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| Mourning Sebastian |
Tirymôr house was a glowing ember of pain. It was evening now and the guests had all left; oddly they were the same guests from the wedding just days before that ended in gunfire, blood and murder.
In the days that followed Sebastian’s death at his own funeral, Rebecca ordered the house staff to cover all the mirrors with large black sheets. She wanted no spirit to reenter the world of the living while Sebastian’s spirit escapes his body and left this world for the next.
The transition, she believed, was an energy exchange filled with emotions and loss and Rebecca feared the trauma would linger in spirit form and haunt them for all the rest of their days.
Her only grandson was gone and all she could do was pray and hope for his spirit to go in peace after leaving in such a horrid way.
In the great hall inside Tirymôr House that was turned into a makeshift funeral home, the flowers from the wedding quickly and easily turned into the flowers of Sebastian Lord's funeral. His body, clean and washed lay in repose in a beautify carved oak coffin that was lined with a deep blue velvet lining. In his strong hands that had once held Evie so tightly in an embrace at the alter, were solid gold rosary beads.
Charlotte, who’s body was continuously haunted by the spirit of her deceased aunt Sabrina, stood on a small pillowed stool just looking over Sebastian's body. She stared down at him: lifeless but stunning in his frozen sleep.
The young girl dressed in a thick black dress with her lovely blond hair tied up in a braid, reached down and patted her cousin's hands carefully and soft. She could feel the bones and even the veins. She stroked his hair. And carefully stroked his cheek with the back of her hand. She stared down at his face noticing his lips were slightly parted as if he was about to open his eyes and mouth and wake as if nothing happened. Inside her body, the broken hearted soul of his mother Sabrina.
"This was not meant for you, this was not how it was supposed to be. Perhaps it was my fault. I should have left and took you away from here when everything started to change but I couldn't. I thought...I don't know what I thought." Charlotte's voice said, but the words were Sabrina's.
The great hall that had seen so many family events was getting ready to receive the guests of the wedding from just the night before, before tragedy struck. Before all hell broke loose on a family of good means and who had seen so much darkness in their lives before. Even now, Sabrina secretly dwelling inside of young Charlotte, was evidence of the torturous nature the Lord family had always suffered from.
Sabrina, wondered if this was going to be the way for her host body. What more horror would this little girl see as she grew and how would she, Sabrina, be able to live through all of it, only to die again in a different body.
"I'll find a way back tp you, my son, I will. If Mary knows what's good for her she'll tell her mother what's she done and Eliza will know what to do next and right this wrong. Eliza is the only one who can to do this, as she has done for me. She's given me a second life, I pray she can find a way to do the same for you." Sabrina said through Charlotte as the flicking candles lit up her cherub like face.
Charlotte's face started to feel hot. Her eyes began to water and the emotion that was building up in her young body burst like a damn that had crested it's walls. She broke down and slumped over the rim of the coffin, crying into Sebastian's blue suit. She could not control herself as she was mourning for two--herself and Sebastian's mother Sabrina. Both crying from one source. The devastation was overwhelming to the point where little Charlotte could almost not handle it all.
"I'm so sorry for all of this! All of this!" Sabrina sobbed though Charlotte's eyes.
"Charlotte!!" A voice said from behind coffin. "What are you saying there?" It was Rebecca, Charlotte's stoic and overly superstitious grandmother slowly making her way into the great hall dressed in the dark black mourning dress covering every open layer of skin except for her face.
"Grandmother." Charlotte said, now in her own state of mind curtsying to her grandmother.
"What were you telling Sebastian? You know better than to disturb the dead." Rebecca said her whitening red hair perfectly falling in wavy curls to the back of her head.
"Only prayers, Grandmother. I feel so awful this has happened." Charlotte said covering for Sabrina. "I just hope Evie can find peace in it all. Do you think she will?" Charlotte asked.
"Well, right now there's nothing you can do for either of then. The one responsible for this atrocity will be held accountable. They’ll find Mary Goode and make sure she never breathes air into her lungs again." Rebecca replied coldly.
"You mean they haven't found her yet?" Charlotte wondered, hoping Mary had made it to Eliza on Goode Island as she instructed.
