‘I think I’ve just found his body.’
His mouth went dry. ‘A corpse?’
She nodded. ‘His skeleton.’
Fuck.
‘I better take a look.’
Her fingers dug into his shirt. ‘Don’t go in there.’
‘If you’re right, we’ll need to call the police.’
She nodded and stepped back. Shit, he really didn’t want to go into a room with a corpse. He was likely to scream and cry like a girl too. But they couldn’t exactly leave it there.
Milly was watching him, waiting for him to be brave. He took a deep breath and squeezed through the gap.
Sure enough, propped up against the corner was a small skeleton. He felt sick. He shuffled closer, holding his breath against any smell of rotting flesh. In the light from the study, he could see something metallic on the elbow joint. As he moved closer he realised it was some kind of hinge or spring. There were similar metal joints and hinges on the shoulder, knees and ankles too. This wasn’t a real skeleton at all. He reached out to touch it to make sure and could clearly feel that the bones were made from plastic.
He grabbed it by the arm and carried it out.
Milly shrieked when she saw him carrying it, stepping back against the desk.
‘It’s not real.’
Her face fell with relief as he tentatively stepped forward to show it to her. ‘It’s not?’
‘It’s one of those models that doctors or science teachers have.’
She reached out to touch it and her face flamed red as she realised her mistake.
‘I’m so sorry, you must think I’m a right idiot.’
‘Not at all. It’s pitch black in there, what were you supposed to think?’
‘Well thank you for not taking the piss out of me for acting like a pathetic girl. You could have handled that very differently.’
He stared at her. ‘No I couldn’t. No man worth his salt would have taken the piss out of you when you were so terrified. It didn’t even cross my mind.’
‘Then you’re not like most of the men I know. My ex-boyfriend used to chase me round the flat with spiders because he knew I was scared of them. He thought it was hilarious, whilst I was sobbing and blubbing like a baby.’
‘Your ex-boyfriend sounds like an ass.’
She smiled and he was relieved to see it. ‘He really was.’
She eyed the skeleton in his hand and shuddered.
‘I’ll get rid of it.’
‘It’s OK. What was it doing in there?’
‘I don’t know. I have vague recollections of my parents throwing costumed parties, maybe he was part of a Halloween party.’
She sighed and pushed her hair off her face. ‘I’m not doing anything here to help dispel the bimbo image am I? And I bet Castle Heritage is very quickly going down in your opinion.’
‘You have nothing to prove to me, your credentials more than speak for themselves.’
‘I can get someone else up here, equally as qualified. They could be here by the end of next week. Professor Stone is very efficient, he’s a lot older too. He doesn’t wear pretty dresses or sparkly trainers, he’s probably much more up your street.’
Something twisted inside him at the thought of her going. He didn’t like the feeling that thought gave him, which was ridiculous, he barely knew her.
He shuffled closer to her, leaning round her to put the skeleton on the desk behind her. He returned his gaze to her face, to those intense sea blue eyes that seemed to have a hundred different tones to them, specks of green, turquoise and navy blue, intermingled with flecks of gold and grey. He was standing too close to her, much closer than would be deemed polite according to social etiquette. She hadn’t moved away either, she was just staring up at him. He tucked a stray blonde curl behind her ear.
‘I like having you here.’ He stepped back a tiny fraction. ‘In a professional capacity, of course.’
She smiled and the smile turned into a giggle, which made his heart leap. He couldn’t help but smile too.
‘Of course,’ she said.
‘And this Professor Stone sounds like a right bore. I happen to like your sparkly Converse.’
Her smile grew even bigger and it filled his heart to see it. ‘We’ll have to see if we can get you a pair.’
He laughed, loudly. ‘I’d like that.’
She stared at him for a moment, before looking away, smiling to herself. ‘Right, shall we investigate this passageway, now that it seems it’s permanently open?’
He looked over to the bookshelf and the wood that had splintered either side when he had thrown himself against it. It was never going to lock again.
