MB02 - A Noble Groom Read Online Free PDF Page A

lesson.
    “There it is.” The older man pulled out a key, dropped to his knees, and began counting the stones on the wall. He pried several before one finally budged. “Seventh from the cell door, just as he said.”
    “Who’s he ?”
    “Your father.” Matthias wiggled the stone, and it scraped against the floorboards, revealing a secret keyhole.
    “What does my father have to do with this?”
    “I wouldn’t know any of these secrets if not for your father.” Matthias jabbed in the key and struggled to turn it. Suddenly a creak rent the air and the floorboards cracked open.
    Carl knelt next to Matthias, and together they wrenched the boards apart, revealing a hanging trapdoor.
    A waft of dank, cold air greeted them.
    “This is incredible.” Carl peered down into the black pit. He tried to examine the pulley that had lowered the door, but he couldn’t make out anything in the darkness of the corridor. “Whoever made this secret door was a genius.”
    “Your father said it’s been here for generations.” Matthias had removed the key and was already shoving the stone back into the wall. “It was an escape route during times when the castle came under siege.”
    “Why didn’t I ever know about this?”
    “No one knew except your father.”
    “And you.”
    “Not until last night.”
    Carl’s pulse clattered to a halt. So Matthias wasn’t orchestrating the escape by himself. Was his father involved too?
    Matthias stood.
    Carl stared up at him through the faint light.

    “You’re his only child. He may not show his love very often, but deep in his heart he doesn’t want to see you die, criminal or not.”
    “I hope you know I didn’t do what they’re accusing me of—”
    Matthias cut off his words with a wave of his hand. “Even though trouble seems to follow you wherever you go, I know you’re a good man.”
    Gratitude swelled in Carl’s throat. “Thank you, Matthias.”
    “We don’t have time for sentiments now.” The servant cast a furtive glance over his shoulder toward the other end of the dungeon. Then he nodded at the hole in the floorboards. “We need to keep moving.”
    Carl climbed into the pit first. After a descent of approximately two fathoms, his feet touched the hard earth. The blackness of the cavern threatened to swallow him.
    In a matter of minutes, Matthias had closed the hatch, blocking out every trace of light. Carl would have believed himself trapped and alone except for the groan of the ladder and the scrape of Matthias’s boots as he descended.
    Matthias’s huffing breath finally brushed Carl’s cheek. There was a moment of scratching and the scent of red phosphorus, then a tiny flame danced to life.
    The flicker from the long match lit the narrow chamber and revealed a torch on the wall. Matthias wasted no time in lighting it and leading the way into a tunnel.
    “Let’s pray there are no collapses in the wall or ceiling.” Matthias stooped low.
    Carl’s back grazed the top of the tunnel, and he had to arch his neck at an awkward angle to see Matthias. “I take it my father hasn’t been down here in a while?”
    “There haven’t been too many sieges recently.”
    The wryness of Matthias’s tone brought a sense of renewedcalm to Carl’s spirit. “True.” He inhaled a deep breath of the earthiness of wet soil.
    “So where am I going?”
    “America.”
    Carl stumbled to a halt. “You cannot be serious.”
    “Very.”
    America was a place for homeless serfs, unhappy peasants, and discontent miners. He’d heard his father tell more than one of his employees who’d come to him with complaints over wages or working conditions, “If you don’t like it, go to America.”
    That distant country an ocean away was not a place for a nobleman like him.
    “I couldn’t possibly go there.”
    Matthias stopped, and his eyes censured him. “What? You’re too good for America?”
    “There must be a place more suitable to my status.”
    “Well, now you’re