 Section 10 of the House of Aden. This is a Librirox recording. All Librirox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librirox.org. Recording by Sonja. The House of Aden by Edis Naspet. Chapter 8. Guy Fox. Part 1. Three days, because there had been a quarrel. But days pass quickly when the sun shines, and it is holiday time, and you have a big ruined castle to explore and examine. A castle that is your own, or your brother's. After all, said Elfride sensibly, we might quite likely find the treasure ourselves, without any magic moody warpiness at all. We look thoroughly. We won't leave a stone unturned. We shall have to leave a good many stones unturned, said Edward, looked at the great grey mass of the keep that tower tall and frowning above them. Well, you know what I mean, said Elfride. Come on. And they went. They climbed the steep, worn stairs that were untround and round in the darkness. Stairs littered with dead leaves and moat and dropped feathers, and the dry, deserted nests of owls and jackdaws. Stairs that ended suddenly in daylight and a steep last step, and the top of a broad, ivy-grown wall from which you could look down, down, down. Past the holds and the walls, where the big beams used to be, past the old fireplace, still black was the smoke of fire's long since burnt out, past the doors and windows of rooms whose floor fell away long ago, down, down, to where ferns and grass and brambles grew green at the very bottom of the tower. Then there were arched doors that led to colonnades with strong little pillars and narrow windows, wonderful little unexpected chambers and corners, the best place in the whole wide world for serious and energetic hide-and-seek. How glorious said Elfride as they rested, scarlet in panting, after a thrilling game of eye-spy. If all these broken bits were mended, so that you couldn't see where the new bits were stuck on, and if it could all be exactly like it was when it was brand new. There wasn't the house when it was brand new. The house like it is now, I mean, said Edward. I don't suppose there was any attic with chests in when the castle was new. There couldn't be, not with all the chests, said Elfride. Of course not, because some of the clothes in the chest weren't made till long after the castle was built. I believe grown-ups can tell what a broken thing was like when it was new. I know they can with bones, mastodons and things, and they made out what Hercules was like out of one foot of him that they found I believe. She added hazerly. I've got an idea, said Edward, if he could get back to where the castle was all perfect like a model, and draw pictures of every part. Then, when we found the treasure, we should know exactly what to build it up like, shouldn't we? Yes, said Elfride away gently. We certainly should. But then we should have to know how to draw first, shouldn't we? Of course we should, Edward agreed, but that wouldn't take long if we really tried. I never do try at school. I don't like it. But it's jolly easy, I know that. Bermslammy always takes the drawing price, and you know what a duffer he is. We might begin to learn now, don't you think? Elfride sat down on a fallen stone in the middle of the castle-yard, and looked at the intricate wonderful arches and pillars, the granulated battlements of the towers, the splendid stoutness of the walls, and she sighed. Yes, she said, let's begin now. And you'll have to lend me one of your pencils, said he, because I broke my and alter bits trying to get the parlador open the day you'd got the key in your pocket. Quite a long one it was. You'll have to lend me a long one, Elf. I can't draw with those little indie bits that get inside your hand and prick you with the other end. I don't mind, said she, so long as you don't put it in your mouth. So they got large sheets of writing paper and brown car font books for the paper to lie flat on, and they started to draw Arden Castle. And as Elfride tried to draw everything she knew was there, as well as everything she could see, her drawing soon became almost entirely covered with black lead. They had to know India rubber, and if you drew anything wrong it had to stay drawn. When you first begin to draw, you draw a good many things wrong, don't you? I assure you that nobody would have known that the black and grey muddle on Elfride's paper was meant to be a picture of a castle. Edwards was much more easily recognized, even before he printed Arden Castle, under it in large uneven letters. He never once raised his eyes from his paper and just drew what he thought the front of the castle looked like from the outside. Also he sucked his pencil earnestly, Elfride's pencil, I mean, and this made the lines of his drawing very black. There, he said at last, it's ever so much likeer than yours. Yes, said Elfride, but there's more in mine. It doesn't matter how much there is in a picture if you can't tell what it's meant for, said Edward with some truce. Now in mine you can see the towers and the big gate and the windows and the twiddly in and outness on top. Yes, said Elfride, but, well, let's do something else. I don't believe we should either of us learn to draw well enough to rebuild Arden Bay, not before we found the treasure, I mean. Perhaps we might meet a real artist, like the one we saw drawing the castle yesterday in the past, I mean, and get him to draw it for us and bring the picture back with us and... Oh, quite Edward, jumping up and dropping his masterpiece and the calf-bound volume and the pencil. I know, the brownie. The brownie? Yes, take it with us, then we could photograph the castle all perfect. But we can't take it with us. Can't we? said Edward, that's all you know. Now, I'll tell you something, that first time a bit of plaster was in my shoe when we changed and it was in my shoe when we got there and I took it out when we were learning about dark daylight and I flipped it out of the window and when we got back and I changed everything, there was a bit of plaster in my own shoe. If we can take plaster, we can take photographs, cameras, I mean. This close and intelligent reasoning commanded Elfride's respect and she wished she had thought of it herself, but then she had not had any plaster in her shoe. So she said, you're getting quite clever, aren't you? Aha! said Edward, you'd like to have thought of that yourself, wouldn't you? I can be clever sometimes, same as you can. It is very annoying to have our thoughts read. Elfride said swiftly, not often you can't, and then stopped short. For a moment the children stood looking at each other with a very peculiar expression. Then a sigh of relief broke from each. Field, it said Edward. Just in time, said Elfride, it wasn't a quarrel, nobody could say it was a quarrel. Come on, let's go and look at the cottages like the witch told us to. They went. They made a tour of inspecting that day and the next and the next and they saw a great many things that a grown-up inspector would never have seen. Poor people are very friendly and kind to you when you are a child. They will let you come into their houses and talk to you and treat you things in a way that they would never condescend to do with your grown-up relations. This is, of course, if you are a really nice child and treat them in a respectful and friendly way. Edward and Elfride very soon knew more about the insides of the cottages from Arden than any grown-up could have learned in a year. They knew what wages the master of the house got, what there was for dinner and what, after dinner, there wasn't. How many children were still living and how many had failed to live? They knew exactly where the rain came through the rotten touch and bad weather and where the boards didn't fit and so let the drawers in and how some of the doors wouldn't shut, some wouldn't open and how the bedroom windows were, as often as not, not made to open at all. And when they weren't visiting the cottages or exploring the castle they found a joyous way of passing the time in the reading aloud of the history of Arden. They took it in turns to read aloud. Elfride looked carefully for some mention of Sir Edward Talbot and his pretending to be this deviliest in George. There was none, but a Sir Edward Talbot had been accused, with the Lord Arden of the time, of plotting against his most Christian majesty, King James I. I wonder if he was like my Edward Talbot, said Elfride. I would like to see him again. I wish I told him about his having been born so many years after he died but it would have been difficult to explain, wouldn't it? Let's look in Green's history book and see what they looked like when it was his most Christian majesty King James I. Perhaps it was this which decided the children, when the three days were over, to put on the clothes which most resembled the ones in the pictures of James I's time in Green's history. Edward had full breeches, poofed out little balloons and a steeper crunch head and a sort of tunic of crimson velvet and a big starched rough on his little neck, more uncomfortable even than your eaten collar is after you've been wearing flannels for days and days. Elfride had long tight stays with a large flat shaped piece of wood down the front and very full long skirts over a very abrupt hoop. When the three days were over, the door of the attic, which as usual after a quarrel, had been quite invisible and impossible to find, had become as plain as the nose in the face of the plainest person you know and the children had walked in and looked in the chests till they found what they wanted. And now they put on roughs and other rest of it to the accompaniment or, as it always seemed, with the help of soft pigeon noises. While they were dressing, Elfride had the brownie camera tightly, in one hand or the other. This made dressing rather slow and difficult, but the children had agreed that if it were not done the brownie would be, as Edward put it, liable to manage, as everything else belonging to their own time always did, except their clothes. I can't explain to you just now how it was that their clothes didn't vanish, it would take too long, but it was all part of the magic of white feathers, which are, as you know, the clothes of white pigeons. And now a very odd thing happened. As Edward put on a second shoe, which was the last touch to their united toilets, the walls seemed to tremble and shake and go crooked, like a house of cards at the very instant before it toppled down. The floor slanted to that degree that standing on it was so difficult