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“Have I said something funny?” he asked.
“I knew it would be a bawdy title—that’s Lord Rafe’s sense of humor. That’s the one.” She stood beside him, her shoulder touching his upper arm, her eyes bright and clear with interest. “Your Grace, attempt to pull that book off of the shelf.”
He pulled the top edge of the book toward him. “It won’t move,” he said, puzzled.
“I knew it!”
MissPenny moved a few steps and ran her fingers along the edge of the narrow section of shelving. “It must be fixed to the mechanism that will open the door. Angle the book down and toward you and pull again.”
He followed her instructions and a small crack opened up between the edges of the shelf sections.
He stared, dumbfounded. “That’s not possible.”
“Confronted with the evidence of sight and he still says it’s not possible. Here, exchange places with me, Your Grace. You pull on the edge of the shelves while I work the book.”
They switched places. She pulled down on the book with both her hands. “Now,” she said.
He grabbed the edge of the shelf and pulled and the entire thing slid toward him, revealing a dark hollow beyond. “Well, I’ll be twice damned. There’s a secret chamber.”
Chapter15
“I told you so,” Mina crowed. “I may not be completely stealthy, but I do know a likely location for a hidden room. My uncle has a similar one at Sutton Hall. Many houses have them to protect precious documents or jewels.”
“Not this house,” said the duke, gazing into the darkness behind the shelf with a disbelieving expression. “This was not in the floor plans.”
“Lord Rafe must have had the room modified while you were gone. Does the study appear smaller to you?”
He glanced around the room. “Now that you mention it, the room does seem slightly off center. But why would he have this built, and why wouldn’t Crankshaw have informed me of it when I asked him if anything strange had happened?”
“Perhaps Mr.Crankshaw is more discreet than he appears.”
“I doubt that.”
“Let’s explore, shall we?” She was dying to go inside. This was where Lord Rafe would keep confidential documents. The entire mystery of his mission could be solved in the next minutes.
The duke hesitated outside the entrance to the narrow space. “I’ll fetch a lamp.”
“There’s one over there.”
He followed her gaze, his eyes gone dull and lifeless. Something was wrong.
“MissPenny. I...” His throat worked visibly.
“You look pale. Is something the matter?”
His face closed like a door being slammed shut. “Nothing’s the matter. I’ll fetch the lamp.”
It was dark inside the small space, but she could see the outline of a desk and what looked like a box on top of the desk.
He returned with the lamp and held it high, illuminating the narrow elongated chamber. “Nothing to see here. Just a desk and a chair. We should go find Beatrice. We’ve been alone together too long.”
“No one’s worrying about us, Your Grace. My great-aunt and your mother are gossiping and they think I’m reading books with Lady Beatrice.”
He eyed the hidden chamber. “Maybe we should bring two lamps with us.”
He was acting very strange. It was almost as if... could he be scared?
Suddenly she realized that this fear of a small and an unknown space could be related to his kidnapping.
