“That’s not a fair question.”
“Why not? Is he any more or less of a man than you are? I don’t think so. The only one who thinks Sean is crippled is you, and ironically the only one who was crippled in the accident was you. But you don’t have to believe me. You can find out for yourself, by making peace with Sean.”
“So you’ve figured everything out, and it is as simple as that?”
The exasperated sarcasm underlying his question set my teeth on edge. “No, but I do know that nothing will ever be different unless you make it different. Sean won’t see that he is wrong about this whole Dragon’s Curse nonsense unless you show him, and that can’t happen as long as you two sit in your castles like hermits with your fingers stuck in your ears so you can’t hear anything but yourselves.”
“What makes you think a thousand years of history is nonsense?”
“I didn’t say the history of the curse is nonsense. The existence of the curse between you and Sean may just very well be, though. Both of you have proved it false. He saved your life when you were children, and you saved his life eight years ago. Why aren’t you both shouting that you’ve managed to break the Dragon’s Curse? You can’t change the past, but you can direct the future. Start a new book. Title it The Dragon’s Curse Undone. A record of Killdaren twins who saved each other’s life.”
“Any other world problems you want to solve?”
“Yes, but I’ll wait and speak to someone who is intelligent enough to listen to some simple truths.” The towers of Killdaren’s castle appeared over the trees, and I urged Delilah ahead. Alex kept close, but silent. I may not have been all right in what I’d said, but I wasn’t all wrong either, and I wasn’t about to let him make me feel as if I were.
Reaching the back of the castle, I didn’t wait for his help. I slid from the saddle and forced my shaky knees to hold me upright as I handed Delilah’s reins to Alex. “Thank you for a lovely day,” I said primly, and marched away.
“Bloody hell, Andromeda, you can’t expect—”
“Andrie! What happened?” Cassie exclaimed, opening the back door and stepping outside.
“I went swimming,” I said.
Gemini joined her. “Why did you do that in your dress? You know we’re supposed to go to the mansio—ohh.”
Cassie jabbed Gemini in the side. “Never mind,” she said, looking curiously at Alex. “Hurry inside and we’ll ready a bath for you. We were about to have tea.”
“I’ll take mine in the tub,” I said, marching up the stairs.
“Your sister was thrown from her horse and almost drowned. She’s more than a little addled at the moment.”
Gritting my teeth against the implication that I had no idea what I was talking about, I turned to face him. He looked as if he teetered on the edge of being as wet and wild and as angry as a man could get. I didn’t hesitate to push him over. “At least I haven’t spent the last eight years of my life with my head buried in the sand.”
“At least I realize that cataloguing artifacts doesn’t qualify me as an expert in relationships.”
“At least I have relationships,” I shouted back and then ran inside, bursting into tears.
Cassie came to me and put an arm around my shoulders. “Gemini, go tell Bridget that we’ll take our outing another day.”
Gemini groaned.
“No,” I said, dashing my tears away. “I’m fine. We’ll go just as soon as I can bathe and dress. It’s just that he can make me so angry. How can he be so smart but so stubbornly stupid?”
Gemini giggled. “Bridget just came storming in from outside and said the same thing. Only she said ‘bloody stupid’.”
“Ladies don’t say bloody,” Cassie said, half-heartedly. “Go get Andrie some tea and some clothes while I help her get in the tub.”
Gemini ran off, and Cassie hurried me into a room off the kitchens where a number of tubs waited with water already heated in a nearby kettle.
She started to pull down soap and a towel from a nearby shelf as I worked on my buttons. “Sean’s going to put in electric lighting and plumbing,” she said, sounding odd.
I frowned her way. I already knew that, just as I knew that Sean hadn’t bothered with lighting before because light bothered him, and that he’d seen no use for plumbing the whole castle since he had a natural hot spring Roman bath in his wing.
“Bloody hell, Andrie. Is he going to marry you?” she blurted as she swung around, looking angry and confused.
“What?” I paused in unbuttoning my skirt.
