She looked at Braeden. He smiled and lay down on the ground with her and the other catamounts. He obviously felt quite at home with them, among the kith and kin of his heart.
Finally, he leaned his back against the long length of her panther body. He wiped the blood from a cut at his mouth, and then he shut his eyes, tilted his head back and rested his head against her thick black fur.
‘I don’t know about you, Serafina,’ he said with a smile, ‘but I think we’re getting rather good at this.’
She could not smile in return, but she felt a warm and powerful gladness in her heart, and she swished her tail and gazed towards Biltmore Estate and the distant mountains. She had finally done it. She had finally envisioned what she wanted to be. And become it.
The next morning, when Serafina woke up in the workshop in her human form and walked outside onto the grounds, she looked across to the mountains and came to a realisation: it was through the darkness of the blackest night that she had come to love the brightness of the rising sun.
That morning, Mr Vanderbilt and Braeden formed a work crew with nearly a hundred men from the estate’s stables, farms and fields, and they went out to the animal cages. Serafina and her pa went with them.
The troop of men and horses encountered no difficulties on the way.
When they arrived at the pine forest, Mr Vanderbilt and the other riders dismounted and entered by foot.
They found the animals still in the cages, but the campsite had been abandoned, the fire cold, nothing but grey ash. Serafina couldn’t help but carefully scan the forest, looking for any evidence that Uriah might have somehow survived the battle the night before, but saw nothing. He appeared to be truly gone.
Braeden knelt down in front of one of the cages, opened it up and helped the red fox crawl out of it. Recognising him, the fox came to him immediately and crawled up into his lap. Braeden held the fox in his arms and soothed it with strokes of his hands.
‘Everything’s all right now,’ Braeden said as he petted the fox. After a few moments, the fox seemed stronger of both body and spirit and trotted off into the forest.
Braeden went to the next cage and freed a beaver from its imprisonment. As he opened the cages, some of the animals immediately ran into the forest. Others needed his care. He knelt down with them and held them until they were strong enough to be on their way. He freed the raccoons and the bobcats, the otters and the deer, the swans and the geese, and the weasels and the wolves.
It filled Serafina with joy to see the animals running free and running strong. ‘Stay bold,’ she told them in a whisper.
As Braeden freed the animals one by one, Serafina’s pa and the other workers in the crew used their crowbars, chisels and hammers to tear out and destroy the cages so they could never be used again.
At the end of the day, as they travelled back to Biltmore through the oaks and chestnuts, the elms and the spruce, Serafina thought that the character and spirit of the forest through which they travelled had changed.
Scurries of flying squirrels ran up and down the trunks and glided from tree to tree. Otters played in the streams.
‘Look up there, Serafina!’ Braeden said, grabbing her arm in excitement.
She gazed upward and saw thousands of birds, streams and streams of them flooding across the clear blue sky. There were skeins of geese flying in echelons of Vs, swans and ducks in long lines and clouds of fluttering waxwings, cardinals and jays.
‘Isn’t it magnificent, Serafina?’ Braeden asked her, his voice filled with wonder. ‘I’m so glad you’re here to see this with me because I would have never been able to describe it. Did you ever think you would see something like this in your whole life?’
Serafina stood with Braeden watching the birds and she smiled. ‘Not like this,’ she said.
Serafina sat in a red damask-upholstered gold chair in front of a French-style vanity table and mirror in the Louis XVI Room on the second floor of Biltmore House. Light poured into the beautiful oval-shaped room, with its curving white walls, red draperies and golden-brown wood floor. Essie stood behind her, brushing Serafina’s long, silky black hair.
‘I don’t know what happened to your hair, miss, but it’s beautiful,’ Essie said as she brushed it.
‘Thank you,’ Serafina said, looking at herself in the mirror. All traces of the brown were gone. Only the black remained. And it wasn’t shaggy and streaked like before, like a spotted cub’s camouflage, but smooth and shiny and entirely black.
