The Shock Box: A Gothic Romance (Templesea Tales)

by Jill Harris

  Adeline stopped dead, her heart hammering in her chest. Her greatest fear was that she'd let her parents down, but she'd never spoken of such things aloud.

  How did the Captain know such intimate details, things of her innermost life? Who had he been talking to?

  She felt as though time had slowed down since she entered the library, and that she was caught in some dark spidery web of confusion cast by the Captain. Yet she was determined not to let him get the better of her. She remained silent in the gloom. Listening.

  The Captain went on. "You have a love of adventure which shocks some members of your family. You respect intelligence in others, but are cautious when it comes to letting your own light shine."

  "I shall remember not to be cautious of it in your company." Adeline said.

  Branwell was glad to get a reaction from her at last, and he felt the corners of his mouth twitch into a half-smile. "Good. Life has taught you some hard lessons in affairs of the heart. This means that you are distrustful of the masculine. When it comes to your work you are meticulous and ambitious, desperate to prove yourself worthy. In fact, I would go so far as to say that you are only afraid of one thing. The workhouse."

  Adeline was seized with a desire to run from the Captain, from his smokey, gloomy library. But she did not. Instead, she sank as gracefully as possible into a nearby chair.

  Her hands were trembling. The walls of the room seemed to be closing in around her. The Captain was an infuriating man, and one who deserved to be chastised. And yet.

  He was also uncommonly broad of shoulder and in his voice she detected an undertone of kindness, even if he refused to let it show. Adeline composed herself by staring at the ceiling, noticing for the first time some intricate plasterwork in the shape of vine leaves. Here was a man who had lost his mother at a young age, neglected and despised by a father whose insanity was well-known.

  Captain Branwell Hughes needed her far more than she needed him.

  "None of these so-called personal details is relevant to me alone," she said. "This is nothing but a guessing game, Captain. You could say the same about so many young women."

  "Not usually those of your background and class - the landed gentry usually think very highly of their reputation. I'd say your fear is based on the fact that you recently discovered your illegitimate brother died in one."

  With that he stuck a painful chord, and Adeline gasped. Someone must have spoken to him - and yet who could it be? Her brother's tragic death was a secret she had mulled over many times. A dead brother. A philandering father.

  Branwell watched as a grey cloud of grief hovered over her, and an orange triangle indicating her inner battle came into being above her head. As well as that, he could see from her expression and the magenta circles around her that she was thrown off-balance and uneasy. Yet at the same time, she leaned towards him. Branwell was sure she was intrigued by him.

  Perhaps she thought she could save him.

  Many did.

  None had succeeded.

  "There are records of my poor brother"s wretched life available to all with a mind to look," she said. A slight tremble of her lower lip showed she could control her anger. Yet she glared at him from under a lock of her wayward hair.

  "I expect so. And if I could've been bothered, I might have dug them up from the Honiton parish ledger of births and deaths. The very same district where your father often enjoyed the company of a lacemaker named Fanny Jones. She was, of course, the mother of your sadly departed younger sibling, Robert."

  "These are public records, sir," Adeline said. Only a slight quaver in her voice gave away her despair, and Branwell swallowed a hard knot of guilt.

  He was playing with her, and some of it was cruel - yet he could not help himself. The strange thing was, it never usually made him feel guilty when he behaved badly with new people, reaching into their private thoughts and rummaging around to discover their shame and pain.

  However, there was more to Miss Winslow than most. What dark magic lay in the folds of her labyrinthine mind? Because there was some magic there - he could sense the edges of it as he probed her thoughts. Something powerful enough to reject him with what sounded like the distant slam of door.

  Branwell shook his head, trying not to show surprise. "Yet I tell you I did not study any public records to gain this knowledge of your life. And you can think me a liar or not. I don't care. It's all the same to me."

  "Are you a liar?"

  The Captain laughed, the hollow sound filling the library. "That's for you to discover. I say that I'm not. And you'll believe me. Eventually. When you've been in this house long enough. And perhaps then you'll tell me who you really are, and what you can do."

  "Perhaps."

  "Because you're not ordinary at all Miss Winslow. In some ways, you're more like me than I think you'd like to admit."

  Adeline glanced down at her hands. He could tell she was eager to push the conversation away from this line of questioning. "How did you know of my brother?"

  "The truth is, I enjoy games of all kinds. Miss Winslow. You might choose to put my knowledge of your life down to simple deduction. Women of your age and social status do not usually go out to the bloody ends of the earth to practise nursing. This work is commonly the domain of poor and slovenly women."

  Adeline bristled. "It's hard work, that's what Miss Florence Nightingale demanded of us. All of us. From every walk of life."

  "I agree. Most of the nurses I met out in the Crimea were indeed, tough. But not like you. The poor ones were there for the money. The rich girls wanted to prove something. But you... I think you had a singularly different reason to go out there and partly, it was because you were running from something."

  Adeline winced. He'd hit a nerve, but this was to be expected. Before she left, Sir Reginald, a friend of Aunt Theodora's, had warned her about the strange ways of the practitioners of the occult. If she was to be Captain Hughe's nurse, she would have to get used to being tested beyond the boundaries of polite society.

