Tempted by Curiosity

by Angeleke Kaldis

  Thomas smiled down at Charlotte on the bench, “I think that a little walk would do Charlotte some good.”

  He then put his hand out for Charlotte, and she willingly took it, all while looking up at him with dreamy eyes. Charlotte then quickly looked over to Marcella and smiled lightly as she disappeared into the maze with Lord Thomas by her side.

  Marcella looked at Alexander and caught him grinning at her again, “What is so amusing my lord?”

  He lightly shrugged, “Well to be frank, you intrigue me my lady.”

  Alexander then offered his arm once again, but this time Marcella took his hand instead. At first he was taken aback by the sudden intimacy, but then he eagerly clasped her hand back with his.

  They walked hand-in-hand out of sight of the back terrace and halfway into the garden maze. They were surprised to see the Marquess of Lyon running towards them seconds later.

  As the Marquess reached them he said, “I found them safely arguing, but when I went to interject they then both turned on me. I’m in desperate need of a drink right now. I’m going back into the house.”

  Alexander and Marcella looked at one another, trying their best not to laugh as the Marquess waved goodbye to them.

  “Come Marcella, the faster we find our friends in here the better. This place can become a bit puzzling.”

  Marcella smirked and all-knowingly said, “Well, it’s a maze my dear Alexander.”

  “I love it when you use endearments with my name attached to them.” He said.

  “You do, don’t you? My dearest love, my darling Alexander.” Marcella replied flirtatiously.

  He purred, “I do, my dearest Marcella.”

  Marcella’s chest was afire, she had never flirted so fiercely before. She needed to somehow change the subject quickly before she started mumbling nonsense to him.

  She cleared her throat, “Is there some sort of location that each path leads to?”

  He hummed near her throat, “Yes. The maze was built around a large fountain that has ancient gods circling around at the center of it. It’s a dramatic design for my taste, but if you’d like to see it we could find our way there.”

  “I would like to see it, with you.”

  Alexander stopped walking then. He could see the look of desire in her eyes. In fact, she looked absolutely mystified by him right now.

  He lightly grabbed both of her gloved hands in his and leaned forward to whisper, “You are beyond beautiful tonight Marcella, and I just wanted to let you know that I’m going to kiss you right now.”

  His voice caused her body to quake. There was no one close by or in sight. This was the perfect moment for a kiss. After all, the best kisses were had in the dark.

  Marcella breathed out, “Yes, kiss me.”

  He gently put his forehead to hers, closing her eyes Marcella could feel her whole body growing warm. He nudged her nose with his in a playful manner, and she laughed at the affection he was presenting to her.

  This kiss could change their lives forever. Before she knew it, his lips pressed over hers with such a tender nature that Marcella swore she was entering heaven on his desirably soft yet lusciously plump lips.

  Marcella kissed him back with hunger, causing something inside of Alexander to catch fire. He pressed his lips more fervently to hers, and then he let his hands leisurely wander all over her body inch by inch.

  Alexander then slowly let his hands travel down to her perfectly round bottom, pulling her closer to his ever-growing desire. She gasped with surprise as she came in contact with his member, but she liked it immensely. She trusted him with her body.

  Feeling his whole physique pressed against hers just felt so right to her, neither of them needed to crane their necks too much to kiss one-another. They were the perfect height for each other.

  Marcella put her arms cozily around Alexander’s neck and kissed him back with her own passionate strength. Her fingers played with the slight curls at his neck, making him hum in her mouth. She then pulled his face closer to hers and kissed him as if he was the oxygen that she needed in order to breathe.

  His illustrious lips left hers, and she whimpered at the lose of them, but then he began to press kisses down her neck, then across her collarbone, and eventually lower.

  Much lower.

  Marcella gasped at his sensual task, but then giggled as she felt his smirk on her chest. Alexander went to pull her dress off her shoulders when they both heard a man piercingly scream in the maze.

