Hello, all! 

Ellingham Manor returns in one week! TOP!

Ahh! I just finished reading through all of this, and man, what a cliffhanger- perhaps literally. This is really wonderful, I can't wait for what comes next! :)

Chapter Eleven

“The Memory Room”

“Hello, fellow guest or guests! Would you be interested in helping us steal tools from our gracious host? We don’t know if we’ll be caught or what the punishment will be if we are caught, but if we succeed then we can get food more easily from the kitchens and lower our chances of death by starvation! So, what do ya say?” QueenOfWolves’s face, which had been contorted into a saccharine smile, melted away until a frown had returned. “Are you kidding me, Pygmy? No way will any of this work.”

“As hesitant as you seem, it is hard to deny that fixing the dumbwaiter would make things much easier,” PygmyOwl replied from the top of a large cardboard box. While wandering around, the two self-proclaimed detectives had found themselves in a large room that was mostly empty, excepting a large pile of cardboard boxes in one corner and a sad, wilted houseplant in another. Through the room’s tall windows, Lady Ellingham could be seen consulting a blueprint that when fully rolled out was longer than she was tall.

“Sneaking into the kitchens isn’t even that hard anyway,” Queen pointed out. “Between Barnaby’s complaining and Roxann’s weeping, they’re both too distracted to notice two people sneaking into the pantry and stealing food.”

“You are correct in that statement,” Pygmy said, “but with the dumbwaiter fixed, we can carry more food and drink up to our hiding place quicker. Besides, I’ll bet you anything that the dumbwaiter stops on each floor. We can use it to sneak around…” Pygmy, desperate to get outside even for a few minutes, played her trump card. “And search for clues.”

Almost immediately Queen stood up. “Okay,” she said. “Who do we ask?”

“Quill.” Pygmy had obviously been mulling this question over in her mind for some time. “She’s the least likely out of all the guests -- the remaining guests -- to tell Flora or the robots about where we are or what we’re doing. She loves adventures, too.”

“That’s settled, then,” Queen said, not really feeling that it was settled. “We should go and find Quill, then.”

“I should go and find Quill,” Pygmy corrected. “I’m quieter than you, and I’ll get in less trouble if I’m caught by myself than if we’re both discovered.” Pygmy paused. “If I’m caught, there’ll still be one sleuth roaming free.”

“Okay.” Queen walked over to Pygmy, who by now had slipped off the top of the box and onto the scuffed wooden floor, and gave her a hug. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.” Pygmy ran quickly and quietly out of the room. 

Queen sighed and stared at the stack of boxes. There was nothing she could really do at the moment -- if she left this room, Pygmy and Quill might not be able to find her again, and she had gone over the notes she had jotted down in her notebooks for what seemed like the millionth time that morning. Absent-mindedly she opened a box to see what was inside. A great many mechanical devices sat quietly in the box, patiently waiting for someone to use them again. Queen pulled one out of the box -- what looked to be a small punching glove attached to some sort of jack-in-the-box -- to get a better look. The device was rather small, the perfect size for a large coat pocket. A small silver plaque next to the crank on the jack-in-the-box read “THE PUNCH-O-MATIC. PERFECT FOR SELF-DEFENSE ON THE BUSY CITY STREETS”. 

Who built this? Queen wondered to herself. 

In the box, underneath the rest of the devices, lay a piece of paper. Queen, catching a glimpse of the words “PUNCH-O-MATIC”, dug through the box and grabbed the piece of paper. It was a very old, very short newspaper article. Queen imagined that the article could not have taken up more than a column in the newspaper. Putting her thoughts of newspaper formatting aside, Queen turned her attention to the article, which read as follows:

GUILLERMO WINS INVENTION CONTEST FOR SIXTH YEAR IN A ROW

The Ingenious Invention Contest, held by the Royal Academy for the Sciences every year, has awarded this year’s prize to Mr. Adham Flinn Guillermo. Mr. Guillermo, who won the competition with his “PUNCH-O-MATIC”, has won the one thousand pound prize money as well as a scholarship at the Academy, which he has consistently refused to take. Several competitors, including one Mr. Ed R.R. Nigher, have suggested that Mr. Guillermo does not create his own inventions or is perhaps a--

The bottom half of the article had apparently been torn off. Queen wondered aloud who Mr. Guillermo was, and why his invention -- his inventions, if the rest of the machines in the box were indeed his -- was stored here, in Ellingham Manor. Queen made a note to herself to find a family tree somewhere in the house.

