Edward knew in his heart he was behaving badly, but resentments kept piling up alongside his entitlements.Mostly, he resented not being taken to London with the rest of the servants.He loved the sheer busy-ness of Town, the noise and the people and the opportunities.But he, of all the household, had been left here to be run off his feet, with duties he neither expected nor wanted, and a collection of strangers lording it over him.Literally, in Petteril’s case.
He had begun by seeing what he could get away with, like bringing the baggage in the easiest way through the front door.That had worked several times before his lordship sent him around the back.
Bloody lordship.He wasn’t even Edward’s real master, and there he was lecturing him, not even on his duties, but on his life.Bastard.
Edward eased back the bolt on the door at the foot of the stairs, then reached up to take the large key from the lintel shelf.He unlocked the door and slipped outside, before locking the door behind him and dropping the key into his pocket.
He grinned to himself, rejoicing in his disobedience and the delicious anticipation.From here, he did not even need his candle to find the path to the summer house, so he blew it out.Though none of the guests would see him from this side of the house.Mrs.Riley might, of course, but she should be snoring her head off by now.
Getting one over on his lordship, who looked vague but wasn’t, gave Edward a rather childish satisfaction.And very soon now, he would get his reward for his bad day and his exhaustion.
An owl hooted, almost overhead.Leaves rustled in the wind...Which was odd, now that he thought of it, because therewasno wind.The night was still and dark, clouds obscuring most of the light from the moon and stars.
No, the rustling could not be the wind.A fox, perhaps, straying too close, or some other night creature scuttling away from human approach.Quite a large creature by the sound of it.It even breathed heavily.
And then it loomed out of the darkness, scaring him witless for the briefest instant before he began to laugh.And then his head exploded in blinding, dazzling pain.He seemed to be falling, falling, and then the world went dark and there was nothing more.
***
APRIL’S SLEEP WAS DEEPand contented.She didn’t know what had wakened her, and didn’t much care, since her husband’s arms were around her and his warm body close and comforting andnecessary.
She snuggled into him to go back to sleep.
A sudden clatter forced her eyes open.
“What was that?”Piers asked beside her.He reared up, reaching for the tinder box.
She didn’t blame him.It almost sounded like something falling in this room.Almost, but not quite.Surely the bump had the same muffled, distorted quality as the sounds she had heard last night?
Light flared from the lamp and Piers turned it up, peering around the room.No one was there, though another, indescribably eerie sound rose up, chilling her blood, echoing and fading again.
Piers set down the lamp and slid out of bed.“Is that what you heard last night?”
“Not quite,” April said, distracted in spite of herself by the sight of her husband’s naked body, golden and sculpted in the glow of the lamp.“Last night it was more like moaning and crying.This sounds...angry.”
She rose too, padding after him towards the chimney from where the sounds had seemed to be coming last night.
“Surely everyone is asleep?”Piers murmured.
“We’re not.”All the same, he had a point.The over-worked servants should be too tired to be running around the house shouting and throwing things.Or whatever was going on.
Piers brushed past her to the door, opened it quietly and glanced up the passage.“No lights,” he reported.
April shivered.“Maybe itisghosts.This house is definitely strange.It’s as if it makes youthinkthings...”
“No, it doesn’t,” Piers said.“Your imagination does that.But the chimney could be picking up sounds from outside.I stayed in a house like that once.Pigeons yelling out of fireplaces.Music from the nearby tavern sounding as if it was in the parlour.I think I’ll just have a quick look around outside...”
“Like that?”she said, as he reached for the door handle again.
He looked slightly sheepish and set down the lamp on the dressing table.“Perhaps notquitelike that.”He reached for his boots and sat down on the bed to pull them on.
April threw him his dressing gown and struggled into her own.
“Hush,” she told the baby as her insides seemed to dive a little.
Piers glanced back at her.“Perhaps you should wait here.”
“Perhaps I should.”But since she was pushing her bare feet into her own boots, neither of them paid the suggestion any further attention.
