The Lovers

by Irina Shapiro

  “Can’t it wait?”

  “Absolutely not!” Quinn laughed. “I must tell them now. They’ll be thrilled. Oh, there’s message from Rhys. Let me see what he wants,” Quinn said as she put the phone to her ear, trying in vain not to get it wet.

  Quinn listened to the message and turned to Gabe. “The planning might have to wait a few weeks. Rhys says that a child’s remains have been unearthed in Dunwich. The grave is several hundred years old, at least. The child was buried without a coffin, facedown, and appears to have a skull fracture. He wants me there tomorrow.”

  Gabe took a deep breath and sank beneath the water, pulling a giggling Quinn with him. Tomorrow she’d confront death once again, but today she’d be happy.

  Epilogue

  Mercy pressed herself against the wall when she heard the voices of the two men. Uncle James told her to stay out of the way since Lord Asher didn’t want her in his house. She’d never met him, but she’d seen him at the funeral for his mother when they buried Harry on the sly. He did not look like a kind man, and the other man with him was downright frightening. She’d studied him when she peeked through the keyhole while they dined.

  Mercy remained perfectly still as the two men dragged Elise and James down the stairs and toward the end of the dark passage that led to the cellar. She couldn’t see them anymore, but she heard them. They were talking and laughing as they descended into the bowels of the house, pleased with the night’s work.

  “It will take them ages to die. I must admit, this is cruel even for you, Edward,” Lord Fillmore said.

  “They made their bed,” came Lord Asher’s reply. “A shame really, she could have borne me more children. But, I have a son, and that’s what matters. Let’s get them into the chest before they come to.”

  They both laughed as a body hit the floor with a thud. Mercy didn’t wait to hear anymore. Lord Asher meant to kill Elise and James. There was nothing she could do to save them, but there was something she could do to save their baby. They thought she was young and naïve, but she knew about babies and knew about love. Elise was married to Lord Asher, but she loved James and he loved her, and they’d made Charlie together. She would not let their baby be raised by this frightful man.

  Mercy climbed the stairs on silent feet and crept into Charlie’s room, where the baby slept in his cradle. The nurse was fast asleep, her mouth slightly open and her arm over her face. Mercy lifted Charlie carefully out of the cradle, wrapped his tiny body in a warm blanket, and slipped out of the room. She would take Charlie to her mam, who would raise him as her own. He was James’s son, her mam’s nephew. Her mam lost two children, so Mercy would give her one back. Charlie wouldn’t be rich, but he would be loved, and he would grow up knowing that his parents died for loving each other.

  Mercy froze when she saw the ghostly silhouette of Barbara in the corridor. Barbara gazed at Mercy and the baby, her face scrunched up in concentration as she tried to figure out what was happening. Mercy put a finger to her lips.

  “Shh. Don’t tell anyone, Barbara. It’s a game, and it will be our secret.”

  Barbara smiled happily. “Secret. I like secrets.”

  “Go back to bed.”

  “All right,” Barbara said and went back into her room.

  Mercy slipped out of the house and ran through the empty streets, desperate to get home before daylight began to sweep away the darkness. She was cold and scared, but Blackfriars wasn’t so far away, and her mam would tell her she’d done the right thing. Her father always wanted a son. Now he would have Charlie to follow in his footsteps and learn the trade. Charlie would be a carpenter. If it was good enough for the Lord, it would be good enough for the son of his servant James.

  The End

  Please turn the page for an excerpt from:

  The Forgotten (Echoes from the Past: Book 2)

  Coming Soon

  An Excerpt from The Forgotten

  (Echoes from the Past: Book 2)

  Prologue

  She never felt the fatal blow. After the terror and pain of the past half hour, it almost felt like a caress, a cool hand on the brow, comforting her and telling her that it was all right to close her eyes and let go. She stared up at the stormy sky as she fell, its low, threatening clouds heavy with rain, and the air thick with the cries of seagulls. There were shouts of angry men and calls for justice as well, but she never heard them. They were nothing more than a roar in her ears, blending in with the crashing of the waves on the shore as the storm intensified.

