Darkest Dreams

by Jennifer St Giles

  Gemini stirred.

  “We better get Gemini out of here before she wakes up and hears the screaming again. You’ll have to help me carry her, Bridget. I don’t want Cassie straining herself.”

  “I’ll get her feet,” Bridget said.

  Cassie stood. “I can help. Why don’t you let me get her feet, and you and Bridget—”

  The bedroom door slammed shut, and we all screamed.

  “The wind,” I said, swallowing my burgeoning fear. “We left the front door open.”

  “Right.” Cassie moved confidently to the door and grabbed the handle. The door didn’t budge. She shook it again, but it was firmly locked.

  Cassie backed away from the door. “Andrie?” she whispered.

  I reached up and touched her hand. “I’m with you,” I whispered back. “Ghosts might make their voices heard, but anything that’s physical has to have a flesh and blood hand behind it.”

  Cassie ran for the door on the other side of the room. It was locked as well. The only other way out was through the window.

  “Find a weapon, Bridget. You hold Gemini, Andrie. Keep her quiet if she starts to wake.” Cassie went to the fireplace and jerked up a dusty iron poker.

  Bridget grabbed a heavy candelabrum from the desktop. When she did, something fell and hit the wood floor. The tinkling of breaking glass scraped over my raw nerves. Leaning down, Bridget picked up the little picture frame that had fallen, then gasped in horror.

  “Oh, my God, Cassie,” Bridget cried and started shaking so badly that she dropped the candelabrum.

  “Bridget,” Cassie hissed. “What are you doing? What’s wrong?”

  Bridget turned the picture our way. “It’s me mum and me brother, Timmy. Flora took this with her when she left.”

  I groaned, my gaze flying about the room, looking for— “Cassie,” I croaked. “The killer. He must…he must have come here. He must have brought Flora here.”

  Bridget fell to her knees with a cry.

  “Andrie, how do you know?” Cassie moved to my side.

  “Rebecca’s nightmare the other night. When I touched her I heard Mary arguing with a man, accusing him of compromising someone. He was awful, saying he was going to punish that someone for their promiscuity. And then…then…I think he hurt Mary badly…and forced her to…”

  “Jack?” Bridget whispered. “Was his name Jack? Flora went away with a man named Jack.”

  “I don’t know what his name was. Names weren’t in Rebecca’s head. Not even Flora’s name was. That’s why I didn’t say anything. But Flora’s continued silence together with Mary’s defense of a woman made me very suspicious. For that picture to be here…”

  “Means the screams Gemini heard could be those of my sister’s ghost. She was here. He hurt her here.” Bridget’s face turned as red as her hair. “And that bastard is here now!” She grabbed the candelabrum up and ran for the door, swinging the heavy brass against the door. “Come and face me, you coward!”

  Cassie grabbed Bridget’s shoulder and pulled her back. “Wait. We have to think what he would do next, and then we have to do exactly what he wouldn’t expect us to do.”

  “It depends on why he’s locked us in here. Is he going to keep us prisoners and do what he did to Mary and Helen and Flora…?”

  “Or what?” Cassie asked. “Try and kill us all? We need to get out of here now.”

  “The windows,” I said. “We can yell for the driver to help.”

  “We’re at the back of the house. He’s in the front, but it’s worth a try.”

  “Unless the killer got to him too,” Bridget whispered.

  All of us shivered hard. Opening the window, we called for help, but no one answered.

  ”Maybe there’s a way we can climb down.” With the stone courtyard below us, I knew we couldn’t jump. “But how can we get Gemini down?”

  “Try and wake her. Bridget, let’s take the sheets off the bed and tie them together to make a ladder.” Marching over to the bed, Cassie grabbed the pink satin counterpane and pulled it off the bed. She screamed, backing away in horror. Bridget cried out, a deep, keening sound of grief. The sheets were stained with dried blood. Bloody ropes that had to have been used to bind the victim lay on the bed along with some gruesome looking iron contraptions that reminded me of the medieval torture devices I’d seen in Alex’s dungeon. The image of me tied in Alex’s bed flashed in my mind. Had I only thought I saw myself? What if I’d—

  My heart thundered in my ears and my mind screamed. NO!

