A Matter of Circumstance and Celludrones (19 page)

He released her hands. “I don’t understand.”

“Let me make it easy for you.” She wrapped her cloak tightly around
her body and hugged herself to keep it in place. “You yanked me into your
bedroom and forced your attentions on me. What on earth made you think I
wouldn’t take offence?”

“You came to my bedroom half dressed.”

“I was sneaking
past
your blasted bedroom.”

His eyes, not quite so smouldering now, narrowed on her. “To William’s
room?”

She was so aghast, she almost choked on her words. “Are you completely
insane? I’m married, you buffoon, and desperately in love with my husband. I’d
never even think of touching another man.”

“You’ve flirted mercilessly at every opportunity,” he growled.

“In England, that’s called social intercourse.” She glared daggers
into his intense brown stare. “Everybody does it and every civilised person
knows it leads nowhere.”

“Where I’m from,” he shot back, “that’s called provocative flirting
and everybody knows it leads directly into bed.”

“If you were raised in a bordello, perhaps.”

The intensity drained and his eyes creased with his slow grin.
“Perhaps.”

Evelyn was done. She stuck her chin sky-high and left the room,
slamming the door on his attempt at an apology.

She stood on the landing, blinking back a tear that had no place in
her current state of emotion.

She was angry. Furious. Mortified.

If Devon ever found out she’d been kissed by another man…and there it
was, the reason for that tear. She liked to think, she
did
think, he’d
be livid, but there was some doubt as well.

There was a time she’d believed nothing could drive a wedge between
them, that there was nothing she could ever do that would turn him from her.

In the end, it had taken so very little.

It wasn’t that she was too stubborn to change her ways, or that she
couldn’t change to keep his love. It was the matter of not trusting in a love
that required it.
Except I have changed and I’m hurting others in the
process.

Evelyn wiped the tear from her eye and spun about, pushing the door
open. Greyston was on his haunches, the discarded towel in one hand. He looked
as if he’d gone down to pick it up and then just stayed down.

He glanced up and, in the split second before his mouth tugged into a
grin, she saw a flash of the pain he carried deep inside. A hurt so dark and
wounding, it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with her.

“If you’ve come to slap my other cheek, go ahead,” he drawled. “I
deserve it.”

“You were right and I was wrong.” She stepped into the room, the edges
of her cloak gripped firmly together. “I’m accustomed to flirting outrageously
with no consequences. Since Devon kicked me out, however, I’ve gone beyond what
even I find acceptable. To prove how very much I didn’t care.”

He raised a brow at her. “Did your husband really kick you out?”

He kicked me out of his heart.

She conjured up a weak smile. “I’m the one who must be sorry, Grey. I
was trying to make myself feel better.”

“Aren’t we all?” He flung the towel over his shoulder and gestured for
her to leave the room ahead of him. “Still, I should have asked before I took.”

Not about to disagree, she shrugged. “Are you on your way to the
river?”

“If things had turned out differently in there,” he said, prodding at
his bedroom door with his chin, “I might have shown you my favourite spot.”

“The bend where the weeping willow stands?”

“Ah.” His eyes went to her sodden hair. “I thought you’d come to me
direct from your bath.”

“I didn’t come to you at all,” she reminded him, and decided this was
as good a time as any to raise her concerns. “Paisley told me you were at
Cragloden when Lily’s mother was killed in that explosion.”

“Before and after, not during,” he said, his voice suddenly brisk.
“And I’d prefer if you and Paisley kept out of my business.”

“Does Lily know?”

“Why don’t you ask her?” He brushed past her and started for the
stairway.

“I intend to,” Evelyn called after him. “And while I’m at it, should I
ask if she’s aware that your mother was a regular visitor at Cragloden?”

He came to an abrupt halt, his shoulders snapping rigid.

She held her breath, wondering if she’d gone too far, if she’d
released the beast from his cage. But then she gritted her teeth beneath a
smile and notched her chin defiantly. Lily’s life might well be at stake. Her
mother’s certainly had been.

Greyston’s face was set in stone when he turned back to her. “What the
devil are you talking about?”

