Page 61 of A Single Thread of Moonlight

The groan was enough to tell me that no one had opened it for several years, and my heart stilled as I pulled the panel open to reveal a hollow, about the size of a book. There was something in there … a piece of paper, folded roughly in four. I pulled it out with trembling fingers, and smoothed it.

The words were written in a child’s round hand.

Papa,

When you get home tuday shall we take a carot for Biscuit? I wud like to brush her tale.

Ssssh! It is a secrit!

Love from

Iris

I didn’t remember writing it, but Father and I used to sometimes leave messages for one another in this spot when I was little. Whether he had seen this one and put it back, or never read it, I wasn’t sure, but the simple words made an old ache twist in my chest. It was a message from a golden time, a time when my father and I had been always together, a time before Mother had died and Helena had descended on us. It was a message from a different Iris, one who knew nothing about fear or pain or anger. I folded the note back up and slipped it into my pocket. It reminded me what I was fighting for.

However, it was not what I was looking for, and so I shut the panel and glared grimly at the fireplace. There was another place to investigate, but Father would only hide something there if it was of the utmost importance. Which I suppose meant it was the perfect place to look.

Should I risk it? No one was around. They wouldn’t be for hours. This was as good a chance as I was likely to get.

With a sigh, I kicked off my shoes and slipped off my dress. Then I picked up the bed sheets from the chair where I had left them, and wrapped the first one around my body, as though I were preparing myself to be entombed in an Egyptian pyramid. I shuffled over to the fireplace and stepped into the grate (thankfully quite clean, due to the early presence of the maid). I held the second sheet over my head, covering my arms and face as much as possible, and bent under and up into the chimney itself, slowly unfolding until I was standing completely upright.

I needed to be quick.

I could only imagine the look on Nick’s face if he had to clarify to Helena why his family friend had been found standing in a chimney in her underwear, shrouded in bed linen.

Actually, it would almost be worth it.

I reached my fingers out into the dense blackness until I touched brick. It was much closer to my face than I had imagined. I kept trailing my fingers over the bricks, left to right, counting as I went until I found a brick that stood out ever so slightly from the rest of the wall. I pressed this, feeling it give under my fingers, then I counted two bricks down and one to the left and I pressed this one too. This brick popped out and I scrabbled to get a hold on the edges, slowly and carefully pulling it towards me and out of the chimney wall.

Now it was time for the bit I really hated. My breathing came sharp and fast, loud in my own ears. I slid my hand into the gap created by the missing brick and groped around. In the pitch darkness I had no idea what my fingers might encounter, but finally I felt them brush against something.

I took hold of the object and pulled it out. I had no idea what it was, but it had to be important for my father to go to the trouble of hiding it like this. My hands were shaking as I put the brick back into place, and climbed awkwardly out of the chimney, blinking at the light streaming into the room.

In my hand was a bundle wrapped in cloth – presumably to protect it from the soot. I laid it carefully in the grate beside me. Helena kept a pristine house so the chimney wasn’t as bad as it might have been, but the sheets I was wearing were fairly covered in streaks of soot, as were my hands and feet. I peeled off my stockings before stepping out of the grate, and carefully removed the sheets. I cleaned my hands as best I could on the other side of the sheets before dropping them into the fireplace, then I slipped into my dress and slid my bare feet back into my shoes.

The whole thing had taken perhaps less than three minutes, but I was breathing as if I had just run a race. I picked up the bundle and looked at it for a moment.

My fingers itched to open it, but I knew that I shouldn’t, not here. I’d already pushed my luck by searching for them uninterrupted. It was time to go.

Just then, I heard a rattle, a bang as the door to the library hit the chair that I had dragged in front of it.

“What on earth?” I heard Cassie’s voice as she struggled to push the door open. The chair wasn’t heavy, and she was already widening the gap.

I stood, frozen.

I glanced down at my dress. There was not a smudge on it. I clasped the bundle behind me, hiding my dirty hands. I would just have to try and brazen it out.

Cassie finally got the door open and strode in.

“Serena!” she exclaimed. “What are you doing here? Did you move the chair in front of the door?”

“I must have done,” I said apologetically. “I’m afraid I was climbing around looking at the books.”

Had it been one of the others I might have stood a chance. But Cassie’s eyes were far too sharp, her brain was far too quick.

“What’s that on your face?” she asked. Her gaze darted to the fireplace where the dirty bed sheets had been thrown.

“What do you have behind your back?” she asked slowly.