"Never you mind, go on now to your room. Celeste will help you freshen up for the funeral later." Rebecca ordered.
Charlotte, curious to know what was really happening with Mary could only imagine now that Rebecca refused to give the child news. She politely curtsied again and rushed off to her room where hopefully she could figure out a way to get more information out of Celeste.
Now alone in the hall, Rebecca looked down at her dead grandson. She wasn't sure how to feel. Her pain was potent. Her sadness real. But she was also angry and ready to take someone's head off. She was so sure Gaspar's tarot reading was wrong—so sure. But it accurate.
Each card revealed something about the day before but in such a way no one would have deciphered them. But she found it odd that Gaspar, a man who had told her, promised her, reassured her over and over again that his abilities to tell the future through his powers and psychic agility totally left out the Mary Goode with a gun factor.
How could he have been so off? How could he have not known?
Rebecca took a deep breath knowing full well she'd get to the bottom of all of it. She patted Sebastian's hands and reached into the pocket of her long black dress and pulled out small scissors. She reached down into the coffin and snipped a lock of Sebastian's hair from his head and then tied a small red ribbon around it allowing the hair to twist into the shape of a golden-brown curl. And just as she placed the lock of his hair in her pocket she finally let a tear fall from her ice cold face.
She turned away from her only grandson and left him in repose.
****
Evie sat stoically in the parlor that was quiet as if there were no others in the room with her, but everyone was there. Her dark hair seemed to morph or become one with the thick black vail over her face that matched the dark dress. She sat on a yellow sofa clutching Celeste’s hand who was also dressed in a large black dress that covered every inch of her body while a little white and gray bichon-frise sat at Evie’s feet wagging his tail unaware of the tragedy in his own home.
“BeeBee!” Celeste yapped at the little dog. “Sai!” She ordered in her native Portuguese. BeeBee the bichon understood her command and quickly rushed out of the room.
Over in a palm shadowed corner, Jacob and Gaspar sat in silence. Rebecca and Charlotte in another corner, Charlotte’s eyes staring over at Evie, Rebecca mouthing the words to The Our Father over and over again.
The priest was with Sebastian’s body blessing it before the funeral as the family waited.
“Everything happened so fast.” Evie whispered.
“I know my love.” Celeste whispered back.
“What’s to become of me? I’ve only been here two weeks and I already have nothing to give this family. I fell in love, got married and became a widow in the blink of an eye.” Evie sobbed through her words.
“Shh… don’t think of that now. It’ll all fall into place. They’re not just going to throw you out, besides you were married. The priest married you. You’re legitimately a Lord now.” Celeste explained in a hushed voice.
“I don’t know I just don’t know. Poor Sebastian. How could this have happened? Why would that woman do this?” Evie cried.
“I don’t know my love, I don’t know. Mary has…” Celeste began before being interrupted by Evie.
“It was the woman I met on the docks the day I arrived, wasn’t it? I recognized her, even though it happened so fast. The woman you warmed me about. You told me to stay away from her. Why did you warm me about her? What did you know about her then that could shed some light about why she’d kill Sebastian?” Evie recalled to a stunned Celeste.
“What’s this? You met the murderess?” Jacob suddenly asked curiously upon over-hearing their conversation.
Gaspar’s ears perked up.
“Briefly Mr. Lord.” Celeste confirmed.
“They should hang her. Her and her mother.” Gaspar said sipping a drink of dark brandy.
“That’s all we need more death at the gallows in the village. We’ve certainly seen enough of that in this family. What did you speak of, Evie? You and Mary?” Rebecca suddenly asked breaking from her deep prayer.
“Nothing. She just introduced herself. That was all. Do you think she wanted to hurt him because of me? Did she want to marry Sebastian? I don’t understand anything of this.” The young widow cried.
Rebecca got up from the sofa on her side of the room and came over to Evie and knelt down next to her. The small electrical fixtures shined a dim light in the room. There was some glimmers of the fading sun from outside. Rebecca grabbed Evie’s hand that was clasped tightly in Celeste’s and squeezed them both.
