Haunted by the Earl's Touch - By Ann Lethbridge Page 0,64
supply. She felt a little trickle of resentment at the thought, but had no time to think about it, because Mr Trelawny was directing her to a wooden trestle around the wall. ‘You’ll need boots,’ he said, sorting through a small pile. ‘It is muddy down there.’
As she sat down and her eyes adjusted to the smoky light, she noticed the large gaping hole before her and the flimsy-looking rope ladder leading down into the depths.
‘You will need a hat, my lord,’ Trelawny said, handing him a battered-looking felt object with a candle stuck in a lump of something nasty-looking on the front of it. ‘You, too, Miss Wilding.’ He frowned. ‘You will have to remove your bonnet.’
She looked at him and looked at the ladder and looked back at him. ‘How far down does it go?’
‘The first adit is about twenty feet down. Not far at all, miss. Old Jem is waiting at the bottom for us. There’s other parts of the mine where the depth is close to one-hundred-and-eighty feet.’
She felt a little faint at the thought of going into the bowels of the earth a mere twenty feet. ‘Why don’t I wait up here for your return? I am not really dressed for climbing down ladders.’
‘I should have loaned you a pair of my breeches,’ Bane said and there was a teasing note to his voice.
When she looked at him, he was smiling. And looking quite at home. ‘Come now, Miss Wilding, I thought you had more gumption. It was your idea to come.’ He actually looked as if he was enjoying himself. And he seemed to want to include her. It was quite a revelation.
‘I didn’t know about the ladder,’ she said weakly. ‘I don’t think my ankle is up to it.’ It was the first thing that came into her mind.
‘You haven’t let that stop you in the past. I will carry you down.’
Why was he being so insistent? ‘You couldn’t possibly.’ She shuddered.
‘You are no heavier than a hod of coal and I have carried a few of them in my time. Come on, Miss Wilding. Buck up.’ Before she knew what he was about, he had lifted her off her feet and tossed her over his shoulder. ‘Don’t move now, Miss Wilding, or we will both fall.’ He heaved one leg over the side of the hole, grasping on to the railing. He paused. ‘Light my candle for me, would you, Trelawny?’ he said with great good cheer.
Never had she felt so undignified. Or so foolish. Oh lord, that was his hand on her posterior. Holding her steady? Was he going to climb down using only one hand? ‘Really, my lord. I would be quite happy to wait up here for your return.’
‘You must think I am a complete fool, Miss Wilding, if you think I am letting you out of my sight for more than a minute so far from the Abbey.’
Oh, drat. He thought she intended to run away. He began to descend and she pressed her teeth into her lip to stop herself from crying out in fear and clutched on to the tails of his coat. The walls of the shaft glowed softly in the light of the tallow candle on his hat and after a while she began to relax. His movements were lithe and sure and his body in perfect balance. She trusted him. In this, at least.
After what seemed like a very long time with his shoulder pressing beneath her ribs and making it hard to breathe, but was probably only a minute or so, another light appeared. Several, in fact, dotted here and there on ledges around a wide cave.
Her ears were filled with the sound of rushing water. It echoed off the walls, yet sounded far off.
Bane set her carefully on her feet, held her for a moment while she found her balance, then stepped back.
Mr Trelawny jumped down beside her.
A bent and bowed figure appeared out of the dark. He had a clay pipe in one hand and a disapproving expression. ‘For what brought ’ee a woman down here? Bad luck it is.’
Mary stared back up the ladder and was able to see a faint glimmer way above them. The candles.
‘Don’t be foolish, man,’ Bane said. ‘Miss Wilding is the owner of this mine. If she wishes to look at her property, she has every right. Besides, women are only unlucky on ships.’
Mary’s jaw dropped at his quick defence and at his announcement