Darkest Dreams (25 page)

“What kind of little ride?” I asked, apprehensive.

“We're going to pay a visit to a haunted mansion,” Gemini answered, blue eyes bright with excitement. “This all started with Lady Helen, and we are missing out on important clues by not finding out more about her.”

I quickly found a seat. “You mean the place that Mr. Drayson mentioned at dinner? The place that even scared him?”

“I'm sure he was exaggerating,” Gemini said.

“I agree that we haven't asked as many questions about Lady Helen as we should, but I don't think going to a haunted mansion is the way to get the answers we want.”

“It's the perfect place to go,” Bridget said. “From what I hear, not a thing has been touched since the night Lady Helen died. She might have a journal or some letters or something to help us figure out what could have happened that night. Someone hated her enough to kill her. Who?”

“It wasn't the earl, “Prudence cried out. “He hated her for what she was doing to his sons but he wouldn't have harmed her. I know him.”

Cassie put a comforting hand on Prudence's shoulder.

“Solving her murder will be the only way to let her spirit find peace. Mary's too,” Gemini said.

“Wait a minute,” I cried. “All of you are moving too fast here.” I felt as if I'd been caught up in a storm that was spinning out of control. “What are you talking about? Putting their spirits to rest?”

Gemini frowned at me. “Wouldn't your spirit be upset if you were murdered?”

“I suppose so, but you sounded as if you had actually heard their spirits.”

Gemini shrugged, looking oddly as if she was hiding a lot more than she was saying. “The important thing is that we find out who did this. The men have had eight years and don't have any answers. The matter needs a woman's perspective.”

“We'll work together to solve this and prove to the men that we are capable. By staying together we'll be safe as well,” Bridget added.

“I'm afraid I'm going to stay here,” Prudence said softly. “I don't want to be that far from Rebecca, not since we've learned that Mrs. Frye and Jamie aren't responsible for what happened to Mary. Rebecca could still be in danger. Somebody put her on the roof. If not Jamie, then who?”

Cassie exhaled as if punched. “God, I don't want to ever have to live through what happened before again. You're right to keep Rebecca close, but I think she may be safe now. I think whoever tried to hurt her was afraid that when Rebecca started talking clearly she would say something that might tell us who harmed Mary. Now that she has recovered and hasn't said anything more, she may be safe. But you're right not to leave her.”

“Maybe we should all just stay here and ask questions about Helen from people who knew her,” I muttered, hoping that I'd get one of the other women to go along with the safer of the two evils. Cassie, Bridget and Gemini glared at me, and I knew I didn't have a choice.

“I don't suppose a short drive tomorrow for an after-tea excursion will be that hazardous as long as we stay together.” I bit my lip and winced, wondering why I felt so very uneasy about everything.

A few minutes after everyone went back to their search for Druid symbology in the library books, I eased over to Cassie's side. “Have you had any dreams?” I whispered.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. She set her hand on mine. “No, none at all. You know I would do anything, say anything to keep someone from harm.”

“Yes.” I also knew that, except for once in the case of Rebecca's being left on the roof, Cassie's dreams about a person's death always came too late to do anything to save that person.

The firm knock on the door made me jump guiltily, as if I'd been caught doing something I shouldn't. Cassie did as well. She cleared her throat. “Come in.”

One of the downstairs maids stood at the door, white-faced, shaken and crying. “Begging your pardon, Mistress Killdaren, but Sir Warwick wishes to have a word with you. I swear I didn't do anything with the cards in the music room, they were there when I dusted last week, honest. Please ma'am, but it's not my fault. I canna afford to lose my job, ma'am. I promise I didn't do it.”

“Heavens! I forgot all about them. There has been so much happening,” Cassie said, crossing the room, and set her arm across the girl's shoulders. “Don't you worry, Nan. I'll take care of this. Tell Mrs. Murphy I said to give you some tea and scones, and you take a short break and gather yourself. Nobody's going to lose their job. I know exactly what happened to the cards.”