“Hey,” said a voice, conversationally. Queen jumped and turned to see who it was. 

“Gosh, is my voice that frightening?” Quill asked, standing in the doorway.

“Ready?” asked Pygmy.

Luminescence stared out at the abyss and wondered where her socks were now. After walking through the door, she had fallen a few feet and landed on a narrow catwalk. Her suitcase, however, was not so lucky -- it had hit the edge of the catwalk, burst open, and fallen down, down, down into… What exactly it had fallen into Lumi wasn’t sure. It was a great darkness. Not the darkness of your bedroom at night, or the darkness of a movie theater just before the previews begin, but an all-consuming darkness. The only thing that Lumi could see was the catwalk and an enormous globe made from sheets of metal. Lumi had guessed, correctly, that the Manor and its grounds were inside this globe. Lumi had been sitting on the catwalk for hours, waiting in a daze for the sound of her suitcase hitting something far below. She thanked her lucky stars that she had not fallen, too. Lumi was suddenly reminded of Alice in Wonderland. 

What had Alice done while she was falling down the rabbit-hole? Something about math…

“I told you Lady Ellingham should have built a stronger lock!”

“Yes, you did. But you never told Lady Ellingham that.”

“Don’t be funny, Magnus.”

“Don’t be a pain in the circuit board, Barnaby.”

“Ohh…” Even though Lumi had only been at the Manor for a few days, Roxann’s crying was already unmistakable. “I knew this would happen, I did…”

“You say that whenever something bad happens!”

Lumi heard the faint creak of the gate far above her. There was a gasp.

“Oh no.”

“...you don’t think…”

“I knew this would happen!”

“Shut up, Roxann!”

Heavy footsteps sounded right above Lumi’s head. She looked up and could see Magnus’s large oval-shaped head gazing out into the darkness.

“Hello? Hello?” Magnus sounded as if he were about to cry too, a first for Lumi.

“H-hi!” Lumi’s voice creaked with disuse. “It’s me, Luminescence! I’m d-d-down here!”

Magnus looked straight down. His expression turned from one of anguish to one of surprise as his head was joined by those of Barnaby and Roxann. 

“Lumi! What are you doing here?”

“I… I…” Lumi wasn’t sure how to respond. Evidently, Magnus wasn’t much interested in an answer. He turned to the twins.

“Get the winch. I’ll go and find a length of rope.”

“No, we ought to fetch Lady Ellingham.” Roxann was now crying harder. Lumi hoped that the oil droplets that had started to fall on her head were tears of joy. 

“Lady Ellingham’s busy. Barnaby, get the winch.”

“Well, I-”

“Just help me!” Barnaby and Magnus’s heads disappeared, leaving Roxann and Lumi alone for several awkward minutes. While Roxann mumbled tearfully to herself about what to make for lunch, Lumi mumbled tearfully to herself about what was to become of her. Would she be locked in the wine cellar, like PygmyOwl and QueenOfWolves? She wasn’t sure she could escape through a maze, let alone break a wine barrel. Lumi was in such shock that she could not even begin to process why Ellingham Manor was inside a giant metal bubble, or what the suffocating darkness was. How did we even get here if there’s no road? 

Presently Barnaby and Magnus returned with the winch and a length of rope, a drill, and several screws respectively. The three robots worked quickly. Roxann started by tying the rope to the end of the winch cable. Then, Magnus fastened the winch to the side of the globe with the screws, which Barnaby held in place while Magnus used the drill. Lastly, Magnus pulled the knot between the rope and the cable tight, so it would not come apart, and tied the end of the rope around his waist. Barnaby and Roxann turned the winch crank, wrapping the cable-rope combination around the spool. Everything was set.

“Ready?” Magnus asked. The twins nodded.

“Go!” Magnus jumped through the doorway, and for a horrible moment, Lumi thought that the rope would break. But the rope didn’t break as Magnus swung around and planted his feet on the side of the globe. Barnaby and Roxann began cranking, arguing quietly as Magnus slowly made his way down to the catwalk. There was another horrible moment when Lumi realized that the rope was almost gone and Magnus had not made it, but she then remembered the cable and gave a sigh of relief. Finally, Lumi watched in amazement as Magnus’s big, flat feet made contact with the catwalk and he stretched out his hand.

