The papers unfolded into two large sheets. The top one was a set of plans of Holmes Manor a architect's drawings showing all the rooms on all the floors, all to scale. Many of the rooms had been crossed off in red ink. Most of them had scribbled notes written in them, or arrows pointing to particular features with question marks attached. One particularly thick wall between the dining room and the reception room had a note written beside it which said: 'Check for secret compartments in the wall. Could be accessed from either side.'

The second sheet was slightly smaller than the first. It was a set of words and phrases written in the same handwriting as the notes on the architectural plans. They had boxes drawn around them, and the boxes were linked by lines and arrows in a kind of network. It looked as if Mrs Eglantine a a.s.suming it was her a was trying to connect up a series of disparate elements, discoveries or thoughts into a coherent pattern a and failing. Sherlock scanned through some of the notes and found names of members of the Holmes family, as well as names that he didn't recognize, alongside places that he thought he'd heard of and words that just seemed to be randomly chosen but presumably meant something to Mrs Eglantine. In the centre, like a spider sitting in the middle of its web, the words gold plates had been circled twice in an emphatic hand.

Gold plates? Was that what she was looking for?

Reluctantly Sherlock folded the papers up again, careful to make sure that he used the same fold marks in the same order as he had unwrapped the package. He wished he could keep them for further study, but that would be risky. He couldn't even copy them a there was too much information there, and it would take too long. He knew more than he had earlier, but he wasn't sure he was any the wiser.

He wrapped the papers up in the oilcloth, retied them with the twine and carefully lowered them out of the window, first checking that the garden was still empty.

Finally, he closed the window, remembering to leave it open a crack.

He took a last look around the room, partly for anything he might have missed and partly to see if he'd left any traces. To both questions, the answer was no.

After listening at the door for a few moments to check that the coast was clear, he left Mrs Eglantine's room and slipped along the corridor. For a moment he considered going into his own room, but there was nothing for him to do there apart from rest for a while, and think, and he had other things to do. He headed downstairs.

The heavy oak door leading out into the drive and the gardens thumped closed as he entered the hall. Someone had just left the house. Through a narrow window Sherlock could see a black-clad figure walking to a waiting cart. It was Mrs Eglantine. She had put on a coat, which meant that she was probably going into town. She must have finished her conference with Cook, and a shiver went through Sherlock as he realized how close a call he'd had. If she'd kept her coat upstairs instead of in the kitchen, then she might have found him.

The cart clattered away and vanished through the gates to the road. Sherlock turned and headed back towards the kitchens.

'Master Sherlock!' Cook called as he entered. She was a large woman, her cheery face usually red from the heat of the ovens and her hands covered in flour, but today she looked pale and the skin around her eyes was creased as if she was trying to stop herself from crying. 'I just got some bread in the oven. Come back in a while and you can 'ave a nice hot slice wiv b.u.t.ter fresh from the churn!'

'Thanks,' he said, 'but I was looking for Mrs Eglantine.'

Cook's face seemed to age five years in as many seconds. 'She's gone to town. And good riddance too! 'Parently the quality of the vegetables I've been preparin' for this household is not up to the standards she expects.' She sniffed. 'Anyone'd think she was the lady of the house, rather than Mrs 'Olmes, and this was some sw.a.n.ky 'otel rather than a country 'ouse.'

'She's certainly a difficult person to please,' Sherlock said cautiously. He'd learned from Amyus Crowe that general statements, left hanging like that, normally encouraged talkative people to talk even more, and Cook was one of the most talkative people he knew.

'She is that. I never known such a person to find fault, and 'er tongue's as sharp as a butcher's knife. I worked with 'undreds of 'ousekeepers over the years, but she's got to be the most hoity-toity and the most unpleasant.'

'What made my uncle and aunt employ her in the first place?' Sherlock asked. 'I presume she must have had a good set of references from her previous jobs.'

'If she did, then I never got to 'ear about them.'

'I keep seeing her around the house,' Sherlock said. 'Just standing there, not doing anything apart from watching and listening.'

