Lorraine's lips curved into a half-smile, half-secret. "Same place I found the gold," she said, her tone playful, but her eyes watched him carefully.
He blinked. "You… you really found the gold in the tunnels?" Until now, he had thought her claim was little more than a fable.
She shrugged with a faint smirk. "There's still some left. What you've seen in this house is not all the gold we have… and have you secured all the gold?" she asked. That one was pretty important.
For a moment, silence. Then Leroy laughed softly under his breath, though his eyes still searched hers for the truth beneath her teasing tone.
She hadn't told him everything, of course. She couldn't. She didn't want to guilt him about his lineage and what was expected of him, when he wanted to leave.
She did not want to talk about how the path to those tunnels opened only for her and that the ancient traps and doors, sealed for two centuries, seemed to recognize her.
