The Blackwood Curse: A Night Shades Novel, page 18
As I got my bearings, I began to catch my breath. Then it dawned on me that my aunt’s hallway was not in the suffocating, monochrome grey of Wax’s house. I was about to relax in relief when I remembered the ghost, hovering a little way off, watching me. ‘This house is frozen in time. Nothing here changes,’ she said, wistfully. Her voice rang like wind chimes on the air, up to the vaulted ceiling. It made me wonder if she was on this plane at all.
‘Who are you?’ I said eventually. I guessed if she was going to do me harm, she would have done it by then. I frowned at the blind stupidity that had made me follow her like that. I guessed panic would do that to a person.
‘Lucinda Trevelyan, of the Devonshire Trevelyans,’ she said and bobbed a curtsey.
I realised that her silence meant she was waiting for a response. ‘Oh … Rebecca Whitely,’ I said, with a little bow of my head and not even attempting a curtsey.
She nodded knowingly. ‘Wise. To change one’s name to the furthest possible from Blackwood.’
It startled me. It hadn’t occurred to me that my mother may have consciously thought that. I wondered for the first time how much my parents knew. ‘You’re not a Blackwood,’ I said. It explained why she wasn’t in the line-up of portraits.
She pointed behind me at the secret passage door. ‘It should hold him at bay for a while. There is a charm barrier here that a Waxley-Black may not pass.’
My mind whirled with the information I knew, trying to test what she was saying, but she was right. The angry one never came out of the secret passages. Then my mind shot to the round house. Maybe the ban existed when they were alive and was why they met in there. ‘Who?’ I said. My blood rushing in fear at the terrifying thing I’d only just escaped. ‘Who is chasing us?’
‘Jedediah,’ she said, simply. As if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She began to glide her way down the hallway.
I followed her, in shock, forgetting what she was in my eager search for information. From what I’d seen, he didn’t look human at all. None of it tallied with what I thought I already knew. ‘But I thought he and Ainsley were still alive?’ It was ridiculous, of course. But after everything Wax’s uncle had explained, it certainly pointed to that.
She led me into my aunt’s drawing room. The one where we’d met on my first day. She would be long tucked up in bed. The room was as I remembered it, except the fire had burned itself out.
She sat in my aunt’s armchair and I sat stiffly in the other. I was dead and sitting with a ghost. I guess my fear was subsiding because of the sheer absurdity of the situation. She wasn’t going to hurt me, so I may as well get some information. ‘Can you tell me why Jedediah is out to get me?’
She began to pour the remnants of the tea left in my aunt’s flask. ‘It’s barely warm, but better than nothing, dear.’ She passed me a cup. ‘You’re American, aren’t you? I had so wished to travel to that part of the world.’
I took the cup, a little exasperated. ‘Yes, I am … Are you going to tell me what’s going on, please? I need to get back to my friends.’
She nodded and let out a deep sigh, as if what she had to say was inevitable. ‘Ah yes, the poor Waxley-Black boy, ill-used for a very long time. And so the cycle begins again.’
I put my cup down roughly, spilling the tea over the sides and onto the small table. ‘What cycle?’ I was sick of hearing riddles and half-truths from everyone. As I went to get up, she put out a hand to stop and gave me a look that said she’d stall no longer.
‘You feel so real,’ she said on a breath.
I sat back down and stared at her, waiting, only taking my eyes from her at a noise I thought I heard from the hallway. If it was the angry ghost of Jed, it wasn’t going to give up that easily. ‘Do you know why they trapped me?’ I said, focusing on her again.
She nodded sadly and looked at her fingers in her lap. ‘I’m afraid I do. It’s to live again and for what is in the mine – The Elixir of Life.’
My mind went into freefall. Back to Wax’s uncle’s comment at dinner: Infinitely more priceless than precious metal. The mine. Of course. We knew there had to be more to it.
Then she looked directly at me and shook her head. ‘I swear, I had no idea at first. No one did. It had to be someone with a foot in both worlds and a Blackwood. You were Heaven-sent, to them.’