“Paisley said your mother attended scientific meetings of some sort
there before her death.”

Each step he took toward her felt more threatening than the last. It
was in the closed-off expression, in the way he held himself, in the deceptive
mildness of his tone. “What else did Paisley say?”

Evelyn stood her ground. “Jean refused to tell her any more than
that.”

“Jean.” He shook his head. “Of all the damnable—” He cut himself off,
hung the towel over the banister and retraced his path to the stairway in long,
determined strides.

He wasn’t angry because
she
knew, Evelyn realised, but because
he hadn’t. A shiver crawled down her spine as she made her way to her bedroom.

She was all for a good mystery now and then, but this castle had dark
secrets and tragedies seeping through its walls.

 
She changed as quickly as she
could, removing her damp underclothes and choosing a simple blue and white
striped day dress that buttoned down the side. Beneath that, her corset was
extremely badly tied. The petticoat, she forewent altogether. If she’d known
their accommodations wouldn’t afford a spare member of the staff to assist her
as a temporary lady’s maid, she would’ve brought Alice along with her as well
as William.

Lily’s room was two doors further down. When she entered, she found
her friend perched on the bottom of the bed, still dressed in Evelyn’s riding
habit. She was bent double, her elbows digging into her thighs and her head in
her hands.

“Whatever happened at Cragloden?” Evelyn rushed to her side. She’d
known letting Lily go without her was a terrible idea.

Lily said nothing, didn’t move.

“Oh,” Evelyn whispered, dipping to her knees before the bed.

Her hand hovered tentatively, afraid to touch. She’d never actually
witnessed Lily in the throng of one of her spells before, but apparently they
didn’t last much longer than a minute or so.

True enough, Lily’s head came up a moment later. Her eyes widened into
owl-like circles. “Evie!”

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, sorry…you just surprised me.”

“Was that one of your spells?”

Lily sucked in a long breath, nodding. “I saw Lady Ostrich. Her image
was blurred, but the silhouette of ostrich feathers was undeniable and that
appears to be her signature choice of headwear. She was walking in a field and
the Red Hawk was there—” Lily frowned. “She was in the meadow right outside.”

Evelyn straightened. “This doesn’t mean anything, does it? You said
these spells were obscure, random scenes of your imagination.”

“I think they’ve evolved, Evie. This is the second time I’ve seen Lady
Ostrich and that can’t be a coincidence. It gets worse.” She slid from the bed
to her feet and gave Evelyn a contemplating look. “You’re never going to
believe this.”

Evelyn chuckled. She was probably one of the most open-minded people
in England. “Try me.”

 
Lily’s gaze lingered a few
more seconds before she whispered hoarsely, “I think she is a demon.”

“A demon.” Evelyn rolled her eyes. “It’s this castle. It positively
reeks of death. Next thing, we’ll be seeing ghosts.”

“Listen to me,” Lily said urgently, taking her hand. “It makes sense
when you consider what she’s done, what she’s capable of.”

“There’s nothing sensible about it at all,” Evelyn said firmly, now
genuinely concerned that the visit to Cragloden on top of everything else had
become too much for Lily to cope with.

“You’re right.”

The tension in Evelyn’s gut relaxed slightly.

“That was exactly my reaction,” Lily went on, “when Kelan started
speaking about demons.”

“Who is Kelan?”

“Kelan McAllister. Earl of Perth and the laird of Cragloden Castle.
I’m not sure I like him very much. In fact, I’m sure I don’t. But on the ride
back here, I kept going over the strange things I’ve seen and thought. Do you
know what I was actually prepared to believe?” She nibbled her lower lip,
obviously contemplating how much or little to say.

Evelyn, never a coward until this very moment, very much wished it
would be
little.
She couldn’t bear to stand here and watch her friend
fall apart.

“Only yesterday,” Lily said, mindless to Evelyn’s wishes, “I was
actually considering the possibility that my mother was a witch and Cragloden
was their coven.”

Evelyn's jaw dropped. Her mind blanked on any appropriate response.
And then it didn’t matter.

A splitting sound cracked the air.

It was the crack of a whip, only a thousand times louder.

