The Grey Dawn

by Stacey DeMichael

  “They were dark times, but when Lord Vortimer married again to Lady Elsa Graham, all was thought to be well again, and at first, it was, until the accidents began. At first, we all supposed it was bad luck, happenchance. A horse threw a shoe. A bucket accidently fell from a window above. A stair broke. A dog got loose, but soon, we realized that his second wife was cursed as well. She died after giving birth to Lord Valen, and her luck fell on him.

  “Lord Valen’s favorite dog died, his beloved horse next, a hammer fell in the barn near braining the young lord himself, sickness came and went with unusual frequency, and finally the fire which killed his father Lord Vortimer and left Valen the monster that he is. The evil has spread to us all, and now, surely, to you as well. Servants die. Fields fail. Trees decay. The curse will live until we are all dead, every last one, and since you are here, you are cursed as well.

  “He is quite mad, you know, Lord Valen. He has grown more erratic as he has matured. You have seen the results of his madness this very morning. You would do better not draw his attention to you. Things he loved died, and now he loves nothing. Those who have shown him kindness have perished gruesomely, and those who have defied him have died as well. Do as you’re told. Do it quietly. Do it quickly. Do nothing that draws attention to yourself. You will live longer this way.”

  With those words, the foul butler departed the room. Ellalee quaked as she heard the key turn in the lock and the bolt snap. Liver longer. The words echoed in her mind. Not live. Live longer. Ellalee leaped toward the door, yanking on the door knob and pulling it with all her might. She ran to the window, but three stories up the grey stone walls provided no way out. She banged on the door demanding the door be opened with no success other than to see Daniella begin to stir in her sleep. Finally, Ellalee collapsed against the wall. She prayed to God for His protection of Christopher even as she knew it was already too late. Whatever that malevolent earl intended was well accomplished by now, but she prayed all the same, with all her heart.

  Chapter Eight: Salt and Light

  Ellalee slid down the wall and gave in to tears. Everything that had happened was her fault. Had she never stolen anything, they wouldn’t be here, and Christopher would not be suffering.

  The grey dawn had broken into a grey overcast day and a grey overcast future. She could see the clouds in the distance preparing for a black storm. Her guilt weighed down her heart and her body until she could barely pick up her head. Dare she pray again being the farce that she was? Did the Lord answer the prayers of those cast out of his presence into cursed lands?

  Daniella stirred again, but Ellalee didn’t dare try to waken her. The longer her sister slept, the longer Ellalee had before she had to tell Daniella where Christopher was and what had likely taken place. She didn’t think she could endure any more guilt. What does one do with guilt if one is godless? She felt as if guilt ran through her veins where blood should be. She bowed her head in prayer knowing that she no longer had words, just the moaning and groaning of her spirit.

  Ellalee wasn’t sure how much time had passed before Daniella murmured and rubbed her eyes. Ellalee didn’t move off the floor. Her left foot had fallen asleep, and she wasn’t anxious for the pin and needles feeling. Daniella stretched and sat up, taking in the room and Ellalee’s forlorn figure on the floor as she slid out of bed and rushed to her sister’s side throwing her arms around her. Ellalee cried all over again as Daniella wiped her tears and tried to console her.

  “You don’t understand. The earl hurt Christopher this morning. He drugged us so that we would not interfere, and then he… hurt him.”

  “Do you mean that he struck Christopher as he did you last night?”

  “No, he never hurt me. He put a sleeping draught in my glass and bade me drink, and I did, not knowing what was in the glass. I am a fool. He drugged you last night when he gave you the water.”

  “Is that why my head feels full of wool?”

  Ellalee nodded and proceeded to tell Daniella everything that had happened, ignoring Daniella’s gasps when she told her about threating the valet and the earl with a knife. She finished by repeating the butler’s tale of curses.

  “There is no such thing as a place in all creation that exists without God,” Daniella said. “We are in God’s creation. We remain in God’s hands. God promises that no one can take us from his hand, and that is true. God brought us here.” Daniella moved her hand to Ellalee’s face. “God brought you here, with your clever mind and your indomitable spirit. He does not make mistakes, Ellalee. He will use us to be light. Light is unnecessary in daylight. To truly value a candle, it must be dark, but how it shines in the darkness. You may be certain that wherever Christopher is right now, God knows, and God is with him.”

