Page 103 of A Figure of Love

“Do you judge it to be stable, Oliver?” He sounded calm and confident, like the kind of man a boy could trust.

“The wooden beams are still in place, although one is sagging. There are no piles of dirt and the air is cleaner where the corridors split.”

Gareth was once again impressed by the boy’s intelligence. “Do you think it is fresh air?”

“I think so, sir. I keep trying to remember where this part of the cave is . . . and I think it might be directly below the section you closed off.”

Gareth had been thinking the same thing. This part of the corridor was doomed, it was only a matter of time. As if hearing him, a massive chunk sheared away somewhere close by and hit the cave floor with a giant whumph!

Thick, cloying chalk dust filled his shrinking grave.

“Are you all right, sir? Mr. Lockheart?” For the first time, the boy’s voice held an edge of hysteria.

Gareth lowered his shirt, which he had pulled up over his mouth. “Oliver?”

“Yes, sir?”

“I’m going to try and widen the gap and come through.” He stopped and coughed, choking on the fine dust before he could speak again. “I want you to take the lantern and go stand at the far end, near the fork.” He hesitated, not wanting to scare the boy, but it needed to be said. “If something happens to me, do not come near this cave in. Mr. McElroy knows we are down here—or he will soon. Someone will come.”

The answer took a long time coming. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now go to the fork.”

He counted to one hundred after his little prison had gone completely dark and then he reached into the blackness, in the direction of the hole.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The tunnel is blocked by a cave in, and I could hear chunks still falling,” McElroy said. His face was streaked with sweat and dust, his skin gray and white striped.

“Did you see—”

“I saw nothing other than rocks. The air is choked with a very fine dust. Chalk, I suppose.”

Serena’s mind skittered and shied away from the unthinkable. Instead, she nodded and clasped her hands together, as if that might keep her from flying apart.

“We must unseal the other entrance, the one we passed on our way here.”

McElroy nodded. “I agree. However, we don’t know if Bardot is down there, or even if Oliver is down there. The only thing we know for sure, thanks to the presence of the dogs, is that Gareth is down there. We need to handle this with secrecy or we risk alerting anyone Bardot might have set watching.”

“Yes, of course. But what—”

He dug his watch out of his filthy coat. “It is almost four. We have been gone from the house three hours. I need to get back and be ready to go to London as planned.”

Serena could see by his expression that leaving at a time like this was almost tearing him apart. She laid a hand on his arm and he gave her a grim, knowing smile.

“We will go back to the house and take the two biggest footmen. The opening has been closed with stone blocks, but two strong men will be able to move enough of them to get inside. Or to get out.”

“That is a sensible plan. Except for one thing, I will wait by the entrance of the cave. An extra set of hands will not go unwanted.” She smiled up at him. “And I know my way around stone.”

∞∞∞

Gareth felt as though he had eaten a pound of dirt and rock. He looked at the boy, who sat against the cavern wall, his small body tense as he watched him come awake.

“I’m sorry, sir.”

Gareth could only lift his eyebrows, but it was enough.

“For disobeying you and coming back.”