McCann's Manor (36 page)

"Aye, come in, Kimberly. This conversation concerns you as much as it does Elizabeth,” he said without turning to address her before continuing his tale, “I was foolish to build this house and I must pay for my mistake. Until that error is rectified, I cannot take my eternal rest, even though, as you would say, I have already gone into the Light. It is my obligation to know the things which pertain to this habitation; I am responsible for its fate."

Liz shivered. “You make it sound as if the house is your
child
,” she said.

"In a manner of speaking, it is—my
abused
child. I found a way to control the portal, to take me to any time, any place. I ignorantly shared the secret with Spencer and he became as one crazed with the idea of being able to steal from other places in other times and possess the riches he had only dreamed of having. He made threats against Constance and me and I allowed him to force me to abuse the portal,” he explained.

"He made you the thief,” Liz mused.

"Aye, and when the possession of
things
proved to be less of a thrill than what he believed it would, he became obsessed with the possession of people,” he said.

"Constance—” she speculated.

"Aye, first Constance, then our son. Spencer could be happy only by possessing things that belonged to others, but even a man such as he could not possess Constance. She was as the wind and the rain—she would be owned or controlled by no man. Her spirit would not be broken and when he began to tire of her belligerence, he wanted to do away with her,” Ben said.

"Why did she agree to go to him in the first place?” Kim asked, circling around Ben and sitting close to Liz.

"She was his prisoner; she never agreed to anything. He went to her and told her he had come to fetch her to me because I could not get away at the time and I did not want her to make the journey alone,” Ben said sadly.

"But the letter she wrote to you?” Liz asked.

He stared at the floor a long moment before replying. “Spencer took her to an inn and had his way with her; then he told her he would reveal the secrets of my past to the world if she did not do as he told her. In my youth I committed heinous crimes; among those, the murder of an innocent child. I repented of my evil ways, but I fled from justice and to your United States to seek a grander future. I confessed all these things to Constance when I fell in love with her and she forgave me. In my eyes, her forgiveness was like being pardoned by the Almighty himself,” he said.

"How did Spencer find out?” Liz asked.

"David Spencer was my brother; he was with me when I did the things I did,” he explained.

"What? Your brother? But—” Liz sputtered.

"Aye, my half-brother. He looked like his mother; I looked like mine, but we were brothers all the same. It never occurred to me until much later, he actually had goaded me into doing the crimes I committed. It was his sick way of having a thrill to put me into positions of stealing, killing—whatever he thirsted to see done. You see, David never
did
anything on his own. All his experiences in life were through the acts, the belongings of others,” Ben said.

"That is so sick,” Kim observed.

"
Aye
, he
was
sick, but no more than I, for allowing him to fulfill his fantasies through me. He preceded me to this country with all the fortune we could scrape together, set himself up as the big man in a soon-to-be thriving community. While he was about the business of establishing himself, I met Constance and learned for the first time in my empty existence what life and love really meant. I vowed never to let him push me into crimes of violence again, but I knew full well he would continue to use me. He took the maiden name of his mother while I kept the McCann name as my own,” he said.

"I'm sorry these things happened to you,” Liz sympathized.

"We learn through our errors, do we not? Constance knew it was only a matter of time before he would wish her dead and she took herbs that made her blood thin over the months of her pregnancy. When Jonathan was born, she simply bled to death. It was her wish to die, but not at his hands or the hands of someone he willed to commit the crime. She thought the herbs would claim the life of the child as well and thereby give them both freedom from David. She met me in secret mere days before Jonathan was born and told me what she had done. She begged me to forgive her and to use her death as a way to free
myself
at last from David's abuse. She made me promise to take her body and Jonathan's to my property so we could all be together,” He whispered.

"But Jonathan didn't die,” Liz said.