“Evangeline” the matriarch said using Evie’s full first name, “there was nothing you did or knew that could have controlled the events the wedding. Mary has a deep mental problem. She always has. She’s a sick girl, long ago she hounded Jacob and we had to put a stop to her vicious obsession with him. We know all too well how ill she is, although I never expected her to go to this extreme to hurt our family. We certainly never saw murder coming.” Rebecca said repeating a lie Jacob created of Mary’s mental state as she looked over at Gaspar who was supposed to be her psychic guide.
Gaspar nervously looked down at the drink in his glass.
On the other side of the sofa sat Charlotte who became annoyed at the distasteful remarks on Mary, after all Charlotte was Mary’s daughter even if the rest of the family didn't let them see each other, she knew all too well the truths of her parent's relationship, thanks to the knowledge provided to her by the inhabitance of Sabrina's spirit inside of her.
Replaying to the group, Jacob snarled. “Yes we don’t need to go back into that Pandora’s box.”
“And I want no talk about you worrying about your future here. As a woman who married into this family myself I know how treacherous it can be. My husband Albert too died young and left me with two boys. I understand how scared you are but, I assure you my dear, Tirymôr and Welshport is your home now, and this is your family.” Rebecca added.
Jacob's plan was supposed to have had both newly weds murdered so that he would have been placed first in line for the entire Lord family fortune, instead Mary missed her second target allowing Evie, now the widow of Jacob's rival heir to be alive and well fully entitled to Sebastian's half of the fortune.
“Thank you Mrs. Lord. I will do my best to keep my end of the bargain … for my family’s sake.” Evie replied acknowledging the marriage albeit a good match was indeed a business transaction between the Lords and the financially crushed Jordan's, back in England.
“Mother we shouldn't talk of such things...Evie has had a traumatic experience. She knows she will be safe here. Her new home.” Jacob added with an annoyed tone.
Rebecca ignored him.
“Sir...” A quite voice said from a small servant's entrance. It was the Rebecca, s lady-in-waiting Georgina Reid. She had an envelope in her hand that she handed to Jacob.
“Ah! yes....The telegram.” Jacob said from the side of the fireplace in the blue wallpapered parlor seemingly annoyed at his mother’s sudden kindness to Evie.
“Yes, the telegram. Evie we were able to send your family in London a wire about the tragedy; your brother Nikolas replied. He sends their love and affections.” Rebecca added to Evie’s sudden burst of tears.
“Thank you, thank you for everything.” Evie replied with watery eyes.
“Now let’s go see Sebastian.” Rebecca said as the three woman held hands and walked together out of the parlor. With her free hand Rebecca reached for Charlotte and added one more to the group.
“You know this could be more trouble than we knew.” Gaspar whispered to his conspirator Jacob.
“Are you are questioning my choice of weapon?” Jacob wondered as Gaspar handed Jacob his own glass of brandy.
“Mary? A weapon? More like a liability Jacob. I know you said you had a plan B but…”
“Gaspar not another word, just trust in what I have planned. Do you understand me?”
“Jacob I’m sorry but I feel like this can get out of our control. Using Mary brings an added level of danger to it all. I don’t know if it’s worth it. Mentally how can we trust a woman who agreed to shoot someone in cold blood like she did? With even a second thought!” Gaspar said.
“I offered her something she could never—would never—refuse.” Jacob said back.
Gaspar sighed. “Charlotte.”
Jacob lifted a brow and grinned.
“Don’t you worry your fraudulent psychic head…this isn’t all about Mary. The next phase will secure my place and to lock out any other heirs to this family’s fortune, mother dear will just have to keep the mirrors covered for a while. The funeral procession isn’t going to be over anytime soon.” Jacob replied cruelly.
****
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| Evie, Celeste & Rebecca in the parlor |
As Evie, Rebecca, Celeste and Charlotte, all in their long black dresses walked together through the house not a sound could be heard but their shoes clacking on the hard marble floors echoing in the rafters of the high ceilings like a four nuns in black gowns draped in black veils covering their faces heading to the alter of a cathedral.
