The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle (15 page)

The Cave by the Sea

K
AT WOKE TO
the sound of the lock clicking open; it was barely dawn. She waited, stiff as a board, fearful, but no one entered. She heard then the slashing patter on the windows and a howling wind whistling through the cracks. A great storm must have blown in off the North Sea.

Her first thought went to the missing chatelaine. She swallowed hard. How could she protect her brother and sister without it?

And then she remembered the doctor. He would come. They'd be saved. But Kat would have to explain the lost chatelaine to Great-Aunt Margaret. Well, she'd take that responsibility, as long as they could all get away from this terrible haunted place.

She left her warm bed and went to the window, staring into the gray dawn. The weather alternated ice and rain, and Kat hugged herself and shivered as the wind found its way into the castle. The snow was all gone.

Kat washed and bundled into her uniform and opened her door. The passage was silent and dim. She might have roused Peter and Rob, but it was so early.

Find the doctor. Then, she hoped, find the chatelaine.

She slipped down the stairs, heading for the kitchen. She hoped she'd catch Cook readying breakfast. Readying things for the doctor.

The castle was dark and her footsteps echoed, even as she tiptoed. When she reached the kitchen it was cold: no cheery fire, no pleasant smells, silent as a tomb. She stood in the semidarkness and chewed her lip.

Kat went to the door to the kitchen courtyard and eased it open.

The wind blasted her backward, and she held the door to keep it from banging wide. It was the devil to close, and she had to put her shoulder to it. But before she shut it she saw the headlights of the Lady's motorcar coming in through the back gate, the lights in the gray rain bouncing from wall to wall in the close kitchen yard. Kat watched until the car pulled to a stop inside the garage bay across the court.

The giant heaved himself out of the driver's seat and closed
the garage door behind. Kat started. He wore a long black oilcloth greatcoat.

She closed the door tight and leaned back against it, rubbing her forehead.

Wait,
she thought. He must have gone to fetch the doctor. Brought him in by the front door. Yes, that had to be it. Hugo wasn't the enemy, despite that coat.

And the doctor was here. They were saved! The thrill of knowing that soon they'd all be off and home filled her heart. She could stand up to any number of thumpings from the Nazis, just to be back at Great-Aunt Margaret's again with her brother and sister and Mum. Her great-aunt would understand about the lost chatelaine, as long as they were all safe and together.

Kat would wake the others and let them know. They'd need to be ready to leave. Joy surged in her. Home. They were going home!

She ran back upstairs to Peter and Rob's door.

She didn't dare pound, but she knocked as loud as she could and whispered, her mouth right against the jamb, “Peter! Rob! Wake up now!”

Within a minute the door opened. Peter held the door, still in his pajamas and scratching his head. She could see into the room, the two empty beds. There was no sign of Rob. She looked away, blushing at the sight of Peter in his pajamas. “Where's Rob?”

“What?”

“Where is he?”

“Hang on,” Peter said.

She closed the door to an inch and heard Peter scrambling around the room. When he came back to the door he was clothed and finishing buttoning his shirt. His eyes were wide and his face ashen. The metallic taste of fear filled Kat's mouth. He held a piece of paper in his hand, a note in Rob's wobbly scrawl.

“Rob?” Kat asked, trying to calm herself, her heart racing so that she thought her chest would explode.

“He's gone.”

Kat paced. “Out alone on the cliffs?” She wanted to kick herself. How she wished she hadn't mentioned the black-coated figure to Rob.

Rob had written:
Up early
and saw that black-coated spy heading toward cliffs. Back
soon.

“I don't know how he snuck out without waking me.” Peter pursed his lips. “At least he took his sword. And his coat.”

Peter was trying to be comforting, but it wasn't working.

Kat prayed Rob would show up for breakfast, but, no, and Cook was not at breakfast, either. Marie brought out some cold meats and cheeses and bread. Peter told the Lady that Rob didn't feel well and was sleeping in, at which the Lady grew
furious and left the dining hall. The five remaining children huddled together, whispering.

“Regardez,”
said Isabelle as the door slammed shut behind the Lady. “She is angry about something. Something is amiss.”

“Yes, what's amiss is Rob,” Kat said bitterly. And her chatelaine, but Kat couldn't worry about both at once.

Storm was missing at breakfast, too, but MacLarren and Gumble kept a wary eye on the small band of students. Peter said, “We're going to have to keep up the pretense for Rob's sake, until he shows up.”

Colin said, “What if he's, you know, like Jorry?”

“Oui,”
said Isabelle. “Ill with spots.”

Kat's throat burned. There was no going away with any doctor without Rob.

“Off you go,” said Marie, who came to clear the table.

“Did the doctor come for Jorry?” Peter asked her.

Marie stared at him. “Why, no. I don't think so. At least . . .” She paused, rubbing her hand over her forehead. “This is a very confusing morning.”

Well, that settled it. No doctor. No rescue.

They went back to their rooms and Kat tried to finish her homework, but her mind was on Rob.