  The Captain went on. "Hmm. Your brother. Robert. A family bastard, the shame of the workhouse, all that was pretty easy to see. But there's more isn't there? An affair with a man? Hmm. Yes. That's it. I'm seeing a rakish young doctor. The worst kind of man. One who makes women fall at his feet. A man who charmed you with promises he could never fulfil. All of which tarnished your reputation. Much to your chagrin, it also caused a rift in your relationship with your Aunt."

  At this, Adeline's cheeks flushed a deep shade of red. "He didn't tell me he was married."

  Captain Hughes waved a hand as if he were swatting a fly. "It's nothing to me. I don't care one whit what you've done or have not done in the privacy of the bedchamber. And I knew you lived with your Aunt from your references. Your sordid little affair is probably common knowledge I'm afraid. Nothing like the secret you'd like it to be."

  At this, Adeline swallowed her bile. "Your reputation as an unrefined vulgarian prepared me for such low talk."

  There was a tense silence followed by a bellow of laughter from the Captain. "If I was the type who apologised for speaking frankly, I'd do it now. But all I can say," his voice softened. "Is that I can understand any man's desire to seduce you, Miss Winslow."

  Adeline glared at him. "I would put all those thoughts out of your head. As my employer, I regard you as a sick man. Seduction will not be a part of our contract. I hope you understand this, Captain Hughes. And I would ask you to refrain from indulging yourself in any further unrefined comments about my life."

  "Agreed. I suppose I should apologise."

  "You should."

  The Captain shifted his stance, wincing in pain. "Very well. You have my condolences on the mistakes you've made in the past. I don't hold any of that against you. I've made plenty of my own."

  Her brow creased. "I suppose that's your way of saying how sorry you are to have made such outrageous accusations about a lady of new acquaintance."

  "It's the best you
'll get. And I want you know that I can only guarantee you employment for two weeks. I'm not sure you're the person I'm looking for."

  Chapter 12

  "She knows not what the curse may be,

  And so she weaveth steadily,

  And little other care hath she..."

  -- Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

  Adeline leaped out of the leather chair feeling her heart quicken. Beads of sweat broke out on her forehead.

  Wreaths of smoke from the fire curled around her, and the acrid smell of damp wood burning, caught in her throat.

  She couldn't help wondering what Aunt Theodora would do in such trying trying circumstances. During the long winter afternoons at her Aunt's house, Adeline found solace in the small but interesting library there, and over the years she'd learned a lot about the occult.

  Adeline noticed a prickle of anxiety running up and down her spine. She really did want to stay and find a way to help the Captain, but how could she if he wouldn't give her a chance to use her shock box? And the gift of healing she kept hidden from the world.

  But two weeks?

  She poured a tumbler of water from the jug on the table. The water tasted of flowers and honey, as if it had come straight from a mountain stream. Two weeks would not be long enough to gain his trust and deliver the expertise she had. Adeline was sure of it.

  It hurt to think that the Captain didn't think she was right for the position. Hadn't she put up with his manservant's warnings? Not to mention the Captain's unorthodox and chilling knowledge of her past? Adeline brushed an invisible thread from her sleeves. She knew she'd done everything she could so far to show she was more than ready to do what had to be done to attend to him as his nurse.

  "I was led to believe this was a proper appointment. A private nurse for the foreseeable future - that's what I was told," she said.

  He continued to stare at her. "I was looking for someone older. Ruddier. The right nurse for me."

  She was.

  And she needed to be.

  Not just because it would take months, possibly years to heal such a serious case, but also because she had nowhere else to go, and no savings yet to find suitable accommodation while she searched for a new position. Worse than that, she was not ready to face her Aunt if she failed, or suffer the even worse humiliation of letting herself down, when she'd set her sights so high.

  "But I was under the impression this was a longer post."

  "It will be. When I find a nurse to suit me." His eyes glittered and changed color from dark-grey to dark blue.

  Adeline became aware that the temperature in the room had dropped.

  She leaned back in the chair, hearing for the first time the ticking of a clock coming from somewhere in the room. She glanced at the jug of water on the table. At the books and the reading chair by the table and the footstool in front of it.

  Books of poetry. That was he'd left open next to the text on demonology, the well-thumbed pages a sign that he read the works of Wordsworth, Keats and Byron far more often than the demon book. This was a key to the Captain's personality. Anyone who read poetry was capable of the greatest heights of sensibility, according to Aunt Theodora.

  Adeline hoped this much was true. Although the Captain obviously wanted her to think he was a brute, she had a suspicion he was in possession of a rather highly strung nature, and he used his beastliness to hide it. All she needed was more time. To make him see that she was what he needed.

  She decided to start with flattery. After all, most men found it irresistible. "I've heard you were outstanding in battle, Captain. Your bravery is as famous as your eccentricities."

  He shrugged. "Bravery is for fools. And I am one of the greatest fools you'll ever meet."

  The Captain, it seemed, was not going to respond to compliments as readily as she'd hoped. She went for truth instead. "So far. I would agree wholeheartedly with that."