  She lifted her hand, reaching for something unseen, and let it fall as her gaze fixated on a brief glimmer of sunlight peeking through the gloom. A single bird wheeled just above, its wings spread wide as it glided toward the sea. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen, and she smiled, wishing she could watch it forever.

  At last, she allowed herself to close her eyes. She had no more reason to fight. She knew with unwavering certainty that her boy was gone, and now she was free to go too. She slipped away, quietly and without a fuss, as undemanding in death as she had been in life.

  Chapter 1

  New Year’s Day 2014

  Dunwich, Suffolk

  Dr. Quinn Allenby huddled deeper into her coat in an effort to keep out the bitter wind as she walked toward the ancient graveyard of what had once been the leper hospital of St. James. Several locals milled about, hoping for a glimpse of the grave, but for the most part, the cemetery was deserted on this Wednesday morning. The day was cold and damp, with a thick mist blurring the edges of the crumbling ruins and making the landscape appear almost gothic. Bare tree limbs formed an intricate lacework pattern against the leaden sky, but their trunks melted into the gauzy mist that swirled between the weathered crosses and left a slick coating of moisture on every surface.

  “Here, take my gloves,” Gabe said, handing Quinn a pair of leather gloves that he pulled out of his coat pocket.

  Quinn accepted the gloves gratefully and pulled them on after taking one last look at the beautiful diamond ring on her finger. They’d been engaged for less than twenty-four hours, but instead of celebrating and sharing the news with their families, they were in Dunwich, of all places, summoned by Rhys Morgan of the BBC to come and examine the remains that had been unearthed by a curious terrier on his morning walk. Rhys was pacing just outside the tent, a mobile phone pressed to his ear as he talked animatedly to someone on the other end. A young man with a video camera stood idly by, exchanging looks of bitter resentment with a middle-aged woman who was in the process of adjusting the lighting to better illuminate the scene. Rhys likely dragged his employees away from New Year’s Eve celebrations and brought them to this bleak village for something that might be nothing more than the mortal remains of a medieval leper.

  To Quinn, Dunwich was probably one of the saddest places in England. Some referred to it as “the Atlantis of Britain,” but in Quinn’s opinion, that was too romantic a name for a bustling port city that slid into the sea and was reduced from a population of several thousand to less than one hundred. Dunwich had once been the capital of East Anglia, with a port to match that of fourteenth-century London, but a series of terrible storms coupled with a powerful coastal drift eroded the coastline, permanently covering about a square mile of the town with seawater. Of the original structures, the ruins of the leper hospital and Greyfriars Franciscan Priory were the last remnants of the medieval town. The Franciscans wisely had moved their priory farther inland in 1290, and the leper hospital had been built far from the main population for fear of contagion. The port and the rest of the town, including twelve churches, were fifty feet underwater, with the last proud structure, All Saints’ Church, succumbing to its fate and vanishing into the North Sea in 1922. Now, the village of Dunwich numbered a handful of houses, a museum, and a pub, and was a melancholy spot on the face of the Suffolk coast.

  “Quinn, glad you could make it.” Rhys’s tone was brusque as he rang off and strode toward Quinn and Gabe. “And Gabriel
Russell. Even better. Two archeologists are better than one, I always say.” He chuckled without mirth. “You two seem to be attached at the hip these days,” he remarked caustically.

  Gabe threw Quinn an expectant look, but Quinn ignored it. She saw no reason to share their news with Rhys. Quinn had to work with Rhys, but they didn’t have to be friends, especially not after what she’d learned from her mother. Rhys was not her biological father, but he could have been, being one of the three men who assaulted her mother when she was a teenager. He’d contacted Sylvia and tried to make amends, but Quinn could never truly forgive him or give him her trust ever again.

