Alaskan Mountain Pursuit by Elizabeth Goddard (good e books to read .txt) 📗

Marguerite, we need to get in the basement.”

“I thought I might find you down here when you didn’t answer your door. You cannot be here, Sylvie. I don’t have the key, and even if I did, I would be afraid to help you.”

Sylvie released Marguerite, a woman she’d known almost her entire life. “Why do you say that, Marguerite? Please tell me. I need to know everything. Do you know what happened to my mother?”

The woman shook her head vehemently. She pressed a finger to her lips. “The house has ears, too many ears,” she whispered.

“I’m not leaving until I get into the basement.”

Marguerite’s eyes grew wide. “Of course! Do you not remember you grew up in this house? Back then, you had your own secret passages.”

Sylvie’s face scrunched up.

“Of course I knew about them. You think I wouldn’t know?”

“Thank you for reminding me.” Sylvie kissed Marguerite on the cheek then looked at Will. “I used to get into the basement all the time. I had my own secret way in. Why didn’t I think of that before?”

Sounded like the house really was closing in on her and choking her thoughts.

“Probably because you weren’t thinking you’d need a secret passage as an adult.” He was glad they hadn’t faced some new threat on the stairwell. “Lead on.”

“Wait.” Marguerite stood in Sylvie’s path. “Be careful. There have been strangers here. More than that, I cannot tell you. Make your search quick and then please leave. Promise me.”

“Of course,” Sylvie whispered. “I promise. And thank you, Marguerite, for your help. Now promise me you’ll go back to your room. I don’t want you involved.”

“Don’t worry about me. Unless they need something from me, I’m only the help and invisible to the strangers. Even to your stepfather.”

Sylvie and Will waited until Marguerite had disappeared before they continued on. Once it was quiet again, Sylvie led him to the top of the stairwell where they ducked into a dark closet that smelled of pine-based cleaning supplies. She turned on the light and bent over. Started removing the boxes beneath a shelf.

“See? An old laundry chute. The laundry wasn’t done down there anymore, even when I was a child, and this was closed off and forgotten. I’m so glad I ran into Marguerite.”

If she expected Will to climb down that, she might need to think again. It would be a close fit, if he could do it at all. The thought of crawling through that tight space made him shudder. “Isn’t that kind of far for a child to slide?”

Sylvie rummaged around, looking for something in old boxes. He had a hard time seeing her as the kind of child to play in a basement, given her love of the water and diving—a wide-open space she could explore. Just like the skies were for him. His only use for big bodies of water came in landing his plane.

“Found it. I can hardly believe it’s still here, but I guess looking at all the rest of this junk, it makes sense.” She held up a fire escape ladder. “My mom made sure I had a ladder I could hang from my window in case of a fire.”

“That’s good emergency protocol.”

“I found another use for the ladder.”

Sylvie unfolded the ladder to its full length, let it drop down into the laundry chute, and hooked it in place. Will felt silly. But if there was no other way into the basement without that key, then...

“I’ll go down first,” he said.

“I don’t need a hero, Will.”

“Sure you do.” He grinned then made sure the thing was secure.

At Sylvie’s wide-eyed stare, he almost laughed. He had an innate urge to plant a kiss on her lips that had formed into a half frown, half smile. He could tell she didn’t know what to make of him. “We’re in this together, remember?”

Before she could argue he disappeared down the ladder, hoping a big load of trouble wasn’t waiting for him at the bottom. Will climbed down as far as he could but then the ladder ended. How much farther was the drop? Sylvie said she’d done this as a child. He should be okay to let go and fall then, but it was dark down there. He had no idea what he was dropping onto or into.

He squeezed his eyes shut. Lord, help me out here?

“Will?” Sylvie whispered.

“Yes?”

“Are you okay? What are you doing? I need to come down, too.”

“I’m working up the courage to drop into the unknown.”

“The ladder doesn’t go all the way?”

“No. Maybe you don’t remember exactly how this worked.”

“I remember that ladder went all the way. But if you want me to go first, I’ll go. I told you I didn’t need a hero.”

“Especially if he’s dead,” he mumbled.

“What’s that?”

“Nothing.” Will let go and slowed his progress with his feet and hands as he slid the rest of the way. As he neared the bottom, he could finally see his surroundings. Someone had left a dim light on. Will didn’t care why, only that it lit his way enough.

Beneath him boxes were stacked high. He could drop and hopefully stand on them, or fall and get hurt. He slowly lowered himself onto the first box. Held on to the rim of the laundry chute then grabbed on to a beam while he got his bearings, put more weight on the box. He bounced a little to get the feel of it.

Then he heard Sylvie making her way down. Oh, no. He wasn’t prepared for that yet.

“Wait up,” he said into the laundry chute.

Will climbed down, removed the boxes from beneath the chute and found the sturdiest-looking old chair. He stood on that to catch Sylvie. “Okay, careful coming down.”

Sylvie slid down the chute rather than crawling out, which surprised him. She would land hard. Then she appeared, popping out, and Will caught her in his arms, surprising them both.

“Will!” she gasped his name.

And he laughed.

The chair collapsed beneath them.

Will kept his balance and her in his