At last Dot is going to get a look inside the mysterious Fernbank Cottage – the home of Giles Langton the funny inventor. But first – she ‘s got to get in..!
Fernbank Cottage. Dot had never seen a house like it in her life. It was like something from Disneyland – only even stranger!
Mind you, at first it hadn’t been at all clear how they were going to get into the cottage. All they could see was the grass-covered trapdoor that Giles had come out of – and that was hardly the way in which a lady like Laetitia Langton, in her long riding dress with the pretty little top hat, could enter a house.
It was all right for the dogs, though!
“In you go, lads!” said Giles, pointing to the trapdoor.
“And lass!” said Angharad, muttering something else under her breath too which Dot couldn’t understand because it was in Welsh.
But in they all went – especially after Giles went on: “Lots of doggy treats in there!”
Giles slammed the trap door shut behind them. Once again, you really couldn’t tell it was there, even when you looked hard. Then he turned to Dot and Laetitia and Mr Holmes and bowed deeply. “Follow me, if you please!” he said.
Laetitia went first – it was always ‘Ladies First’ in those days, Dot remembered her Gran telling her. And how a man would always be on the right hand side – the “outside” - of a lady when walking on the pavement to shield her from passing coaches and horses. And to keep his “sword arm” free, in case he needed to protect her!
Anyway, it was obvious Laetitia had been before, because without stopping she walked straight up to a thick wall of bushes at the right hand end of the grassy bank, Giles following behind her, and went straight in. And disappeared!
“Come along, Dorothea!” said Mr Holmes.
“Yes, Mr Holmes” said Dot, remembering just in time not to use one of her Mum’s favourite sayings when she didn’t want to do something: “In these shoes? I don’t think so!” Not very Victorian!
“What is this, some kinda country ramble?” said Mr Mouse, waking up from his snooze and popping his whiskery little head out of his hidey hole.
Well it was in a way – not a long one though.
But, as they came up to the thick bushes where Laetitia and Giles had gone, Dot couldn’t see where they were going to get in at all! But she’d noticed Laetitia and Giles had gone into the bushes just where some little white flowers were growing on the grassy ground, so she shut her eyes and did the same.
Then it became clear that the bushes weren’t a solid wall of greenery at all! They were cleverly planted one behind the other to make a twisty-turny path, but one that you couldn’t see till you were right inside it.
“Very clever!” said Mr Holmes, following close behind her. “This fellow knows his tricks, no doubt about that!”
Almost as soon as they were in the bushes, they were out again – and turning to their left, as the path took them (though it vanished at the edge of the bushes) found themselves in another clearing. But a much narrower one, with the tall tress of the Dendringham Woods crowding up close. And stretching away to the left, there was another grassy bank, just the same as the one they’d left behind.
And of Laetitia and Giles – not a sign!
But Mr Holmes didn’t hesitate. He strode forward, and kneeling down just like he’d done before, pulled out his magnifying glass and started examining the grassy bank with his eyes narrowed, feeling over the surface and moving slowly forward on his hands and knees.
“Looks like a big old turtle in that coat, creeping along like that!” chuckled Mr Mouse (they call tortoises turtles in Canada and America. Oh… you knew that already… sorry… )
Then: “Ah-HA!” Mr Holmes went, and rapped on the ground with the handle of his magnifying glass.
To her amazement, Dot heard the grassy ground give back a dull thudding sound, as if the detective had tapped on a heavy wooden door.
And he had! Because in the next moment, Mr Holmes was sliding back towards her! As he came, he straightened up so he was kneeling more like someone in church, but with his arms folded and chuckling to himself.
“There you are!” said Giles, his curly headed seeming to pop up out of the ground in front of Mr Holmes. “What do you think of my sliding door? I heard you knocking – do come in!
So the did! The sliding door was at least two metres wide and about as deep – and it opened onto some stone steps, going down into the heart of Fernbank Cottage!