As they walked, Charlotte glanced at all the mirrors that had been covered. There were four large golden framed mirrors in various hallways on the way to where Sebastian's body was laying in repose. She could see how her grandmother's superstitions were growing more and more paranoid, and she knew that inside of her Sabrina could tell too.
Closer and closer to the great hall where Sebastian was thousands of candles were laid out on tables and vestibules lighting their way. Servants that were caught in the women's march to the room suddenly stopped and stepped aside letting them through and crossing themselves as the women passed.
At the door, read to see her beloved husband of just minutes, Evie grabbed a candle that was brightly lit on the side table just before the entrance to the hall.
"There are candles inside Evie." Rebecca said.
"No. This one is just for him. When night comes I want him to have this next to him. A light from me for him, and only him so he doesn't lie in darkness." Evie said.
Rebecca smiled and allowed Evie to grab the candle then Celeste opened the hall door.
Rebecca latched on to her granddaughter Charlotte's hand and stepped inside to the back of the hall while Celeste stepped in and stayed in the back but on the opposite side of Rebecca and Charlotte flanking Evie as she stood in the center of the hall with the candle in her hand.
Completely covered by her thick veil Evie held the candle in the center of her body and walked down the isle as if she were headed to the alter to be married again just this time she was in black instead of white and caring a lit candle instead of a bouquet of flowers.
There was silence in the great hall. No one spoke. Three men entered a side entrance, they were there to carry the body to the cemetery after Evie's final visit. No one wanted her to head to the grave sight and watch as they lowered the coffin into the ground. This would be her final goodbye to the young man she traveled a world away to meet and marry just a few days ago. They only had a short time to know each other and fall in love but the end came at the shot of a gun at Mary's hand, sent by Jacob.
As she got closer to his body, Evie began to cry. She thought about all the could have been and what should have been. She thought about everything that was taken away from her and how she could have made him so happy. She wondered why Mary would do this to Sebastian, to her, to the family.
His face was so pale, but still so perfect. Evie lifted her vail to get a better look and smiled. He was so beautiful even in death. She felt his cheek with the back of her gloved hand and leaned down and kissed his lips for the final time. She placed the candle on a small open area of a table near him and ran her fingers through his hair.
"This is for you my love. Let it light your way to heaven." Evie said of the candle as Celeste and Rebecca sobbed in the back of the great hall.
Evie turned and quickly made her way back to the women who rushed over to her and hugged her.
"I think I would like to be alone for a while." Evie said.
Rebecca nodded understanding the stress of the moment and took Charlotte out of the room "We'll send dinner to your room." she said as they left.
"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Celeste asked.
"Yes, please go on. Go home. I'll see you in the morning." Evie said as Celeste left her to make her way to her room alone.
She hadn't been at Tirymôr long but she knew her way around well. She slowly made her way back to her room through the various echoing halls. She came to an area that had a back staircase and started to go up when suddenly she heard footsteps. She quickly turned back and moved her long veil that was obstructing her view around her shoulders.
But there was no one there.
She furrowed her brow and continued up the dimly lit stairway that lead to her apartment in the house. Once in a long hallway that was carpeted she continued to walk and noticed all the mirrors and glass frames were covered per Rebecca's orders. But the strange thing was she heard the muffled footsteps coming from behind her tapping in step with hers on the red carpet.
Evie turned again--- no one there.
The strange feeling that someone in the house was following her began to make her feel unsettled and she quickly made her way to the new room of hers that would have been her shared bedroom with Sebastian. She quickly pushed the door open and closed it behind her. When she turned she saw that all of the joyous things that had been left there for the two newlyweds had been forgotten, and were still in place.
Rose petals on the bed. Champaign now warm with the day. Fresh fruit that was no longer fresh. All victims of the death of Sebastian.
Evie sat down on a large white chair and removed her shoes rubbing her sore feet. She then slowly began to remove her veil and petticoats. She slowly began to remove the pearl comb in her hair and the dazzling jewelry around her neck, and suddenly without even knowing someone pulled the necklace off of her neck from behind starling her so much she screamed only to find it was Jacob, her late husband's murderous uncle who's plot of murderer failed to snare her as well.
"I'm so sorry my dear, I didn't mean to frighten you." he said menacingly.
