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| Evie & Sebastian walk the grounds at Tirymôr house |
The fog lifted early on the day before the wedding. The sun shined down through the high clouds and kissed the rolling hills of Welshport Island like a passionate lover seeing their paramour after a long trip home.
Walking through the Estate's lush gardens, Evie and her soon-to-be husband Sebastian made small talk amongst the various flowers and plants. Her dress was a beautiful deep purple with tiny ruffles around the collar. He grabbed her hand that was covered with itchy lace and brought her to a stone bench where they sat, their thighs pressing against each other, a moment of innocent intimacy that had yet to come.
"Everything here is really so beautiful." Evie said, opening her parasol.
"The gardens are over 100 years old. My great-grandfather personally curated the design, his own sort of Versailles. It was really his best attribute." Sebastian said as his black cloak with golden tassels dragged over the we grass.
"Oh?" Evie wondered.
"My grandfather Albert told us stories about his father, who he called 'the landscaper'. He was an awful drunk but had an eye for gardens. It was sort of his own way of escaping the world around him. You can imagine the island is those days. Much more remote and desolate. There was only this house, a little bit of the village and the lighthouse." Sebastian explained.
"The lighthouse?" Evie asked, her curiosity perking up.
Sebastian smiled, he could see just how excited she really was being in the place he called home. And it was a genuine excitement. Although she was in a strange new world, far away from home all she wanted to do was acclimate and be apart of this new family. No matter what --no strange bite from a child or frightening nightmare would stop her from taking on what she was told had to happen. Her love for Sebastian, albeit rushed was sincere and his to her.
"You have a lot to see of Welshport. It's actually a wonderful place. I grew up, obviously, in a very gilded cage. I got out once in a while to see the world. But I always came back. I was like the others" Sebastian said, mentioning the other Lord family members but stopping short of saying his missing father's name, who over the years left the island never to return.
"I know that it must of been very difficult for you when your mother died of influenza. It's a terrible disease. I've seen it when it hit in a terrible fashion in London. Seeing your mother so sick must of have been so painful." She said, hoping to console him.
"Well, yes. Very painful." He said softly trying to keep up the lie of his mother’s true death.
She reached for the lapel of his jacket and carefully flattened it, a sign of tenderness, a sign that she was there for him in anyway possible, even if the real reason of his mother's death was something much more sinister and not an illness...a secret that she knew but was going along with his and his family's lie.
It was clear to her that Sebastian didn't want to talk about his mother in any detailed way. He was short with her on the subject, years of training from Rebecca taught him that only the most inner circle of the family should speak on the matters of Sabrina's death in true form and even if Evie was going to soon be a member of that inner circle, she had yet to say her vows. She was still...an outsider, even to Sebastian who was so quickly falling in love.
To divert her from the topic of his mother's death that would most likely turn to his father's disappearance he quickly changed the subject by flashing a giant smile across his face as he soddenly stood up and looked out towards the large thick forest that surrounded the gardens of the mansion.
"Over out that way are the North Shore Cliffs. Beautiful for sunrises." He said pointing towards the eastern end horizon.
“North Shore?” Evie giggled. “That’s the east.”
Sebastian grabbed hold of her hand and began walking with her. He laughed too of the oddly named Cliffside.
“I know I know. When then Welsh first settled here they tried to create confusing naming conventions for parts of the island to keep foreign invaders away.” He explained.
“It’s not working on me.” His new bride blushed.
“Good!” He replied lit up with grin.
They continued on their walk, and Sebastian pointed out more of the island to the new inhabitant
“And out that way, are the Western Woods. The real west!” He laughed. “No one really goes there except for hunters. And to the south, more of the Tirymôr forest. Our house was named after the forest that helped build it. My ancestors brought down close to a million trees and later replanted them all around the house to keep it as exclusively in the forest as they could. Let’s see… ah yes…at the very edge of the forest there's a tiny little point of land where the lighthouse is It points to the south and shines down on Goode Island."
"Goode Island?"
"Its a small sort of tree filled island just floating off Welshport. Not very interesting." He said.
