The Alchemist's Key (12 page)

‘And I’m expected to know that?’ Wade asked, as Hannah grabbed her coat and pulled it on over her nightdress.

‘That says a lot for what you think of me.’

‘Well, you could be a complete nymphomaniac under that cool facade.’

‘Nymphomaniac!’ She slapped his cheek so hard it nearly bowled him over. ‘I think Louisa is the girl you’re looking for.’

She exited with haste towards the front door.

Wade raced into the Great Hall to make one final plea before she vanished into the night. ‘Come on, Hannah … don’t you know me better than this by now?’

‘In my experience, one should always trust a first impression … I don’t want to know you.’

Wade’s head sank into his shoulders as the door slammed in her wake. ‘Perfect.’

‘What the hell is going on?’ Hugh paused at the top of the stairway to inquire. But when Louisa entered the domed picture gallery, wearing nothing but her slinky red nightdress, Hugh figured the answer out by himself. ‘Never mind, I can guess.’ He couldn’t help but shake his head.

‘What are you shaking your head at?’ Louisa didn’t like his cutting expression either. ‘We’re all adults here,’ she said, attempting to justify her appearance and crossing her arms to hide some of her cleavage.

‘That’s debatable,’ he commented, turning to head back to his bedroom.

Needless to say, Louisa took offence. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘You heard me.’ Hugh turned around. ‘Although I am sorry to say it. Louisa, I’m afraid that you make it plainly obvious that the “Lady” is just a title.’

If Louisa had been closer to Hugh, she would have hit him. ‘How dare you!’

‘If I overstep the mark, Lady Sinclair, I do apologise … still, at least I can admit to it.’ Hugh resumed his course and vanished into the darkened shadows of his drawing room.

For all he knows, I might have been invited up here?
Louisa quietly resented his premise.
Why does he just assume I am to blame?
Then it occurred to her that Wade might have mentioned the car crash incident to Hugh.

‘You told him, didn’t you?’ she accused Wade as he traipsed back up the stairs, and for a moment he had no idea what she was on about.

‘About that day in the Rolls,’ Louisa clarified. ‘You swore to me you’d tell no-one.’

‘I never told him anything about that day,’ Wade asserted.

‘Then why does he think so poorly of me?’

It was clear Louisa didn’t believe his plea; either that or she was just fishing for some more attention. ‘Since when do you care what Hugh thinks? He’s just a peasant, right?’ Wade moved past her, too exhausted and depressed to bother trying to figure out her mood.

Being attacked by Hugh was one thing, but Wade’s cutting comment really hurt. ‘Obviously, Hugh is not the only one who thinks poorly of me,’ Louisa mumbled, as she ran back to her room.

‘Aw …’ Wade turned to go after her, then thought better of it. ‘In the morning,’ he decided, ‘when I’m sober.’ He returned to his bed.

In the wake of his disastrous misadventures the night before, Wade felt the need to burn off a little frustration. So, shovel in hand, he climbed into his little backyard excavation and began to dig.

About an hour later, Hugh tracked him down. ‘I had a strange feeling I might find you here.’

Wade looked up at his friend, not really in the mood for talk. ‘Well, don’t just stand there, make yourself useful.’ He motioned Hugh to a shovel.

After removing his tweed jacket and woollen vest, Hugh rolled up his shirt sleeves and climbed into the pit with Wade.

‘Go for around the pole,’ Wade instructed, not pausing from his chore.

Hugh worked in silence for a time. ‘I suppose Louisa is still mad at me,’ he eventually had to ask.

‘I haven’t seen her this morning, so your guess is as good as mine,’ Wade replied. ‘But if it makes you feel any better, she’s probably still pissed at me too.’

‘Why, what did you do?’ Hugh paused to inquire.

‘Don’t ask.’ Wade’s digging became more furious, when suddenly his spade hit wood. ‘Hey, I think I found the library floor.’ He got down on his hands and knees to brush the earth away from the hard wood timbers. ‘See.’ He referred Hugh to the point where the pole disappeared into the flooring. ‘It keeps going. I’ll bet if we can clear enough rubble off these timbers to drag them up, we’ll be able to get into the room underneath.’

‘But you said that in your dream the floor collapsed?’ Hugh hated to point this out. ‘So even if there was a room, it’s probably buried.’