'That's 'er all over,' Cook confirmed. 'Like a crow, just standin' on a branch waitin' for a worm.' Colour was coming back into her cheeks now. She sniffed again. 'Soon as she arrived she turned this kitchen upside down. Moved everythin' out into the garden and 'ad the walls an' the tiles scrubbed. Give 'er credit a she did it herself. Shut the door an' worked for a whole day, she did. Said she'd 'ad experience of 'ouses wiv mice an' rats an' she wanted to make sure there weren't none 'ere. The nerve of the woman! As if I'd let a mouse in my kitchen!'

'She's a strange woman,' Sherlock confirmed.

'I got some biscuits I baked earlier,' Cook confided. 'Do you want a couple, to keep you goin' before tea?'

'I'd love some,' he said, smiling. 'In fact, I'd happily miss tea and just eat your biscuits.'

'It's nice to 'ave someone who appreciates my cookin',' Cook said, beaming. She seemed more cheerful now.

After wolfing down three of Cook's biscuits, Sherlock headed back into the house. He wasn't sure that he'd made much progress, but he seemed to have established that Mrs Eglantine had somehow blackmailed her way into the house and that she was searching for something. The gold plates that had been mentioned in her notes? He supposed it was possible, but it sounded a little unlikely. Why would there be gold plates, of all things, in his aunt and uncle's possession? What would they want such a thing for? He'd been living there for over a year now, and he'd never seen any plates apart from the porcelain ones that were used every day and the bone-china ones brought out on Sundays and when anyone visited. Neither of those sets of plates had any gold at all on them, not even gold-leaf edging.

Suddenly he couldn't face the prospect of staying in the house for the rest of the day. It seemed to be weighing down on him like a heavy coat. He had to get out. For a few seconds he thought about heading over to see Amyus Crowe a and Virginia a but he felt as if there was more that he could do concerning Mrs Eglantine. If she was in Farnham, sourcing fresher vegetables than Cook had got, then perhaps he could find her and watch her for a while from hiding. After all, perhaps the vegetables were just an excuse. Perhaps she had a different reason for going into town.

He left by the front door and headed for the stables, where his horse was kept. He thought of it as his horse, although he'd effectively stolen it from the evil Baron Maupertuis, back when he'd first arrived at Holmes Manor. Fortunately the Baron hadn't appeared to ask for it back, and the horse seemed perfectly happy to stay with someone who looked after it and rode it regularly. He'd named it Philadelphia, as a kind of joke. The horse didn't seem to mind.

Saddling Philadelphia up the way he'd been taught by the groom who worked for the Holmes family, he cantered out of the grounds and along the road that led to Farnham. He'd got pretty good at riding over the past few months, ever since getting back from the eventful trip that he and his brother had made to Russia.

That trip, he reminded himself as the horse calmly trotted along past the tall trees of Alice Holt Forest, had involved the mysterious Paradol Chamber a the international gang of criminals who had also been involved with the colossal schemes of Baron Maupertuis. Nothing had been heard of them since their plan to discredit Sherlock's brother Mycroft and a.s.sa.s.sinate the head of the Russian Secret Service had fallen apart, but Sherlock knew that they were still out there, somewhere. He occasionally asked Mycroft about them, but Mycroft professed himself to be as mystified as Sherlock as to what they were up to. The only certainty was that somewhere in the world they were up to something.

The outskirts of Farnham crept up on Sherlock before he knew it: solid red brick buildings with tiled roofs replacing the thatched cottages that had been scattered along the road from Holmes Manor. Rather than ride into the town centre, and risk having Mrs Eglantine see him, he left the horse tied up at a stables he'd used before on the outskirts of town, tipping the ostler a few pence to feed and water it. He walked the rest of the way.

If Mrs Eglantine was telling the truth about vegetables, then she would be at the market. Sherlock headed over towards where it was held, in the shadow of a two-storey building with colonnades all the way around. The marketplace was filled to capacity with stalls selling all manner of foodstuffs, from fruit to fresh beans, from smoked meat to sh.e.l.lfish.

He couldn't see Mrs Eglantine anywhere, but he did see Matty standing by a vegetable stall. He looked as if he was waiting for something to roll off in his direction.