  Their eyes shot open, and they looked at each other as they whispered in unison, “What was that?”

  They let go of each other slowly, fear began to pulsate ferociously in the air.

  Alexander held Marcella close to his side and motioned for her to be quite with a single finger to his lips.

  She silently mouthed, “Okay.”

  They were walking at a very slow pace, but then the screaming began getting louder.

  Which meant that they were getting closer to the man, to the man’s screaming, and to the utter unknown. They were sneaking around the maze on tiptoes, heading towards possible danger.

  They would stand still, then they would wait for the screams to sound again, and as the sounded again they followed in the exact direction of the next screams.

  Those last screams led them to the Stanton’s garden fountain. A heavy breeze engulfed them with a buzzing-energy that took over. Something didn’t feel right.

  Alexander pulled them both behind a large tree and out of sight. Marcella looked out into the night and saw four men hunched over Lord Graves’s body by the fountain.

  Marcella’s first-reaction was to lunge forward to help him, but Alexander held her safely back. The four men were clad in all black, with hoods covering their heads. She then looked further and saw that there were bloodied knives in their hands.

  Lord Graves made eye contact with one of the men and yelled at him with his last breaths, “You! You did this, to me?”

  The pain in his voice was excruciating, tears began to form in Marcella’s eyes. She wondered who had betrayed Lord Graves in such a heinous fashion.

  Marcella began to panic, her breathing began to exhilarate, thankfully Alexander put a hand over her mouth to make sure that she wouldn’t make a sound. She held onto his hand, and tried to breathe through his fingers. Thank goodness he was here.

  One of the black-hooded men pushed Graves’s body into the fountain, then he began talking to the other three men. There was some nodding, and then they all ran off into four different maze directions.

  One of the men ran past Alexander and Marcella, they were lucky that he didn’t see them, or who knows what might’ve ensued.

  Alexander waited awhile before stepping out of their hiding spot behind the tree. He looked around them, and then with caution brought Marcella along with him. He went to check on Archie, but he made sure to keep Marcella behind him to protect her from the inevitable discovery.

  As Alexander made his way to the fountain, his friends all emerged from the other three maze directions that the hooded-men had ran in.

  Alexander turned around to Marcella and seriously said, “Wait here, and keep any eye out.”

  Marcella nodded with frightened eyes.

  Alexander, Christopher, Thomas, and Vincent ventured closer to the fountain.

  They looked in and saw Archie’s slightly submerged lifeless body staring at them in the water. Blood began seeping through his clothing, causing the water around him to turn a muddy-red.

  Marcella caught sight of her friends creeping towards the fountain with equally horrified looks on their faces. They’d just witnessed a murder.

  Louisa walked over to see the body, and then whispered to everyone around her, “What are we all going to do now?”

  Emilia whispered back, “We’re all going to look like criminals. We cannot say a word about this to anyone, or we’ll all be ruined.”

  Thomas shook his head in bewilderment, “Who’d want him dead?”
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br />   Christopher leaned forward to close Archie’s eyes, “May his soul rest in peace.”

  Just before Christopher could stand-up, Archie’s body jerked for the last time, and caused water to splash onto Louisa’s gown.

  Louisa began to hyperventilate, as there was now a large bloodstain forming on her dress. Marcella felt ill at the sight of it.

  She then breathed out her words slowly, “If anyone sees us come out of here, with Louisa’s bloodstained-gown too, then we’re all done for.”

  Louisa nodded, “His body has multiple stab wounds, and there are enough of us to wrongfully blame for this act of pure evil. We’re all doomed.”

  Alexander rubbed Marcella’s back as he said, “The ladies are right. There are four murderers out there. The only way to stay safe is if we stick together. We wouldn’t want those black-hoods catching us coming out of this garden maze right after them.”

  They all agreed with Alexander, they had to stick together, or else they’d all be ruined, or worse.

  Dead.

