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Any other old structures on the property?”
    She shook her head. Suddenly, a strange scraping noise came from the top of the stairs. They both froze, exchanging worried glances. Then the lights in the cellarwent off, plunging them into inky darkness.
    “This really is an interesting place,” Daniel quipped. “Full of surprises.”
    Julie shushed him, quickly reaching out, feeling for the stair rail. When she found it, she used it to guide her to the bottom step and carefully climbed the stairs with one hand out in front of her. Finally her knuckles rapped the cellar door; she’d reached the top. She listened at the door, but heard no further sounds. Who else could be skulking around the cellar in the middle of the night, and why would anyone turn off the light?
    She turned the cellar doorknob and pushed. The knob turned easily, but the door didn’t open. Julie pushed harder, rattling the door. She groaned as she realized what had happened. Someone had slipped the hasp back in place and padlocked them inside the cellar. “Hey! I’m down here! Open the door!”
    She pressed her ear to the door again but heard nothing.
    “So we’re locked in?” Daniel’s deep voice came out of the darkness on the stairs behind her. She’d been making so much noise, she hadn’t heard him climbing the steps. “I don’t suppose you know of another way out of the cellar?”
    Julie shook her head, even though she knew he couldn’t see it in the total darkness. “We’re stuck, and I don’t have a clue as to how to get out of here.”

F IVE

    “D o you at least have some idea as to who locked us in here?” To Julie’s surprise, Daniel’s voice sounded almost amused.
    “I expect it was Shirley,” she said. “She runs the tea shop, and I know she was working late. Plus, she’s helpful. And she doesn’t hear very well. I made her promise to lock up before she left. Obviously she decided to be really thorough about it.”
    “Sounds like the perfect combination to get us trapped in the cellar.”
    Julie realized she could now see a dark blob of Daniel on the stairs. Apparently her eyes were adjusting to the dim light that crept in from the streetlamp outside the grimy cellar windows.
    The shadowy figure that was Daniel leaned against the wall at the top of the stairs near Julie and sighed. “Fortunately, aside from searching for the beam, my schedule was clear this evening,” he said. “You?”
    “I’d planned on getting some sleep,” Julie said, more than a little unnerved at being trapped in the dark with Daniel. Alone.
    “So what do you propose we do?” Again, she was certain his voice held a tinge of laughter.
    Julie slipped her cellphone out of her hip pocket and checked to see if she could get a signal in the cellar. She could. She started to call Hannah, but then she pictured her friend’s smirk at Julie managing to get trapped in the cellar with the handsome historian. “I can call my cook to come and rescue us,” she said. “But I’d like to be sure we can’t get ourselves out first.”
    She saw the blob Daniel nod. “Pride, right?”
    “I hate to wake her in the middle of the night.”
    “Yeah. I’d be embarrassed too.”
    She knew Daniel couldn’t possibly see her in the dark cellar, so she stuck out her tongue at him. The childish action made her feel surprisingly better. “Let’s just try to solve our own problem first.”
    “Sure.”
    Julie used a flashlight app on her phone to light the way down the cellar stairs. She crossed to the far brick wall and shone the light up at the small window.
    “You’re a lot smaller than me, lady, but you’re not going to fit through that,” Daniel said.
    She turned to glare at him, swinging the light in his direction. “Don’t call me ‘lady.’”
    “Sorry,” he said. “But I don’t know your name. You’ve yet to offer it.”
    “Oh. It’s Julie Ellis.” She swung the light back around toward the window, but she was certain Daniel was right.