"And the lighthouse?" She asked, smiling ear to ear allowing her thoughts of keeping such a tragic secret still locked away in her mind.
"Ahhh... I can see you're interested." he gleamed. "One day I'll take you there." Sebastian said as a cool ocean breeze brushed across their wool cloaks..
Evie could see and feel his enthusiasm. "I'd LOVE it!" She exclaimed.
"Welshport is your home now. I hope you're happy here. It's all I can do to make you happy. Our family, our business, everything is for you now too." Sebastian said as he stepped closer to his fiancée, the cool breeze from the ocean air swirling around them.
"There is something I want to tell you about...something that happened." Evie said standing too from the garden's stone bench. "It happened last night."
"What is it?" Sebastian asked.
Evie took a breath trying to compose herself and to figure out how she'd tell Sebastian that his little cousin Charlotte visited her in the middle of the night …and that she saw a strangeness in the girl's reflection. He could she say this without sounding completely mad? She took another breath and closed her parasol and looked into his eyes, hoping that he could see in them her sincerity and honesty.
"Charlotte was in my room last night. In the middle of the night. She was watching me sleep, and, well I woke up and she was just there. Staring." Evie asked.
"What? Oh Evie, I'm so sorry. That's is bizarre. You know she hasn't been herself lately. She really doesn't behave this way. Did she say anything to you?" He asked.
"She did." Evie replied unprepared to tell him what Charlotte said.
"What did she say?"
"She was actually very sweet....I shouldn't make you worry about it, really. It was just a strange feeling to have her there. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything." Evie said, now feeling awkward with her news of Charlotte's late night visit, and still not telling Sebastian the strangest part of the visit. The reflection.
"No, not at all. I'll have grandmother speak to her; Jacob has a tendency to let her do as she wishes, grandmother is more stern. It won't happen again. But I hope whatever she said, didn't upset you." Sebastian asked, grabbing Evie's itchy lace gloved hand.
"No, no...no...it's silly. She was...it's fine.” Evie said rethinking telling Sebastian about her strange encounter with young Charlotte. “Maybe she's just feeling nervous about all the excitement of the wedding. Besides it was so late at night I could have imaged her there longer than she really was. Forget it, really." Evie added, feeling foolish for even bringing it up.
Sebastian smiled, her beauty only paled in comparison to her kind heart. He could see how special she was, how wonderful she was and how eager she was to be one of the family no matter how many strange things happened to her in the very short time she was on the island. He pulled her close, so close they could feel the warmth of their breath on the exposed skin of their bodies. She looked into his eyes, he looked into her.
"You're beautiful." he whispered, as the waves from the could be heard crashing off in the distance. Then he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her to his body, she lifted her head and he bowed his and their lips met. Connecting in a passionate kiss surrounded by roses and lilies and plants of every variety and color of the rainbow.
Staring out onto the garden watching from three stories up in her private mansion apartments was Rebecca Lord. The mistress of Tirymôr House. She lifted a brow at the young couple out in the lush yard cuddling each other in the cool ocean breeze. A sense of uneasy frost filled her veins as she watched her grandson put his black cloak over Evie’s shoulders to warm her.
She was worried, worried about what Evie really knew of the family secret. What Evie really thought of her place in the family and of worse, the ugly tarot card reading just days ago that Gaspar held for her.
****
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| Georgina at the window of Rebecca's room |
“Pull the drapes Georgina. It must be completely dark here. No light from outside must come in. Do you understand? No light. We must let the spirits find themselves here, in the dark.” Rebecca ordered her personal maid who quickly curtsied and rushed around pulling at large dark olive green drapes that covered the floor to ceiling double windows in the room.
While the maid hurried around the perimeter of the room pulling long cords across the windows that dragged the drapes to close, Rebecca in her dark plumb colored dress shuffled passed a large bureau with a silver try that was burning a bundle of sage to a small card table in the center of the room draped in a black velvet table cloth with a small tin cup filled with holy water.
