Page 50 of Blame It on the Earl (The Duke's Estates 3)

“I’ve always thought that if you found the way in, the Fair Folk would welcome you,” she added. “And it would be glorious.”

“Until you returned and found a hundred years had passed and everything you knew was swept away.”

“That is a problem,” said Sarah.

He had to laugh a little at her serious tone. “I’ve never understood how there could be another realm underground. There is no sun. How could anything grow?”

“Magically?”

“That is just another way of saying nobody knows.”

“True.” She gave the problem solemn consideration. “What if it wasn’t a tunnel but rather a…portal from one location to another.”

“Magical transportation.”

She nodded, her smile impish in the light of her lantern.

“You have the most vivid imagination.”

“This place inspires me!”

“Next you’ll be talking of rock creatures stepping out of the wall.”

“No, I won’t!” Sarah exclaimed.

“With great clawed hands reaching for us and pointed, stony teeth.”

“Kenver!” She moved closer to him. “If you are paying me back for mentioning that sea creature, well, it is too bad of you.”

“Caves and monsters seem to go together.” Kenver shook his head. “I prefer quests aboveground, where one can see to fight.”

She gazed up at him. “Like one of Arthur’s knights rather than a traveler to fairyland.” The impish smile returned. “Well, you have found Merlin,” she teased.

“That vagabond!”

“But is he? Have you noticed that he sometimes speaks like an educated man? Until he recalls his pose, that is.”

“I didn’t.” Nothing seemed to escape Sarah.

“Let’s look around,” she said, as if responding to his thought. “There might be things in here.”

“Things,” he echoed in a sepulchral voice.

“Kenver!”

“Hidden treasures, you mean?”

“Perhaps.”

“Merlin would have cleaned those out long ago.”

They walked back and forth over the entire chamber, finding nothing but tumbled rock and dust. The water in the stream left no space to follow it. “I don’t think there’s anything here,” Kenver said after a while.

Sarah agreed. She held up her lantern to illuminate the colorful wall. “It’s beautiful,” she said.

“And yet you sound disappointed.”

“I suppose I hoped we’d discover some…”

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