They followed, running again. Once inside the house, with its maze of corridors, they could lose her. But there she was – they heard her first, those dragging footsteps. Then, hurrying, they saw her blue cloak, fair head. She pushed a huge paneled door and passed through, leaving it opens behind her. They reached it and peered in just in time to see Sarah passing through yet another on the far side of a room that was evidently part of main house. There was heavy, gleaming furniture, walls lined with gilt-farmed pictures, richly draped windows. Minty set off across it …
They were through the second door now, and into an amazing crimson. ‘Cor!’ Tom was awestruck. ‘Red Drawing Room, this is! Heard about it! Cor! Ain’t it just red?’
It was. Carpet, walls, hangings smoldered, blazed. The very air breathed red. Sarah had vanished. Minty crossed the room and came into a vast light entrance hall. There, on the great black and white diamonds of the floor, wash that small blue figure, a chess piece.
At that moment there came other footsteps, a clatter and rather. Sarah stopped in her track, Minty and Tom stiffened.