Page 180 of Courting the Wrong Duke

Rosalind shook her head. “I don’t think Papa is the first person who has been kept here.”

Gabriel glanced toward the darkness beyond the cellar. “Charming place.”

“It feels haunted,” Rosalind murmured.

William knew what she meant. Whatever had happened within these walls had begun long before Edmund Carlisle was brought here.

Gabriel shifted the iron bar in his hands. “Whatever happened here, I would prefer to contemplate it after Eastmere is free and Isabella is standing somewhere I can actually see her.”

William understood the urgency. Every moment they remained in the cellar was another moment Isabella was somewhere above them alone, and the two birdcalls had made it painfully clear that they were no longer the only people moving through Bryn Hir.

He looked at the iron bar. “Where did you find that?”

“Outside, near the old stable.”

William took one end and examined the lock. It was old, but solid, the iron plate fixed deeply into the stone beside the barred door. Breaking it would not be easy.

It would not be quiet either.

He glanced toward the stairs.

Whoever Isabella had seen might already know they were here. If they did not, what William was about to attempt would almost certainly remedy that.

“We do this quickly,” he said.

Gabriel seemed to understand the rest. He moved beside William and gripped the other end of the bar while Rosalind stepped back toward the wall.

William looked through the bars at Edmund. “Stand away from the door.”

Edmund retreated several paces.

William wedged the end of the bar between the lock and its iron plate, testing it until he felt the metal catch. Gabriel adjusted his grip beside him.

“Ready?”

Gabriel nodded.

Together they threw their weight against it. The shriek of metal tore through the cellar.

Rosalind flinched, and William felt the sound reverberate through the bar and into his arms. For one hopeful instant, the lock seemed to give. Then the iron slipped free with a violent scrape that sent William stumbling half a step forward.

The door remained closed as William swore beneath his breath.

The noise seemed to linger long after it had stopped. He found himself listening to the silence that followed, wondering how far through the house that metallic scream had carried.

For several seconds, there was nothing. No answering footsteps or voices from above, and no third birdcall from Isabella.

The silence should have reassured him. Instead, the longer it continued, the more uneasy he became.

Gabriel seemed to feel it too. His gaze lingered on the stairs before he tightened his grip on the iron bar.

“Again.”

William nodded and forced the iron back into the narrow space beside the lock. This time he drove it deeper, bracing one foot against the stone floor while Gabriel positioned himself beside him.

They had only begun to put their weight against it when a voice emerged from the darkness behind them.

“There is no need.”