Suddenly Katie forced herself to come to her senses. She could not let this happen. Alden was just a dream to her. Regardless of what he said about a person’s station in life and what little difference it made, it was not a matter of station. She was a bastard child! No matter what he said, society would never allow him to dabble with the likes of her. She was fooling herself to think otherwise.
She pushed him away from her and scrambled to her feet. "I'm...I'm sorry Alden. This is not right. We shouldn't be doing this!"
Alden tried to pull her back down beside him. "And what is so wrong with it?" he insisted. His eyes scowled at her.
"You know as well as I do. It is not just a matter of differences of stations between us. The very circumstances of my birth would prevent any self-respecting man to get seriously involved with me. In your case it would be more devastating to you and your position. I will just end up being of fleeting interest to you, when you finally come to your senses. In the end, you will regret dallying with me so."
"Why don't you let me worry about my position? How could I ever regret being with you like this?"
"Because...Because there is more to it than that. There are things you don't know about me. Things I can't tell you right now. You are all mixed up in this returning heiress business, and I think there is more to all of this mess than you are aware of!"
Alden jumped up. "What are you talking about Katie? Is there something I should be aware of?"
"I...I don't know!"
Suddenly the romantic mood had been brushed aside. Alden grabbed Katie almost roughly as he demanded. "If you know something about all this, you had better tell me!"
"I...I don't know anything! It’s...it’s just that there are so many contradictions about the story that don't fit! It is really none of my business though. I shouldn’t have even brought it up."
"Listen, Katie, I think we need to have a long talk. This is no time or place for it. Katherine is waiting for me, and the guests will be leaving soon. There is something I feel you are keeping hidden from me. It is important that I know everything concerning the missing heiress, and for that matter, you. Why don't you come riding with me tomorrow? It is time we come to a better understanding. There are a lot of things I need to ask you."
"No, no, Alden. I...I don't think I can do that. There is nothing I can tell you that you don’t already know. And there is nothing more, which is necessary for you to know about me." She knew that if Alden tried hard enough that he most likely could end up convincing her to tell him the true aspects of her birth. If he discovered that James was her father, being the ever protecting, self-appointed guardian that he was, he may insist that the Langdons accept her openly. Then James Langdon would despise her for all the trouble it would cause.
Though she did not care what happened to her father, she did not want to invite any trouble that she could avoid, if she could help it. It was better to leave things the way they were, she decided.
What difference did it make anyway? Regardless of what Alden said, he most likely would end up marring Katherine, and none of this would matter then. He had no right to tease her and make her heart leap with excitement at his kiss. He had no right to be kissing her at all! It aroused feelings inside her that were better left untouched.
"No, Alden," she said again with more emphasis. "I think it is better if we just both forgot about what has happened here tonight. It was just a fairy tale anyway. Cinderella at the ball, escaping at midnight and turning back into the seamstress she was meant to be. That is all it has amounted to, and that is where it will have to end."
"Don't be silly. You have some explaining to do! You can't just walk away and pretend that it doesn’t matter, Katie. You can’t tell me that you don’t have any feelings for me."
"It doesn’t matter what I feel. It would be better if...if that kiss had never happened."
"Better for who, you, or Me?"
"For both of us, you have your heiress, even if she may not be who she claims she is, no one can prove it but..." She stopped short.
"Prove what, Katie?"
"Nothing...nothing, I don't know anything anyway."
"I don't believe you."
"That is your choice." She scooped up the wig and lifted the trap door. As she started to descend the musty steps, Alden called after her in an exasperated tone.
"You have been nothing but stubborn from the first moment I pulled you out of that puddle! I know you are privy to more information than you are letting on, Katie. It is important that you divulge it to me! In case you change your mind, and wish to confide in me, I will be waiting for you on the ridge beyond the woods, tomorrow at noon."
Katie pretended not to hear and closed the door with a heavy thud, engulfing herself in darkness. The black, musty tunnel matched the strange lonely feeling she suddenly felt in her heart.
As the cobwebs caught in her hair, she was aware that she had forgotten her cloak in the tree, but she was not going to go back and fetch it. Katie knew if she were to face Alden again she would not have the willpower to turn away from him a second time. So she hurried on down the stairway, anxious to be out of the close dampness of the secret passage.
This time the trip once again seemed long. Pushing forward blindly, in the darkness, she tried to calm her confused thoughts. She didn't want to relive the events that had just transpired in the garden, but she couldn't seem to shake away the memory of Alden's insistent kiss.
Katie touched her fingers to her lips, remembering the turmoil he had aroused in her. Her lips still burned with that kiss, and she could still taste him on her mouth. Her heart sank as she again tried to practically remind herself that the kiss meant nothing, and even if it did, there would never be any hope of her being a part of Alden’s life, except in the position of a seamstress.
