Scandal Becomes Her

by Shirlee Busbee

  “Do you mean to tell me that while we’re here wasting time with you the fellow’s escaping?” demanded Charles, incensed.

  Cesar shrugged. “It is possible. I do know that once inside the house he seemed to vanish.” He smiled crookedly. “As if by magic.”

  Julian looked thoughtful. “There’s no point in returning to the house tonight—he probably heard our capture of you and ran away. He could be anywhere by now.” He made a face. “But at least we know that someone is using the Dower House for his own purposes. It occurs to me that the fire may have been done to stop or slow work on the house, perhaps to drive my stepmother away. For the time being, we shall have to assume that the man tonight is the same one who started the fire since it is unlikely that it was caused by yet another party.”

  Julian took an impatient turn around the small office, thinking hard. Guilt ate at him for not sharing with the others information that he knew would shed light on tonight’s events. There was no doubt in his mind that he’d nearly come face-to-face with the Shadow Man tonight.

  Leaving that problem aside, he wasn’t certain what to do about Cesar. His first instinct was to thank him for his efforts and send him on his way, but he realized that in his own way, Cesar had an interest in the comings and goings of the cloaked stranger. Because of the man in the cloak, Cesar and his people had come under suspicion and Julian didn’t hold it against the man that he wanted to know who and why.

  After much discussion among the three men, it was decided that Charles and Cesar would return to the Dower House and retrieve Cesar’s horse that was hidden in the woods nearby. It was agreed that the three of them would work in unison instead of independently of each other. Julian felt he owed them both that much and with Marcus gone, he was going to need their help. Which didn’t solve his dilemma: How could he send them up against a monster like the Shadow Man without letting them know what they were facing? And did he trust them both enough to tell them Nell’s secret?

  His thoughts heavy, Julian slowly walked back to the main house. He tried to view tonight in a positive manner. Until tonight they’d been grappling with shadows, and half-formed suspicions, but now they knew that someone was indeed afoot in the hours of darkness. In his mind, that person could be no one but the Shadow Man, and a chill trickled down his spine as he considered those implications.

  Nell’s Shadow Man was too bloody close for comfort, he decided as he mounted the steps to the house and entered. And thinking of the many times that Nell, Lady Diana and Elizabeth blithely wandered through the Dower House he cursed under his breath. A monster had entered it tonight. How many other times had he been there? How many times had Nell or one of the others come within inches of him?

  But for what purpose, he wondered, was the Shadow Man creeping about the Dower House? Enlightenment struck him like a blow as he opened the door to his room. Dungeons! Could it be? He and Marcus had eliminated all the sites known to have dungeons…but what if…?

  Stripping off his clothes, he made his way to Nell’s room. Tomorrow, he swore grimly, he would examine the Dower House and its history very, very closely. The idea that the dungeons of Nell’s nightmares could be beneath the Dower House was terrifying. The knowledge that while he and Nell slept less than a mile away unspeakable things were being done to innocent victims horrified him.

  Slipping into bed beside Nell a few moments later, Julian pulled her close to him, needing the warmth of her soft body to drive out the chill. She slept deeply, not even stirring when he pressed a kiss to her temple. His hand caressed the growing mound that concealed their child and with her and their child safe in his arms for a little while, the evil went away and he fell asleep.

  Cradled against her husband’s big body Nell moaned and fought against the insidious power of the nightmare that seemed to have had her trapped in its talons for hours. In the nightmare, different from any other she’d ever experienced, she was confronted by inky blackness, unable to see or even guess where she was. Walls closed in on her and she had the sensation that she was in a narrow passage of some sort. With a spurt of fright, she sensed that the Shadow Man lurked nearby, concealed in that veil of darkness. She could not see him, but she could feel him, could hear him breathing as if he was standing next to her. She knew that the Shadow Man was there in the darkness. And he was waiting…for her? She shuddered, a scream rising in her throat at the mere idea that somehow she had become his next target, but the nightmare held her too tightly in its grip and the scream died stillborn.

  The total darkness terrified her, that and the certain knowledge that the Shadow Man was standing there listening, calculating his next move. He stood for what felt like hours but finally he moved—Nell could hear the rustle of his garments—and a second later pale light flickered from the small torch he’d lit. In the faint light Nell could see now that he was standing in a narrow hall with stone steps that led downward. The walls were the familiar smoke-stained stones of other nightmares and she realized that they were in the passageway leading to the dungeon.

  With sure steps the Shadow Man rushed down the stairs, the passageway ending at a gated entrance. He pushed open the iron gate and stepped inside the dungeon. Nell braced herself for the sight of another victim, but to her relief, except for the Shadow Man, the dungeon was empty. His black cloak swirled around his tall, broad-shouldered form as he lit another, larger torch that hung on the wall. For a split second she had a glimpse of his profile, but a scarlet scarf obscured the lower half of his face and with his wide-brimmed black hat pulled low on his forehead, he could have been any one of a dozen men.

