Page 51 of Air Of Mystery
“Did Danielle find her out in the gardens or something?” I asked.
“No,” he explained. “Danielle came into my office frombehindme—and Skye, the only thing behind my desk is a paneled wall.”
I blinked at him in confusion. “Huh?”
“She came in through an unknown corridor.”
“You mean like a secret passageway?” I held my breath waiting for the answer.
“Yes,” he said. “Turns out there’s a panel in the ballroom. It’s low to the floor and if you push on it the right way, it springs open to reveal a passage. That unknown passage literally runs throughout the entire building.”
“Are you serious?”
He nodded. “The flower girl was hiding under a table and found it by accident in the ballroom. She decided to explore and got trapped inside.”
“Oh my goddess.” I gulped. “That could have been bad. Andno oneknew about that passage?”
“No adults did,” Charlie said. “However, it turns out that the Marquette kids discovered it a while back, and decided it was like having a—and I quote: a super-secret clubhouse. So, they didn’t tell their parents.”
I couldn’t help the laughter that escaped. “How big is the passage?”
“It runs from one end of the mansion to the other. There’s a hidden door in my office, too.”
“Which is how Danielle surprised you.”
“Correct.” He nodded. “And there are spy holes in most of the other rooms.”
“Like cut out eyes in old paintings?” I grinned imagining it.
“And areas where you can view the rooms through old metal grates.”
“No wonder they kept that secret to themselves.”
“Once the wedding cleared out, Philippe and I explored the passageway. It’s not large...an adult has to crouch or crawl to travel through, but for a child, it’d be easy to quickly navigate.”
“That’s awesome! Did you find any interesting artifacts when you explored the passageway?”
“Old newspapers from the late 1800s, a few candle stubs, stuff like that. Danielle, Archer and Celeste did manage to set themselves up a pretty decent fort inside of it. With old sleeping bags, flashlights and pillows.”
“That sounds perfectly reasonable to me,” I said, as I continued to wash the dishes. “I would have done the same when I was a kid.”
“Turns out the kids have been sneaking down at night and spying on the wedding guests while their parents assumed they were all asleep.”
“Oh boy. I bet that news didn’t go over well.”
“Especially after they’d gone to so much trouble to keep the family wing private,” Charlie agreed.
“How’d the kids find it?” I asked, handing him another dish.
“And here comes the spooky part.” Charlie took a deep breath. “According to Archer, the ghost of a young boy showed him.”
I slapped off the water and faced him. “The ghost of a boy?”
Charlie set the plate he was drying down on the counter. “Archer claims that the boy’s name is Jacques.”
“Jacques?” Closing my eyes I recalled my notes from my research on the mansion and the Marquette family. “Claude and Amelia Marquette were the owners of the mansion during the scandal of 1847.” My eyes opening, I continued. “They had their first three sons while they lived here in Illinois. The firstborn son was also named Claude—after his father I imagine. Then there was Henri and Tomas.”
Charlie blinked. “It’s somewhat frightening that you just rattled that off from memory. But yes, Philippe told me that as well.”