‘The floor only collapsed over near the trapdoor, where I was.’ Wade pointed further over to where the secret door would have been located. ‘The machine may still be fine.’

‘All right, if you say so.’ Hugh assisted him to clear a larger area around the base of the pole.

Wade slammed his foot down hard upon the boards, half expecting them to give way, and although they didn’t, it did sound as if it was hollow underneath. ‘Where’s that chainsaw?’ Wade scrambled up the ladder to grab it, turn it on and start cutting into the timbers.

Louisa approached the pit, and was of the mind to say goodbye, when she spotted the activity within. ‘My goodness,’ she exclaimed, as Wade switched off his power tool, and a square section of timber floor fell away into the dark recess. ‘What have you found?’

‘We’re not too sure,’ Hugh was quick to answer.

‘We are exactly sure,’ Wade corrected, switching on his flashlight and sticking his head and shoulders down into the hole.

As Hugh went to retrieve the ladder to place it down the hole, Louisa quickly climbed down to join them.

‘Oh my God!’ Wade exclaimed, raising himself. ‘You’re not going to believe this.’

‘Probably not,’ agreed Hugh, urging him out of the way, so that he could drop the ladder into the space below.

Wade descended first, followed by Hugh and then Louisa.

‘There it is,’ Wade announced upon their arrival, ‘just as I said.’

‘Good Lord!’ Hugh circled the huge obstruction.

The pole descended from the roof, splitting into four sections around the corners of a metal compartment, before continuing down to join the machine.

On one side of the compartment was a door that had a small handle that allowed you to open it when it was unlocked.

‘The object John Ashby gave Ernest was taken out of this,’ Wade explained to Hugh, who had climbed up the metal ladder alongside the huge machine to investigate the compartment on top.

Predictably, it was empty. The other four such compartments, positioned at either end of an even, cross-like structure on the upper surface of the machine, were locked closed.

‘What’s this?’ Wade noticed a long metal door in the front of the machine. He grabbed hold of the wooden handle and turned it. Wade was surprised when the heavy metal door folded down — instead of outwards — to grant access to the belly of the huge steel construction.

Light sparkled from within as electric currents passed over a mass of canisters that were all placed strategically in rows and joined together by a series of interconnecting brass rods.

‘Do you know what this is?’ Hugh was most excited by the discovery.

‘I have no idea, but …’ Wade took a guess, ‘some sort of a battery?’

‘Exactly,’ Hugh gave his friend a pat on the back for using his brain. ‘The canisters you see featured in this configuration are known as the Leyden Jar. It was invented in the mid-eighteenth century, and they made it possible to store an electrical charge for the first time. Men like Benjamin Franklin and William Watson utilized the Leyden Jar for their research into electricity.’

‘And they were both contemporaries of John Ashby,’ Wade assumed.

‘They would have been,’ Hugh granted, thrilled to see that the archaic device was still functioning. ‘Yet, this apparatus appears far more complex than anything invented at the time.’

‘So what do you think its function is, Hugh?’ Louisa queried, looking on from behind.

‘I have no idea.’ Hugh scratched his head.

‘I do,’ Wade concluded. ‘I just can’t prove it, yet.’

The discovery gave Wade the perfect excuse to visit Hannah. He left Hugh and Louisa to investigate the device, and instructed Andrew to bring the car around the front. After a quick shower and a change of clothes, Wade was off to Glenoak College.

‘We’d best stop at the local florist on the way,’ Wade instructed. ‘Or I may not even get through the door.’

‘Right you are,’ Andrew comfirmed.

Hugh removed all the dust and debris from the machine to get a better overall view. His attention then turned to the locked metal boxes, located at the end of each arm of the cross-like structure on the top of the device. ‘You wouldn’t happen to have a bobby-pin on you?’

Louisa plucked one from the little bun at the back of her head, and handed it up to Hugh.

‘Thanking you.’ Hugh stretched the metal pin apart, and stuck it into one of the locks to see if he couldn’t pick it open.

As her only company looked like being preoccupied for awhile, Louisa grabbed another torch and wandered further into the darkened room. She passed under a couple of fallen timbers, being careful not to disturb them, and spotted a
chair. As she shone the torch over it, she was shocked to find some skeletal remains.

Her screech startled Hugh, who dropped what he was doing to come to her rescue. Louisa backed right into him in a fluster, whereby she screamed again.

