Mary seemed to melt like warm butter in his charming hands. He held her against him as she smiled up at him.
“You’re always so sweet to me.”
“I heard about your sister. I’ve arranged condolences to be sent to your family.”
“Thank you.” Mary’s gaze lingered on the baron’s lips before she finally continued. “It’s just that, well, losing my only sister has been devastating, and Mother is worried about my prospects for marriage in Kylemore. I’ve told her I’m not interested in such things, but you know how mothers are.” I heard the lie weaving its way off Mary’s tongue. She was effortless at twisting her mother’s words. “Anyway, she wants to send me to America for a while.”
“America?” The baron’s face twitched. “That sounds lovely.”
“Yes, it does, doesn’t it? It’s just that…well, I would miss you dreadfully.”
“Oh, there’s nothing to miss at Leith. It rains, it snows, the sunshine appears for a minute, and then it’s gone again. It will be just as you left it when you return.”
“Yes,” Mary whispered. “But will you?”
“Me?” The baron backed away.
“Will you be waiting for me?”
“Waiting for what?”
“Well, you said our souls were entwined, that you’d never felt this way with anyone else, not even your—”
“Wife?” The baron bit out.
“Yes, that’s what you said.”
“It is, but the fact remains she is still my wife. She will always be my wife. You didn’t expect that to change, did you?”
Mary’s face fell when the baron’s screwed into a reckless smile. “No, well… I thought maybe if you—”
“You thought I would leave her for you?” His laugh rang through the trees surrounding the graveyard. “So sweet and naïve. Ah, the perfect combination. I hate for you to leave without catching a taste first.” The baron swept a heavy palm along Mary’s waist and yanked her body to his in a display of his sexual intention.
“Get your hands off me, you, you psycho! If I’d known you were such a monster, I wouldn’t have given you the time of day. My mother may clean your toilets, but you’re no better than the dirt under her feet. I should have listened to Lisabet when she said you weren’t good enough for me. She was right. I hate that she was always right.”
The baron raised one eyebrow and then backed away. “I think it best we end this arrangement now. Please tell your mother I thank her for her loyalty and kindness to my family all of these years, but it’s best we terminate her employment. Effective immediately.”
“You…you asshole! I wish we weren’t neighbors. I wish we’d never met. I’m going to go to America and have a better life than you could even imagine!” Mary pushed at the baron, and he laughed. She screamed at him, pushing again before running out of the graveyard and back down the path to the loch.
The baron leaned back against the tall gravestone with the broken angel’s wings and chuckled. I blinked, willing his menacing form to evaporate like ash on the wind. I wasn’t sure what was real and what was imagined, but I needed to leave Leith for a while.
I didn’t know what might happen if I stayed, and I didn’t want to find out.
Fable
“Well, well. Wouldya look at what the cat dragged in?”
“Shuddup,Harris.” I slid onto a barstool and dropped my head on the counter. “I can’t sleep at Leith another night. I think it’s killing me.”
“Is the drama just for effect, or am I meant to take pity on you?”
I sighed, stifled a moan, and then yawned. “I’ll take all of your coffee.”
He nodded, pouring from the stained drip coffee carafe and then passing the mug to me. “Lookin’ for a roommate, aye?Cannysay that I’m surprised. Drafty up on that crag.”
“Drafty doesn’t even begin to cover it. If you told me all of Leith was cursed by that damn witch, I’d believe you. I don’t know if it’s all these legends and fairy tales, but it feels like they’ve gone to my head. Like everything is real—when I pass a stone, I suddenly wonder what kind of energetic imprint is left. I just… I just…” Hot tears formed at my eyelids. “I think I’m going crazy.”
“Aye, madness comes and goes like the tide in these parts.”
