What in the world?
Her eyes widened as the knock came again, this time followed by a mysterious scuttling sound. The noises seemed to be coming from the other side of the bookshelf.
Rats, perhaps?
Juliana shuddered at the thought of a rat large enough to make such a loud noise. She wasn’t a squeamish, missish sort of lady, but any sane person drew the line at rats.
She started to back slowly away, intent on putting some distance between herself and the giant rats, but then another sound met her ears. It sounded like…
A sniffle, followed by a muffled sob.
A weeping rat? No, surely not.
She was now certain the sounds were coming from behind the bookshelf, and they were so close it was as if someone was standing just on the other side of it. “Hello? Is anyone there?”
The only reply was a childish hiccup.
Juliana’s mouth fell open. Dear God, there was a child trapped on the other side of the bookshelf! There must be an alcove of some sort there. She’d heard some of these ancient Scottish castles had secret rooms and passageways.
She began pushing and pulling at anything she could reach, her hands moving frantically over the edges of the shelves, the spines of the books. There must be some sort of switch or mechanism to swing the shelf aside. She only had to find it, and—
Yes! Just there, on the edge of one of the lower bookshelves was a place where the wood was a bit more worn. She pushed her hand against it. It felt loose, as if there was nothing supporting it from behind, so she pressed harder, and all at once the entire shelf swung heavily inward.
It was as dark as pitch on the other side.
She stuck her head into the narrow opening, and a blast of cold air hit her in the face. She immediately burst into a series of violent sneezes, and the smell of must and mildew nearly knocked her back again. She paused at the threshold, uncertain what to do, but in the next instant a frightened whimper met her ears. Her eyes adjusted to the dark just in time to see a very small boy with tears running down his cheeks dart down a passageway and disappear around a corner.
“Wait!” Juliana scurried after him, her heart in her throat. The musty passageway looked like just the sort of place where every rat in the castle would hide, but she couldn’t just leave that child alone in there. Why, he’d looked terrified! There was no telling how many passages there were, either. He could be lost for hours. The poor thing would cry himself sick.
Juliana scurried after him, following the faint sound of his footsteps. She called to him once or twice, but he ran on, too frightened by now to do anything but flee. She followed him around one corner after another, and down too many narrow passages to count, but at some point, he got far enough ahead of her she could no longer hear his footsteps, and she was forced to stop.
She leaned one hand against the rough stone wall and tried to catch her breath. She waited until her heart ceased its pounding, then she looked about, squinting in the gloom.
And squinting, and squinting…was that…it almost looked like…
Oh, no. Juliana’s eyes went wide. The rats were the least of her worries. She’d been so intent on following the boy, she hadn’t realized someone else was followingher. Someone much larger and broader than she was.
Juliana held out a shaking hand as he advanced on her. “D—don’t come any closer, or I promise I’ll make you regret it!”
The man froze and raised his hands in front of him. “I’ve no doubt of that,dùr galla. I regret it already.”
Juliana let her hand drop back down to her side. The voice was deep, a little rough, and more than a little amused. She would have recognized it anywhere.
Logan Blair.
“What areyoudoing here?” She wasn’t sure whether she was comforted or alarmed by his sudden presence, and her confusion made her voice sharper than she intended.
“What amIdoing here? Well, let me see. One of the housemaids told me you hadn’t left the library all day, but when I came searching for you I found the room empty, and the door to the underground passageway open.”
He’dcome searching forher? For the past three days he’d gone out of his way to avoid her, but today, for some unknown reason, he was so anxious for her company he’d chased her into a tunnel? Juliana shook her head. It didn’t make any sense, but at least he’d returned to Castle Kinross before nightfall. She’d learned over the past few months to seize any advantage fate happened to hand her.
“I knew you must have gone through it,” he went on, “And you see, I was right. So,alainn galla, the more pressing question is, what areyoudoing here?”
Juliana frowned at the Gaelic. He often used Gaelic words when he spoke to her, and she was sure he was making fun of her. One day soon she was going to find out what all these words meant, but at the moment she had other things to worry about. “I heard a noise, and there was a child, and he was crying…”Oh, for pity’s sake. The whole story sounded so absurd, Juliana had begun to wonder if she’d imagined the entire thing.
But to her surprise, Logan seemed to know exactly what she was talking about. “A little boy?” he asked. “About six, with red hair?”
“He ran away before I could see his hair, but yes, he was very young.”
