‘Chambers?’
‘Must be. Chambers ran a Hellfire Club there. Allegedly they worshipped the devil, or something older, linked to the house.’
‘Oh, comeon,’ Gabe exclaimed. ‘You have aHellfireClub connection? Alex, why have younevertold us any of this?’ He sounded genuinely outraged. Or maybe just annoyed at being kept out of the loop. She hadn’t told him for this very reason. And she had never planned to come back here.
‘Not one of the famous ones,’ she corrected him. It was unknown compared to Wharton’s or Dashwood’s Hellfire Clubs in the UK. Or the one connected to Montpelier Hill in Dublin. She definitely didn’t want to tell him they’d been child’s play in comparison to everything Chambers was meant to have got up to here. She wasn’t mentioning ritual sacrifice and secret temples dedicated to eldritch gods and whatever else the tale had spiralled into. Beyond Kilfayne people didn’t actually know about that. She did not need Gabe telling the world about the sordid history of her family. ‘Lots of places had Hellfire Clubs in the eighteenth century. It was the college frat house equivalent of the day, Gabe. Overprivileged dickheads who wanted an excuse for excessive partying. You would have fitted right in.’
He was still grumbling but she ignored him. If he kept it up, she’d just put him on mute. Shame it didn’t work in real life.
‘Can I finish?’ Arnold said softly into the strained silence. ‘Chambers’ actions cursed the family.’
‘If they weren’t already cursed,’ Alex muttered.
‘Maybe. But look, the things he did there, the things the family allowed to happen there, all the deaths on their hands, that kind of thing soaks into a place, into the stones and the earth. It didn’t end with his death either. They could have helped people and they did nothing, just feasted and partied on while people died in Kilfayne. And the locals never forgot that. Nor did the land, or so the story says. All the family bar Richard died,accidents and the like, but there’s an implication that Chambers murdered them and covered it up. Children as young as?—’
Enough, Alex thought. She was tired and fed up. Her family tree was filled with terrible people and they were still paying for that. Chambers might have been the worst thing to happen to Wildewood Hall and Kilfayne, but the de Wildes had done nothing to restrain him. Maybe they were worse. Maybe they deserved to be cursed. All the dead daughters, all the miserable lives, all those they had failed, all the shit she was still dealing with. She really needed to wind this call up. It was getting her nowhere. All she needed was equipment. Not more tall tales.
‘Look, guys, I’m not even sure there’s anything really going on.’ Well, that was a lie. Something was definitely going on but there was no way she was going to admit that. Not to them. Not after so long as the non-believer. She would have to get into far too much excruciating detail. Gabe would gloat. She knew that. ‘It’s more…a feeling, okay? And I want to put Nick’s mind at ease.’
‘Oh well,asit’s all aboutNick,’ Gabe drawled.
She was about to tell him where to go but hesitated. Last night could have ended very differently in just a few more minutes had she not regained sanity. And all the things that could have happened…her breath caught in her throat and something warm and wicked pooled in the pit of her stomach.
‘Stop it, Gabe,’ she told him, as irritated with her own wandering thoughts as with him.
She managed to steer the conversation around to Eduardo and the various pieces of tech she would need. She sketched out a floorplan and identified the main areas to cover. The study, obviously, given what had happened there. The bedroom. She didn’t say it was where she was sleeping. And the main hall and grand staircase. That was a start. If they needed more later on, she could revise it. She decided on fixed cameras, EMF metersand a couple of digital recorders she could carry with her. She had her camera equipment with her and the software she would need on her laptop anyway. Keep it simple and above all keep it scientific. At least she wouldn’t have to put up with those bloody spirit boxes which just spewed out random words on demand which Gabe adored. Utter nonsense which occasionally made for spectacular television.
‘I’ll reach out too,’ said Daphne. ‘I know I’m not there, but perhaps my spirits will be able to help. I’ll do everything I can. Send me photos. I can use them as a touchstone to start off.’
‘Thank you,’ Alex said because while she didn’t quite believe herself, Daphne was her friend. She meant well, and sometimes she did subconsciously pick up on things the rest of them missed. Daphne might appear to be nothing more than a loveable flake, but she was clever and intuitive behind the façade. She spotted patterns that other people missed, picked up on emotions and subtext, that was all. Alex just figured she didn’t realise what she was doing. So she thought ghosts had told her. Alex had always dismissed it outright, but…well, now it was starting to take on a different hue, wasn’t it?
‘I’ll get it all shipped to you asap,’ Eduardo told her, interrupting her strained logic as she tried to explain everything that happened to her rationally. Again. ‘I can find a local supplier, I’m sure. But Alex, you’ll be careful, won’t you? We don’t investigate alone, remember? That’s not just for correlation of the experience. There are safety concerns too. You’re in an old building. You said parts of it are structurally unsound.’
She gave him a smile. She could always rely on Ed. ‘I’ll be careful, I promise. And Nick’s here too.’
Gabe grumbled. She ignored him. Daphne was looking decidedly smug. Alex ignored that too. Just as well they were onthe other side of the Atlantic. Otherwise, she might be tempted to strangle the two of them.
‘Send me your findings,’ Eduardo told her. ‘Any recordings, photos and such like. I’ll run them through my system here as well to double check.’
‘That’s great, thanks.’
‘There’s something else,’ Arnold said. He sounded a little less sure of himself now, which was unusual. ‘Those men that vanished in the woods. In the 1920s? Look, it’s probably just a coincidence, but…’ He chewed on his lower lip. ‘One of them was called Nicholas Walker.’
Alex pulled back, staring. It had to be a coincidence. But it was a weird one.
‘Okay,’ she murmured. ‘Well, I don’t think he’s over a hundred years old, Arnold. If he is, he’s remarkably well preserved.’ She expected a laugh, but none came.
There was a long pause, and no one made eye contact with her. Gabe cleared his throat awkwardly. Damn, she probably could have put it better than that.
‘I just thought…’ Arnold stalled and tried again. ‘I thought I should mention it, that’s all. I looked at the family. I thought your Nick Walker might be a descendent.’
There was another awkward silence. ‘He’s notmyNick Walker,’ Alex said numbly.
But maybe she wanted him to be. And that unsettled her more than she could say. She barely knew the man. Her face had heated up again. She was probably scarlet and they were all looking at her right now as if daring her to deny it any further.
Arnold cleared his throat and carried on. ‘Remember that thing in France with the archaeologist, Ariadne Walker? She found the lost city and married that hot millionaire? Her brother Jason has a podcast now, about folktales and the supernatural. I met him at a convention a couple of years back. I think theymight be related to him. I’ll see what else I can find out. I could reach out to them, the Walkers?’
‘Alex,’ Gabe interrupted yet again, but this time he sounded more solemn than before. Not jealous. Just concerned. ‘I have a really bad feeling about this. Be careful, okay?’