“Come on,” he said gently. “Let’s get you back up to the Manor.”

Holding Luminescence in his free arm, Magnus now began to scale the side of the globe. As they cranked, Barnaby complained loudly about pulling a piston, and Roxann wept again, but the robot and the CBer made it to the doorway without incident. At last, Lumi was set carefully down on the firm ground.

A long time had passed since Lumi had fallen onto the catwalk. The sun was now shining, and a few birds were singing.

“That w-w-was amazing,” Lumi said breathlessly. “Thank you so much.”

“When you live with a great inventor like Lady Ellingham,” Magnus said modestly, “you pick up a few things.”

“You’re welcome,” Barnaby said. He flashed his most charming smile, which looked more like a grimace.

Roxann held Lumi’s hands in hers and babbled incoherently for a few minutes, freeing one of her clammy hands to wipe her oily eyes on her apron every few seconds.

Lumi smiled and chattered with the robots as the group made their way to the entrance of the estate. Just outside the gate, however, she stopped.

“M-Magnus?” Lumi began to shake a little. “What was that? The darkness, I mean?”

Magnus had just opened his mouth to reply when the twins jumped in front of him and both began talking loudly.

 “You can’t tell her--”

“--Lady Ellingham wanted to keep the secrets from them until--”

“--if we tell her--”

“--do you really expect her to keep a secret?”

“Enough!” Magnus pushed past Roxann and Barnaby and knelt so that he was at eye level with Lumi. “I can’t tell you much,” he said. “But I can tell you this: it will not hurt you. If you stay away from it. Do you understand?”

Lumi nodded.

“Okay.” Magnus clapped Lumi on the shoulder. “Let’s walk up to the Manor. You’re probably starving.”

“I am.” Lumi pushed the gate open and began to walk. She led the way at first, but she soon lagged behind Magnus. Barnaby came alongside and gave Lumi what was supposed to be a fierce look.

“You are not to ruin Lady Ellingham’s plan,” he hissed.

“I w-won’t.” Lumi had no earthly idea what the robot was talking about.

“If I hear that you’ve so much as whispered to someone else about what you’ve seen,” Barnaby said, straightening up to his full height of three and one half feet, “I’ll take you out of the running.”

Lumi kept walking, but her mind froze. She nodded without thinking as Barnaby smiled and caught up with Roxann. 

Lumi stared out at the grounds. Several hundred feet away, near the carriage house, Lady Ellingham was talking to someone -- Quill, perhaps? The birds still sang, the sun still shone, and the waves still lapped at the lake shore, but Lumi felt as if she had just swallowed dry ice. Her stomach was cold, frost was forming on her brain.

Barnaby was the murderer.

“Finished,” Queen breathed, sliding the dumbwaiter’s service panel back into place.

“Are you sure it works?” Pygmy asked.

“No,” Queen said. “You wanna give it a try?”

“No,” Pygmy admitted. Surprisingly, her plan had gone off without a hitch -- it was fixing the dumbwaiter that was the tricky bit. Queen and Pygmy had sneaked up to Lady Ellingham’s worksite while Quill babbled about an engineering class she had taken at school. Unsure about what tools they would need, Pygmy had simply grabbed an entire toolbox and ran. The two sleuths made their way back up to their cupboard hideout without running into anyone and had spent the last several hours fixing the dumbwaiter. This had mostly consisted of trying every tool on every piece of machinery that looked broken or worn, but through trial and error, the girls (mostly Queen, with Pygmy offering moral support and handing out the tools) had managed to repair the dumbwaiter. 

“Ready for a test run?”

“Yes.” Pygmy pressed the down button on the wall’s control console and hopped into the compartment, closing the dirty glass door behind her.

“How far down will we go?” Pygmy asked.

“I’m not sure,” Queen said. “To the kitchen, most likely, and that’s in the basement.”

After waiting for a minute, the dumbwaiter had not yet started.

“Do we hop out?” Pygmy asked.

“Maybe.” Queen had just pushed the glass door open when the dumbwaiter gave a loud groaning noise and began to descend.

