her knees and lifting a board from the floor. Beneath it was a dark hole. Puzzled, Connor stooped beside her. On closer inspection, he saw that there was a ladder in the hole.
"What is this?" he asked.
"Cook told me it leads down into a secret part of the dungeon, built for special prisoners."
"Special?" Connor grunted. "Why has no one told me about it?"
"Cook's grandfather showed it to him when he was a young lad. I don't think anyone else knows about it except perhaps a couple of the old folk." Ilysa smiled and added, "And your dog."
"How did Maggie get down there?" he asked, trying to see down into the hole.
"I couldn't find it, but there must be another entrance." Ilysa turned around to back down the ladder and put her foot on the first rung.
"No need for you to go," Connor said.
"I must show ye where she's hiding," Ilysa said. "You can carry the torch."
"All right, but I'll go first."
The smell of damp earth filled Connor's nose as he climbed down through the narrow tunnel. When he reached the bottom rung of the ladder, he dropped to the floor, then lifted Ilysa down. Such a slender waist she had. He looked around and saw that they were in a stone-walled passageway. Many castles had secret tunnels like this.
"Maggie and her pups are in there," Ilysa said, pointing into the darkness.
Connor followed the tunnel around a corner and through an open iron grate door into what was surely a cell. He lifted the torch to see into the corners, looking for his damned dog. Something was odd, but he could not quite put his finger on it. Ach, there were no rats scurrying before him, and no spiderwebs. That was it.
When the door slammed behind him, he thought it had been blown shut. But there is no wind. He turned around, wondering what happened.
"Ilysa?" He raised his torch higher. Where had she gone?
He pulled on the door, but it was stuck. He jerked at it. Then he glanced about the cell. There were no pups here.
"Ilysa!" he shouted and pounded his fist on the door.
Relief flooded through him when he saw Ilysa's head poke out from around the corner. She must have been waiting for him back by the ladder.
"The door's stuck," he said. "Ye may have to fetch some of the men to get me out."
"I'm sorry," she said, stepping out from behind the wall. "If you'd listened to me, I wouldn't have to do this."
"What in the hell are ye talking about?" he shouted. "Open this damned door at once!"
"I can't do that."
Connor's stomach dropped. She could not be betraying him. Not Ilysa.
"I told ye I had a vision," she said. "You were with your two uncles, and Hugh stabbed ye in the back. He murdered ye."
Instead of betraying him, had she gone mad? She stood outside of the circle of light from his torch so he could not see her face clearly, but she sounded as though she was weeping.
"Open the door," he said, trying to keep his voice calm. "Ye do have the key?"
"Can't ye see that I couldn't let ye meet your uncles?" she said. "I must protect ye."
"You, protect me?" he said, anger surging through his veins. "I am your chieftain, and I command ye to release me."
"Hugh was going to murder ye if ye went," she said. "I saw it."
"Ilysa!" he shouted.
"It won't be for that long," she said, brushing her skirts as if she were discussing a problem with the laundry. "Three days should be long enough for ye to miss the meeting, aye?"
She could not mean it.
"Ye have everything ye need down here. Plenty of candles and parchment," she said. "I'll bring ye food and fresh water every day."
By the saints, she had planned this all out. "You even cleaned it, didn't ye?"
He wanted to strangle her.
"If ye look under that cloth on the table, you'll find one of those apple tarts you're so fond of."
"An apple tart?" he said, clenching his fists. "Christ, Ilysa, ye think an apple tart will appease me!"
"No need for blasphemy and shouting," she said.
"I'm going to commit a far worse sin than blasphemy when I get out of here," he shouted. "I'm going to murder ye! Now release me at once!"
Chapter 15
Ilysa listened to the men's snores as she crept through the darkened hall on silent feet. Guiding herself with one hand on the wall, she descended the stairs into the undercroft. After she was