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“I want to. I owe it to you and your father both. You’ve suffered for years on my account, and now it’s—”
“No.” She turned to face him. “Please don’t speak to me of fate or fires or obligation.”
Frowning a little, he smoothed the hair from her brow. “Merry, I don’t know what more I can say. I’ve tried my best with the romance, but—”
She gasped.Romance. “Oh, no. Oh, God.”
“What is it?”
“Cora. We’re here to find Cora.”
Rhys swore viciously. How could he have forgotten their errand, for even one second? The guilt he felt was mirrored on Meredith’s face.
Shrugging away from him, she went for her lamp. “We’ve spent enough time here. We’ve got to go search the ruins.”
Together they scrambled up the bluff. Once they reached the ruins of Nethermoor Hall, they separated at what remained of the front entrance and circled in opposite directions. Rhys took the outer perimeter, and Meredith followed the inner wall. They each stumbled and shouted their way around the ruin, calling Cora’s name until they were hoarse. Nothing.
He reunited with Meredith at the crumbling arch. The glow of her lamp bobbed in the mist. The wind was picking up.
“Any sign of her?” he asked.
“No.”
Thunder rumbled in the distance. Perfect. Just what they needed, a storm. “I suppose we should be getting back to the village, then. Perhaps she’s turned up elsewhere.”
The bobbing glow stilled. “We haven’t checked every part of the ruin yet.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
Though he knew damn well what she meant. Had he forgotten that place, truly? Or had he just wanted to forget it so fiercely that he’d managed to wipe it from his mind? But Meredith was right … if Cora had wandered up here, the cellar would have made a logical haven from the mist and cold. They would need to look.
“I’ll go alone,” she said.
“No,” he said. “No, you can’t go alone. It’s not safe.” That place wasn’t safe, not for anyone. It never had been. But he’d be damned if he’d let her think that he—who’d faced down Napoleon’s Imperial Guardsmen and hamfisted prizefighters alike—was afraid of a damned cellar, filled with nothing but cobwebs and shadow.
Her light swayed as she transferred it from one hand to the other, and for a moment, the features of her face were caressed by soft, smoky light. With her free hand, she reached through the mist to take his. “We’ll go together. And we’ll do it quickly.”
He allowed her to lead the way to the cellar entrance. She seemed to know the way better than he did. It was well-hidden now, obscured by haphazard piles of masonry. Hand in hand, they picked their way over the strewn boulders and found the stairway. The rocks teetered and clacked a bit as they scrambled over them.
The cellar must have been built from a natural cave that his ancestors had widened and deepened with time. Or perhaps they’d quarried the stone for the house, then built right over the empty pit? At any rate, it made an ideal place for storing food and spirits—protected from the elements, cool and dark. Silent. It made an ideal place to keep secrets, too.
As they descended into the dark pit, the sounds of the wind outside were muted. Meanwhile, their every step and sigh echoed off the walls. This place caught every sound, trapped it to rattle about and amplify. Each footfall, each spoken word … each crack or blow … seemed to have the strength of dozens.
“Cora?” Meredith called out into the darkness. The name volleyed around the room, losing a bit of its consonant edge with each echo, until all that remained was a round, hollow ball of “Oh” bouncing about the dark.
She called again. “Cora, are you here?”
No answer.
Rhys would have added his voice to hers, but his throat had gone dry. His jaw seemed locked in place.
“She’s not here,” she finally said. “Let’s go.”
“Wait.” The word creaked from his throat. He coughed and tried to master the emotions rising in his gorge. “We don’t know that she’s not here. We only know she hasn’t answered the call. She could be hurt, or asleep. We have to check the whole cellar, every corner.”
She was silent for a moment. Then finally said, “All right.”
Sweeping his light around, Rhys noticed a great many crates and casks filling the room. Odd. He would have expected to find it stone-empty, especially after all this time. Looted by the locals long ago. Perhaps the rumors of ghosts had kept them away.
