‘Whoa!’ Ben sat down heavily in an armchair. That was too spooky. How did you … I mean how is that even possible?’
‘Ben,’ Maddy crouched down in front of him and tried to get him to look at her. ‘It isn’t possible. That’s what I’ve been trying to explain to you. I swear to you on everything I love, he … is … a … vampire.’
‘Right,’ Ben said, looking worriedly at Alexandre. ‘So, do you … drink blood and stuff?’
‘Yes, but I will not harm you or your sister and I do not ever kill. I just take what I need to survive.’
‘Whoah! This is off the scale. Can you fly?’
‘I do not think you could really call it flying, but I can move very quickly, as you just witnessed.’
‘What about garlic?’
‘Garlic? I used to like garlic in my food, but I do not require that type of sustenance anymore.’
‘Garlic’s no good,’ Maddy said. ‘No effect whatsoever.’
‘What can kill you then?’
‘Ben!’ Madison exclaimed. ‘You can’t ask questions like that. That’s so rude.’
‘It is quite alright,’ Alexandre laughed. ‘Daylight. Daylight would probably kill me.’
‘What about a stake through the heart?’
‘Ben! No. Don’t ask any more of those kinds of questions. That’s horrible.’
‘I’m only asking. He’s a vampire. You’ve got to ask a vampire those kinds of things, right?’
He turned to Alexandre who shrugged and smiled.
‘Those are basic vampire questions,’ Ben continued. ‘You’re a girl, Mads, so you wouldn’t know.’
‘Please don’t be afraid to tell him to shut up and mind his own business,’ she said to Alexandre. ‘I thought he’d be scared and we’d have to reassure him. I didn’t realise he’d just be rude and obnoxious.’
‘You are forgetting,’ Alexandre said to her. ‘I have a younger brother, so I am very used to this. And I like his frankness. He can ask me what he likes.’
‘Um, excuse me,’ Ben interrupted. ‘I am still in the room you know.’
‘I apologise,’ Alexandre said. ‘You know, you and my brother would get on like a house on fire.’ He turned to Madison. ‘When Jacques and Freddie wake up, I fear we will not get a moment’s peace.’
‘Do you eat?’
‘No. I do not require food.’
Ben accepted Alexandre’s existence with eagerness and an endless stream of questions. How fast can you run? Can you feel pain? How long will you live for? Do you bleed? What sort of stuff did you do in the nineteenth century? Was it really boring? He asked absolutely everything that came into his head and he, Maddy and Alexandre spent the whole evening talking, laughing and being amazed by the bizarre circumstances which had brought them all together.
*
The following day, Madison decided that if Alexandre was serious about embracing the twenty first century, he would have to look the part. So, as soon as the sun had set, she ventured down into the cellar and knocked on the door to his room.
‘Welcome to my beautiful home,’ Alexandre said.
‘Ooh, twenty first century sarcasm,’ said Madison. ‘You’re learning. But I agree,’ she said looking around her. ‘It’s pretty gross down here. We’ll have to bling it up a bit ... um, I mean make it a bit more comfortable.’
‘I would be very grateful. I may be a vampire, but it is not the cheeriest place to spend the day.’
‘We’ll get to it. But right now we’ve got something much more important to do. Follow me.’ She walked up the stairs into the kitchen, put on her coat and picked up her bag. ‘You haven’t been in a car yet have you?’
‘No.’
‘I found these in the shed. I think they belong to Morris and I’m really sorry but you’ll have to put them on.’ She handed him some old gardening clothes. ‘It’s just … I can’t take you out in that suit you’re wearing. People will think you’re in fancy dress and you don’t want to draw any more attention to yourself.’
Alexandre held out the scruffy cords and faded blue sweatshirt she’d given him. He wrinkled his nose in distaste. ‘Now, Madison. I know you do not expect me to put on these ... these revolting garments.’
‘I’m feeling your pain, but yes, Alex, I’m afraid I do expect you to put them on. But only so we don’t get stared at, which we will if you go out wearing your nineteenth century stuff. Because, Alex, my friend, the sales are on and we are going late night shopping.’
