“Please don’t do anything too disturbing,” Sophie implored.
“I shan’t. I shall only have a bit of fun.” He winked at her and then floated back through the wall on his way to the Duchess of Devonshire’s Jubilee Costume Ball.
Sophie sighed. “That poor man is going to be trouble. He won’t be able to let go of the things he has lost, now that he is no longer alive.”
“Can you possibly blame him?” Rupert asked. “We almost faced that unthinkable separation ourselves.”
Ruefully, she looked at her reflection. “Isn’t it obvious that I am supposed to be Snow White? He called me a fairy princess,” she sighed.
“Well, I do play the part of Prince Charming rather well,” he chuckled.
“Do you put any stock in what he said? If he is giving us a genuine warning, and we don’t take it to heart and something dreadful happens to Alexandra, I will never forgive myself.”
“I haven’t heard anything about it, so I wouldn’t take any of it to heart, darling.”
“You heard him, Rupert. He said that idiots ran that part of the MIA. What if he is right? You know we still haven’t found the spy that was working for Selwyn. What if there are more spies who have infiltrated the MIA?”
“Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. We are well on the way of apprehending the individual that was aiding Selwyn. Come, my darling, let us have a night of merriment, carefree of the troubles of the world.”
“I just—I just can’t stop fretting over my sisters. Sylvie is not the girl she used to be and Alexandra, well I am afraid that she will go insane trying to deal with her new gift. I mean, who can deal with being Mistress over life and death? I am not confident that even I could weather that turbulent storm. ”
“Alexandra will be just fine. I have learned one thing, the Rayne women are fully capable of bending under pressure, but they never break. Alexandra is a lot like you in many ways. She will survive. You needn’t fret.”
“Oh, Rupert, what would I ever do without you?”
“You would be lost, my dear. Utterly and completely lost.”
She laughed, and stroked the side of his face. “You know, my love, I think you just might be right on that account.”
He pulled her in close, and they shared a passionate kiss. “I want to get you out of that damnable costume, and make sweet love to you.”
“You shall have to be patient. That will have to wait for later, darling. We don’t have to stay at the ball for long. An hour or two will suffice, and placate both my parents, and my Aunt Louisa.”
“I hope you are right. Things have a way of going not according to plan, Sophie.”
“Well, think of it like this, the whole family will be there, so if there are meddlesome ghosts, someone else can deal with it. I am not alone anymore.”
“Do you think their talent to see the dead the way you do will actually last? I am a sceptic on that. I think it will wear off eventually, and then you’ll be the most popular medium in town.”
“Oh, Rupert,” she laughed, and pulled him toward their bedchamber door. “Come on, I want to show off my handsome Prince Charming to all of the ladies who vied for you. I wonder if Simone will be there.”
“You are evil, darling, positively evil,” Rupert said.
“No, my love. I am just a wife who passionately loves her husband and wants the entire world to know!”
They both laughed, as they walked hand in hand out of their bedchamber.
Their life was good. Their life was blessed beyond compare—and neither feared the darkness that was coming.
Epilogue
Brompton Cemetery, London, England
Lord Templeton stood up and nodded his head at his superior. “Good evening, sir.”
“What do you have for me tonight, Lord Templeton? I trust it won’t take us long to deal with the problem at hand.”
Lord Churchill looked at the desecrated graves. The bodies buried within were gone.
“This sudden rash of stealing corpses must end. It is simply not to be borne! If they are snatching the bodies so doctors can experiment on them, we have to find out who is hiring them, and put a stop to it!”
“I do not think they were stealing them for purposes of experimentation, sir. Can’t you feel it? Can’t you feel the dark energy throbbing around the empty graves?” Lord Templeton asked. “The catacombs were also raided, so they are not looking for those who have died recently.”
Lord Churchill stepped forward, knelt down, and held his hand above the empty grave. The headstones had also been knocked down, and some were beyond salvaging without employing the use of some good old-fashioned magic.
Lord Churchill let out a rattling sigh. “Oh, good heavens, you are quite correct, Lord Templeton. What shall we do?”
“We are going to have to call in the only person that might be able to shed some light on this—she is the only woman in the city of London that has the power to tell us what we need to know.”
“We cannot,” Lord Churchill sighed. “She was killed in the line of duty last month. We are going to have to find another way.”
“Or another person,” Lord Templeton said. “I am new to this department, sir, but I believe that Lord Redding’s sister-in-law might be able to help us. She has recently been blessed with the talents that Madame Collette possessed.”
“Then recruit her, Lord Templeton, posthaste.”
“I do not think she will want to join the MIA.”
“Then, make her want to join the Agency, Templeton. I am sure you have the art of persuasion mastered. Most young men of your look and manner do. Do whatever you must to convince her. The pay usually does the trick for the ladies. They like to have a little bit of financial independence.” Lord Churchill stood up. “I can’t tarry here any longer. My wife will make my life miserable if I miss the Double Duchess’ Ball. I see you have this well in hand, and I trust you to do what needs to be done, Templeton.”
