Looking through the space where the books used to be, she saw something behind it. Tilly stacked her books onto the desk, then took out four more and saw it was some kindof statue—a bronze cross with a large rose painted in the center. Reaching through to grab it, she discovered there was something attached to it.
After removing more books, she found the statue was fixed to a wooden paneled door. Tilly tried pulling the cross but it didn’t budge. Running her fingers over it, she encountered a hook-like shape at the back. Tilly wiggled it until it moved, then watched as the panel swung open.
There were still shelves blocking the way, so after removing all the books, she then searched for another lever and found it under the lowest shelf. The hair on the back of her neck rose as she watched it swing open.
What was in there, and did she want to go in and find out?
“This is your club, Matilda, so you must.”
After the lecture, Tilly picked up the lamp, then stepped through the opening.
The walls were close on both sides, which wasn’t comfortable, but it was the prospect of thick ropes of cobwebs that bothered her the most. She loathed them. Raising the lamp, she walked down the narrow passage. Upon reaching the end, Tilly came to two sets of stairs. One went up, the other down.
“Up,” she decided and began the climb. At the top, she came to a small wooden platform and another door.
She had no wish to terrify whoever, if anyone, was on the other side, so she tapped softly. There was no reply, so Tilly knocked louder. Still nothing.
The door had a bolt. Lowering the lamp, she attempted to move it, but it was rusted and stuck. She set the lamp down, and, using both hands, Tilly tugged harder. It suddenly made a screeching noise and slid.
With her heart thudding hard inside her chest, Tillygrabbed the handle and was about to turn it when it started moving.
Snatching hers back, she thought about fleeing, and then it opened, and a familiar, unwelcome face was staring back at her.
“What the bloody hell are you doing in there?”
CHAPTER 5
Ambrose stared at the woman standing in the doorway. She looked as if she’d seen a ghost. Tilly was shaken, which wasn’t a look she wore often.
“Well?” he demanded. His heart had nearly stopped beating when he heard the footsteps coming from the wall on the opposite side of the room.
He’d left Charles with his coffee and gone to one of the smaller parlors to write a note. Ambrose had no wish to attend his appointment now, so he was putting it off until tomorrow.
A gentle tapping had him investigating a bookshelf. After removing the books, he’d studied the space behind and saw what looked to be a door. It had moved, and then he was face-to-face with Tilly.
“I want an answer,” he snapped at her with more force than was likely necessary, but his heart was still thudding far too hard inside his chest, and Ambrose never dealt well with the unexpected. Especially if it included someone he knew or cared for suffering. “How did you come to be standing on the other side of that wall?”
“I don’t have one,” she said glaring back at him.
He frowned at her. “One what?”
“An answer.” He could see the fear in her eyes through the narrow opening of the shelf.
“What has happened?”
“Nothing. Goodbye, my lord.” She tried to swing the door shut, but he forced a hand through the opening and stopped her.
“What’s going on, Tilly?”
She looked at him again, and he could see she was calculating whether or not to tell him. She hadn’t taken him to task for calling her Tilly, which told him how unsettled she was.
“I don’t know what’s going on. I was downstairs in a room, investigating, and found this statue behind a bookshelf and a lever that opened it. Then I walked into what appeared to be a secret passage and ended up here, at your silly club.”
“Why is my club silly but not yours?”
“I don’t have time to bandy words with you through a bookshelf, Lord Talbot.” Her eyes moved left and right as she examined the shelving. “Besides, were anyone to hear a woman’s voice in the hallowed walls of your club, it would be sacrilege.”
She attempted to shut the door again, but as he was still holding it, it didn’t budge.