as to be at last impossible. The rafters all seemed to get crooked and mixed, like a box of matches when you spilled them on the floor. The tight roof that shed blue daylight through seemed to spin like a tub, and you could not tell at all which way up you were. All this happened with dreadful suddenness, and almost as soon as it had begun, it stopped with a jerk, like that of a clockwork engine that has gone wrong. And the attic was gone, and the chess, and the blue chink tiles of the roof, and the walls and the rafters, and the room had shrunk to less than half its old size. And it was higher, and it was not an attic anymore, but a round room with narrow windows and just such a fireplace with a stone hood as the ones the children had seen when they looked down from the tops of the towers. You must have often heard of events that take people's breath away. The sudden change did really take away the breaths of Idrid and Afridah, so that for a few moments they could only stare at each other, like I fox's mask, as Afridah later said. I see, said Idrid, when breathed enough for speech had returned to him. This is the place where the attic was after the tower fell to pieces. But there isn't any attic really, said Afridah. You know we can't find it if we get quarrelled, and Mrs. Honey said doesn't ever find it. It isn't anywhere. Yes it is, said Idrid. We couldn't find it if it wasn't. Well, said Afridah gloomily, I only hope we may find it, that's all. I suppose we may as well go out. It's no use sticking in this horrid little room. Her hand was on the door, but even as she fumbled with the latch, which was of iron and of a shape to which she was wholly unaccustomed, something else happened, even more disconcerting than the turnover change in which the attic and the chests had disappeared. It is very difficult to describe. Perhaps you happen to dislike travelling and trains with their back to the engine. If you do dislike it, you dislike it very much indeed. It makes your headache and gives you a queer feeling at the back of your neck, and makes your turn so pale that the grown-up people who assume you are travelling will ask you what is the matter, and sometimes heartlessly insist that the bands you had at the junction or the chocolate creams pressed into your hand at the parting hour by Uncle Fredo and Imogen are the cause of your sufferings. The worst feeling of all is that terrible sensation as though your heart and lungs and the front part of your rescue were being drawn slowly but surely through your backbone, ever taking a very long way off. The sensations which now had Idrid and Afridah were exactly like those which, if you don't like travelling backwards, you know only too well, and the sensations were so acute that both children shut their eyes. The whirling feeling and the withdrawing west cut feeling and the headache and the back of the neck feeling stopped as suddenly as they had begun, and the two children opened their eyes in a room which Idrid at least had never seen before. To Afridah it seems strange yet familiar. The shape of the room, the position of doors and windows, the metal piece with its curious carvings, these she knew and some of the furniture too. Yet the room seemed bare, bareer than it should have been. But why should it look bare, bareer than it should have been unless she knew how much less bare it once was, unless in fact she had seen it before. Oh, I know, she cried, standing in her stiff skirts and heavy shoes in the middle of the room. I know, this is Lord Arden's townhouse. This is where it was with cousin Betty. Only there aren't such nice chairs and things, and it was full of people then. Idrid remained silent, his mouth half open and his eyes half shut in a sort of trance of astonishment. This was very different from the last adventure in which he had taken part. For then he had only gone to the house in Arden Castle as it was in Boney's time and he had gone to it by the simple means of walking down a staircase with which he was already familiar. But now he had been transported in a most violent and unpleasing manner not only from his own times, two times much earlier but also from Arden Castle, which he knew, to Arden House, which he did not know. So he was silent, and when he did speak it was with discontent, verging on his gust. I don't like it, he began. Let's go back. I don't like it. And we didn't take the photograph. And I don't like it. And my clothes are hurried. I feel something between a balloon and a blue coat boy. And you have no idea how silly you look. Like Mrs. Noah out of the Ark, only Tubby. And I don't know who we are supposed to be. And I don't suppose this is Arden House. And if it is, you don't know when. Suppose it's inquisition times and they put us on the stake. Let's go back. I don't like it. He ended. Now you just listen, said Ephrida, knitting a browse under the queer capsule wall. I know inside me what I mean, but you won't unless you jolly well attend. Fire ahead. Well then, even if it was inquisition times, it would be all right for us. How do you know? I don't know how I know, but I know I do know, said Ephrida firmly. You see, I've been here before. It's not real, you see. It is, said Edward, kicking the leg of the table. Yes, of course, but look here. You remember the watershed at Earl's Court and you were so frightened. I wasn't. Yes, you were. And I didn't have like it myself. I wished we hadn't rather. And when it started and we knew we'd got to go on with it, oh, horrible. And when it was over, we wanted to go again. And we did, and it's been so jolly to remember. This is like that, see? I don't, said Evert, understand a single word you say. This isn't a bit like the watershed or anything. Now is it? Ephrida frowned. Afterwards she was glad that she had done no more than frown. It is dangerous, as you know, to crawl in a boat, but far more dangerous to crawl in a sentry that is not your own. She frowned and opened her mouth. And just as her mouth opened, the door of the room followed its example, and a short, dark, cross-looking woman in a brown skirt and strange cap came herring in. So it's here you've hidden yourselves, she cried, and I, looking high and low, to change your dress. What for, said Evert, for it was his arm which he had quite un-gently caught. For what, she said, as she dragged him out of the room. Why, to tend my lord, your father and your lady mother at the Masked Whitehall? Had you forgot already? And thou so desirous to tend them, and the new white velvet broided with the orange-tornie, and their lady mother's diamond buckles and the second cloak, and the shoe-roses and the copper-blond starched rough and the little sword-in-all. End of Section 10, Recording by Sonja Section 11 of the House of Arden This is the Librox Recording. Our Librox Recording sign the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librox.org Recording by Sonja The House of Arden by Edis Naspet Chapter 8 Guy Fawkes Part 2 The woman had dragged Edward out of the room and by the stairs by this time. Elfrida, following, decided that her speech was the harshest part of her. If she was really horrid, thought the girl, she wouldn't try to cheer him up with velvet and swords and diamond buckles. Can't I go? she said aloud. The woman turned and slept her, not hard, but smartly. I told thee how it would be if thou wouldst not hold that dining-tongue. No, thou can't go. Little ladies stay at home and chew their samplers. Thou'll go to Quartz soon enough, I won't. So, Frida said and watched while Edward was partially washed. The soap got in his eyes just as it gets in yours nowadays, and dressed in the beautiful white pages dress, white velvet, diamond buckles, little sword in all. You are splendid, she said. Oh, I do wish I was a boy, she added, for perhaps the two thousand and thirty second time in her short life. It's not that thou will be wishing when thy time comes to go to Quartz, said the woman. There, my little lord, give thy old nurse a kiss, and send very courteous and perfect. Not too sorry they find feathers. And when thou hearest thy mother's robes on the stairs, go out and make thy bow, like thy tutor taught thee. It was not Edward's tutor who had taught him to bow, but when a rustling of sirks sounded on the stairs, he was able to go out and make a very creditable obeisance to the stately magnificence that swept down towards him. If Frida thought it best to curtsy beside her brother, Aunt Edith had taught them to dance the minuet, and somehow the bow and curtsy, which belonged to that dance, seemed the right thing now. And the lady on the stairs smiled, well pleased. She was a wonderfully dressed lady. Her bodice was of yellow satin, richly embroidered, her petticoat of gold tissue with stripes, her robes of red velvet, lined with yellow muslin with stripes of pure gold. She had a point lace apron, and a color of white satin under a delicately worked rough, and she was a blaze of beautiful jewels. Thou art a fine page, indeed, my son, said the lady, stand aside and take my train as I pass. And thou, dear daughter, so soon as thou art of an age for it, thou shalt have a train and a page to carry it for thee. She swept on, and the children followed. Lord Arden was in the hall, hardly less splendid than his wife, and they all went off in a coach that was very grand, a rather clumsy. Its shape reminded a Frida of the coach which the fairy godmother made for Cinderella out of the pumpkin. And she herself, as she peeped through the crowd of liveried servants to see it start, felt as much as she could. And perhaps a little more. But she consoled herself by encouraging a secret feeling she had that something was bound to happen, and sure enough, something did. And that is what I am going to tell you about. I own that I should like to tell you also what happened to Edward, but his part of the adventure was not really an adventure at all. Though it was a thing you will never forget as long as you have been there, you will never forget that you have been there. Though it was a thing you will never forget as long as you remember any magic happenings. We went to the king's house he told a Frida later, Whitehall is the name I should like to call my house Whitehall, if it wasn't called Arden Castle, you know. And there were thousands of servants I should think, all much finer than you could dream of, and lords and ladies and lots of things to eat, and bear-baiting and cock-fighting in the garden. Cruel, said a Frida, I hope you didn't look. A