Page 34 of Mistress of Darkness

Far below, he heard the rug land with a thump. In the sudden silence, he gasped for breath and heard Gwen cough. Regina only sobbed.

“Heavens,” Gwen said at last, “Regina.” She staggered to her feet. “Robert, do you still have your pen knife?”

In short order, Robert cut Regina’s bonds as Gwen untied the gag.

“Sister,” Regina cried, and fell into Gwen’s arms.

“Regina, are you all right?” Gwen sobbed. “I thought I would never see you again.”

Robert left the two women as they reunited and tried the door again. The knob was old but quite strong and the door itself thick. Short of a key, it wouldn’t be opening without a great deal of effort. He next went to the window and looked down. It was far too high to jump, nor were there any handholds that could be used to scale the face of the building. He gazed out into the fog. There had to be a way to get help.

“He forced me to write that awful letter to you,” Regina was saying, when he returned to them. She was using her gag to wipe her nose and eyes. “All this time I thought that at any moment he’d kill me. Oh, Gwen, it was horrible. I cried every night.”

“I heard you,” Gwen said quietly. Tenderly she hugged her sister and rubbed her back, but then she went still. She pulled back and looked at Robert. “What did I say?” She blinked. “I said I heard her!”

“The courtesan,” Robert said, stealing a glance to his dressing room. “The earring.”

In an instant, they’d both crossed to the small room. “It has to be here,” Gwen murmured.

“What does?” Regina asked from the bedchamber. Robert heard her struggle to her feet and come to the door.

“You,” Gwen said, even as Robert answered, “A secret door.”

Frantically, Gwen moved her fingers across the walls as he did the same. Robert knew from the one they’d found in the library that it wouldn’t be easy to find. “We must use a plan and go in order,” he said, “or we’re sure to miss it.”

“I don’t think it’s on this wall,” she said, seeming not to have heard him. She looked at the end of the small room where a cabinet for his clothes stood. “Robert, can you move that clothes press?”

With a great deal of effort, he managed to pull one corner of the heavy furniture away from the wall. Gwen slipped behind it and uttered a quick gasp. “It’s here.”

“Gwen, wait for me,” he called to her. “Let me go first. We don’t know where–” But he heard the telltale scrape of the revolving door. “Regina,” he said turning back to her. “Can you fetch the candle from next to the bed?”

When she returned with the lit candle, Robert took it from her. “Gwen, you may as well come out so I can go first, because I am not going to give this candle to you.”

As he and Regina exchanged a look, a chagrined Gwen finally emerged. “I was going to let you go first.” She went to her sister and held her around the shoulders.

Behind the clothes press, the passageway was the same height as the one they’d found in the library, and equally dark and dirty. But unlike that one, the dust appeared undisturbed.

“I don’t think anyone has been in here for some time,” Robert said, lifting the candle.

They’d only gone a few yards when the narrow corridor opened up into a small room. But when Robert saw what lay on the floor, he tried to keep the ladies back.

“No, Gwen,” he said and tried to block her view, but it was too late.

“Oh no,” she whispered.

Robert nodded. “I’m afraid so.”

There on the floor was the body—or what used to be the body—of a small woman. Only bones and rotted cloth remained, but she had clearly been wearing a long dress and fine boots. Robert lowered the candle to the body and saw traces of red lace in the clothing. Around the bones of the neck, he saw the soft glow of a string of pearls. In fact, the more he looked, the more tiny glints of jewelry he could see.

“Robert, that earring,” Gwen said pointing. “I think it’s…”

He picked it up and handed it to her. It was the exact match of the one he’d dug out of the wall. “You were right.”

Regina put a shaking hand to her chest. “How can you two be so calm about this? Why are you picking jewelry off a corpse? It’s positively hideous.”

“I’m sorry, Regina,” Gwen said, going to her. “It’s just that we are finally meeting Miss Wilson, a courtesan and guest of the original owner of the hall, Mr. Thorne.”

“Who?” her sister asked, turning away from the gruesome sight.