Chapter 3
Polaris glanced at the passage lying beside Hoku's notes.
"I can show you a garden very like this one," he said. "White tulips and a path. I've spent some time comparing it with Barret's accounts, though I've never managed to complete any of the journeys they describe."
"Wait—is it part of the grounds?" Hoku asked.
"The way into it opens at the back of the hall. There are preparations to make first, or I would have shown you when we came downstairs."
Hoku put down the pencil. He had been trying to discover whether anyone had visited the place at all; Polaris was offering to take him to its entrance.
"I'd like to try the road first," he said. "I haven't been farther than the steps. There may be someone in the village who can help."
"I'll come with you."
Polaris returned the letter to the notebook and stood up.
"I've walked that road in both directions and always found myself back here. But I won't ask you to stay on my word alone."
Hoku left his notes on the desk and accompanied him upstairs.
They went out through the front entrance and down the gravel approach. From the gate, he could see the road extending beside the estate wall, with open land on the opposite side.
Polaris released the latch and held the gate while Hoku stepped onto the road.
He chose the direction from which he remembered approaching the house. Somewhere along it there ought to be a junction, and farther on the first of the houses he had passed.
Dust lay in the wheel ruts, and the road rose gradually ahead of them. Hoku kept near its edge, looking farther on for something familiar. Polaris walked beside him without suggesting another course.
The road ahead opened onto the gravel drive, which led straight to the manor's front steps. Hoku slowed to a stop and looked back the way they had come.
The open gate stood at the far end. Past the bars, the road continued in the same direction they had only just been walking.
"How did we get back inside?" he asked. "We didn't go through the gate."
"I've gone the other way as well, and across the fields. Sometimes I can walk much farther than we just did. Sooner or later, I find myself coming up this drive again."
'Wasn't the wall on our left the whole way? Even if the road had curved around the estate, I should still be outside the grounds. Besides, I would have noticed if we'd passed through the gate…'
Polaris was quiet for a moment.
"There is one reason I still use the garden. I prepared the entrance once for another traveller. He followed the path into the garden, and I watched from the doorway until I could no longer see him. I had hoped he might eventually return with some account of what lay farther on."
His expression had grown a little subdued.
"He never did; most of what I know about the garden still comes from the papers downstairs."
. . .
They made their way back into the house. Instead of entering the parlour, Polaris continued along the hall and brought Hoku to its rear end.
The same dark panelling covered the wall before them.
"This is where the entrance opens," he said. "We'll have to burn the research collection before I can prepare it."
Hoku furrowed his eyebrows. "The notebooks we've been reading?"
"Those, and the papers belonging to them. I've kept them separate from the other books."
"The newspaper said somebody took Barret's manuscripts into the parlour and burnt them. Could that have been what they were trying to do?"
"It may have been. Barret called it an attack on his research, but that tells us very little about the person responsible." Polaris started back along the hall with him. "I've carried out the preparations myself and seen the entrance open. That is how I was able to help the traveller leave."
Hoku followed him into the parlour, still considering what he had said.
"Did you keep copies of all the notebooks?"
"The collection downstairs is the one I burnt. The drawers were empty when I checked them afterwards. When I next needed the manuscripts, I found them inside."
Polaris drew a chair out from the table and sat.
"I recognised a sheet I had torn and repaired. The numbers I'd put on the loose pages were there too, but, I haven't discovered precisely how they returned."
Hoku took the chair closest to him.
'His repair was still on the sheet… Had the whole collection been restored as he left it? If that could happen to the papers, perhaps the condition of the house wasn't so different. But Polaris had never seen the rooms burnt out…'
He rubbed his forehead. There was little he could do with that possibility while the manuscripts were still in the study and the entrance remained hidden.
"I'd like some more time with the accounts before we begin," he said. "There are passages I want to keep. Would copies have to be destroyed as well?"
"You may keep whatever you write down. I have a good many notes of my own, and they've never prevented the entrance from opening. It is the collection Barret left that has to be burnt."
Polaris leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees.
"Read what you need. I'll make sure the papers are in order, and we can have the entrance open before you decide whether to go through."
Hoku gave a small nod before following Polaris back to the study.
Upon entering the room, Cheshire had occupied the chair he had vacated. Hoku moved him onto the neighbouring seat and opened the notebook beside his notes.
He found the passage about the tulips and read past the part he had copied. Barret's questions had chiefly concerned the beginning of the journey.
'Did the writer ever leave the field? I've spent all this time reading about how he got there… There might be something farther on about the way out.'
Polaris went to fetch the crates. When he returned, a small wooden case rested inside the upper one.
"There's something else you'll need to take," he said, setting it beside the lamp. "I've been repairing this for the journey."
A pocket watch lay on the cloth inside. Polaris opened it and placed it in front of Hoku.
"The movement is sound now. I couldn't replace the glass, so you'll have to be a little careful with it."
Hoku picked it up. A crack crossed the glass, but the face beneath was clear. Small stars occupied the positions where he expected the hours, with a single slender hand extending from the centre. Portions of Roman numerals appeared through the pale surface near the edge.
"Is it still meant to tell the time?"
"It was made as a pocket watch, but it serves as a compass now."
Polaris moved the case closer.
"I would like you to take it when you leave."
Hoku examined the markings.
"Thank you. I'm afraid I wouldn't know how to read it, though."
"Cheshire knows the path through the garden. Stay near him, and keep the watch with you. He cannot make the crossing without it."
Hoku glanced at the cat, who was settling himself against the back of the chair.
"Then he'll be going with me?"
"Indeed, he will, I wouldn't send you out with nothing but those descriptions to guide you."
Hoku placed the watch back onto the cloth.
He had imagined walking through the garden as he and Polaris had walked along the road. Now he found himself considering how to keep an animal in sight amongst the flowers.
'He let me pick him up without any trouble. At least I can carry him if he decides to stop somewhere.'
"I'll put the case inside my coat then."
Polaris put the watch away and left it beside Hoku's notes.
"Finish your reading. I'll begin with the bundles you've put aside."
He laid a list of the manuscripts across the desk and checked the entries as he packed them. The catalogue and newspaper cuttings went to one side.
"You may take the reports with you," he added. "I'd like the catalogue left here. I still use it."
Hoku thanked him and placed the cuttings with his notes.
For a while, he read while Polaris sorted the collection. A reference sometimes led him to another sheet, which Polaris found amongst the checked papers. Hoku kept the accompanying letters beside the passages they concerned and copied what he wanted before returning them.
When he finished with the garden account, he read through his notes once more. The correspondent's admission that he had copied the description was there, together with Barret's questions and the details of the path.
He folded the newspaper cuttings around the pages he had written.
"That's all I wanted to keep."
Polaris checked the final notebook and placed it in the larger crate. He gathered the loose sheets belonging to it, then set his list on top.
"Would you bring the other?" he asked, lifting the crate. "We'll put them beside the hearth."
Hoku slipped his notes and the watch case into separate inner pockets of his coat before picking up the smaller crate.
Cheshire jumped down from the chair and went ahead of them up the stairs.