Castle of Secrets by Amanda Grange

wing, and reluctantly she had to admit defeat.
    She went out
onto the landing and a movement below caught her eye. Through the window she
saw a solitary figure in the courtyard below: Lord Torkrow. Where was he going?
she wondered.
    As he headed
towards his horse, he stopped suddenly, and she felt an unaccountable sense of
alarm. She shrank back as  he looked up, and his eyes raked the window. Had he
seen her? She felt her palms grow damp. As her heart began to race, she
wondered why she was so afraid. She had every right to be in the attic. But
even so, she felt a sense of relief when she heard the horse’s hooves on the
gravel and knew he was on his way.
    Feeling shaken
by the incident, she hurried downstairs, but her mind was not easy. Who had
been crying in the attic? Had it really been a cat? Why was the attic door in
the east wing locked?
    And where was
the key?

Chapter
Four
     
    Helena was relieved to join Mrs Beal in the
kitchen again for dinner. After an unsettling day, here, with cheerful company,
the castle seemed less menacing, and Helena felt her confidence returning. She knew she needed to be
careful of what she said, but she was not as frightened of making a slip in
front of Mrs Beal as she had been in front of Lord Torkrow, because Mrs Beal
would probably not notice. And if she did, she would probably forget it the
moment a pie needed taking out of the oven.
    ‘Yes, you’ll
need some maids,’ said Mrs Beal, as the two sat down to a nourishing meal of
chicken and potatoes, and Helena told her that she had spoken to the earl. ‘There’s no way
you can run the castle without them. It’s a long walk to the village across the
moor, mind, so make sure you’re wrapped up warm, and mind you wear stout
shoes.’
    ‘I will,’ said Helena .
    ‘Go and see
the rector’s wife, Mrs Willis. She’s used to finding maids for the castle. The
last two left, silly girls. Said they’d heard a ghost, or some such nonsense.
But work’s scarce hereabouts, and there’ll be two more to take their place.’
    ‘Do you think
the same two could be persuaded to return?’ asked Helena . ‘They would know their business,’
she explained, when Mrs Beal looked surprised.
    Mrs Beal
considered. ‘Maybe. Their fathers will want them working, that’s for sure. If
it hadn’t been for the fact there was no housekeeper at the castle, they’d have
made the girls go back to work at once, ghosts or no. But there were those in
the village who said it wasn’t right for girls to be working at the castle with
no one but his lordship here. I’m down in the kitchen all day long, and the
villagers know it.’
    ‘But they
would consider Miss Parkins a suitable chaperon, surely?’
    Mrs Beal
pulled face. ‘There’s not many that like Miss Parkins hereabouts. Why keep a
lady’s maid when there’s no lady? That’s what the gossips say.’
    ‘They can’t
think . . . ?’
    ‘Why, bless
you no, there’s none so crazed as that, but there are those who say she knows
things about him, things that could harm him, and that’s why he keeps her here.
There are those who say he can’t afford to turn her away.’
    ‘Do you
believe it?’ Helena asked, putting down her
cup.
    ‘Not I. He’s a
good master. Some masters are forever finding fault: the food’s too rich, the
food’s too plain, there’s too much spent, there’s too much waste . . . nothing
but complaints with some people. But he never criticises. I can make what I
want, as long as the housekeeper agrees. It’s a good place, and I mean to keep
it.’
    As they ate, Helena asked: ‘Dawkins doesn’t
eat in the kitchen, then?’
    ‘He has his
meal earlier, at four o’clock , with Effie. It leaves him free to attend to his lordship when his
lordship eats his meal.’
    ‘Do you know
where his lordship has gone?’ asked Helena .
    ‘He’s gone to York , maybe, to see to
business.’
    ‘And do you
know when he is likely to return?’
    ‘He never
says. It would be easier if