little I did, said Edward. Boys have to be brave to bear sides of blood and horror, you know, in case of them growing up to be a soldier. But I like the mask best. The queen acted in it. There wasn't any talking, you know, only dressing up and dancing. It was something like the pantomime, but not so sparkly. And there was a sea with waves that moved all silvery and penned scenes and dolphins and fishy things, and a great shell that opened, and the ladies came out and danced, and I had a lot to eat, such rummy things. And then I fell asleep, and when I woke up, the king himself was looking at me and saying I had a bonny face. Bonny means pretty. You'd think a king would know better, wouldn't you? This was all that Edward could find to tell. I could have told more, but one can't tell everything, and there's a Frida's adventure to be told about. When the coat had disappeared in the mist and the mud, for the weather was anything but summer weather, Frida went upstairs to the room where she had left the old nurse. She didn't know where else to go. Said thee down, said the nurse, and so on thy sampler. There was the sampler, very fine indeed, in a large polished wood frame. I wish I needn't, said Frida, looking anxiously at the fine sirks. Tat-tat, said the nurse, how would thee grow to be lady if thou doesn't mind thy needle? I'd much rather talk to you, said Frida, coaxingly. Thou can't shatter as well as Sue, the nurse said, as well I know to my cost. With that thy needle flew so fast as thy tongue. Sit thee down, and if the little tree be done by dinner time, thou shalt have leave to see thy cousin Richard. I suppose, thought if Frida taking up the needle, that I am fond of my cousin Richard. The sewing was difficult and hurt her eyes, but she persevered. Presently someone called the nurse, and if Frida was left alone. Then she stopped persevering. Whatever is the good, she asked herself, of working at a sampler that you haven't time to finish, and that would be worn out anyhow, years and years before you were born. The Elfrida who's doing that sampler is the same age as me, and worn the same day, she reflected. And then she wondered what the date was, and what was the year. She was still wondering, and sticking the needle idly in and out of one hole, without letting her take the silk with it, when there was a sort of clutter on the stairs. The door best opened, and in came a jolly boy of about her own age. The task done, he cried, mine too, old powered nose kept me hard at it, but I thought of thee, and for once I did all her spittings. So now we are free. Come, play ball in the garden. This Elfrida concluded must be cousin Dick, and she decided at once that she was fond of him. There was a big and beautiful garden behind the house. The children played ball there, and they ran in the box alleys and played hide and seek among the cut trees and stone seeds and statues and fountains. Old powered nose, who was cousin Richard's tutor, and was dressed in black, and looked as though he had been eating lemons and vinegar, sat on a seat and watched them. Or walked up and down the flag terrace, with his thumb in a dull-looking book. When they stopped their game to rest on a stone step, leaning against the stone seat, old powered nose walked very softly up behind the seat and stood there where they could not see him and listened. Listening is very dishonorable, as we all know, but in those days tutors did not always think it necessary to behave honorably to their pupils. I always have thought, and I always shall think, that it was the eavesdropping of the tiresome old tutor, Mr. Parados, or powered nose, which caused all the mischief. But Alfrida has always believed, and always will believe, that the disaster was caused by her knowing too much history. That is why she is so careful to make sure that no misfortune shall ever happen on that account anyway. That is one of the reasons why she never takes a history prize at school. You never know, she says. And in fact, when it comes to a question in an historical examination, she never does know. This was how it happened. Alfrida now, that she was no longer running about in the garden, remembered the question that she had been asking herself over the embroidery frame, and it now seemed sensible to ask the question of someone who could answer it. So she said, I say, cousin Richard, what day is it? Alfrida understood him to say that it was the fifth of November. Is it really, she said? Then it's Guy Fox's day. Do you have fireworks? And in pure lightness of heart began to hum. Pleased to remember the fifth of November, the gunpowder treason had plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot. Just not a merry song, cousin, said cousin Richard. No, a safe one. No reason. But it didn't come off, you know, and he's always burned in the end, said Alfrida. Are there more verses, cousin Dick asked? No. I wonder what reason the ballad deals with, said the boy. Don't you know? It was then that Alfrida made the mistake of showing off her historical knowledge. I know, and I know some of the names of the conspirators, too, and who they wanted to kill and everything. Tell me, said cousin Richard idly. The king hadn't been fair to the Catholics, you know, said Alfrida, full of importance, so a lot of them decided to kill him and the Houses of Parliament. They made a plot. There were a whole lot of them in it. They said Lord Arden was, but he wasn't, and some of them were to pretend to be hunting and to cease the Princess Elizabeth and proclaim her queen, and the rest were to blow the Houses of Parliament up when the king went to open them. I never heard the tale from my tutors, said cousin Richard, laughing. Well, Mr. Peercy took a house next to the Parliament House, and they dug a secret passage to the walls under the Parliament Houses, and they put three dozen cars of gunpowder there and covered them with faggots, and they would have been all blown up. Only Mr. Trashon brought to his relation Lord Montego, that they were going to blow up the king and, watch, king, said cousin Richard. King James I, said Alfrida, why, watch. For cousin Richard had spun to his feet and old parrot nose had Alfrida by the wrist. He sat down on the seat and drew her gently till she stood in front of him. Gently, but it was like the hand of iron and the velvet glove, of which no doubt you have often read. Now, Mistress Arden, he said softly, tell me over again this romance that you tell your cousin. Alfrida told it. And where did you hear this pretty story? he asked. Where are we now? Gus Alfrida, who was beginning to understand. Here in the garden. Where else? said cousin Richard, who seemed to understand nothing of the matter. Here in my custody, said the tutor, who thought he understood everything. Now tell me all, every name, every particular, or it will be the worst for thee and thy father. Come sir, said cousin Richard, you frighten my cousin. It is but a tale she told. There are many inventions. It is a tale she shall tell again before those of higher power than I, said the tutor, in a thoroughly disagreeable way, and as hand-tightened on a freer's wrist. But, but, it's history, quite a freer and a spare. It's in all the books. Which books? he asked Keende. I don't know, all of them, she suddenly answered. Suddenly, because she now really did understand just the sort of adventure in which her unusual knowledge of history and, to do her justice, her almost equally unusual desire to show off had landed her. Now, said the hateful tutor, for such a freer felt him to be, tell me the names of the conspirators. It can't do any harm, a freer told herself. This is James the first time and I'm in it, but it's three hundred years ago all the same, but what has happened, then it can't make any difference what I say, so I'd better tell all the names and know. The hateful tutor shook her. Yes, all right, she said, and to herself she added, it's only a sort of dream, I may as well tell. Yet, when she opened her mouth to tell all the names she could remember of the conspirators of the poor old gunpowder blood that didn't come off, all those years ago, she found herself not telling those names at all. Instead she found herself saying, I'm not going to tell, I don't care what you do to me, I'm sorry I said anything about it, it's all nonsense, I mean it's only history and you ought to be ashamed of yourself listening behind doors, I mean out of doors behind stone seats when people are talking nonsense to their own cousins. A freer does not remember where exactly what happened after this, she was furiously angry and when you're furiously angry things get mixed and tangled up that the tutor was very horrid and twisted her wrists to make her tell and she screamed and tried to kick him that cousin Richard, who did not scream did on the other hand succeed in kicking the tutor that she was dragged indoors and shut up in her room without a window so that it was quite dark. If only I'd got Edward here, she said to herself, with tears of rage and modification I'd try to make some poetry and get the moldy warp to come but it's no use till he comes home. When he did come home after the bear baiting and the cock fighting and the banquet and the mask Lord and Lady Arden came with him, of course and they found their house occupied by an armed guard and in the dark little room a pale child exhausted with weeping who assured them again and again that it was all nonsense it was only history and she hadn't meant to tell and held her close intently in spite of the grand red velvet and the jewels. The house done no harm, said Lord Arden a pack of silly tales tomorrow I'd see my Lord sales-free and prick the silly bubble go thou to bed, sweetheart he said to his wife and let the little maid lie with thee she's all a tremble with tears and terrors tomorrow my Lord secretary shall teach these pop and jays their place and we shall laugh at this fine piece that a solemn maplot has made out of a name or two and a young child's fancies but tomorrow night all will be well and we shall lie down at peace but when tomorrow night came it had, as all nights have the day's work behind it Lord Arden and his lady and the little children lay not in Arden house and so-ho not in Arden castle on the downs by the sea but in the tower of London charged with high treason my Lord sales-free had gone to those walls under the houses of parliament and had found that both soldier of fortune Guy Fawkes was his dark eyes his dark lantern and his dark intent