  Then I smelled smoke.

  Leaving Gemini, I stood and grabbed Bridget’s arm. At first her grief was so overwhelming I couldn’t think. Alex, I screamed in my mind, forcing out Bridget’s sorrow. I pushed her toward Gemini. “He’s set the house on fire. Drag her to the window.”

  “The curtains,” I yelled to Cassie. “Help me.” Rushing over to the heavy pink satin, I pulled hard, nearly having to hang my entire weight on the panel before it broke free. Cassie managed to get her panel down. I shoved mine at her. “Knot these together while I get more.”

  “He’ll expect us to escape through the window,” she said.

  “I know. Hopefully he won’t be expecting us to be armed and ready to beat him to a bloody pulp though. We don’t have a choice, Cassie.”

  “Then let’s do it.”

  Tying the curtains together, we made a long ladder. Then we wrapped Gemini in a curtain and attached her to one end of our ladder. I went to the window and scanned the area, but didn’t see anything but overgrown gardens and the distant spires of Dragon’s Cove. My stomach twisted again, but I pushed away the uneasy thoughts and opened the windows. I might not be able to see into Alex’s mind at any moment, but I knew him. He wasn’t capable of murdering in cold blood. He’d kill to defend, and he might have been rash enough in his youth to have accidentally caused a death, like his fight with his brother. But he wasn’t capable of the evil perpetrated here. What I feared was that someone might be trying to make it appear as if Alex were guilty. I knew what I had seen was a medieval torture device, and I seriously doubted they were a common item here in Cornwall.

  “Give me the free end. I’m going to put it halfway down and then drop the rest of the way to the ground. Then you and Bridget pull that end back up and tie it to the bedstead. You’ll be able to lower Gemini to me and climb down after.”

  “No. I’ll go first,” Cassie said.

  “Give me the poker, Cassie. We don’t have time to argue, and I will not allow you to put the lives of my future nephews at stake from some foolish sense of responsibility to me. If the killer is down there waiting, throw the candelabrum at him and anything else you can find.”

  As soon as I had the curtains out, I started down. Dear God. The bottom floor was on fire as well, which put Cassie, Bridget and Gemini in even more danger. Wiggling down with the poker clutched between my neck and shoulder, I reached the bottom of the curtains and dropped. I landed on my feet on the stone below with a thud. The poker clattered to the ground, and I felt to my knees. Tears stung my eyes as I scrambled for the poker. Picking it up, I swung around in a circle, looking for lurking danger. I didn’t see anything, but I could feel it. I was certain that I could feel him watching.

  I motioned to Cassie to hurry. She and Bridget lowered Gemini to me, and as they climbed down, I untied Gemini from the ladder. She was really beginning to worry me now. She was still unresponsive, her mind an inky mass of darkness. Cassie joined me first and then Bridget, who had now turned a ghostly white with eyes more haunted than I had ever imagined a living person’s could be.

  “He’s near,” I whispered. “I feel him watching. Let’s go to the left. It’ll be closer to our buggy. Something has to have happened to the driver.” I handed Cassie the poker and grabbed one end of Gemini’s cocoon. Bridget grabbed the other end, and we lifted Gemini. By the time we made it around to the front, I knew Gemini was going to have some painful bruises.

  I looked up from
the concealing foliage of bushes and weeds at the side of the house, and my heart took a dive. The buggy was there, just where we left it. The driver was slumped over in the seat, a heart-stopping sight in itself. But next to the buggy stood a very skittish Samson.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Andrie? Isn’t that Alex’s horse?” There was no mistaking the accusation in her voice.

  “Yes. It’s not him, Cassie. He is not the killer.”

  “How do you know for sure? You said that you couldn’t—”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’ll swear that I can before the whole world if I have to. He’s not guilty.”

  “Then where is he?”

  “Oh, God. He must be in there looking for us. I have to go back inside.”

  “The place is on fire, Andrie.”

  “I have to.” I didn’t want to leave my sisters, but I had to go look for Alex.

  “You’re not going alone.”

