but neat little paw prints, of the sort that might belong to a dainty, fastidious feline who’d found a secret way into Darlington Castle that led from the kitchen garden, past the stillroom, and straight to…
Cassandra’s bedchamber.
There was a hidden door that led from the secret passageway into Cassandra’s bedchamber—there had to be. That was why it was always so cold in there. It must be in the dressing room. Perhaps behind the clothes press?
Cecilia’s shaking fingers clenched into fists as everything fell into place at once. Lady Leanora had brought the blue ball gown, the embroidered shoes and the sapphire hairpins into Cassandra’s bedchamber. They hadn’t been there all along, as Cecilia had thought, and Gideon hadn’t put them there.
Lady Leanora had had the run of the castle from the very start.
It was the only explanation, and it explained everything. Seraphina’s mysterious comings and goings , for one, but it was more than that.
The secret passageway was the means by which someone had accessed Cassandra’s sick room without anyone else in the castle knowing she was there.
Gideon wasn’t the only person who’d brought Cassandra refreshment in those last months before she died. He was simply the only one who’d been seen doing so. All the while, someone else—someone who wished to see Cassandra and her unborn child harmed—had also had access to her.
It would have been the easiest thing in the world for that person to bring Cassandra a cup of pennyroyal tea every night, and stay with her while she drank it down. A person Cassandra believed would never hurt her, despite the resentment between them.
A person she trusted, like her cousin, Lady Leanora.
The last person in the world she should have trusted.
Lady Leanora was far more dangerous than Gideon suspected. She was a murderer, and all the time they’d thought themselves safe, she’d been roaming about the castle. Why, she might have snatched Isabella at any time, carried her off while they slept—
She might have, but she hadn’t. Fear clawed at Cecilia’s throat as the full force of this truth slammed into her. If Lady Leanora hadn’t returned to Darlington Castle to take Isabella, why had she returned? Who did she intend to hurt this time?
There was no time to consider it now. She had to find Gideon. Cecilia snatched at the iron ring to close the door, but she stopped it from slamming shut at the last minute.
Something else caught her eye, something…strange.
She’d been staring at the footprints in the snow all this time, but she hadn’t made sense of what she was seeing until now. Seraphina’s tidy little paw prints were marching in a neat line away from the castle. They pointed toward the wood, but the corresponding human prints in the snow pointed in the other direction.
Into the castle.
Lady Leanora must have entered the castle last night, after the snow had accumulated enough to make her footprints visible. But unless she truly was a ghost, and had found a way to walk in the snow without leaving any prints, then she hadn’t come back out this way again.
Which meant…Lady Leanora was inside the castle.
Inside with Duncan, Isabella, Amy, and Mrs. Briggs, and they had no idea she was there.
Dear God. She had to get them out at once, while at the same time doing all she could to keep Lady Leanora in, just long enough for Gideon to be found. Lady Leanora would try and escape through the passageway, but if it were sealed, and she became trapped…
It would put an end to the White Lady haunting Darlington Castle.
Cecilia turned and fled back down the passageway, her footsteps echoing on the stone floor. She was breathless by the time she burst back through the door into the stillroom and ran into the kitchen. In a stroke of good luck, Duncan was sitting at the kitchen table, stuffing a piece of buttered bread into his mouth.
“Duncan, thank goodness!” Cecilia fell against the table, panting.
“Miss Cecilia, ye near scared the life out of me!” Duncan shot to his feet, his eyes going wide. “What’s wrong? Ye look peculiar, like ye seen a ghost.”
“Not yet, but perhaps soon, with any luck. Come with me.” Cecilia took him by the arm and dragged him to the back of the stillroom, where the crates were stacked near the open door. “Listen to me carefully, Duncan. There’s a passageway on the other side of this door. Follow it to the end, and you’ll find a door set into the ceiling.