Queen and Pygmy cheered before remembering that they might be heard inside the walls. After that, they remained quiet as the dumbwaiter rumbled down, past several more cupboards with glass doors and rickety chairs. 

“We did it,” Queen squealed.

As if on cue, the dumbwaiter ground to a halt.

“Is this the basement?” Pygmy asked.

“No, it can’t be. See there? That light’s coming in through a window, and the basement has no windows.”

Queen jumped out of the dumbwaiter and tried to get it to lower, but her attempts were fruitless. It was almost as if the dumbwaiter had hit something in the shaft and couldn’t get through it.

“Ah, well,” Pygmy sighed. “Come on, let’s go back up.”

“No,” Queen replied, looking out through the cupboard’s open door at the room beyond.

“What are you looking at?” Pygmy stepped out of the dumbwaiter.

“Everything,” Queen whispered, and walked into the room, with Pygmy right on her heels.

The girls felt as if they had stepped into a chapel. The walls were decorated with a black and white camouflage wallpaper. Ornate paintings lined the walls. Several mechanical devices sat on a table. A very large and comfortable-looking canopy bed was the room’s centerpiece. The girls turned around and around, trying to take the whole room in and failing. This room was not like the other odd rooms in the Manor, where things had been put only to be forgotten about as they slowly disintegrated. There was no dust in this room; someone must have been here, and recently. There was a record player in one corner with a large collection of records. A tapestry of a tree -- the Ellingham family tree -- was spread across one wall. The room had no lamps or chandelier. The only light came from the windows, a pale, white light that added to the room’s quiet, heart-breaking beauty.

Queen walked slowly over to the tapestry, not daring to make a sound. She felt as if the room would shatter into a million pieces if she made any sort of noise. As she approached the family tree, she realized that the wallpaper was not black and white camouflage; it was hundreds of thousands of photographs, pasted to the walls and ceiling. On the floor lay a camera that doubtless had taken these photographs. Walking along the wall and leaving the family tree and Mr. Guillermo behind, Queen saw pictures of a young girl and a young boy with a man and woman, a family. The young girl was most definitely Flora. She had had that joyful glint in her eyes, even as a child. There were portraits of the family, dressed up and staring intently at the camera, and photos of the family playing croquet, all smiling. Flora and… her mother. Queen had trouble imagining that Flora had ever had a mother. Flora and her mother looked very happy, smiling candid smiles with their hair down. Pictures of Flora with a man who could only be her father, pictures of Flora and -- was that a brother? Queen smiled; she had never imagined Flora’s family. If they were half as pleasant and interesting as Flora, then they must have been lovely people. 

Then came a photo that was mostly black. It appeared to have been taken on a rainy day. Flora stood alone, clothed all in black, wearing a dress and veil that made her look much more mature than she really was.

Queen, looking to her right and realizing that Flora’s family did not appear in the photos after this image, realized with a pang what must have happened.

A jaunty tune started playing. Pygmy had put on one of the records and had just noticed the photos too. She stared, entranced.

There were many photos of Flora, by herself. The candid photos were gone; these were all formal portraits. Except for one. Two small, silver figures stood awkwardly, their heads cocked.

Barnaby and Roxann.

There was a long stretch of photos of the twins alone. A picture of Roxann washing clothes. Barnaby holding a tray with a calling card on it. The two of them together in very fancy clothing.

Magnus now joined the photos. All of his portraits seemed to be taken outside. Wearing a long, brown coat, Queen watched as Magnus grew a vegetable garden and tended to rose bushes.

Inventions, the lake, Lady Ellingham and a man--

Queen stopped. Flora looked pained in this image; so did the man. That was the only picture of them. Soon another woman appeared, and the images of the robots were mostly forgotten.

The largest photograph yet was of Flora and this woman in matching bridal dresses in the garden. They smiled at each other. Behind them were Magnus and the twins, dressed as if for a -- a wedding.

The robots, Flora, and the woman were all together now. Not since two walls ago had Lady Ellingham looked so happy. The woman’s name was Cordelia, according to an image cut from a newspaper. Cordelia Ellingham.

Another large photograph. This one was of a great many women, all gathered on a staircase. Some of the faces looked familiar to Queen -- she might have read about them in a history textbook -- but her eye was drawn to Flora and Cordelia, who were smiling broadly along with a very tall woman.