  Suppressed violence emanated from him as he prowled the confines of the dungeon before stopping beside the slab that dominated the area. His back was to her and she watched, mesmerized by revulsion and terror, as time and again he caressed the blood-stained slab where so many of his victims had screamed away their lives, his hand moving over the stone like a lover’s.

  For once not distracted by the plight of a victim, Nell studied the Shadow Man intently, trying to imprint in her mind anything that would help her identify him when she was awake. What was there about him that made him unique? she wondered. What would make him identifiable?

  As if sensing her concentration, he froze. Slowly he turned his head and looked over his shoulder directly into her eyes. The scarf and hat almost totally hid his features, leaving uncovered only a narrow band above and below his eyes, but those eyes, those mad, malevolent eyes met and held hers. Stark terror filled her as their gazes locked and a terrible knowledge shook her. He could see her! She watched the dawning awareness strike him, saw the widening of his eyes, the realization flooding through him. Then, as if a candle was blown out, the image vanished and she hurtled free of the nightmare.

  The horror of what had just happened was too powerful for her to escape; she could feel his hand upon her, hear his voice in her ear, and she bolted upright, screaming in mindless terror.

  Attune to her in ways Julian had never thought possible, at the first movement of her body, he instantly awakened. It was only seconds, but even before she jerked upright and screamed he had known that she was in the grip of another of those dreadful nightmares. His hand had been on her shoulder and he had been speaking quietly to her when that first scream was ripped from her throat.

  Only gradually did Nell realize that the hand on her was Julian’s and that it was his voice that she heard and not that of the Shadow Man.

  “Nell, sweetheart, wake up,” he said softly, his hand caressing her arm and shoulder. “You’re safe. You’re at home with me. I am by your side. Wake up.”

  She gulped back a sob and her body shaking, she flung herself into his warm embrace. She tried to speak, but could not—fright made her mute. Under Julian’s gentle guidance she fought to compose herself.

  “Was it very bad?” he asked, anxiety in his voice.

  “A light. Please, a light,” she managed. “I cannot bear the darkness.”

  He left her l
ong enough to light a candle kept near the bed; returning to the bed, he wrapped his arms around her and murmured, “You are safe, darling. I will not let him hurt you.”

  Against his big body, she shuddered. “You cannot stop him,” she said mournfully. She lifted her head and stared at him with horror-clouded eyes. “Julian, he saw me. He knows who I am.”

  Julian frowned. “What do you mean?”

  Terror rushed over her as she relived those awful moments when her gaze had met that of the Shadow Man. Almost gibbering in fright, she shook Julian, crying out, “Don’t you understand? He saw me! He looked right at me.” A sob rose in her throat. “He recognized me. I know he did.” She glanced wildly around the room at the shadows dancing ominously in the faint light from the candle, terrified that the monster of her nightmares would step out of the darkness. “He’ll come after me. He has to—he knows that I know what he does. He cannot let me live.”

  “Nell, hush, darling. You’re talking nonsense,” Julian said gently, trying to understand and make sense of her words. “How could he see you?”

  “I don’t know,” she answered in a small voice. “But I know that he did. We looked right at each other and I could see in his eyes…an awareness…”

  Excitement in his voice, he said, “But if he looked at you, you must have seen his face, too. Did you recognize him?”

  She shook her head. “No. He wore a scarf over the lower half of his face and a hat pulled low across his forehead.” A shudder racked her. “I only saw his eyes…his horrible, horrible eyes.” Her gaze searched his. “You must believe me!”

  Julian nodded, thinking of Cesar’s description of the man he had followed into the Dower House tonight. Incredible as it seemed, Nell, in her nightmare, had been there with the Shadow Man.

  Easing her back from him, Julian said, “Let me get you some brandy and settle you by the fire in my room. We will talk then.” He smiled crookedly at her. “You were not the only one to have a sighting of the Shadow Man tonight.”

  When he would have slid out of the bed, she clutched his arm. “No. Don’t leave me—even for a moment.”

  Picking up the candle, he held out a hand and said, “Then come with me.”

  In his room he stirred up the fire, adding wood from the neat stack held ready. He lit several more candles and after grabbing a blanket from the bed and wrapping Nell in it, he nestled her in a chair near the now cheerfully burning fire. He shrugged into a robe and poured them both generous snifters of brandy. Taking the chair next to hers, he asked, “Which of us shall go first?”

  “You,” Nell said quickly, wishing to put off the moment of reliving her nightmare.

  Julian nodded and related all that had happened that evening.

  When he had finished speaking, she exclaimed, “Oh, to think that you were that close to catching him!”

  “Believe me,” Julian said, “I’ve wished a thousand times that we had known what Cesar was about earlier. If we’d all been working together…” He shook his head. “It is unfortunate, but we have learned something from tonight: the Dower House holds significance for him.”

  “You think that the dungeons of my nightmare are in the Dower House?”

  “Yes, I do. It is the only thing that makes sense. And tomorrow I intend to start looking for them.”

  “There must be a passage from inside the house,” Nell said slowly. “When the nightmare began, he was in what seemed like a tunnel, a very narrow passageway. I know now from what you have told me that he was hiding there and listening for Cesar. He waited there a long time, I assume, wanting to make certain that it was safe before he continued on into the dungeon.”

