B1/Ch6: THE GOODE , THE BAD AND THE REVOLVER

Mary arrives to see Eliza on Goode Island

Separated by a small channel of water from the main island of Welshport, in Frenchman Bay was a second smaller satellite island that technically had no name but nicknamed Goode Island by the citizens of Welshport after it’s only two inhabitants: Mary Goode and her hermit mother Eliza.

Eliza Goode lived on her own in her older age in the same small four room cabin that she raised Mary. For her part, Mary had grown up rather normal even if she had lived in relative isolation from the rest of the world in her childhood. Her mother, however, knew that the life of solitude on "Goode Island" was never going to be the best thing for Mary in the long run and sent her to live and go to school on the main island with the rest of the people of Welshport. 

That is where Mary's life took a turn.

As she grew up she would soon find herself tangled up in the clutches of Jacob Lord who saw her as naïve young woman he could mold and control for his own ghoulish mind games. 

Her loneliness left her vulnerable to his wishes. She had a need for someone to love. She needed someone to make her feel wanted, and by her mid 20’s she became pregnant with Charlotte. 

The Lord family, quick to quench the scandal of Jacob having a child out of wed-lock, created a lie that the little girl was adopted by the kind, benevolent Jacob, thus cutting out the poor townie Mary from the baby’s life and banishing her to the shadows of the village secretly holding the truth to Charlotte’s maternal side.

Mary never forgot this cruelty and never cashed the yearly checks the family paid her for her silence. She vowed to some day get her daughter back. 

Evie's arrival in Welshport seemingly gave her the opportunity to now reach for her daughter in hope's whatever child Evie and Sebastian would have would allow Charlotte to be released from her place as an heiress to the Lord family fortune. Mary’s sudden hope for a new baby from Sebastian and Evie’s marriage felt like a ray of hope in her decade long quest to reunite with her daughter. 

Stepping off the small boat she rowed herself to Goode Island, Mary looked toward a thicket of trees in the distance towards her mother's cabin where a plume of chimney smoke filled the air like a giant feather reaching for the sky. In her long peach toned dress and large floppy straw hat tied with a thick blue satin ribbon, Mary made her way to the one person she could trust the most, her mother Eliza. 

Mary carried a small basket of goods and food that she would often bring from the main island so that her mother wouldn't starve, although her mother Eliza was often very self-reliant, Mary's bi-weekly visits with goods were usually more social. This time Mary felt a need to finally ask for help. 

Mary slowly opened the cabin's door. The familiar smells of sage and strong coffee quickly kissed her face. She peeked through the door and waited to see her mother come out of the small bedroom that they once shared. But no one came out. It was not like her mother not to greet her at the door. Mary took a breath and walked slowly through the cluttered cabin of books and papers. Various pots and pans that hung from the ceiling caught the light of the day and reflected little spots over the entire room. There was burning candles on every surface and the fireplace smoldered in the corner filling the main room with an extra stench of scorch that was also not an unfamiliar smell. 

Mary made the small walk from the front door to the bedroom leaving the basket of goods on a small table in the front area and came to the bedroom door and lifted her fist to knock but before she could tap on the door, her mother spoke.

"Come in girl." A withered voice said from the other side. Mary smirked, realizing her mother was fine and opened her door. 

"Hello mother." Mary said seeing her mother sitting at in a dark room with candles all around her. 

Her mother turned her head, her long white hair was braided and went down her back like a long vine. Eliza got up and went over to Mary and hugged her tightly but could feel a fervor of rage boiling within.

"What is it? What has happened?" her mother Eliza said.

"They're getting married." Mary said of Evie and Sabastian. 

“They?” 

“Sebastian is getting married.” Mary half clarified. 

"Hmm." Eliza huffed. "And why does this union affect you Mary? You know I've warned you that nothing good can come to you by continuing to try and pull at Charlotte the way you have. They'll never let her go now. She’s wrapped in their greedy tentacles. You've allowed too much time to pass." Eliza said rather coldly. 

"But the new one, the woman who's come for Sebastian's hand, they'll have a child soon enough and that child will be their heir. Charlotte will be free of that burden., I can have her back. Jacob will have no use for her." Mary explained. 