  “So, what have we got?” Quinn asked, pulling aside the white tarpaulin and stepping into the tent that had been erected above the grave. Rhys was right on her heels, his excitement palpable. He’d been searching for a suitable subject for the next installment of Echoes from the Past, a program about archeological mysteries, hosted by the renowned Dr. Quinn Allenby. What the viewers didn’t know was that Quinn was possessed of a rare gift, which Rhys exploited shamelessly to flesh out the characters and learn their secrets. Quinn was able to see into the past when holding an object belonging to the deceased in her bare hands, an ability that often left her feeling heartbroken and frustrated. Rhys clearly hoped that this new find would be another mind-blowing mystery, one to rival the first episode of the series, “The Lovers.”

  “What we have here is a shallow grave on the fringes of the cemetery,” Rhys replied. “There’s no headstone, no coffin, and the deceased, who appears to have been a child, is buried facedown. I’ve already cleared it with the local constabulary, and they’re sure that the burial is not a recent one, so they have no professional interest in it.”

  Quinn squatted down next to the grave with Gabe peering over her shoulder. She’d seen many graves and many human remains, but something about this particular one made her swallow back tears. Unless the deceased had been a very short adult, it had to be a child, a child who’d been dumped facedown into a hole and left to rot—a child who was unloved, unmourned, and unwanted. Or was he? Rhys was right: there was a story here and probably a very interesting one.

  “Well?” Rhys prompted, impatient as ever. “What do you think?”

  “I won’t know anything for certain until the bones are excavated, cleaned, and tested. But here is what I do know: The skeleton appears to be that of a child. It was buried facedown as a sign of disrespect, possibly even as a punishment. Prone burials were used throughout history to humiliate the dead and their families. I have no way of knowing if the child died of natural causes until a bone expert examines the remains. I would like to dig several trenches in the immediate vicinity to see if there are any more such burials. I can’t imagine that it was just the one. We might need to get permission from the diocese, given that we’d be disturbing a patch of land bordering hallowed ground. Rhys, I’ll leave that up to you. Let me get my tools and protective clothing. I don’t want any contamination of the site. Gabe, perhaps some of your students might like to volunteer. This is an excellent learning opportunity, and I need someone to do the grunt work,” Quinn added with a smile.

  “I’ll call the institute. In the meantime, I’m at your disposal.”

  “When was the last time you held a trowel in your hands, Dr. Russell?” Quinn teased. Gabe had given up digging in the dirt to become the head of department at the UCL Institute of Archeology in London, having had his fill of practical experience. Despite his complaints to the contrary, he enjoyed the role of administrator and liked being around young people, who were enthusiastic and eager to get their hands dirty. Gabe patted his pockets, a look of consternation on his face.

  “I can’t find my mobile. I must have left it at your place,” he said. They’d left in such a hurry that morning that it was entirely possible Gabe had left his phone behind. He had a habit of leaving it wherever he used it last, and that would have been in the bath last night when he texted his mum to tell her that Quinn had said yes.

  “Here, use mine. The institute is in the contacts,” Quinn said, holding out her mobile to Gabe.

  “Thank you.”

  Gabe stepped off to the side to call his assistant, Sherry Lee. She wouldn’t be in the office today, but she would get his message as soon as she came to work tomorrow and would put out a call for volunteers. Gabe handed Quinn back the phone and blew on his hands, which were turning red with cold.

  “I think we’ve done all we can for the moment,” he said, giving Quinn a hand up.

  “I’d like you to get started as soon as possible,” Rhys protested. “Dave here will film the excavation and the removal of the bones. I thought it’d be a nice touch for the opening scenes of the episode. People like to see what the remains looked like in situ. Drinks on me at six,” he added in an effort to soften his command.

  “Right. Let’s go get our kit,” Gabe said as he escorted Quinn out of the tent. “Are you all right?” Gabe asked as they walked back toward Gabe’s car, where all their equipment was stored in the boot.

  Quinn shrugged. “I wish I could just walk away from this one.”

  Gabe turned Quinn to face him and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Why? What’s bothering you? Did you see something?”

  “No,” Quinn shook her head. “But there’s something about this case that disturbs me. Probably because someone saw fit to purposely disrespect a child, even in death. It’s unsettling.”

