by Beth Byers
Within minutes, Severine let Mr. Thorne lead the way to the car. His black car was entirely unremarkable. Just behind it was Mr. Brand’s flashier car where Kali was being let into the back seat. She and Mr. Thorne let Anubis into the back of Mr. Thorne’s car. Then he opened the passenger seat for Severine.
As he got into the driver’s seat, Severine said, “I bet you could drive this car anywhere and be rather sneaky with it.”
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye as he started the car. “That might have been my purpose with its purchase.”
Awkward silence filled the auto. Then she took a deep breath and stated, “Lovely weather today.”
Mr. Thorne sighed darkly. “I would tell you if I could. I would tell you the whole story with all the gritty details that will haunt me to my grave. It’s not my story to tell though. Not mine alone.”
Severine nodded.
“I don’t want this to ruin our alliance.”
She had to admit it hurt her to hear it called an alliance. She would have preferred friendship. There was a tiny voice in her head that was wishing for something else, too. A voice that was demanding her to acknowledge that she’d been partially in love or willing to be in love and now that part of her was being smothered.
Severine asked, “Can you tell me anything about your sister?”
“Her name was Jane. Such a plain little name. Plain Jane.” He sounded so sad that Severine felt it in her heart.
“But Jane wasn’t plain?”
Mr. Thorne cleared his throat, and it took him a long time to answer. If it weren’t dark outside, would she have seen emotion in his eyes? Were they shining? Was his loss evident or was he feeling something else?
“She was perfect.”
The car fell to silence, only this time it wasn’t so awkward. When they arrived at the Grantley mansion outside the city the tone between them had shifted back to something else.
Chapter 12
“What are they thinking?” Severine muttered as Grayson Thorne leaned down and found the brick near the side door. It had clearly been hidden there for some time.
Grayson lifted the key from the indention in the dirt. “I wonder if this is how they’re getting in.”
“I wonder if this means that whoever is trying to haunt Mrs. Grantley knows her well enough to know about this key?”
Severine examined the house and considered. How hard was it to get inside? Were the servants careful about the locks on the windows and the doors? Was there a door with a malfunctioning entrance that was a sort of open secret? How long would it take her to sidle her way into the house if she wanted to do so? Even without the key? Severine guessed it wouldn’t be that difficult.
Perhaps someone Mrs. Grantley trusted was behind this scheme. The letter had said the activities always started after midnight. Severine and Grayson unlocked the side door, keeping the key rather than returning it.
Severine hissed, “Look at this lock.”
She turned the flashlight onto the keyhole and it was covered in scratches.
“Lock picks?” she whispered.
“Possibly,” he breathed back.
When had those scratches been made? Some of them looked rather new.
They crept into the house as though they hadn’t been invited. Mrs. Grantley only had one servant who stayed in the house overnight. There was a carriage house where the butler and housekeeper/cook, a married couple, lived.
Beyond those two was a woman who acted as a generalized helper and who was there to see to Mrs. Grantley should she need anything in the middle of the night. Mrs. Grantley said the old servant slept like the dead. It had been the complaint of her grandchildren, and Severine had to wonder—now that she was in the house—how those grandchildren even knew that the woman slept so hard.
Mrs. Grantley kept no other servants, only hiring when she needed one or two for dinner parties and gatherings and bringing them in from the city.
Severine grabbed Grayson’s arm a moment later when she heard a creak on the stairs. They were in a side hallway that led only to that side entrance for servants to use. According to Mrs. Grantley, no one should be on the stairs.
Was it just an old house settling? Anubis was on alert, and Severine couldn’t quite decide if that was because she was alarmed or if because he knew exactly what was on the stairs.
“There was no sign of a vehicle,” Grayson said so low it was almost just a breath.
“There are other place to leave an automobile,” Severine whispered back. “Or a fellow could walk or be dropped off.”
There was another sound and Severine said, “There have to be servants’ stairs in this big old place.”
“Probably near the kitchens,” Grayson agreed. He led the way with the attitude of a man who was prepared to throw himself in front of her. Did he know that it had looked as though her father had done just that for her mother? How many nights had she slept in the nunnery, curled into her blankets, wondering if her father had tried to save her mother or if the way they fell was just happenstance.
They found the servants’ stairs in a doorway just before the kitchen. The door looked like it hid a closet, and a thin, sharp stairway on the other side led to the second floor.
“Did you hear that?” Grayson asked, suddenly pausing.
Severine’s eyes widened and Anubis whined low. She whispered a command, “Anubis, ruhig.”
After a long moment of silence, there was nothing. A moment later, she heard a low scratching sound, and she shivered. Her dog’s ears tilted forward, and he let out a low rumble, trying to be quiet as she’d commanded.
“It’s probably only branches on the window,” Grayson said.
Severine rolled her eyes and they waited again until long, long moments passed. The house fell back to a weighty silence.
“Damn it,” Grayson muttered, “none of this feels right.”
“Maybe this is all meant for us,” Severine suggested in a low whisper.
“You think she’s part of trapping us?”