  Ellalee sniffed. “You believe this? Truly?”

  “Truly,” Daniella gave her a small smile.

  “What do we do now?” Ellalee asked.

  Daniella laughed sadly and shook her head because Ellalee never asked her such a question, and Daniella knew for a fact, that as Ellalee’s younger sister, she’d spend all her years simply following Ellalee’s lead. “We wait because we have no other option. Then I will be obedient as I always have been, and you will get your spirit back and be who God made you to be.”

  “And we will never stop being us, no matter what.” Ellalee smiled softly.

  “No matter what.” Daniella leaned her head on Ellalee’s shoulder. It was the first time in such a long time that they were the sisters they’d been before their father had taken his last fateful journey. Ellalee reached around her sister and hugged her.

  The door banged open without warning startling both sisters who screamed and threw themselves backwards. The Earl de Avium slammed the door shut behind him, holding a horse’s crop in one hand. Ellalee pushed Daniella behind her with her arms wide protecting her younger sister as the Earl de Avium charged at them, whipping the bed furiously with his crop as he approached in a full rage of temper and bile. Daniella screamed each time the crop smacked the bed linens as she cowered behind Ellalee.

  “It is my fault. If you need to hurt anyone, hurt me,” Ellalee clenched her lips and closed her eyes, covering as much of Daniella as she could with her own body. The whip came down again and again, furiously on her bed, and Daniella screamed and moaned in terror with each strike in fear of this mad fit of temper. Ellalee held her breath, waiting for the blows to come for her next, promising herself that she would not give him the privilege of hearing her cry out.

  “Well, done, Miss Daniella. It seems that will suffice.”

  Ellalee cracked her eyes open to see that the Earl had turned a chair around and sat backwards in it.

  “Your screams seem convincing enough, even if your sister lacks the wit to scream when necessary. She is as stubborn as the day is long. How on earth do you manage with her?” Valen growled in a low voice meant only for their ears as though someone lurked outside the door, and perhaps someone did.

  “She is admirable in that way,” Daniella said meekly ducking her head and looking both frightened and confused.

  “Where is Christopher? What have you done with him, you vile man. If you have harmed one hair on his head,” Ellalee snarled.

  “Yes, yes, you shall kill me and my staff. Good grief, you must have a gullet of pure cast iron to have risen before noon. I was assured you would not or I would have tied you to the bed hand and foot,” the earl continued to speak in rough low tones. He ran his hand through his hair which Ellalee was beginning to interpret as severe exasperation and pushed to his feet.

  Valen kneeled next to Daniella and whispered, “Miss Daniella, if asked you shall tell everyone that I beat you; for your safety and your sister’s, even if not asked, pretend as though your back is extremely tender. Do you understand this?” Daniella nodded mutely.

  “You will take over as cook, can you manage this?”

  Daniella again nodded.

  “Good girl.” Then the earl turned his attention to E
llalee, frowned and crossed his arms. “Christopher’s leg is straightened. We are still applying traction and splints, and he will stay where he is for several days. I will take no chances with moving him or disrupting his healing. I never thought I would use one of those ghastly machines, but in this case, it proved to be what was needed. So you listen to me now, you daft girl, if I have to chain you to this bed to insure that he not be moved or bothered, I am not above it.”

  Ellalee’s eyes widened and tears dripped down her cheeks.

  “He is sleeping and will be for some hours, likely until dinner, but maybe longer. His body needs this time to heal, and I will not have him disturbed. I only brought my crop. Will I need my sword to make my point?”

  “Your play on words is disgusting,” Ellalee snapped back, wiping her tears. “May I see him?”

  “When he wakens, you may bring him dinner. It shall not be until late this evening. Gladlia is sitting with him now.”

  “The witch who poisoned me?” Ellalee spat and drew breath to continue.

