Free Fairytale Beginnings by Holly Martin Page A

desperate to explore it but it would be suicide to go down a very old staircase in the dark – half of the stairs could have crumbled away to nothing.
    A slight breeze came from below and with it, just for a second, she could hear the faint sound of a child’s laughter.
    She swallowed and stepped back, bumping into something hard that hadn’t been there before. She swung around to see Cameron standing there.
    ‘You ok?’
    She nodded, unable to speak.
    ‘This place can creep you out,’ Cameron said, softly. ‘I hear footsteps, doors slamming, loud bangs, voices. I tell myself that it’s just the wind or loose floorboards or old pipes but … knowing what I’ve seen down in the dungeons …’ He trailed off. ‘I have locks on the inside of my kitchen, lounge and bedroom, which is silly as ghosts would just walk through the doors whether they’re locked or not but it makes me feel better when I sleep at night. I’ve felt a lot happier since you’ve arrived. Having someone here with me has been nice, otherwise it’s just me rattling around this big old house with all these bumps and bangs, it’s enough to send anyone mad.’
    ‘I’ll protect you,’ Milly said, with a grin.
    ‘Thank you. And who will protect you?’
    ‘I’m quite scrappy,’ she threw a few air punches, dodging about on her feet. She saw his smile grow as he watched her and she stopped dancing. ‘Are you laughing at me, Cameron Heartstone?’
    ‘Noooo I wouldn’t dream of it. I was just thinking I wouldn’t want to go against you in a fight. Shall we?’ He gestured to the stairs and she nodded. Without asking, he took her hand and strode into the darkness. That ease and familiarity spread through her again and she smiled, despite the promises she had made to herself a few moments before.
    Milly could just make out the torch beam as it danced off the stone steps below. The steps were well worn, indicating that they had been used many times over the years. Cameron’s hulking frame was a comforting presence in front of her but she didn’t like to think about what lurked in the darkness behind her.
    There didn’t seem to be any end to the stairs as they continued downwards. The study was two flights up from the ground floor and although it was very hard to tell in the darkness, it felt like they were going much deeper than that.
    Eventually they reached the bottom and Cameron shone the torch down what appeared to be a very long, straight tunnel that forked into three separate tunnels at the end.
    ‘We need to be really careful; if that other tunnel caved in, this one could be unstable too,’ Cameron whispered, as if talking normally would cause it to collapse.
    Milly nodded but as she stepped forward, Cameron was at her side, his hand in hers.
    As Cameron continued to shine the torch, Milly could see wooden joints and beams holding the roof of the tunnel up at several intervals. The wood wasn’t rotting at all, it looked strong and capable of standing for another hundred years. She was desperate to do some tree ring tests on that wood to get an idea of when the tunnel was built, although if the joints had been replaced at some point it might be a bit harder to date the tunnels, but she suspected it was around the same era that mad Uncle Boris was Lord of the castle. The floor was made from stone which looked clean but again, well worn. It all looked very professional and certainly not done in a hurry.
    They came to the fork and stopped.
    ‘What do you reckon?’ Cameron said, shining his torch over the three openings and the tunnels beyond.
    The tunnels couldn’t have been more different. The one on the right sloped downwards very steeply, seemingly going into the very bowels of the earth. It was muddy and wet and it didn’t look safe at all. The middle tunnel carried straight on with its stone floor and wooden joists, it was probably the original tunnel and the two other forks were added later. In the limited light they could just