Page 25 of Harrowing Hall
Thunder rumbled. Lightning flashed. Rain fell in heavy sheets against the windows.
“It is doubtful Jane has been in here.” Blake shook his head. “Only a handful of servants ever dare come into this room as it’s considered the most haunted chamber in the castle.”
“No doubt it is,” Maude said softly.
Her gaze lingered on Lady Annabel’s visage before she eyed the room. How many times had Annabel mourned in this very chamber? Longed for her son to come home? She was about to look at the portrait again, but lightning flashed, and something caught her attention.
“What is that?” She narrowed her eyes at a notable definition in the stone wall. “Do you see it?” Blake joined her as she took a candle and moved closer to where the picture had hung. “There is a flaw in the wall, is there not?”
“Are you sure?” He shook his head. “This picture has been taken down several times over the years for restorations, and nothing was there. It would have been reported because old castles like this are in constant need of repair.” His eyes narrowed as well. “Yet I see what you mean.”
Maude ran her finger along the fissure in the stone, only for pieces to fall away. Then more pieces. Then, even more, until one of many brick shaped stones was clearly defined.
“Find something,” she whispered, repeating what the fortune teller had said. “Realize something. Look beyond something.” She glanced from the stone to Blake. “Could this be what she meant? For some might say it is as muchbeyondLady Annabel’s picture asbehindit.”
“Perhaps.” Blake searched around until he found something suitable and carefully pried at the stone, working it out of its position. When he finally wedged it free and set it aside, Maude held a candle up to a rather deep hole.
She frowned. “I see nothing.”
That is until thunder shook the castle, and lightning flashed again, revealing something tucked way back.
“My arm is too big,” Blake began but needed not as she had already reached in.
What could it be? Because she,they, had been led to something.
“What is it?” he wondered.
“Give me a moment.” She kept reaching her arm into the chilly, sharp-edged hole until she touched the tip of it. “I think it’s parchment.”
“Truly?”
“Oh, yes.” She hooked her finger over its lip until she could clasp an edge. Ever so gently, she pulled it out only to reveal a very dusty scroll wrapped with a crusty scrap of MacLauchlin tartan.
“Dare we unroll it?” she whispered as if speaking too loudly might somehow break it apart.
Blake held it this way and that, running the edge of the parchment between his fingers before he nodded. “I think perhaps we can.” He shook his head, amazed. “For it has been very well preserved in this crevice.”
“Preserved for over three hundred years?”
“So it seems.” He carefully laid it down in front of Lady Annabel’s portrait. “I have heard rumor that objects, even parchment, kept in closed-off areas can survive for some time.” He looked from Annabel to the scroll. “But should we risk it? Or wait for a professional?”
“A professional?” She shook her head, positive they should do no such thing. This scroll was meant for her eyes.Theireyes. “No.” She rested her hand on Blake’s shoulder. “You are this castle’s laird, so you should do it.” A strange warmth rolled through her. “Weshould do it.”
“Aye?”
The right thing to do to ensure his family heirloom remained preserved was to wait for someone more adept at this, but the moment Maude looked into Lady Annabel’s eyes, she knew they should proceed. Just the two of them.
She looked at him and nodded. “Yes.”
“All right, then.” He gingerly removed the bit of tartan, and it nearly crumbled in his hand.
Yet the scroll did not.
Rather when carefully unrolled, it revealed something neither could have ever imagined.
Chapter Sixteen
Blake could hardlybelieve they had found such an old scroll behind Lady Annabel’s portrait, never mind that it did not crumble in his hands when he unrolled it. Yes, he might have waited for a professional, but something about the way Maude looked at him and how certain she was Lady Annabel had been her fortune teller convinced him to do it.