Eliza squeezed Mary's wrists and saw the desperation and somewhat madness in her daughters eyes. A feeling of dread slowly seeped into every blood vessel in Eliza's body realizing that her grown daughter had a mind of young teenager. She could not help Mary. Even if she tired.

"My girl, you have so much to look forward to in your own future. You are young. You can do more for yourself. All I want for you is to move passed this and try and live a better life. The Lord family and my sweet lost grandchild is something we can never get back. Move on Mary. Move on." Eliza expressed as she sat on her bed still making eye contact with Mary.

"How can you say that? She's our blood too! Together we could fight Jacob finally once and for all and get Charlotte back. She's my daughter! Please, mother." Mary said as she turned to another full bookshelf in her mother's room and pulled out a special book that she then handed to her mother: A book of spells. 

Eliza saw the pain and suffering in Mary's eyes but knew the Lords were too powerful and that nothing they could do would grant Mary any access to Charlotte. Ever again.

Eliza Goode had a spiritual connection to the land that had always been manifested itself in the way of magic and spells. But spells that she had always used forgot, and never ever for her own gains. Mary, did not have this same connection to the majesty of magic of the earth and had always known to never ask for special favors from her mother's gifts but today, finally, she did ask. 

"I cannot." Eliza said. "You know that I cannot use what I know for our own selfish needs. Even if it does involve Charlotte. Mary, I cannot." Eliza said, with an almost pleading in her voice for Mary to not ask.

"But...she's your granddaughter." Mary replied.

"Only darkness will come of this, if I should ask the universe to reverse your misfortune and Charlotte's the pay back will not be pleasant Mary. You know this. I have always told you that it will never be good." Eliza explained.

Mary frowned. Her heart sank and she tore the book out of Eliza’s hand and looked at it herself. 

"You never wanted me to have Charlotte. You hated that I gave birth to her. You can do whatever you want with your gift and instead of helping me, your only child, you choose to recuse yourself as if you have no claim to Charlotte. Well, if you have no claim to Charlotte then you have no claim to me." Mary answered angrily. 

"No, that's not it. That's not it at all, you know this Mary." The elderly Eliza said.

Mary snarled her lip and threw the book into the corner of the room. "Your basket is in the front. Enjoy it, it may be the last thing you ever get from me." She said as she stormed out of the room.

Eliza sat on her bed, elderly and sad. Tears fell from her two gray eyes and she felt that her daughter's pain would most certainly lead to a treacherous end it she was not reigned in. The older woman got up from her bed, slowly walked over to where the book had been thrown and saw that as if fell from the air it had fallen and opened to a page that made her stomach drop.

In Latin, a spell read: VITA AETERNA MALEDICTIONEM: the curse of ever lasting life. 

"No....NO!!!" Eliza screamed to herself, realizing the book, her book of spells and hexes, a book she never ever used to curse anyone alive was sending her a message. It was an omen of things to come. 

As Mary made her angry and frustrated march back her small boat and oars to get back to the main island, she could only feel an overwhelming sense of hurt and betrayal from her mother whom she saw as being difficult and impossible. There was, in Mary's eyes, something Eliza could do, but Mary saw it as only her mother being reluctant to welcome her Lord granddaughter into her arms and refused to use any sort of spell. The betrayal set Mary's heart on fire, so much so that it somewhat took over her mind so much that she didn't even notice the tall dark figure standing by a tree near her boat smoking a cigarette. 

It was Jacob Lord, her ex and Charlotte's father.

"You're in a mood." He said startling her so much she tripped on the hem of her peach colored dress knocking her to the floor.

"What, what are you doing here?" She asked stammering to her feet.

"Its been a long time Mary Goode. A very long time." Jacob replied in a cold voice as he came out of the shade of the tree he was standing under and pulled a yellowed leaf from the shoulder of her dress.

"I asked what you wanted. Why did you follow me?" Mary replied.

"A lot of things are happening over at Tirymôr House, as you know. A new bride. A new fresh outlook on all our lives. It's a very joyous occasion. And you know how much I detest interruptions in my plans." Jacob said still puffing on his cigarette dressed in a bowler hat and sharp grey suit. 