“After Andre, trust is difficult even with those who have earned it. Mrs. Grantley has not.”
If Mrs. Grantley wasn’t setting them up, she was the victim here. And, if Mrs. Grantley were a different woman, this haunting would seem cruel indeed.
For Lisette’s mother or grandmother who had a respect for the spirits and a true belief, the idea of them disrupting either of the women’s lives would have disrupted their peace in every aspect. For Mrs. Grantley, however, there was an edge of hope to the haunting. What if it was her dead husband? Someone who was truly, utterly cruel would provide that edge of hope and snatch it away.
“I don’t know,” Severine said. “If I were her enemy, I might think a vengeful haunting is just the thing to ruin her passing. She’s so firm about dying. I think there must be a reason for that certainty.”
They had reached the landing just outside the second floor. The way was lit only by their flashlights, and the light seemed to be losing the battle against the dark. The shadows were thick and deep below and above.
She shivered, too easily able to imagine a fiend from the other world at the base of the stairs. She licked her lips and then froze, once again, when she heard a creaking sound. It was clearer now and far more than a branch against the window.
Grayson heard it as well, and he shuddered ahead of her. “It’s the not knowing that’s the worst,” he told her low.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean is it a criminal terrorizing an old woman or a friend trying to satisfy Mrs. Grantley’s desire to connect with the other side? Is it something else? Something—I don’t know.”
“Something supernatural?”
“I don’t think it is,” Grayson muttered as a high-pitched cackle filled the air. It seemed to come from all sides, and it was far, far louder than it should have been.
Severine gasped and Anubis growled.
“What the devil?” Grayson demanded.
“Wh
at the human?” Severine murmured even though her hand was pressed over her chest and her heart was racing.
“Turn off the flashlight,” Grayson told her. “We’ll draw too much attention if they’re just there.”
He slowly opened the door and they realized the hallway was entirely dark. Had the electricity gone out? Severine reached out, searching for a light switch and found it. She flipped it.
Nothing.
She tried again.
Nothing.
She took a deep breath, and placed her hand on Grayson’s. He whispered, “I’ve got one hand on the wall, stay just behind me.”
Severine let him keep her hand, tucked the flashlight in her bag, and put her other hand on Anubis’s collar.
The cold, high-pitched laugh happened again, and Severine clenched her mouth closed to prevent a reaction beyond leaping out of her skin. On the other side of the door to the servants’ staircase, the sound was more otherworldly. Should they chase the sound or pursue the reason behind the lights being out?
She felt her heart in her throat, and her skin was crawling with goosebumps. It was only then that she realized how very cold it was in the hallway.
Grayson took a small step forward, and Anubis huffed once. Severine could feel the tension in the dog’s body. He was a good judge of character, she reminded herself, and he didn’t like whatever was happening.
What was he sensing? How she wished he could speak. He huffed, and she was sure he was telling her something. She considered reaching for her gun, but she didn’t want to accidentally hurt someone in the dark.
Slowly, Severine let go of Grayson to reach out on her own.
“What are you doing?” he whispered.
Rather than holding Anubis back, she let him lead the way. He stepped forward, and she could tell from the pressure of him against her body that he was in a protective mode. He pressed just in front of her, and his form vibrated.
The wail from earlier started again, and he growled low in his throat. It was barely audible, but there was a low gasp. Severine quickly tugged Anubis to the side, moving instinctively away from where she’d been a moment before, and she heard a thump.
Anubis pulled from her grasp, and a very human scream followed. Severine gasped and flipped on her flashlight. The form was a man, dressed all in black, with something over his face that made him entirely unidentifiable, and Anubis had his jaw clenched on a wrist. Severine screamed a moment later when the man swung something towards her dog.
“Here now!” Grayson shouted.
Severine swung her bag, throwing off the aim of the man, as he struck out at Anubis with thick, heavy object. He pulled his leg back to kick Anubis, but before the man’s foot could land on her dog, Grayson dove at the man.
Severine gasped, flailing about on the wall for a light switch, for anything that would prevent this from being two men and her dog fighting in the dark. She felt a light switch and tried it. It was as useless as the first.
The sound of fists landing, grunts, and growls had Severine panicking. What to do? What to do? She finally aimed the flashlight at the struggling men and found that Anubis hadn’t let go of the man’s wrist. The man, however, had dropped the truncheon. Severine kicked it away from the struggling men and squatted to pick it up.
She looked for a chance to strike the fellow, but as she watched, he kicked out hard, sending Grayson grunting out of reach. The man twisted and rose, aiming a fist at Anubis, and she shouted, “Anubis, hier.” Anubis dropped his hold on the man’s wrist. The man fled clutching his wrist, and Grayson pushed himself to his feet to dart after him.
“Grayson!” she called.
He looked back, and she tossed him the truncheon.
“Stay here,” he ordered.
Severine would have rolled her eyes at him, but he was already gone. Instead, she found her way down the hallway until she found a set of double doors. She opened the door and turned the flashlight onto the bed. In the middle of the bed, Theodosia Grantley was huddled with her knees pulled to her chest.