‘We don’t have to do that today, if you’re still shaken up by the whole skeleton thing.’
‘Are you kidding? We’ve just found a secret passageway, aren’t you dying to know where it leads?’
‘Well, yes but … your happiness and wellbeing is far more important to me.’
She looked at him and something seemed to shift between them. Was it a mutual attraction? Did she like him too but was trying really hard not to? Every nerve ending seemed to be standing to attention with her proximity. He was aware of everything about her; the shape of her lips as she smiled, the length of her lashes, the heat he could feel from her body. The faint scent of his shower gel and his shampoo on her skin was still a killer. He wanted her, he couldn’t deny it.
He cleared his throat and stepped back away from her. This was bad, very bad.
She walked towards the bookshelf.
He watched her approach the threshold of the new secret room, take a deep breath and step inside into the darkness. He loved her brave, gutsy attitude. He followed her inside and walked straight into her bum as she was bent over, touching the floor. She nearly toppled onto her face, but he grabbed her by the hips to steady her.
Milly burst out laughing.
‘So you decided to throw professionalism to the wind.’
He frowned with confusion and suddenly realised how inappropriate their current position was. He quickly released her and stepped back.
‘There’s something buried here, in the cracks between these two stones,’ Milly said, as if he hadn’t just inadvertently tried to take her from behind.
He crouched down by her side to see and sure enough, something gold glinted from the cracks. He grabbed his pen knife which he habitually carried around with him and scraped away the soil from the sides.
‘It’s a coin,’ Milly said, excitedly, shuffling closer so their knees were touching.
A few chunks of moss and dirt came away from the crack and the gold coin came with them. He picked it up and wiped it on his jeans, then peered at it. It was about the size of a ten pence piece, but thicker, with some unusual markings on it.
‘It’s probably a prop, same as the skeleton,’ Cameron said, passing it to Milly. ‘Finders Keepers.’
But Milly shook her head and passed it back to him, which surprised him. ‘It’s yours. It might be worth something.’
‘I doubt it.’
‘It could help to pay for some repairs, and you never know, it might be part of a hidden haul of treasure.’
He laughed and stood up, pushing the coin into his pocket.
‘There is supposed to be some lost family treasure somewhere.’ He spotted the wooden door at the back of the room and walked over to it.
Milly followed him, examining the handle. ‘Really?’
‘So say the legends, but there’s also supposed to be a sea monster that frequents these parts called the Oogie that takes away and eats any unwanted guests. So if that’s the kind of truth the locals believe in, I hardly hold any faith in the legend of the Heartstone treasure.’
Milly turned the handle but the door didn’t give. ‘Are they a bit odd? The villagers? I’ve only met one of them, but …’
‘You don’t have to be polite, they’re all weird. Every time I go into the village, they all chant “Oogie” at me, as
if they are summoning the monster to come and take me away. They literally stand outside their houses and chant “Oogie”, over and over again.’
‘And they’ve told you about the legend of the Heartstone Treasure?’
‘Those that speak to me have.’
‘What’s the legend?’
‘The Heartstones have always been filthy rich, but my mad uncle Boris seems to have been richer than most. He was the one that added all the turrets and flags. Well, it was said that he loved precious jewels. All of the remaining fortune not spent on silly turrets, was spent on big diamonds, rubies and sapphires. He had a chest filled with them that he used to get out at parties and dances so everyone could admire his wealth.’
‘Nice.’
‘Arrogant. Anyway he became obsessed with this chest, he’d carry it around everywhere with him, absolutely paranoid that someone would steal it from him. He was always hiding it in places and then changing his mind and hiding it somewhere else. Legend says that he loaded it into a boat one day, set sail from the cove below the castle and was never seen again.’
‘Interesting.’ Milly pulled the handle out and gave it a wiggle but still the door stayed resolute.
