“No,” she said so loudly that the other women in the room looked over at us. Then she shook her head violently and lowered her voice again. “No, that’s ridiculous. Unthinkable. Vlad would never. He’s sweet. He’s kind. You should see how he treated me in Paris. Like a princess should be treated.” She took my hand. “I can trust you as my dear old friend. Come and meet him for yourself, come and ask him yourself, then you’ll see. I’ve told him about you, and soon you are to be my dear sister.”

“All right,” I said.

She led me out of the salon, then opened a door in the paneled wall that led to a narrow side staircase. “My little shortcut to the secret room,” she said. “This castle is full of them. We used to have such fun playing hide-and-seek when we were children. Except for Siegfried. He was stuffy even then. Watch your step, they are very narrow and it’s dark in here.”

She started up the steps ahead of me. I went to follow. One second I was standing on the stone floor; the next, the slab I was standing on tilted downward and I was plunging into darkness.

Chapter 30

Chapter 30

In a dungeon. Not very nice.
Saturday, November 19

I was half sliding, half tumbling down a rough stone chute, unable to stop or slow my fall, waiting for the inevitable moment when I would crash onto a hard surface below. The ridiculous image of Alice in Wonderland, falling down the rabbit hole, flashed through my mind as I struck another stone panel that swung open. Then I tumbled into nothing-ness, had an odd sensation of arms reaching out to me, then landing on something softer than I’d expected, before I hit the stone floor and everything went black.

I came back to consciousness to some kind of awful noise—an unearthly wailing sound. I opened my eyes. I was lying on a cold stone floor in almost total darkness. A round white thing was hovering over me—a pale moon face, staring at me with its mouth open in some kind of horrible chant. Then I made out words in the wail.

“Oh, lawks, oh, blimey, oh, miss.”

“Queenie?” I murmured. I tried to sit up and the world swung around alarmingly while a pain shot through my head.

“Sorry, miss. I tried to catch you but you was coming too fast. At least I broke your fall a little.”

“That was you I landed on?” I asked.

“That’s right.”

“Goodness. That was brave of you. Did I hurt you?”

“Not too bad. I’m well padded. But you come flying down at such a rate—”

“Well, you would too if the floor suddenly opened up beneath you,” I said.