The original tunnel was dug during the 1700s, around the time the original Thornton manor's construction, it was believed that the tunnel served a direct access to the manor for resupplying, due to the spring weather preventing direct access to the manor.
With Ramsey's illness, the tunnel helped usher medicine and doctors to the manor without anyone knowing of it until he eventually died in his bed one Sunday morning, no records of his burial found, leading some into suspecting that the grieving Thorntons buried him somewhere on the property.
Despite the owners that came and went, no one ever found the body, leading some like Arthur and Hammond, to believe that Ramsey was buried in the garden, under his mother's statue.
Some think his mother came through this tunnel after she killed her husband in her delirium when Ramsey died, but it remained unknown at the time of the plaque's creation if this is true.
Over the years, changing ownership, there's been stories of the tunnel being used for more than just resupplying the manor during the spring, mistresses being escorted through the tunnel, those who disappeared at the whim of the owner for whatever reason, tantalizing stories that've been written in books.
Much of it in the book that Theodore and Lila bought from the bookstore, but there's still plenty that haven't been written down, yet.
Opportunists built their own tunnels, connecting them to the main tunnel, figuring they'd easily have an easier access to the former storage house that'd later become the library when the manor went unsold for years at a time.
After the Troubles, work started on closing off the connecting tunnels, all but leaving the main tunnel, which remained in an ambiguous situation due to the historical context, and the worry that they won't be able to fully close-off the tunnel since there's an access point at the now-mansion.
The council, taking time and effort, compromised with one of the owners into closing the access point on the mansion's side, but with the two Thorntons, they undid the closure within moments of owning the mansion.
Wide enough for them to walk without brushing against the stones, tall enough that they're able to walk without touching the ceiling, the three made their way through the straight tunnel, passing closed sections that once opened into other tunnels.
One led underneath the old pub, where workers brought in barrels of alcohol into the cellar of the pub where workers of the pub would then hook them up or put them away until needed, though there were issues of those barrels being illicit, and accusations of thefts.
Another tunnel used to lead into the former doctor's office, where shipments of medicine went to it, and there were stories of the doctors that worked in the office used the tunnel to transport the deceased.
Though impressive, it's a matter of when, the Thornton tunnel completely closes.
Their footsteps muffled by the soft dirt, the three walked, the lights posted on both sides of the wall helped them see clearly, while Hammond guided them through towards the end.
At the end of the tunnel, there's a wooden door, wide enough to allow shipments through with ease, and Hammond reached it, checking the knob, unsurprisingly, it's locked, but with some tricks he picked up, he got it open without risking the integrity of the door.
Didn't want to alarm Harold that he has unexpected guests, again.
"What're we looking for?" Lila asked Hammond while he guided them through the doorway, his eyes darkened by the lack of light this way into an opened area where workers would've brought the supplies, there's still scratch marks embedded into the stonework from crates scrapping against the ground and walls as workers brought them.
The gouged ground showed how heavy the crates were, from carefully looking at them, Theodore deduced that nothing's been brought through here for over fifty years.
As he got his bearing, looking around, Hammond answered Lila's question, telling her that if there's anything left of Uncle Irvine, she should keep an eye out for a pin.
It was a school pin, Uncle Irvine liked wearing it when he goes somewhere, it's easily identified with a crest and two swords on it, with Uncle Irvine's school on a banner underneath it.
It'll stand out against the backdrop, there'd be no mistaking it, if it's still somewhere in the mansion, if the two Harolds hadn't already thrown it away.
While it wouldn't be enough to prove foul-play, wherever they find it, it's a start.
Nodding, Lila kept that in mind while she and Theodore went with Hammond through another door at the end of the storage room.
It's a wide staircase leading up, steep, there's broken parts in the steps from years of bringing up supplies from the storage room, lack of maintenance.
Reaching the top of the steps, they're inside the mansion proper.
His icy blue eyes moving, Theodore sees they're in the family storage room, there's inserts for wine bottles, shelves for nonperishable goods, an area where casks of wine or other alcohol rested until servants retrieved their contents.
Compared to the storage room at the bottom of the staircase, everything looked pristine, not a scratch in the floor.
At the end of the room, there's another doorway with a set of staircase going up to the kitchen, though Hammond opted not to go that way, Harold's servants might linger somewhere, doing their duties.
With help, Hammond scoured the storage room, looking for a hidden passage way, since the Thorntons seemed to love them, as well as those who came after them, but it didn't appear there's any down here.