  “You’re not coming with me. You and Bridget need to stay with Gemini. I swear I think the killer watched us escape through the window. Both of you need to stay together and protect Gemini. Maybe you should get in the buggy and leave.”

  “No, we’ll all stay together as much as possible.” Cassie’s tone brooked no argument, and I decided she was right.

  “There’s a gun,” Bridget whispered. “In the buggy, hidden in the driver’s seat. No one leaves the castle without being protected. I’ll get the gun, and Cassie can stay hidden with Gemini while I go with you to search for Lord Alex. We need to hurry.”

  Before we could say a thing, Bridget broke through the shrubs and ran to the buggy. Keeping her head low, she dove into the front of it. I saw her grapple past the driver, who didn’t move at all, and then she came scrambling back out of the buggy.

  “He’s alive,” she said, handing a long-nosed pistol to Cassie. “Someone has knocked him a good one over the head, but he’s breathing.”

  My stomach had wound itself into a knot so tight I could hardly breathe. I hated leaving Cassie and Gemini even for a second until we were all safe, but I had to find Alex. “Come on,” I said to Bridget. “Let’s hurry.”

  We slid through the bushes and ran up the stone steps. Smoke was starting to billow from the door. The heat hit me the minute I crossed the threshold. A thick blanket of smoke hung low. I ducked down, wanting to avoid the ugly black darkness. Bridget followed right behind me.

  “Alex!” I heard no answering call, only the crackle of the devouring fire spreading through the deserted mansion. I wondered if I was on a fool’s errand, but I couldn’t turn back. I raced ahead, following the same route that Gemini had taken. The heat began to burn my skin. Even my skirts seemed as if they were burning my legs. My lungs hurt so much that I had to put my hand over my mouth to breathe. My eyes watered. Bridget coughed and coughed.

  Just as I was about to turn back, I saw a man’s legs sticking out from a doorway near the staircase we had taken. I grabbed Bridget’s arm and dragged her to him. It was Alex. We each gripped a leg and pulled him from the room. There was no time to see how badly he was hurt. We could hardly see at all. The heat was worse in the room where he lay, so I knew the best way out was the way we had come. Bridget and I struggled and pulled and coughed and eventually crawled as we dragged him. But the smoke was getting worse. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t find the entry hall.

  Then Bridget fell, coughing so hard her whole body spasmed. A wave of dizziness washed over me as I too coughed and fought for air. We were all flat on the ground with a thick smoke burying us alive. I rolled, pulling on Bridget. She grabbed my hand.

  Her mind was crying out for Stuart, for a chance to love, to hold him in her arms just once. I wrapped my arm around Alex and laid my head on his chest. My tears dried before they could spill from my eyes. I’d get us out. I had to. In just a moment.

  When someone pulled me up, I thought angels had come until the blurry figure of a hooded ghoul wavered before my eyes. He shoved me aside, and I thought I would fall, but someone behind me caught me. I managed to stiffen my knees enough to stand. Then the grim reaper lifted Bridget up and tossed her my way as well. Whoever held me jostled until he caught Bridget and began to drag us, save us. My mind was so addled I couldn’t read the man’s thoughts. I didn’t know who he was.

  “Alex!” I cried but no sound escaped. Then, through the smoke, I saw the black-hooded figure loom closer, dragging Alex.

  Bright light and cool fresh air told me that we’d escaped the burning mansion. But I still coughed, and my lungs still fought to breathe. Through the haze I could hear Bridget doing the same, and the man holding us was cursing loudly. It was Stuart.

  “Where’s Sean?” Cassie ran up and pulled me into her arms. She sobbed with joyful relief. All I could do was lean into her and stare at the doorway, praying for Alex. Then I realized, I couldn’t read Cassie’s thoughts either. My mind was too addled to think.

  “He’s coming,” said Stuart as he swung Bridget up into his arms.

  Just then a black-hooded man came staggering out of the mansion dragging Alex with him, and relief flooded through me. Sean had just saved Alex from a fiery death, but the blood on Alex’s head and shoulders told me he’d been hurt by someone.

  I wondered how much more proof the Killdaren brothers would need to have before they realized they’d either broken the Dragon’s Curse or it had missed them completely.