Her eyes went to the middle distance, so I held back my questions in the hope she’d continue on with her ramble of memories and tell me something useful.
‘I came here as a young girl, betrothed to Jedediah Waxley-Black. He was set to inherit the estate. I was a Blackwood cousin with a good dowry and he would become a viscount one day. It was a good marriage for a girl of my standing.’ She sounded regretful.
‘And Jed was the oldest?’ I said, needing to clarify that to make sense of it all.
‘Yes … by one year. Ainsley, as second son, had to make his own fortune.’
I was more confused by the minute. She was speaking with affection for Jed. Another clang from behind me was a timely reminder of the terrifying reaper who’d almost had me. He seemed the furthest thing from the gentleman Lucinda was describing.
‘I came here for one idyllic summer on my betrothal. The house was alive and beautiful then. There were flowers and trees and the master of the house entertained. I was young, full of hope and in love. Jed was a handsome, serious, boy. His younger brother was stronger and more confident than he was. Of course, that was far easier for the one who didn’t have the weight of responsibility.’
I saw immediately, the picture she was painting. I’d seen it in the weird pang of nostalgia I’d felt when I’d first glimpsed the round house. It was as though I was back there again …
* * *
‘What are you doing in here?’
I was sitting on the love seat in the orangery and the Victorian man in front of me was devastatingly handsome. His dark eyes flashed and he angrily swept a hand up through the dark curls framing his face. It was Jedediah. The family resemblance was uncanny. He looked so much like Ollie.
‘But you’ve ignored me all afternoon. I just thought …’
I looked around me and guessed immediately that I was invisible and it was Lucinda Jed saw sitting there. How lovely she looked alive, with her peaches and cream skin and blond curls, only just contained in the straw bonnet she wore.
Then he surprised me by coming closer and falling to one knee in front of her. ‘Please believe me when I say it is not safe for you here. Allow me to do what I need to do and then I promise you, all will be clear.’
* * *
It was a bewildering vision and, before I could question it too deeply, I was back in the room. Lucinda was still talking about what a good man Jedediah was.
‘I remember his portrait,’ I said, recalling the gloomy faces on Wax’s staircase. It seemed nothing like the earnest passion I’d seen in the memory of Jedediah and even harder to make the leap to the thing that lurked in the halls.
My eyes continually strayed to the doorknob, expecting it to turn, but all I could hear was a curious scraping of wood against a bare floor. My breathing went shallow and I looked at Lucinda to gauge her reaction; she seemed completely unaffected.
‘Jed was my great love,’ she was saying, wistfully.
I sat staring at her, trying to work it all out. She had come to marry the eldest son, Jed, and evidently fallen for him, so everything should have worked out. But her demeanour suggested otherwise. ‘Did he not love you?’ My heart began to sink as I was already guessing the answer to that. ‘And Ainsley, who did he love?’ I said, cautiously.
‘Lila,’ she said, simply, on an exhale. As if there was nothing more inevitable in the world. ‘She ensnared them both.’ Her face darkened. ‘Nothing but a jumped-up lady’s maid. A brat sired by the lord of this house, with a servant, and she had both Waxley-Black boys eating out of the palm of her hand like a pair of sparrows.’
I compared what she said with what I already knew. The rumours and the legend were starting to make sense.
‘Ainsley was earmarked for the military as a second son and greatly resented that his brother got everything by simple timing of birth.’
‘And Jed?’ I said, looking at the door again; the noises were getting closer.
‘He was a kind and sensitive soul who spoke of books and poetry. He was devoted to his brother, but there were never two brothers born more poles apart.’
A bang against a wall made me jump.
She didn’t appear to hear and took on a far-off look again. ‘His father envisioned a strong, lusty son to take over the estate.’
‘What happened?’