She flung her hands up in the air. “We don’t have time to pretend. Gemini will be back in just a few minutes. I quite understand the Killdarens’ devastating appeal. I’m married to Alex’s twin, and I know you. The look in both of your eyes says it all. So, is he going to marry you?”
I shut my eyes, praying for strength. This was going to be the hardest battle of all to face. “Cassie. It isn’t a question of him marrying me. I won’t be marrying anybody.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t.” Hurriedly undressing, I climbed into the steamy tub and picked up the soap.
She poured water over my head. “‘Because I can’t’ doesn’t work. Why?”
I sudsed up my hair and she rinsed it. “You know why,” I said. “No man can live with a woman who goes around reading all of his thoughts.”
“What do you mean? I thought you only read thoughts and feelings on occasion.”
I drew a deep breath, realizing that I had to tell Cassie. She had to understand what was happening in my life. Not knowing was only going to cause her to worry more. “When we lived in Oxford, I guess I didn’t come into contact with others very much. I was accustomed to reading your thoughts and Gemini’s and wasn’t overly concerned or burdened by my ability, but when we came here everything changed. It’s worse now, Cassie. That man on the boardwalk who went running into the street—I saw the image of him murdering his wife when he bumped into me. I accused him of killing her, and that was why he ran. It’s that way with everyone now. Even you. If you’ve an image of something in your mind when I touch your hand, I see it.”
“Good Lord!” She sat down on a nearby stool. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because nobody can know. Do you know what people would do to me if they found out? I have nightmares about them stoning me, reviling me, burning me at the stake as a witch.”
“They don’t do things like that now—”
“A mob can do just about anything it wants to do. The villagers almost stoned Prudence for being an unwed mother.”
“Sean knows about my dreams and accepts that part of me. I myself didn’t think a man would be able to do that. Andrie, Alex wouldn’t—”
“Reject me? Think about it, Cassie. What if you lived with someone with whom you could never have a private moment or thought? Do you want Sean to know exactly what you are thinking at any moment, or do you want him to know only what you are comfortable with him knowing? I already erred when Alex pulled me from the water today. He was so filled with guilt and anger at himself for what happened that I shouted at him not to blame himself. That I was responsible for my actions. He looked at me very oddly, leaving me little doubt of how horrified he’d be if he knew I could read his thoughts on occasion. It’s not as bad with Alex as it is with others. It seems that I can only see directly into his mind during moments of high emotion, but that is bad enough.”
“Not that I’m agreeing with you, but if you aren’t going to marry him then why are you with him?”
“Because I love him. I want to see him healed and to go on and live a full life. I don’t want him serving a life sentence of loneliness just because he feels he has to leave his brother his title to make restitution for crippling Sean.”
“Sean’s not crippled.”
“In Alex’s mind he crippled his brother, and there is no dissuading him of the notion.”
“We’ll discuss that later. So, what you’re saying i
s that you’re healing Alex so that he can go on a live a full life without you. He can marry another woman, kiss another woman, touch another woman, make love to another woman, and give that woman his love and his children, and that’s wonderful by you.”
The more Cassie went on the more my stomach churned, and a knot centered itself in my throat. “Yes,” I shouted, tears gathering in my eyes.
“You’re just as addled as Alex is.” Cassie shook her head. “But I’m more worried about you at the moment. I think you’re doing him a great disservice by not being honest with him. He might just be a bigger man than you give him credit for.”
Gemini came into the room with my clothes and a cup of tea. “We need to hurry or we’re not going to have time to properly explore.”
Cassie handed me a towel. As I dried off and dressed, I wondered if we all weren’t fools dangling from puppet strings controlled by some unknown master whose intent was just as Machiavellian as the man responsible for Mary and Lady Helen’s deaths.
Chapter Nineteen
It took some maneuvering, but Bridget managed to arrange for one of the newer groomsman to drive the buggy, so that with any luck Stuart wouldn’t catch wind of our outing. The driver didn’t think anything of heading away from the village for our venture, and when Bridget directed him down the road leading to the Kennedy Mansion, which we learned was the estate on the other side of Alex’s vast holdings, the driver only raised his brows.
