She ignored him and bent down to feel under the lip of the mantel. Her pulse galloped. “There is something here.”
He came closer, his shoulder brushing hers. “Let me see. Some kind of lever,” he said after a moment. He wrestled with it. “It’s stiff.”
She held her breath.
“Ah, yes, that’s got it.” He pulled it all the way down. Noiselessly, a door opened, taking a dozen rows of bookshelves with it.
He turned to her, his eyes alight with the anticipation she felt. “I should have paid more attention to my father.”
Olivia stared into the small room at the dust-laden table and chair. The smell of the ages drifted out with the powerful odor of vermin, which she tried to ignore. A passage led off, which looked decidedly uninviting.
“I’ll see where it goes.” He lighted a candle in the silver candlestick on the mantel. One foot in the doorway, he turned back to her. “I don’t expect you to join me if you’d rather not.”
“I shall, my lord.” With a shiver of excitement, she stepped in after him. She wasn’t about to stand back and wait for his return.
“Stay behind me.”
They crossed the small room.
“Who would have spent time in such an unpleasant place?” she asked, her voice sounding hollow.
“Those with a need to hide.” When he entered the passage, she glanced behind her. Would the door close and shut them in? She shivered and hurried to catch up with him.
Cobwebs hung from the low ceiling like a wispy curtain. Redcliffe had to stoop slightly, the ceiling an inch above his head. Fearing it would be airless, she took a deep breath of dry, dusty air.
They trod carefully in the half-dark, the candle held aloft in Redcliffe’s hand as they moved deeper into the recesses of the house.
She batted away a cobweb. “Where do you think this leads?”
“Somewhere near the kitchen, perhaps.” He paused and turned to her. His face, illuminated by the candlelight, revealed his approving grin. “Shall we find out? Or do you want to go back?”
She rubbed her arms. “We’ve come this far. We may as well go on.”
With a soft laugh, he continued along the dark, narrow passage.
What would they find? Had she been too hasty in wanting to come? She swallowed the dust in her mouth. Growing a little desperate, she resisted hanging onto his coat.
“All right there?” he asked, aware of her discomfort.
She firmed her lips on a complaint. “Of course.”
His chuckle made her frown. He enjoyed this too much.
A set of steps came into view through the gloom. They led upward, not down to the lower floor, as he’d suggested.
“Not intended for the servants’ use.” He put a foot on the step. “I trust these wooden treads aren’t rotten.”
The steps creaked under his weight. She followed, her skirt stirring a cloud of dirt and dust. They safely reached the top. The passage led in a northerly direction.
Olivia sneezed and pulled out her handkerchief to blow her nose. She couldn’t stop as he didn’t, and she didn’t want to lose sight of him.
“All right there?” he asked, looking over his shoulder. “Not frightened?”
“No, my lord.” Olivia didn’t have the breath to be outraged at his assumption she was too delicate to cope. Right now, she’d agree with him. She gasped, longing for fresh air. “How horrid if one was trapped in here alone.”
“Mm. Never fear, there is a reassuring absence of skeletons.”
She bit her lip, tempted to poke him in the back.