"Don't worry, Celeste already warned me to stay away from the wedding tomorrow." Mary replied as she rolled her eyes. "Now tell me why you followed me?" She added as the small waves lapped up on the shore near their two boats. 

"Well that's just it Mary, I don't agree with Celeste. In fact I think you should come to the wedding. Perhaps as my own guest. You are the mother of Sebastian's only cousin after all." Jacob replied to a confused Mary.

"What? Your guest?" 

"Yes. Don't you want to come to the wedding? Charlotte will be there. She's the flower girl. You'll have a wonderful time." Jacob said with a glimmer of wicked in his voice.

"You've kept my child from me all her life and now you want me to come to the wedding and be your guest? What are you even talking about?" Mary said, her voice clearly shocked in this sudden bizarre change of tone. 

"Mary I would be happy to involve you in our daughter's life you know that it's really my mother who's kept you away all these years. I promise. I've been wanting to tell you this all along. I want you to be in Charlotte's life, she deserves to have her mother. She always has. Rebecca is a cold woman, and...well, things will have to change. Eventually." Jacob replied.

"How will they change? If you're saying Rebecca is the reason I cannot see Charlotte, how am I to come to the wedding? Rebeca will be there." 

"That's true, but I know that there is a way that we can both meet in the middle of this strange new circumstance we find ourselves in. You see, if you come to the wedding, as my guest, you'd have to do something for me. Once that is all said and done it will have all the access you need to Charlotte. I will even introduce you to her myself. Rebecca and her medaling will be obsolete by then, that I can assure you." Jacob explained.

"I don't understand, how can we do this? What would I have to do?" Mary wondered.

Jacob smiled and reached into his vest and slowly removed a silver revolver and placed it in the palm of his other hand and extended it to his ex-lover. "This." He said softly as the waves from the small channel of water between the two islands crashed. 

Mary's eyes widened. She stepped back. She didn't understand why he was handing her a gun. So many thoughts ran though her brain; was he going to use it on her? Was it a joke? Was it a trick?

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Take it. This is your key back into Charlotte's life. Do with this what I want you to do and I will never stop you from seeing Charlotte again. Neither will my mother Rebecca. I promise you Mary." Jacob said stepping one step forward with his hand still extended to Mary with the gun. "Take it." He repeated.

Mary was weary. She knew Jacob was a monster. She knew he was a man with a heart of coal, a body of sin and a mind of pure evil. But the temptation of being able to see and be apart of her daughter's life again was too strong. Mary grabbed the gun.

"That's a good girl. A very good girl Mary." Jacob said as she slowly came up to Mary and grabbed her and hugged her close. Then he slowly pulled her body from his and stared deep into her eyes. She felt a power over her that she could not understand. It was a power that Jacob had used once before, when they first met, when they first kissed, when they first made love and conceived Charlotte. He looked deep into her eyes and kissed her passionately. She felt her body almost feel as if it were levitating. Passion running from the tips of her feet to the top of her hat covered head. The blood rushed around in her veins hot and fast. He pulled his lips off of hers and a tear had fallen from her left eyes. He wiped it away and held her face in his two large hands. 

"Now, you'll do what I ask won't you?" He whispered to her. Mary nodded yes. "For you to have access to Charlotte, I need you to use this gun....take it with you and keep it. Bring it to the wedding and, Mary, I want you to shoot both Sebastian and Evie in the head. Do you understand? In the head Mary. They cannot survive. They must both die. For you and for me and for Charlotte. The two of them must die. Will you do this for  me?" Jacob asked.

And just as Eliza warned, the darkness entered Mary's heart when she agreed. 

She agreed to kill Sebastian and kill Evie in cold blood on the day of their wedding all while Jacob dangled access to their daughter in front of her like a carrot on a stick. 

"Good girl." Jacob grinned as the fog from the sea slowly rolled in and covered them up like a white wet blanket of clouds. 

