by C. J. Archer
"I'll look forward to it," he said.
"I'll wear my oldest dress," Sylvia declared. "I wouldn't want to get dust over anything nice."
***
The police widened their search for the "wild dog" while we began our search through the Frakingham attic for anything that might be linked to the earl who'd locked his children away. I felt a twinge of apprehension as I followed Jack into the dark room with the high vaulted ceilings on the undamaged southern side of the house, but it was soon extinguished. The attic was nothing like the rooms in which I had lived at Windamere Manor. While those walls had been covered with woolen rugs to prevent me setting them alight, they were at least bright and airy. The Frakingham attic was dimly lit and smelled as if it hadn't been opened up in years. It was crowded with chests and trunks, some of them spilling their contents onto the floor, as well as furniture and an alarming number of preserved dead animals.
"I think the previous owner enjoyed hunting," Samuel said, testing the sharpness of a set of antlers with his finger.
Sylvia held her lamp up to a stuffed badger's body perched atop a table. "Thank goodness Uncle saw fit to remove all of these from downstairs."
"And put up your pictures instead," Jack teased. "Lucky us."
Sylvia poked her tongue out at him.
Samuel ran his finger along an old brass lamp base. It came away filthy. "It seems you ladies had the right idea to wear old clothing. I'm afraid we're all going to leave covered in dust."
"Mrs. Moore apologizes for not cleaning up here for some time," Jack said. "I told her not to worry. The areas we do frequent are quite enough for her."
Sylvia sneezed. "Still, it appears as if she hasn't been up here since we moved in. There are cobwebs over everything."
I opened the curtains covering one of the three arched windows, throwing light into the room. Sylvia extinguished her lamp and settled on her knees in front of a carved wooden box. Jack found a chest of drawers to search through, and Samuel picked up a crate full of books. I opened the other curtains, but stopped as I parted the third. The air left my body in a rush.
Jack was at my side in an instant. "What is it, Hannah?"
I pointed out the window. Down below on the gravel drive, Tommy held open the door of a grand carriage. I recognized the escutcheon emblazoned on the side, and the man who emerged was someone I'd seen only rarely but knew even from a distance.
Lord Wade.
"What the bloody hell does he want?" Jack snarled.
Sylvia and Samuel crowded about me. Sylvia's arm snaked around my waist. "Are you all right, Hannah? Do you need to sit down?" Sometimes she could be the sweetest creature in the world.
"I'd like to go downstairs and see what he wants," I said.
All three of them exchanged glances. "I don't know if that's a good idea," Sylvia hedged. "Let Uncle speak to him."
"If Hannah wants to talk to him, then she should," Jack said. "I'm sure she has questions she'd like to ask."
That was quite the understatement. If I wrote down all the questions I had for Lord Wade, I'd have a list as high as the room.
"Will you come with me?" I asked him.
"Of course."
We made our way downstairs. I wish I'd worn something more appropriate than one of Sylvia's old dresses. He was an earl after all. It seemed a silly thing to worry about though.
I heard Lord Wade's voice before I saw him. It was big and powerful, much like the man himself, and carried to us as we approached the small parlor.
"It's been a long time, Langley," he said.
August Langley had already told me he'd known Lord Wade from their time together in the Society For Supernatural Activity. He'd also said he'd given me to Wade when I was a baby to keep me safe from Reuben Tate. Apparently he'd not known I was kept in the attic at Windamere, not until my governess, Miss Levine, had contacted him and asked him to take me back.
"What do you want, Wade?" Langley asked. His tone surprised me. There was no deference to the other man's superiority, no hint of the fact he'd once trusted Wade to take care of me. He spoke to Wade as if he'd done something reprehensible, which he had. He'd locked me away.
Apparently the tone surprised Wade too. He took a moment to answer, and when he did, he sounded less blustery. "I, uh, thought you should know that she's gone." When Langley didn't answer, he added, "The girl you brought to me eighteen years ago. She just…disappeared one day."
