Echoes in the Darkness
I lay back on the pillows, my disordered mind trying to make sense of what had I had just seen. I was bone tired; my psyche as battered, bruised and defeated as an old prizefighter after an encounter with a young contender. But, as my eyelids drooped, I felt an overwhelming sense of well-being. The fever had retreated, my limbs had stopped trembling and, for the first time in a long time—since a magical, rainy Paris night when I had been held close in a strong pair of arms, able to temporarily forget that the rest of the world existed—I felt safe.
* * *
Lucy sat at my bedside, her nimble fingers flying across the shirt she was darning. “The village is in an uproar,” she told me. “A young girl has gone missing and no one seems to know where she can be.”
“Could she have run away? Eloped?” I asked. I still felt as weak as a kitten, but at least the room stayed still now when I sat propped against the cushions.
Lucy snipped a loose thread with neat, white teeth. “I suppose anything is possible,” she agreed, “but it is felt to be most unlikely in this instance. She is described by all who know her as a ‘good girl.’ Her mother had sent her to visit an elderly relative. When she didn’t return by nightfall, the alarm was raised. Her basket was found on the cliff path, flung down but still containing half a dozen scones and an apple pie. Her bonnet lay nearby.”
“Perhaps not a runaway or an elopement then,” I remarked. “Maybe she was abducted? Something similar happened in Paris. A number of girls went missing during the time I lived there.” I paused, remembering the sense of menace that had penetrated the narrow Montmartre streets. I was not the only woman who glanced fearfully over my shoulder once darkness fell. “But those girls were all found dead. They had been murdered in the foulest manner.”
“Well, let us hope that Amy Winton has not met a comparable fate. Her disappearance may yet be nothing more than a silly girl’s prank, or a ploy to disguise her involvement with an unsuitable lover,” Lucy said. She folded the shirt she had been working on and regarded me thoughtfully. “You do look a little better, I think. Doctor Munroe fears, however, that your convalescence is likely to be a long one. Of course, your incapacity meant that you missed the great excitement of Charles’s flying visit a few days ago. It was the same day that Eddie left, although their paths did cross briefly.” A worried frown marred her smooth brow, but my tired mind refused to fully absorb her words.
“Charles?” I wrinkled my brow in confusion.
“My younger son. Although you have probably heard him referred to as ‘Cad,’ an unfortunate childhood nickname that has stayed with him.” There was a note of brisk disapproval in her voice. “Some business transaction or another needed Tynan’s approval, so he travelled down and stayed overnight. Then he was going to follow Eddie to London and supervise—I mean, help—him there.” Her brow wrinkled again, and I wasn’t sure whether she felt the need to explain further for my sake or her own. “Cad has acted very much as Tynan’s agent these last few years. Tynan says he has more knowledge than anyone we could hire, and, of course, there is the added advantage that Cad loves the Jago estate. He would do anything to promote the family interests. Eddie, of course, has been away, but he will soon learn all of those things.”
I contrasted the accounts I had heard of Cad’s devotion with Eddie’s unswerving hatred for Athal House and anything to do with his proud name. How could two brothers reared in the same manner feel so differently about their heritage?
Perhaps my thoughts were reflected in my face. Whatever the reason, Lucy, her eyes fixed on her sewing, but her voice full of memories, began to tell me more about her family. “When I first came to Tenebris, the sense of evil older than time was palpable. This was—is—a family haunted by past misdeeds. The difference now is that the head of the house is a good man. The demons Tynan has fought were never inside himself. For so many of the Jagos that has not been the case, and several of them did not fight at all. Rather, they allowed the wickedness that resided within them to win. Some even delighted in that evil. And it is not just of the distant past I speak.” She raised shadowed, blue eyes to my face, and I was shocked at the expression within them. What horrors must this outwardly serene woman have witnessed? “If you are to join this family, Dita, you need to be aware of that. Tenebris may be gone, but it is still within us all in some measure. My children are not unaffected by its legacy.” She broke off abruptly and said, with a change of tone, “You must have sensed that I wasn’t sure about your engagement at first, but now I’m so pleased that Eddie has met you. I have never seen him so happy as he is with you.”