‘It’s me, Louisa,’ he assured, turning her to face him. ‘What is the matter?’

Louisa buried her face in Hugh’s chest for a moment, relieved, then ventured to point towards the cause of her dismay. ‘There’s a goddamn corpse … in there.’

‘Well, that would do it,’ he granted, understanding her frightened outburst. ‘I gather they never bothered digging John Ashby out of his haven. Or perhaps it was his wish to be buried here.’ Hugh led Louisa back into the lit part of the room. ‘Are you all right?’

Louisa nodded, and even though she was strangely affected by Hugh’s strong embrace, she slowly pulled away. ‘I’m fine.’

‘You’re sure?’

Louisa nodded again, running her hands up and down her arms to dispel the chill that had beset her body.

‘Okay.’ Hugh left her to go back up the ladder and work on the lock.

Louisa, having lost her urge to explore, didn’t want to leave either, just in case Hugh discovered something new. Hence she stood quietly watching him work.

The shafts of light from above danced upon Hugh’s long dark curls, which he brushed back behind his ears now and then as they escaped and hindered his view. Hugh’s well-kept little moustache and beard made him appear to be not of this time; he seemed more akin to the romantic bygone era of the machinery with which he toyed.

As Louisa was being awfully quiet, Hugh glanced down to see what she was doing. Her head was tilted slightly to one side as she gazed at him. As this was not your average observing kind of stance, it made Hugh a little uncomfortable. ‘What?’ he appealed, cracking a smile.

Louisa smiled too, although her stance remained the same. ‘You really are very handsome.’

‘Well, thank you.’ He went back to his picking. ‘Coming from you, that is a real compliment.’

The hard edge in his voice made Louisa wish she hadn’t said anything. ‘Where does this disdain of me come from, Hugh? Was it something I did, or did you just despise me from the second we met?’

‘I don’t despise you, Louisa. You just …’ Hugh paused from his chore to consider how to phrase it. ‘You just disappoint me, that’s all.’

‘How so?’ She folded her arms defensively.

Hugh shook his head, and looked back to the lock. ‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Louisa dropped her hands to her sides. ‘It does matter, I’d really like to know.’ She climbed the ladder to speak with him directly.

At that this moment the lock suddenly clicked. ‘By jove, I think I’ve got it.’ Hugh raised the metal trapdoor and peered inside, his eyes opening wide in awe.

‘What’s in there?’ Louisa wanted to know.

‘Come to daddy.’ Hugh lifted the beautiful crystal cube out into the light.

‘Wow,’ Louisa uttered, observing how it glimmered. But what was more amazing were all the tiny little specks of light that appeared to dance around within the object. ‘What’s that inside?’

‘Well, I’m no expert …’ Hugh observed the cube with amazement, ‘but I’d say it might well be some of our Ghost’s Gold.’

When Wade arrived at Glenoak, he inquired after Miss Martin’s whereabouts and was told he would find her in rehearsal studio seven.

Hannah was alone, working on the new contemporary dance curriculum, as this department was to be her little baby.

‘Hannah.’ Wade ventured to disturb her from her activity.

‘What are you doing here? Go away. I have nothing to say to you.’ She continued her routine.

‘I found the third level of John Ashby’s temple … and the remains of the machine he was building.’

Although the announcement was enough to make her pause, Hannah decided to hold to her anger. ‘That is of no interest to me.’

‘I thought as much,’ Wade confessed. ‘But before I start messing about with the unknown, I just wanted to say sorry and give you these.’ He produced the large bunch of flowers from behind his back. ‘You don’t have to accept them, of course, but just in case I get caught in some other time zone, I just wanted to say my piece.’

The pathetic look on his face made it difficult for Hannah to maintain her annoyance. What’s more, she was concerned. ‘Then don’t toy with the damn thing.’

‘I didn’t think it would bother you, at least you’d be rid of me.’

‘But,’ she became quite flustered, ‘you have
commitments to the college. What about your teaching position? Is it worth risking everything?’

‘The way I see it,’ Wade moved a few steps closer, ‘I’m risking everything if I don’t look into it.’

‘But the occurrences have stopped.’

‘At present,’ Wade granted, ‘but who can say how long that will last.’

Hannah stared back at him, not too sure of how to pursue the argument. She didn’t really wish to be rid of him, and wanted to apologise for the things she said to him the night before, but the words wouldn’t come.