Matty caught sight of Sherlock and waved. Sherlock saw his friend's gaze flicker back to the stall, and a look of momentary indecision cross his face before he walked over.

'Waiting for lunch?' Sherlock asked.

'I don't really separate stuff out into "meals" as such,' Matty admitted. 'I just eat whenever I can.'

'Very wise. Have you seen Mrs Eglantine around?'

'That housekeeper?' Matty shuddered. 'I try to stay away from her. She's bad news.'

'Yes, but have you seen her?'

Matty nodded over towards a stall selling fresh trout laid on gra.s.s. 'She was over there a few minutes ago. Said the fish was too small.'

'Did you see which direction she went?'

He shrugged. 'Long as she was heading away from me, I didn't really care. Why? What's up?'

Sherlock debated whether to tell Matty about the confrontation between Mrs Eglantine and his uncle, but he decided to keep quiet. That was a private family matter a at least for the moment. 'I just need to know where she is,' he said. 'I think she's up to something.'

'Shouldn't be too hard to find her,' Matty said. 'She dresses like every day is a Sunday, an' someone's died to boot . . .'

As the two boys moved across the marketplace, pushing past the various vendors, customers and browsers who filled the place, Sherlock caught fragments of conversation from all directions.

'. . . an' I told 'im, if 'e comes back without it I'm leavin' . . .'

'. . . you gave me your word that the deal was already made, Bill . . .'

'. . . if I see you with that lad again, girl, I'll wallop you so hard your head will be spinning for a week . . .'

One voice in particular snagged his attention. It was accented, American. He recognized the accent from talking to Amyus Crowe, and from his time in New York. He turned his head, thinking that maybe it was Crowe who was speaking, but the face that he found himself looking at was younger: all sharp planes and hard edges. The man's hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and beneath the hair it looked to Sherlock as if his right ear was missing. All he could see there was a ma.s.s of dark scar tissue. His clothes were dusty and well-travelled, and he was speaking to a companion who had short blond hair and a face covered in circular scars, the kind you got from a bad case of smallpox.

'. . . will flay us alive and turn our skins into hats,' the man with the missing ear was saying.

'We need to find Crowe and his daughter. They're our only chance!'

'Well, we know what'll happen to us if we don't find them. Remember Abner?'

'Yeah.' The dark-haired man's face twisted with an unpleasant memory. 'Don't do nothing but stare at the wall now, after what the boss did to him. It's like there's nothing left inside his head, apart from what he needs to breathe and to eat . . .'

They were walking in one direction and Sherlock and Matty were walking in another, and that was all Sherlock heard before the two men were out of earshot. It sounded serious though. Sherlock decided to go and see Mr Crowe as soon as he could. Crowe needed to know that someone was looking for him.

By the time he had formulated the thought, he and Matty were across the other side of the marketplace.

'Wait here for a minute,' Matty said. He dashed away, towards the two-storey colonnaded building on the edge of the marketplace. Sherlock lost him as he vanished into the shadows. He was about to turn away and scan the crowd for signs of a black-clad woman when Matty's head appeared above the parapet, running along the roof of the building. He waved at Sherlock. Sherlock waved back, amazed at how quickly Matty had got through the building. The scruffy barge boy scanned the crowd with his keen gaze. Within moments he was pointing at something.

Mrs Eglantine? Sherlock mouthed, trusting to Matty's skill at lip-reading to pick up the words.

Pork pie! Matty replied. Sherlock couldn't tell if he was actually making any sound or not, but the movement of his mouth was clear enough. Matty grinned. Only kidding! he mouthed. She's over there!

Sherlock gave him a thumbs-up, and Matty's head disappeared from the parapet.