  “Yes, it is. Do you want to speak to Rhys about opting out?” he asked, already knowing the answer. Quinn was under contract to finish out the series, and Rhys, being the consummate showman, would never pass up a dramatic, disturbing case because of the tender sensibilities of his star. Quinn was a professional and would behave like one. But there was one way in which she might be spared the gruesome details of the child’s life and death, and that was if there were no personal objects found with the remains. That way she would be flying blind, using only scientific data, her heart not engaged.

  “No, I have to do this, but perhaps I’ll get lucky.”

  “Fingers crossed,” Gabe said with a warm smile, knowing exactly what Quinn was referring to.

  Quinn crossed her fingers and returned his smile. It helped to know that he understood her so well and was there to support her.

  Chapter 2

  They’d taken a room at The Ship, the only inn in town, which was surprisingly modern and comfortable. The rest of the rooms went to Rhys, his assistants, and the student volunteers, who had to share. Dunwich wasn’t exactly a hub of tourist activity, so the inn had a limited number of rooms. Quinn claimed the chair closest to the fire and cautiously moved her feet toward the flames. The warmth began to spread from the soles of her feet upward, making her sigh with pleasure. After a week of digging in the mud, the damp and chill had seeped into her bones, leaving her feeling cold even after a scalding hot bath, but part of the chill wasn’t entirely physical.

  That first day, Quinn and Gabe walked over to the beach, drawn by the screaming of the seagulls and the strange history of the place. The beach was eerie and deserted, the sky low and threatening. The foaming waves rolled onto the beach with frightening frequency, the sea indifferent to the damage it’d done. Quinn looked out over the roiling sea, her eyes scanning the area where the old town would have been. She tried to picture Dunwich as it might have appeared in the early fourteenth century. Quinn imagined the bustle of activity as the townspeople went about their business and the forest of ship masts visible from every part of town. She glanced toward where All Saints’ Church had once stood. There were still people alive today who could recall seeing it perched on the cliff before the tower finally collapsed into the sea in 1922, the cliff eroded by the pounding waves.

  “Let’s go,” Quinn said to Gabe as she turned her back on the hungry sea. It frightened her, and she wanted to get as far away as possible from its fearsome power. They never went back to the beach, concentrating instead on the ancient grave and spending quiet
evenings at the inn.

  Quinn and Gabe worked on their own for two days, carefully unearthing the child’s remains until reinforcements arrived in the form of four upperclassmen. By that time, Rhys had received permission from the diocese to search the grounds but was expressly forbidden from disturbing any existing graves or excavating hallowed ground, which was absolutely fine since the burials Quinn was looking for would not lie within the perimeters of the cemetery.

  Quinn continued working on the original grave while Gabe helped the students mark two new trenches, which would extend horizontally on both sides of the open grave. If anyone was buried within ten feet of the child on either side, the volunteers would find them. They came upon the second skeleton on the third day, a whoop of excitement coming from the trench on the right. The other two students looked sour, having nothing to report but a broken beer bottle, several modern-day chunks of metal, and a plastic lighter.

  “Quinn, you’ll want to see this,” Gabe called out as they carefully removed the top layer of earth, mindful of disturbing the remains. Quinn climbed out of the grave and went to take a look. Most of the skeleton was still lodged in the ground, but there was no mistaking the position. It’d been buried facedown, with no sign of a coffin or any remnant of a shroud.

  “This one is definitely an adult,” Gabe said as he took in the size of the skull and length of the spinal column. The legs were yet to be uncovered. Quinn nodded in agreement.

  “Can we excavate this one ourselves, Dr. Allenby?” Tara Moore asked, eager to work independently. Of the four students, she was the most driven and the most meticulous in her methods. Quinn liked her immensely and was eager to encourage her in any way she could.

  “Since you were the one to find it, you get to be in charge, Tara. Dr. Russell will observe and guide.”

  “What about us?” John Myers demanded from the other trench.