"Perhaps if-"
He broke off as the rattle of wheels became audible; for a moment Tessa thought the carriage driver had come after them, but no, this was quite a different carriage-a sturdy-looking coach that turned into the gate and began rol ing toward the manor. Jem crouched down immediately in the grass, and Will and Tessa dropped beside him. They watched as the carriage came to a stop before the manor, and the driver leaped down to open the carriage door.
A young girl stepped out, fourteen or fifteen years old, Tessa guessed- not old enough to have put her hair up, for it blew around her in a curtain of black silk. She wore a blue dress, plain but fashionable. She nodded to the driver, and then, as she started up the manor steps, she paused-paused and looked toward where Jem, Will, and Tessa crouched, almost as if she could see them, though Tessa was sure that they were well hidden by the grass.
The distance was too great for Tessa to make out her features, real y-just the pale oval of her face below the dark hair. She was about to ask Jem if he had a telescope with him, when Will made a noise-a noise she had never heard anyone make before, a sick, terrible gasp, as if the air had been punched out of him by a tremendous blow.
But it was not just a gasp, she realized. It was a word; and not just a word, a name; and not just a name, but one she had heard him say before.
"Cecily. "
Chapter 6: In Silence Sealed
The human heart has hidden treasures,
In secret kept, in silence sealed;
The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures,
Whose charms were broken if revealed
-Charlotte Bronte, "Evening Solace"
The door of the great house swung open; the girl disappeared inside. The coach rattled off around the side of the manor to the coach house as Will staggered to his feet. He had gone a sickly gray color, like the ashes of a dead fire.
"Cecily," he said again. His voice held wonderment, and horror.
"Who on earth is Cecily?" Tessa scrambled into a standing position, brushing grass and thistles from her dress. "Wil -"
Jem was already beside Will, his hand on his friends shoulder. "Will, you must speak to us. You look as if youve seen a ghost. "
Will dragged in a long breath. "Cecily-"
"Yes, youve said that already," said Tessa. She heard the sharpness in her own voice, and softened it with an effort. It was unkind to speak so to someone so obviously distraught, even if he did insist on staring into space and muttering "Cecily" at intervals.
It hardly mattered; Will seemed not to have heard her. "My sister," he said.
"Cecily. She was-Christ, she was nine years old when I left. "
"Your sister," said Jem, and Tessa felt a loosening of something tight around her heart, and cursed herself inwardly for it. What did it matter whether Cecily was Will s sister or someone he was in love with? It had nothing to do with her.
Will started down the hill, not looking for a path, just tramping blindly among the heather and furze. After a moment Jem went after him, catching at his sleeve. "Will, dont-"
Will tried to pul his arm away. "If Cecilys there, then the rest of them-my family-they must be there as well. "
Tessa hurried to catch up with them, wincing as she nearly turned an ankle on a loose rock. "But it doesnt make any sense that your family would be here, Will. This was Mortmains house. Starkweather said so. It was in the papers-"
"I know that," Will half-shouted.
"Cecily could be visiting someone here-"
Will gave her an incredulous look. "In the middle of Yorkshire, by herself? And that was our carriage. I recognized it. Theres no other carriage in the carriage house. No, my familys in this somehow. Theyve been dragged into this bloody business and I-I have to warn them. " He started down the hil again.
"Will!" Jem shouted, and went after him, catching at the back of his coat; Will swung around and shoved Jem, not very hard; Tessa heard Jem say something about Will having held back all these years and not wasting it now, and then it all blurred together-Wil swearing, and Jem yanking him backward, and Will slipping on the wet ground, and the both of them going over together, a rol ing tangle of arms and legs, until they fetched up against a large rock, Jem pinning Will to the ground, his elbow against the other boys throat.
"Get off me. " Will shoved at him. "You dont understand. Your familys dead -"
"Will. " Jem took his friend by the shirtfront and shook him. "I do understand. And unless you want your family dead too, youl listen to me. "
Will went very still. In a choked voice he said, "James, you cant possibly- Ive never-"
"Look. " Jem raised the hand that wasnt gripping Will s shirt, and pointed.
"There. Look. "
Tessa looked where he was pointing-and felt her insides freeze. They were nearly halfway down the hil above the manor house, and there, above them, standing like a sort of sentry on the ridge at the hil s top, was an automaton. She knew immediately what it was, though it did not look like the automatons that Mortmain had sent against them before. Those had made some surface pretense of being human. This was a tall, spindly metal creature, with long hinged legs, a twisted metal ic torso, and sawlike arms.
It was utterly still, not moving, somehow more frightening for its still ness and silence. Tessa could not even tell if it was watching them. It seemed to be turned toward them, but though it had a head, that head was featureless but for the slash of a mouth; metal teeth gleamed within. It seemed to have no eyes.
Tessa quel ed the scream rising in her throat. It was an automaton. She had faced them before. She would not scream. Will, propped on his elbow, was staring. "By the Angel-"
"That things been following us; Im sure of it," said Jem in a low, urgent voice. "I saw a flash of metal earlier, from the carriage, but I wasnt sure. Now I am. If you go tearing off down the hill, you risk leading that thing right to your familys door. "
"I see," Will said. The half-hysterical tone had gone from his voice. "I wont go near the house. Let me up. "