Mary holds Jacob’s revolver pensively 

****

Rebecca & Evie in the bridal suite 

The following day, a sunny autumn sky and customary gusty island wind blew over the island of Welshport welcoming guests from the mainland to Tirymôr House for the wedding of Evie Jordan to the rich and powerful Lord family heir Sebastian. The house was bustling with final touches from caterers to florists all making sure Rebecca's plans for the day were met with absolutely no mistakes.

Up in her room, the bride sat at a lovely vanity while Celeste carefully put the final touches of her wedding attire on her.

Evie's dress was a vision of white lace, with full length sleeves to her wrists, rounded puff shoulders and a neckline that covered up almost to the top of her neck. Her shoulders were encrusted with pure white pearls, the dress was a gift from her parents. Her dark hair was combed up in a curly swoop in the back and two small curls dangled elegantly over her ears. 

Celeste fluffed the bottom tussle of the dress and made sure every hair was in place. The bride was prefect and beautiful and dripped in diamonds and pearls, all given to her by her mother for the special day.

"These are so beautiful." Celeste said of the droplet pearl earrings.

"It's so bitter-sweet that they're not here." Evie said.

"Your family?" Celeste added to Evie nodding. "Well they're here in spirit and in these gifts that they sent with you. You know objects have a power within them too. Especially when they're gifts. Think of these earrings as holding the love and pride your mother and father have for you. Let them be the spirit of your parents. It sounds silly, I know, but it might help the loneliness." Celeste added.

Evie turned around from the mirror and jumped up and grabbed hold of Celeste and hugged her. 

"You've been the best friend I could ever ask for here Celeste. Thank you for everything." She said as tears slowly made their way to her eyes.

"Now, now, now, don't muss your face. It took us long enough to get it all pretty." Celeste said, tears also filling her deep brown eyes. 

"Emotions are very high in here." A voice came from the bedroom door. "The guests are arriving.”

They bride and her maid of honor both turned to see Rebecca Lord standing at the door in her long black dress, equally as confining as the bride's and her hair tightly tied back with emerald earrings that sparkled as they dangled in the autumn sunlight that peeked through the large windows of Evie's bedroom.

The two girls curtsied to the dowager matriarch and she smiled sweetly, but the visit was not a social one. 

"Celeste, darling, would you mind if I had a moment with my future granddaughter-in-law?" 

"Of course, ma'am. Evie, I'll be back as soon as Mrs. Lord sends for me alright?" Celeste said as she lifted the front of her dress enough so she didn't trip on the hem on her hurried exit from the room at Rebecca's orders. 

"You look ..." Rebecca said pausing to give Evie one last look...."divine." She said.

"Oh, thank you Mrs. Lord." 

"You're nervous?" The old woman said seeing Evie's hands trembling. 

"A little." 

"Come….sit here." Rebecca said, as she sat on the large bed and ushered Evie to sit with her. 

The pair sat by each other, a direct contact: one in virginal white, the other in sinner's black, one young and fresh, the other older and warned. Rebecca looked over at Evie like she was reading carefully the pages of a book. Every line, every crease and every stitch of lace of the dress. Evie was indeed exquisite to look at. Her perfect peach-toned skin and eyes that sparkled with youth seemed to light the entire room.

"At my wedding, my mother told me that I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. The weight of the world, she meant, was the weight of my father's name. My father was a gambler you see and he had used up our entire fortune and by the time I was to marry my husband Albert we had nothing. Well, not nothing but very little left. I had to be married to off to the wealthiest man in New England. It was the only way to keep my family from ruin. So I understand what you're going through." Rebecca said revealing to Evie that she knew of Evie's family's financial ruin.

"Oh. I..." Evie began before she was interrupted. 

"Don't worry my dear. I'm not here to warn you about doing anything I didn't do in my past. Not in the slightest. I'm here to give you my gift. My very personal gift for just you." Rebecca said as she reached into her dress pocket and removed the crystal amulet Gaspar gave her to use on Evie.

Just as she did, the large painting in the back of the room once again had a pair of eyes watching from behind the wall in the room on the other side. It was Gaspar watching intently as Jacob too waited for news that Rebecca was able to hypnotize Evie. 

"It's very pretty." Evie said reaching for the crystal just before Rebecca pulled it away and stood up in front of a sitting Evie.

