Unwilling to move her head again, Estelle lowered her hand. When the pain had cleared enough for her to talk without crying, she looked at him.
“I think I hit it, but I cannot remember how,” she replied quietly.
“You will in time. You just need to rest a bit, that’s all,” he assured her.
Estelle looked at the road ahead, but couldn’t see any houses of the village she was sure she lived in. “Where am I going to in Stredley Fallows?”
“You are coming with me,” Myles replied. “We are going to Icklehampton Hall.”
“Where? Why? Why can’t I go home?” Estelle asked around growing panic.
She could recall Myles, vividly, with so much clarity she could describe exactly what he had looked like when he had marched up the cliff path with long strides on the blustery day. She could remember going home with her grandma and having cake for tea. But she couldn’t remember anything after that. Nor could she remember having heard of this Icklehampton Hall before.
“Where is my grandma?” she gasped.
“I don’t know,” Myles replied. “I think she is in the village somewhere but I don’t know where.” He looked down at her. “Do you? Can you remember where home is?”
Estelle frowned as she thought hard about the house she knew she shared with her aged relation.
“I feel as though I should live in a big house with four bedrooms, but I know that isn’t my grandma’s house,” she whispered, trying hard to think of more detail of either property.
“Well, if you cannot remember what your grandma’s house looks like, you have to come with me.”
Estelle wanted to argue but she knew he was right. She couldn’t knock on every door in the village in the hopes that someone might know where she lived. It was odd, but she suspected that most people wouldn’t know her, only had no idea why.
A sudden thought occurred to Myles. He went still and stared down at her. “You were alone in the woods, I take it?”
“The woods?” She frowned at him in confusion and then turned her thoughts on woods and trees. Slowly, a vague memory began to filter through her frustration. When she focused on it, she couldn’t get the trees to sharpen in focus, everything was foggy. “I think I was in the woods, but I was alone. It is difficult to see.”
Myles nodded, relieved that he didn’t have to go back to look for her grandma. Even if her grandma was at home, he knew she would want him to fetch the doctor, and that would take time. Time he suspected Estelle would be better spending in bed, resting. In this fog, approaching the river as they were, it was becoming difficult to see more than twelve feet in front of them. Thankfully, Estelle didn’t seem inclined to want to go home. He suspected that she was busy trying to remember what had happened to her and hadn’t given a thought to what happened next.
“Until you can be sure of what happened to you, you have to come with me,” he replied.
He struggled to know what to tell her in her confused state. While he didn’t want to frighten her unduly, he couldn’t bring himself to lie to her either. Until he had spoken with her grandma, he couldn’t return Estelle to her care. After all, what kind of relation allows a single, beautiful young woman to go out wandering around haunted woods unchaperoned in the first place?
“Why?” She didn’t know why but she truly believed that was wrong. “No. I can’t come with you. It isn’t right.”
“I cannot take you back to the village,” Myles protested. “We are nearly at the house. Look.”
He pointed to the huge mansion resting atop a small hillock up ahead but then hesitated when he realised what a sinister sight it made. Encased in darkness, and rising out of the fog the way it was, gave it a haunted look that he wasn’t entirely sure she should be looking at. Not if he wanted to get her to go near it. It looked like it should be the permanent residence of the cloaked figures out on the road. Tall, and gothic looking, it appeared as cold and unwelcoming as the night all about them. Even he shivered with unease and he lived there.
“Good Lord,” he whispered. This was the first time in his life he had ever thought of the house he called home like that and immediately made a stern mental note to speak to his father about ways to change it – and as quickly as possible so they didn’t scare away any visitors.
“What is it?” Estelle tensed when she saw his consternation.
“I am struggling to find my way in this fog,” he replied blankly for want of actually telling her the house looked like a haunted mansion.
Estelle knew he was lying to her and studied the verge on the side of what appeared to be the narrow driveway they were winding their way down. She immediately recoiled when she saw the trees standing sentry-like at the side of the road, their branches reaching toward her with claw-like menace.
Myles’ heart hitched when she instinctively buried her head in the crook of his neck and immediately hugged her closer. He had never had anybody do that before, not even long forgotten lovers, and revelled in the new sensation. It brought forth an uncharacteristic protectiveness within him that surprised him. While he knew it was improper to hold her this close, there was nobody but the two of them to witness it. As far as he was concerned, if Estelle found comfort in his embrace then he was happy to oblige her. After all, it was partly his fault she was in her current predicament. It was his responsibility to help her in a time of crisis,
like now, and he was going to.
“What is it?” he whispered when she made no attempt to explain what had frightened her so badly.
“I h
ate this fog,” she replied nervously.