very easy day’s journey and Lady Basset appeared to revive amazingly the very second the steps were put up and the horses given the office to start.

So when Alys tentatively suggested that since they were to pass the very gates of Priory Chase, the ancestral home of the Rayvens, it would be quite criminal not to catch a glimpse of it, she winked conspiratorially and agreed.

Indeed, they were almost equally agog to see such a romantic place, built as it was on the site of a former abbey and reputed to have a monkish, ghostly figure haunting the original cellars running beneath the house.

The house proved to be an impressive pile built of warm, almost amber stone, but the adjacent ruins had been reduced to a crumbled and pierced wall or two. Romantic enough, Alys supposed, especially on a moonlit night, but in the broad light of day not in the least sinister.