DANGER AT DUNHAVEN CASTLE (EBOOK)

Cate’s heart pounded hard in her chest. She puffed with exertion. Her throat parched as she raced down the hall. She risked a glance behind her. The hallway appeared empty. Where was he, she wondered?

She hurried through the doorway into the library. She tugged the train of her gown inside before closing and locking the doors.

Cate backed a few steps away. A loud pounding shook the doors. She jumped with each jolt.

“Catherine,” a voice growled on the other side. Cate’s breath caught in her throat at the sound of his voice. She swallowed hard as she glanced around the library. No escape routes existed. Could she climb from a window, she pondered?

Cate hastened to one window and yanked on the handle. It stuck fast. She struggled with it as the pounding ceased. She spun to face the now silent door. Her eyes widened as the doorknob turned. Would the lock hold? Not for long, Cate surmised.

Her eyes searched the space and she spotted a new feature. A gaping black hole stared back at her. Cate lifted her skirts and sprinted into the blackness.

Cate knew the space well. Additional light was not needed. She pressed against the stone wall as she crept down the stairs leading to Douglas MacKenzie’s secret office. At the bottom, Cate groped the wall in the dim light. Her fingers found the trigger to close the secret passage off to the library. She pulled it. A scraping sound filled her ears as the bookshelf swung closed.

The closing bookcase shut out all light from the room. With the space plunged into blackness, Cate held her breath as she strained her ears for sounds of the library doors being breached. Silence pervaded the space.

After a moment, faint footsteps sounded on the floor above her. Cate’s pulse quickened as she glanced to the ceiling. She retreated further into Douglas’s office. In the darkness, Cate bumped into his desk. It made a sickening scrape across the floor. 

The footsteps halted above. When they resumed, they hurried toward her location. A tear escaped Cate’s eye as she rushed to hide.

Light illuminated the space she searched. He had opened the bookcase. “Catherine? Where are you hiding?” he called to her.

Cate held in a sob as she squeezed into a darkened corner. She pressed against the damp stone wall as she sank to the floor. Footfalls sounded on the wooden steps leading down to her hiding place. Cate sucked in air as she struggled to maintain her composure. 

The man appeared at the bottom of the stairs, backlit by the light from above. Even featureless, his form was imposing. Cate pressed a hand over her mouth as she strove to remain silent. 

The walls around her pushed against her back and side. Were they moving closer to her or was she pressing herself closer to them, she wondered? The man stalked across the room. Had he spotted her? Cate shrank further back. The walls closed in around her. She squeezed her eyes shut as the figure approached.

The damp, cold rock brushed against Cate’s skin. When she opened her eyes, the stone wall filled her vision. What happened, she pondered? She felt around, finding stone surrounded her. She pushed against the cold, rough rock, searching for an exit. She found none.

Cate pounded her fists against the wall in front of her. Tears streamed down her face as she fought to escape her prison. “HELP!” she screamed. “HELP!”