‘When Jed’s affection for Lila came to light, my father offered to put up the capital to open the mine. It was offered with one condition; that it was given to the new couple as a wedding present if he married me without any scandal. Jed’s father seized the opportunity to pay his debts. But the condition came with a strict caveat; that Jed cease all connection with Lila, otherwise my father would see to it that all his loans were called in, driving the family into financial ruin.
‘I’m not sure what deliberations were made, but Jed accepted. He even offered Ainsley a percentage feeling keenly, as he always did, the inequality of their station. However, soon after, Lord Waxley-Black conveniently became bedridden and then Lila saw to all our futures, one by one.’
I watched as Lucinda gripped the arms of her chair to contain her anger. She’d been wronged. They all had. It seemed everyone had fallen prey to Lila’s ambitions. ‘So, what happened? All the while I spoke, I felt the angry spirit of Jedediah was getting closer by the minute. ‘What happened with the mine?’ There was a loud beating on the door. I moved to the edge of my seat, anxious to move on. I knew we didn’t have much time. ‘How can Jed and Ainsley still be alive?’ As I said the ridiculous words, I wanted to run. Jed was now in the hall and trying to get into the room.
‘They are not alive,’ she said, looking me in the eye. ‘And neither do they rest in peace.’
I was on my feet. Pleading with my eyes for us to move and looking at the door as splinters flew out from the centre of it. I could barely speak as I forced out the words, ‘So Wax’s uncle … isn’t Ainsley?’ I said, breathlessly. I had to find out. This may be the only opportunity I got. My thoughts were all over the place, wanting to run and needing to find out where that left Wax.
‘In body, no. He’s but a namesake. But the spirit of Ainsley is strong and attempts to possess him at every opportunity.’
Then, just as a hole smashed through the door, the answer hit me. ‘The ghost of Ainsley wants to become him.’
Lucinda nodded solemnly. ‘To win Lila and get the mine. Brother is still very much against brother.’
Chapter 19
Just when I thought we’d surely have to run, everything seemed to die down and go quiet. I sunk stiffly back down into my chair, every sinew in my body on high alert. My head hurt and I had no spit to swallow.
‘Do not fear. Jed is naught but anger and bluster,’ she said, dismissing everything with wave of her hand. Then her face took on a faraway look. ‘Lila spelled this house to ward off Waxley-Blacks many years ago, but Jed was always nothing but sweet and attentive to me. And yet Lila beguiled both Jed and Ainsley.’ Her face darkened as the anger built inside her again. ‘As she did any man she came into contact with.’
Her anger seemed to ebb and flow like the tide and she calmed down again. I could barely keep up with her. ‘However, not every man came with a title and a mine containing the waters of youth,’ Lucinda said, her look blackening again. ‘Jed would leave notes here, in the orangery, where she would find them and they would meet in secret.’
‘That was before you were married though, right? Jed was free.’
She conceded with a nod of her head. ‘When I look back, I wonder whether it was why Jed’s father sought our marriage arrangement in the first place. I came as a young, naive, girl oblivious to what was going on here. Instead of breaking off, they continued to meet in secret.
Intrigued, and a little more confident that Jed was not going to burst into the room, I nodded, eager for her to continue her story. ‘And you found out and intercepted the notes?’
‘When I could … they became so clever, you see,’ she said, totally immersed in her memories. ‘I even approached Ainsley and he tried talking some sense into him. I thought he was so noble.’ Then she looked directly at me with such a murderous look that it made me move back in my chair. ‘Until I discovered that he was in love with her himself.’
‘What happened?’ I said, my heart pumping in anticipation for the answer.
She averted her eyes as if she was ashamed of what she was about to say. ‘I engineered it so that Jed came upon them. It was the only way either of them would listen.’
‘So Jed killed Ainsley,’ I said to myself.
‘No. No one died. Not then. They argued, of course, and Jed saw her for what she really was: an enchantress. A witch who’d seduced them both and that all she really wanted was his title and what was hidden deep within the mine. She was turning the brothers against each other, making Ainsley believe, as his business partner and heir, that the title and the mine could be his.’
‘Did Jed know about the Elixir of Life?’ I asked.
