Free The Alchemist's Key by Traci Harding Page B

his query. The Baron, Lady Sinclair and Andrew were all staring back towards the stairwell, alarmed by the sounds that escaped his old ears.
    The clanking noise of the advancing soldiers started to fade, and tapered out completely by the time they would have come into view.
    ‘Is it over?’ Louisa dared to draw breath.
    Andrew nodded, placing a hand on Talbot’s shoulder. ‘My father may be old, but he’s not that old.’
    ‘Is what over? Have I missed something, Sir?’ The butler inquired of his Baron.
    ‘No, Talbot.’ Wade managed to advise calmly, with the adrenaline from the chase still coursing through his veins. ‘Sorry we got you up. We’re just going to fix ourselves a cup of coffee.’
    ‘But, Sir —’
    ‘Don’t worry Father,’ Andrew assured on his way through to the kitchen behind the others. ‘I’ll make it. You go back to bed.’
     
    The three adventurers scrambled back up to Wade’s quarters to find everything as they’d left it. According to the computer, all of two minutes had elapsed.
    ‘So now you see why we were trying to get rid of you, Louisa?’ Wade thought he’d put her mind to rest on that issue, at least.
    Louisa had taken a seat to gather her wits in the wake of their ordeal. ‘Ah, yes.’ She raised her brows in consternation, ‘and I must say your true motive had unexpected depth, Baron.’
    ‘Do you know who the man was, the one theyarrested?’ Andrew asked Wade, who shook his head. ‘Well, that was your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather, Gisborne Ashby. He was sentenced to slavery on the charge of treason, by Oliver Cromwell. I remember this because it was the only time in the history of the manor that it nearly fell out of the hands of the Ashby family.’
    ‘So how did we get it back?’ Wade took a seat beside Louisa.
    ‘Gisborne’s ship was seized by pirates, and when they discovered the galley slave was the grandson of William Ashby, whose name was then synonymous with Sir Frances Drake, they freed Gisborne and accepted him into their ranks.’
    ‘Excellent,’ Wade cheered, ‘so he became a pirate too.’
    ‘For a short time,’ Andrew explained. ‘Soon after, Cromwell died, and Charles the Second took the throne of England. As soon as the King’s restoration was completed, Gisborne was given a full pardon, and his lands and titles were restored to him. Charles wanted to increase the Ashby’s lands and title at this time, but Gisborne graciously declined. He truly had no desire to dabble in politics further, nor to try and manage more lands than suited his purpose. The Ashbyfamily have outlasted many of the higher ranking families because they have never bitten off more than they could chew.’
    ‘So Gisborne was guilty of treason, as charged?’ Wade, knowing nothing of history or politics, didn’t know whether to be proud of this or not.
    ‘You bet your bottom dollar he was,’ Andrew assured. ‘For, although Cromwell did manage to enforce peace in England, Scotland and Ireland, via a military dictatorship, his methods were harsh to say the least. He destroyed much of what was beautiful in his lands … the arts, literature and scientific study suffered terribly. This was how Gisborne was persuaded to rebel against Cromwell. In the eyes of the ruling class of the time he was doing the right thing.’ As the Baron appeared to be set at ease by this news, Andrew skipped to the next subject. ‘So, as you have now witnessed an actual event in your family history, do you still think we’re all hallucinating?’
    ‘I never really did,’ Wade confessed. ‘That was Hugh talking. None of this started till after he left, except for that first dream. If that’s what it was?’
    ‘Tell us about this dream?’ Louisa implored him.
    Now that she had recovered, Louisa considered the episode to be the most extraordinary event she’dever witnessed in all her born days. Her whole being tingled with curiosity,