"This crystal my dear is going to be the best thing that ever happened to you. Look at all the fractals of light, aren't they beautiful? See them sparkle?" Rebecca said as the lights from the cuts in the crystal sparkled on to Evie's prefect face.

"It is..." Evie said staring at the crystal as it dangled in front of her eyes.

Rebecca's obsession with making sure Evie's memory of the secret was the most important thing for Rebecca at the moment. In Rebecca's eyes Sebastian and Evie could not have a happy marriage if the awful truth of David killing Sabrina lived inside Evie's mind for all their lives. The darkness of that past family secret could and would only bring misfortune and further death if it continued to live inside Evie's consciousness, and Rebecca, knowing full well how the darkness could creep back into her family, could not let any of that come to be. 

The hypnosis had to happen. So, she dangled the crystal in Evie's face just like Gaspar, her spiritual adviser taught her. 

"Keep your eyes on the crystal, Evie, see how it moves back and forth and back and forth. This is a metaphor for your relationship with my grandson Sebastian. Let the time flow through you in your mind and feel the happiness that he can bring you, let the light from this crystal open up your mind ....let your mind open up Evie, open it up to the light." Rebecca said. 

In the other room Gaspar turned to Jacob and mouthed "She's doing it."

Evie was weary of Rebecca, the dream she had the other night of being buried alive and Rebecca being the one who did it still stung in her mind. She could still hear Rebecca's voice from the dream..."let her rest in peace"...the voice, Rebecca's voice echoed over and over as if her mind was reminding Evie to be careful.

"Evie," Rebecca said to Evie's trying to look away. "Don't you see the lights?" 

Evie wasn't comfortable, the old woman's words often felt cold and hollow. She worried about what she really wanted and why she had such a horrible nightmare that involved her. A chill ran up Evie's white buttoned up back tightened with a corset and lace bodice.  

Rebecca grabbed Evie by the chin and moved her face towards the dangling crystal, forcing her to look at the gift she brought her. 

"See? There is light dancing for you within the crystal, do you see them Evie? Look deeper, deeper into the little fractals of light. Let the light go inside of your mind, Evie, let the light be a key for me." Rebecca said. 

Evie's face began to change. She began to let the woman's words deep into her subconscious like a slithering snake in for the kill.

"I see the lights." Evie said, her eyes glazing over.

"Good, good...now let me inside your mind, let me clear you of the burden of that story of death and disaster. Let me fill you with only good visions of what our family and let me..." Rebecca said attempting to remove the memory of the secret from her soon-to-be new granddaughter's mind.

But then, in a blink of a millisecond, Evie pulled away quickly breaking the trans from Rebecca's control and got up from the bed. It was Rebecca’s voice. It was the same from her dream of being in the coffin. Cold. Cruel. Devious. 

Evie shook her head and felt a little dazed but the hypnosis did not work, her discomfort with the woman’s voice from her dream, the woman who had been there in her nightmare and laughter at her being buried alive, that same voice, that matching voice was too horrible to listen to. As she recognized it as Rebecca She pulled herself out the hypnosis fully intact and walked back over to her vanity mirror in a shallow breath.

"I should finish getting ready." Evie said, noting the time nervously.

"But your gift." Rebecca said extending her arm with the dangling crystal on a red string. 

"Thank you very much I will treasure it." Evie said snatching the crystal from Rebecca's hand and quickly putting into a purple painted jewelry box with all of her other trinkets. 

Rebecca's eyes widened, she had failed. She could now only stare at the jewelry box and feel the utter disaster that had just occurred all throughout her senses. Not only did Evie now have the crystal herself but she continued to have the evil memory of the truth of David and Sabrina's demise. It was killing Rebecca inside that she could not snuff out the dark secret and hopefully start the new couple on a journey of happiness with Evie's mind clear.

Rebecca's superstitions of dark and evil swirling around Evie and Sebastian all stemmed from the secret of Sebastian's father killing Sebastian's mother but now she had to think of someway else. 

"Well then," Rebecca said with her eyes on the jewelry box "Ill call Celeste back in to help you finish getting ready." She added with a disappointed tone in her voice.

"Thank you Mrs. Lord." Evie said, in a hurried voice hoping for Rebecca's quick exit. 

