Timeline - Michael Crichton [112]
Marek snorted. Kate continued on. At the far end of the corridor, a tapestry covered the left wall. She lifted the tapestry—it was surprisingly heavy—and then began to move along the wall, pressing the stones. “I’m pretty sure it’s here,” she said.
“Pretty sure?” Chris said.
“The passage to take us to the rear courtyard.”
She reached the end of the wall. She didn’t find a door. And she had to admit, looking back along the wall, that it didn’t appear as if there was a doorway anywhere in this wall. The stones were smoothly and evenly mortared. The wall was flat, with no bulges or indentations. There was no sign of any additional or recent work. When she put her cheek against the wall and squinted along the length, it seemed all of a piece.
Was she wrong?
Was this the wrong place?
She couldn’t be wrong. The door was here somewhere. She went back, pressing again. Nothing. When she finally discovered it, it was by pure accident. They heard voices from the other end of the corridor—voices coming up the stairwell. When she turned to look, her foot scraped against the stone at the base of the wall.
She felt the stone move.
With a soft metallic clink, a door appeared directly in front of her. It only opened a few inches. But she could see that the masonry had concealed the crack with cunning skill.
She pushed the door open. They all went through. Marek came last, dropping the tapestry as he closed the door.
:
They were in a dark, narrow passageway. Small holes in the wall every few yards allowed faint light to enter, so torches were not necessary.
When she had first mapped this passage, among the ruins of Castelgard, Kate had wondered why it existed. It seemed to make no sense. But now that she was here, she immediately understood its purpose.
This wasn’t a passage to get from one place to another. It was a secret corridor to spy into the apartments on the second floor.
They moved forward quietly. From the adjacent room, Kate heard voices: a woman’s and a man’s. As they came to the small holes, they all paused, peered through.
She heard Chris give a sigh that was almost a groan.
:
At first, Chris saw only a man and woman silhouetted against a bright window. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the glare. Then he realized that it was Lady Claire and Sir Guy. They were holding hands, touching each other intimately. Sir Guy kissed her passionately, and she returned his kiss with equal fervor, her arms around his neck.
Chris just stared.
Now the lovers broke, and Sir Guy was speaking to her as she stared intently into his eyes. “My Lady,” he was saying, “your public manner and sharp discourtesy provoke many to laugh behind my back, and talk of my unmanliness, that I should tolerate such abuse.”
“It must be so,” she said. “For both our sakes. This you know full well.”
“Yet I would you were not quite so strong in your manner.”
“Oh so? And how, then? Would you chance the fortune we both desire? There is other talk, good knight, as you know full well. So long as I oppose marriage, I share those suspicions that many harbor: that you had a black hand in my husband’s death. Yet if Lord Oliver forces this marriage upon me, despite all my efforts, then no one can complain of my regard. ‘Tis true?”
” ‘Tis true,” he said, nodding unhappily.
“Yet how different is the circumstance, if I show you favor now,” she said. “The same tongues that wag will soon whisper that I too was party to my husband’s untimely end, and such tales will quickly reach my husband’s family in England. Already, they are of a mind to retake his estates. They lack only the excuse to act. Thus Sir Daniel keeps a watchful eye upon all I do. Good knight, my woman’s reputation is easily defiled, never to make repair. Our sole safety lies in my unbending hostility toward you, so I pray you tolerate what slurs may vex you now, and think instead upon your coming reward.”
Chris’s jaw dropped open. She was behaving with exactly the same intense intimacy—the warm glance, the low voice, the soft caresses on the neck—that she had used with him. Chris had