Page 94 of Stalk the Dark
“Me name’s Daisy, miss. I come with the house. Lemme tek that from ya.” She held her hands out for the tray.
I passed it to her, and she smiled. “Oh, good to see somebody with a healthy appetite.”
“I haven’t seen you here before…”
“Oh, I been busy, miss. It’s a big place. Cleaning teks a while. But there’ll be less to do now that we’ve lost a guest.”
“Huh? What guest?”
“The big man with the hair that’s not quite white.”
“Ordell? Wait…He left?”
Her eyes went round. “Leave? No…well, not of his own accord.”
“What do you mean?”
She chewed on her bottom lip. “I shouldn’t be talking ’bout this. Master won’t like it. Please, miss, forget I said anything.” She made to turn away.
“Wait! Please. Did Ezekiel do something to Ordell?”
She looked over her shoulder with a grimace. “Oh dear. Me and me big mouth.”
Panic gripped me by the throat. “Where is he? Tell me where he is or I’ll go straight to your master and ask him myself, and he’ll know you must have let something slip.”
She shook her head, clearly frightened. “No, please…I can’t tell you where he is.”
“Dammit, woman, I?—”
“I’ll have to show you.”
I grabbed a jacket,shoved on my boots, and followed her into the castle corridors. She moved fast, gliding down the passages as if she was on wheels. I had to trot to keep up.
We took several flights of stairs and entered a part of the castle where the walls were more stone than plaster and the air had a natural bite that stung my skin.
“How much farther?”
“Not far now,” she said.
We were at ground level, deep in the center of the castle with no windows when she stopped at an iron reinforced door. She hauled it open, then plucked a candelabra from its nook in the wall and slipped inside.
More steps led deep into the dark, which was barely held at bay by the candle’s light.
I followed close at her heels. “Is this the basement?”
“Oh no, miss. It’s much more than that.”
“Not the dungeons. I’ve been in those.”
She snorted, the sound almost derisive. “Have you now?”
“Excuse me?” My scalp tightened, and for the first time since she’d shown up on my doorstep, the thought that she might not be who she seemed occurred to me.
What did they say about the rising…about ghosts? Shit, was I following a ghost?
I dug in my heels. “I think I’m done. I’m going back.”
She stopped a few steps below me. “As you wish, miss. But I kept my word. I was willing to show you where Master has your friend shackled so?—”