and the names of those in the conspiracy had been given up and King James was saved and the parliament's but the Catholic gentleman whom he had deceived and who had turned against him and his deceits were face-to-face with the wreck and the scaffold as Afridah knew as well as I do that it all happened 300 years ago or, if you prefer to put it that way that it had never happened and that anyway it was Mr. Trasham's letter to Lord Montego and not Afridah's singing of that silly rhyme that had brought the Arden's and all these other gentlemen to the tower into the shadow of death and yet she felt that it was she who had betrayed them she felt also that if she had betrayed she ought to be glad and she was not glad she had taken advantage of having been born so much later than all these people and of having been rather good at history to give away the lives of all these nobles and gentlemen that they were traitors to king and parliament made no manner of difference it was she as she felt but too bitterly who was the traitor and in the thick-walled room in the tower where the name of Raleigh was still fresh in its carving after Lady Arden and Edward were sleeping peacefully and hated herself calling herself a traitor a coward and an utter duffer End of Section 11 Recording by Zanya Section 12 of The House of Arden This is the Liberal Rocks Recording Our Liberal Rocks Recording are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit liberalrock.org The House of Arden by Edith Nespot Chapter 9 The Prisoners in the Tower Imprisoned in the Tower of London accused of high treason and having confessed to a too intimate knowledge of the gunpowder plot a freedor could not help feeling that it would be nice to be back again in her own time and at Arden where, if you left events alone and didn't interfere with them by any sort of magic moldy warpiness nothing dangerous, romantic and yet, when she was there, as you know she never could let events alone She and Edward could not be content with that castle and that house which, even as they stood would have made you and me so perfectly happy They wanted the treasure and they, a freedor especially wanted adventures Well, now they had gotten adventure both of them There was no knowing how it would turn out either and that, after all is the essence of adventures Edward was lodged with Lord Arden and several other gentlemen in the White Tower and a freedon lady Arden were in quite a different part of the building and the children were not allowed to meet This of course made it impossible for either of them to try to get back to their own times For though they sometimes growled, as you know they were really fond of each other and most of us would hesitate to leave even a person we were not very fond of alone a prisoner in the Tower A freedor had to wait on her mother and to suit the sampler which had been thoughtfully brought by the old nurse with the ladies clothes and the clothes a freedor wore But there were no games and the only out of doors a freedor could get was on a very narrow terrace where dead flower stalks stuck up out of a still narrower border beside a flagged pathway where there was just room for one to walk and not for two From this terrace you could see the fat queer looking ships in the river in the spire of St. Paul's Edward was more fortunate he was allowed to play in the garden of the lieutenant of the tower but he did not feel much like playing he wanted to find a freedor and get back to Arden Everyone was very kind to him but he had to be very much quieter than he was used to being and to say sir and madam and not to speak till you are spoken to You have no idea how Tire Summit is not to speak till you are spoken to with the world full as it is of a thousand interesting things that you want to ask questions about One day for they were there quite a number of days Edward met someone who seemed to like answering questions and this made more difference than perhaps you would think Edward was walking when bright winter morning in the private garden of the lieutenant of the tower and he saw coming towards him a very handsome gentleman dressed in very handsome clothes Now most of the gentlemen who were prisoners in the tower at that time thought that their very oldest clothes were good enough to be in prison in so this splendor that was coming across the garden was very unusual as well as very dazzling and before Edward could remember the rules about not speaking till you are spoken to he found that he had suddenly bowed and said your servant sir but he smiled kindly I mean how splendid you look the old gentleman looked pleased I am happy to command your admiration he said I mean your clothes said Edward and then feeling with a shock that this was not the way to behave he added your face is splendid too only I have been taught manners and I know you mustn't have people they handsome in their faces I know praise to my face isn't open disgrace said the gentleman it is a pleasant novelty in these wards is it your birthday or anything Edward asked it is not my birthday said the gentleman smiling but why the question because you are so grand said Edward I suppose you are a prince then no not a prince a prisoner I don't and you are going to be let out today and you have put on your best things to go home in I am so glad at least I am sorry you are going but I am glad on your account though a defiant bowed boy said the gentleman but no I am a prisoner and like to remain so and for these guards he swelled out his chest so that his diamond buttons and ruby earrings Walter Raleigh let the shadow of his prison tarnish his pride in the proper arraying of a body that has been honoured to near before the virgin queen he took off his head at the last words and swept it with a flourish nearly to the ground oh quite Edward are you really sir Walter Raleigh oh how splendid and now you are telling me all about the golden south americas and sea fights and the amada and the spaniards I said sir Walter I tell the details now they not let me from speaking with thee I won't I would he said looking round impatiently then I could see the river again from my late chamber I saw it and the godly ships coming in and out the ships that go down into the great waters he sighed was silent a moment then spoke and so thou didst not know then old friend Raleigh he was all forgot all forgot and yet thou hast read astride my sword here now and I have played with thee in the court yet at Arden when England forgets so soon who can expect more from a child I'm sorry said Evert humbly nay said sir Walter pinching his ear gently just two years ago and short years have short memories thou shall come with me to my chamber and I will show thee a chart that her dear glorious majesty permitted me to rename Virginia after her great and gracious self so Evert very glad and proud went hand in hand with sir Walter Raleigh to his apartments and so many strange things from overseas dresses of feathers from Mexico and strange images in gold from strange islands and the tip of a Norway's horn from Greenland and many other things and sir Walter told him of his voyages and his fights of how he and Humphrey Gilbert and Adrian Gilbert and little Jack Davis used to sail their toy boats in the long stream and how they used to row in and out among the big ships down at the port and look at the great figureheads standing out high above the water and wonder about them and about the strange lands they came from and often said Walter we found a sea captain that would tell us lad's traveller's tales like these after thee and we sailed our little ships and here I lie in dock and shall never sail again but it's oh to see the Devon moose and the clear reaches of the long stream again and that I never shall and with that he leaned his arm on the windowsill and if he had not been the great sir Walter Raleigh who is in all the history books Evert would have thought he was crying oh do cheer up do said Evert awkwardly I don't know whether they let you go to Devon true but I know they let you go back to America someday with twelve ships I read about it only yesterday and your ship will be called the destiny and you'll sail from the Thames and Lord Arden would see you off and kiss you far far well and give you a medal for a keepsake your son will go with you I know it's true it's all in the book the book sir Walter asked you can call it that if you want to said Evert cautiously but anyhow it's true he had read it all in the history of Arden if it should be true said sir Walter and the smile came back to his merry eyes and I have a say to the golden west again drew me but I would sack of Spanish town and bring the colour of gold and pieces of eight a big backfall thank you very much I can't of you but I shall not be there and also Walter's questions did not make him say how he knew this or what he meant by it after this he met sir Walter every day in the lieutenant's garden and the two prisoners comforted each other at least Evert was comforted and sir Walter seemed to be but no one could be sure if it was more than seeming this was one of the questions that always puzzled the children and they used to target over and around the question of course was did their being in past times make any difference to the other people in past times in other words when you were taking part in historical scenes did it matter what you said or did of course it seemed to matter extremely at the time but then if this going into the past was only a sort of dream then of course the people in the past would know nothing about it as a reader often pointed out was quite likely especially if time didn't count or could be cheated by what clocks on the other hand if they really went into the real past well then of course what they did must count for real too as Evert so often said and yet how could it since they took wisdom into the past or that they learned here and with that knowledge they could have revealed plots of war and the fate of kings and as Evert put it made history turn out quite different you see the difficulties don't you and Betty Lovell's having said that they could leave no trace on times past did not seem to make much difference somehow one way or the other however just now Evert and Edward were in the tower and not able to see each other so they could not discuss that or any other question they would meet but they never did but by and by the queen thought of Lady Arden and decided that she and her son Evert are to be let out of the tower and she