Jack and I had reached the door, but I put up my hand to halt him. I wanted to hear what these men had to say before we entered. It could shed some much-needed light on the subject of my past.
"Perhaps she walked away of her own accord," Langley said.
"Why would she do that?"
"How would I know what goes through the mind of a young woman? Did you treat her well?"
Wade's hesitation was telling. "I gave her everything she could possibly need, and I never raised a hand to her."
"Which is as I'd hoped. It's why I gave her to you in the first place. You're a gentleman of integrity." Sarcasm soured the words, but it was impossible to know if Wade detected it or not. He may be oblivious since he wasn't aware that Langley knew I'd been kept in the attic.
"We've heard nothing from her in the weeks since her disappearance," Lord Wade said. "No letters asking for money, not even a note to her friend to tell her she's all right. It's not like her. They were devoted to one another."
I would have challenged him over that if I didn't want to remain hidden. His daughter Violet had been involved in my kidnapping. Miss Levine may have orchestrated it with August Langley, but Vi had been an integral part of the operation. Her betrayal had shattered me. I doubt she'd ever been devoted, as he put it. I had been to her once. Not anymore.
"We ought to consider that her departure wasn't voluntary," Wade said.
"You think Tate took her?"
"Of course I think Tate took her! Why else would I be here? Listen to me, Langley, we have to find her. It's been weeks. He could have done anything by now, be anywhere. I should have contacted you earlier, but I thought…hoped …she'd return. I've been a fool."
"Yes. You have." In a louder voice, Langley said, "You can come in now, Hannah."
I gasped and took a step back. Bollard appeared at the door. If his presence was meant to encourage me, it failed. Or perhaps he was there to catch me if I tried to run away.
"It's all right, Hannah," Jack said. "I'll be with you."
We might not be able to touch intimately, but his presence was enough to fortify my nerves. I gave him a smile of thanks and walked into the parlor. Bollard blocked the doorway as soon as I passed him.
"Not you, Jack," Langley said.
"Bollocks," Jack said and muscled his way through. It had to be said that Bollard stepped aside quite quickly, earning a scowl from Langley.
Lord Wade rose out of his chair. "Hannah! You're safe, thank God."
I'd only seen him face to face a few times in all the years I was relegated to the attic. I'd stared at the top of his head often when he climbed into and out of his carriage far below the window, but it wasn't the same. He was as tall as I remembered and solid across the chest, but the stoop of his shoulders was new. The lines across his forehead and around his eyes also seemed deeper than before. He wasn't quite so intimidating.
"Lord Wade." I curtseyed with my head bowed as Miss Levine had taught us to do.
"What are you doing here?" he blurted out.
"I had her kidnapped from Windamere," Langley said.
"You did what!"
Langley held up his hands for calm. "It's too late for outrage, Wade. You've kept her in the attic for fifteen years, and you waited three weeks before reporting her missing."
Wade sat heavily and smoothed his moustache with his thumb and forefinger. "Hannah…are you all right? Has Langley treated you well?"
"Yes, thank you. I've been free to come and go." More or less. Aside from the first few days of my stay, I'd not been a priso
ner at Frakingham. Unlike at Windamere.
Wade had the decency to look sheepish. "Good," he muttered. "Good." He pushed himself out of the chair. "It seems there's nothing else for me to do here. I'll be going."
"You don't want to know why or how I was kidnapped?" I asked. "Come now, my lord, you've had a long journey. Stay and take refreshments with us. Bollard, fetch some tea, please."
Bollard didn't move. I suspected taking orders from me wasn't part of his job or in his nature.
"I don't want tea," Wade said. "As to the why and how, I'm sure Langley has his reasons." The thick, bushy brows crashed together. "Who am I to question his motives? He and Tate always had their little secrets, their mysterious research that no one was allowed to ask them about. You see, Hannah, I'm well aware that August Langley isn't someone who can be idly questioned. Not if one expects a straight answer, that is."
Langley clicked his tongue. "So cynical."
"I know you well."
"People can change over eighteen years."
"Not in my experience."