  The Earl looked around and said with an exact tone, “We need to pair up with the ladies as we walk out of here, make sure that they are safe, no matter what. We men are expendable, they are not.”

  The Earl then took Emilia extremely close to his side, and she gladly settled up next to him. Before they started to walk away, Emilia took one good look at Lord Graves’s face. She trembled, looked away, and then the Earl kissed her forehead.

  Marcella noticed the intimacy between them, but she was far too deep in her own feelings to make anything out of it. They all followed the Earl of Sweeting’s lead out of the maze. As they made it out, they saw no one out on the terrace.

  They’d gotten lucky with that part.

  “We came out from that door over there earlier with the decanter of whisky. The terrace doors must surely still be opened.”

  Thomas motioned towards an open door, and everyone agreed with him. They then followed Lord Thomas into Lord Stanton’s office. Thomas quickly ushered everyone in.

  He looked up, and then down, the terrace before locking the door with everyone safely in the room.

  Emilia went to the curtains and began unhooking them at rapid speed, the room was engulfed into total darkness.

  Alexander then walked over to the hallway door and locked it from the inside.

  Vincent then looked through Lord Stanton’s desk and found a box of matches. He took a match across the mantle and it sparked alive. He then lit the candelabra close to the fireplace with that same match.

  Emilia then took a candle from the candelabra and lit another candelabra located in the center of the room. Emilia and Vincent looked at each other briefly and smiled as the room glowed by candlelight.

  Alexander looked around the room at his friends and said uniformly, “One of us has to go out there and get the twins, as well as Gabriel. If anyone asks them where we are, and they say the terrace, then they could give us away unknowingly.”

  Charlotte and Thomas both offered to go retrieve the three men.

  “I’ll get my brothers and Thomas will grab Gabriel. No one will question if the two of us are together.” Charlotte gently said.

  Alexander nodded and then went to unlock the door, “Be quick, we don’t have all night. Act as normal as possible.”

  They both nodded, and than hurried towards the ballroom down the hallway.

  Quick movement from inside the room caught Marcella’s eye. She watched as Emilia searched the wine cart by the desk. She must’ve seen one that she liked because she picked it out, and popped it open with her mouth like it was nothing.

  Emilia then took a sip of it, nodded to herself with delight, and then walked on over to Louisa. She then poured the deep red wine right over the bloodstain on Louisa’s ball gown. Emilia smiled as she made sure to spread the wine all over the bloodstain with some of the hem on Louisa’s gown.

  It was working quite well actually.

  Marcella sat down and then turned her head to see Alexander leaning against the chair that she had just sat in. She looked up at him and he had a look of annoyance in his eyes. He shook his head, then looked into the fire.

  What else could he be thinking about?

  Marcella leaned forward in her chair and took his hands in hers as she said to him, “You know what I admire most about you?”

  He shifted his gaze from the fire to look at her instead, “What?”

  She smiled up at him and said, “Your strength. It reminds me of someone I know.”

  He asked with a slight smirk, “Who?”

  She grinned back, “Me.”

  He chuckled and squeezed her hands, “You know what I admire about you?”

  Marcella gave him a questioning look, “What?”

  Alexander reached for a wisp of her hair that had come loose from her chignon, “This, the way the fire brings you to life right before my very own eyes. I am completely besotted with you.”

  There was a knock at the door and Alexander motioned to Vincent to get it.

  The door was unlocked and then opened slowly. Marcella saw Charlotte’s small head creep in at first, and than she pushed it open.

  Thomas came into the room with Gabriel, and behind them were the twins, along with Lady Rachel.

  The second Louisa saw her sister all the color from her face drained away. Thomas safely locked the door behind them, and gestured for everyone to gather around quickly. Marcella decided that she’d ought to be the one to tell the story, after all she was going at telling stories.

