* * *
Lakehurst prowledbehind the ladies as Cassie took them on a brief tour of the castle.
Cassie.
He enjoyed thinking of her as Cassie. It came naturally, so naturally it easily supplanted her Lady Darkford title in his mind. And he liked the easy camaraderie they’d developed during their journey. Of course, how could they not have all been at ease with Gwinnie around! His sister made any day sunny.
Overall, the castle rooms were spare in adornment, as one might see on an estate where money remained tight. In London, they believed the Tidemarks were wealthy; the source of their wealth the quarries in the Mendip Hills. He would have to ask Cassie. The library was the only room they’d entered that had more in the way of statues and paintings. And in there, satyrs were the subject matter. The bed chambers had elegant, expensive bed hangings, drapes, and rugs, but the walls were simply painted and devoid of paintings. An interesting contrast.
They ended their tour in an empty, cold kitchen. Lakehurst had never known a kitchen to be cold. They were the warmest room in a building. The massive fireplace with its ovens and spit were cold and swept. Only a small coal stove to the side radiated heat, residual from heating the tea kettle, he presumed, and now the fire had been allowed to die. He and Gwinnie exchanged glances, each frowning.
“This kitchen used to be one of my favorite places to visit,” Cassie said as she looked around. “It was always lively. The cook was a jovial man who made the most delicious cakes. Not a crumb ever grew stale or saw the bins,” she said with a smile. “Unlike some of the others, I’m sure he found a new position. I do worry for some of the others,” she said with a frown. “Well, that is for another day’s concern,” she said firmly. “Now we all need food.”
“Where would Mrs. Gallagher have put the provisions we brought?” Gwinnie asked. “We should get them out while Mrs. Gallagher prepares the rooms.”
“Yes, no sense in bothering her with our meal, as she so plainly stated she is not a cook,” Cassie said. “They should be over here in the pantry.” She pulled the door open, holding a lantern high to see inside.
“Oh, no!” she cried out in dismay. Lakehurst immediately came up behind her.
Thick dust and spider webs covered the crocks and glass jars stored on the long shelves along the side and back of the pantry. Contents of grain sacks stacked on the shelves and on the floor spilled out from rat gnawed holes. Black rat and bug droppings speckled what remained of the sacks’ contents. The smell of damp, mold, and feces wafted outward.
Gwinnie looked inside. “No, I don’t think she stored them in here,” she said drily.
“One should hope not,” stated Rose, coming up beside her.
Cassie saw movement in a corner. She swiftly closed the door. “I wonder what happened to the cats?”
She looked around. “So, if food is not stored in a food pantry, where would it be?” She looked around the large kitchen.
“A mystery, and the hunt is on!” declared Gwinnie with a twirl and grin, causing them all to laugh.
She started pulling open cupboard doors and opening drawers. Rose found the hall to the servants’ wing. Agnes went to the butler’s pantry. Cassie joined Gwinnie in searching the kitchen. Lakehurst opened a door that revealed stairs going down. He grabbed a lantern and ventured that way.
“Found it, my lady!” came Agnes’s voice from a distance.
Lakehurst came back up the stairs carrying a bottle of wine.
Rose came back into the kitchen.
When Agnes returned through the butler’s pantry into the kitchen she said, “The basket’s on the dining room table.”
“Good,” Cassie sighed in relief.
Lakehurst held out the wine bottle he’d found. “Your wine cellar is not in the same sad neglected state as your food pantry; however, the contents appear lighter than I assume they would be given the late Marquess’s entertainment habits,” he said.
Cassie frowned, then shrugged. “I was afraid of that,” she admitted. She turned toward Agnes. “Are the plates and cutlery clean in the butler’s pantry?”
Agnes nodded and said she would set the table for them.
“For all of us,” Cassie said. “You and Rose are to eat with us. Afterward, you may take food to the men in the stable.”
Lakehurst followed the women into the dining room. He noted how Cassie appeared more confident now. Was it from being back in her old home? Or the taking charge of affairs? Regardless of the cause, she no longer wore the mantle of a shy, retiring widow. He was happy for that; however, he was dismayed at the state of the castle. He didn’t understand how it could have come to be so neglected while the stable was cared for. It didn’t make any sense to him.
Mr. and Mrs. Gallagher baffled him as well. They appeared to be in their mid-forties. They were nicely dressed. He’d go so far as to say they dressed above the positions they held. If they were rightly above the position—which he doubted due to their coarse speech—why were they here?
* * *
After their meal,Lakehurst told the ladies he would take the food out to the men in the stable. He wanted to talk to them, and also see if he could discover how to communicate with the deaf man. He’d already learned the man could talk, though his words were sometimes indistinct; but he could neither hear, nor read or write.