"Lord Wade," I said, cutting through their squabbling. "You may not wish to know why Mr. Langley kidnapped me, but I'd like to know some things from you. Please sit back down."
Those impressive brows rose again. "I don't like your tone, young lady."
"I did say please."
He grunted but sat.
"Thank you." I had to be careful. I didn't want to raise his ire and discourage any answers he may be otherwise willing to give. "It was Miss Levine who contacted Mr. Langley," I said. "She and Violet wished to be rid of me."
From the shocked look on his face it was clear he didn't know. "Why?" he muttered more to himself than anyone else.
"That's what I'd like to discover."
He leaned back into the deeply cushioned chair and did not meet my gaze for some time. When he did, there was a steeliness in his eyes that hadn't been there before. All shock had disappeared. "She must have thought you ready to leave."
Only a fool would have missed his evasiveness, but I suspected he would not divulge anything to me. I let it slide. The answer to that question wasn't as important as others, and I wanted to save my battles for those.
"Who were my parents?" I asked.
He glanced at Langley. "He didn't tell you?"
So Langley did know. I gave him a sharp glare that he accepted with an apologetic nod but no explanation. Sometimes I got the feeling I was an ingredient in a grand experiment that Langley was conducting.
"A poor woman brought you to Langley and Tate's laboratory. She said her husband had worked in the factory next door, but died just before your birth. She was destitute and asked them to keep you until she could afford to feed you."
"Why them? Why not a foundling hospital or church?"
"She said her husband had noticed them often on his way to the factory and had told her how kind and generous they seemed. Apparently one of them had helped an elderly gentleman when he fell in the street, and another time, they'd donated money to the widow of a man who'd been run over by a coach outside their house. She thought they'd be as good to her baby as any organization. You must understand, those institutions don't have very good reputations."
"So I've heard." Yet it still seemed an extraordinary thing for a mother to do. I doubt I could give up a baby to complete strangers, and men too. Then again, I wasn't a mother. "What happened to her?"
"She died soon afterwards."
I pressed a hand to my chest where a piercing pain was trying to burrow through it. I'd thought my parents were long dead, but a small hope had remained in the corner of my heart. Having that hope extinguished once and for all felt like a small part of me had been gouged out with a sharp knife. It hurt.
Jack moved closer. My skin warmed, and I was grateful for the sad smile of sympathy he offered. Lord Wade seemed to notice him for the first time too. His gaze flicked between Jack and Langley, but when Langley offered no introduction, he looked to me again.
"It soon became clear that Tate couldn't be trusted around you," Wade went on. "He wanted to test his experiments on you. As if you were an animal," he spat. "It was horrifying."
"Is that how…I became this way?"
"Yes. He injected you with a substance, and you became a fire maker. He had already injected himself."
"But why?"
He looked to Langley.
"He wanted to be powerful," Langley said. "He isolated a compound that allowed humans to set fire to things at will. He wanted that power for himself, so he injected it into his body. Unfortunately it proved to be unreliable, but when he tried to remove the compound, he couldn't. He needed to create an antidote instead, but that required human experiments and he'd become averse to testing things on himself."
"A little late for that," Wade muttered.
"When you came along, Hannah, Reuben saw a way out of his problem. He injected the compound into you and would have tested his antidote on you too, but I discovered what he was doing by then and took you away."
"Bloody hell," Jack muttered. "He's mad."
My spine tingled. The hairs on the back of my neck rose. I was an experiment gone wrong. Oh. My. God.
"Appalling," Wade said. "When Langley brought you to me and explained what you were capable of, I was shocked, but I was determined to keep you safe from Tate."
"How noble of you." It came out harsh, but I was still reeling from all I'd learned. Not only was I most certainly an orphan, I was used as a test case by a madman. It was almost too much to fathom.
"You must understand something," Wade said. "My mistress's baby…" He swallowed. "It died some years earlier. I was still coming to terms with that when you came along. I couldn't allow another baby to suffer."
"Then why, three years later, was I relegated to the attic with Vi?"