Evelyn clapped her hands over her ears, her heart thudding hard enough
to beat its way through her ribcage. Her eyes darted from corner to corner,
searching for the source.

A second, and then a final shuddering crack built on the vibrations of
the previous ones.

“It’s coming from outside,” Lily shouted, racing to the window.

Evelyn moved more slowly, her legs wooden and her blood pulsing at her
temples. The debilitating sound was fading, but seemed to leave tangible traces
of static charge that fizzled her skin.

“It’s her,” Lily said in a hushed voice as Evelyn joined her. “Lady
Ostrich is here.”

The view from the window was as fantastic as it was horrendous. The
Red Hawk was trapped in a gigantic spider web of white flames, the delicate
threads woven from three distinct lightening bolts that were shooting from the
woman’s hands. She stood some distance away, a tall silhouette rising from the
long grass of the meadow, her hands conducting the orchestra of brilliant white
fire.

“Lily…!” Greyston’s voice thundered on the landing moments before the
door crashed open. His gaze raked both of them along with the rest of the room.
“Thank God, you’re safe.”

He wedged himself between her and Lily, the three of them staring at
the spectacle. “How did she find us so quickly?”

The white bolts cut off suddenly and the flames threaded thinner and
thinner until the entire spider web disintegrated into nothing. For a moment,
the ship remained intact, a white-hot husk of capsule and furled sails, and
then its substance scattered to the breeze as powdery ash.

“The Red Hawk crew,” Evelyn said, her words a tinny echo reverberating
inside her head. She felt as if she were floating, disconnected from her body,
from the mouth forming those words and from the brain making that deduction.
“No one could survive that.”

Greyston didn’t appear to care a fig about his burning crew. “I’m
taking us back,” he said to Lily.

“We’re going to run again?” Lily said.

“This will be the last time.” Greyston’s voice held the conviction of
a solemn vow. “Thirty minutes ago, where were you? Here?”

“Yes, I suppose—no, I would have been downstairs, looking for Ana.”

Panic cleared Evelyn’s head. Her hearth thudded as she came out of her
daze and landed heavily in reality. “Have William and Ana not returned yet?”

Lily shook her head. “Apparently they left to pick apples hours ago.
They could be anywhere right now.”

“We’ll worry about them afterwards,” Greyston said. “Listen carefully:
I want you to go straight to Neco. He’ll be at the stables. Evelyn’s up here
with me. I’ll send her down to you and then I want all of you to get to the Red
Hawk as quickly as possible. Inform Neco of the situation. He must tell Jamie
to start the engines and lift off at any sign of trouble, with or without me.”

“Why wouldn’t you be with us?”

“I will be, Lily, just as soon as I’ve collected Jean and Paisley. I’m
not leaving them behind, not after that demonic bitch torched my ship. I don’t
trust her to not do the same to Forleough.”

Evelyn couldn’t comprehend most of their conversation, but one thing
was clear: they were running away, leaving Forleough. “We are not going
anywhere without William, not with that mad woman out there.”

No one paid her any attention.

“The quicker I go back, the more time we have to run.” Greyston
slipped his arm through Lily’s and pulled her into his side. “Ready?”

“Did you hear me?” Evelyn shrilled, thumping Greyston on the shoulder.

“Shhh.” Greyston’s other arm came around her, wrapping her close to
him. “It’ll be fine.”

Chapter Thirteen

E
velyn
slipped inside the hallway, creeping up the stairs. A door flung open further
along the landing just as she reached the top. She went still, her hands
gripping the edges of her cloak tightly as Greyston emerged from his bedroom,
striding directly at her without pause.

“Come,” he said, swiping her hand in his and sweeping her down the
stairs. “Lily’s waiting outside. We’re leaving on the Red Hawk.”

“Right this second?” She jerked her hand free to grab at the edge of
her cloak before it flew open, although apparently not quick enough. His gaze
flickered to where white bloomers had momentarily peeped from the dark folds.
“I really need to change into something more suitable for travelling.”

“You went swimming and the little you do have on under that useless
cloak is damp,” he said briskly. “That will be the least of your worries if we
don’t get out of here. Lady Ostrich has found us.”