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The housekeeper was no witch but a valued retainer who cared deeply for the household and those she worked for.
Mari’s walking at night was not something diabolical, a phenomenon of witches, and although Isabelle could not account for its strangeness, she was sure its cause was grief and would abate with time.
And as for the Scandalous Mr Cadwalader?
Well, in fact he was Scandalous. But in a respectable way, if that made sense.
The only mysteries then that Isabelle could detect here in this place were those that lay deep within the land of Wales itself, legends that were a part of its ancient earth and Celtic roots.
With lips curving, she turned back towards the ligh–
A door slammed shut. One she’d not noted.
The storeroom was plunged to darkness.
Utter darkness.
Her heart thudded. She blinked.
Was that a voice?
“Mari? Is that you?”
Curbing her rapid breath, Isabelle stretched her fingertips to the cold slate, followed to the corner, then the tunnel-like opening in the thick walls. With a hand either side to steady her step on the uneven flagstones, she felt for the door, but there was no handle or bar that she could find, solely thick hinges of shedding iron sunk deep into the slate wall.
Surely it had just blown shut in the breeze and needed a firm shoulder.
Isabelle took a step back, the flagstone floor like undulating rocks in the darkness.
She gathered her breath and slammed her shoulder into the–
Zut.
“Mari?” she yelled. “Can you hear me?”
Had she imagined the voice?
All was deathly silent.
The door was hefty to her touch and befitting of a castle, the walls so thick. Could no one hear her?
She swallowed. Endeavoured to hush her deafening heart.
It wouldn’t be long before Mari noticed her missing.
A scratching from behind her and she spun, but only the deepest Stygian black met her gaze.
Rats?
Such creatures did not scare her per se but…
Still her damn heart refused to quieten, and despite the creeping chill, a flame flickered in her chest…
It lit another.
She quenched it…
It rekindled.