At lunch, Cook was back, and Kat felt a small glimmer of relief. But when Cook saw that Rob was not at the table, she set her lips and murmured to herself.

After lunch Kat ran for the kitchen, the others right behind.

Cook sat at the kitchen table, shaking her head. “I knew when her Ladyship sent me out early to the train but nobody was at the station that, well, something was not right. And then me getting stuck in the mud in the wagon and Hugo not around neither to pull me out until forever. It's good I got back here at all.” She sighed. “All right. When did you last see him?”

Peter explained while Cook listened and Kat paced back and forth.

Cook leaned back on her stool. “So he's gone wandering down toward the coast. I'll fetch Hugo. He knows these cliffs and wastes like the back of his very big hand.”

Kat was certain that Hugo was not their enemy. Someone else must also wear a black greatcoat. When Hugo came in, Kat explained again about Rob.

“Ach.” Hugo rubbed his chin. “Well, now. Where to begin, that's the question.”

“I'd begin with coats,” muttered Cook.

“Aye, too right. Cook, you are a smart one.” He dropped his voice and leaned over the children. “Where would we be without Cook, eh?” He raised up again. “Everyone fetch your warmest coats and hats and mittens, and we'll meet back here in a jiff.”

A fog was starting to settle, dripping chill on brown grass. Kat was so anxious, she walked ahead of the others
with the giant, who led them down the allée of trees.

“Don't think he'd strike out across the moorlands,” Hugo said. “There's naught between Rookskill Castle and the islands but hills after Dunraven, and the moors are no place to go, bleak they are, with naught but rocks and heather, and they say these wastes are full of the ghosts of highlanders. But the seacoast, now, he might be looking after ships and the like, what with all that's going on these days and the waters filled with ships of all kinds.”

They reached the cliff edge. The water struck the rocks below them, pounding, pounding; seagulls wheeled and called, mournful; the sea gave up its salt smell in the mist around them.

“Ach!” said Hugo, going down on one knee. “Look here.” He lifted a button from the dense turf.

Kat's heart kicked up. It was definitely one of Rob's coat buttons; she recognized the lion's head stamp. Hugo began walking north along the cliff, head bent as if he was tracking.

Hugo muttered to himself as he walked, and he picked up the pace, striding out with his giant's reach. “Used to spend me time as a lad up here. Still remember these crags.” Kat now had to run to keep up with his long legs.

Kat and Hugo pulled away from the others, and her heart beat harder as a shaft of sunlight broke through the line of clouds, the sun now low on the horizon. How much time before
dinner, before the Lady returned and caught them out? The useless watch weighed heavy on Kat's wrist.

Then Hugo stopped, so abruptly that she ran smack into the back of his legs. The cliffs had lifted beside them so that they stood on a high point of land, the ocean to their right. Before them the slope dropped steeply to a deep ravine that released a narrow stream of water into the surf, and beyond the stream, a swath of green woods, and beyond that, Kat spied the high rolling rocky hills of the moors, glinting with low late light.

“Right here,” Hugo muttered. He raised his hand and pointed. “That's Fairnie Burn, there,” he said, indicating the stream, “and that's Dunraven Wood. So that means that right about here . . .” And he went to the sheer edge of the cliff and leaned over, looking down.

“Ho!” Hugo called into the salt air. “Ye found it, did ye?”

Hugo could reach his long arms down over the cliff face just far enough. By the time the others had caught up with Hugo and Kat, Hugo had hauled Robbie up and over the edge, where he lay panting and dirt-smudged, staring up at the sky.

“I know that ledge well, lad,” said Hugo. “Used to sit on it when I wanted to be left alone.”

“I couldn't climb back up,” Rob said, wiping his forehead on
his sleeve. “I thought I'd be there forever.” Then he sat straight up. “But I found the spy. And the wireless. Although there's more than a wireless there. There's another machine there. Something weird.”

Kat didn't care about machines. She knelt down and wrapped Rob in a bear hug.

“Please, Kat,” Rob said, pushing her away, his cheeks turning pink. “For heaven's sake don't sniffle.”

She rubbed her eyes. She couldn't help the tears. It had been a dreadful day. She wouldn't scold him, grateful as she was that he was all right.

Peter pointed to the west, where the sun shot a last ray through the low clouds. “We've got barely enough time to get back.”

Rob filled Kat and Peter in as they ran back to the castle. Hugo carried Isabelle on his back and Amelie in his arms and he lumbered at a fast pace.

“I followed him,” Rob panted. “Your black coat fellow. Followed him, then hid in the trees and saw him disappear over the cliff and then climb back up and make for the castle. I waited till he was out of sight, then thought I could go down like he did and get back up again, but he's taller . . .”

They tumbled into the front hall, and Hugo put the girls down. “I'll be leaving you bairns. Be quick about it, now,” he said before trudging away. They threw off their coats, stashing
them in a pile in the closet, and made a beeline for the dining hall.