‘A load of bollocks, more like. The only evidence I can find that this chest ever existed is a portrait of mad old Boris in the pub with the chest of jewels by his side. It would not surprise me if Boris had the artist add the chest in whilst painting to make him look wealthier than he was. It seems that, either shortly after the renovations or even during them, Boris sold off several acres of his land to nearby farmers. I think the man was broke and he couldn’t even afford to pay for the turrets he so desperately wanted. He lived an extravagant life with big parties but they seemed to stop completely in his later years. He sacked a lot of his staff too. I don’t think he had enough money to pay for that life anymore.’
‘Or he didn’t want anyone around his precious jewels, so he stopped inviting people to the castle.’
‘He was a total ladies’ man, so my guess is if this chest did exist, one of the women he was with killed him for it, dumped the body over the cliffs and stole all the jewels herself. Wouldn’t be the first time a Heartstone man was screwed over by a beautiful woman, nor the last.’
Milly looked up at him but he concentrated his attention on the door. ‘There isn’t a keyhole, but it appears to be locked,’ he said.
‘Maybe it can only be opened from the other side.’
He looked back to the bookshelf. ‘That wouldn’t make sense if the bookshelf can only be opened from the study side.’
‘Unless someone breaks it open,’ Milly grinned up at him.
He smiled. ‘There must be a switch or something that will release it.’
Milly let out another laugh as she reached up and released a bolt at the very top of the door. ‘Or a bolt.’ She glanced down to the bottom and found another bolt there near the floor. ‘Sometimes these things are just not that technical.’
She tried the handle again and this time the door opened easily. In the limited light from the study, Cameron could just make out some stone steps curling away below them.
Milly turned to face him, her eyes alight with excitement.
‘Let me get my torch.’
* * *
Milly stood at the top of the newly found stairs waiting for Cameron to come back. She was glad she was standing in the darkness of the hidden room so Cameron wouldn’t see the blush on her cheeks when he came back. She couldn’t believe she had reacted like that. It was bad enough that she had been so freaked out over a skeleton, since she had found human remains in archaeological sites before and never been bothered by it, but to then find out it was only plastic, made her reaction all the more shameful. She had hugged Cameron. Well, clung to him would be a more accurate description. He had held her like a child, which was mortifying. She absently wished on her star bracelet that she hadn’t behaved like that although she knew it was useless.
There had been something about the way Cameron had stroked his hands down her back to soothe her that had been wonderful and incredibly hot. She just couldn’t understand her body’s reaction to him. There had been plenty of attractive guys over the years whom she had barely given a second glance because she wasn’t interested in a relationship at all. And now she had known Cameron for less than twenty-four hours and she had thrown all her reservations straight out the window. He was grumpy, rude, sweet, funny and sexy as hell. But there was more to their connection than that. She felt like she knew him, which was ridiculous because of course she didn’t. She knew nothing about him. But sometimes there was an ease between them that only came from knowing someone your whole life. But regardless of this spark, she wasn’t going to do anything about it, she couldn’t. She had a professionalism to maintain. Although she knew that was only part of it. Not wanting her heart broken again was probably the bigger part.
She took a deep breath and let it out. She wasn’t going to think about her humiliation any more. There was nothing she could do to change it so she would stop dwelling on it. She moved closer to the stairs. It was pitch black down the secret passageway and the limited light from the study just about lit up the first three or four stairs but beyond that she couldn’t see anything. She was desperate to explore it but it would be suicide to go down a very old staircase in the dark – half of the stairs could have crumbled away to nothing.
A slight breeze came from below and with it, just for a second, she could hear the faint sound of a child’s laughter.
She swallowed and stepped back, bumping into something hard that hadn’t been there before. She swung around to see Cameron standing there.
‘You OK?’
She nodded, unable to speak.