Sherlock plunged into the crowd of shoppers and market traders, heading in the direction that Matty had indicated. He scanned the heads of the people in front of him, looking out for Mrs Eglantine's distinctive sc.r.a.ped-back hairstyle. Within the s.p.a.ce of a few moments he had seen virtually every variation of hair and headwear possible: black, red, blond, grey, white and bald; straight, curly, pig-tailed and close-shaven; bare-headed, bonneted, scarved, flat-capped, bowler-hatted . . . everything apart from a woman with black hair pulled back so that it looked like it was painted on her scalp. Finally he spotted her. She was standing right on the edge of the marketplace with her back to him. She was talking to a short man with hair that was long, oiled and brushed back to either side of his head, leaving a parting dead centre. His skin was blotchy, and his jacket was shiny with old dirt and grease at the shoulders, elbows and cuffs. He wasn't the kind of man with whom Sherlock would have thought Mrs Eglantine would a.s.sociate.

Sherlock drifted closer, deliberately looking away from the two of them so that they wouldn't notice they had an eavesdropper.

As he got closer he heard the man say: 'Time's gettin' on, darlin', and there's still no sign of the thing turnin' up. You sure it's in the 'ouse?'

'There is nowhere else for it to be,' Mrs Eglantine said in her cold, precise voice. 'And you don't need to remind me how long I've been working in that place.'

'Anythin' I can do to speed things up?' the man asked.

''You can get rid of that brat Sherlock,' she snapped. 'He's always snooping around, and he's too clever for his own good.'

'You want him gone temporary, like, or permanent?'

'So permanently,' she hissed, 'that I want him cut up and scattered over such a large area that n.o.body will ever be able to find all the bits.'

CHAPTER THREE.

Sherlock felt his mouth drop open in shock. He knew Mrs Eglantine disliked him to the point of hatred, but the fact that she hated him enough to want him dead a enough to actually ask someone to kill him a that was a shock. What had he ever done to her? Apart from question her position and challenge her authority, that was.

The man with the oily hair was saying something, and Sherlock concentrated on hearing what it was.

'I'll take that into consideration,' he said, 'I surely will, but the problem is that I could be seeing a nice return on what I know about that hoity-toity Holmes family, but I'm holdin' back. Rather than get them to pay me a guinea a week to keep their secret, I'm usin' that influence to keep you employed by them.' He sn.i.g.g.e.red. 'Let's face it, who would employ a sour-faced harridan like you if they didn't have to? I'm losing money on this deal while you get a nice little job and a wage.'

Mrs Eglantine started to speak, but the man held up a hand and she stopped.

'I know what you're going to say,' he said. 'You're going to tell me that when you find this treasure of yours that's hid in the house, you'll split it with me and we'll both be rich. The trouble is, that treasure is what's known as "hypothetical" a I ain't seen it and I ain't convinced that it exists. On the other hand, the money the Holmes family could be paying me to keep their secret is real. Cash in hand, if you like a or beer in belly, in my case. So I got to ask myself, am I better off with a smaller amount of real money or a larger amount of hypothetical money?'

Mrs Eglantine sniffed. 'We had an arrangement, Mr Harkness,' she said. 'If you go back on that now, then n.o.body will ever trust you again.'

'I'm a blackmailer,' Harkness pointed out calmly. 'The only thing people trust me to do is reveal their secrets if I don't get paid regular.' He sighed. 'Look, we've had a good thing going over the years, darlin'. You ferret out family secrets wherever you work and bring them to me, and I use them to make a few quid on a regular basis, but since you got wind of this supposed treasure the whole thing's gone to pot. Why can't we go back to the way things were?'

'Firstly,' Mrs Eglantine said icily, 'I am not your "darling" and I never will be, and secondly, the trivial way you blackmail the local townspeople over their petty thefts and even pettier romances barely brings you in enough money to fund those big bets you like to place on the horses and the illegal boxing. If you ever want to make anything of yourself, I am your only chance.'

Harkness sighed. 'You've got a sharp but persuasive tongue in your head, Betty. All right a I'll go along with it for another month. But just a month, you hear? After that I'm getting my hooks into the Holmes family and soaking them for whatever cash I can.'

'To you,' she replied, 'I am Mrs Eglantine. Never take the liberty of calling me by my first name.' She seemed to thaw slightly, reaching out to touch his arm. 'I'm near to finding it, Josh a I know I am. I just need a little more time.' She paused for a moment. 'And I need that interfering brat Sherlock out of my way. Can you do that for me?'

