The Missing Stairs

Previously

…Clara stepped back, her eyes wide with a mixture of awe and trepidation. This was it. The culmination of Eleanor’s puzzle, the gateway to the family secret. She looked at the open passage, then back at the rows of books, now seemingly ordinary, their secret revealed. The library, which had always been a place of quiet contemplation, now held a thrilling, palpable sense of mystery. She knew, with absolute certainty, that the truth she sought lay just beyond that opening, waiting in the silent darkness.