Page 15 of The Magical Bed & Breakfast

She laughed and slapped his arm lightly.

“Come on,” he motioned toward the room behind him. “I think you’ll get a kick out of this.”

They stepped into the stone room together. The ceiling was low. Rory had to stoop a smidgen, but Kate could just stand up straight.

“What is this place?”

“It leads to that.” Rory shone his light toward a stone wall at the back. When Kate frowned, he moved toward it, stepped to the side, and disappeared.

He heard her gasp, “Wait. How did you do that?”

He peeked back around the edge. “The wall only appears to go evenly all the way across. The way the stones are set, it blends. See how they’re staggered? It looks like one solid wall straight across, but there’s this gap. He stepped out and then back in and around so she could see.

“It’s like you’re a magician. You just vanish.”

“Wild, isn’t it?”

Kate came over to see for herself. She frowned. “But why? I mean, what’s the point? We’re in the wrong country for it to be a priest hole.”

“True enough, but there’s more. Here.”

Kate stepped up close again. He could feel her trepidation. Again, he appreciated her bravery as she gripped his forearm and eased around to peer into the darkness beyond him.

“It leads back here to a tunnel.” He shone the light into the space.

“A tunnel?” She squeaked and then coughed. “Oh no, not a tunnel under my inn.” She was shaking her head. “That sounds unsafe and dangerous. And what about critters and who knows what else?”

Rory nodded. “All that.” But he raised his eyebrow at her. “Don’t you want to know where it goes?”

“Do you?”

Rory nodded. “I only traveled it a little way, in the dark by myself, and I never told anyone. I’ve spent years wondering where it leads.”

“But why a tunnel?” she said with a wail. “We’re in the wrong part of the U.S. for it to have been part of the underground railroad.”

“True, although uncovering a tunnel used for rescuing enslaved people would have been cool. You want to come with me and see where it takes us?”

He watched her face in the dimness, so expressive. It went from horror at the thought, to fear, to distrust, to a flash of excited anticipation. She bit her lip and nodded. “I do. I really do want to know. But is it safe?”

Rory shrugged.

“Don’t you know?” Her voice rose in consternation.

It was a question he wasn’t sure how to answer. He did know, but not in any rational, scientific way. He just knew what it had once been, because he had been back in time to see it in action. Butwasit safe? Now, two hundred and fifty years later? Good question.

Everything in him was saying yes. Yes, it was safe. He had learned to trust his intuition, because if he’d learned anything growing up in Hazard, it was that the most hazardous part of Hazard was how the wrong kind of people treated you.

Hazard itself, well, that had never scared him. He shook his head at the realization.

“So, it’s not safe?”

“Well, I’m going to find out, unless you stop me.”

Kate pursed her lips as if weighing the pros and cons. She gave a brusque nod. “Okay, but I’m not going into that cavern in shorts and a tee. Give me a minute.”

Kate dashed back up the stairs. He could hear her steps thumping on up to the second and third floors.

He waited, fidgeting and wandering the basement. It took a while, and he started to wonder if she had chickened out. He was about to head up to find out, then almost laughed when she reappeared outfitted in a pair of jeans that truly turned those long legs into a work of art. She wore a lightweight, long-sleeved shirt, and her hair was wound up in some kind of turban. She also had on work gloves. She tossed a similar, though larger, pair at him.

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