  “The healer who helped straighten his leg,” Valen hissed back at her. “Lower your voice! Listen to me. You have no doubt by this time heard, if not the history of this place, at least its reputation. Here, the walls’ have ears, and your friends will be few and far between. You better start getting better at recognizing them or you won’t survive long. I’ve buried enough people,” his face twisted, “and parts of people.”

  Ellalee wrapped her arms around her sister, giving the earl a warning look which he could not miss. He cleared his throat and continued in a low resonant voice.

  “Today, you will help your sister in the kitchen, getting it cleaned, putting it back to rights, and creating a list of what food stuffs are needed for hopefully better fair than we’ve recently enjoyed. I assume being literate you can manage a list for my steward, Shefton. Tomorrow, you shall begin work as a maid under Miss Murry. You will take any verbal abuse she metes out with a smile on your face and a yes ma’am on your lips. You will take your meals with Christopher, seeing that he and Gladlia are well fed. You shall not otherwise visit him, touch him, or make any attempt to move him. Do we understand each other?”

  “Yes, sir,” Ellalee replied.

  The Earl de Avium started at her, angling his eyes as if waiting for that one more word that he knew Ellalee wanted to spit into the space between them. When it didn’t come, he nodded. “Make sure you behave as though you have been thoroughly beaten. If you can’t manage it, I will have no qualms about beating you senseless to assure the story sticks. Do not disobey me again. Do we again understand each other?”

  Ellalee frowned and nodded once.

  The earl opened the door to the hallway. “Think well upon this punishment. Winslow will arrive soon to escort you to the kitchen where upon you will adjust your attitudes and do as you are told.” With that, he snapped the door shut.

  Ellalee stared hard at the door and mumbled, “Madness rules here, Daniella. We must be very, very careful.”

  “No, we must be salt and light.”

  Chapter Nine: The Midnight Visitor

  Ellalee and Daniella were escorted to the kitchen under the butler’s careful eye. The sisters began to attack the kitchen with the full fury of broom, brush, and mop until the room began to gleam in its former glory. They made sure to randomly moan, touch their backs tenderly, and give each other sympathetic looks. Ellalee’s suffering was hardly an act, though it wasn’t physical. The longer Winslow stood in the kitchen, the longer it would take to sneak down to check on Christopher.

  No sooner than Winslow left the kitchen and they could hear him ordering around some poor servant in the next room, Ellalee put down her scrub brush and peeked into the corridor. For the moment it was empty. She looked back at Daniella who shook her head emphatically, but her sister said nothing. Ellalee darted out, moving as quickly as her stiff ankle would allow down the corridor and winding around until she found the staircase once more. She felt blessed that there was no one at the bottom of the stairwell nor even guarding the door. She turned the handle as quietly as she could, though the sound of the latch seemed to reverberate in the silence. She glanced around behind her, and seeing no one, pushed her shoulder into the door and slid into the room.

  The stench of mildew and decay was overpowering. The area was lit with iron braziers as well as an assortment off lamps and candles. The flickering flames created ghastly shadows upon the wall which stoked her fear of the dungeon nearly as much as the wicked and brutal devices. This was a dreadful place of great evil, and in utter juxtaposition of this horrible room lay her sweet, gentle, baby brother. Christopher was swaddled in blankets to keep him warm in the damp cold. The old woman, Gladlia, sat with blankets over her lap in a rocker that had been brought down for her comfort.

  “I just wanted to see him, just for a moment,” Ellalee stammered. “I just needed to know that he was alive.”

  “He is,” came a sneering voice behind her. “As I told you, liar, thief, would-be murderess whose word, no surprise, is worthless. How long did you plan on keeping your word? An hour? Three? Until the very moment Winslow stepped away?”

  Ellalee whirled around and gasped, shocked, as the earl stepped out of the shadows behind her. “I just wanted to know if your word was true, that he is alive and sleeping.”

  Gladlia answered behind her, “He is well, child, and every hour that we can keep him still, will allow his leg to knit. How old is he?”