Her clean, bare neck and shoulders showed the scars of her past, the jagged wound she’d taken to her neck when she destroyed the Black Cloak, the bites of wolfhounds on her arms and upper shoulders, and a new cut she’d suffered fighting Rowena and her animals: a long scratch across her cheek just below her eye. The appearance of the wounds did not bother her. They were the scars of battles fought and battles won.
But she still had one worry. ‘How has Mrs Vanderbilt been?’ she asked.
‘She’s been down sick on some days, but then she perks up. No one expects it of her this year, but ya know she likes to give Christmas presents to all the children of the estate workers. She’s been sendin’ me and the other girls hither and yon for all sorts of gifts. She and I spent the entire mornin’ wrapping the presents and puttin’ them under the tree.’
‘You must be excited about the Christmas jubilee tonight,’ Serafina said, smiling. It was good to hear that maybe Mrs Vanderbilt was feeling a little better.
‘Oh, yes, miss. I can’t wait. But after all the ruckus last night, I hope it’s quieter tonight, or old St Nick might just look down on Biltmore’s rooftop and keep on flyin’.’
‘Thank you again for everything you did, Essie,’ Serafina said. ‘You saved a lot of people’s lives, and you saved the house too.’
‘You should have seen the look on Mr Vanderbilt’s face when I told him everything you said. I’ve never seen him move so fast! He gathered up your pa and all the men, and the guests, and all the maids and cooks. We went to all the places in the basement and kitchen and pantries and the stables, and just like you said, there was pine sap and kerosene already aflame. Somebody had lit all those fires. It was so frightening! Your pa said someone cut the wires on the alarm boxes, so he sounded the alarm himself. Then he got the fire hoses throwin’ water, which was truly something to behold. Mr Vanderbilt got the bucket brigades goin’ real quick like. Everybody chipped in and worked together, and we put those fires out in no time at all. But it coulda been a disaster!’
Serafina smiled as she listened to Essie tell her story. ‘You’re right,’ she agreed. ‘It could have been a disaster. But it wasn’t. You saved us.’
‘It wasn’t me. It was everybody – everybody workin’ together.’
Serafina nodded in agreement.
‘But what about you, miss?’ Essie said. ‘A lot of strange happenings last night.’
‘Strange happenings?’
‘Oh, all the cats were a-caterwauling, and the coyotes were a-howling, and the horses racin’ the moon. Noises, screams in the night, all sorts of commotion. Somebody actually crashed a carriage off the bridge by the river, smashed it to smithereens.’
‘Truly?’ Serafina said.
‘I heard that Mr Vanderbilt checked into that peculiar Mr Grathan. Turns out he was some sort of shady character who goes around the country investigating ghost stories and ever what. He was a complete charlatan. Maggie and me thinks he and that English girl tried to run off in the carriage together, that’s what we think. No one’s seen hide nor hair of either of ’em since last night, and I bet ya we’re not a-gonna!’
‘I bet you’re right,’ Serafina said.
But deep down she felt a pang of sadness for poor Mr Grathan. She remembered the scars on his face. They were not unlike her own. There were just many more of them. Mr Grathan had been a demon killer, just like she was. But this time the demon had killed him first. Serafina realised that she had made a mistake in her judgment of both Mr
Grathan and Rowena in different ways, in part because of how they looked and dressed, and she vowed to be far more careful next time.
‘You want to know what?’ Essie said, leaning down to her and speaking in a low, conspiratorial tone. ‘You’re not gonna believe this, but Maggie said she looked out her window last night and saw a black panther.’
‘Do you believe her?’
‘Oh, sure. I saw one once, years ago.’
‘You did?’ Serafina asked in surprise.
‘I wasn’t but five or six at the time, but I recall it like it was yestermorn. One of the clearest memories of my entire life. I was walking down the road with my nanny and my papaw, and this big old black panther crosses the road right in front of us. He stopped and turned and looked right at us. He had the most beautiful yellow eyes you ever did see. But I was afeard. I thought that panther was gonna eat us for sure, and he probably woulda done if it weren’t for my pa. I wanted to take off a-runnin’ and I woulda been halfway outta Madison County, but my papaw gripped my shoulder and held me in place and we just stared at that big cat. That panther stared right back at us, eyes keen like he was as knowin’ as you and me. And then he turned and continued on his way. My pa said that them kind are very rare, that there can only be one black one at a time. So, if Maggie saw one last night, I guess a black one has returned to these parts. Don’t want to get et, of course, but I sure would love to see him.’
