“Not exactly,” she said. “But what if you didn’t know how wide it was?”
“Too late. I already know.”
“If you close your eyes and let me tell you how wide the tunnel is getting, you’ll feel better.”
“You want me to be blind?” he asked, puzzled.
“Yes! Remember, I guided my cousin Rosalind for years. I’m good at it. I’ll tell you where to step and whether to stoop down, and before you know it, we’ll be at the end.”
“I can’t keep my eyes shut. Sorry. I just can’t. Not in a place like this. I’ll have to look, and that will destroy the illusion.”
Poppy only thought a moment. “Then you’ll need a blindfold.” She put her lantern down and untied the wide ribbon at the high waist of her dress. “Here,” she said, holding it out. “It’s the only thing I’ve got.”
Carlos looked at it like it was a snake. “I can’t do that.”
“You’d better, or I’ll have started to undress for nothing.” Poppy tried to sound nonchalant, but she was suddenly aware they were alone. Utterly alone. And he had already asked her to undress once before.
He didn’t seem to notice. He was still focused on the idea of playing blind. “I’ll do this if you promise me you’ll never breathe a word. I’ll never live it down.”
“I promise,” Poppy swore.
He reluctantly wrapped the ribbon twice around his head, tied it off, then took a deep breath.
“Green suits you,” she said.
“Shut up.”
Poppy just chuckled, taking hold of the lantern again. She took Carlos’s hand, feeling how tightly he gripped her own.
“Just don’t let me run into any walls,” he muttered.
“I promise. Listen to my instructions, and don’t think of where you are.”
“In fact, I am already thinking of something else entirely.”
“Good,” she said, feeling that she didn’t dare ask what that might be. “Now walk forward.”
Poppy moved slowly ahead, keeping the remaining lantern in front. Though it had been almost a year since she’d been a companion to Rosalind, Poppy discovered the old patterns came back to her immediately. She watched for obstacles. She called out when he should step to the side, or duck his head, and she never laughed at the odd shuffling gait they both adopted.
When the width of the tunnel expanded suddenly, she told Carlos so.
“Oh, actually it’s a whole big cavern. Huge!” she added, when she realized that the lantern light didn’t illuminate any walls for several paces. “Let me see. There are a lot of openings in the walls here. It’s almost like the hub of a wheel. I wonder if one of these tunnels goes to the beach below Pencliff. I bet it must! St. Marks Head is really just a gigantic piece of Swiss cheese, when you think about it.”
He didn’t seem overjoyed at the comparison. “Just keep moving,” he said, his voice almost pleading. When Poppy saw a few rats scamper by at the edge of the light’s circle, she shuddered, eager to oblige.
She chose a tunnel on the opposite side, where a steady (if faint) breeze teased her hair. At last, the tunnel started to slope upwards. “I think we’re close to the end. It’s interesting. The walls here are very smooth. Like someone carved them out more.”
“Fascinating,” he responded, his breathing still rather uneven.
“Keep straight ahead,” she said, “and don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried. I’m humiliated.”
“Oh, don’t be dramatic. You had a small problem and I helped you. What are friends for?”
Before he could respond to that, she saw something new. It was a door, right at the top of a set of rough cut steps at the end of the passage. “Ah, we’re done!”
Carlos dropped her hand and reached up to rip the blindfold off. “Thank God.” His relief was palpable.