Rebecca dipped her fingers in the holy water and then crossed her self, mouthing "in the name of the father, son, holy spirit"
While she waited Rebecca nervously fidgeted with a golden ring with a single pearl in its center. Her eyes, blue and strained in all her 65 years focused on the man in front of her at the table: Rebecca’ mystical healer Gaspar Dubois.
He was there to read her cards again, like he did so often as he was at beck and call. He was her guide in life. He carried her suffering and torture of family secrets in his hands with the visions he had. With the stories he knew through the revelations of his ancient tarot cards.
Earlier that morning, Rebecca insisted he come into her room and add more information about Evie and the red river of blood card Gaspar pulled just before her arrival in Welshport. It had haunted Rebecca for days. He uncertainty over who’s life was truly in danger now that Evie was in Welshport, and why was this dancer so connected to Evie.
Gaspar caressed the soft folds of the black table cloth and smiled at Rebecca who stayed completely silent until Georgina finished closing the drapes. He leaned over and lit a match. The flame flickered and kissed the wicks of two thick white candles on the table that illuminated Rebecca’s heart shaped face and white hair like spotlight finding it’s star on stage.
“I need to know more. My family’s whole existence depends on it.” She said dramatically in soft voice to Gaspar just as Georgina pulled the last drape.
“Madame I know how you have not slept. This is truly concerning to me, I can assure you, but forcing the spirits to come up with answers on so many occasions can exhaust them. The messages they send can then become …” he paused allowing the flicking candle to splash orange light on his beautiful French and Basque skin. “…trompeurs.” He said in his native French.
Rebecca, fluent in the language rolled her eyes.
“Mais non.” She replied defiantly in French to his suggestion that the spiritual messages would become trompeurs—misleading. “I insist on this. Whatever you can tell me, what ever I can know.” She added.
Gaspar took a deep breath and reached in his vest without ever breaking eye contact with his Madame. He removed a stack of golden colored tarot cards and split the deck in half reluctantly, forced. Then he motioned for Rebecca to break each half stack in half again, Georgina the dark haired maid watched intently with her crystal blue eyes never leaving the cards in front of her.
“Voi-lá” Rebecca said as she finished the cutting.
Gaspar flipped one card over from each of the four halves.
The first card: THE 7 SWORDS
The second card: THE CROWNED MAIDEN
The third cards: THE LOST KNIGHT
And the final card, shockingly again: THE RED RIVER.
“The seven swords, tells us the world has changed. Observe, Madame, how each sword points inward and to the ground. The spirits are telling us thought this image that something from inside of us is, all of us, is what we must keep watch over. There is danger that lurks in us all. We are our own enemy. The crowned maiden symbolizes the spirits way to tell us that a special woman, childlike and fare, is the catalyst of this change in the world.” Gaspar explained as the light from the candles continued to glow.
“Evie.” Rebecca whispered in a matter of fact tone.
“Perhaps.” Gaspar continued. “The lost Knight is truly a painful way to get to the Red River. This has not changed since I first pulled these for you Madame. Before it was the card of the Drowned Prince, today the Lost Knight. Each followed by the Red River. There is no doubt in my mind that the spirits who surround me know and are telling us so clearly that Evie will be Sebastian’s down fall.”
Georgina gasped in shock. “HUSH!” Rebecca scolded. “But why? Why is she such a thorn in our family. We chose her. She was to be the woman white bore my grandson’s children, the future of the Lord family.”
“She knows too much Madame. As I said. You must take matters into your own hands and finally remove her knowledge of what she learned on the ship before she arrived. If she is allowed to know this information any further no matter how many ways anyone try’s to avert her thoughts on the matter of David and Sabrina … it will spell disaster. The secret will fester. It will rot in her mind and infect her whole being like a tooth dying in the mouth. In the end Madame, the secret left open in her mind like a sore will eat away at the marriage with Sebastian.”
Rebecca exhaled deeply. Her whole heart was invested in making sure her only grandson, the heir to his father’s part of the Lord family fortune was happy. She could not see his life employee, not like this. The secret of David murdering Sabrina has to be kept.
