‘I will certainly give that due consideration, Mr Brown, thank you,’ she retorted, just as sharply. ‘But you must know—you mustallknow—that this place is a tomb. A cold, empty place of unhappiness and darkness.’
The thick silence, furtive glances and bowed heads which followed that statement were assent enough for Rebecca.
‘Thornhallow is a beautiful place—or at least with a little effort can be again. This house—all of you—deserve better.’
‘As you say, Mrs Hardwicke, you are the housekeeper,’ the defeated butler said after a moment. ‘And therefore no one here may stop you from doing as you please.’
But that doesn’t mean we agree, nor will we help you, Rebecca thought, as everyone begrudgingly returned to their meals in sullen silence.
‘There is another matter, Mr Brown,’ she said after a long moment. ‘There seem to be keys missing from the set I’ve been left.’
‘Indeed there are not. I check it myself before eachdeparture.’
‘Well, I’m afraid you are mistaken, for I’m missing at least one. To the East Tower,’ Rebecca said, ignoring the shudder which passed through her at the memory of the place. At the memory of the sounds coming from it...
Only the howling wind, she reminded herself, though the glances the others exchanged, and the thick, tense silence which followed, lessened her conviction slightly.
‘The East Tower is closed.’
This time it was Tim who spoke, harshness and pain she would not have expected in his voice. Rebecca frowned.
‘No one is ever to go there.’
‘It’sherplace,’ Lizzie breathed, a hint of fear in her voice.
‘What Tim means is that the tower was closed off by His Lordship’s father,’ Mr Brown said, eyeing the groom warningly. ‘The key was lost then. There is nothing there.’
Doubtful, Rebecca thought, considering their reaction at her mere mention of the place. But, whatever secrets the East Tower held, they could keep. She had bigger battles to fight. No matter what they thought, Rebecca knew what she was meant to do. Why she had come to Thornhallow. It might gain her no friends, it might cost her everything, but she knew she had to try and bring some life back into this house.
After dinner everyone disappeared, shooting Rebecca reproachful glares as they did so. She retired to her rooms and spent the better part of the night making them liveable.
She would not sit by and watch Thornhallow collapse around her.
Not if I have it in my power to save it.
No one else would. Least of all the Disappeared Earl.
I believe hell will freeze over before you return to this place. And I am glad of it.
Chapter Two
Three weeks later, the haunting figure of William Reid, Fifth Earl of Thornhallow, raced along the road leading to the accursed house he’d sworn never to set foot in again. Had anyone been about to witness such an unexpected sight they might have sworn it was in fact his ghost, returning home to keep company with the others of its ilk who dwelled there.
The sun had set nearly four hours ago, but still Liam drove on. Even if the full moon had not shone so brightly, transforming the landscape into something from a dream, he would have known the way. Time and distance had done nothing to diminish his memories of this place. Of this land—hisland.
It felt as if he’d only left yesterday. So familiar were the rise and fall of the dales and fells against the starry expanse before him, so familiar was the fresh, clean scent of heather and wild thyme on the warning icy night wind, that Liam was instantly returned to that fateful night ten years ago, when he had ridden this same road.
Only, then he’d been runningfromThornhallow Hall and all the terrible things that had happened there. From the memory of all that had been taken from him.
Now he was returning to the bedevilled house which he had tried for so long to banish from his thoughts and heart. To the people whom he might have called his own had he not forsaken them as he had forsaken himself. Returning for a while to take up his proper place and responsibilities in the vain hope that he might be free of them. For neither time nor distance had lessened Thornhallow’s hold on him.
Yet hewouldbe free. He swore it to himself now, with every heartbeat and every breath. He would find a way.
During his stay in London this past week he’d told Leonards as much, and the old man had nearly had a fainting fit. Though the shock of having the Disappeared Earl himself waltz into his office without a word of warning one fateful Tuesday afternoon probably hadn’t helped. Liam had felt for the old solicitor, flapping about wordlessly, chalky white, and for a moment he might have believed himself a wraith in truth, had anyone accused him of it.
After three glasses of the cognac Liam had brought as a gift, Leonards had finally regained his composure—only to lose it again as Liam uttered the words he’d been holding in his heart for so long.
‘I do not wish to be Earl. I will not be any longer. Find a way to rid me of the title. Let it go to my cousin or to Beelzebub. I care not. Just free me, Leonards.’
