Niels considered that and then turned to ask, “So around where we found Lonnie?”
“Aye,” Tormod admitted, surprised to note that. “Quite close, in fact. About twenty feet to the right and ten feet farther out from where ye found Lonnie if yer back were to the castle.”
Niels nodded and then raised a questioning eyebrow. “Ye said this one leads to the great hall and the kitchens. There is another?”
Tormod turned to walk to the candle ledge on the right of the fireplace. This time he pressed the largest stone in that ledge and a second secret door slid inward an inch.
“This one leads to the bedchambers along the outer wall,” Tormod announced, pulling it open as the three brothers moved over to look into this new, dark passage. “The rooms Lady Edith and her brothers occupied and that you’re all in now.”
“What about the windows?” Edith asked with a frown and when Tormod glanced to her in question, she pointed out, “Surely the windows in each room are in the way. Do ye have to crawl under them?”
“The passage slopes down from each entrance to clear the windows and then back up to the next entrance. In truth, as much o’ it is between the upper part of the great hall wall and the outer wall as the wall o’ the upper chambers and the outer wall. And there are peep holes drilled every few feet so ye can look down on the great hall.”
Frowning, Edith asked, “There are no’ peep holes into the bedchambers, though, are there?”
Tormod’s eyes widened at the suggestion and then his brow furrowed and he admitted, “I’m no’ sure, m’lady. Yer father merely took me to each bedchamber, showed me how to open each entrance, explained about the passage dropping down between each secret door and told me ye could see into the great hall through peep holes. He did no’ mention being able to see into the bedchambers and I’ve never had occasion to actually go inside the passages.”
Grunting, Niels looked around the room and then said, “Wait here,” and slipped out into the hall. He opened the door just enough to slide through so that the open passages would not be revealed to anyone in the hall.
They all stood silently, lost in their own thoughts, Edith supposed. She was certainly thinking. She was fretting about those peep holes. Worrying over whether there were any looking into the bedchambers, her bedchamber specifically. And if so, had the mystery person who’d been sleeping in this room watched them in their private moments? The possibility was distressing enough that Edith was grateful for the distraction when the door opened and Niels slipped back into the room carrying a lit torch.
Holding it high, he crossed the room, pausing by Edith to kiss her on the forehead, and then said, “I’ll be right back,” and slipped into the passage. Frowning, Edith moved to the opening and watched him raise his torch, but then peered back when Geordie asked, “Are there any passages to the bedchambers on the inside?”
“Nay. Just the outer rooms. That’s why the family members were all given those rooms and the inner rooms were made guest rooms,” he explained.
The men all nodded. It made sense. The passages were first and foremost an emergency escape should the castle be invaded. Visitors would not be here all the time and were the passages needed for an emergency escape, the family would be the first concern.
“There are torches in holders along the passage.”
Edith gave a start at that announcement directly behind her, and stepped out of the way so that Niels could come back into the room. Smiling at her distractedly, he crossed to the second entrance and disappeared briefly inside that one.
“This one too,” he announced as he came back out a moment later, and Edith noted the glow in the passage now. Apparently, he’d lit at least the first torch, she thought and then saw the same glow at the other entrance too.
“So this must be how someone has been getting in and out of this room without anyone seeing them,” Rory commented, walking over to peer into the passage Niels had just come out of.
“Most likely,” Niels agreed, but Edith noted that the suggestion made Tormod frown.
“It may even be how Effie has managed to disappear,” Geordie pointed out.
“Nay,” Tormod said, shaking his head firmly. “Effie could no’ have kenned about these passages.”
“Victoria could have told her,” Edith pointed out.
“Victoria could no’ have known either,” he assured her.
“Brodie probably told Victoria the minute he found out about them,” she assured him dryly.
“That’s just it, he did no’ ken about them, so could no’ have told her,” Tormod explained.
“What?” she asked with surprise. “But he was laird once Hamish died.”
“Aye,” he agreed, and then pointed out, “Fer two whole weeks ere fleeing the castle. And I would ha’e got around to telling him eventually. Probably,” he added in a mutter, and then clucked with irritation and admitted, “I apologize, m’lady, but yer brother was a selfish, coddled, beef-witted idiot. I could hardly believe we were stuck with him as laird, and was hoping we would no’ be. O’ course, had he bothered to ask what he should ken to run Drummond, I would have told him. But he did no’. So . . . I decided to just wait until things settled down before sharing all the secrets o’ this place with him.”
“And would ye have done the same with us had this no’ come up?” Niels asked in a deceptively mild tone.
“Hell no,” Tormod said seeming truly shocked at the suggestion. “Yer a hundred times better man than Brodie was. A good match fer our lady. I’m glad to have ye and ken most everyone here at Drummond is relieved to have ye both as laird and lady rather than Brodie and Victoria. When I gave ye the key to the buttery I did tell ye I had things I must talk to ye about once I returned from collecting the bodies at the lodge,” he reminded him and then gestured to the secret passages. “These were on that list.”
Nodding, Niels relaxed and asked, “If Brodie did no’ ken about these passages, who does besides you?”
“That’s the hell o’ it,” Tormod said looking suddenly weary. “As far as I ken, I am the only living person who knew about these passages until just now when I told all o’ you. But I swear to ye that I’m no’ the one who’s been sleeping in this room.”
“Someone else must ken about the passages then,” Edith said simply. She believed Tormod. He looked so frazzled by all of this that she simply couldn’t believe he was the culprit. Besides, if he were the culprit, he’d hardly tell them that he was the only one who knew about the hidden entrances and secret passage. He’d claim he’d told Brodie who may have told Victoria who shared it with the maids. Or he might even have claimed several people knew about them. But he hadn’t, and she believed him, she just wasn’t sure anyone else would so was relieved when her husband nodded thoughtfully.
“Aye. So, someone must have discovered them on their own,” Niels reasoned. “Mayhap Effie while cleaning.”
Edith twisted her lips dubiously. “Effie did no’ clean as far as I ken.”
“Then mayhap yer brother Brodie accidentally found it himself while playing as a child, told his wife about it and she told the maid,” Rory suggested.
She supposed that was possible. Edith had always kept a safe distance between herself and any fire. As a child, she’d been present when one of the young maids had got too close to the fireplace in the great hall. The girl’s skirt had caught on fire and she’d been horribly burned before Edith’s mother had covered her with a fur and smothered the flames. That incident had made her cautious of getting too close to any kind of fire or fireplace. Her brothers had never had the same problem, and as she recalled, Brodie had liked to play soldier around the fireplace, setting his little carved wooden men onto the candle ledges and then knocking them off one after the other, sometimes even throwing them into the fireplace to watch them burn. She supposed he could have leaned against just the right stone one time and discovered the secret passage.
“However and whoever discovered it, we need to search the rooms and the passages,” Rory said quietly. “Effie is somewhere.”
“Aye.” Niels nodded and then glanced to the two passages and frowned. “We need to search each room and the passage at the same time. Otherwise we risk someone using the passage to slip by us as we are in each room.”
“There are five bedchambers off the right passage if ye include this one, and there are five o’ us,” Edith pointed out. “We could leave someone stationed here to be sure no one slips away using the passages and the other four could go to each o’ the other bedchambers, search them and then all make our way back here via the passages to be sure there is no one there either.”
“Except only Tormod kens how to open the other passages,” Geordie pointed out.
“Aye, but I could take Lady Edith’s room,” Tormod said slowly, and pointed out, “’Tis the furthest away. After a quick search, I could slip into the passage, ensure no one is in it between that room and Brodie’s and then open the hidden entrance to Brodie’s room from the passage.”