Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 89331 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89331 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Several possible ways to escape had run through her head, none being sensible or successful. She let instinct take over and caught him off guard as she raised her foot to deliver a powerful kick to his chest, sending him tumbling down the stairs. Fearful she would not make it past him safely, she headed up the stairs, praying her husband would come to her rescue.
Where did she hide? The thought ran through her head, but hearing Henry get to his feet with a groan and a curse kept her in flight until she reached the tower room.
She had trapped herself… until.
She saw that several stones had crumbled in decay along the side of the sealed door to the point that they had fallen out. It was a slim space to slip through, but she had no choice. She tossed the torch down the stairs, leaving the area in darkness and felt her way to the slim opening and with earnest effort and suffering some scrapes she slipped through and into the room.
“You think me involved somehow, but I tell you and will continue to tell you that I am here to do as Flora’s da asked of me… to keep his daughter safe,” Walsh said.
Anwen went to interrupt for the second time and once again, Torin waved his hand to silence her.
“Ethan had found information pertaining to a possible spy sent from England while on another mission. The king was anxious to finally discover the elusive man’s identity. Word reached Ethan that the man might be in France looking for information. He used a gathering of scholars as an excuse to travel to Paris and see what he could find out. And I shouldn’t even be sharing that with you, but I doubt you care about such information.”
“Henry was in France, but on the coast,” Anwen said, not waiting for permission to speak.
Torin turned to her. “Where did you learn that?”
“I heard him tell Lady Flora.”
“He is with her?” Torin asked anxiously.
“That is what I came to tell you. The wind sent a powerful moan through the keep and everyone there ran out, including Henry.”
“My wife is alone in the keep?” Torin asked, already heading that way, Anwen and Walsh following.
“The last I saw, but I hurried to tell you as soon as I gave the servants Lady Flora’s orders,” Anwen said.
“Has anyone seen the man who arrived with the Strathearn warriors the other day?” Torin called out as he kept a quick pace to the keep.
“I saw him,” Philip called out.
Torin stopped.
Philip pointed. “He was entering the keep.”
Torin took off running, Walsh and Anwen not far behind him.
Flora bumped into things as she made her way into the dark room. A quick touch here and there identified them, a chest, a chair, the edge of a bed. Her quick assessment made her realize it had been a bedchamber, not a place of torture. She felt along the bedding and pulled her hand back when she touched what she thought was a leg. Someone was in the bed. She bravely let her hand roam again and discovered it was a skeleton. Someone had been sealed in here and she could not imagine the horrific death the person must have suffered.
“Flora!”
She jumped at the sound of Henry’s shout that had gotten closer. She had to find a place to hide until her husband got to her. But why was it dark in here. There should be some light even with the gray skies outside. The shutters surely had rotted away by now. She looked up to see if she could spot the windows. She could see nothing, and it dawned on her then. The door not only had been sealed with stone but the windows as well.
So, what caused the wind to moan through the keep with this room so tightly sealed?
A chill rushed over her turning her skin to gooseflesh. What if it was a ghost, not that of the giant but of the skeleton in the bed?
Her head snapped toward the light that suddenly filtered through the slim opening she had slipped through.
“Why do you have to make things so difficult, Flora?” Henry said as he peered through the narrow opening.
She heard a stone fall.
“Wonderful, the mortar has decayed enough that several of the stones topple when given a hard shove. I will join you shortly.” Another stone fell. “I will be sure to shed tears when I tell your husband that you pushed at the stone, and you fell in the room striking your head before I could reach you.”
She could not let that happen. She had to stay strong. A weapon. Could there possibly be a weapon in the room? That would have been the kind thing to do for the person who had been left here to die, leave a weapon so he would not suffer a lingering death.