The jolly little tune came to an end. There was the soft sound of wood scraping on wood as Pygmy opened a desk and found letters, sorted by sender and year. She pulled one out (from a Ms. Mariella Shropshire) and began to read.

Queen, however, was more interested in this group of women. There were lots of pictures of the group, mixed in now with pictures of inventions. The women at a picnic. The women at a grand theater. The women waving from the windows of train carriages. Another photo of Flora was captioned “Congratulations on your admittance into the LLL. May your time here be legendary. -D”.

And then, the group -- the LLL? -- was gone. It was just Flora, Cordelia, and the robots again. Everyone looked older and older as the pictures spread across the door and onto the fourth wall.

And then Cordelia, too, was gone. Another picture of Lady Ellingham in black.

And then she was back with young Flora and her family. Back at the start.

Tears had streamed down Queen’s face without her knowing. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve as Pygmy finished reading a letter.

“...I hope that the case I’ve made as to why you should go through with this is convincing. Hope you’re well. -M.”

“What is “this”?” Queen mused, finding more tears in her eyes.

“Search me. M, whoever they are, doesn’t mention.” Pygmy solemnly put the letter back in its envelope and closed the drawer.

“I had no idea-”

“A-ha! You can't run now!”

The girls spun round to see Barnaby, holding a photograph in his hand.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Queen muttered.

Toppy toppy top!

~Night~ 

Chapter Twelve

“And Then There Were Five”

Barnaby stared at the detectives. The detectives stared at Barnaby.

“What are you two doing here?” the robot finally asked.

PygmyOwl and QueenOfWolves did not respond. They both knew that they should run, but somehow their legs seemed glued to the floor. From where she stood, Pygmy could see that Barnaby was holding a photograph of the overturned carriage. From where she stood, Queen could see that behind Barnaby was a familiar hallway. She realized that the locked door she had come across on her second night was the same one that Barnaby had just burst through.

“When Lady Ellingham hears about this, she’ll be sorry she ever invited you here. And you’ll be sorry you ever heard of Ellingham Manor.”

“What is going on here?” Pygmy had suddenly found a voice -- not her voice, which was clear and firm, but a quiet, shallow voice. “Clearly this is not just a vacation.”

“It’s more than you could possibly imagine. I knew this was a bad idea, I warned Lady Ellingham.”

“Barnaby, we’re sorry--”

“You’re sorry?” Barnaby’s voice was much deeper and rougher than it usually was. He looked from Pygmy to Queen as if they might pounce on him at any second. “You’re sorry? Being sorry does nothing for anybody. If Lady Ellingham had just been sorry that she had to leave the League of Legendary Ladies because of what happened with the collaboration--”

Barnaby shut his mouth with what seemed to be a great effort. The pressure of keeping all of these secrets had clearly taken its toll on him, and was taking a toll on him now. His entire body shook so violently that a dreadful clattering noise rang out from somewhere inside of him and he dropped the photograph.

The robot took a single step forward.

“Go!” Almost before Barnaby’s foot had made contact with the floor, Pygmy and Queen dashed across the Memory Room and towards the servants’ cupboard. After a moment of stunned indecision, Barnaby chased after them. Pygmy clambered into the dumbwaiter just as Queen pressed the UP button and Barnaby entered the room. The dumbwaiter shuddered and began to move. 

“This isn’t the end!” Barnaby was pounding on the glass door. “I’ll find you, no matter where you go!” He continued to shout, but his epithets were soon drowned out as the CBers sped away. The detectives sat in an all-consuming silence for several minutes. There was so much that they had just discovered -- the Memory Room, Cordelia, the LLL, the League that Barnaby had mentioned, whatever on earth the “collaboration” was -- that they could not even begin to discuss their evening adventure.

“The dumbwaiter,” Pygmy breathed. “Barnaby might be waiting for us at the top.”

“Or someone else,” Queen added. “For all we know, Roxann and Magnus are in on this too.”

“No,” Pygmy said. “No, not Magnus.”

“He could very well be.” Queen told Pygmy all about what had happened with Magnus’s suit of armor disguise and what he had said about not being as nice as they seemed.

Pygmy stared in disbelief. “Not Magnus, too.”

“That doesn’t matter right now. We need to make sure we aren’t caught.” Queen looked around. The dumbwaiter was small, and the girls had not carried anything with them on their expedition.

