I kissed her lightly and she clung to me for a moment. Then firmly I released myself and went into my Lavender Room.

I lay awake for a long time thinking how easy it would be to send Angelet to sleep while I took her place in the marriage bed.

Then I dreamed that Richard came home and that I gave Angelet the dose, and when I was on my way to Richard, Mrs Cherry and Cherry, with Jesson and Meg and Grace, stood on the stairs barring my way.

It was a dream at which I could laugh when I awoke from it because I saw exactly how it had been evolved.

The next afternoon I went down to the kitchen to speak to Mrs Cherry about her cure. I wanted to make sure that it was safe in small doses.

When I arrived in the kitchen there was no one there. The great fire was burning and there was a smell of baking coming from the oven. A piece of meat was turning on the spit in its early stages of cooking so that it did not yet need attention.

I looked around and my eyes fell on the cauldron whose fall to the ground had awakened us all in the night. And as I looked, I noticed what I had never noticed before, and that was a door which was not shut. Above this door hung aprons and cloths used for cooking, and the reason why I had never noticed it before was because it was always hidden. There were things still hung there to hide it, but because the door itself was slightly open the fact of its existence was betrayed. I went to it. There was a lock on it but that lock had been broken. Quickly I opened the door. Inside was a cupboard in which heavy garments were hanging. Some instinct told me that this was no ordinary cupboard and I drew the coats aside. I was right! A door faced me. The lock on this had been broken but there was a bolt which had been drawn across.

I thought I heard footsteps so I hastily stepped back into the kitchen and shut the cupboard door.

Mrs Cherry came in.

‘I thought I heard someone here,’ she said.

‘I came to have a word with you, Mrs Cherry.’

She was fearful, I could see, and I noticed how her eyes went to the door I had discovered. She would notice that it was not properly shut and that close scrutiny would betray this fact. I wondered why it was important.

She brought up a chair for me and I sat down.

‘Your mistress is not sleeping very well.’ I said, ‘and I am becoming worried about her.’

Apprehension disappeared from Mrs Cherry’s face, which fell into an expression of concern.

‘Do you remember when she had a toothache she took some of your special cure?’

‘I do indeed, mistress, and she remarked to me that it had stopped the pain.’

‘It did. You are very clever with your herbs, Mrs Cherry.’

She dimpled. ‘Oh it’s what you might call a lifelong practice, Mistress Bersaba.’

‘That’s why I’ve come to you for your help.’

‘If there’s anything I can do …’

‘There is. I want to ask you if she might have some of the cure to keep in her room so that when she finds it difficult to sleep she might take a dose. Would that be harmful?’

‘Well, Mistress Bersaba, as long as she didn’t take too much. These things shouldn’t be took regular. A little now and then can’t do no one no harm. I always say God put them there for our use and it’s up to us to make the best of them.’

‘And people like you who make a study of these things are doing a very useful job for us all.’

‘Well, mistress, it’s my pleasure. I love my little herb garden, and if I can find anything new or learn any new recipe … well, there’s no one happier than Emmy Cherry.’

Emmy Cherry! I thought. It suited her—so rotund, so eager to serve, and yet with a glint of something in her eyes which made her of interest to me.

‘So,’ I said, ‘you will let me have the cure?’

‘I’ve been thinking, Mistress Bersaba. The cure is for toothache. You don’t need a cure for toothache when you ain’t got it, now do you? I’ve got a little something here which is made mostly of poppy juice and fresh green leaves to give it taste and a spot of juniper to give it a tang … That’s not all. But a little nip of this would ensure a good night’s rest, I reckon, and do no harm. I’ll give it to you.’

She went to a cupboard and I followed her. It was like a small room, that cupboard, and I imagined it was an almost exact replica of the one which contained the coats.

This cupboard was lined with shelves and in it was an array of bottles neatly labelled. There was no extra door.

She took one of the bottles and gave it to me.

‘Here you are, Mistress Bersaba. She’ll sleep well on this. Just the one dose will do it. But don’t let her take too much. There’s always a fear that you’ll take a dose, get sleepy and take another without knowing it. It’s been done more than once. Now that’s something I wouldn’t like to speak for.’

‘You can trust me, Mrs Cherry,’ I said. ‘I shall see that she only takes it when it is absolutely necessary and I’ll keep it in my room.’

I took the bottle into my room and put it into a cupboard. When I saw Angelet I told her what I had done.

‘Where is it?’ she asked.

‘I’m keeping it,’ I told her. ‘When I think you really need to be put off to sleep, I shall use Mrs Cherry’s Soother …’

‘Let me have it, Bersaba.’

‘No,’ I said firmly; and she laughed and was happy in my care for her.

I couldn’t wait to explore that part of the grounds around the kitchens, for I wanted to discover if there was a door there which could be the one in the cupboard.

It was dusk and there was no one about when I strolled out in my cloak, for it was chilly, and made my way round the house.

This was where the kitchens would be. There was the window which I knew was there, but I could not find a door. I wondered whether there had been one once and it had been blocked up. If so, there should be some sign of it, but there was nothing.

I looked behind me. The wall of the mock castle was very close and the discovery I did make was that this was its nearest distance from the house. If it is a ruin which might crumble at any moment, is it safe to allow it to remain so near the house? I wondered.

Clearly I could discover nothing there, so I went back to my room, but I kept thinking about it.