She shook her head. ‘At least I don’t think so. I mean, he knew there wasn’t any silver in the mine, only tin.’
‘What happened to everyone?’ With them all still walking these corridors, I knew it couldn’t have ended well.
‘Lila and Ainsley began to spend a lot more time together now they were out in the open. With Jed out of the question, she threw in her lot with Ainsley. She had her eye firmly set on the prize and would get it one way or another. She began teaching him her witchcraft for something they were cooking up together. Jed still had a great regard for his brother and tried to warn him, over and over, but Ainsley ignored him, accusing him of jealousy and they continued on with their so-called science experiments.
‘Science experiments?’ I repeated, my mind going straight to the cellar in Wax’s house.
‘That’s what Ainsley called them. But I wasn’t fooled. They were meddling in the black arts. Later it became clear that they were looking for a way to cheat death. Lila wanted to remain young for ever and Ainsley was her unwitting fool who would help her achieve it. Their father would have put a stop to it, but he remained on his sick bed, and so Ainsley went on unchecked.’
It reminded me frighteningly of the parallels with Wax, the cellar and what was going on there now.
‘One night, I overheard them talking. She was trying to convince Ainsley to marry her and kill Jed so everything could be theirs. I told Jed and, thankfully, because of what he already he knew, he believed me. And so he played along, but came earlier than the appointed time. The maid had just set her bath and when he came upon her, she was there, defiant and unafraid. He said to me even then he faltered, and she almost won him around. But for the good of all concerned and the heavy cost to his soul, he held her beneath the water and killed her.’
I closed my eyes. The image, all too vivid in my mind. I’d dreamed it a hundred times – the kiss in the bath – the intensity. Pushing her under the waterline until she had nowhere left to breathe. It left me gasping, just thinking of it. Then it didn’t make sense. ‘But if she died, how did she end up here?’
Lucinda was already shaking her head. ‘The house was already hexed with her own insurance policy. Instead of dying, her spirit came here. Then, from that moment, the Blackwood curse began. Blackwoods and Waxley-Blacks, drawn together in every generation, until the one came that would help to set her free.’
‘Me,’ I whispered. I still didn’t understand what made me special.
‘Jed was inconsolable after that. His brother was totally changed to him. His father died and Jed and I married quietly in a small chapel. We eventually had two children. Two boys,’ she said, wistfully.
‘Wait. I thought that you and Jed must have been …’ I left off the murdered part. I naturally assumed because they were here that it meant they’d met a violent end.
‘Jed found out the real reason Ainsley and Lila were so interested in the mine and he became determined that Ainsley should have no part of it. He began by blowing up the tunnels and encouraged the rumours of the Blackwood curse. I don’t think he ever knew about the contact Ainsley had with Lila through the mirrors while he lived and how they plotted to be together again.’
Now it made sense. Wax’s uncle had continued Ainsley’s mission to get into the mine. Lila had helped him design the spell that made the Shades come, until they finally found and trapped me: the last in the Blackwood line. Wax’s psychic gift had been perfect to help them. ‘But why now. Why me?’ I asked, as a groan and something scraped across the floor in the hallway. The malevolent spirit of Jedediah was on the move again and our time was running out. Even Lucinda became aware this time and was checking over her shoulder at the door. I hoped Lila’s protection spell, or whatever it was, held him out.
‘They needed a Blackwood with a foot in both worlds. One neither alive nor dead, to act as a bridge for her to cross and take her place. They waited over a hundred years. Have you any idea how rare that makes you?’
I didn’t, but there it was at last; the reason for it all. Lila was trapped and continued to use a Waxley-Black to get what she wanted. Except now she had Wax in her sights and I wasn’t going to allow that to happen.
It appeared that it was a lot easier to trap someone behind the mirrors than get them out. The real spell was in order for Lila to escape – to live again in the flesh. And what was in the mine must somehow be for Ainsley – the original one.
A much louder bang made us both jump and turn our heads at the same time.