“What must I do?” Rebecca asked as Georgina looked on again in shock the the older woman would even entertain the idea of involving herself in anything illicit.
Gaspar lifted a brow and said “You must take this crystal and do as I said… remove this memory from her brain before it’s too late.”
The dark room felt swollen with warm stale air from the windows being closed off and the floating heat from the heavy candles on the table in front of Gaspar and Rebecca. The air was chocking in its thickness Georgina, felt almost faint and her hands became clammy and sweaty,
Rebecca grabbed hold of the crystal and looked it as it dangler its red cord. The light from the candles broke through the crystal allowing fragments of light in the shape of tiny squares to reflect onto Rebecca’s soft face. Her eyes were staring deep into the cut of the crystal, the feeling of dread for Sebastian swimming in her mind and Gaspar’s warning still ringing in her ear.
“You’ll show me how?” She asked.
Gaspar smiled, his crooked teeth sending shivers up Rebecca’s tightly corseted spine. He snatched the crystal from Rebecca’s and and stood up in the dark room.
“You! Maid… lay here.” He told Georgina who looked over at Rebecca to move from her standing spot by the door to the soft velvet and silk cushioned sofa in the room.
Rebecca gestured in a way affirming to Georgina that it was ok, and she quickly went over to the sofa and laid down. Gaspar then stood over her and dangled the crystal over Georgina’s eyes.
“I want you to look deep into the crystal, Georgina. Let the fragments of light fill your mind and take you into a deep sleep. Just follow my voice into a soft place in your mind. Can you do that?” Gaspar asked.
Georgina said yes as Rebecca looked on in her lesson.
“Good girl. Now, keep your eye on the crystal...watch as the light breaks inside and turns into tiny little flashes in your mind...keep your eye on this crystal, watch it, feel it, turn your mind inside out and go where I tell you to go." Gaspar added to Georgina's affirmation.
"She looks dazed." Rebecca said to Gaspar who turned quickly to her and hushed her.
"Georgina, I am now in control of your mind and body. Get up, and walk." He said.
Georgina, the maid, did as he said, her eyes glazed over and in a frozen like state. She rested her arms, tucking them at her waist where a white flowing blouse was tucked into a dark brown skirt that went all the way to the floor.
"Walk with me and follow my voice." Gaspar ordered, Georgina complied.
Together Gaspar and Georgina, in her hypnotic trans, walked over to the large blacked out window, covered in the olive green drapes. Gaspar pulled the long cord and the drapes opened half way revealing a large window and a peek of bright day light.
Still at the table, Rebecca stood up, her eyes glued to what was happening in front of her with her personal maid.
"Open the window Georgina." Gaspar ordered. Georgina frozen in a hypnotic daze, complied and pulled a small iron lock on the window and slowly opened the window. A flow of cold air rushed in and touched her face. She winched but remained her in daze.
"Gaspar." Rebecca whispered, unsure of what was to come next.
"Step on the ledge Georgina." He ordered.
Georgina, lifted her left leg and stepped on the ledge of the window that was 3 stores up. It was a 250 foot drop to the grounds below. The wind blew her at her skirt. The wind blew in her hair.
"Step off the ledge Georgina." Gaspar ordered again, show his full control of the maid's mind.
With her right foot, Georgina dangled it over the window ledge and just as a fast a cool breeze could flow in Rebecca came from behind her and yanked her back into the room in a quick lunge tossing the young maid to the floor and breaking her hypnosis.
"What... what happened?" Georgina said, feeling flush and cold and hot all the at same time. Then she remembered. She was not under hypnosis long enough for the full memory of what had occurred to disappear.
"You've made your point." Rebecca said, grabbing the powerful crystal from Gaspar's hand as he smirked over at the terrified Georgina.
"It's that simple Madame. Once you control Evie's mind you can make her do whatever you want. From jumping out of a window to forgetting what she knows." He said sinisterly.
"I.... I don't feel well. I feel very unwell ma'am." The pale and sweaty Georgina said.
Rebecca turned to her maid and saw what the hypnosis did. It was strong. It was powerful and she was not only terrified of it but in absolute love with it. The matriarch of the Lord family looked in her hand and saw the crystal then looked at the panic stricken Georgina.