  He chuckled. "As for my eccentric nature, that's something you must learn to abide if you're to stay and work for me."

  Captain Hughes gave her a warm smile which looked more like a demonic grin than she cared to consider.

  "I can abide most things. In the pursuit of a higher goal."

  Adeline wondered if all he needed was a little reassurance that he was in fact, likeable. Although, she wasn't sure whether he was. Time would tell. Perhaps it was better if her work with him was for the short term. She decided to begin writing letters of application for more suitable employment that very night. Not to mention the letter to her cousin, suggesting a visit as soon as possible.

  She needed to learn more about her distant relations, and the reputation of her employer.

  "You appear to be a person of simple pleasures, with a stout, direct sort of mind like most military men," she said.

  He leaned even more on his cane.

  "It's true that I"m outspoken, direct as you call it. But as for thinking I enjoy simplicity. That's a facile assumption. I'm not like most military men. Just as you are not like most nurses. My idea of pleasure is complicated. Some might say, labyrinthine."

  "I imagine you have little scope for indulging in labyrinths living up here."

  "There is a labyrinth maze marked out in pebbles on top of Black Dog Hills. The local witch's coven like to remake it every Lammas night."

  Adeline was not sure she'd heard him right. "A coven? Of witches?"

  "I think you'll find your Uncle, the respectable lawyer, Mr. David Hardy esquire is one of those involved in it."

  Adeline had no idea that covens of witches still existed in England. Nor had she ever met her Uncle, Mr Hardy. She decided to ignore this nonsense, and put it down to the Captain's mental wanderings after so long without proper company to talk to.

  She tried to look away from him, wondering why it was so difficult. She felt ensnared in his gaze. "Your servant told me a few things about the town. I read somewhere that it has many prehistoric archaeological sites."

  He nodded once, never taking his eyes from her face. "It's a singular place to live, that's for sure. Do you like my home?"

  "I haven"t seen much of it. From what I have encountered, I'd say it's unusual."

  "Hah!" His face darkened with irritation. "Unusual. That's one way of putting it. It's falling down for one thing, and it's a cold, damp, haunted horror of a place, yet things are not always what they seem. You might think I'm isolated on this craggy rock. But I am not. I have many friends, among the living and the dead."

  "I look forward to meeting them." Adeline said. She was aware the Captain had a taste for the sensational and she supposed it kept him occupied. She expected this penchant was a direct result of spending too much time indoors in this gloomy ruin, and she resolved to get him outside in the fresh air a lot more. Walks along the sandy beach, up on the distant hills. That sort of thing. As soon as she had him walking again.

  She managed to tear her eyes away from him, glancing at the tumbler of whiskey on his desk. He looked at it too. Picked it up and drained it.

  He probably didn't drink enough water either. She would make sure the manservant watered down his supply.

  Such small changes often provided a cure for the most morbid of temperaments.

  "Maybe you will meet my friends, both in this life and those who've passed over. Maybe you won't. But In the meantime I don't expect you to enjoy a single moment whilst in my employ," the Captain said.

  He sounded as if he was throwing down a glove, challenging her to take him at his word. Well, she was well practised in the art of male challenges. She had a wide ranging experience in all kinds of masculine game-playing and would be certain to show him he'd never come across a woman like her in his life.

  "I assure you, I'm not here to enjoy myself."

  But despite her bravado, an element of doubt crept into her soul. Captain Hughes might well be beyond healing of any kind. She swallowed hard, aware that there was no room for caution in such a complex case.

  She had to make this work
, for her own sake as well as for his.

  And to do that she'd have to use everything she had, including the most unconventional practises available to her. Anxiety snaked through her.

  There was a possibility that she may have taken on more than she could deal with.

  Chapter 13

  When Captain Hughes dismissed Adeline from his library, she was glad to leave. As she walked from the room, she felt a chill cutting down her spine. For all she knew of the Captain's background, his presence had unnerved her and this surprised her. She needed to know as much as she could about the myths surrounding him, for he was a man shrouded in them.

  The thin manservant was waiting for her in the hallway. Something in his expression told her he'd listened to every word of their exchange.

  "You've met the Captain then?" he said.

  Adeline patted her hair. She was still shaken by the fact that Captain Hughes had found out her innermost secrets. How did he come to know the details of her affair with Doctor Kenton? Her Aunt had assured her that no details of this affair would ever come out yet they obviously had, and even made their way down to the Dorset coast. In which case, Adeline found herself in a difficult situation from a professional point of view.

  It wouldn't help her work if the Captain believed she was no better than a hedge-crawler.

  He might even try and take advantage of her on the grounds that she was a loose woman.

  She steeled her nerve.

  Well, let him try.

  Adeline was well-versed in dealing with lascivious men, although it would help if she could rely on the servants. Their assistance and discretion would be invaluable in the event of the Captain becoming overheated in her presence.

  She turned and bestowed a warm smile in the direction of the thin servant. "I have. The Captain has a lovely library, but what about you? I'd like it if you could tell me your name."

  "Hoxley. One of the Hoxleys of Black Dog Hills. We've been living at the Apothecary cottage for generations."