'I'll get some of my lads on it,' he promised. 'You got time for a bite to eat?'

She shook her head. 'That d.a.m.ned family are expecting their evening meal. I swear, Josh, there are times when I just feel like poisoning the lot of them and watching as they writhe in agony on the dining-room carpet. But not just yet. I need to get back.'

'Stay in touch.' He laughed. 'Let me know if you find them golden plates you keep on about.'

'I will.' She turned away, then turned back. 'Oh, I almost forgot. I found this in the room of one of the maids.' She reached into a hidden fold of her crinoline skirt and withdrew a letter. 'It is a note from a boy who claims to love her.'

'I ain't interested in t.i.ttle-tattle,' Harkness said.

'You would be if you knew that the boy in question is the eldest son of the Mayor of Farnham.'

Harkness c.o.c.ked his head to one side in sudden interest. 'The Mayor's son, seeing some little hussy of a housemaid? That ought to be good for a few quid. The Mayor's very particular about the company he keeps. He tells everyone that his son is going to marry into the n.o.bility. He'll want to keep this one very quiet.' He frowned. 'The letter's in the boy's own handwriting? And he's signed it?'

'With love and kisses.'

Harkness grinned. 'People never learn, do they? I never commit anything to writing, just in case.' He reached out and took the letter from Mrs Eglantine. 'Thanks for this. You want cash now, or shall I add it to the account?'

'Pay me later. Just make sure you remember.'

'Oh, I'll remember. My memory's razor sharp.'

They parted, Mrs Eglantine heading off in one direction and Josh Harkness in the other. Sherlock almost expected the man to try to kiss her on the cheek, based on that momentary final flash of friendship, but if the thought crossed his mind he didn't act on it.

Sherlock's gaze flickered uncertainly between the two of them. Should he follow Mrs Eglantine, or Josh Harkness? It occurred to him that he didn't have to follow either of them a he could just go and find Matty and spend the rest of the day in Farnham a but he knew that he couldn't let this thing go. There was more at stake here than he had realized a not just his own safety, but the future of his family. He had to find out what was going on, and stop it. If he could.

After a few seconds he decided that he should follow the greasy-haired man. Mrs Eglantine was heading back to the house a she had said so herself. He knew where she would be and pretty much what she was going to be doing. The man was the uncertain quant.i.ty here, and Sherlock needed to find out much more about him. That was the direction that any immediate threat to Sherlock would be coming from.

Harkness now had something incriminating on one of the housemaids in Holmes Manor. Sherlock wondered which one it was. He didn't know any of them by name, and rarely said anything to them, but they all seemed pleasant enough, and good at their jobs. If one of them had found happiness with a boy who was from a different social cla.s.s, then what of it? Sherlock didn't see why either of them should be punished for the fact, let alone the boy's father.

Not for the first time, it occurred to him that the British system of working cla.s.s, middle cla.s.s and upper cla.s.s people was not only pointless and archaic, but damaging to the very fabric of society.

Checking to see that Mrs Eglantine hadn't turned around to come back for some reason, Sherlock slipped through the crowd after her friend.

Sherlock stayed well back, just in case Harkness looked over his shoulder. He probably didn't know what Sherlock looked like, but he seemed like the kind of man who would be constantly checking for pursuit. As the two of them moved through the crowd Sherlock couldn't help but notice how some of the townsfolk a usually the better-dressed ones a moved out of his way and turned their heads to avoid looking at him. He seemed to be known to a lot of people a and not in a good way. Sherlock couldn't help but remember some of the older boys at Deepdene Academy who had bullied the younger ones. They had swaggered through the school halls in much the same way, and the kids had moved out of their path like minnows moving out of the way of a stickleback.

Sherlock sensed a presence by his side. He turned his head a fraction, not sure that he wanted to acknowledge whoever it was. Maybe Mrs Eglantine had turned back and seen him. But no a it was Matty. He grinned up at Sherlock, one hand holding a cauliflower which he was eating raw.

'Wha's goin' on?' he said through a mouthful of vegetable.