"Jacob what are you doing in here?" Evie asked as she quickly jumped up from the chair covering herself.
"I should have announced myself but I wanted us to meet in private."
"Oh? Is everything ok?"
"Yes yes… well mostly. You see its about mother." Jacob said placing the necklace he took from Evie on a side oak table.
"What about her?"
"Its about what she was saying in the parlor earlier. How you are now a part of the family and that you're welcome here. I want to be sure that you understand that my mother sometimes cannot be trusted but I for one will make sure that you are safe. At all times." Jacob said.
"Trusted?” Evie asked confused.
“It’s hard to explain.” Her uncle-in-law replied.
“I’m getting the sense you don't believe her." Evie said as she crossed her arms.
"I believe her intensions, but with her age you know how things can slip the mind. I will of course keep track of her and …..of you." Jacob said stepping closer to her.
Evie stepped back.
"Keep….track." Evie said going over to one of the electric lamps near the bed and flickering it on.
"I’ll be frank Evangeline, my mother at times forgets what she's done in the past and puts us all in a bit of hot water when her memory lapses. She was very fond of Sebastian just as she was very fond of his father, my brother David. And you know what happened there don't you?" Jacob asked.
"Influenza." Evie said quietly remembering what Celeste said about Sebastian's mother's death.
"You've learned well." Jacob laughed. "No. Not influenza, Sabrina didn't die that way. She was murdered just as the rumors say she was. But David wasn't the culprit. It was my mother. My mother killed Sabrina in a viscous drowning. It was horrible. Something evil, something sinister came over her and she was like a woman possessed. She lured Sabrina to the beach and attacked her and drowned her. She believed Sabrina was replacing her in David's life and that's how her mind was able to fix the situation. All I can say is now that Sebastian is gone, and I hope I'm wrong, perhaps she'll blame you for all this." Jacob said, spinning a web of deceit.
"What? None of this makes sense. Why would ....how could? No, I don't believe she’d harm me and I don’t believe she harmed Sabrina." Evie said sitting well away from Jacob on her bed.
Jacob lifted a brow. The bright light shined from below and gave him an ominous look to his face. A look that showed true evil lurking in his eyes and all over his facial expression. A man who had a mission to dispose of all his blood relatives to finally pull in all of the family fortune just for himself. He wanted to eliminate anyone obstacle of that, Sabrina, David, Sebastian and now Evie was on his list, the unfortunate newest member of the Lord family that had literally dodged a bullet sent from his own gun.
He walked over and sat next to her on the bed, close, so close their thighs touched.
"I just want you to know that if you need help ...any kind of help, I will be there to help. Maybe ...a trip home. Back to London where you'll be safe and away from any kind of harm Rebecca might impose. Think about it, think about your dream. Those kinds of things like what you dreamt about are not far off from the things my mother is capable of." Jacob said, accidently revealing he was watching her sleep.
"My dream? How do you know about that?" Evie wondered as she moved away from him on the bed as her mind was quickly flooded with visions of the nightmare she had of being buried alive by Rebecca on her first night in Welshport.
"The walls talk." he replied and got up. "Think about what I have told you. Your safety and life is what is important to me. I just want you to be safe Evie. Safe forever, and perhaps this is not the place for you. There is a ship leaving mainland Maine from Bangor in two days time back to England. I think you should be on that ship Evie. Far away from this island that has so benighted us all." Jacob said as he slowly crept out of Evie's room leaving her to soak up all his words hoping the seed he planted would sprout.
She was worried. Confused. Devastated. She felt as if everything she had hoped for when she arrived was slowly slipping out of her grasp and she felt truly alone. She looked at her suitcase sitting near a large closet and went over to it. She opened it with her left hand an saw her wedding band sparkled on her finger in the glow of the orange electrical lights.
A cold reminder of what he has thought she gained, and then suddenly lost. Like the flicker of the lights, everything was gone.
She was trapped between a rock and hard place and knew she had a choice to make: stay and fulfil her life as a the latest Lord family member as her marriage arrangement dictated, or believe Jacob's tale of his mother's cruelty and dangerous side and leave Welshport and all its deadly ghosts behind forever.
