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She reached the wide expanse of the landing and wondered in which direction to go. She chose to go left. After passing a few closed doors, she came across one that was ajar and peered inside.
Dark wood ceiling-to-floor shelves lined one side of the wall and were partially filled with leatherbound books. She stepped into the room, unsure if this was the Davenport library or not.
She didn’t know what to expect. Mrs. Keller had told her it was beautiful. Bree had said she wouldn’t be able to miss it. But on further inspection of the room with its dark, heavy furniture, a huge desk, chairs, lots of cabinets, tapestries on the other walls, and a fireplace in one corner, she had to wonder if this was indeed the library because it really did just seem like a study or something.
She glanced at the titles of the books and noted that there were some classics, some thrillers, and a couple of textbooks. Maybe this was the extent of the library after all.
She carefully reached for a copy of War and Peace, but as she stepped back to examine the book, her heel snagged the frayed rug and got stuck in the wood flooring beneath it, rendering her immobile.
She tugged her foot with all her might and had just concluded that she would need to remove her shoe if she wanted to leave when she heard a weird clicking sound.
She reached back up and replaced War and Peace with her heel still stuck, and suddenly the shelf parted, and the floor started to rotate on its axis like a revolving door. Frantic, she tried to bend to unbuckle the clasp on her shoe, but it was too late. She found herself on the other side of the unknown.
Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit.
What had she done?
“Help. Someone, please help me,” she cried, banging on the wall behind her, which had closed up so seamlessly that no one would have known it had been a door a minute ago.
What if no one found her? She was going to die here, in the dark. Some hundred years later, they would find her skeletal remains and piece together her life, and she would be known as Library Girl, the Girl Who Went and Never Came Back.
And Horse. What would happen to Horse?
She renewed her efforts to bang on the door until she saw a bright light from a flashlight coming toward her, and she really thought she had died.
“Who the fuck are you?” a voice asked. A human voice.
"Oh, thank goodness. Can you help me get back to the other side, please?”
“You’re not going anywhere,” the man said, grabbing her arm and pulling her along through the dark passage.
“Now just wait a minute. I’m not supposed to be here. I’m supposed to be at the Davenport Ball on the other side of the wall. Please, just show me the way back out.” Allison had no idea how many times she had repeated the same thing, but nothing seemed to get through to him.
“Look what I found hiding in the shadows,” the ass of a man said.
“I wasn’t hiding in the shadows, you oaf. I got here by mistake. I—”
Allison’s eyes finally adjusted to the brightly lit room and its occupants.
What the heck was happening?
“Get her on the stage. She’s already late, so she’ll have to go as she is,” an elegantly tall woman said, then waved her aside.
“Late for what?” Allison asked, bewildered.
“The virgin auction, baby girl,” the man said. “Lots of rich men out there are willing to pay you a load of money for one night of fun.”
“No. There’s a mistake. A big one. I’m here by mistake. Please, I don’t know what’s going on here, but if you just show me the way out, we can pretend this never happened. I wasn’t here.”
“You’re not a virgin?” the woman asked, her brows arching.
“I am, but that’s not—I’m not supposed to be here.”
“Can you dance?”
“Gosh, no. Sometimes I can’t even walk without tripping myself.”
Both the woman and the man smiled.