Severine started to speak and then paused when she heard tapping on the window. “Is there a tree outside of there?”
Slowly, Mrs. Grantley shook her head. Her eyes were wide and horrified.
“Is it always like this?”
Mrs. Grantley shook her head again. She wasn't crying, but she also wasn’t making a noise. She was so silent, Severine wondered if the woman was frozen silent in fear.
“There was a man,” Severine told her. “Mr. Thorne is chasing him down. What can you tell me?”
“Was it my husband? His portrait is just there.”
Severine turned her head and flashlight to look at the man, but she was shaking her head before her eyes ever landed on it. “He had something on his face. Would you have expected your husband to have struck out at me with a truncheon without notice?”
The too long pause made Severine wonder just who Mrs. Grantley and her husband were, and what Severine had been pulled into. That thought was immediately followed by the recognition that her own father was the reason these Grantleys were in her life, both dead and alive. Who was her father? What had he been doing? And just where would this pursuit to understand what had happened to him land her and her friends?
Chapter 13
Severine checked the lamp in Mrs. Grantley’s room and found it turned on without a problem. She scowled and then returned to the dark hallway, telling Mrs. Grantley, “Stay here.”
She snorted at herself when she realized she ordered the woman the same way that Grayson Thorne had ordered her. Had he caught the man? Mr. Brand and Lisette were watching the house. Would they be able to help him? She hoped.
An idea occurred to her, and she realized that someone had been making that loud laughing sound from near what was likely the servant’s room. Severine guessed that whoever was making that noise was gone, but she had to wonder if it were the servant or if there were someone else. If so, no one could have slept through that, could they?
Severine rubbed the back of her neck and then slowly tried the hallway light again, using the light of Mrs. Grantley’s bedroom and her flashlight. Nothing. Could it be a blown fuse? Or, she frowned deeply, and turned her gaze to the overhead lights and the lamp on a table. Perhaps the problem was much, much simpler than that. Severine pointed her torch at the lamp and reached out for the bulb, testing it.
She shook her head as she turned the bulb back into its place. As light poured from the lamp into the hallway, joining the light from Mrs. Grantley’s room, Severine felt her worry de-escalate immediately.
She called Anubis and approached the servants’ stair, making her way up where the sound of otherworldly laughter had appeared. Her hand was on Anubis’s collar, and she said to him calmly, “If there’s a ghost, I think we’re both in trouble.”
She didn’t, however, think it was a ghost. Especially a moment later when Severine heard someone scurrying around upstairs. If not a ghost, perhaps another man capable of overpowering her? Perhaps someone who could throw her down the stairs?
“That,” she told her dog, “doesn’t sound much like a ghost.”
She considered charging down the front stairs where Grayson had gone now that she had verified Mrs. Grantley was at least living, if not well. However, she thought that might actually be the coward’s course. She took a deep breath and slowly made her way up the back stairs towards where the noise had come from.
“Anubis, we’re a team, right?” Severine said low, trying to make herself feel better.
He sniffed at her hand and then she heard that scurrying noise again. It sounded almost as if there were something in the walls, and even though she’d felt the very real body of the man earlier, she had her hand pressed over her heart to soothe herself. She wasn’t new to secret passages in walls.
The stairs were dark, and she’d decided to err on the side of not using the flashlight. Instead, she felt her way up each step, hand pressing against the wall. She reached the top
when she went to find her way to the next step and stumbled forward. As she landed, the thud of her knee on the landing caused the scurrying noise to stop.
Severine froze, and she guessed the person behind that noise had done the same. Utter silence pressed down on her, somehow much more difficult to handle than the inexplicable noises. Anubis pressed his nose into her cheek, and she wrapped her arm around his neck by feel, carefully pushing herself up. She crawled forward, accompanied only by the clicking noise of Anubis’s claws against the floor.
She bit her lip and cautiously opened the door to that floor while crouched on her hands and knees. Severine pressed her ear to the ground, hoping to hear whoever was there better. A misstep announced the presence of someone that sounded about ten feet away.
Severine gasped and crawled forward, trying to move silently. A low growl filled the air, and Severine closed her eyes in frustration. The growl went from a warning to a furious, deep throttling sound. Severine trusted Anubis enough to throw herself to the side and he pressed against her as though to protect her with his own body. She felt the rush of someone moving past, and the door opened and slammed after them. Whoever it was had moved past sneaking around, and Severine heard the loud clatter of the person nearly throwing himself down the stairs.
Severine had no idea what Anubis had saved her from, but she had little doubt that he had. She pressed her back against the wall and told him, “You really are my favorite creature.”
He pressed his nose against her cheek as if trying to understand why she was sitting on the floor in the dark hallway. She rubbed his chest in gratitude, and to see if he was still alarmed. He leaned into her affection and she felt there wasn’t a tense muscle in his body, so she slowly pushed herself to her feet.
She hadn’t lost her grip on the flashlight so she turned it on and noticed that this portion of the house was little more than a narrow, dark hallway with small and mismatched doors as though leftovers had been used. Severine moved the flashlight, looking for a light switch, and found it a moment later.