The service panel. Queen reached a hand up and fumbled around in the darkness. Eventually she heard a quiet shifting noise. She pushed and the panel slid off. It would be a tight fit, but they could manage.

As quickly and quietly as possible, Queen squeezed out onto the top of the dumbwaiter. She helped to pull Pygmy through. The dumbwaiter shaft was only a bit lighter than the dumbwaiter itself -- the glass doors helped to illuminate it a little.

“Do you think it’ll work?”

“I don’t know,” Queen admitted. “But it’s worth a shot.”

The dumbwaiter began to shudder again and slowed until it finally came to a stop. Pygmy and Queen tried their best not to breathe. Their silence, however, was unwarranted. Barnaby, or anybody for that matter, was nowhere to be seen. 

The girls exited the dumbwaiter and walked out into the hallway.

“Which way do we go?” Queen asked.

“It doesn’t matter much in the end,” Pygmy said. “As long as we keep moving, we should be safe.”

The detectives went left.

Night came and went, and the next morning was still foggy. Luminescence sat alone in her bedroom. She had made the beds and opened the windows to get some fresh air, but the room still felt stuffy. Lumi decided to take a walk. She brushed her teeth and took a bath, only to realize that she had no proper clothes left; they had all fallen into the abyss. She put her pajamas back on and looked all around, just in case she had left something on the floor or under the bed. Her eyes fell on the wardrobe. Of course! She had never opened the wardrobe -- things had been too busy -- and although the chances of finding clothing in there were low, it was worth a shot.

A long plaid coat, a bowler hat, and several moths greeted her as she threw the doors open. The coat wasn’t ideal, but it was her only option as far as she could tell. She would ask Magnus later if there was anything else she could wear. The coat was fuzzy and heavy -- perfect for the cold weather. Lumi examined herself closely in the mirror that was inset into one of the doors. The coat was cut for a masculine figure, and was a tad large, but she looked quite nice in it. Lumi stuck her hands in the large pockets, forgetting all about Barnaby’s threat from the previous day and striking a pose. She quickly forgot about that pose when she felt something sticky and furry in one of the pockets. She pulled her hands out and screamed, looking around for the perpetrator of such an uncomfortable crime. It turned out to be a fake mustache, adhesive on one side and hairy on the other. Lumi checked the other pocket, but there was nothing. She ended up deciding to throw it behind the wardrobe, where it could socialize with some dust bunnies. Lumi noticed as she tossed the mustache behind the heavy wardrobe that the floor was not dusty. Unfortunately for her, she did not notice the arrowheads that were just a few inches above her head.

 In a few moments, Lumi was walking down the hall in the heavy coat and her slippers. It was not an ideal combination, but it would certainly do.

Presently Lumi met up with Nyx, who ran around a corner and came to a sudden stop, all without catching her breath.

“Hello,” Lumi said cheerily. “You’re a pretty good runner.”

“Thank you,” replied Nyx, bending over to tie her shoelace. “I take track and field.”

“Oh, so do I! I’m not great at it, but I do well enough. Once at the Regional Championships--”

Nyx wasn’t listening. She was staring at Lumi’s coat.

“Where’d you find that?” she asked.

“In the wardrobe, in my room. It’s a very nice coat.”

“Yeah. It is.” Nyx’s eyebrows were raised so high that they were almost lost in her hair. “I had better run. I’ll see you later.”

“Sure thing.” Lumi and Nyx went their separate ways.

The grounds were cold, but oddly beautiful. Lumi walked along the lake shore and saw what she thought was a boathouse over on the other side of the lake. She walked by the hedge maze and touched the rough leaves of the maze wall. And she walked past the balcony at the back of the house and saw that both Quill and Darkling had fallen off into positions too uncomfortable to be natural, as Barnaby stood on the balcony and let out a suspiciously brummagem scream.

Hello, my dears! It's been a while; I just wanted to let you know that this story is not dead. I've been really busy with schoolwork for the past several weeks, but it looks like should be smooth sailing from here on out. As a token of my appreciation for you, dear readers, I have this illustration of the Memory Room, drawn by the same friend of mine who created the Roxann and Barnaby image! Thank you all for being so great, I love you guys <3

Can you delete the characters in the bottom left of the illustration, then resubmit it, please?

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