The group stood in the hidden gallery, staring at the brass key resting in Harriet’s palm.
No one spoke for several moments. The mysterious woman’s final words echoed through their minds: “Don’t open the first lock. Open the second one.”
Lydia looked back toward the passage where the woman had disappeared. She was gone. Not a sound. Not a footprint. Nothing. It felt as though she had stepped out of history itself, delivered her message, and vanished back into it.
Dominic searched every adjoining corridor, but the old passages led only to sealed walls and forgotten staircases. There was no sign of another exit.
Rose said what everyone was thinking. “She wanted us to stop following her.”
Harriet agreed. The woman hadn’t come to answer every question. She had come to redirect the investi
