I sighed.
“Let’s talk about you,” I said, hoping to move on breezily, as if her warnings hadn’t bothered me. “I was hoping to see Dorian before the Christmas party, to apologise to him face-to-face. It was all my fault. I should have told him.”
“He’s a tough old lad, don’t worry about him. Takes after daddy. I’ve been having a worse time of it. I was targeted by some shitty little vandals, believe it or not,” she said, quite carelessly.
“What do you mean?” I asked, sitting up straight. “What happened?”
“It was the strangest thing. Something woke me last night in the early hours – I forget what the noise was – and when I went to the window to look down at the street, there was a commotion going on around the driveway. I threw on my kimono and went down to investigate with my house mates and, well, you really wouldn’t believe it.Someone had set fire to my car.”
“Setfireto it?” I asked.
“Mm. Bastards. If it hadn’t been for a late-night dog-walker who spotted the car smouldering, it would have been reduced to a blackened shell. We had to call the fire brigade, the police...it was really a lot of bother, and in the middle of the ruddy night, too. Flames were licking the roof by the time they arrived to put it out,” said Eugenie, sounding as if she was describing a botched hair appointment rather than a deliberate fire.
“That’s terrible,” I said. Coming from the Dales, where I lived without running water or even reliable electricity, her cavalier attitude to the loss of her valuable car – let alone the implied threat to her life – left me flabbergasted. How could she not care?
With a daunting throb in my heart, I realised I would soon be as wealthy as Eugenie, perhaps more so. It crossed my mind for a moment that I might gain the same attitude one day; to take life’s luxuries for granted.
“Were you...frightened?”
“God, no. I’m a seasoned London girl. You learn to put up with this sort of shit from time to time. Besides, I was due an upgrade. That Audi was gathering dust. Probably why it caught fire so easily,” she said, with an airy chuckle.
♥
It was Christmas eve, the night of the ball.
The night we would be announcing our engagement. Announcing my place, officially, in the Crowthorne family tree.
I felt like I was floating, suspended in the most blissful dream. I walked the gardens as dusk fell, runningmy fingers through the icy-cold water at the base of the fountain, tracing the smooth dependable stone of the graves in the family cemetery. It brought tears to my eyes to know that I would belong here, in this manor, in this funeral home. In this paradise, with him.
My breaths came in a white mist as I trod over the frosted ground, wrapping my arms around myself for warmth. Soon Eugenie would arrive to help me dress, almost as nervous as I was to make my debut as Nick’s wife-to-be.
There came a sudden movement.
Quick as a whip, I ducked and caught it in my arms, all hot fur and a rapidly pumping heart. It bucked and squirmed determinedly in my arms, but I had it in the nook of my elbow. I crushed it against my body while I grabbed it by the scruff. Its eyes were wide and alive, its terror evident.
The rabbit kicked and kicked, but I wouldn’t loosen my grip.
I wouldn’t let it suffer. Not for long.
“Out doing more pest control?” came a severe voice.
I turned, my heart beating wildly with the Rabbit’s, to the source of the voice I recognised. Shame flooded my face with heat, dismayed to have been discovered. Mercifully the sinking blue of dusk would hide my colour.
Margaret watched me darkly, her eyes blackened and narrow. She wore a wool coat with a gilet beneath it, and a pair of thick gardening gloves. In her hands was a mesh sack of kindling for the drawing room fire, where we’d be having the party.
“I thought it looked injured,” I said, my voice meek.
Margaret snorted. “I’ve been finding a lot of mortally injured animals around here recently. Would you know anything about that?”
The rabbit bit down on my arm so hard that I screamed. It dropped from my arms and fled into the night.
Maggie chuckled as I rubbed the two bleeding dots it left behind, as if I’d gotten what I deserved.
“I liked you, you know. I felt sorry for you. That was before I realised you’re as much of a trouble maker as the last one,” she said, shaking her head.
Night was falling fast, and Maggie was already little more than a vague human shape in the darkness, as if someone had thrown a cloak over her.
The wound pulsed, irritating me, giving me fire in my belly as I responded.