As Essie told her story, tears streamed down Serafina’s cheeks, and then she began to sob. Essie had seen her father.
‘Aw, miss, I’m sorry,’ Essie said. ‘What’d I say? I didn’t mean to scare you! The panther ain’t gonna hurt us none. You’re such a delicate creature, aren’t you?’
Serafina looked at Essie in the mirror, shook her head and wiped her eyes. ‘I’m not scared,’ she said.
‘Never mind about all that commotion last night. I’m sure it was nothin’. My papaw would say it was just the old man of the forest up to his tricks again, nothing to mind.’
Serafina smiled and nodded and blew her nose into a silk handkerchief from the table.
‘Don’t fret none. We’re gonna fix you up real nice for tonight,’ Essie said as she stood behind Serafina and worked on her hair. ‘We have plenty of time now. Do you want me to put your hair up into a fancy coiffure like Consuelo Vanderbilt’s was the other night? It’s very popular these days.’
Serafina smiled and imagined it in her mind, but then she said, ‘Actually, I have another idea,’ and explained to Essie what she wanted.
She liked talking with Essie and spending time with her. There was something soothing about it that brought her home. But then Serafina saw Essie’s expression change, maybe as she thought back on the unexplained happenings and the strange sounds she’d heard in the night.
‘Do you believe in haints and spirits, miss?’ Essie asked her.
‘I believe in everything,’ Serafina said very seriously, remembering all that she had seen.
‘Me too,’ Essie said as she stroked Serafina’s hair.
‘Essie, do you remember when we first met a while back, you were fixed on becoming a lady’s maid to Mrs V’s guests?’ Serafina asked.
‘Well, that’s right,’ Essie said. ‘But ya know what I reckon?’
‘What’s that?’ Serafina said.
‘On special nights like this, at least, I reckon I’m your lady’s maid, miss.’
‘I reckon you are.’ Serafina nodded and smiled, and reached up and touched Essie’s hands with her own. ‘But you know what I want more than that, Essie? I want you as my friend.’
‘Aw, now,’ Essie complained, ‘you’re gonna start me a-cryin’ if we keep this up!’
At that moment, there came a gentle knocking.
‘Who could that be?’ Essie asked as she went over to the door. ‘Don’t they know us girls are busy in –’ As Essie opened the door and saw the young master standing there, she ran out of air to speak.
Serafina rose and went over to Braeden as the shocked Essie moved quietly backwards into the room.
Braeden held in his arms two large white boxes with ribbons.
‘What’s this?’ Serafina asked, studying the boxes as Braeden smiled.
‘A Christmas present for each of you,’ Braeden said as he handed the first one to her. ‘Open it up.’
‘Truly?’ Serafina said.
But she didn’t wait for an answer. Inside the box, Serafina found a gorgeous creamy satin winter ball gown.
‘It’s beautiful, Braeden,’ Serafina said. ‘Thank you.’
‘Essie, you too,’ Braeden said, handing the second box to her. ‘This is to cover Serafina’s debt to you.’
‘Oh, my, will you look at that!’ Essie said, beaming as she opened the box and saw the gown within.
‘They’re both beautiful,’ Serafina said, watching Essie.
Braeden stepped closer to them and spoke in a facetiously conspiratorial tone. ‘Now, between me, my aunt and Essie, this is the third dress we’ve given you, Serafina. Perhaps you could try to be just a little bit more careful and not ruin this one right way.’
‘I’ll do my best,’ Serafina said, smiling, and gave Braeden a hug as Essie wiped tears of joy from her eyes.
