Victoria Holt by The Shivering Sands

Author:The Shivering Sands [Sands, The Shivering]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

7

I shall never forget the rising tension in the house as the hours passed and Edith did not appear. Napier was composed—the most calm of us all. He said that there must have been an accident and the sooner we discovered what the better.

He arranged a search party consisting of himself and five of the menservants and they went off in separate directions in three parties of two. We searched the house—the great cellars, the butteries, pantries, the outhouses which I had had no idea existed before. With Alice and Allegra I went through the attics; dusty cobwebs clung to our clothes and even our faces, while spiders scuttled out of sight alarmed and disturbed by the unexpected intrusion.

Alice held the candle high and her face thus illuminated had an ethereal quality; Allegra’s dark eyes were enormous with excitement.

“Do you think she’s hiding in one of the trunks?” suggested Alice.

“Hiding? From what?”

“From whom?” said Allegra on a note of hysteria.

We opened the trunks. The smell of mothballs; old-fashioned garments: gowns, shoes, hats; but no Edith.

From the top to the bottom of the house, down to the cellars where Sir William’s wine was racked in order of its age and excellence. More cobwebs—an occasional cockroach scuttled across the stone flags, but still no Edith.

We were all gathered in the hall, a strange and silent company; the maids wide-eyed, their caps askew. Nothing like this could have happened since the day when they brought Lady Stacy in from the copse…and a short while before that when beautiful Beau had lain dying by his brother’s hand.

But no one was going to accept this as such a tragedy yet. Edith was lost—nothing more. She had, said Mrs. Lincroft, gone for a walk, had tripped and hurt her ankle. She was lying somewhere. The searchers would find her.

But the search parties came back one by one, and none of them had found Edith.

***

All night we waited. The searchers went out again. I heard them calling her name; it sounded uncanny on the night air.

Mrs. Lincroft had made some coffee which she insisted the searchers drink on their return before they went out once more to look. Practical as ever, she was determined to keep up our spirits. Edith would be found, she insisted; and she went on assuring us that this would be so.

“Shouldn’t the girls go to bed?” I asked.

With a nod she directed my gaze in their direction. Alice and Allegra were sitting in a window seat, leaning against each other, fast asleep.

“Better not to disturb them,” she said.

So we left them and talked in whispers of what we could do next.

Sir William sat back in the chair which Mrs. Lincroft had padded with cushions. She said to him: “Do you think, Sir William, that we should inform the police?”

“Not yet. Not yet,” he said fiercely. “They’ll find her. They must.”

And we sat and waited; and when Napier came back without her I could not take my eyes from his face; but I could not read what was written there.

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