told the king so and she told Lord somebody or other who told the lieutenant of the tower and to behold Lady Arden and Evert were abruptly sent home in their own coach which had been suddenly sent for from Arden House so now if Rita was in the tower and Edward was at Arden House and so they had not been able to speak to each other or arrange any plan for getting back to 1908 and Arden Castle by the sea of course if Rita was kept in the tower because she had sung the rhyme about please to remember the 5th of November the gunpowder trees in a plot and this made people think or seem to think that she knew all about the gunpowder plot and so of course she did though it would have been very difficult for her to show anyone at that time how she knew it without being a traitor she was now allowed to see Lord Arden every day and she grew very fond of him he was curiously like her own daddy who had gone away to South America with Uncle Jim and had never come back to his little girl Lord Arden also seemed to grow fond of her every day and that where we spoke to her with each day his down of fear that their daddy will have the whip for answering him superred no Afida would say hugging him as well as she could for his wrath I know you wouldn't beat your girl don't I daddy and as she hugged him it felt almost like hugging her own daddy who would never come home from America so she was almost contented she knew that Lord Arden was not one of those who would ever take her plot she knew from the history of Arden that he would just be banished from the court and end his day happily at Arden and she was almost tempted just to go on and let what would happen and stay with this new daddy who had lived 300 years before and to pet him and be petted by him only she felt that she must do something because of Edward the worst of it was that she could not think of anything to do she did not know at all whether you were being happy or unhappy as it happened he was being if not unhappy at least uncomfortable Mr. Parados, the tutor who was as nasty a man as you will find in any seaside academy for young gentlemen still remained at Arden House and she taught the boys Edward and his cousin Richard Mr. Parados was in high favour with the king because he had listened to a thing always very pleasing to King James I and Lady Arden dared not dismiss him besides she was ill with trouble and anxiety which Edward could not at all sooth by saying again and again Father won't be found guilty of treason he won't be executed he just be sent to Arden and live there quietly with you I saw it all in a book but Lady Arden only cried and cried Mr. Parados was very severe and wrapped Edward's knuckles almost continuously during lesson time and out of it said cousin Richard he is forever bent on spying and brow beating of us he saw was messing about nasty sneak said Edward I should like to be even with them before I go and I will too before you go Mr. Parados a freedom I am going away Edward began and then felt how useless it was to go on since even when the 1908 Edward who he was had gone the 1605 of freedom Edward would of course still be there that is if he checked the old questions which he had now no time to consider and said in a firm turn which was new to him in which a freedom would have been because I've got two things to do to be even with old Parados to be revenge on him I mean and to get a freedom out of the tower and I'll do that first because she liked to help with the other the boys were on the leads their backs to chimney and their faces towards the trap door which was the only way of getting onto the roof it was very cold and the north wind was blowing but they had come there because it was one of the few places where Mr. Parados could not possibly come behind them to listen to what they were saying get her out of the tower Dick laughed and then was sad I would, we could he said we can, said Edward earnestly I've been thinking about it all the time ever since we came out of the tower and I know the way I shall want you to help me Dick you and one grown up he spoke in the same grim self reliant tone that was so new to him Dick asked yes I think Nurse would do it and I'm going to find out if he can trust her trust her? said Dick why, she'd die for any of her sons I'd die on the wreck before she would betray the lightest word of any of us then that's alright said Edward Dick asked and he did not laugh though he might well have wanted to you see the tower was so very big and strong I'm going to get Elfrida out said Edward and I'm going to do it like Lady Niste got her husband out it will be quite easy it all depends on knowing when the guard is changed and I do know that but how did my Lady Niste get my Lord Niste out and from what? Dick asked why out of the tower you know Edward was beginning and Niste hadn't yet been taken out of the tower hadn't even been put in perhaps for anything he would knew wasn't even born yet so he said never mind I'll tell you all about Lady Niste and proceeded to tell Dick vaguely yet inspiringly the story of that wise and brave lady I haven't time to tell you the story but any grown up who knows history will be only too pleased to tell it Dick listened with most getting dusk and colder than ever the lights were lighted in the house and the trap door had become a yellow square a shadow in this yellow square worn Dick had he pinched Edward's arm come he said and let us apply ourselves to our books virtuous youths always act in their perceptive absence as they would if their perceptives were present I feel as though mine were present therefore I take it I am a virtuous youth on which the shadow disappeared very suddenly as I was walking in a choking inside sort way went down to learn the lessons by the light of two guttering telecannels and solid silver candlesticks the next day Edward got the old nurse to take him to the court and because the queen was very fun of Lady Arden he actually managed to see her majesty and what is more to get permission to visit his father and sister in the tower the permission was written by the queen's own hand Lady Arden and Master Richard Arden and an attendant then the nurse became very busy with suing and two days went by and Mr. Peridus wrapped the boys fingers and scolded them and scolded them and wondered why they bore it also patiently then came the day and it was bitterly cold and as the afternoon got older snow began to fall so much the better said the old nurse it was at dusk that the guard was changed at the tower gate and a quarter of an hour before dusk Lord Arden's carriage stopped at the tower gate and an old nurse and roughened cap and red cloak got out of it and lifted out two little gentlemen one in black with a cloak trimmed with scroll fur which was Edward and another which was Richard in grey velvet and martins fur and the lieutenant was called and he read the queen's order kindly to Edward and they all went in and as they went across the yard to the white tower where Lord Arden's lodging was the snow fell thick on their cloaks and fur and froze to the staff for whispered a code and again so much the better the nurse said so much the better Ephrida was with Lord Arden sitting on a snee when the visitors came in and said go with nurse he whispered to exactly what she tells you but I've made a piece of poetry Ephrida whispered and now you're here do what you're told whispered Edward in a turn she had never heard from him before and so fiercely that she said no more about poetry we must get you out of this Edward went on don't be a devil then Ephrida understood the nurse fell from around Edward's neck and she ran back to Lord Arden and put her arms round his neck and kissed him over and over again there, there my mate there, there he said petting her shoulder softly for she was crying come with me to thy chamber said the nurse I would take their measure for a new gown and petticoat but Ephrida clung closer she doesn't want to leave her dad and said Ephrida quite widely I don't want to leave my daddy come said Lord Arden despite for a measuring time thou would come back sock lamp as the word go now to return them more quickly goodbye dear, dear, dear daddy said Ephrida suddenly standing up oh my dear daddy, goodbye why would a piece of work about a new frock said the nurse crossly and she caught Ephrida's hand and dragged her into the next room now, she whispered already on her knees and doing Ephrida's gown at a moment to lose hold the handkerchief to thy face and seem to weep as we go out why, thou'd weeping already so much the better from under her white hoop and petticoat the nurse threw out the clothes that were hidden there a cloak, stocking shoes all like edwards to her hair and Ephrida, before she had finished crying stood up the exact image of her brother except her face and that would be hidden by the handkerchief then very quickly the nurse went to the door of the apartment and spoke to the guard there good luck, good gentleman, she said my little master's ill he's too afraid to bear these sad meetings and sad apartings convey as I pray you to the outer gate that I may find our coach and take him home and afterwards I will return for my other charge his noble cousin as it so, said the guard kindly poor child well, such is life, mistress and we all have tears to weep but he could not leave his post at Lord Arden's door to conduct them to the gates but he told them the way and they quest the courtyard alone and as they went so that the guard at the gate who had seen an old nurse and two little boys go in through the snow now so an old nurse and one little boy go out all snow covered and the little boy appeared to be crying bitterly and no wonder the nurse explained seeing his dear father and sister thus I will convey him to our coach, good masters she said to the guard and returned for my other charge young master Richard Arden and on that she got Ephrida's into the waiting carriage the coachman by previous arrangement with the old nurse was asleep on the box and the footman also by previous arrangement was refreshing himself at a tavern nearby another seat said the old nurse and thrusting Ephrida in shut the coach door and left her and to there was Ephrida dressed like a boy hurled up among the straw at the bottom of the coach so far so good but the most dangerous part of the adventure still remained the nurse got in again easily enough she was let in by the guard who had seen her come out and as she went slowly across the snowy courtyard she had ring under