Part 24 (2/2)
”An oubliette in this castle? Surely it is just a legend.”
”I a.s.sure you it's very real,” I said.
”How did you come to stumble upon this...o...b..iette?” the king asked.
I hesitated. I was in a foreign country about to implicate its princess. What if n.o.body believed me? It would be easy enough for the king to agree with Patrascue that Darcy and I were the guilty ones. But if I were her father, I'd want to know the truth, wouldn't I? Maybe I could make her confess somehow.
”Would you ask your daughter to join us, Your Majesty?” I said. ”I believe she can help prove my innocence.”
”Of course. Please tell the princess her presence is required in my private sitting room.” One of Patrascue's men bowed and departed.
”Perhaps you are innocent, Lady Georgiana,” Patrascue said. ”Perhaps it is this Mr. O'Mara who hid the poison in your room to implicate you while he fled with the body. We have heard rumors about Mr. O'Mara. He is a ruthless man and very interested in making money, is this not correct? A certain scandal at a casino?”
Darcy actually laughed. ”The scandal was that I was chucked out because I kept winning. They thought I was cheating. Actually I was just d.a.m.ned lucky. The luck of the Irish, don't you know? But let me a.s.sure you that I'm the son of a respected Irish lord. Killing people for money is not something I'd do. Killing people because they annoy me, on the other hand . . .” He stared hard at Patrascue. If the matter hadn't been so serious I would have laughed. Darcy didn't seem to be particularly worried.
”Then why are you here, Mr. O'Mara? I understand from interviewing the other young men that you are not a particular friend of Prince Nicholas.”
”We were good friends at school,” Nicholas said angrily. ”The rest doesn't concern you.”
Suddenly it struck me that Nicholas might have antic.i.p.ated some kind of trouble at this wedding and Darcy had been invited to protect him.
”But understand that he is here at my invitation and I have absolute confidence that he has nothing to do with the death of Field Marshal Pirin. The whole suggestion is ludicrous. You should be looking for-”
He broke off as Matty came in, looking puzzled and concerned. When she saw me, a relieved smile crossed her face.
”There you are, Georgie,” she said. ”I wondered where you had disappeared to. We were all looking for you.”
I smiled back. ”Oh, I think you know very well where I went to, since you sent me there.”
”What do you mean? One minute you were following me up the stairs, but when I reached the top, I turned around and you weren't there.”
”Maybe that was because I was in the process of falling down the oubliette,” I said.
She gave a tight, nervous laugh. ”Oubliette? There's no such thing. Believe me, we hunted for it when we were children, didn't we, Siegfried?”
”Then allow me to show you,” I said. ”My maid is still trapped in the dungeon below and it's about time someone rescued her.”
I marched them back through the halls until I recognized the place where the door had to be.
”Would you please show us the door in the paneling, Your Highness?” I asked Matty.
She shrugged, stepped forward and pushed open a section of the wall.
”You'll see a staircase leads up from here,” I said, ”and one of these flagstones tips an unsuspecting victim down into a dungeon. I'm not sure which.”
”But I go up and down this way all the time,” Matty said. ”It is a shortcut from my room to the main floor.”
”Then, Your Highness, would you like to try them out for us?” I asked.
”Of course.” She walked confidently to the staircase and ascended the first couple of steps.
”You see?” She turned and smiled. ”There is nothing here but an ordinary pa.s.sageway.”
”There must be a k.n.o.b or a lever or something that triggers the mechanism,” I said. ”Look on the walls. Princess Maria was ahead of me, and-”
Matty looked up sharply. ”One minute. You don't think that I sent you into this dungeon? That I brought you here to trick you?”
”I'm afraid that's exactly what I think,” I said. ”I'm sorry, Matty, but you didn't really want to introduce me to Vlad, did you? You wanted him to stay hidden.”
”What?” Matty's father roared. ”Vladimir? That boy is here, in the castle? When I forbade you to see him again?”
”No, Father. Of course not,” Matty said. ”Here's not here. I don't know what Georgiana is talking about.”
”Come down here, young woman,” the king commanded. ”Come out into the light where I can see your face. I always know if you are lying to me.”
”Father, please, not in front of these people.” Matty came back down the stairs. Patrascue's men, who had crammed themselves into the narrow hallway, stepped aside for her. There was a lot of jostling and moving and as she stepped down from the bottom step the floor suddenly tilted beneath her. Matty screamed as she started to fall. Hands reached out to grab her and she was dragged back to safety. We stood staring at the black cavity below us.
”Now do you believe me?” I asked. ”Queenie?” I shouted. ”Can you hear me?”
”Is that you, miss?” a voice echoed up, sounding distant and hollow. ”I'm still here.”
”We'll have you out in a jiffy,” I shouted back.
”Your Majesty, what is happening?” Count Dragomir appeared behind us. ”Is there really an oubliette? After all these years! I thought it was just a legend.”
”My maid is still down there,” I said.
”I apologize, Lady Georgiana. We will have her brought out instantly.”
The king turned to him. ”And I ask you, Dragomir-did you know that Vlad was in the castle?”
”I did not, Majesty,” Dragomir said angrily. ”I made it clear to him that he should stay away.”
”I want the castle searched in case he is hiding out,” the king said. ”You will set every available man to this task, is that clear?”
”Yes, Majesty,” Dragomir said in a flat voice, ”but Vlad gave me his word and-”
”He's not here, Father,” Matty shouted.
”Every available man!” the king thundered. ”And as for you, madam”-he turned to glare at his daughter-”I want to know the truth from you. Return to my study this instant. We can't have matters like this shouted up and down the halls for everyone to hear.”
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