"Lay down Georgina, let's fix your mind." Rebecca said.
Georgina looked at her mistress and was unsure of what to do. But Rebecca knew...she was about to test the crystal once again and erase poor Georgina's memory of her close encounter with death at the window. She would be her Guinea Pig, her prototype for what she would do next to Evie Jordan.
****
The downstairs level of Tirymôr House was bustling with butlers and maids and florists all preparing for the coming wedding that would soon take place on the grounds of the mansion. Through the noise and business, a tall and slender butler ushered in a guest to meet with Jacob Lord in the much more quiet study near the rear of the house.
The guest, Welshport Island's local Constable Christian Evans, was in awe of what he saw of the interior of the mansion, a place he had never stepped foot in.
On his way to the study, Christian saw the lengthy marble floors that were imported from Lisbon. The stone walls that were carefully molded and crafted in a cathedral like style by the Italian architect who had been brought in by Jacob's great-great grandfather who built the mansion that, to Christian's surprise, was filled with light.
Their echoing footsteps, then lead to a more private area of the house that was dramatically different than the marble and stoned front. It was much more quieter, carpeted with the finest Persian rugs and fitted with electrical outlets and fixtures that were relatively new to the locals of the island.
Christian looked at the several paintings of family members hung in golden frames along the tightly decorated corridor that finally lead to the back-area study. The tall butler gestured to a thinly framed chair with a red plush seat, "Wait here please Constable."
Christian sat there for what was only a few seconds, then the study doors, heavy and oak opened again.
"Mr. Lord will see you now." The butler said.
Christian got up and entered the room where there were shelves upon shelves of books and a sitting area next to a fireplace filled with plumes of Jacob's cigar smoke.
"Mr. Lord, Constable Christian Evans." The butler announced.
"Mr. Lord." Christian said, quickly, and awkwardly bowing his head, a gesture he strangely felt appropriate in the pomp and circumstance of the whole meeting.
"Thank you Marcus." Jacob said, excusing the butler and welcoming Christian into the room. "Constable, please sit down. What do I owe this very personal visit?"
Christian sat across from Jacob who sat back down on the dark green sofa's in the center of the room that squeaked and scratched as their bodies came down on the perfectly toned leather.
"I wanted to confirm with the family that I'll be personally attending the wedding tomorrow for everyone's safety. An event this size in a place like this I think it would be better for someone to be here and make sure there is a sense of security for all involved." The constable said.
Jacob's face turned stone cold.
Christian meets with Jacob about the wedding, Jacob assures him everything will be fine. Christian insists that he will be there regardless. Jacob seems unhappy about that. The idea that the authorities from the village would be involved in any kind of family event was nothing but intrusive in the Lord family way of life.
"That's absolutely out of the question." Jacob retorted.
"Why's that sir?" Christian asked.
"This is a private event, there's no need for any kind of security of presence such as yours. It would make our guests uncomfortable." Jacob said.
"I have full authority if I feel that the event as large needs my supervision. I assure you Mr. Lord, I won't be a bother. It's for your family's safety." Christian said.
"Safety." Jacob said with a lifted brow.
"That's correct."
"Is there a reason you feel we are unsafe in our own home? Around our own friends? Around our own family?" Jacob wondered as he got up from the sitting area and walked over to a large desk near the windows.
Christian did not want to place fear in Jacob's mind about his worry that Mary Goode might do something outrageous, it was also not very clear that she would do anything. But Celeste's encounter with Mary in town showed that there was still very heavy animosity from Mary towards the family everyone knew she believed had wronged her over her daughter's removal.
"I just think that it would be in the best interest of everyone that I was here. I will be absolutely discreet and look as a guest. Nothing more." Christian said without giving away his true intention.
Jacob turned towards the sunny window's and watched as the horses on their land roamed around the secure enclosure. He lifted up his smoldering cigar and put it to his mouth and inhaled. The burning end scolded and swirled with red burning Tobacco. When he exhaled it was like a huge puff of engine smoke from a train that swirled like clouds when Jacob turned back to Christian who was now standing on the other side of the desk.