the gateway the stamping feet of the man who had come to relieve guard and to be themselves the new guard so far again so good the dain delay with the guard at the door of Lord Arden's rooms was lingering about the gateway when she came out not with one little boy as they would expect but was two but this had to be risked the nurse waited as long as she dared so as to lessen the chance of meeting any of the old guard as she went out with her charge she waited quietly in a corner while Lord Arden talked with the boys and when at last she said the time is done my lord she already knew that the guard so now for it said Edward as she and Richard followed the nurse down the narrow steps and across the snowy courtyard the new guard saw the woman and two boys and the captain of the guard read the queen's paper which the old nurse had taken care to get back from the lieutenant and as plainly Master Edward Arden and Master Richard Arden with their attendant had passed in so now they were permitted to pass out and two minutes later a great coat was lumbering and inside it four people were embracing and raptured the success of their strategy but it was Edward's thought of it said Richard as an honor bound and he arranged everything and carried it out how splendid of him said Elfrida warmly and I think it was while the splendid of her not as well as pride and pleasure in this the first adventure he had ever planned and executed entirely on his own account she could very easily have spoiled it you know by pointing out to him that the whole thing was quite unnecessary and that they could have got away much more easily by going into a corner in the tower and saying parotry to the molywab so they came to Arden house the coachman was apparently asleep again and the footman went round and did something to the harness after he had got the front door opened and it was quite easy for the nurse to send the footman who opened the door to order a meal to be served at once for Mr. Arden and Mr. Richard so that no one saw that instead of the two little boys who had left Arden house in the afternoon three came back to it in the evening then the nurse took them into the parlange at the door now she said Master Richard will go take off his fine suit and Miss Arden will go into the little room and change her arraignment and for you Master Edward you wait here with me when the others had obediently gone the nurse said looking at Edward was larger and different and he stood looking at her with eyes that were rounder and rounder why? he said at last you're the witch the witch we took the tea and things to and if I am do you think you're the only person who can come back into other times you're not all the world yet Master Arden of Arden but you've got the makings of a fine boy and a fine man who has done something in these old ancient times he had there's no doubt of it whether it was being thought important enough to be imprisoned in the tower or whether it was the long talks he had had with Sir Walter Wally that fine genius and great gentleman or whether it was Mr. Paradis snuggle rapping since counting I do not know but it is certain that this adventure was the beginning of the chain to need it which ended in his being as the old rhyme had told him to be and now said the nurse as Ephrida appeared in her girl's clothes there's not a moment to lose already at the tower they have found out our trick you must go back to your own times she's the witch Ephrida briefly answered the open amazement in Ephrida's eyes there's no time to lose the nurse repeated I must be even with old Paradis first said Ephrida and so he was 20 minutes and I will tell you all about it afterwards when you was even with old Paradis the old nurse sent Richard to bed and then Ephrida made haste to say I did make some poetry to call the moldy warp but it's all about the tower and we are not there now it's no use saying a moldy warp you have the power to get us out of this beastly tower when we are not in the tower and I can't think of anything else but the nurse interrupted her about poetry she said poetry is all very well for children but I know a trick worth two of that she left them into the dining room where the sideboards stood covered with silver sat down the candle lifted down the great selva with the arms ardent and graved upon it and put it on the table she breezed on the selva and traced triangles and a circle on the drilled surface and as the mistiness of her breath faded and out again and dimmed there suddenly in the middle of the selva was the live white moldy warp of ardent looking extremely cross you've no manners it said to the nurse bringing me here in that offhand rude way without with your leave or by your leave Ephrida could easily have made some poetry you know well enough it added angrily that it's positively painful to me by trying its own things poetry is so easy and simple poetry is too slow for this night's work said the nurse shortly come take the children away I have done with it you make everything so difficult said the moldy warp more costly than ever that's the worst of people who think they know a lot and really only know a little and pretend they know everything if I'd come the easy poetry way I could have taken them back as easily but now well it can't be helped I take them back of course but it'll be a way they won't like they'll have to go on to the top of the roof and jump off I don't believe that is necessary said the witch nurse alright said the moldy warp get them away yourself then and it actually began to disappear no no said Ephrida we do anything you say there's a foot of snow on the roof said the witch nurse better said the moldy warp so much the better you ought to know that you think yourself very clever said the nurse not half as clever as I am said the moldy warp rather unreasonably Ephrida thought there it ended sharply as a great hammering at the front door shattered the quiet of the night there to the roof for your lives and I'm not at all sure that it's not too late the knocking was growing louder and louder end of section 12 Recording by Sonja Baltimore, Maryland section 13 of the House of Arden this is a Liberox recording our Liberox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Liberox.org Recording by Sonja The House of Arden by Edith Nespid Chapter 10 White Wings and a Brownie Chapter by telling you exactly how Edward got even with old parrot nose as he put it you will remember that Master Parados was the Arden's tutor in the time of King James the first and that it was for his eavesdropping and tail bearing that Edward and Ephrida were imprisoned in the Tower of London there was very little time in which to get even with anyone and of course getting even with people is not really at all a proper thing to do Edward had got Ephrida out of the Tower just as Lady Nestle got her Lord out and now he and she and Cousin Richard were at Arden House in Soho and the old nurse who was also astonishingly the old witch had said that there was no time to be lost but there must be even with old parrot nose said Edward he was feeling awfully brave and splendid inside because of the way he had planned and carried out he could not bear to go back to his own times without somehow marking his feelings about Mr. Parados as to how it was to be done Cousin Richard was not to have anything to do with it because while they would be whisked away by some white road that the Molywap would find for them when they called it to their help by spoken poetry he would be left behind to bear the blame of everything this Edward and Ephrida decided but Cousin Dick wanted to know what they were talking about and why he wasn't to help and what he had wanted to do these four years if we tell you said Ephrida you won't believe us you might at least make the trial said Cousin Richard so they told him and though they were as quick as possible the story took some time to tell Richard Arden listened intently when the tale was told he said nothing you don't believe it said even well it doesn't matter what can we do to pay out old powered nose I don't like it said Richard suddenly it's never been like this before it makes it seem not real it's only a dream really I suppose and I always believed so that it wasn't I don't understand a word you're saying said Edward but what we've been saying is true anyhow look here he darted to the dark corner of the parlor where he had hidden the camera behind a curtain look here I bet you haven't got anything like this it comes from our times ever so far on in history out of the times where we come from the times that haven't happened yet at least now we are here they haven't happened yet you don't know what it is it's a machine for the sun to make pictures with oh stow that said Richard Rowley I know now it's all a silly dream but it's not worth while trying to dream that I don't know a codec when I see it that's a brownie there was a force full of speechless amazement then if you've dreamed about our times said Ephrida you might believe in us dreaming about yours did you dream of anything except brownies did you ever dream of fine carriages fine boats and don't talk as if I were a baby Richard interrupted I know all about railways and steamboats and the hippodrome and the crystal palace I know Kent made 615 against Derbyshire last Thursday now then but I say do tell us I shan't tell you anything more but I'll help you to get even with parrot nose I don't care if I am left here after you go said Richard let's shovel all the snow off the roof into his room and take our chance Ephrida and Ephrida would have liked something more subtle but there was no time to think of anything I know where they are shoveled said Richard if they've not got mixed up in the dream I say said Ephrida slowly I'd like to write that down about Kent and see if it's right afterwards there was a quilt sticking out of the pewter ink stand on the table where they were used to do their lessons but no paper here hurry up said cousin Richard and pulled a paper out of the front of his doublet then the three went up onto the roof groped among the snow till they found the edge of the skylight that was the tutors window for learning was lodged in the attic at Ardenhouse they broke the thick glass with the edges of their spades and shoveled in the thick, wide snow shoveled all the harder for the shouts and angry words that presently sounded below the roof then they went up to the roof and saw the edge of the skylight that was the tutors window and heard