A car horn sounded outside.
‘And that’s our taxi. Quick, I won’t look. Put them on and we can go.’
Alexandre sighed and got changed. Maddy looked him up and down, liking what she saw.
‘Nice. Let’s go.’ He followed her out into the icy night and then into the dieselly warmth of the yellow taxi. Maddy stole a glance at him. Even with Morris’ hideous work clothes on, he still looked like something out of a film set.
‘You going into Bath then?’ the taxi driver asked.
‘Yeah, please,’ Maddy replied.
‘Nice house you got.’
‘Thanks.’
The driver started talking into his radio and Alexandre looked at Madison for an explanation.
‘I’ll tell you later,’ she mouthed at him.
‘Very well,’ he replied.
Maddy wore a short denim skirt and she caught him looking down at her legs. He looked away quickly into the darkness outside his window. Maddy smiled.
*
‘We’ll keep it simple. I wouldn’t normally shop here because it’s a bit vanilla for my taste, but I’m pretty sure you’ll look amazing in everything.’
They walked down the crowded high street with all the other late night shoppers until they reached the white painted façade of Gap. She held his arm and steered him into the brightly lit store. He winced under the hot lights.
‘You okay?’ she asked.
‘I am well. It is merely that these lights are insufferably bright.’
She looked at Alexandre, trying to work out if he blended in with the other shoppers. The answer to that question was most definitely, ‘no’. But not because he was a vampire. It was because he was the most stunning being she had ever laid eyes on.
Well over six feet tall and broad shouldered, Alexandre was a study in beauty. He gave off an aura that drew all eyes his way. The female shop staff were already making a beeline for him and she pulled him over to a quiet corner.
‘I think we need to get this done as quickly as possible or you’re gonna get mobbed.’
Alexandre looked at her with incomprehension.
‘Right,’ she continued. ‘Jeans.’ She grabbed a pair and held them out in front of him. ‘Too short.’ She flicked through the denim stack and found a longer length. ‘Take those, and those.’ She grabbed a couple of inoffensive hoodies, a cable knit jumper, some long-sleeved and short-sleeved t-shirts and bundled them into his arms.
He followed her to the changing rooms, where one of the female sales staff pointed him to a free cubicle, her jaw almost hanging off its hinges in admiration. She narrowed her eyes at Madison who made to follow him in.
‘How many items have you got?’ she asked.
‘None,’ replied Maddy. ‘I’m with him.’
‘You can’t go in unless you’ve got something to try on.’
Maddy grabbed a pair of men’s jeans off the rack in front of her.
‘One item,’ she said to the girl.
Maddy stood outside Alexandre’s cubicle.
‘How’s it going? Do they fit okay?’
He pulled back the curtain and stood there looking as miserable as it was possible to look.
‘I loathe these clothes. They are labourers’ clothes. Am I going to work in the fields?’
‘Alex, take my word for it. You look good.’
‘I fear you are mocking me again, Mademoiselle.’
‘You don’t need to fear anything. You look hot.’ The dark blue je
ans and grey hoodie were perfection. His black tousled hair and nineteenth century sideburns suddenly looked bang up to date. ‘Don’t bother trying on the rest. They’ll fit you no problem. Let’s just grab some underwear and socks. Keep that stuff on.’
She picked out a navy military style coat in wool and a couple of beanies, just because she liked them. She knew he didn’t feel the cold, but he had to look the part.
He stood morosely by the till while she paid.
‘Trainers next and I think you’d look cool in a pair of biker boots.’ He trailed round with her while she made him try on Converse baseball boots, a pair of Vans and some grungy black biker boots.
‘Oh this is tedious,’ he groaned. ‘Can we please do something more interesting? Everybody looks as though they are in a trance, going in and out of these over-illuminated buildings, trying on hideous garments.’
