CHAPTER 58
The Great Hall was empty when Jess went in. The set was still in place, but she figured they’d leave it to the final day to dismantle it. She walked to the far end of the room and stepped in behind the fake wall to the hidden staircase that led to the gallery.
There was a rustling noise and she turned to look around but there was nobody there. Quietly, she climbed the circular staircase. There was that noise again – only slightly louder.
“Hello?”
There was a click that Jess could have sworn was a door closing. She followed the curve of the gallery as it widened out over the hall before getting narrower again. She was alone.
But she was certain somebody else had been here just moments beforehand. Let it go, Jess. It’s not your problem. Nobody got hurt.
The entrance to the tunnel was somewhere down this end of the gallery, she knew.
Heart thumping, Jess ran her hand slowly along the polished panelling.
Unlike the panelling around the fireplace in the Lady Linford Suite, all of it seemed the same.
She looked a bit closer. That could be the entrance there.
It was a few feet from the ground, but slightly wider than the rest of the panelling.
She pushed it and when nothing happened she tried to tug it towards her, but there was nothing to hold on to – it seemed flush to the wall.
She thought for a moment, then tapped around it, searching carefully. Slightly frustrated, she banged on the panel right beside it and, to her shock, the entrance slid open.
It’s dangerous, Jess. No, that was just what Robert had told Anthony. Because she’d lay bets that somebody had just gone in. She peered into the darkness.
“Hello? Anyone in there?”
She pulled out her phone and flicked on the light.
This was such a bad idea – if it was a horror movie, she’d be shouting at the screen right now.
Except it’s a romcom called An Irish Inheritance.
She tried to laugh, but she felt a bit sick.
This looked a lot smaller than the Lady Linford tunnel.
Why would she even think about doing anything so crazy?
No, she couldn’t do it. Could she? Shit, here went nothing.
Crouching over, she crawled inside, keeping the door open behind her and the light from her phone on.
The air was stale and musty, and she felt her skin become clammy, her chest tightening, forcing her to shallow-breathe.
The floor was rough stone and felt almost damp, although Jess guessed it was just cold.
She didn’t have to do this – she could just crawl backwards into the safety of the gallery.
Instead, she forced herself to keep going, her heart beating in her throat as she inched along.
After another couple of minutes she stopped. How much further? It couldn’t be that far – not when it only opened into the castle grounds.
She started to crawl again, then took a huge gasp as the air started to freshen. Ahead of her, she could see the first chink of daylight and guessed the exit had been left open.
Shaking, Jess pulled herself out, emerging at ground level, beside one of the old kitchen delivery entrances to the castle.
That was it! She was ticking tunnel-crawling off her list of things she never, ever wanted to do again.
Taking a few moments to slow her breathing, she turned and spotted Robert a short distance away, watching her.
Jess realised she wasn’t that surprised.
“I heard you so I waited to make sure you got through okay.” Robert’s tone was jovial.
She wrapped her arms tightly around herself, in an effort to steady herself. “Is this the tunnel you’ve been using since the filming began?”
He laughed. “Why would I use a tunnel to get into the castle? I have a security pass, remember?”
“So why were you in it just now? Why was it unlocked?”
For a moment she thought he wasn’t going to answer. Then he shrugged. “The old lock was broken. I just fixed it today.”
“But you told Anthony it was dangerous.”
He hesitated. “Structurally, it’s okay. It’s just not as safe as the others because of its size. A big person could actually get stuck.”
“Maybe, but you opened it a while ago, didn’t you? Not for you, for somebody else – that reporter.”
“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about, Jess.”
Was she being paranoid?
He sighed. “Listen, I don’t blame you for cancelling last night, you had a rough day yesterday. What about getting together this evening instead?”
She stared at him. “You didn’t answer my question.”
He puffed out a breath. “Why are you obsessing about locks and tunnels? They’re all four hundred years old, sometimes they get a bit warped. Like the lock on the Lady Linford tunnel did when you were in there.”
Jess’s mouth had dried. “How did you know about that?”
“I heard about it. Jesus, they had to get somebody in to repair the panelling around it.”
He closed the gap between them but she found herself stepping away from him.
“Look, I’m not sure what’s going on,” he said, “but you’ve been acting weirdly the last few days.”
Maybe he was right. Maybe she’d got so caught up in the drama of the last couple of days she couldn’t see what was real anymore. Or maybe he was doing such a great job of gaslighting her that she was starting to doubt her own instincts. Something her nana had always told her to rely on.
But she was missing something. This exit was the same as the others – it could only be accessed from inside the tunnel. Unless … She crouched down beside it and tried to pull it towards her but it wouldn’t budge. “What did you do?”
He sighed. “I’ve just told you.”
“No, to the exit.” She placed her hand on the grass in front of it and felt carefully around, her fingers hitting against something low on the ground. Closing her thumb and forefinger around it, she tugged out a wedge of wood, and the exit swung loose.
“This had to be left wedged open for her, I suppose.”
“I just wedged it open for you a few minutes ago,” Robert said.
Jess stared at him for a moment. Nope, she didn’t have the bandwidth for this. “I assume you have a key for the tunnel?”
Robert a small, single key out of his pocket and handed it to her. “I just fixed the lock, Jess.”
“You’re good at warping them too, aren’t you, Robert?”
An expression of guilt, so fleeting she almost missed it, crossed his face.
So she’d been right. She’d held out some faint hope that she’d got it wrong – that somehow the entrance to the tunnel had just got stuck.
She’d have to report her suspicions to Anthony.
She had to make sure that Robert wouldn’t be employed by the Charleston Group again.
He seemed to recover his equilibrium. “You don’t honestly believe I’d do anything like that, do you?”
She looked at him, standing with his hands in his pockets, an expression of hurt on his face.
“I don’t believe you’d hurt me intentionally, no.
” Briefly, she remembered the pain of her breakup with Adam.
Of their last conversation before she’d left him.
She’d been upset – but so had he. She hadn’t trusted him to stay the distance when they’d hit a speedbump so early on.
Now she wondered if she’d been utterly wrong.
Robert was still talking, cajoling. She tuned him out.
How had she allowed anything to develop between them?
Had she really liked him? Sure, she’d been attracted to him.
But mainly she’d been desperate to prove to herself – and everyone else – that she was over Adam.
Robert was nothing like Adam. Her mistake had been thinking that was a good thing.
And now Adam had moved on. But for her part in the breakup, she owed him an apology. And she wasn’t going to waste another second on the man in front of her.
“Goodbye, Robert.” She turned and walked away through the grounds.