‘Femm’s in one of those rooms,’ he told her. ‘He left me and carefully locked himself in. But it’s the one behind, not this one.’ His mind was back on the landing above now, before that other door; it seemed a place in a nightmare. Should he tell Margaret about it? No; at least not yet.
‘I distinctly heard somebody. He seemed to want something. It must be that other one.’
‘What other one?’ He had forgotten who was here, feeling lost for the moment in a maze of dream-like corridors that offered nothing but mysterious doors and voices crying in the dark.
‘The oldest, the one they called the master of the house, Sir Roderick,’ Margaret whispered. ‘Don’t you remember, they said he was very old and ill? I’m sure he wanted something. And think of him lying there, hearing all that noise, quite helpless perhaps.’
Yes, this must be old Sir Roderick, whose house had given them shelter. And what a house, what shelter! He looked at Margaret doubtfully, and then at the door itself. They were standing in front of it now, and its rubbed panels shone a little in the candle-light.
‘Listen!’ And Margaret’s hand went up as she leaned forward, her white shoulder curving through the blue silk where her dress had been torn, her head a medallion of bright gold. His heart went out to her as he listened. She turned her head, her eyes seeking his. ‘Did you hear that?’ she whispered.
He nodded, then raised his brows in an unspoken question. There had come to them, as if from across a great space, the sound of a voice calling within, the tiny weak voice that Margaret had described. He read her decision in her face, and felt no surprise when he saw her hand creep forward to the door and tap-tap upon it gently. Her other hand sought his arm and rested there.
‘Come in.’ Their ears caught it as their eyes might have picked out a point of light on a midnight sea.
Margaret hesitated, and Philip felt her hand squeezing his arm. He put the candle into her other hand, leaned forward and slowly opened the door. His shadow went wobbling into the room, he went after it, and Margaret followed him.