I’m not sure what I expected, but the peaceful, bucolic drive leading to the mansion didn’t quite fit with the word “haunted”. Sure there were overgrown weeds skirting the road, and the grasses in the pasture were high as one would suppose. Yet the shady fullness of the lazy trees along the road and the bright chirp of starlings mixed with the chattering of chipmunks and the buzz of bees dispelled any gloom.
I had to wonder why Mr. Drayson had made such a point about the evil feel of the place and had cautioned us against coming here. It was almost as if he’d purposely dangled a forbidden carrot in front of Gemini’s nose.
“This doesn’t seem very haunted,” Gemini said, almost reading my thoughts.
“Well,” Cassie replied, “you can’t expect that you’re suddenly going to have barren fields and leafless trees just because no one is living in a house, can you? Not unless there’s a ghost that scares all the wildlife away and kills all of the plants.”
“What do you think ghosts can do to you?” Gemini asked.
I lifted my brows in surprise.
“Blimey, why would you ask that now?” Bridget’s eyes widened, and she smoothed back a strand of her fiery hair from her face.
Cassie stiffened her spine. “I believe that spirits who have something important to say can say such, but that’s it. Any evil perpetrated in this world has a flesh-and-blood hand behind it. Now is not the time for a discussion of the nature of ghosts. We came here to learn what we can about Lady Helen. What do we know so far?”
“Her father gambled badly,” said Prudence.
“Sean and Alex were enamored of her,” I said.
“She was very beautiful,” Bridget said. “Silvery hair, sapphire eyes and the voice of an angel. Flora sings beautifully too, but Helen was different. If you could imagine what the morning mists would sound like if they could sing, then you’d know her voice. It was delicate and surrounded you with a mysterious, ancient feeling.”
I shivered, remembering the three blonde women chasing me in my dream, one of them Mary, one of them silvery blonde and the other… I forced myself to say what I knew would cause Bridget to be upset. “Helen was blonde and she could sing. Mary was too. They had that in common.”
Bridget frowned. “Flora is blonde and sings.”
“The earl paid Helen money to reject Sean and Alex.” Cassie sighed. “I wonder if all of this would have happened if he hadn’t had done that?”
“Alex wonders too,” I said. “Did anyone ever check on the money Lady Helen received? It had to be a considerable sum to pay off her father’s debts and to keep her comfortable for the rest of her life.”
“Excellent question, Andrie,” Cassie said. “We should ask the earl. We don’t even know when he paid her and how he paid her.”
The knot of tension inside me wrenched tighter. “We haven’t been very good investigators. We should have asked these questions days ago.”
The buggy came to a stop, and we all turned in surprise to find that we’d arrived. The manor was a large brownstone with a center section and a right and left wing. Its two stories were topped by a high-pitched roof with tiny windows peeking out from its darkness. It almost seemed as if a black cloud hovered over the home. Weeds had overtaken any semblance of civility, and vines had strangled the once white porch columns to a sickly green. Whatever wildlife we’d heard before made its absence known now. The silence screamed at me.
Before anyone could say a word, Gemini jumped down from the buggy and started for the door.
“Gemini Andrews! Stop right now,” Cassie shouted, scrambling to exit the buggy.
Gemini didn’t even turn her head or slow her step; she kept walking decidedly forward and up the stone steps.
“Blimey!” Bridget muttered as she and I followed on Cassie’s heels.
Gemini had opened the door and crossed the threshold before we reached her.
Cassie grabbed Gemini’s arm. “Stop right now. We will do this slowly and all together or we won’t do it at all.”
“What?” Gemini shook her head as if dazed.
“Look at me.” Cassie set her palm on Gemini’s cheek. “Good Lord, you’re freezing cold.”
“Can’t you hear her crying?” Gemini whispered.
Cassie gasped.
“Bloody hell,” said Bridget.
