Read Online Gilded Lily by Delphine Dryden - Free Book Online Page B

they continued their dizzying, heart-stopping pace for the full half hour. When she finally shifted down to begin the braking process, it was almost a relief to feel the strain on her legs return, the sensation that the beast below them was once again under their control.
    With the brake engaged, they slowed to a halt, and as soon as the engine stopped, the headlamp flicked out as well. Fortunately, Freddie had already noted an important feature of the tracks. At regular intervals, there were panels with levers on the tunnel wall, and they’d stopped close to one. A closer look with Barnabas’s pocket torch confirmed her hypothesis.
    â€œIt’s a turnaround. See there?” Training the light on the track, she followed along until she found a curved set pulling away from the straight track and leading back to the other side. She attempted to pull the lever, but to no avail. She put the torch between her teeth, using both hands to haul down on the thing. Finally, when she was literally dangling from it, she sighed and flashed the light toward a smirking Barnabas. “That’s unchivalrous of you.”
    As she was speaking around the torch, it sounded more like “At’th udsiwawous oh you,’ but he seemed to understand her quite well.
    Shielding his eyes from the glare, he grinned back, unrepentant. “You’re highly entertaining to watch.”
    She removed the torch from her mouth. “Would you just help, please?”
    Together they managed to activate the switch, and they used pedal power to ease the cart around to the facing track before restoring the switch to its original position.
    â€œI don’t suppose this means we can go straight back?” he asked, without much hope.
    â€œOf course not. Keep the torch fired up, my lord. Now we explore.”
    The tunnel where they’d stopped looked much like it had all along, a featureless dark corridor of stone and a gridwork of comfortingly solid-appearing beams of some hardwood. Unlike the polished, shining wood in the vestibule, the beams here were yet to be finished. A few bore painted markings, possibly instructions of some sort for the workers. Other than that, however, there was not much to distinguish one section from another.
    â€œDo you suppose they’ll bury them all when they’re finished, like the slaves who built the pyramids at Giza?” she mused, as they ventured deeper along the corridor.
    â€œWhat, the builders? I think they’ll just pay them a good deal of money to keep quiet.”
    â€œThat would certainly be the more civilized thing to do. Wait, what was that?”
    He swung to face her, nearly blinding her with the torch, his hand shaking. “What was what?”
    â€œMy
eyes
.”
    â€œOh, I apologize. Better?” He flicked it away, and Freddie blinked until the stars cleared from her vision. She pointed to where the light now fell on the wall, which finally looked different here from one beamed-off section to the next. On one side of the beam was stone. On the other, the torch revealed a section of riveted metal sheeting. As her vision resolved further, she made out a row of three round glasses in brass frames, at roughly eye level. It took a moment for her to realize they were portholes.
    â€œThat there. Oh! We must be nearly to the mouth of the estuary by now, almost to the channel itself, if we’re headed in the direction I think we are. Turn out the torch. The moon is up and it’s nearly full; perhaps we’ll be able to see into the water.”
    â€œI doubt it.”
    He closed the device anyway, and they waited for their eyes to adjust to the gloom. The darkness was disorienting, and Freddie nearly lost her balance when she stepped closer to the faintly visible circle of the nearest porthole. It seemed to brighten as she watched, her eyes making out more of the dimly illuminated underwater scene.
    â€œIt just moved,” Barnabas