Page 84 of The Bridal Quest

"Sweet bloody hell, but you tempt me!" he grated out. "I have only one stipulation for our marriage—that it be very, very soon!"

"I agree." Irene drew a shaky breath and smoothed her hands down her dress. "Perhaps we should return to the others before we create a scandal."

"Yes, I think you are right."

He picked up the light, and they set off again, but after a few twists and turns, he stopped and cast a look around. "I don't think this is the way we came."

She, too, had been growing uneasy for the last few yards, and she cast a look at him. "We are lost?"

"Not very," he said. "But I think we must retrace our steps."

They turned back, following the wide tunnel to where it narrowed. Within a few minutes it opened up into a larger cavern—not as large as the expanse where they had first entered the cave, but nevertheless a high-ceilinged room—one in which Irene was certain they had not been before.

"We are lost!" she exclaimed, a little squiggle of panic rising in her.

He took her cold hand and raised it to his lips. "Don't get anxious. We will find our way back out, I assure you."

He raised the lantern and glanced about the cavern. "It's an interesting place. Look at all the caves opening off this one."

She looked at the darker openings at the edge of the circle of yellow light cast by the lantern. "I hope you don't intend to explore any of them."

"No. But I think I'd like to come back someday and spend more time." He finished turning all around, his light falling on the cave wall closest to them. He paused. "That's odd."

"What's odd?"

He took a step closer to the wall, holding the light nearer to it. "This wall. Look. It isn't like the others."

Irene followed the direction his finger pointed, intrigued despite her uneasiness. "It looks like—well, like rocks piled up."

"Exactly." He set the lantern down at the base of the wall and squatted down. "Not like the solid wall everywhere else. Look."

He reached out and ran a finger down a rock, dislodging moist earth. "These are rocks with earth shoved in between and on top, like a crude wall, but the soil has largely melted away. Look at how much has slid down to the bottom."

Irene frowned, leaning over to brush her fingers over the surface. "You're right. Someone built a wall here. Why?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. But it's odd."

He scooped his hand down the side, dislodging more earth and revealing the stones beneath, then ran his hand up the wall. "It goes up only to here. And it's about two feet wide." He added decisively, "I am going to see what's behind it."

Gideon dug into the wall with both hands, working out a fairly flat rock. It came loose with a scraping sound, and after that the work went much more easily. Irene pulled her riding gloves out of her pocket and put them on, then knelt down to join him. There was an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach, and it grew as they cleared out a larger and larger hole. Behind the rocks lay the deep black of nothingness, and a fetid smell crept out on the air.

There was something very strange about anyone constructing a wall inside a cave. Why would it have been necessary to fill in this hole? She supposed it could lead to something dangerous, a steep drop-off perhaps, but why not just post a sign of warning?

The caves were little used. Clearly, from what Teresa had said, Lord Cecil had thought them dangerous. Irene imagined that others did, as well. She could not help but wonder if that reputation of danger came from something other than physical difficulties. Perhaps criminals used these caves to—to what? Well, she wasn't sure, but it occurred to her that the wall might have been erected to hide some sort of contraband.

Smugglers came to mind. But surely they were too far from the sea here. Thieves, then. People stole things, then hauled them here and hid them—but to what purpose?

She tried to imagine what could be so necessary to hide as to make it worthwhile dragging it all the way up the gorge and through the caves to this out-of-the-way spot. It would have to be something one would want hidden for a long time. But surely most things that one stole were only worth something if one sold them. Thieves did not steal silver and then hide it for years—and how much could one steal, anyway out here in the country?

Gideon was moving faster as they worked, and the opening widened rapidly. Finally it was large enough that he was able to lift up the lantern and shine it into the hole. They leaned in on either side of the lantern.

The light reached only a few feet, enough to reveal a small denlike cave, not tall enough for a man to stand upright in, that stretched back about six or eight feet. The glow of the lantern bathed the area in a dim light, revealing an object lying about four feet from the opening. It was about five feet long and draped over with a thin white cloth. And it was unmistakably a human form.

Chapter Twenty

Irene stared, no sound issuing from her throat. She sat back on her heels abruptly and turned to look at Gideon.

He let out a low curse.