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“Thank you,” said Clarissa. “I’m sure we will all rise to the occasion as required, and remember that any concern we feel should not be transmitted to the boys. They must not be made afraid.”
As they filed out of the office, Diana thought, If only Clarissa could order me not to be afraid.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
JULIET
2018
Juliet would never have expected she could be so thrilled about what was, essentially, a hole in the ground. She chalked that up to Noah, who understood and pointed out the details that made this particular hole unique.
“See the remains of the dressed stones?” He shone his high-powered flashlight down, tracing the outline of what looked like a squared-off stone to her. The light moved on. “And the absolute confirmation—steps.”
Juliet rolled her eyes. “They look more like a ladder. A crumbly, medieval-ly ladder.”
“Trust me—anything that’s survived this long is stronger than it looks.”
“Go on, then. Show me how strong it is,” she dared him.
Noah eyed her mockingly. “Don’t tell me you’re not the least bit curious about what’s down there. You’re the one who got me involved, remember? Is it the dark you don’t like, or the enclosed space?”
“I’m not especially claustrophobic, no, but that doesn’t mean I want to go exploring without proper precautions.”
“Which would be?”
Juliet thought of the things Duncan would be saying to her right now—barbed comments about … just about anything, really. He’d never been consistent in his criticisms. One day he’d attack her for being overcautious and the next for being too reckless. She had learned to calculate her choices depending on what she thought Duncan would attack her for. Long ago she’d stopped wondering what she herself wanted.
Faced with a man whose expression was pure curiosity, and with the opening of a medieval tunnel at her feet, Juliet found herself saying, “I suppose I am lighter than you. Fine, I’ll test these so-called steps. But I’m not going out of sight of this opening.”
“Fair.”
It was more thrilling than she wanted to admit. She went down sideways, keeping one hand on the packed earth wall and the other on the irregularly sized stone steps as she eased her way down. Thanks to Noah’s preparation, she wore a headlamp to give her light.
It wasn’t as far down as she’d feared, which she supposed made sense. If one had to hack out a tunnel of any sort in the days before power tools, one wouldn’t want to go any deeper than they had to. Her feet hit ground after twenty steps. “I’m down,” she called.
“What do you see?”
Juliet turned her head carefully, adjusting the light as she went. “It definitely looks like a tunnel,” she reported. “Just one.” She oriented herself to the layout of the chapel above and added, “It’s heading away from the house. North, I think.”
“Nice. A crawling tunnel, or a walking one?”
“I don’t think you could stand upright. I maybe can if it stays the same size. It’s awfully narrow though. Might have to turn sideways.”
“How far can you see down the tunnel?”
“I’m a historian, not a surveyor. I don’t know—ten feet?”
“All right. Come back up now and we can make plans to explore more thoroughly.”
She tipped her head back as she began to climb and halfway up turned off the headlamp so as not to blind Noah. In the sudden dimming, her eyes adjusted. Juliet froze four steps from the top, staring not at Noah’s square jaw and steady eyes but over his shoulder at the pale, shimmery outline of a woman in long skirts. As Juliet watched, the woman crouched and slid an illusory grave slab over the opening.
Juliet yelped, and Noah’s voice cut through the fog. “What’s wrong?”
She blinked and all was normal. “Nothing,” she said automatically, and finished her climb.
Noah showed her how the grave slab moved so easily. Although it appeared from above to be the same thick granite as the others, that was only on the edges. Much of it had been hollowed out inside, leaving edges that made it possible for someone to push against and move the slab from below.
Inside, they shed their coats and boots and, after checking the time, Juliet offered him a drink. “We’re not expected at Rachel’s for another hour, right?”