  She took a deep breath and started with a low voice, “The ladies and I followed Lord Graves out to the garden so that we could return his handkerchief. We didn’t find him, but we did run into the gentlemen. After some lively conversation, we all ended up going into the maze in four different directions. A man was heard screaming, so we all followed the commotion and witnessed a horrific scene. Four men, dressed in black hoods, had stabbed Lord Graves multiple times. His body was then pushed into the fountain, and left for dead. After the murderers ran away, we went to check on the body and…”

  Marcella’s eyes began to water as she looked at Louisa’s gown. Reliving the scene over in her mind was hard enough, but retelling it to others was another hardship altogether. She couldn’t continue, someone had to take over from there.

  Emilia cleared her throat, “Archie’s dead. Christopher went to close his eyelids out of respect, and that’s when Archie’s body jerked, causing the fountain water to splash out onto Louisa’s gown. I decided to pour red-wine over the bloodstain in hopes that the colors of the wine and the blood would infuse together. They have, for now, but that gown needs to be destroyed.”

  She was right, the ball gown had to be ripped apart and burnt out of existence.

  Rachel pulled away from Robert’s side and walked over to Louisa. She smoothed down her sister’s hair affectionately.

  Rachel looked down at her sister’s dress, and then over to Emilia, “Thank you Emilia, your quick thinking was a very smart move on your part. Why would someone want Archibald dead?”

  Christopher added, “We don’t know. His younger brother was always jealous of him, but he’s supposedly in France. I don’t think Ralph would commit fratricide.”

  Vincent replied, “You never know Chris, people change for the worse when money’s involved.”

  Alexander added, “Ralph was always a terrible menace. Archie sent him off to the continent, but what if he never actually left England?”

  Charlotte looked as if she was in deep thought and than she abruptly jumped up from her spot, “Oh no.”

  Rachel asked calmly, “What is it?”

  Andrew walked up to his sister, “Lottie, what’s wrong?”

  Charlotte whispered, “If I recall correctly, Archibald only danced with four women tonight. It was quite a spectacle too. He danced the quadrille with three of us, and then danced his final waltz with Louisa. That means something.”

  Louisa turned a ghastly gray. E
milia put both of her hands over her eyes, and began to carp to herself. Marcella stood up from her chair and turned to look at Alexander right in his eyes.

  “Whoever is behind all of this is going to come after all of us next. We’re going to be blackmailed, I just know it Alexander.”

  Alexander shook his head, “Don’t think that way Marcella, maybe they didn’t see Archie dance with you girls tonight.”

  Vincent shook his head in disagreement, “She’s right Alex. Think about it, the men who murdered Archie must have been following him all evening. They must have followed him outside, where they definitely saw him talking to us, and then when he left us to go into the maze they followed suit by entering the maze from other directions. This was planned.”

  Emilia looked up at him with real fright, and then she looked over to Marcella, “What are we going to do? They’re going to kill us. I cannot die, I have someone who depends on me.”

  Gabriel walked over to his sister and put her under his arm so that she could hold onto him and try to breathe evenly. Marcella looked up at all the people around her.

  She understood, now more than before, that they were all in this together. They had no choice in the matter now. They had to trust one another about everything, or else they were all done for it.

  Rachel rubbed her temples with her forefingers and then spoke, “Alright, from what I’ve gathered there are four murderers on the run tonight. You all need to think hard about this. Was there anything that stood out to you? Someone’s hair color perhaps, or even the design of a jacket?”

  Louisa and Christopher looked at one another, then the latter spoke, “Louisa and I saw light hair creeping out of the black-hood that ran past us. He most likely has blond hair. He’s also rather short for a man. It could be Ralph, Vincent might be right.”

  Emilia looked up from under her brother’s arm and looked over at Vincent. He then walked over to her as if she had beckoned him to her side.

  Vincent then said, “The man who ran by us was rather tall, about my height, but not taller than Westbrook.”

  Emilia then added, “He also had a limp, but unfortunately I cannot remember which leg it was. I wish I could remember.”