How long the evening seemed. Angelet sat idly, for she could not see to embroider by the candlelight, and I fancied that when Richard was not there she did not feel the need to be busy.

We talked of old times and Trystan Priory and wondered what our mother was doing at that moment. Then when we mentioned Castle Paling I was reminded of my exploration that afternoon, and said: ‘When I went down to the kitchen to speak to Mrs Cherry I noticed a cupboard I had not seen before. I looked inside and there was a door which was bolted. Where does it lead?’

‘I’ve no idea,’ replied Angelet.

‘You’re the mistress of the house. It shouldn’t hold any secrets from you.’

‘I never interfere in the kitchen.’

‘It’s not interfering … just to find out why there should be a door in a cupboard.’

‘Did you ask Mrs Cherry?’

‘No, I didn’t.’

‘Well, if you’re curious you could ask her.’

‘Why don’t we go down and see?’

‘To ask them, you mean.’

‘I don’t want to ask them. I want to find out for ourselves. It’s rather mysterious, I fancy.’

‘Mysterious? How? Why?’

‘How? That’s what we have to find out. And why?—well, something tells me it is.’

‘What do you want to do?’

‘Explore.’

Her eyes shone. It was almost as though we were children again and I knew that that was what she was thinking. Hadn’t I always been the one to lead the way when we did something wild and extraordinary?

‘Well,’ she said, ‘what do you suggest?’

‘We’ll wait until they’re in bed and then we’ll go down to the kitchens and see what’s behind that door … If there is anything.’

‘What if we’re discovered?’

‘My dear Angelet, what if we are? Are you or are you not the mistress of this house? If you wish to explore your kitchen in the dead of night, what right has anyone to stop you?’

She began to laugh.

‘You haven’t grown up at all,’ she accused.

‘In some ways I may have retained my childishness,’ I admitted.

The evening passed slowly; we went to our rooms and to our beds because I had said that neither Meg nor Phoebe should suspect anything. This was our adventure.

It was just past midnight when we wrapped our robes about us and took a candle and made our way to the kitchens.

Angelet kept close to me. I sensed that she was a little nervous, and I wondered whether I should have suggested she share the adventure. Cautiously I opened the kitchen door and, lifting the candlestick, shone the light over the wall, past the great fireplace to the shelf on which stood the pewter goblets.

‘There’s the cauldron which fell the other night,’ I said. I lowered the candle. ‘And there’s the door. Come on.’

I went to it. It was shut and there was a key in the lock. I turned it and the door opened. I was in the cupboard.

‘Hold the candle,’ I commanded Angelet, and when she took it I pushed aside the coats and revealed that other door. The lock had not been mended, but the heavy bolt was drawn across it.

‘What are you doing?’ whispered Angelet.

‘I’m going to draw the bolt,’ I said.

It moved easily which surprised me, for I had imagined it might be impossible to move if it had not been drawn for a number of years.

I opened the door and as I did so there was a rush of cold air. I looked into darkness.

‘Be careful,’ cried Angelet.

‘Give me the candle.’

It was a sort of corridor. On the ground were stones and the walls were of stone too.

I stepped forward.

‘Come back!’ screamed Angelet. ‘I can hear someone coming.’

That brought me out into the cupboard. I too could hear footsteps. I shut the door behind me. As I did so Mrs Cherry came into the kitchen.

She gave a little scream and Angelet said, ‘It’s all right, Mrs Cherry.’

‘God have mercy,’ she whispered.

I said quickly: ‘We thought we heard someone down here—and we came to investigate.’

Mrs Cherry’s eyes had lost their bland benignity. She could have been very frightened.

‘It’s all right, though,’ I went on. ‘It must have been mice in the wainscot or some bird outside …’

She looked round the room and I noticed that her eyes went to the cupboard.

‘I reckon this comes of people not putting up cauldrons in their right places, that’s what I reckon. People get nervous … that’s what, and then they mistake noises in the night.’

‘I suppose that’s what it was. But we have satisfied ourselves, Mrs Cherry. So there’s no need to worry.’

‘I wouldn’t like to think of anything wrong in my kitchen,’ said Mrs Cherry.

‘There is nothing wrong. We’ve satisfied ourselves. We’ll say goodnight now, and I’m sorry you’ve been disturbed.’

I slipped my left arm through Angelet’s right and, holding the candle high in my right hand, I led my sister out of the kitchen.

When we were in the Blue Room I set down the candle, sat on her bed and laughed.

‘Well, that was fun,’ I said.

‘Why did you make up that story about hearing noises? Why didn’t you tell her what we were looking for?’

‘I felt it would be more fun not to.’

‘What was it you found, anyway?’

‘The door opens on to a sort of alcove with a stone floor.’

‘Well, what’s so interesting about that?’

‘My explorations did not go far enough for me to answer.’

‘Oh Bersaba, you are mad. You always were. What Mrs Cherry thought of us, I can’t imagine.’

‘She was a little upset. I wonder why?’

‘Most people would be after they’d had a fright like that.’

‘What would you say if I told you I thought that might be a way into the castle?’

‘I’d say that you were making it up.’

‘Well, of course, there is a way to prove it, though. And there isn’t another way in, is there? I mean, that high wall with the glass on top goes all the way round.’

‘Richard had the wall put round because it wasn’t safe. And there is another door. I found it one day when I was in the copse. Why should there be a way into the castle from the house?’

‘I don’t know. I just wondered.’