  Ellalee turned around to face the old woman. “Ten. He must be frightened and in pain. He is in this horrific room having been tortured. I only wanted to comfort him, to let him know that his sister and I are here and that we are praying for him.” Her voice cracked, “We are all terrified.”

  Gladlia’s face softened in the lamplight. “He will be growing into a man soon, and by re-breaking the leg now, he will have a chance to have the bone heal properly as he grows. This machine, though meant for ill, became an instrument for good. It puts tension on the leg bone and keeps the bone straight. As a healer, I don’t care for this room any more than you. Your brother needs this time to sleep. Every hour will count. That is why you were asked to stay upstairs until dinner. Keep up your prayers. In the next few days, it remains critical that he stays very, very still and that he does nothing to move his leg.”

  Ellalee nodded, wiped a tear from her cheek, and walked out the door giving the earl a wide berth. She heard behind her Gladlia speaking again as she turned into the cavernous hallway. “Let her go, Valen. She’s done no harm. Look around. This is, no doubt, all very frightening for her. She has a lot of fire that one. Like someone else I know, hmmm?”

  Ellalee returned to the kitchen and whispered what she had learned to Daniella. They held hands and prayed for Christopher before attacking the dirt in the kitchen once more. It took several hours and many buckets of hot water, but by early afternoon the kitchen was scoured clean, and the two sisters turned their attention to the upcoming meal.

  A footman brought in several pheasant that the groundsman had hunted that morning and had been gracious enough to pluck and gut. Daniella prepared the pheasants for cooking, rubbing them with salt and sage, and prepared bread dough which she placed on the hearth to rise. Ellalee found carrots and potatoes in the larder that she pulled out for Daniella as Ellalee continued to detail the contents, making a list of what was needed now and what would soon be needed. Daniella cut the potatoes and carrots into long thin strips to roast with garlic and butter.

  Twice Mistress Murry entered the kitchen that afternoon. The first time she was diverted by a footman to see the butler which proved to be a misunderstanding. The second time, she was sidetracked by Simmons who reported that a cat had gotten inside the manor and had kittens, hiding them in one of upstairs closets. Simmons explained this situation while wringing his hands because the mother had escaped with her kittens, and he could not find them. This bought an entire afternoon free from the opportunity of Mistress Murray spoiling yet
another meal in Avium Manor. Daniella, given the opportunity to be successful, seemed to take joy in the preparations, production, and presentation of her beautiful meal.

  The footmen appeared with great anticipation to take the meal upstairs to the earl, endearing themselves by smiling encouragingly at Daniella as they whisked away trays. As the food was served upstairs, Ellalee and Daniella prepared the servants’ table and food next. It would be the same meal as the earl’s, only more food and less hurrah. The girls took the bowls and dishes to the servants’ dining table.

  Ellalee left as the staff began appearing, to take a tray down to the dungeon to feed Gladlia, herself, and Christopher. She was desperate to see her brother, and her anxiety about his condition quickened her steps despite her stiff ankle.

  Ellalee pushed through the heavy door and set down the tray on a table that had been pulled up next to Christopher. She bit her bottom lip as she took his sleeping form.

  “He hasn’t yet woken but should soon. Why don’t you wait a while?” Gladlia’s voice had a gentle lilt and her brown eyes were warm. Her gray hair was pulled back into a simple bun.

  “Who are you, Miss?” Ellalee asked.

  “Gladlia Lambert. I am a healer from the village though I’ve spent more of my time here than there, and you are the boy’s sister, Ellalee?”

  “Yes. Will Christopher heal from what the earl did to him, Mistress Lambert?

  “Just Gladlia will do. Valen re-broke the leg, and I straightened it. I have given your brother a sleeping draught so that he can sleep and heal. Time will tell if we are successful.” The old healer looked over at Christopher. “I think there is a good chance. It was a tricky business. The bone had to be re-broken in the same place as the original break with enough force to separate the existing bone but not shatter it. That is why the earl could not be interrupted. A moment later and your surprise entrance could have cost your brother severely. As it is, if he doesn’t move and doesn’t do anything that could reinjure the leg or move the break to one side or the other until it knits, he may make a full recovery. Time will tell.”