"Very well. But be discreet." Jacob said, his voice sounding unhappy with the idea but allowing.
"Thank you sir. I will be." Christian said with a smile. "I won't bother you any longer, and I'll see myself out."
Jacob smiled snobbishly but did not say goodbye. Christian quickly left the private study in the back of the mansion and made his way back into the busy front of the house just as Sebastian and Evie were coming in.
This was a surprise to the couple.
"Constable Evans!" Sebastian said happily.
The two men had been school-chums as they grew up. Friends, but not close friends as their social classes did not align. Christian was always more of a quiet and polite young man while Sebastian, who never attempted to push his family's wealth on his schoolmates as something to use against their more humble lifestyle, was much more outgoing and boisterous.
Today, in seeing Christian after a very long time, his boisterous behavior was very evident. And how could he not be, the most beautiful young fiancée was on his arm.
"Good to see you Bash, how are you? And congratulations are in order!" Christian said, motioning to Evie who smiled shyly.
"Thank you! Constable Evans, Evangeline Jordan, Evie, Christian." Sebastian said introducing the two who exchanged how do you do's. "What are you doing here?" Sebastian then asked.
"I think I'll be more comfortable if you call me Christian. You never had a problem with that before." Christian said, reminding Sebastian of their passed friendship.
"Of course! Of course! So again, Christian, why the visit from town?" Sebastian added
"I was here to see your uncle, a bit of business nothing to worry about." Christian said.
"You're coming to the wedding I assume." Sebastian asked.
"I.....well, yes actually that was the crux of my conversation with Jacob. I'll be here.:" Christian answered.
"Christian and I went to school together, Evie. We've been friends since we were just 6 or 7 years old." Sebastian said.
"Well, then it'll be wonderful for you to be here. Old friends always make wedding even that much more lovely." Evie said squeezing Sebastian's arm.
"Indeed!" Sebastian smiled.
"I should get back in the village now, Miss Jordan it was a pleasure to meet you." Christian said, kissing the back of Evie's gloved hand.
"Likewise Constable." She replied with sparkling eyes that locked with Christian's.
In that final gaze on each other, Christian finally saw how beautiful she really was. A stunning peach completion with beautiful dark hair and eyes so blue that felt almost like two pools of perfectly clear water from the shallows just below The North Shore cliffs. He felt butterflies in his stomach and then noticed he was still holding her hand. She smiled awkwardly and he quickly let go and rushed out towards the foyer.
"You have a way!" Sebastian said laughing to Evie noticing his old friend's flustered look at the sight of the beautiful Evie Jordan.
Back in the study, Jacob remained at his desk smoldering like the cigar in his mouth. With Christian in attendance a certain plan of his might not go on without a snag. But nothing was ever off the table. Jacob knew the wedding would take place no matter what.
Then, a sliding secret door of the study slid open. A figure stepped in and silently pushed the double wall closed concealing again the secret passageway. The person slowly made their way over to the brightly lit desk and cleared their throat.
Jacob already knew who it was without even looking.
"What did he want?" The person said, who had clearly been listening from behind the secret door while Christian was visiting.
"You know what he wanted." Jacob replied, turning to see Gaspar across from him.
"Is the plan in danger?" Gaspar said, his voice lacking the French accent he had always had and now in a clear British voice referencing a plan that he and Jacob secretly had been plotting.
Jacob smiled sinisterly. Nothing would stop him from what he was planning. Nothing. Not Christian. Not Evie's knowledge of David and Sabrina's misfortune, and not even Rebecca who had her own plan in place.
"Don't worry about Constable Evans. He won't stop us." Jacob said puffing away at is cigar and opening a drawer from the desk, and pulling out a silver and gold revolver.
The Lord family was like a den of snakes each one trying to bite the other for leverage and power. Jacob and Gaspar the two most venomous snakes of the pit were on track to bite and kill anyone on their path to full power, and the wedding was just the first step on their way to victory.