the words that presently sounded below them then when Mr. Pardos came angrily up onto the roof shivering and stumbling among the snow they slipped behind the chimney stack and so got back to the trap door before he did and shouted and voted it and said ah ha underneath it and went away locking his room door as they passed and leaving him to stand there on the roof and shout for help from the street below into the heaped snow in his room he was quite free and could do whichever he chose they never knew which he did choose and you will never know either and then Richard was sent to bed by the odd witch nurse and went and the molly warp was summoned and insisted that the only way back to their own times was jumping off the roof and of course Mr. Pardos was on the roof which made all the difference and the soldiers of the guard were knocking at the front door with the butts of their pistols but we can't go on to the roof said Edward and explained about Mr. Pardos hmmph said the molly warp that's terrible unfortunate that is well the top landing window will have to do that's all where's the other child gone to bed said the witch nurse shortly to he chuckered the molly warp and found that out and you a witch too to he and all the time the soldiers were hammering away like mad at the front door and Frida caught the molly warp and the nurse caught Edward's hand and the four raised up the stairs to the very top landing where there was a little window at the very end the air was keen and cold the window opened difficulty and when it was opened the air was much colder than before now then quite the molly warp you don't really mean that Frida you can't mean that we had to jump out into into nothing I mean you had to jump out right enough said the molly warp what you had to jump into any pair of shoes and it's my lookout anyway it's ours a little too isn't it said Frida timidly and the teeth were chattering she always said afterwards that it was with cold then get along home your way said the molly warp beginning to vanish oh don't, don't go Frida cried and the pounding on the door downstairs got louder and louder if I don't then you must said the molly warp testily but it stopped vanishing put me down it said put me down and jump for goodness sake she put it down suddenly the nurse caught Frida in her arms and kissed her many times far well my honey love she said all partings are not forever else I could scarce let thee go now climb up set thy foot here on the beam now thy knee on the sole so jump a Frida crouched on the window ledge where the snow lay thick and crisp it was very very cold have you ever had to jump out of a top floor window into the dark when it was snowing heavily you will remember how much courage it needed a Frida set her tees looking down into black nothing dotted with snowflakes then she looked back into a black passage lighted only by the rush light the nurse carried Edward it'll be alright she asked you sure he'll jump alright of course I shall said Edward in his new voice here let me go first to show you I'm not a coward there next moment Edward jumped too it was a horrible moment because however much you trusted the mulliwarp you could not in an instant forget what you had been taught all your life that if you jumped out of top floor windows you would certainly be smashed to pieces on the stones below to remember this and remembering it to jump clear is a very brave deed and brave deeds sooner or later have their reward the brave deed of Edward it's reward sooner as a Frida jumped she saw the snowflakes garter and thicken into a cloud beneath her the cloud was not the sword that lets you through either it was solid and soft as piled ironed down feathers she knew this as it rose up and caught her or as she fell on it she never knew which next moment Edward was beside her and the wide downy softness was shaping itself round and under them and placed for the feet to rest it's what's that in your hand Frida asked Reigns said Edward with certainty wide reins it's a carriage it was a carriage made of white snowflakes the snowflakes that were warm and soft as feathers they were wide soft carrier trucks that curled round and tucked themselves in entirely of their own accord these were snowflakes joined together by some magic weaving and warm and soft as white velvet and the horses they aren't any horses they are swans white swans cried a Frida and the voice of the moldy warp behind and above quite softly all white things obey me Edward knew how to drive and now he could not resist the temptation to bring the white swans round to the front of the house and to swoop down passing just over the heads of the soldiers of the guard who were still earnestly pounding at the door of Arden House and yelled to them ha ha sewed again which seemed to starter them very much then he wheeled the swans round and drove quickly through the year along the way which he knew quite well without being told to be the right way both Edward and a Frida had a strange sudden vision of another smaller snow carriage drawn by two swans only that circled above theirs and vanished in the deep dark of the sky giving them an odd tantalizing glimpse of a face they knew and yet couldn't remember distinctly enough to give a name to the owner of it then the swans spread their white mighty wings to the air and strained with their long strong necks against their collars and the snow equipage streamed out of London like a slender white scarf driven along in the wind and London was left behind and the snow storm and soon the dark blue of the sky was over them jeweled with the quiet silver of watchful stars and the deeper dark of the Kentish County lay below jeweled with the quiet gold from the windows of farms already half asleep pieces as they went was no longer cold but soft as June air is and a Frida always declared afterwards that she could smell white lilies all the way so across the darkened counties they went and the ride was more wonderful than any ride they had ever had before or would ever have again all too soon the swans hung poised on long level wings outside the window of a tower in Arne Castle a tower they did not know but though they did not know the tower it was quite plain that they were meant to get in at the window of it dear swans said a Frida who had been thinking as she said clutching her brownie can't we stay in your carriage till it's light we do so want to take a photograph of the castle the swans took their white flat snake-like heads just as though they understood and there was the open window evidently waiting to welcome the children so they got out very much against their worlds and there they were in the dark room of the tower and it was very cold but before they had time to begin to understand how cold it was and how comfortable they were likely to be for the rest of the night six swans heads appeared at the window and said something oh said a Frida I do wish we'd learn swanish instead of French at school but it did not matter the children were shocked and reappeared holding in their beaks the soft fluffy white rugs that had kept the children so warm and the snow carried the swans pushed the rugs through the window with their strong white wings and made some more remarks in swan language oh thank you said the children goodbye, goodbye then there was the rush of white going wings and the children tired out cuddled on the floor wrapped in the soft rugs the soft dreams were checked up in that coverlet and it seemed hardly any time at all before the children woke to find the winter sunshine looking in at them through the narrow windows of the tower a Frida jumped up and threw off the silver white downy soft coverlet it instantly tore itself into five pieces of different shapes and sizes and these screwed themselves up and drew themselves in and blew themselves out a piece of lily-sanded soap a towel, a silver comb and an ivory toothbrush well said a Frida when she had finished a simple toilet the base and soap, towel, toothbrush and comb ran together like globules of quick-server made a curious tussled lump of themselves and straightened out into the fluffy coverlet again well said a Frida again then she woke Edward and his coverlet played the same clever and pretty trick for him and when the children started to go down with the brownie and take the photographs of the castle the shiny coverlets jumped up into two white furry coats such as the very effluent might wear when they went emotoring if the very effluent ever thought of anything so pretty and one of the coats came politely to the side of each child holding out its arms as if it were sane putting me on which of course both the children did they crept down the corkscrew stairs and threw a heavy door that opened under the arch of the Great Gate way the Great Gate was open and on the step of the door opposite to the one by which they had come out the soldier said he held his helmet between his knees and was cowering it with sand and whistling as he scoured he touched his forehead with a sandy hand but did not get up your earlier field he said and went on rubbing the sand on the helmet it's such a pretty day set afreader maybe go out and welcome said the man simply but go not beyond the 12 acre for fear of rough fork and egyptians and go not far but breakfast will have a strong voice to call you back they went out and instead of stepping straight on to the turf of the downs they cowering notes from the wooden planks of a bridge it's a drawbridge said edward in terms of awe there's the moat look and discovered with cat eyes at the edges there was and it was and at the moats far edge their feet fast in the cat eyes where reeds and such brown and yellow and dried that rustled and whispered as a white jug flew out of them how lovely said afreader which arden had moat now if we find out where the water comes from said edward practically we might get the moat back when we found the treasure so when they crossed the moat and felt the frozen jug crackle under their feet as they tried the grass they set out before photographing the castle to find out where the moat water came from the moat they found was fed by a stream that came across the field from arden now they planted the moat at the northeast corner leaving it at the corner that was in the southwest they followed the stream and it was not till they had got quite into the middle of the field and well away from the castle that they saw how very beautiful the castle really was it was quite perfect no crumbled arches no