"Nay, he did not die, though because of the herbs she had taken while she carried him, he was never a strong child. David still had Jonathan and I was still forced to do David's bidding. My beloved's death was for nothing, except that it gave her freedom at last—” he broke off then, a great brooding silence overtaking him.

"She couldn't have known, Ben,” Liz tried to soothe.

"Nay, she did not know. David wanted me to kill Jonathan to
free
him of the burden the child posed. He said if I would kill the boy he would ask no more of me, but I could not bring myself to do such a thing. When I refused, David swore he would beat the boy until he died. I laid traps for David in everything I did; I used the portal to transport myself to his house, steal the things back and return them to their rightful owners. Later when David accused me of robbing him, I had witnesses who could swear I had been someplace else—and why not? I had the portal, did I not? I
could
almost be two places at once,” he said.

"What about Jonathan?” Liz asked.

"The boy feared me and thought of that black demon as his father; had I taken my son, he would have escaped me and returned to tell David I kidnapped him. In truth, I never had reason to steal him because though David threatened to harm him, the man was too spineless to carry out his threats. Would that I had known it at the start of the game he played. I could have stopped it then,” Ben said as he shook his head sadly.

"Your death preceded Jonathan's,” Liz said.

"Aye. Jonathan fell into the river on a cold, bleak December day, was pulled under. No one ever found his body, but I was already entombed in my own vault more than two years before his demise, so I could never bring his body home to his mother,” he said.

"Why didn't you bury her?” Liz asked.

"I wanted to put her where David would never find her. She begged me not to let him know where she was. She feared him even in death, though in truth her agony at his hands had been mostly mental. He never loved her or Jonathan, but he was fascinated by possessing them."

"Didn't he know about the secret passages?” Kim asked.

"Nay, he never learned to read the old language, nor did he ever see Tarrh's manuscripts. Only the builder of the house and I knew the secrets of the passages and how they worked. Later, I incorporated the controls to the portal into the passages and, except for one time when
you
found one by
accident
; or perhaps it was through a greater design than mine—no one besides myself knows how to activate the controls,” he told her. “David spied on me and that is how he learned about the vault in the parlor. I am sure he suspected I had other hidden rooms as well, but he never found any of them."

"Wow! That is some story, Ben,” Liz said. “How did you find the location of the portal to begin with?"

"Tarrh spent much of his life traveling the world finding such places. He traveled from his portal to others and documented them. Once you have been to a few of them, you learn to recognize the
feel of it
when you come near another. I knew there were several on this side of the globe and I chanced to find this one because of the stories the natives told about this place where people disappeared and returned demented because they could not understand what had happened to them,” he explained.

"Tarrh said the portal brings you back after a time,” Liz observed.

"Usually that is true. But there is never any knowing
when
it will bring you back. Sometimes it will be after a few minutes; sometimes it could be after several years, or even never. That is why I set out to devise controls that would take me to a specific place and time for a specific length of time,” he said.

"And that worked?” Kim asked.

He smiled, the hint of a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “Mostly it worked, but in truth, the portal takes you to places you unconsciously
want
to go and returns you only if you really desire to return, though it may
not
work that way at all,” he said.

"Then I went to Tarrh—"

"Because you took compassion on him and wondered what had happened to make him the rascal he became,” he said simply, finishing her thought. “And you returned because you learned a truth about the entity you have thought of as Tarrh and you needed to pass that knowledge on to your friends."

"Can Tarrh be separated from the other two?” Kim asked.

"I cannot tell you that. Only God himself knows, but if there is any justice, there must be a way to accomplish his redemption and to banish Moira and Sean,” he said.

"Are you descended from Moira and Sean?” Liz asked.

"Nay, I am not,” he reported.

"Then who?” Liz asked.

"Tarrh was a man of many indiscretions. My forebear was born of his housemaid, Melody. She outlived Moira and Sean and wound up with the house because Tarrh had no living relatives and had provided for Melody and her young son in the event he died and left no other heirs, which turned out to be the case,” he said.