Rebecca smiled coldly still with the stain of failure all over her face then turned to leave the room while Evie looked down at the jewelry box with the hypnotic crystal in it still warm from Rebecca’s hand and felt a shiver go up her spine like she had just scene a ghost. 

In the other room, the painted eyes were returned to painting. And Gaspar threw himself onto the love seat in a lump anger that the old woman failed in the hypnosis. 

"The old bat couldn't follow directions if they were written on the insides of her eye lids. She failed!!!" Gaspar said, his French accent melting into a British one.

Jacob, dressed in his finest tuxedo with golden cuff-links and a small chained watch in the pocket of his vest was standing at the French doors that led to a third story balcony over looking the grounds of the Tirymôr House as he smoked a cigarette. He grinned and threw the cigarette, still smoldering, off the balcony. 

"Don't worry old boy, things are about to look up. I don’t pay you to worry only to keep my mother’s paranoias pumping. We won't need her to help us in our little plan anyway." Jacob said playfully slapping Gaspar's face.

"What do you mean?" Gaspar asked sitting up. 

Jacob turned and looked at his friend in the face, he smiled and winked with a wicked look in his eye. 

"Sooner or later your little trick of the eye playing on my mother's foolish little superstations was going to give way. I knew it. You knew it. You didn't actually believe my mother would always  think you were some kind of spirit chasing, ghost talking, connecting to the other side guide, did you? It had to end sometime. Your fake Frenchie accent there was a good touch, and my money on you has been very well spent...especially the crystal thing, that was good, but only if it worked on Evie. And it hasn't. My mother will sooner banish you from this house now than trust you again. So being the devil that I am, I planned ahead." Jacob said grinning.

"Your money? The only reason I’m here pretending to be this ridiculous spirit speaker is because of all the money owe me. Don’t forget that.” Gaspar said. 

Jacob quickly turned serious when his millions of dollar of debt to Gaspar and his partners was mentioned. 

“How can I forget.” He said.

“Sometimes I think you do. This whole scam to push your mother to believe or this nonsense of tarot cards and palm reading and to off your nephew seems to be slower than I had anticipated. It  hasn’t panned out and …” Gaspar said before being interrupted.

“Alright!!!! You’ve made your point. The money will come into play, my second plan is fool proof.” Jacob answered. 

“Your mother would banish me if she knew the truth. Let’s make sure she doesn’t.” Gaspar suddenly said, realizing the dangers if their scam was revealed before it could come to fruition. 

"But it doesn't matter.” Jacob retorted. “As soon as my second plan comes into play we'll be home free. See, I have a little scheme going with that little whore Mary. She's my ...well, let's just say my secret weapon." 

"Mary Goode? How is that plan fool proof?” Gaspar asked sarcastically his voice still in his native British accident. 

"Don't you worry about that. As soon as Mary completes her little task I'll be one more step closer at getting everything that I have always wanted and more, and that, my friend, means you'll get what's coming to you to. All of what's coming to you." 

Gaspar seemed relived to know there was a second plan and that even with the new plan, Jacob would still pay him out. The two con-men were about to set in motion a deadly line of events that would change the face of Tirymôr House and the Lord family for ever. 

And in the village, Mary Good, in her most beautiful of dresses got into a small black cab. She handed the driver $5 and told him to take her to the Lord family mansion in the Tirymôr forest. 

"Ahh! Off to the big wedding, are ya? Well good for you, love, you look lovely." the cab driver said with a grin.

Mary flashed a nervous smile and sat back in the car's paten leather seat and clutched her black purse that matched her satin blue dress, and inside her purse the weapon. The revolver, it felt hot like a coal. It made her feel 100 pounds heavier. Her next move, the murder of two people she didn't care for was they key, she thought, the one event that would finally reunite her with Charlotte.

Back at the mansion, Evie and Celeste finished their prepping. Evie looked in the mirror just as the vail was placed over her face. 

"This will be the best and happiest day of your life, a day you'll remember forever." Celeste said as she squeezed Evie's shoulders and the two cried together in hopes of a beautiful day. 

                                   

B1/Ch5: THE WINDOW

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. 

