Steffan wasn’t sure which way to go, so Magdalen took the lead through the heavily forested hills. The wind grew quite wild, shaking and twisting the limbs of the trees and whipping Magdalen’s hair across her face. They pushed on, trudging up and down and around three more hills, no longer able to hear horses’ hooves behind him.
Ten yards ahead of them was a hole in the side of a sheer face of rock. A well-worn but slightly overgrown path led up to it.
“Will the horses fit inside?” he asked.
“Yes. This is our widest mine.”
They went inside, leading the horses. It was completely dark, but Magdalen found a torch on the ground and Steffan set about making a spark with a flint and steel and tinder to light the torch. When he finally accomplished that task, he held up the torch with one hand and the horses’ reins with the other while Magdalen came in behind him.
“Wait.” Steffan stopped. “If Lord Hazen knows we stole his map, won’t this be the first place he’ll look for us?”
“It is true. He may.”
“I suppose we have little choice. We must either hide here or try to make it to your mother’s house to get help.”
Lenhart started making grunting noises.
“What is it?” Magdalen asked him.
Steffan could not see him in the dark mine, but Magdalen was closer to Lenhart and did not have the glare of the torch in her eyes.
“You want to go to Mother and try to get help?”
“That might be a good idea, but it is dangerous.” Steffan held his breath.
“He wants to do it, and he knows this area very well. He should be able to get there before Hazen and his men, if they are headed for Mallin Park House.” Magdalen turned to Lenhart. “Please be careful.”
Steffan imagined the compassionate, concerned look on Magdalen’s face, the look that was so often there. His heart squeezed.
Soon Lenhart was gone, and he and Magdalen continued into the mine.
The dirt floor angled down, but it grew sharply more angled, tilting so much that they had to walk leaning backward and slow their pace, taking small steps.
The air must be getting thinner because he could barely breathe. He tugged at the neckline of his shirt. And suddenly he was five years old again and trapped in a hole in the ground. The low ceiling and walls seemed to close in on him.
Magdalen touched his arm. “Are you all right?”
“Of course.”
“Most people are nervous their first time in a mine. If you want to stay at the entrance, I can look around.”
“No. I can do this.”
How could he appear so weak and foolish in front of Magdalen? She who was so brave herself. They were supposed to be searching for what was so valuable that his uncle would force his son to marry Lady Magdalen for it.
He focused on his breathing—deep breaths in and out—and searching the uneven dirt and rock of the walls and ceiling. But he kept imagining the ceiling falling in on them, and his breathing went shallow again. His face started to tingle.
“Talk,” Steffan said.
“What?”
“T-tell me what happened to this mine.”
She placed her hand on his arm. “The copper ran out about five years ago. This mine is very solid, and there are two entrances. One of them is hidden and not everyone knows about it, but my father showed it to me once when I was a little girl. I used to take my sisters out here exploring. I know it well.
“I must say, I have no idea what Lord Hazen might think is valuable here,” she continued. “I have never known of any other kind of mines in this area except copper. Perhaps there is some sort of treasure hidden here that Lord Hazen knows about, but I cannot think why he would not have simply sneaked up here and taken it. Why go to all the trouble of marrying his son to me to acquire it?”
Her voice was calming. His breathing was almost back to normal. He swallowed, ignoring the cold sweat down the middle of his back.
“Tell me about those long bands of gray and red in the wall there.” He pointed to their left.
“I don’t know what that is. Copper ore is sometimes a gold color, sometimes green, but that doesn’t look like copper. But it could certainly be something else, some other kind of valuable metal, perhaps.”
Steffan stepped closer to the wall, holding the torch high. He had seen something like this before at the university when they’d studied mining and metals.
“I think you are right. This could be iron ore—the silver bands here—and the red bands in between could be jasper. They are often found together.”
“Oh! Red jasper like my necklace. Are they valuable?” She stepped closer.
“Iron ore is, and if there is iron ore in this mine, that could be what my uncle was searching for. There is a way to melt iron now. With taller furnaces and men operating large bellows, it is possible to heat iron ore hot enough to melt it and get rid of all the impurities. The pure iron will be in high demand.”
Concentrating on the rock was helping to slow down his breathing.
“Is iron ore difficult to find?”
“Yes, that’s what makes it even more valuable.”
They continued on in their descent into the earth. But Steffan concentrated on the walls now as he walked, becoming more and more convinced that Magdalen’s father had not recognized the iron ore in these rocks after their copper ore ran out, and that was exactly what his uncle had found and wanted. Possibly all these abandoned mines contained the sought-after iron ore.
Finally, the floor evened out and they were walking on level ground.
“I know you are uncomfortable.” Magdalen’s voice reverberated off the walls. “Do you want to leave?”
“Not unless you want to.”
“I like it down here. But we have to go out eventually. Shall we turn around?”
They started moving Magdalen’s horse backward so they could turn her around in the narrow cave-like mine. Now that he was thinking about leaving instead of about the minerals in the mine, he started to sweat again and his breaths came in short gasps. He forced himself to focus on getting Magdalen’s horse headed in the opposite direction.
Shouts echoed through the mine. They were coming from the direction of the mouth of the mine.
Magdalen grabbed his arm. “They found us.”