"How did you learn to use magic? I mean, if you had descended from Moira, I would have my answer, but with Tarrh out of the picture—” Kim asked.

He laughed heartily, shook his head. “How do you think Melody managed to live through all the upheavals of surviving as an ongoing member of Tarrh's household even after his death? He taught it to Melody, though in truth she had been a natural sorceress. Had Moira not come along and beguiled him, he probably would have eventually taken Melody to wife because she was beautiful and uncommonly gifted in the magical arts; a perfect mate for Tarrh,” he said.

"I see,” Liz said. “Thank you for clearing so many things up in my mind. I suppose we are ready to visit your pyramid now,” she said.

"Very well. Come with me, then,” he said, extending his hand.

Liz was surprised when she reached out in return and actually touched his hand; but then, she was learning not to let anything be much of a shock in this house of possibilities.

"We've been
trying
to contact you, Ben, with not a whit of success. Why is it you suddenly show up now?” Kim asked.

"Kim!” Liz chided.

"Nay, Kimberly is right to ask, Elizabeth. You must be careful in dealing with the spirits in this house; for there is much mischief afoot and none of us have been known for our truthfulness. Moira could easily imitate my image and even conjure a Timothy look alike in order to trick you. She is very powerful,” Ben said.

"So, tell me one reason we
should
believe you,” Kim said.

Benjamin studied Kim's face a moment, met her stare solidly. “I have no reason to give to you, Kimberly. I
am
Benjamin, but there is no argument I can give you to induce you to believe me,” he said.

Kim looked deeply into his clear eyes. “I
do
believe you. There is probably no other answer you could have given me that would have convinced me;
that
one did,” Kim said.

"You heard most of what I told Elizabeth,” he stated.

"Yes,” she responded.

"I could have come to you when you evoked me before, but they were waiting to come forth as well. I waited until a time when they—primarily Moira, as you may have surmised, was not expecting me to come. She would have tried to block or even intercept me,” Ben explained.

"Liz says Moira, Sean and Tarrh are melded into one spirit now. Is that a true picture?” Kim asked.

"Aye, her perception is accurate. They are one, though they are yet separate; there are times when one dominates the others. Moira is strong and she has control much of the time, but Tarrh is also very strong and as the one who bound the others, he has much command, much of the time."

"If Tarrh could be completely separated from the others, could he control them better?” Liz asked.

"'Tis possible, though I cannot say for certain. If he were separate, he and I might be able to subjugate Moira, but Sean and David are still left to contend with,” Benjamin said.

"David is still here?” Kim asked.

"Aye. He skulks about, though you will likely never see him. Attacking from behind is more his style,” he said.

"Why is he still here? Did he die here, too?” Liz asked.

"He believes I cheated him; he wants me to pay,” he said.

"Ben, did David
die
here?” Liz repeated.

"Aye, he died here, though his body was taken away and buried in his own cemetery. You will not find his body here, if that is what you are thinking,” Ben said.

"You say he thinks
you cheated him
? Who killed
whom
?” Kim asked.

Benjamin raised an eyebrow, smiled bitterly. “Aye. ‘Tis a bit warped, but then, he always was twisted. He is true to his beliefs even to this day,” he mused.

"Is he dangerous?” Kim asked.

"Interesting question; closing me up in that vault was the first and only crime he ever perpetrated himself. He was responsible for many atrocities, but he
committed
only one. Would he try to perform others? Perhaps, for he has less to fear now, has he not?” he asked.

"What about Leonard and Missy?” Liz asked.

"They are still here, though I view them as the least dangerous,” he said. “They appear to want only that the truth be known about what happened to them."

"Tarrh said he killed them,” Liz said.

"Aye, in a manner of speaking, that would be true; the mental stress of being invaded by Moira posing as Tarrh was really the culprit. In actuality, however, it was Melissa's hand pulled the trigger and took her father's life,” he said.