“You will want your riding clothes,” Imilda said, “but you must stay here in the passage in case they come back.”
“What if they find you there?” the Marquis enquired.
“I will say that I am a servant and have come to tidy the room,” Imilda said quickly. “But actually I think we are quite safe.”
She put the candle into the Marquis’s hand as she spoke and opened the panel door.
Then, as she walked towards the wardrobe, she realised that he had followed her.
“I told you to stay in the secret passage,” she asserted.
“If you are brave,” he answered, “I have to be brave too.”
“Then hurry!” Imilda demanded.
The Marquis next opened up the wardrobe where Bates had arranged all the clothes that they had brought from London.
He took out what he wanted including his riding boots.
Then he walk
