“Ah, tch tch, now, that was only a story. It is written that he was killed while hunting in the New Forest and that it was no more than an accident,” Mrs. Plumstock said, putting down her cup of tea. “We don’t want to be calling our ancestors murderers, now, do we?”
Serena laughed. “No, we don’t, but the Reverend Thomas said that the story was all about an underground tunnel that led to the churchyard … by one of the tombstones. No one really knew which tombstone. I remember that he said two men hid beneath its hideaway trapdoor and waited for their chance to pop off a sh
ot at Rufus the Miserable. They weren’t caught because they simply vanished. Remember the story? He said that the king’s men looked all over the New Forest but of course never thought to look underground.” Serena couldn’t keep the excitement from her voice.
“Pop off a shot, indeed.” Mrs. Plumstock laughed. “What kind of talk is that for a gentry maid? Lord love you, child, they didn’t even have guns when Rufus roamed …” Mrs. Plumstock said. “The story was that he was stabbed, with his own hunting knife, and then it was put about that he must have fallen somehow on the blade.”
“But we know better, don’t we?” Serena said, very serious now.
“Maybe we do, and maybe we don’t,” was all Mrs. Plumstock said, frowning.
“This is important. Mrs. Plumstock. I am a grown woman, and there is no danger that I mean to find a tunnel and perhaps get hurt. I once heard Reverend Thomas tell my uncle that he found the hidden passage. They saw me standing there listening and immediately changed the subject, but I know he found it.”
“Faith, why is it so important, my lovely?”
“Because I have always believed it was in the Tregaron Crypt,” Serena said, watching for a reaction. She was well pleased when Mrs. Plumstock gasped.
“Bless you, child. ’Tis what I have always believed as well.”
“Why? What made you think so?”
“Saw Reverend Thomas puttering around there. One night he was late for dinner, and I went out to fetch him. Heard him puttering in the churchyard, and he was in the crypt. I called to him, and he came out grinning like a boy. I knew. I just knew he found it.”
“Did he tell you anything about it?”
“In a manner of speaking he did. He winked at me and said, ‘some legends are true’.”
“I knew it,” Serena said with some excitement.
“Never you mind. Forget all this nonsense of tunnels and crypts. No good can come of it,” Mrs. Plumstock warned. “’Tis just what I told Reverend Eustace when he asked about the Rufus legend, but did he mind me? No, he did not.”
“What do you mean?” Serena felt a wave of shock scurry through her blood. No … impossible, she told herself.
“Well, he was fiddling in the garden, and I went out to tell him dinner was getting cold. Didn’t find him in the garden, and I noticed a movement in the churchyard. Found him—I was just walking past the crypt when he startled me. I shrieked to high heaven and told him he near scared me to death he did.”
“So he was interested in the legend of Rufus?”
“I don’t know how interested. He has never mentioned it since that night.”
Serena felt sick. “I see. So it is possible he doesn’t even know if the tunnel really exists?”
“Oh, as to that, he does. I did say that I was sure Reverend Thomas had found it … in the Tregaron Crypt.”
Serena took the last sip of her tea, her mind racing. She got up a few moments after that, dropped a kiss on Mrs. Plumstock’s forehead, pulled on her riding cloak, and started for the door. “I must run, for it will be dusk soon, and Uncle has very strict rules about my being out alone.”
She rushed home, her mind abuzz with the confirmation of her suspicions. Whoever had been behind the robbery of the gold meant for Wellington had known about the underground tunnel. She had no doubt whatsoever that the gold was hidden there … but how, just how, had he managed to get it there unnoticed by either the reverend or Mrs. Plumstock?
At night? Mrs. Plumstock didn’t live at the rectory but at her husband’s little farmhouse just down the road. Perhaps he had managed it while Eustace was asleep, but how had he carried such a heavy load? In smaller bundles, no doubt, large enough to hold a sufficient amount but not too heavy to drag?
This really needed further investigation. Her first reaction was to send a note around to his lordship, but she stopped herself.
She was very certain he would try and protect her by leaving her out of any investigation he might put forward. No. She couldn’t draw him in just yet. She didn’t want to investigate the crypt alone either.
Freddy.
Of course, she would ask Freddy, and then if her suspicions were confirmed, they would immediately put the matter into Daniel’s hands. Daniel? Where had that come from? She mustn’t think of him like that. She had to find a way to keep herself aloof and apart, but how could she, when all she wanted was to whisper his name and feel his arms around her?
~ Sixteen ~