Realizing she had nothing to make a list of their needs with, Annys decided to go get some writing materials from the ledger room. If they were running out of something as important as spices they undoubtedly needed other things. She started out of the storeroom only to pause just inside the door to study the women there.
When she saw Biddy, a plump, fair-haired young woman who was one of the cook’s assistants, slyly tuck some bread into her apron, Annys stepped back a little into the shadows and kept her gaze fixed on the woman. Since Biddy had no desperate need for food, she had to wonder why the woman would steal some bread. It could be something as innocent as wanting to share some food with a lover, but Annys was still wary. The moment she had learned there was a traitor within the walls of Glencullaich, the number of people she trusted without question had dropped alarmingly. Annys wanted the traitor gone so that she could feel safe again within her own home.
Biddy told Maura she needed to get out of the hot kitchen for a while. Maura did not even look up from the work she was doing, just grunted in reply. The moment Biddy walked out, Maura began to mutter to herself, a long list of complaints about how often Biddy walked away from the work she was supposed to do. The fact that Biddy did not go out the door leading to the kitchen gardens was suspicious. Annys decided that was more than enough reason to follow the woman.
Biddy slunk her way to the door leading into the ledger room and Annys felt her suspicions grow stronger. One thing she did know about the woman was that Biddy could neither read nor do her numbers. There was nothing in the ledger room that could possibly be of interest to her except the door to the bolt-hole.
Annys waited outside the door, keeping close to the wall and using the shadows there to hide in. A moment later Biddy slipped out of the room, something the shape of a small book weighing down one of the pockets in her apron. Torn between rushing into the ledger room to see just what the woman had taken and following her to see if she went to meet with anyone, Annys finally picked the latter course of action.
When Biddy slipped into the small room meant for the lady of the keep to entertain her female friends, Annys’s heart sank into her boots. That was where the special, very secret bolt-hole was. She doubted David had confided that information to the cook’s assistant so Annys had to think that she had been spied on by the maid. Every so often she would check that bolt-hole to see if it needed any repair. It was just another part of her duties in the keep and it would probably have been easy enough for Biddy to see her do it or even overhear the occasional remark made to Joan after she had done the chore.
She waited outside the door a few moments and then slipped inside, working furiously on a reasonable excuse for being there if Biddy was still in there. No one was in the room and she sighed. There was only one way out of this small solar if one did not choose to use the door, and that was the bolt-hole David had made for a select few. It really did not matter how Biddy found out about it, only that she had. If the woman was just using it to meet a lover, it could be a forgivable crime, but Annys’s instinct told her it was far more than that.
Sliding aside the wood panel that hid the opening to the bolt-hole, Annys slipped inside. She could see the light from Biddy’s torch just up ahead. Trying to be as quiet as possible, she followed the woman just far enough to remain unseen or duck into the shadows, but near enough to take full advantage of the torchlight. Her heart was pounding and she knew it was not all with the anticipation of solving an important puzzle. The fear she had for such tight, dark places was stirring to life inside her.
When Biddy reached the end and opened the hatch that led outside, Annys pressed herself hard against the wall and inched back a few steps, deep into the dark she so hated. Then all the light was gone as Biddy silently put the hatch back down and the full dark of the tunnel pressed in on her. Annys realized she was panting, her nails digging into the stone she leaned against. It took a long time for her to calm down enough to run over to the hatch and test it to be certain it would open easily.
She reached up and cracked the hatch open just enough to let some light inside. Annys stood there for a little while, savoring the light and breathing deeply of pine and grass, before cautiously peeking outside, her eyes just above the thick grasses covering the hillside. She could see Biddy running toward some trees. It was not until the woman was just inside the wooded area that the men arrived.
Thinking she was about to completely ruin a very good dress, Annys pulled herself out of the hole and sprawled in the grasses. It was not easy but she squirmed around until she could reach the hatch and quickly closed it again, letting the small bushes crowded around the hatch fall back into place to hide it. A quick look told her that the people meeting in the wood had all their attention on each other so she scurried closer until she was crouched behind a clump of saplings.