  Mr. Drayson appeared, completely disheveled, waving his hands in agitation. “This is all my fault! I never should have mentioned this place! I knew evil lurked here! Good God, why did you come?”

  Sean, still hooded—I assumed to protect his eyes as much as possible from the light—turned. “Talk can wait. Take the pistol and get Ashton. Stay on your guard! Bring the doctor to Killdaren’s Castle immediately.”

  Mr. Drayson nodded, and I followed him with my gaze as he crossed to the buggy where Lord Ashton stood. I could see the edge of the pink satin curtain hanging from the back seat. Gemini must still be unconscious.

  “How…did…you know to come?” I rasped to Stuart.

  “Drayson and Lord Ashton saw smoke on their way back from the village and alerted us. At first we thought it was Dragon’s Cove on fire. Thank God they saw it. If we hadn’t come immediately, you, Bridget and Alex would all be dead.”

  I nodded. Even though I wanted to think I would have gotten up and dragged Alex and Bridget to safety, I doubted I would have been able to even save myself. I glanced at Mr. Drayson and Lord Ashton as they departed on their horses and wondered if they’d seen the smoke as they’d said, or if they knew a fire had been set because they’d set it, and had sounded the alarm to put themselves in the clear. Come to think of it, it was Mr. Drayson’s testimony of having seen either Alex or Sean leaving the maze the night Lady Helen had died that had cast suspicion their way. Both men even had access to Alex’s home and could have taken the torture device from the dungeon. What if they were the killers? I’d read their thoughts at least once this summer when I’d fallen and pretended my ankle was more hurt than it was. They’d helped me up and touched my ankle. Both of them had been in high spirits from the cocktails they’d introduced to Gemini and me. They’d been more interested in the curve of my leg and what that led to than anything else. I hadn’t given their thoughts much notice because my mind had been filled with Alex.

  The trouble with reading thoughts was that I could only read what was currently in a person’s mind. I could touch the killer, read his thoughts, and never know he was the killer unless he was thinking of the murder. I shivered with a deep cold that refused to leave me despite the heat of the sun and the slightly scorched skin of my hands and face. Even moving to Alex’s side and setting my hand on him, seeking to comfort us both, did little to warm me.

  On the ride home, we looked like defeated troops returning from battle. Gemini, Alex and the driver were unconscious and lay on the buggy seats. I held Alex’s head in my lap. Bridget and I were shaken a
nd weakened. Cassie, though unharmed, was suffering greatly, and I was sure the grim set of Stuart’s features didn’t even come close to the thundercloud of Sean’s, which were thankfully hidden beneath his dark hood. I feared there was to be a greater price yet to pay for our venture.

  “I’m most concerned about your sister,” said Dr. Luden was telling Cassie when I exited Alex’s room. Upon arriving at the castle the doctor had treated the three individuals immediately. The driver had regained consciousness before arriving back at Killdaren’s Castle and didn’t need more than a cursory examination.

  Alex had required stitches for a gash on the back of his head, but had awakened and was becoming more coherent as the minutes passed, though he had a major headache. I’d left Sean and Stuart in the room with him, anxious to find about more about Gemini. Cassie was clearly of the same mind, having left Bridget and Prudence with Gemini so that she and the doctor could speak privately. Rebecca was safely in the kitchens with Mrs. Murphy.

  “What do you think is wrong with Gemini?” Cassie asked the doctor.

  “You say you think she fainted from fright?” the doctor asked.

  “Yes,” I said. “I...well…she heard something that seriously scared her.”

  Sean joined us in the corridor.

  “Your sister should have come to long before now,” the doctor said, his voice filled with concern. “What I fear is she was so traumatized that her mind could not accept what happened and has chosen to close itself off from the pain. I’ll leave a sedative should she waken in an agitated state, but this may be a very serious situation.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “The mind is capable of so much more than we can even begin to understand. She may not wake until she either feels safe again, or is able to accept the fright or pain that put her into this state.”

  “You sound as if that won’t be tonight,” Sean said.

  “If she doesn’t wake up in the next few days, we’re going to have to discuss getting her to a treatment facility that can care for her special needs for as long as possible,” the doctor replied.