Chasing Cinderella (Book one of the Cinderella Series) (Completed)

Chapter 14 (Edited)

"Now, why are we in the tack room, again?" Anna asked after I had lead her to the tack room. She frowned before she glanced around, probably wondering why we were here. She glanced at me and raised an eyebrow, waiting for me to say something. "Well?" she asked, getting slightly impatient that I didn't say anything.

I smirked a little, glad that she didn't know of it. I didn't know if she would or not, because I didn't know if she had figured it out or not. If she was clueless in the beginning, then I knew that it would be all right to tell her. "First I need you to put your hand on the gold horseshoe," I said pointing to the horseshoe that was by the tack door. "Then, I'll tell you."

"Why do I have to put my hand on it?" she asked, confused.

I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose, hoping that this wouldn't take a long time. She needed to get dressed and make sure that her mother doesn't suspect anything different, and I needed to make sure that everything was done before I set off to school. "Just do it, please. I'll tell you after we are on our way. Your mother is probably going to be asking for you in a couple of minutes, and we don't have time to chitchat about it here." I glanced around, frowning. "'Sides, I don't know if anyone else is in the barn or not."

Anna shrugged her shoulder before putting her hand on the horseshoe. She looked at me, again, raising an eyebrow. "Now what?" she asked.

"Repeat after me. I, Anna Rogers..."

"I, Anna Rogers," she repeated, thankfully not asking on why I needed her to.

"Promise not to show anyone..."

"Promise not to show anyone..."

"What I am about to see."

"What I am about to see."

"I will not tell anyone..."

"I will not tell anyone..."

"Because it is a secret."

"Because it is a secret."

"I will not talk about it to anyone,"

"I will not talk about it to anyone,"

"Unless they know about it."

"Unless they know about it."

"If I do tell someone,"

"If I do tell someone,"

"Then I will take any..."

"Then I will take any..."

"Punishment that is offered to me."

Anna made a face, probably wondering if she should say it or not. Finally, she looked and sighed, probably think that it wouldn't be that bad. "Punishment that is offered to me."

"So help me God."

"So help me God."

I nodded my head, indicating that she could take her hand off of the horseshoe, and she didn't have to repeat after me anymore. "Now, would you like to see it?" I asked.

Anna rolled her eyes. "Please," she said. "What is this big secret."

I grinned, excited that I would be showing someone that I might just count as my ally, and walked to the center of the room where there was a rack filled with English saddles. I grabbed hold of one of the rails that wasn't taken up by a saddle before pushing the whole thing around. There was a clicking sound, and after the final click, a trapdoor appeared where the saddle rack had been placed at the beginning.

Anna's face paled when she saw that before she looked at me, shocked and nervous about what was going on. "What the hell is that?"

***

I made a spooky face and moved my hands in a jazz hand fashion. Sure, I was being sarcastic, but hey, it wasn't my fault. I loved messing with people, sometimes. "A secret passageway, duh. Come on, it's safe. I've been in it countless of times. I've, also, climbed the ladder countless of times."

"Well, if it's so safe, then why don't you go down first?" she asked.

I shrugged my shoulder, glad that I had Red install an automatic closer at the bottom of the ladder. "All right." With that, I sat down before turning around, getting my feet on the metal ladder. I looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "I'll send a lamp up. We had the whole structure fixed, well me and Red."

Realization dawned on her face. "That was why you were no where to be found, even when we tried calling you. That, also, explains the sounds that we had heard coming from inside the walls."

I nodded my head. "The good thing was, Delilah just told me to worry about it, even though I all ready knew what was going on and knew that there wasn't anything really wrong. Now, I'll see you at the bottom." I started climb down, going into the dark. I wasn't scared of the dark and was glad about it.

"Are you alright?" Anna asked, hearing me a small 'omph', since I had jumped the rest of the way to the bottom.

"Yes, I'm fine." I grabbed the kerosene lamp, that was on a ledge, along with a box of matches. I finished setting the lamp up before putting it onto the pulley. "Light's coming up." With that, I pulled the pulley, making the tunnel bright. Well, the ladder that is. "Now, come on down."

"Ok..," Anna said. She let a leg in and found the metal rung for the ladder. Silently, she lowered herself down, muttering "I'm going to die" every so often.

I bit back a snort before I lowered the lamp, guiding her path. She wasn't going to die, and I didn't know why she thought she was going to die, but I wasn't going to say anything. I mean, I wouldn't have told her about this if she was going to die.

Red and I did keep maintenance of the whole underground tunnels, because we needed to make sure that it was safe if one of us needed to get somewhere quickly. It, also, helped us when the weather was really rough during the winters, and we had to go some place to check on the horses.

Oh, and the others did know about it. The others being the other stablehands. Korren should've known about it also, but I was sure that he had forgotten about them.