This must be what it felt like to be buried alive. As a child, I read a story about such a horrible occurrence and it gave me nightmares. I willed myself to be calm. Just sit down for a moment.

I sat down, with my back to the wall and my legs outstretched. Think. Think. This is what my cat would do. She would wait. Sit and wait. Listen for footsteps.

Perhaps it was the lack of air in the room. In spite of the cold, I began to feel drowsy. The floor was cold against the back of my legs.

After the longest time, I heard footsteps. I got to my feet, and yelled at the top of my voice while thumping again with my shoe. “Someone, open this door!”

I have never been so glad to hear a voice as at that moment. It was Milly. “Mrs. Shackleton?”

“Yes. I can’t open the door!”

“Just a minute.”

The minute stretched, and stretched.

And then came a sliding sound outside. The door opened a crack.

Milly spoke. “One more shove, Alec!” The sound again. “Doing it!”

The door opened. A large chest had been pushed in front of it.

Raynor appeared. “I came down for wine.” He picked up a basket. “What happened?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.”

“That chest shouldn’t be here.” He turned to Alec. “Is this your doing?”

“No, sir! Milly came, asked me to help.”

Raynor bared his teeth in imitation of a smile. “I’m very sorry, Mrs. Shackleton. I can’t imagine who would have done such a thing.”

I was not in the mood for conversation with Raynor. I could certainly imagine who had done it. The person who followed me along the road to Rothwell, going several miles out of his way to post letters.

This was a warning. Raynor and I both knew that.

“What’s in it that it’s so heavy?” Milly asked.

“Leave it!” Raynor said. “Mrs. Shackleton, let Milly help you upstairs. You look quite shaken.”

“I’m all right now, thank you.” I moved to open the chest and find the answer to Milly’s question, but the chest was locked.

*   *   *

Back in my room, I could not stop shivering. Milly ran a bath for me.

As I lay in the warmth of the bath, coming back to life, I thought how close I might have come to suffocation. Of course it would have taken days for me to die. I was being melodramatic. No one would have risked that. A warning, that’s what it was. The stables are round that side of the house. Alec, Benjie’s favourite, or to be blunt, Benjie’s son, must have told Benjie or Raynor about my interest in his railway notebook.