  His gaze on her face, Julian asked quietly, “Can you talk about it now?”

  Nell took a big gulp of her brandy. “Yes. Yes, I can. I must.” And so she told him all that had occurred in her nightmare, her voice breaking only a little when she described the moment when she had looked into the eyes of a madman.

  When she finished speaking, Julian asked, “I do not doubt you, sweetheart, do not think it, but are you certain that he actually saw you?”

  Nell nodded. “Oh, yes. He saw me. I cannot describe it to you, but I know that he saw me, that he knew me.”

  Frowning, Julian stared into his half-empty snifter. “I do not understand the half of it, but it would seem that the link between you is no longer one way.” He glanced at her, cursing under his breath when he saw the terror in her face. Setting down his snifter, he rose from his chair and in one easy movement scooped her up. Resettling himself in the chair by the fire, with her in his lap, his strong arms holding her securely, he said fiercely, “Nell, I will not let him hurt you! I swear it.”

  She buried her head into his shoulder, her hair tickling his chin. “Without locking me up or putting me under guard I do not see how you can protect me.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous!” he snapped, fear sharpening his tone. “He is not going to snatch you out of your very home. You are safe here.”

  She smiled sadly. “Perhaps. Do not forget: I did not recognize him. Even though I stared into his face tonight I could see nothing beyond those eyes of his. We know little beyond the fact that he is a tall man, a well-built man, in the prime of life—that description could fit hundreds of men.”

  Julian could not argue with her and for the first time he was frightened. Terrified that this nameless monster would tear her from his arms, and instinctively they tightened around her. No, he vowed, the Shadow Man shall not have her.

  The next week that followed was tense and frustrating. Julian was up at first light pouring over all the old construction plans that had been stored in his library. He’d never paid them any heed but he’d been excited to discover that his great-grandfather had been a meticulous preserver of the past. And when his hand had closed around a fragile roll marked “Dower House” he was certain that the mysterious location of the dungeon would soon be revealed. It was not. The plans he scanned dealt with the building of the covered walkway that connected the kitchen to the main house. He found nothing that gave him a clue as to the location of the dungeons or any sign that there had ever been dungeons at the Dower House.

  Disappointed but not discouraged, Julian set out for the Dower House, determined to find the entrance to the dungeons that he knew must exist. Finding the workmen busy with the renovations, he dismissed them with little explanation, telling them that work was suspended indefinitely. Grimly, he probed and poked and prodded every wall, every nook and cranny that might have concealed a secret entrance. Aided by the knowledge gleaned from Nell’s nightmare, he was convinced that the entrance to the dungeon had to be somewhere within the Dower House. Day after day he searched the interior of the Dower House but to his increasing frustration and anxiety he found nothing.

  Those days were no less anxious and frustrating for Nell. Not one given to hysterics, Nell found herself starting at the slightest sound or movement, and unless Julian was at her side she rarely strayed beyond the main rooms of the house. Fear was her companion and it shadowed her every step. There was never a moment that she was not aware of danger, not aware that the Shadow Man was there, perhaps watching her, planning his next move…

  Despite her fear, she tried to prevail upon Julian to let her accompany him to the Dower House to search for the entrance, but he was adamantly against it. Glaring at her, he growled, “Under no circumstances do I want you setting foot in the blasted house! The entrance to the dungeons is somewhere within and wherever it is, it is well hidden. I’m not having him spirit you away when my back is turned.”

  She made a face and only her growing child kept her from arguing with him. She had not only herself to protect but a child as well, and aware that her pregnancy made her dangerously vulnerable she did not protest further.

  Lady Diana had been puzzled by Julian’s dismissal of the workmen, but she had merely looked shy and murmured, “Since it appears that I may not live there after all, perhaps it is for the best.”
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  Julian grinned at her and lightly pinched her cheek. “Be happy, little puss—Father would have wanted you to be.”

  “Of course,” she said quickly, a faint blush staining her cheeks, “nothing is settled. Do not think that it is.”

  “Of course not,” Julian replied gravely, a twinkle in his eyes, and her blush deepened before she hurried away.

  Elizabeth was a different matter and one morning not long after that, Julian was surprised by a visit from her. It was awkward, as his stepsister found him down on his knees in the library of the Dower House poking around in the back of a bookcase.

  Amazement on her face, she asked, “What on earth! What are you doing?”

  Rising to his feet with what dignity he could muster, Julian dusted the knees of his breeches and turning to look at her, he mumbled, “I, er, was, ah, checking for signs of, um, termites.”

  Elizabeth looked unconvinced. “You don’t think that the workmen would have discovered some sign by now?”

  Julian shrugged. “It never hurts to make certain of some things,” he said.

  Hands on her hips she studied him. “You have been acting most strange lately. Nell can hardly take a step that she is not shadowed by you, and when Mother and I want to take a perfectly safe walk through the lower gardens, you insist that one of the footmen accompany us. You hover over us as if you expect a monster to leap out and attack us. What is going on?”