****

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. 

                             

B1/Ch4: SEALED WITH A KISS

Celeste & Mary’s confrontation in the village 

On a crisp cool morning two days before Sebastian Lord, the heir to a wealthy and powerful publishing dynasty in New England, was to marry the young and beautiful British Evie Jordan; her lady-in-waiting, Celeste DeViana, was in the village at a small flower shop collecting a the lady of a large bundle of white lilies and white roses for the wedding that was to take place in the main chapel inside the family’s mansion. 

The scent of the flowers swirled around Celeste’s nose like sweet smoke, invisible to the eye but impossible not to notice. The sweetness of the aroma kept Celeste’s mind on the beautiful day and the beautiful coming wedding to come. She was overjoyed for her new friend Evie and her old friend Sebastian.

As Celeste packed the Lord’s car with the packages of flowers with the driver’s help, a familiar voice came from behind her in the area of the pavement where the clean white cement met the black tar of the Welshport Village street. 

“If you’d smile any bigger I’d say it was your wedding day coming and not that poor unfortunate Evie.” The woman’s voice said to Celeste.

Celeste turned to see Mary Goode, a beautiful blonde woman with eyes that sparked with a wicked glimmer and wit, not to mention the village’s most ardent Lord family antagonist who would bad mouth them to anyone who’d listen at the bar where she worked. 

“You keep yourself away from this wedding, and Evie. You said enough on the dock when she first arrived.” Celeste warned remembering Mary had and Evie has already met. 

Mary smirked and flipped her curly blonde hair over her shoulder and stepped into the street closer to Celeste. 

“Why are you letting this happen? You know there is nothing good to come of this marriage. If anything they’ll find her body in two months out in Tirymôr Woods or sinking in the sand on the beach like they did his mother. Nothing good, Celeste, nothing good.” Mary replied.

“And if anyone would know about nothing good, it’s you, isn’t that right Mary?” Celeste said with a sting. 

Mary’s reputation in town wasn’t just as a tough talking townie, she was ostensibly known for being a woman of a “friendly” nature, the kind of woman the married fishermen who’d dock on the island would spend their first $30 pay for one night with the local girl who worked in the pubs. True or not, this lie stuck with the beautiful but a threatening young Mary and every wife in the village. 

“If I still had my connection in that family I’d have you sacked at first sight. You’re nothing but an enabler Celeste. You keep all their secrets and lie for them and for what? Because they pay you well? Money isn’t everything. What good is money if it’s blood money?” Mary replied. 

“You don’t know what you’re talking about and it’s your own fault you lost your so called connection to the Lords. A connection that never even existed as far as I’m concerned. You and your menacing mother should be put away for life. Everyone knows you’re both unwell.” Celeste replied back as she turned to finish packing the car with flowers.

“They’ll do to Evie what they did to Sabrina and me. They’ll all tear her down Celeste. Mark my words!” Mary shouted. 

Celeste turned back and looked at Mary dead in the eye and lifted a brow. The sun splashed a bright light on Celeste’s mocha skin and pale pink dress with lace trim and bustle giving her the look of a life size cake decoration. She pulled down the petticoat that squeezed in the bodice of her dress and made one more step toward Mary. 

“I’m going to say it one more time, Mary Goode… stay away from Tirymôr House and Evie Jordan and Sebastian Lorde. Add them to the list of members of that family you are never to see again.” Celeste said.

“Miss, we should get back.” The driver said to Celeste, cutting the tense conversation. 

Celeste turned and lifted her nose at Mary Goode who squinted her eyes at the departing lady in waiting. 

Celeste wasn’t wrong. Mary’s clandestine relationship with a member of the family was rumored all around the island for years. Rumors of affairs and money and blackmail. All part of the shrouded lives of the Lords.

The beautiful blond Mary had grown up on a small satellite island just off the southern coast of Welshport Island. The total inhabitants were two, Mary and her mother Eliza. Eliza was an eccentric woman of a mysterious background. She had given birth to Mary in their little cabin on the small nameless island that the locals of Welshport called Goode Island, after the strange women who call it home.