Madison stared at him and laughed. ‘Oh, you are so the typical bloke. What a surprise. Who would have thought it? ‘Alex hates shopping’. Well join the rest of the male population. Anyway, you’ll be pleased to know, we’re almost done.’
‘Almost! But we have bought up the entire street. What could possibly be left for us to purchase?’
‘Just a couple more things.’
He followed her into a crowded bookshop.
‘Wait here,’ she said, pointing to a faded blue sofa. He sat down - an island in an ocean of shopping bags. Madison went straight to the History section. She picked out several hardbacks detailing European history over the past couple of centuries, including one of purely French history and one of English history.
‘You might find these interesting,’ she said.
He took them from her and examined the covers. ‘You are a very thoughtful person,’ he said. ‘I am sorry I have been such a ...’
‘… such a moody git,’ she finished.
‘Yes, a ‘moody git’. Do you forgive me?’
‘Nothing to forgive. Come on, let’s pay for these and go home.’
*
Maddy remembered what Alexandre had said about Harold using the shutters during the day to keep the daylight out and so she reinstated them. She told Esther they must remain closed at all times and she also told her that a friend would be staying indefinitely. To Madison’s surprise, this elicited nothing more than a nod. Funny, as Esther usually had something to say about everything.
Madison hired a team of builders to completely gut and transform the cellar into a luxurious suite of windowless rooms with a lounge, five bedrooms and two bathrooms. They would also put in a separate entrance, so when the others awoke, they would be able to come and go as they pleased.
While all this was going on, Alexandre would stay on the top floor of the house. He carried the other four upstairs, sealing their crates shut so they would be safe from the light and from prying eyes. But first, another matter needed to be addressed. One that really worried Madison.
She stared out of the lounge window and realised she couldn’t put it off any longer. She would have to tell Alexandre about the bones she’d found in the cellar; the skeleton she had been so terrified of when she first discovered the hidden room. It was obviously the remains of her ancestor, Harold Swinton, but because he was a friend of Alexandre’s, she felt totally embarrassed about how she’d bundled him into a crate and shoved him out of sight.
When she finally plucked up the courage to tell him, he was immediately sympathetic.
‘Do not take it too much to heart,’ Alexandre said, watching her pace around the lounge. He stood in front of her and put a hand on her arm. ‘Your reaction was perfectly normal. Isobel would have screamed the house down and run for her life.’
‘Yeah, no offence to Isobel, but she’s a Victorian chick and I’m supposed to be an enlightened street-wise hard-ass, not a wuss.’
‘I maybe understood about three words in that sentence,’ Alexandre replied.
‘Translation – I’m embarrassed at being so scared of a skeleton and ashamed I treated Harold like that.’ She covered her face and cringed as she remembered her over-reaction to the discovery of the skeleton.
‘You did not know who it was. You have nothing to be embarrassed about. You live with five vampires; you’re the bravest girl I know.’
‘That’s true,’ she nodded and half-heartedly smiled. ‘But at the moment, I’m also the only girl you know.’
‘Poor Harold,’ Alexandre said. ‘He does need to be given a proper burial.’
‘His tombstone’s already in the chapel,’ Maddy said, sitting down. ‘It’s got his name and the dates on it. But how can that be true when his skeleton’s here in the house?’
‘He must have been given a false burial. Refet must have arranged for a funeral without his body.’
‘That makes sense.’
‘I will go to the chapel tonight and put Harold where he belongs - with Victoria,’ Alexandre said.
‘Leonora and Freddie’s tombs are there too. I think their dates of death were the same as Victoria’s. I remember thinking how sad it was they all died so young.’
‘Oh how Harold must have suffered,’ Alexandre said. ‘To have buried his wife and had to pretend his children were also dead.’ He sucked in his breath. ‘I suppose he decided death was the only plausible explanation for their disappearance from society.’
‘So, can you go into churches then?’ Madison asked, changing the subject slightly.
‘Yes, I believe so. Why do you ask?’
‘It’s just, with you being a vampire, all the books and stuff say you can’t go into holy places.’
‘Do you think I am damned?’
