Free Fairytale Beginnings by Holly Martin

was. It seems that, either shortly after the renovations or even during them, Boris sold off several acres of his land to nearby farmers. I think the man was broke and he couldn’t even afford to pay for the turrets he so desperately wanted. He lived an extravagant life with big parties but they seemed to stop completely in his later years. He sacked a lot of his staff too. I don’t think he had enough money to pay for that life anymore.’
    ‘Or he didn’t want anyone around his precious jewels, so he stopped inviting people to the castle.’
    ‘He was a total ladies’ man, so my guess is if this chest did exist, one of the women he was with killed him for it, dumped the body over the cliffs and stole all the jewels herself. Wouldn’t be the first time a Heartstone man was screwed over by a beautiful woman, nor the last.’
    Milly looked up at him but he concentrated his attention on the door. ‘There isn’t a keyhole, but it appears to be locked,’ he said.
    ‘Maybe it can only be opened from the other side.’
    He looked back to the bookshelf. ‘That wouldn’t make sense if the bookshelf can only be opened from the study side.’
    ‘Unless someone breaks it open,’ Milly grinned up at him.
    He smiled. ‘There must be a switch or something that will release it.’
    Milly let out another laugh as she reached up and released a bolt at the very top of the door. ‘Or a bolt.’ She glanced down to the bottom and found another bolt there near the floor. ‘Sometimes these things are just not that technical.’
    She tried the handle again and this time the door opened easily. In the limited light from the study, Cameron could just make out some stone steps curling away below them.
    Milly turned to face him, her eyes alight with excitement.
    ‘Let me get my torch.’

    M illy stood at the top of the newly found stairs waiting for Cameron to come back. She was glad she was standing in the darkness of the hidden room so Cameron wouldn’t see the blush on her cheeks when he came back. She couldn’t believe she had reacted like that. It was bad enough that she had been so freaked out over a skeleton, since she had found human remains in archaeological sites before and never been bothered by it, but to then find out it was only plastic, made her reaction all the more shameful. She had hugged Cameron. Well, clung to him would be a more accurate description. He had held her like a child, which was mortifying. She absently wished on her star bracelet that she hadn’t behaved like that although she knew it was useless.
    There had been something about the way Cameron had stroked his hands down her back to soothe her that had been wonderful and incredibly hot. She just couldn’t understand her body’s reaction to him. There had been plenty of attractive guys over the years whom she had barely given a second glance because she wasn’t interested in a relationship at all. And now she had known Cameron for less than twenty-four hours and she had thrown all her reservations straight out the window. He was grumpy, rude, sweet, funny and sexy as hell. But there was more to their connection than that. She felt like she knew him, which was ridiculous because of course she didn’t. She knew nothing about him. But sometimes there was an ease between them that only came from knowing someone your whole life. But regardless of this spark, she wasn’t going to do anything about it, she couldn’t. She had a professionalism to maintain. Although she knew that was only part of it. Not wanting her heart broken again was probably the bigger part.
    She took a deep breath and let it out. She wasn’t going to think about her humiliation any more. There was nothing she could do to change it so she would stop dwelling on it. She moved closer to the stairs. It was pitch black down the secret passageway and the limited light from the study just about lit up the first three or four stairs but beyond that she couldn’t see anything. She was