Page 57 of An Outlaw’s Desire

Steps took them higher into the keep.

“We are not far from the great hall.” Pitt lowered the torch and gestured ahead. “The guest chambers are in that direction.”

A shiver crawled through her. Not long after she’d first arrived at the fortress, Lord Montgomery had reprimanded some of the squires for going into the tunnels to spy on the wards while they’d undressed.

As though reading her mind, Pitt said: “I only spied once, on a dare. I did not feel right about it, so I never did it again. Come. We will take the passageway I used before to get out of the castle.”

As he lifted the torch again and strode forward, light winked a short distance down the corridor.

How odd. All she saw was stone wall.

“Hold,” she said.

“Blythe—”

“Take a few steps back. Move the torch again, will you?”

“Why?”

“I saw a flash of light.”

Pitt did as she’d asked. No glint of light.

“Move forward a bit and try again.”

He took a small step forward then tilted the burning reed. Again. Again.

There.

She hurried to the wall. A section of mortar the length of her small finger was missing. Something was concealed behind the stone. Impossible to see exactly what, though.

Pitt reached her side. “I saw the glint too—as though the torchlight shone on metal.”

“Aye. We have to find out what ’tis.”

“It must wait.”

Shaking her head, she looked up at him. “What if ’tis lost treasure?”

“If so, then for now, ’tis safest left the wall.”

“What if someone else—?”

“We have no means to carry riches if we should find some.”

True. Still, excitement and urgency tangled up inside her.

“We will tell Lord Montgomery.” Pitt held out his hand to help her rise. “He will decide how and when to retrieve whatever is behind—”

A scuffling noise sounded from down the passageway.

Pitt let go of her fingers and swung the torch in the direction of the noise.

A man in a long cloak emerged from the shadows.

Blythe froze, hardly able to breathe, as light touched his face.

Sherborne.