She turned to encounter Lady Haith, Isabella in her arms.
“I just came from your chambers,” Haith said, eyeing her closely. “How fare thee?”
Simone tried to smile. “Much better. I was looking for you as well, actually.”
Isabella squawked.
“Yea, my darling, your bed lies near,” Haith said to the child with a nuzzle to her cheek. She looked at Simone. “She has eaten her fill and now wishes to sleep, the wee piglet.”
Simone creaked out another smile. It faltered, then fell.
“Lady Haith, where is Didier?”
“’Tis the very reason I sought you,” Haith said gently. “Come,” she urged, gliding past Simone to turn a far corner.
Haith obviously knew Hartmoore’s corridors better than Simone, for she had to nearly run to keep up with the redhead’s strides. They ended up in a corridor adjacent to the wing that housed the lord’s chambers and paused before a door. A resounding crash echoed from within the room, causing Simone to jump.
“Good heavens! Who is in there?”
“Minerva. And Didier, of course.” Haith glanced down at Isabella and smoothed a hand over her downy head. Already the child slept. She looked back to Simone. “Brace yourself.”
Simone followed the woman through the portal with a frown. “Why would—?” Her words fell away when she saw the state of affairs going on in the guest chamber.
The old hag was reclined comfortably on the wide bed, covered with furs. Simone’s breath caught in her chest as the icy air in the chamber reached her lungs. Near the high ceiling, a large circle of normally inanimate objects flew in wild swoops—a candelabra, a pitcher, one leather slipper, the chamber pot—Simone could not see each object clearly in their dizzying flight. She shrieked and fell backward as the chamber pot broke rank and flew toward her, shattering inches from her feet.
Simone looked to Haith, who had casually crossed the chamber and was now depositing Isabella in a low, wooden crib that seemed to glow with ethereal light. “Lady Haith, what is this?”
But before Haith could reply, Didier appeared before Simone’s face. The boy’s apparition, usually very robust and real, was hazy and gray. Didier clutched at his white feather with both hands and looked at Simone with crazed eyes.
“Sister! You must make her leave!” His voice echoed and hitched, and Simone noticed that Didier appeared to be soaking wet, although no water pooled at his—
His legs ended in a shadowy fog some inches above the floor, and Simone became truly terrified.
“My God, Didier!” Simone whirled to face the old woman on the bed. “What are you doing to him?” she demanded.
“Now, lass,” Minerva said, “doona fear. ’Tis quite normal.” She turned her attention back to Didier, and her eyes darkened. “Alright, lad, get back to it, now, and quit scarin’ yer sister.”
She flicked a gnarled hand, and Didier flew backward from Simone with a hellish cry that made Simone’s heart ache and her flesh crawl. Didier now hovered near the ring of objects high in the air, and he seemed to be spitting and growling and gnashing his teeth.
“Stop this immediately!” Simone said in a harsh whisper, striding on shaking legs to the side of the bed. “Can’t you see you’re killing him?”
The old woman cocked one spidery eyebrow.
Simone growled in frustration and turned to Haith, just now crossing the room. “Lady Haith, please!”
“There’s no helping it, Simone,” Haith said. She looked to Minerva. “Fighting it, is he?”
The old woman snorted and rolled her eyes.
Haith took hold of Simone’s elbow and gently steered her away from the bed just as an ornate silver chalice hurtled to the floor where she’d been standing.
Didier wailed, and Simone gasped as a carved armchair near the hearth began to first wobble on its delicate legs and then rise into the air.
Minerva tsk-ed from her lounge on the bed. “Ah-ah, lad. I think not.” She waved a hand at the bobby chair, and it returned to the floor, once more stilled.
Simone struggled to swallow the rather large lump in her throat. “I fail to see how this…this torture is helping him.”
Haith sent her a sad little smile. “I know it is unsettling to witness, but in order for Didier to move on, we must first discover why he remains. Which means he must revisit the moment of his death.”