“Yes, sir.” Templeton sighed.
He, too, was supposed to attend the ball, but he wouldn’t be going now. It was for the best. There would be no fun to be had if the bewitching Lady Alexandra wasn’t there.
Darkness was coming, and without Madame Collette, he didn’t know how they would combat the dark Necromancer that had taken up residence in London.
He didn’t think that Lady Alexandra would agree to the Agency’s terms, and he had no idea how he was going to convince her, or even how he was going to get past her watchdog parents.
He would have to get to her through Amelia. That wasn’t something new to him. He had been charming Amelia for over six months now just to see how he could get in with the lovely Lady Alexandra and so far, he had been unsuccessful.
How he was going to possibly convince her to join the Agency as his partner was beyond him. Even Redding had a terrible time of it when he had attempted to recruit the beguiling Lady Sophie.
In the end, he had succeeded, and they were now man and wife. If only he could get that lucky with Lady Alexandra.
He sighed. “I want you Alexandra, and I shall do whatever I must to make you mine.” He stood up and looked toward Rayne House.
Alexandra was in town. He had heard that she had arrived that morning along with her twin and several other members of the family.
Could he risk venturing to Rayne House while the others were at the ball? This case needed him and yet—she was also part of the case so his superiors wouldn’t mind if they heard he had taken a nightly gallivant to see her.
“Lord Templeton, what should we do?” his apprentice, Lord Holborn asked.
“Restore the graves and the headstones, set to rights the damage done in the catacombs. We don’t need the papers getting wind of this story. It will take on a life of its own, much like the reports concerning that demon spawn, Jack. I am needed elsewhere. I hope I can trust you with the remaining tasks, Lord Holborn?”
“Aye, sir. I will have it all shipshape and Bristol fashion, come dawn.”
“I want you to also post watchers to every cemetery, church, cathedral, abbey, hospital, any place where there are dead that are ripe for the picking, so to speak.”
“Aye, sir,” Holborn said. He was very eager and diligent, so he would grow into a fine agent under his watchful eye. “This is my first exciting case! Life at the MIA has been rather dull since I joined.”
“When there are zombies terrorizing London, do you think that will be exciting enough for you?”
“No, sir. I mean,” he tugged nervously at his collar. “I am sorry, sir. I do have a bad habit of putting my foot in my mouth. I only meant that…”
“I know what you meant, Holborn. You will see enough action by being an agent here to last you a lifetime—or maybe…to last you an Afterlife.”
“I hope so, sir,” Holborn said eagerly.
Templeton sighed, rolled his eyes, and stepped away from the over-eager young man. Once he had lost a few of his mates to death, he wouldn’t be so keen.
The MIA had a way of taking over one’s life, and he knew that if he didn’t make time for love now, he would grow old without the comfort of a wife by his side.
“I love you, Alexandra. I only need to show you how much,” he whispered, as he used to his magic to take him to Rayne House.
*****
Alexandra watched wistfully as Amelia left the bedchamber they shared. Everything in her life was spiralling out of control. She couldn’t even leave her bedchamber most of the time, because her new abilities were drowning her.
She could hear whispers of disembodied voices. Voices that Amelia couldn’t hear—or Sophie for that matter. Her dreams had turned to nightmares, and she had shattered more valuables than she cared to keep track of.
She daren’t trust herself in any other room of the house and she had shattered almost every window in Rayne Castle on the first night dealing with the curse that had befallen her.
Her magic had gone quite helter-skelter, and try as she might, she couldn’t control it whenever her emotions got riled.
Darkness closed in on her and she couldn’t find the light no matter how hard she tried. She sat on the window seat now, attempting to keep it together and not break the window glass. For that reason, the window was open so she could hear the sounds of the carriages pulling away from the house, breathe in the sweet summer night air, and stare out at the big bright glowing moon.
Missing the one ball that she had actually looked forward to was hitting her hard. She’d had her costume picked out for months, and now the delicate fairy costume she had lovingly used her magic to make would go to waste. She looked over at the sparkling wings she had made, and sighed heavily.
“Things never go as I plan,” she whispered to herself, screaming when a man appeared at her window.
She stumbled off the window seat, realizing who it was too late. Nonetheless, the shock had already activated her powers. She clapped her hand over her ears as everything started to explode around her. The glass in the windows shattered, and the noise summoned the one ghost that she needed at the moment.
Uncle Lloyd stormed through the wall like a knight in shining armor, and stopped short when he saw and recognized the man floating outside of her window.
“Doesn’t he know how to use the front door? Young men these days are going to be the death of me!”
The End
Lady Alexandra and Lord Templeton’s adventures will continue in The Awakening of Lady Alexandra, The Dragonwyck Legacy, Book Two!
Visit Marly Mathews’ website, www.marlymathews.com to sign up for her newsletter and learn more about her upcoming releases!
The Haunting of Lady Sophie Page 22