Eleanor waved back at her anxious friend. “Until next time, Penny!”
Turning, she continued her routine journey back to her uncle’s house as the sun descended behind her.
Step after step, she moved through the town. With each minute that passed, fewer women walked the streets.
The wind whistled past her, causing the leaves to dance along the walkway. Ravens called from the withering trees as an orange glow began to light up their small, uncanny town.
As Eleanor strode by a line of houses, one by one their curtains closed, shutting out the darkness that was taking over.
When was the last time someone even went missing?
It must have been during her first Hallows Eve after moving to Autumntun. The missing woman was the wife of a robber baron who—as far as the town gossip went—resettled in town to escape social criticism after getting married. Their marriage had oft been whispered about as being quite turbulent.
Edith Woodcraft, I wonder what happened to you?
Did she run away under the guise of being taken by the Headless Horseman? Or was the truth… even darker?
After her disappearance, every Hallows Eve, all women were to be locked away. At the time she thought it was harsh, though, now she wishes it wereonlyHallows Eve.
The curfew did no one any good in her mind.
Eleanor slowed as one curtain remained open on the first floor of an older, run-down house. She couldn’t stop herself from peering at the window, or more specifically, the man that stood inside. He glowered at her as she walked by. She nearly stumbled when he shook his head, holding up a pocket watch that swayed side to side. Catching herself, Eleanor quickened her pace, ignoring the eerie feeling of being watched.
“Such odd people,” she mumbled to herself.
She kept a brisk pace until she reached the cast iron gates surrounding her uncle’s black manor. The property came across as being derelict, and one might think desolate, if it were not for the candles burning in the windows.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t say the inside was any more welcoming.
Eleanor unlatched the cold gate, and as it slowly creaked open, stepping inside onto a pile of dead leaves.
A raven cawed in the distance, and as she looked up at the manor, she could see the silhouette of her uncle pacing in his study.
“Home sweet home,” she mumbled under her breath.
2
ELEANOR
“Manners maketh man,” her uncle said from the head of the old oak dining table, glowering out the window. “And yet, despite our many teachings and tireless efforts of upholding tradition, every Hallows Eve we forget that saying as we hide ourselves away. Fearing something that has not been seen in years. The Headless Horseman,” he scoffed, “A plague on good society. A thief of women. A blood thirsty apparition.”
Eleanor looked up from her long-since empty plate, ignoring the tightening in her stomach demanding more food. The dining table that separated them could easily sit twelve, yet only two chairs existed in the room. His, at the top, and hers, at the very back, but not at the opposite head. No, she sat on the side of the table, furthest spot away. It was his way of holding his place in both the house and the world firmly above her.
Her uncle’s gaze fell from the window as he slowly turned his head to face her. He looked her up and down, chewing on his fatty cut of steak. “Without law and order, without rules and obedience, we are no different from the bestial beings thatthreaten to devour us,” he said. His calculating gaze analyzed her, but she knew better than to speak first. “Do you agree?”
“Yes, Uncle,” she agreed, the words coming out promptly and quietly.
“About which part?”
“Pardon?”
“Which part do you agree with, Eleanor? Law and order or rules and obedience?”
She shook her head slightly, her brows furrowing. “Are they not one and the same?”
Mr. Carver clicked his tongue. “They are not,” he grumbled as he reached for his nearly empty glass of red wine. “Though I will not hold such things against you. You are not married yet. Your husband will give his good teachings to you.”
“Yes, Uncle. Though I am not sought after, I am afraid.”