She was now ascending the spiral steps and would soon be in the comfort of her own room, where she could try and think things out. As she reached the top of the stairs, the darkness was still heavily enshrouded about her. She had expected to see the light from her room, filtering down the staircase from the crack where she had propped the pivoting door open. Now, instead, her hand felt the cold stone of the pivoting door, strangely, closed tightly before her!
How could that be? She had purposely propped the door open herself. Katie tried the latch, but it wouldn't budge. The catch seemed jammed, and no amount of pushing, tugging, pulling or kicking, would make the door open.
Katie knew that no one would hear her if she pounded or screamed, so she started the long tedious descent down the moss covered steps.
In her haste she tripped on the hem of her gown and almost toppled down the spiral staircase. She caught herself with her hand as she grabbed out against the rough stone wall, ripping her glove, and scrapping the soft skin of her palm as she did so. In spite of an inward growing terror, she slowed her descent, continuing to grope forward in the darkness.
At last the trap door was before her and she pushed on it, anxious to feel the fresh cool breeze on her perspiring face. It should have swung outward easily, as it had earlier that evening, but for some reason it did not move either! Katie pushed harder. She remembered that she had slammed the door in her anger. She could have caused the door to wedge itself more tightly in the frame than it had before. She put her shoulder against the door and pushed with all her strength, but no amount of pushing seemed to jar it free. Her fists pounded frantically on the door, hoping that Alden might still be close by and hear her. The noise thundered back in her ears, but apparently no one else could hear. No one came to her rescue. She stopped pounding and tried to catch her breath. Her heart lunged furiously against her chest, and she felt the clammy air of the tunnel pressing against her.
Trying to calm her frantic mind and think what she should do, Katie was in a quandary. Should she go back to the wardrobe opening, or stay at the trap door? She couldn't just keep running back and forth between them all night, hoping that someone would be near enough to hear her cries f
or help.
"Oh please, please!" she called desperately, "someone must help me!"
Her heart was quieter now, and her breathing was slowly drawn in control. Katie could hear the faint sound of music on the other side of the trap door. They would never hear her if she stayed at the garden entrance. There was too much music and noise to drown out her attempts to be heard. No one knew there was a trap door there except Alden, and he was not likely to return to the tree again that night. It would be more likely that someone might pass near her room, and if she pounded long enough, maybe someone would hear her.
As Katie hurried back to the other end of the passage, the air seemed to grow heavy and close. Was it her imagination, or was the air really getting harder to breath? She wondered, as she drew in her breath, just how long the air in the passage would last. The tunnel was long and the staircase steep. It was not the air she had to worry about. She could last for days! If anything, she would end up starving or thirsting to death, if no one found her. She turned cold with dread at the thought of how long she might be entombed there.
Katie scolded herself for thinking such gloomy thoughts. Alden and Alain both knew she would be using the passageway. Alden would leave after the ball, and might not return for days, but Alain would surely miss her by morning and come looking for her. Katie shivered. Even the thought of spending one night in such a damp and musty prison was disturbing to her.
The thought of the ghost that Maggie spoke of, crossed her mind. Would she end up being a ghost herself, ever wandering up and down the stairs, right along with the other ghost that supposedly haunted the secret passage? She gave a shiver at the unpleasant thought.
She reached the spiral staircase and hastily ascended the steps. It seemed to drain her of all the strength she had. Collapsing in a slump at the stone wall that barred her from freedom, she sank down beside it and buried her face in her hands. Who had removed the book?, she kept asking herself. Who would come into her room anyway? Alain knew she had gone to the ball and would not have a reason to come to her room, and no one else ever came to see her except Maggie. Only if Maggie saw the door to the passage propped open, she would fear the ghost was being released, and close the door. If it hadn’t been Maggie who closed the door, it could it be the same person who tried to push her off the balcony the last time she used the passageway.
Katie shuddered at the thought. It did not make sense. Why would anyone in the house wish her harm? There must be some other explanation! She could not think of any reason why someone would be trying to scare her like this. What could she have possibly done to bring someone's anger so cruelly upon her that way, in the first place?
Maybe she was being too hysterical, she evaluated. Maybe it was all just an accident. Yes, that was a more accepting explanation! She had closed the trap door too hard, and someone had come to her room, for some reason, saw the door propped open, feared letting ghosts escape, or just didn't like it being left open like that and closed it and, unknowingly, locked it.
Katie had locked the door before to safeguard her room. If Maggie or some servant had come to talk to her for some reason, saw that she was gone and the door open, they may have thought the ghost had carried her away, and in their superstitious hysterics locked the door to keep the ghost from secreting them away also. There had to be a reasonable answer to all this!
The questions kept mounting and mounting until Katie thought her head would explode if she didn't find some answers, and a way out! She began to sob in frustration, and pounded her fist hopelessly against the tightly closed door.
"Why, why, WHY?" she sobbed and pounded her fist with each "why".
She leaned her head hopelessly against the door in despair and suddenly, to Katie’s amazement, it swung open! She fell forward into her room, as the door gave way, and Katie could hardly believe what had happened. She jumped to her feet, and Maggie stepped out from behind the half open door staring at her in astonishment. Maggie was clutching her shawl around her shoulders as if she had expected to see one of her fabled ghosts.