I peered closer at Gemini, seeing that her pupils were dilated. Touching her icy hand, I heard the faint cry of a woman in pain echoing in my sister’s mind.
Without letting go of Gemini, I grabbed Cassie’s arm. “She hears a woman. It’s faint, but it’s there. A woman in pain and crying.”
“Let’s go home,” Cassie said, backing up a step.
“No! We have to help her.” Gemini pulled free and ran.
I didn’t even blink before I went after her. God only knew what my sister was hearing, but it had sounded very bad, and no matter what it was I couldn’t let her face it alone. Cassie and Bridget were right behind me. Running as fast as I could, I caught Gemini’s hand. The cry of the woman had escalated in volume. Cobwebs danced off pictures and chandeliers, dust flew from our skirts, and ghostly, shrouded furniture passed in a blur. Reaching a staircase, Gemini turned to go up. A quick glance upward revealed footprints marring the dust that had settled on them. Someone had been here—recently. I tried to pull Gemini to a stop, but she struggled, frantic to help the woman whose cries grew louder and louder in her head.
Cassie cried for us to stop.
“She can’t,” I yelled back. “She has to help and I can’t leave her.”
Gemini was shivering so badly from cold that she wobbled as she plunged ahead. At the top of the stairs she turned right and went down the corridor to the first door on the left and nearly fell into the room.
The screaming in Gemini’s head was so deafening that my head and ears hurt. I barely had the chance to register that we’d entered a pink and gold bedroom when Gemini fell, her mind going blank. I managed to break her fall enough that she eased to the floor, and I landed on my knees, half holding her.
“Oh, my dear God.” Cassie rushed up and knelt next to us. “What happened?”
“She’s fainted. She’s breathing easier, her skin is getting warmer, but her heart is still racing with fear. Thank God she’s out of it. I don’t think I could have stood hearing the woman’s tortured cries another minute.”
“You all best better tell me whot’s a happenin’!” Bridget cried. “There’s no screaming, and if this is a prank it’s not bloody funny.”
“Gemini heard screaming
. I could hear it in her head,” I said, so weary and drained that I had to fight to think.”
“What does she mean?” asked Bridget.
Cassie sighed and sat back. “Bridget, you know I have dreams about deaths or near deaths. You remember that from the night Sean saved Rebecca, right?”
Bridget nodded.
“Andrie—”
“No, don’t,” I whispered.
“We can trust her, Andrie. She needs to understand what just happened. Andrie can read people’s minds when she touches them.”
“Bloody hell, no!” Bridget jumped up, looking totally frightened.
“Bloody hell, yes!” Cassie shouted back.
Bridget blinked at Cassie.
I shut my eyes and spoke. “The day you stormed out of the stables when you were arguing with Stuart and I ran into you, there were two thoughts in your head. You called Stuart a ‘bloody, stubborn arse of a man!’ And thought that it’d serve him right if you found yourself another man. A vampire lover. Then you wondered if he would be so quick to reject you if he found you naked in his bed.” I opened my eyes to see Bridget’s mouth fall open.
Cassie frowned. “You’ve read some of my thoughts that clearly too?”
Tears filled my eyes and poured. “Not on purpose. It just happens, and I can’t stop it. I see images too. I’m sorry.”
“Good Lord, Andrie.” Cassie wrapped her arms around me and hugged me unreservedly. There was no rejection in her mind, only love. It completely shocked me. “I’m sorry that you have to live with so burdensome of a gift.”
“Gift? It’s a curse.”
There was a very long silence in the room as Bridget stared at me. I could tell she was having a difficult time accepting what we said. She took a long, shuddering breath. “Blimey,” Bridget said, moving closer to me rather than farther away. “I’ve never had friends as loving and loyal as you both. And just because you have a quirk or two doesn’t mean I’m going to stop being your friend either. Seems to me that it’d be a bloody curse to have to put up with everyone’s nonsense. Since you both know how I’m planning to corner Stuart, do you think he’d reject me?”
Darkest Dreams Page 23