“Yes, ma'am,” the maid said as she curtsied and left, sniffling. She didn't appear very reassured. I imagined Sir Warwick had given her quite a fright.

“Odd that Sir Warwick is asking about the cards. I expected it would be the earl. Well, it's time for me to go and face the music, so to speak.” Cassie straightened her shoulders as if readying for battle. “You three did the right thing in removing those horrid cards about the women who died. I've wanted to do it since I first came here. I just hadn't had time since Sean and I were married.”

“I'll go with you,” I said. “The cards are shoved into the back of my armoire.”

“No,” Cassie said. “As far as anyone is concerned we've burned them. This is my home now, and I don't want them here. If you don't take charge of your own life and make it what you want it to be, then someone else will choose for you.”

“Blimey, Cassie. That has to be the greatest thing I've ever heard said. I am coming with you, then I'm going to stop letting Stuart make my choices.” Bridget set down her book firmly on the desktop and tugged her dress into place as she stood.

“And I as well,” Prudence said quietly. “But not everyone can choose what they want. Many have to settle for what is given to them.”

“Sometimes that is true, Prudence, but then you don't know if something is possible until you try and make it so,” Cassie said, looking at Prudence, but somehow the weight of the words settled on me, and I couldn't seem to shrug them off.

We entered the music room, bolstering Cassie's wake, surprised to find the Earl of Dartraven pacing in agitation and Sir Warwick staring the card less display of Tartoelen Dragon Shawms where the woman who used them on stage had been burned at the stake as a witch—one of the gruesome stories I recalled reading as I'd removed the card.

The earl looked up at us all with a puzzled expression. “I'm not sure how this has happened but all of the research on these instruments is missing. We need to find the cards. Warwick will be able to tell the maid where they belong.”

“I'm afraid that isn't possible, my lord,” Cassie replied. “I apologize if I have upset anyone but they were removed because I felt that their content didn't belong in my home. I've a child on the way, and those stories of death were nightmares no child ever needs to hear. The cards, unfortunately, met with an untimely end.”

“That was my fault,” I said, moving to Cassie's side, unable to let her bear the brunt of the gaffe. “I thought ridding them of their ghost meant destroying the cards.”

“There should be no blame cast here,” said Prudence, taking Cassie's other side. “As long as the tragedies involved with the instruments are kept fresh in everyone's minds the beauty of the music they could make can never be heard.”

“They were a memorial to Olivia,” said the earl.

“My wife,” added Sir Warwick at our puzzled looks. “She began collecting the instruments before she died, and after her death, I continued.”

The earl sighed. “Sean's mother had Warwick place the instruments here where Olivia loved to sing as a memorial to her. The harp on the stage was hers.”

“She was playing it and singing when she collapsed on stage and died. She sang so passionately that her heart literally stopped from exhaustion.”

The men were suddenly so melancholy that I thought they were going to cry. I felt stunned to see such emotion from them. Nobody said a word for a few minutes. I could see that Cassie was grappling for the right thing to say. For no matter what the content of the cards had been, the music room was apparently a memorial, and we'd desecrated it in some way. And to be honest, Cassie and I were the last ones who could actually judge another for their collection of antiquities. Though we didn't have cards delineating who the men were and how they died, my parents had picked up two shrunken heads in their travels, and they were sitting on the shelf of our dish cabinet in our Oxford home at that moment.

“I think it is time for all of us to put what happened in the past behind us and find a new life,” Prudence said firmly, looking directly at the earl and gaining his attention.

He blinked at her as if he hadn't seen her for some time. “You make that sound like you're about to sail to America.” He didn't appear to like the idea at all.

Prudence furrowed her brow. “I just might. Stuart has been urging me to start a new life for myself and Rebecca for a long time. I never thought it possible, but maybe I am wrong.”

The earl gaped like a fish out of water.