"Why, Katie! What is going on? I heard the pounding and was sure it was the ghost of that dead wife begging to be released. I don't know what made me brave enough to see for myself! When I saw you all in white like that, I thought for sure it was her ghost. What is going on?" She saw Katie's mask tied to her sleeve, and the wig placed lopsidedly over Katie's flowing red hair that still hung loose around her shoulders. "Oh, I see. You dressed up for the ball, and sneaked down the stairs to participate in the fun! How exciting! And now you are just sneaking back."
Katie didn't answer. She was trembling so, and she stumbled to the bed and collapsed on it. "The door was locked," she gasped at last, as if that explained everything.
"So you were trapped. Haven't you learned yet that the spirits of this house are not pleased with you using their walkway?" Maggie asked, looking closely into Katie's smudged face.
"No...no, why are you talking about spirits? There are no spirits here! I propped that door open, Maggie. There was no way for it to get jammed. And don't tell me that the ghosts did it. I don't believe in such things. Why would a ghost want to lock me in anyway?"
"Oh dear, I have frightened you. We must take everything into consideration, you know. You never know what sort of spirits may inhabit this place. There are such things a spirits, mark my word!"
Katie looked at Maggie and sighed. She had such strange ideas sometimes. "Just the same, you cannot make me believe that spirits locked me in that passage. There has to be a better explanation than that."
Maggie sat down beside Katie and put her arm around her. "Perhaps, there is. Perhaps, there is. Tell Maggie what happened, dear, I will listen, and we shall solve this mystery together."
Katie drew in her breath and began to explain what had just transpired. "I...I took Alain's place at the ball because she refused to go. She gave me an invitation and told me I could use her costume. Then, when I left before the unmasking, Alden discovered who I was, but that is unimportant. It was after I entered the passage that I discovered someone had removed the book I left in the door here."
Katie looked toward her small bookcase and noticed that the book had been neatly replaced as if she had never removed it from the shelf. "And...and then, when I returned to the trap door at the garden, it too was closed tight! I was frightened...I thought I would have to spend the night in that place before someone missed me. I just can't figure out who would want to frighten me like that."
"There is something wicked going on around here, and somehow you have been caught up in it, Katie."
"I don't understand how I am involved in it. The only relation I have to any of this is that I am sort of a cousin to Alain and Katherine. Only James and you know of it." She stopped for a moment. "Justin Yarnell knew that James was my father. I don't know how he came by the information, but even if the whole household found out, it would not really affect anyone except my father. I wonder if Justin has told anyone else? I wonder if he has told Alain? She has been treating me very kindly lately."
"As you said, even if he has told others, James is the only one it truly affects."
"Do you suppose James shut me down there to get rid of me so I couldn't start any trouble for him? I told him that I didn't want anything from him. Besides, he seemed rather friendly to me the other day and even hinted that he wished we were closer. I can't imagine any reason important enough to get me out of the way. If someone does not want me here, then why don't they just tell me to leave? Justin did talk as though it would be better for me if I did leave. He thought that James would fear that I might try to blackmail him, but I told him that I made it perfectly clear to James that I wanted no part of him or his money."
"Maybe it was just an accident,” Maggie comforted. “Maybe someone saw the book in the door and didn't know you were down there. They removed it, put it back on the shelf and the door jammed by itself."
"I thought of that too. Maybe that is all there is to it and we are just try
ing to make more of it than is really there. Only I was so frightened, Maggie! I thought no one would ever hear me and I would have to wait until someone started missing me, and then they would have to start looking for me, and no telling how long it would take for someone to check the passage." She looked up at Maggie. "It was lucky you were there... Why were you there Maggie?"
"Oh, you know me. I had been spying on the ball, and thought I would come and let you know what was happening. I was going to tell you all about the strange lady in white who suddenly disappeared at the unmasking. And here it was you, all along!"
Katie giggled. "It was rather exciting," and then she said in a more serious tone, "but I think I've had enough excitement for one night."
"Well, if I were you, I would stop using that passage! Nothing good has come of it so far, and your life has been threatened twice as a consequence."
"I think maybe you are right, Maggie," Katie agreed. "I shall refrain from using it in the future."
"Now I think the best thing for you is to get some rest. Tomorrow we can try and sort everything out. I am sure there is an answer that will explain it all," Maggie offered soothingly.
Katie tried to smile, but was almost too tired to even attempt it. "Yes, I am sure there is some explanation to all this, but when I learn it, I wonder if I shall be happy to have discovered it?"
Maggie left with a parting smile, and Katie slowly pulled her costume off and laid it across a chair. She dressed herself for bed, and crawled between the cool sheets. Then she closed her eyes, and tried to shut out the thought that someone was either trying to frighten her or, worse yet, actually trying to harm her in some way.
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