‘Do I what?’
‘Do you believe I am unholy?’
‘No. I’m just saying in films and things, I’m pretty sure vampires can’t go into churches.’
‘What happens if they do?’
‘Um, I dunno. They explode? Or crumble into dust. Something like that.’
‘I see. Maybe then, if you would not mind, it should be you who takes his body into the chapel. For it may be too dangerous for me. I have no wish to explode.’
Madison’s felt slightly ill at the thought of taking Harold’s bones into a crypt and opening up his sarcophagus on her own.
‘Sorry,’ Alexandre laughed. ‘I could not resist. Your face is so funny.’
‘You sod! I was only trying to look out for you.’ She beat him on the arm. It was like punching a granite wall.
‘Sorry, sorry,’ he laughed. ‘Don’t hit me, I might crumble into dust.’
‘Shut up, Alex. You’re not funny.’
*
Marchwood House had been rebuilt in the eighteenth century but the family chapel was far older. The mellow stone building sat several hundred metres away to the south, surrounded on three sides by a low privet hedge. Alexandre walked up to the wooden door and turned the circular iron lock. The door creaked open.
Madison’s words of churches and vampires echoed in his ears and even though he had mocked her theories, he still felt some trepidation as he stepped across the threshold. He paused. No, he felt no different. He did not explode or crumble to dust. All was well. He thought how Madison would laugh if she knew she had unsettled him like this.
Once inside, he took in the whitewashed walls, chequered flagstones and dark wooden pews. There was also a raised gallery with carved wooden balustrades. It was a simple, peaceful place.
The crypt was not underground but situated at the entrance to the chapel where eight stone sarcophagi sat in plain view. Alexandre found the one he wanted. It had the names of both Harold and Victoria Swinton engraved upon it. They had chosen to be buried together.
Alexandre wondered about his own parents. Where had they been buried? And had there also been a fake funeral for him and his siblings? How had he ended up so far from home, in this small corner of England?
He lifted the lid easily and placed Harold’s bones inside. He hoped Leonora and Freddie would not mind that he
was doing this for their father without them. But they could still have their own ceremony for him when they awoke.
Now Harold was at last with his beloved Victoria, Alexandre closed the heavy white lid. He placed white lilies on top of the tomb – Madison’s idea.
‘Goodbye, my friend. Thank you. I pray Leonora and Freddie will wake safely and when they do, I shall care for them as you did for me.’
Chapter Twenty Four
*
Madison was interesting, exotic and exciting, not like any other girl he had met before. She had Leonora’s confidence and beauty, without being judgemental and complicated. Her outrageous sense of humour sometimes shocked him, but it always made him laugh. She was also an excellent teacher, patiently explaining all the day-to-day minutiae he needed to cope with modern living. She teased him about his formal dress-sense and laughed when he made linguistic mistakes, but he enjoyed this light-hearted banter; it made him feel normal.
She was exactly what he needed. Without her he would be lost, unanchored and adrift. Together, with Ben, they were becoming a tight little unit - a family of sorts. All alone in the world, save for each other.
He read the history books she had bought him from cover to cover. It was like reading his future before it had happened, only to realise it was not his future; it was a past that had happened without him. Despite his sadness over this, he also felt tremendous excitement as he read about all the great inventions and discoveries of the twentieth century. Disgust and disbelief engulfed him as he learnt of the two world wars. He still could not believe he had slept through everything.
Alternately depressed and elated, Alexandre travelled a rocky landscape of emotions that never levelled out. Only when he talked to Madison, did he feel remotely calm.
By the time the clocks went forward in March, Alexandre was ensconced in his new luxurious underground pad. He helped Madison design the layout and décor, keeping most of it French nineteenth century in style apart from the new mod cons like plumbing, lighting control pads and a state-of-the-art integrated home cinema and mp3 system. Although he now had access to all the information he needed, via his own laptop, he still preferred to read books and rapidly built his own library collection.
Hidden - a dark romance (Marchwood Vampire Series #1) Page 28