Page 85 of A Bride for the Devilish Duke

“Elsie, whatever is happening? Mable? Are you well?”

“I am taking Mable to her room for a bit of quiet. She has had a scare,” Elsie said briskly.

“A scare? How?” Emma asked.

“She was dusting in the hallway here, at the far end, and she heard the violin that we had both heard. And then something else…” Elsie replied.

“It was horrible, Your Grace, like a demon from hell! Roaring and growling, and then there was this terrible crash. There issomething in this house, something that means us harm! It was like it was trying to break through the walls to get to me!”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Emma ambled the hallway with trepidation, Elsie by her side. Josie was not equal to a ghost hunt and had been tasked with comforting the frightened Mable. Behind Emma and Elsie, beyond a turn in the hallway, lay the private chambers belonging to Emma and Damien. Beyond that were rooms seldom used which she had not yet explored.

“Mr. Wilkins discourages us from dusting these rooms. Only once a month are we permitted beyond the corner where your private chambers end,” Elsie whispered.

“More secrets. I will cast some light on this one at least,” Emma grumbled back.

They walked to the end of the hallway but heard nothing. No music and no raging demon.

“Perhaps the demon has escaped,” Elsie suggested.

Emma looked at her quizzically and she gave a wry smile.

“I'm trying to think of a sensible explanation for what Mable heard. I can't think of any,” the maid added.

“Ican. We are not alone in this house. But it needn't be a spirit. Merely a… house guest?”

She opened the door at the end of the hallway revealing a staircase that descended. At that moment, there came the sound of movement from above them.

“That was very definitely a person, I should say…” Emma began.

Elsie shuddered. “Feet dragging across the floor and a body slumping heavily against something. Like a man shifting in his sleep. If he were sleeping on the floor.”

“But there is no way up from here. We shall have to find the way up to the fourth floor…” Emma finished.

Her accomplice shook her head. “This isit. Mr. Wilkins said that the way to the music room on the fourth floor went through the Duke's chambers. It is the oldest part of the house and your private rooms were added later.”

Emma frowned. This could not be it. That didn’t make sense. She stepped into the stairwell, turning her head in the direction of the sound. Wooden panels faced her. She pressed her palms inquisitively against them, grazing their outlines. When shereached the last, one of them shifted—ever so slightly beneath her touch.

“Well, I never,” Elsie breathed as Emma pressed harder and the panel swung inward.

They looked into the dark, narrow staircase beyond. From somewhere above, there came a groan and a wheezing breath.

“That is no spirit. That is a human being in distress!” Emma exclaimed.

She hurried up into the darkness followed closely by Elsie. At the top was another door that seemed to be a threshold. Beyond it, the wooden paneling and stairs gave way to stone. A spiral stair rose before them. The flicker of firelight reached fitfully down towards them from the top of the stairs.

Exchanging looks, the two women ascended. Emma entered the room beyond first.

A man with long, unkempt graying hair lay sprawled on the floor in front of the fireplace. A violin lay on the floor a few inches from his outstretched hand. A chair lay on its side beside him.

Elsie hurried past Emma as soon as she saw the man, kneeling by his side and pressing fingers to his throat.

“A pulse, thready and irregular but there,” the maid observed, “he is cold to the touch and his breathing is ragged.”

She put an ear to his chest for a moment.

“There is crackling in there. From the feel of it, he's been in the cold for too long, damp too probably. It’s got into his chest. Can you find blankets and something to feed up the fire?”