As Serafina and Braeden walked together through the house to the Christmas party, Braeden took her down several corridors to the Smoking Room. It was a richly appointed hideaway, with dark blue velvet chairs, fine blue wallpaper and shelves of gold-leafed leather-bound books, where the gentlemen would retreat after dinner to smoke their cigars and talk in private. The room was empty at the moment, but Serafina could tell that Braeden had paused for a reason.
‘I want to show you something I think you’ll find interesting,’ he said. He took her by the arm and led her into the room. ‘One of the groundsmen found something in the woods. He wasn’t sure what to do with it, so he gave it to the taxidermist.’
As Serafina walked into the room, she looked around her. On the sculpted marble fireplace mantel sat a stuffed animal on a stand. There were other stuffed animals in the house, so this in itself wasn’t unusual. But it wasn’t just a pheasant or a grouse. It was a barn owl with its sharp talons clinging wishfully to a crooked stick and its wings splayed upward as if in sudden alarm. The owl seemed to have a particularly shocked look on its face.
‘Ah,’ Serafina said, admiring the owl. She wasn’t sure if it was a male or a female, wasn’t even sure how to tell the difference, but she decided it looked like her old friend and nemesis. She gave the owl a slow and solemn nod. ‘Good evening, Rowena. Excuse me, I’m so sorry . . . Lady Rowena.’
‘Well,’ Braeden said, ‘my aunt Edith asked us to make her feel at home.’
Serafina smiled and looked at the owl. ‘Rowena, you will always have a home here at Biltmore.’
Serafina was pleased that she and Braeden and their allies had defeated Rowena, but the truth was that in some ways Rowena’s father had twisted his daughter’s heart as malevolently as his staff had twisted the minds of those poor animals. Serafina couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if Rowena had seen past her need to impress her father, had turned away from her father’s vengeance and had taken a different path.
After studying the owl for a moment, Serafina asked Braeden, ‘Did the groundsman find only one?’
‘I’m afraid so,’ Braeden said. ‘But I asked him to gather some of the other men and go back out and keep looking, both in the forest and along the shore of the river, just in case.’
‘Good,’ Serafina said. ‘I would feel a lot better if we had two owls on the mantel rather than one.’
Leaving the room, Serafina and Braeden walked over to the Banquet Hall.
Before going in, Braeden paused at the door and looked at Serafina.
Serafina gazed into the soft glow of the candlelit Christmas party in the opulent room. Glittering ladies in their long, formal gowns and handsome gentlemen in their black jackets mingled about the room, talking and
laughing warmly, holding their champagne in long crystal flutes. Along with the sparkling folk, most of the house servants were there as well, filled with a relaxed cheer and looking so different in their best day-off clothes, the formalities of work put aside for this special evening.
Many of the children of the servants were hovering by the Christmas tree, waiting excitedly to open their presents. Serafina remembered being a little child curled up in a ball in the darkness at the bottom of the basement stairway listening to the Christmas party above, longing to see and to share in the smiling faces of the other children. And here she was tonight, her first Christmas upstairs. As familiar as all this was to her, and as strange and foreign as well, this was the society in which she lived. This was her home. These were her people, her kin, both distant and close.
Standing with Braeden in the doorway, Serafina could see their reflection in one of the mirrors on the wall. It was mesmerising to see themselves there. Braeden wore the black jacket, white tie, and white gloves that were customary of a young gentleman of his station. His scrapes and bruises had been attended to, and his hair had been neatly combed. His face was lit up with happiness and his brown eyes sparkled with the reflection of the room’s light.
Serafina wore the beautiful golden-cream satin gown that Braeden had given her for Christmas, with its magnificently embroidered pearl- and braid-trimmed corset and its long, cascading train. As was customary of a young lady, she wore matching satin opera gloves, and glistening shoes adorned her feet. But unlike the other girls in the room, who wore their hair up and arranged, curled into tightly wound coiffures, she had decided to let her silky jet-black hair lay long and smooth over her shoulders, and her eyes were as yellow as a panther’s.
Serafina and the Twisted Staff (The Serafina Series) Page 26