“I know the perfect vantage point to watch it happen.”
“Watch what happen?” she demanded as Edward came to a stop at the mass of bramble that stood between them and the neighboring estate, Nightshade Manor. He put his booted foot into the knot of an old oak tree then climbed before he settled on a limb. “Come on or you’ll miss it.”
“Miss what?” Cordelia demanded again. She was not climbing a tree, yet she did wish to see what was on the other side.
She shook her head. She knew there was nothing but more bramble. When she was younger, she’d explored out of curiosity, hoping to get a glimpse of Nightshade Manor, but it was impossible with everything so overgrown. That is what happened when an estate was unattended, with no servants left behind to see to the grounds. In fact, nobody had been in residence in two years, and even then, no one had seen the family.
“We will be seen,” Cordelia insisted.
Edward rolled his eyes. “The leaves are too full. Nobody is going to see us. I promise.”
Cordelia did a slow turn and looked about the area that was no longer as familiar as it had been when she was a child. She’d come here often then, breaking the rules, so that she could eat the numerous blackberries that grew within the bramble, which was tight, interlocking hedges separating the two properties. Adam had said the bramble belonged to Nightshade Manor, but she’d decided any blackberries that faced Hollybrook Park were theirs. They were always the best tasting blackberries too, but now Cordelia wondered if they only tasted better because they had been forbidden.
“I knew you were too boring and proper to want to experience something interesting,” Edward decided. “Just like a stern governess who never allows for fun. Like my house mother.”
House mother indeed! She most certainly wasnotboring. Proper, yes, but not boring.
A proper miss would not climb a tree, especially at her age. But, neither would a boring person.
Blast Edward!
She held up her hand. “Help me up.”
He grinned down, reached out a hand, and before Cordelia knew it, she was seated beside Edward. Luckily the limb was strong and should hold them both. “What am I supposed to see?” On the other side of the bramble was nothing but a field, and more bramble. Odd, the bramble separating Hollybrook Park from Nightshade Manor turned away from the border further away, as if rounding a corner, and continued in another line, away from where it had intersected with the property row.
Cordelia didn’t know what to make of it, except perhaps a gardener had once tried to train it back, which was nearly impossible if let go for too long.
“Just wait,” Edward said.
Cordelia blew out a sigh and waited. If everything hadn’t gone so silent and still, she wouldn’t even be here.
“Look at all the blooms for the blackberries. The birds will certainly be happy. It is a shame that there won’t be anyone to pick them.” Except, she might just visit once they were ripe and fill a pail. It wasn’t as if anyone at Nightshade Manor would know that she was picking from their bushes.
Cordelia leaned forward to study the blooms to see when the petals might drop, but the petals faded away, and berries plumped and ripened right before her very eyes. How was that even possible?
“There,” Edward announced, pulling Cordelia’s attention from the magical blackberries. He was pointing in the direction of the main road to Bocka Morrow, not that it could be seen from this distance, and then she heard horses and carriages approaching.
There was no road here. At least not a well-traveled one. Simply a grass-covered path wide enough for a carriage. There were rumors that the road to Nightshade Manor was near here, but she’d never seen it. Then before Cordelia could comprehend what truly was happening, a dirt road appeared where the overgrown grass had been and ended at the bramble that had pivoted away from the other bushes.
“See,” Edward whispered. “There is more.”
“You have seen this happen before?” Cordelia questioned.
“Yes.”
“When?” she demanded.
“You will be angry.”
There wasn’t a day passed that Cordelia wasn’t angry at her brother for something, except for the blissful period that he was away at Eton. If one were honest, Edward had gotten up to mischief as soon as he could crawl, so it wasn’t a surprise that he’d done something he shouldn’t.
“I promise I shall not,” she said and hoped she could keep it.
“When I was six. I was eating the berries and the same thing happened. Everything got silent so I climbed the tree.”
When he was six? That would have been in 1806. That was also the last time anyone had arrived at Nightshade Manor. The family stayed until 1811 and hadn’t been back…Until today.
It didn’t take long for the carriages to arrive, then stop at the end of the road before the shield of bramble.