broken pillars no shattered battered walls oh said edward how beautiful it is a castle like this our castle isn't like this said afrida no but it shall be when we found the treasure you've got the two firm walls alright yes said afrida who had got them in a great unwieldy pocket that was hanging and banging against their legs another full skirt oh look where's the river it stops short it certainly seemed to look like a steel ray ribbon on the green cloth of the field and half way across the field it did stop short there wasn't any more of it as though the ribbon had been snipped off by a giant pair of scissors and the rest of it rolled up and put by safely somewhere out of the way my hat said edward it does stop short and no mistake curiosity broke to him and he started running they both ran and snipped off the stream and when they got there they found that the stream seemed to have got tired of running above ground without any warning at all any sloping of its bed or any deepening of its banks plunged straight down into the earth through a hole not eight feet across they stood fascinated watching the water as it shot over the edge of the hole like a steel band on a driving wheel it was edward who asked himself to say I could watch it forever but we'll have it back we'll have it back come along let's go and see where it comes from let's photograph this place first said Elfride so as to know you know and the brownie clicked twice then they retraced their steps beside the stream and round two sides of the moat the stream came straight out of the knoll at the part where it joined on to the rest of the world come out under rough low art of stone that lay close against the baylip of the water so that's where it came from and that's where it goes to said Elfride I wonder what became of it and why it isn't at Arden now we'll bring it back said Evert firmly when we find the treasure and again the brownie clicked and we'll make the castle like it is now said Elfride come on let's photograph it so they went back and they photographed the castle they photographed it from the north and the south and the east and the west and the north east and the south east and the north north west and all the rest of the points of the compass that I could easily tell you for liked but why be rarism and instructive and they went back who had now polished his helmet to his complete satisfaction and was wearing it there was a brief and ardent conference on the drawbridge the subject of it breakfast Edward wanted to stay he was curious to see what sort of breakfast people had in the country in James the first this time Elfride wanted to get back to 1908 and the certainty of eggs and bacon if we stay here we shall only be dragged into some new adventure she urged I know we shall I never in my life knew such a place as history for adventures to happen in and I'm tired besides oh Edward do come along I believe it stacks said Edward and he sniffed questioningly it smells like onion stuffing stuff and nonsense said Elfride that's for dinner most likely I expect breakfast for us would be bread and water oh come along do before we get punished for it besides don't you want to know whether what cousin Richard said about the cricket was right well yes said Edward and we can always come back here can't we of course we can Elfride said eagerly oh come on so they climbed up to the twisty tiny corkscrew staircase and found the door of the room where they had slept that now were codes then they stood still and looked at each other with a sudden shock how are we to get back was the unspoken question that trembled on each lip the magic white codes cut off clothes from the next there was somehow comfort and confidence in the soft friendly touch of that magic fur when you are raring that sort of quote it is quite impossible to feel that everything will not come perfectly right honestly and thoroughly wish that it should come right our clothes said Elfride oh yes of course said Edward I was forgetting you must well go on forgetting said a sister because the clothes aren't here they are the other side of the twisty tiny inside out upside down checkiness that turned the attic into the tower I suppose the tower would turn back into the attic if you could only start before you know I suppose it would said Edward stopping short with his fingers between the buttons of his doublet hello what's this he pulled out a folded paper it's the thing about cricket that cousin Richard gave you don't bother about that now I want to get back I suppose we are to make some poetry but Edward pulled out the paper and unfolded it it might vanish you know he said we'll get stuck here and when we got home we should find it gone when we came to look for it let's just see what he says Ken did make he straightened out the paper looked at it looked again and held it out with a sudden arms length gesture look at that he said if that's true if we took the paper and looked at it and her mouth dropped open if it's true but it must be true the paper almost fell from her hand for it was a bill from gamages for three ships guns a compass and a half dozen flags and the bill was made out to Mr. R. D. Arden 117 Lowry Grove New Cross London SE on the other side was the penciled record on the previous Thursday I say said a freedom and was going on to say I don't know what clever and interesting things when she felt the fur coat creep and wriggle also at soft lengths and the long and soft wits and no wriggle that ever was wriggled expressed so completely danger danger you'd better get off while you can while you can explain as they could speak don't stop to jar go now now when you say a lady is a true daughter of Eve you mean that she is inquisitive a freedom was enough Eve's daughter to scurry to the window and look out a thrill run right down her back bone and ended in an empty feeling at the ends of her fingers and feet soldiers she cried and they are after us the fur coat knew it too if knowledge can be expressed by wriggling oh and they are pulling up the drawbridge what for said Edward who had come to the window too and I say doesn't the pot colors look geotinished when it comes down like that through the window one looked straight down onto the drawbridge and as the tower stuck out beyond the gate its side window gave an excellent view I say said Ephrida my fluffy coat says go doesn't yours it would if I'd listened to it said Edward carelessly the soldiers were quite near now so near that Ephrida could see how fierce they looked and she knew that they were the same soldiers which hammered so loud and so hard at the door of Aden House and so they must have ridden all night so she screwed her mind up to make poetry just as you screw your muscles up to jump a gate or run a hundred yards and almost before she knew that she was screwing it up at all the screw had acted and she had screwed out a piece of mollywarp poetry and was saying it aloud dear mollywarp since cousin dick buys us beautiful flecks from gam matches take us away and take us quick before the soldiers do us any damages in the moment she had said it the white magic codes grew up and grew down as tight and as soft as ever a silkworm wrapped itself when it was tired of being a silkworm and entered into its cocoon as the first step towards being a person with wings can you imagine what it would be like to have a lovely liquid sleep emptied on you by the warm tubful that is what it felt like inside the white wonderful cocoons the children knew that the tower was turning wrong way up and then set out but it didn't matter a bit because it was just like in magic showers no it was closing on them closer and closer nearer and nearer soft delicious layers of warm delight a soft humming sound was in their ears like the sound of bees when he pushed through a bed of canterbury bells and the next thing that happened was that they came out of the past into the present with a sort of snap of light and a twist of sound it was like coming out of a railway channel into daylight the magic coverlet, coat cocoons had even saved them the trouble of changing into their own clothes for they found that the stiff heavy clothes had gone and they were dressed in the little ordinary things that they had always been used to and now, Sarah Frieder let's have another look at that gamutters paper if it hasn't disappeared I expect it has though but it hadn't I should like to meet Dick again said Edward as they went downstairs he was much the jolliest boy I ever met perhaps we shall if Frieder said hopefully you see, he does come into our times I expect that new cross time he stayed quite a long while like we did when we went to gunpowder plot times or we might go back there a little later when the gunpowder plot has all died away and been forgotten it isn't forgotten yet said Edward and it's 300 years ago now, let's develop our films I'm not at all sure about those films you see, we took the films with us and of course we've brought them back but the picture that's on the films we didn't take that with us I shouldn't be a bit surprised if the films are all blank it's very, very clever of you to think of it said Frieder respectfully but I do hope it's a perfectly silly idea of yours let's ask Mrs. Honey said if you may use the old room she said used to be the cell room it'll be a ripping dark room in the shutter syrup of course you may said Mrs. Honey said yes and I carry you in a couple of paces of water the floor is stone so it won't matter if you do slop a bit you pump my lord and I'll hold the pails why was that part of the house led to go all dirty and cobwebby asked of Frieder when the horse voice of the pump had ceased to be heard I couldn't take upon me to clear up without Mrs. Edith's order not by what my fingers itched to be added with a broom and a swabbing brush but why have Frieder persisted oh it's one of them old ancient tales said Mrs. Honey said old Beale could tell you if anyone could we go down to old Beale's said Edith decidedly as soon as we've developed our pictures of the castle if there are any pictures he added you never can tell with some photo machines can you said Mrs. Honey said sympathetically my husband's cousin's wife was took was all a family by her own back door and when they come to wash out the picture it turned out that they took the next door people's water butt by mistake owing to their billy goat jugging the young man's elbow that had got the camera and it wasn't a big like any of them end of section 13 we'll see you next time