The Golden Key
In this extract, Helena gathers the facts surrounding the disappearance of three sisters and meets their stepmother, who has asked her to investigate what might have happened…
The story ran as follows: In 1881 the three Matthews sisters, Maud, Alice and Flora, mysteriously vanished during a hunting weekend at their father’s newly built manor house in East Norfolk. The search that followed the disappearance centred on this new building, with its peculiarities of construction (the eccentric architect had later jumped from a tower), and also took in the members of the hunting party, the Broads’ quicksands and marshy beaches. Downham Market Horse Fair had just taken place – true, it was on the other side of the county, but nonetheless it had brought in gypsies from all over the land, crisscrossing the fens, raising fears that the girls had been kidnapped.
Helena had flinched when she had read