Though Cassie and Prudence were right–it was time to free many things from the chains of the past–I did feel contrite for upsetting Sir Warwick and the earl. Not so bad that I wanted to return the cards, but I did need to say something. I leaned forward and touched Sir Warwick's sleeve and quickly snatched my hand back. “I'm…sorry.” I could barely get my words of apology past the sudden lump in my throat. Inside, Sir Warwick was raging with anger. “
These imbeciles have destroyed years, years of research! Olivia's memory was more important than these low-class upstarts.
”

A clear image of his wife singing on stage, strumming her golden harp, looking like a Greek goddess in white robes and delicate flowers in her upswept hair flashed in my mind, and I saw her fall to the ground clutching her chest as she cried out in pain.

The impact of the image on me was like being punched in the stomach so hard that I couldn't breathe.

Chapter Sixteen

How could Sir Warwick appear so outwardly calm and composed while such anger raged inside him? Clearly he did not wish to cause a scene. I marveled at his restraint; were I that angry I would be screaming or crying. The hidden thoughts in the minds of those around me, thoughts that only I knew were there, reached out and wrapped their hands around my throat, suffocating me.

Was I becoming mad as I had in my dream? Was I was losing sight of where I ended and another's thoughts began? My heart raced and I grew dizzy.

“Forgive me, but I just remembered something very important that I must attend to.” I hurried from the room without looking at anyone. By the time I reached my room, I'd yet to escape Sir Warwick's thoughts regarding low-class upstarts, nor the vision of his wife writhing upon the stage.

I went to my bed, climbed in and pulled the covers over my head, completely overwhelmed by the events of the day. Tears escaped from the corners of my eyes. How could I live like this? How could I face a future of reading other's private thoughts and emotions?

How could I stop battling the enemy I faced now? A killer was lurking, and I had to find him. Then there was Alex, wasting his life away, and I had to save him. I would never be able to walk away from a wrong without trying to make it right. Maybe there was no escape for me ever. Maybe, like my namesake, I was chained upon a rock in this seething sea of human thoughts, and I would die here as the monster slowly devoured me. And deep down inside me, there was another realization dawning. Not all of my anguish today had come from my gift, but from finally facing how deep my feelings for Alex really were. All of my life I'd known I was different and had resigned myself to the fact that I'd never know marriage. But now that I'd discovered love, that empty future cut me to the core. My gift had never been more of a curse.

Cassie appeared at the door, saving me from the throes of my dilemma.

“Andrie? What's wrong?” She came and sat on the bed. “Did Sir Warwick and the earl upset you? They'll live without the gruesome cards, and we'll all be better off.”

“I know. It's not that.” I forced a wan smile as I peeked out from the covers. There was no point in telling Cassie what Sir Warwick thought about our presence in the Killdarens' lives or how painful his wife's death had been.

“Then what is it?”

“Life is changing. We're all changing, and nothing will ever be the way it was before. Sometimes that overwhelms me.”

“I know. I feel that way too. Especially when I realize that I will soon have children to care for, and what their life and future is going to be like with the Dragon's Curse over their heads.”

I tossed back the covers, realizing that I was only wasting time that I didn't have to lose. “Though I haven't read every page, I've searched through the Dragon's Curse book. It's in my armoire.”

“You've got Sean's book in here? Good Lord, Andrie, Sean will be livid. He's never let me take it out of the study.”

I winced. “Sorry. The night you collapsed Alex showed it to me, and I just brought it back here, hoping to find a way to break the curse. Too bad it's not as simple as making the macabre cards disappear.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, without the awful stories to remind people of what happened, the instruments will now just be instruments of music and beauty, and perhaps will have a happy memories attached to them to erase the bad ones.”

“Andrie!” Cassie squealed and hugged me hard. “That's it! I can't change the past but I can change what is said about it today and how people see things that happen now. And just what would happen to the legend of the Dragon's Curse if the book disappeared? Keep it hidden for now, and we'll see what Sean does when he discovers it missing.”