Forced to take the staircase leading up to the kitchen, the three quietly crept as the staircase led them up to another door.
It opened with ease, upon exiting, they smelled the onions sitting in a basket on the shelf, spice in the air wafting from the small bottles on the shelf above, bottles of oil, cloves of garlic hanging on hooks, and summer sausages hanging in the corner, the hidden wall exited into the kitchen closet.
Going towards the door, the three froze when they heard voices on the other side, a man, and a woman.
"I am very disappointed in you, Grace, discussing my business so freely, have I not treated you with respect?" they heard an agitated Harold talking with his maid.
Stammering, Grace pleaded with him, "I… I'm sorry, sir, I d-didn't think…"
She whimpered when Harold slapped her in the face, hard that she fell to the ground, holding her reddened face, crying.
"You were one of my best, Grace, it's a shame I must do this, but you leave me no choice. You shamed me with your actions," Harold reached for something on the counter closest to him, struck Grace, silence, before Harold dragged her away, not to the wine cellar, but somewhere outside the kitchen.
Hearing the encounter, frozen in their place, the three listened, a few minutes passed before they braved going out of the closet, the kitchen dark.
There are splotches on the floor, drag marks going through them, red.
Seeing this, Hammond's dismayed, blinking as he shook his head, his mind racing, his heart beating, he believed it was their fault, hadn't he gotten Grace involved, this wouldn't happened.
"You don't know that, Hammond," Theodore tried to hide his discomfort calling him by his last name, but tried to keep him from despairing.
They don't know for sure if it was her talking to him that caused Harold to strike at her, reminding him that there's two other guests here in the mansion.
The only other person that came to mind that Grace would've spoken with's Douglas.
While Douglas had a lot to answer for, Theodore worried that he became a victim himself, his actions wasn't something Harold would've easily overlooked.
Professor May, it's difficult, Theodore wanted to say that Harold wouldn't do the same, since he didn't do anything to incite him, but Theodore didn't want to be wrong.
"We have to do something!" Hammond sucked air through his teeth as he looked between Theodore and Lila urgently.
They couldn't let Harold take Grace away, but they also couldn't risk Harold knowing they're back in the mansion.
"We don't know if she's still alive," Lila argued that there's a chance Grace was dead the moment Harold struck her, or by the time they find her, she's already dead from trauma and blood loss.
Flinching, Hammond responded with, "What if she is?"
Chewing on his lip, Theodore struggled to come up with a plan, in the distance, he heard the familiar sound once more.
"I have an idea," Theodore began as he looked between them.
It's a gamble, but a life's on the line.
Looking at him with her chestnut eyes, Lila asks what he had in mind, and he told her that he'll lure Harold away, while Hammond and Lila looked for Grace.
Reaching into his stitched pocket, Theodore handed Lila his Sonic Screwdriver, allowing her to find her way around the hidden tunnels they've already traversed.
It's tuned to the remnants of the Manchineel fruits, they'll find the basement with ease.
"I'll find you," Theodore tells Lila and Hammond, ready to take leave and carry out his plan keeping Harold busy.
Nodding, Lila warns him, "Don't let the killer librarian get you."
Showing her his pearly whites, Theodore assures her that he'll do his best not to fall to the killer librarian.
He warned her the same, before he went through the kitchen door, while Lila and Hammond went down into the wine cellar.
At the bottom of the cellar, Lila sees the pooling wine and broken glass, at the back of the room, she sees there's casks and wooden pallets piled up against the hole that she and Theodore found on the other side.
It's an easy access into the hidden tunnel.
Hammond followed her as she went towards the hole, it hadn't been covered up, Harold hadn't had a chance of fixing it.
Crawling through the hole, Lila helped Hammond up as she looked in the direction, she and Theodore took finding the basement.
Patting down his stitched trousers, Hammond exhaled, "I'm getting too old for this!"
With the Sonic Screwdriver guiding them with its blue light, Lila and Hammond moved through the hidden tunnels.
"What idiot thought having dangerous fruits's a good idea, anyway?" Lila asked aloud the reasoning for having one of the dangerous fruits that have claimed lives over the years of its discovery.
Keeping watch for Harold as he's walking, Hammond mentioned that Arthur wondered the same thing.
People he talked with had conflicting ideas, one half believed he had fallen into a fad, using the fruits as a cure-all, while the other half believed it was an attempt to kill dissenting voices.
Not surprisingly, the owner died, but not because of the fruits.
He died in his sleep.
And.
He was also a friend of Harold Thornton the Second.