That’s it! I thought angrily. I shall never get out of here!
It was a well-known fact that curiosity had killed the cat. Now, it seemed, I would suffer a similar fate. A hundred years in the future, some poor workmen would cut into the plaster only to discover a skeleton with dark curly hair dressed in an ivory and blue silk gown.
The image brought a half sob, half laugh as I continued to walk, one trudging step in front of another. When the sliver of light first appeared in the distance, I thought it a delusion, induced by one too many collisions into walls. Blinking several times, I expected it to blend back into the darkness. To my amazement, not only did the light remain, it grew more pronounced the farther I went. My feet came to a sudden stop, and I stood mesmerized by the sudden salvation.
“Oh, saints above, I’m saved!”
Not daring to run for fear of braining myself, I gathered my skirts and settled for a slow, careful trot. The distance fell away, and I soon found myself staring at the thin line of light from where a section of wall had not been properly secured once the last person had passed through. Huffing a relieved breath, I nudged the panel open, my thoughts solely fixed on escaping the last hour of hell rather than whose room I was about to invade.
Daylight hit my eyes, blinding me nearly as much as the darkness had. With my hand raised as a temporary shield, I took a tentative step forward when a man’s deep voice stopped me dead.
“Aye, Caitria,” the man said from somewhere across the room. “’Tis a lovely settee.”
A lady laughed, and I was reminded of a hundred silver bells. “And how would you know, Tiarnach?” she asked playfully. “For I swear you’ve not laid eyes upon it since you arrived.”
“I’ve saved my eyes for you, lass, and laid myself upon the settee instead. What better way to judge its merits?”
“And judged it you have,” she said, her voice taking on a sultry tone. “Very thoroughly, I might add.”
The first startled moment had stolen my wits, leaving me incapable of the simplest comprehension. Then the shadows cleared from my vision, and I saw a man and woman, both in a state of undress, entwined on an amber velvet settee—the same settee I had seen while running errands with Cate a week ago.
Realization hit harder than any of the previous walls, flooding my face with a rush of hot blood.
I shrank away in shame, willing myself to disappear. Nothing less than unmitigated humiliation could have forced me back between the walls. But that was exactly what I had in store if I stayed put, or even worse, tried to tiptoe for the chamber door. With the threat of discovery hanging like a guillotine over my head, I lifted a foot, and ever so slowly moved it behind me. Halfway to safety, I shifted the other foot with the same degree of caution. Inches away from a clean escape, my shoe came down on the hem of my gown. The sudden torque threw me off balance, and I stumbled like a clumsy buffoon into the encasement.
The man’s head whipped around. “Who’s there?” he asked, staring straight at me.
I jerked upright, then froze under Tom Faber’s intense gaze.
Cate pushed up to her elbows and looked at me. “Selah, is that you?”
Confusion reigned havoc in my brain. Get in the wall. Shut the panel...no...Don’t move. Stay where you are...
Flustered, I twisted from left to right as my hands fluttered like wings at my side. A flurry of movement came from the settee, and a moment later Cate stood in front of me. My humiliation complete, I dropped my eyes to the floor, unable to meet her gaze.
A warm hand rested on my arm. “Selah,” she said gently, “why were you in the walls?”
My mouth opened and closed several times to no avail. Finding myself incapable of speech, I resorted to a one-shoulder shrug to best explain my recent activities.
“Did you go exploring and get lost?” she asked.
This time I nodded, my eyes still fixed on the floor.
“Since you are without a candle, I assume you lost that as well.”
I nodded again.
“Oh, Selah, You must have been terrified. It took me six months to learn my way from one end to the other.” Her hand moved to my chin, and she gently nudged my chin up. “Good gracious, child!” she exclaimed when our eyes met. “Whatever happened to you face?”
Prickles stung my nose. Pressing my lips together hard, I blinked rapidly to keep from crying. These efforts had a minimal effect against the overwhelming combination of pain and shame, and my eyes were soon swimming.
“I couldn’t see anything once the candle went out.” I sniffled and brushed a tear from my cheek. “It was hard to tell where one passage ended and another began.”