The Dark Library by JJ Argus Read Free Book Online Page A

young men she'd
grown up with. But he was simply too arrogant and unpleasant to
really contemplate such a thing.
    She had trouble sleeping again that night.
She had the occasional dream, and even a brief erotic dream. In it,
she was naked at a strip club, prancing and dancing about, and
sitting in the front row was Carling, staring at her.
    She woke, troubled, and got dressed. She
needed exercise, so put on sweat pants and a tank top and went
downstairs. She made her way outside and then began to jog around
the estate. There were a lot of walkways, and exploring them was
interesting, if tiring. She returned to the back of the house
panting and sweating, needing a shower. She looked longingly at the
swimming pool, thinking about throwing herself into it, but she
doubted they'd appreciate it.
    She headed back into the house, thinking
about how delicious it would have been to strip naked and slide
beneath the cool water, right out in the open like that! But if
Carling saw her he'd have no doubt she was some sort of
exhibitionist pervert and who knows what he'd do or say.
    She showered, her hands enjoying the tactile
pleasure of sliding across her warm, soapy body, but again did not
dare linger long. She dressed, ate breakfast, and started in on the
books again.
    What else could she do?
    She wondered if Carling had a girlfriend.
Apparently not. He had spoken of going through them like socks. No
doubt no self-respecting woman would stay around an obnoxious lout
like that, Lord or not.
    She was determined to finish off this
particular category of book and start in on something else as
quickly as possible. Let him try his sly innuendo on books about
geology!
    She was in the rear of the alcove, when her
hand pressed against the side of the shelf to balance herself, and
the three lower shelves and all their contents slid forward into
the wall, almost dropping her on her bottom. Intrigued, she dropped
to all fours and peered inside at the narrow passage revealed. An
old house with a secret passage in the library, she thought in
delight. How wonderfully cliched!
    She stood up and hurried over to the cabinet,
where, in her initial inspection, she'd seen a number of torches.
She grabbed one, flicked the button on and off to test the power of
the battery, then returned and crawled into the passage. She looked
around nervously, but was gratified to see a distinct lack of
spider webs and accumulated dust. She was a slim hipped woman and
even so had to move carefully so as to not brush against the stone
walls as she moved along the passage and around the corner.
    There was a stone stairway there, and she
followed it down, heart thumping, wondering if she'd find treasure,
or perhaps the skeletons of old pirates.
    It was an awfully long staircase, she
thought, going down past the basement, into who knew where! When
she reached the bottom she searched about, found the outline of a
doorway, and then a small lever which allowed her to pull it
inward. She slipped out and swung the flash about, lighting up a
dark stone hall of sorts. Again, like the passageway it was oddly
clean. In fact, the floor looked polished!
    That was disappointing, in a way, for it
indicated this was no long-lost hideaway, but something which must
be used still. Perhaps it was a wine cellar? The walls were of
rough stone, but the floor was of very clean square stones, and as
she moved around, it reflected the light ahead. To her right and
left were broad, rounded doorways in the stone wall. The right
giving onto a large group of wine racks. But it was the left which
interested her.
    Both openings were about ten feet or so
across, and covered with bars. There was a doorway, also of bars,
in the midst of each, though, and neither were locked. On the wall
next to the opening on the left was a plaque. This is the original
underground detention area of the Lords of Eastwick, and dates to
the fifteenth century, when the present location was occupied by
Eastwick Castle.
    She pushed