‘This place can creep you out,’ Cameron said, softly. ‘I hear footsteps, doors slamming, loud bangs, voices. I tell myself that it’s just the wind or loose floorboards or old pipes but … knowing what I’ve seen down in the dungeons …’ He trailed off. ‘I have locks on the inside of my kitchen, lounge and bedroom, which is silly as ghosts would just walk through the doors whether they’re locked or not but it makes me feel better when I sleep at night. I’ve felt a lot happier since you’ve arrived. Having someone here with me has been nice, otherwise it’s just me rattling around this big old house with all these bumps and bangs, it’s enough to send anyone mad.’
‘I’ll protect you,’ Milly said, with a grin.
‘Thank you. And who will protect you?’
‘I’m quite scrappy,’ she threw a few air punches, dodging about on her feet. She saw his smile grow as he watched her and she stopped dancing. ‘Are you laughing at me, Cameron Heartstone?’
‘Noooo I wouldn’t dream of it. I was just thinking I wouldn’t want to go against you in a fight. Shall we?’ He gestured to the stairs and she nodded. Without asking, he took her hand and strode into the darkness. That ease and familiarity spread through her again and she smiled, despite the promises she had made to herself a few moments before.
Milly could just make out the torch beam as it danced off the stone steps below. The steps were well worn, indicating that they had been used many times over the years. Cameron’s hulking frame was a comforting presence in front of her but she didn’t like to think about what lurked in the darkness behind her.
There didn’t seem to be any end to the stairs as they continued downwards. The study was two flights up from the ground floor and although it was very hard to tell in the darkness, it felt like they were going much deeper than that.
Eventually they reached the bottom and Cameron shone the torch down what appeared to be a very long, straight tunnel that forked into three separate tunnels at the end.
‘We need to be really careful; if that other tunnel caved in, this one could be unstable too,’ Cameron whispered, as if talking normally would cause it to collapse.
Milly nodded but as she stepped forward, Cameron was at her side, his hand in hers.
As Cameron continued to
shine the torch, Milly could see wooden joints and beams holding the roof of the tunnel up at several intervals. The wood wasn’t rotting at all, it looked strong and capable of standing for another hundred years. She was desperate to do some tree ring tests on that wood to get an idea of when the tunnel was built, although if the joints had been replaced at some point it might be a bit harder to date the tunnels, but she suspected it was around the same era that mad Uncle Boris was Lord of the castle. The floor was made from stone which looked clean but again, well worn. It all looked very professional and certainly not done in a hurry.
They came to the fork and stopped.
‘What do you reckon?’ Cameron said, shining his torch over the three openings and the tunnels beyond.
The tunnels couldn’t have been more different. The one on the right sloped downwards very steeply, seemingly going into the very bowels of the earth. It was muddy and wet and it didn’t look safe at all. The middle tunnel carried straight on with its stone floor and wooden joists, it was probably the original tunnel and the two other forks were added later. In the limited light they could just see a ladder at the end, which seemed to go straight up. The left tunnel veered up and off to the left almost as if it was heading back towards the castle. There appeared to be a few brass lanterns on the walls, unlit of course, and at the very end, steps rising upwards into a bright shaft of sunlight. Moss lined the edges of the tunnel, but it looked almost magical as the sunlight sparkled off the green walls.
‘I know which one you want to explore first,’ Cameron said.
She looked up at him. ‘You do?’
He took her hand and walked down the slightly sinister looking right tunnel.
She laughed. ‘How did you know?’
‘I’ve come to realise that with you, I have to expect the unexpected.’
The tunnel zigzagged and twisted and turned until Milly had no idea which direction the castle was, they seemed to be going further and further down. The smooth dirt walls were soon replaced with jagged rock walls, covered with moss, and it started to get lighter so that Cameron’s torch wasn’t needed at all. She could hear a roaring that was getting louder and louder and as they rounded the last corner, they were faced with a stunning view of the inky blue sea. The tunnel ended abruptly, opening out into a gaping hole in the cliff face.
The Secrets of Clover Castle Page 6