"It was Lady Wade's wish."
"Is it because Eugenia was born?"
"In part. You were quite a handful, you see. You had a terrible temper at that age, and every time you threw a tantrum, the sparks set something alight. It was becoming harder and harder to hide the fact from the servants. Lady Wade found it exhausting. It wrecked her nerves. I tried to tell her that it wasn't your fault, that you were unique and needed special care, but she wouldn't listen."
Jack opened his mouth to say something, perhaps comment that I wasn't so unique, but closed it again when his uncle held up his hand for silence. Wade didn't see it. He was too busy looking down at his lap.
"If it was me your wife didn't like, why did you confine Vi to the attic too? There's nothing wrong with her. You let me believe she was the one starting the fires, yet it was me all along. So why lock her away too? Your own daughter?"
"I'll not speak of Violet," he said, lifting his chin and pursing his lips beneath the shrubbery of his moustache. "If she has questions, she can ask me herself."
I'd hoped to gain some insight as to whether Vi was indeed his daughter at all, but he gave none, and I doubted he would tell me outright. It was certainly strange that he would lock away his legitimate and perfectly normal child.
"Will you at least tell me if she's still in the attic?"
The moustache moved as he thought through his answer. "She's as free as any girl her age."
My throat closed as my heart swelled. I'd thought myself immune to gentle feelings where Vi was concerned, but it seemed I was not. To think she was free! I was so happy for her.
I wondered how she liked it. Vi was always such a nervous girl that part of me thought she may have wanted to remain in the attic. But that was absurd. No one would want that.
"I'm glad to hear it, my lord," I said. "Did you let her out because I'd left?"
He hesitated again before answering. "I thought it was time. Now, is there anything else, or may I leave?"
"I haven't finished."
"I'm a very busy man, Hannah." The disdain and impatience had returned to his tone. The earl had taken over from the man again. I was sorry to see it, and no
t only because it meant it would be harder to get answers from him now, but also because I liked the man and not the earl better.
"Who put the hypnosis block on me?"
It was terribly satisfying to see the color drain from his face. He looked quite ashen and much older. "Ah. Yes." He looked to Langley who merely waited for an answer too. "That was on the advice of a gentleman from the Society. He thought it best if you didn't know what you were capable of. A way of keeping you sane, if you like. He put the block in place himself."
"He's a hypnotist? What was his name?"
"Myer."
"Was he a natural hypnotist?" It was a question asked for Samuel's benefit, but Wade merely shrugged.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said. "He hypnotized you so that you would fall asleep whenever you emitted fire. When you woke up, you remembered nothing. I don't regret having him do it, if that's what you wish to know. The fire used to frighten you, and you'd scream until you were hoarse. After the hypnosis, you became a placid little thing most of the time. Much easier to manage."
It seemed a rather callous thing to do to a child. Then again, so was confining her to an attic.
"I do believe she's run out of questions," Langley said. "Are you sure you won't stay for tea, Wade?"
"I don't think you really want me to," Wade said with a sneer.
Langley smiled in that twisted way he had. "No, but it's the polite thing to ask. I do my best to fit into society's requirements for the owner of Frakingham."
Wade stood and squared his shoulders, making himself even taller, especially when Langley had to remain in his wheelchair. "You'll never be anything more than a scientist."
Langley laughed, but even I could tell it was hollow. Langley was a proud, intelligent man with grand aspirations. He would not like to be put in his place by anyone, let alone someone he must consider intellectually inferior.
Lord Wade strode out of the room. I followed him to the door where Tommy waited to see him out. "Will you tell Violet you saw me?" I asked.
He accepted his coat and gloves from Tommy. "I'll tell her you're safe. She'll want to know that much."
"Can she come here to see me? Or I her?"
He pointed his gloves at me and shook them. "Do not come anywhere near Windamere Manor, Hannah. I don't want you seeing Violet. Do you hear me? She has a new life and so do you. I can see that you belong here among these people. It would serve neither of you any good to meet now. Understand?"