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It was as if he had not heard her, or perhaps he was just playing his own devious game. “Oliver is a very personable young man, of course. I have often noted how attractive he is to the gentler sex.”
“I find Lord Montegomery singularly unattractive,” she snapped, but knew even as she said it that her protests seemed forced. He knew something, and now he was smiling at her in a manner that made her queasy.
“I’m afraid Oliver can be rather devious, Miss Greentree, if he wants his…way with a pretty girl. You shouldn’t believe a word he says. And as for marriage”—he smirked—“I doubt he would look in your direction for a wife. His aunt, Lady Marsh, would expect him to marry the daughter of an earl, at least.”
If he thought to turn her against Oliver, he was wasting his time. She told herself that she already loathed Oliver Montegomery, but that did not mean she would take sides with his brother’s murderer.
Vivianna had walked another step or two before she realized that Lawson had stopped dead in his tracks. “Lord Lawson? What is it?” She followed the direction of his fixed stare, wondering what it was he suddenly found so amazing.
For a moment she could see nothing. The long gallery was as she remembered it from the few times she had been here. Dusty, bare, apart from one or two sculptures and stone figures fixed into the floor. And then she realized that the statue of the lion was out of alignment with the rest; it was pushed to one side. But how was that possible? It was made of stone and very heavy. Who would have had the strength to move such a thing, and why? And then Vivianna saw that where the lion had once stood was…nothingness.
Lawson was striding forward. His face was ablaze with triumph. “The secret chamber!” he hissed.
Vivianna ran after him, her skirts making a trail through the dust. Fear and shock had caused her to feel a little light-headed, but oddly calm. The lion, she could see, was attached to a slab that had been rolled to one side like a horizontal door. And in the space was a stone staircase, running down into the darkness. The secret chamber must be underground.
“Is someone down there?” Lawson demanded, glancing at her briefly before his ice-blue eyes returned to the shadows.
“I—I don’t know. I didn’t know such a thing existed. How did you know, Lord Lawson?”
Her question seemed to bring him back to his senses. Viviann
a could almost see the mask slipping over his face once more. “I had heard of it. I did not know it really existed until now. Has Oliver been here? Maybe it was he who discovered its whereabouts?”
Vivianna knew as if he had told her that if Oliver was down there, then Lawson would kill him. And her, too. He would kill anyone who stood in the way of his secret and his ambition. Why shouldn’t he? He had done it before.
“Oliver isn’t here,” she said a little breathlessly.
“Someone has been.”
Vivianna’s gaze had been wandering over the dusty floor, around the edges of the “door,” and now she realized what she was looking at. Footprints. Small, children’s footprints. Before she could think about it, she stepped over the telltale signs and allowed her long skirts to brush across the ground. The work of a moment and the footprints were gone.
Lawson was watching her agitated movements suspiciously and she realized she hadn’t answered his question.
“I honestly do not know who has been here, my lord! As I have explained, I did not know such a place existed. Surely this chamber cannot still be in use? Do you think there is anything hidden down there?”
He wanted to go within and search. Vivianna could see it in his face, and the way his gaze kept returning to the steps. But her presence was preventing him. He would not want her to see the letters….
“I had better ascertain whether anyone is there,” he said, frowning thoughtfully. “Stay here, Miss Greentree. I would not want you to slip and break your neck.”
Vivianna’s shiver was genuine. And yet she could not allow him to go alone. If the letters were still down there, he could destroy them in an instant and then Oliver’s chance to expose the man who had murdered his brother would be lost.
“Lord Lawson, I really don’t think you should go down. It might be dangerous. I should find someone to come and—”
“Nonsense.” He was already on the first step. She went to follow him, though her knees were like jelly.
“Miss?”
Eddie’s voice brought her up short. She turned and spotted him, standing by the lion, his hand resting upon its lifted paw. Had he been hiding there all along? His freckles stood out on his pale face, his hair was dusty, and the remains of cobwebs trailed across his jacket. Eddie had been inside the secret chamber.
She tried to speak, but the sensation of Lawson, watching, listening, froze her tongue.
“Miss?” Ellen stepped out from behind Eddie, her voice like a soft echo. Her fair hair was festooned with webs and fine dust. “Can we talk with you, Miss Greentree?”
“Talk with me?” She, too, was an echo, it seemed.
“I thought you said you were alone here, Miss Greentree.”
Lawson, she realized, had his gaze fixed upon the children. And suddenly Vivianna knew she must protect them at any cost. “Oh yes, I forgot. Eddie and Ellen stayed behind to help. You naughty children, where did you run off to? Well, never mind,” she added hastily, in case they answered her. She forced a rather ghastly smile. “We were going to discuss the…the…children’s shoes, weren’t we? The box of shoes.”