Mary’s mother Eliza never told her who her father was and when Mary came to town for school the children ostracized her, called her names, treated her horribly just for being the daughter of the strange hermit woman from the little island, all the children except Sebastian Lord.

Although there were never friends, Mary noticed how he tried to take attention off of her from the meanest children and often smiled at her from across the class. His kindness always shining in his eyes but never spoken. But as they grew up, along came a spider. 

It was another Lord family member who found interest in her at the age of 20. This man was obsessed with her but forced her to keep their relationship secret until one day, she told him she would have to tell them all. Because she was pregnant. The baby’s father, was Jacob Lord.

Jacob tried everything he could to end her pregnancy. Threw her down stairs. Locked her away and did not feed her. He was discovered and the baby girl was born and the family did everything they could to cover for Jacob and tarnish Mary’s image in town more than it already was for being the daughter of the strange woman from Goode Island. The Lords were the ones who spread the false rumor of Mary’s so called scandalous profession when she was nothing more than a barmaid. 

Mary’s baby girl Charlotte, only saw her three times and now memories of Mary are fading and Mary knows it. The Lords refuse to allow Mary to see Charlotte and Mary’s hate for them grew and grew with each passing of Charlotte now 10 birthdays.  

Mary stood on the street watching as Celeste’s car drove off in the distance as a man whistled at her in her blue dress with its slinky tassels and hem of silk torn at the bottom. Mary rolled her eyes at the man and shooed him away. All she had on her mind now was how she was going to get into the mansion and stop Evie from making the biggest mistake of her life: becoming a Lord. 

****

That late afternoon a large tin pot boiled over a roaring fire over the hearth of an iron stove in a small cottage in the village. The small cottage had a cabin like feel and smelled of rosemary, thyme and lemon; the herbal and citrus ingredients of a bubbling chicken soup with potatoes and carrots on the fire. 

Celeste’s live in partner Filipe Braga was busily slicing a Portuguese style corn bread freshly baked for the meal he had made for Celeste who burst into the cottage in a fluster. She had just been dropped off by the Lord family driver as he returned to the estate with the flowers for the wedding.

“Hope you’re hungry.” Filipe said as he peeked around the corner of a half wall from the kitchen. His caramel skin seeming to glow in the after noon sun that snuck in through a kitchen window. 

“I’ve lost my appetite.” Celeste said as she collapsed in a soft arm chair near a small oil lantern who’s light glistened on her mocha skin. 

“What happened?” Filipe asked stepping into the front room.

“Mary Goode. That’s what happened.” Celeste replied.

“Goode? That hermit Eliza’s daughter?” Filipe asked.

“I ran into her in town and she wasn’t exactly happy about the whole wedding thing. I don’t know, something tells me she’s not going to let this go off tomorrow without getting herself into trouble.” Celeste said.

“What exactly did she say?” A voice said from the other side of the kitchen’s half wall. 

It was Filipe’ best friend and boss the village Constable: the blue eyed Christian Evans, who had come over to share dinner with Celeste and Filipe. The friendly dinner date had slipped Celeste’s mind.

“Oh! I totally forgot you were coming for dinner! Christian forget what I said.” An embarrassed Celeste said feeling like she was gossiping in presence of a town official. One like Christian who had law flowing in his veins. 

“She hasn’t exactly been the most law abiding citizen, Celeste, so if Mary is throwing out threats to anyone in the Lord family again I think I should know about it.” Christian said. 

Celeste and her family had worked for the Lords family for generations. Filipe at one point did too. They had given him his first job when he arrived in America from the same Portuguese colony as Celeste as an orphan. In his teenage years, Filipe was a page for Jacob.

 Tirymôr is where Filipe and Celeste met and fell in love. 

Although these days Filipe no longer worked on the estate, he was now the town’s acting deputy and a horse breeder. His relationship with the Lord family was left strained when one day while working as Jacob’s page, the job quite literally took Filipe’s right hand, mangling it in a horrible automobile when a drunk Jacob took to driving while Filipe was his passenger. 

Christian however had been in town from Philadelphia, although originally from Welshport. He was very familiar with the Lord family, and most especially Sebastian. They had been friends through their teen years.

Being the only law informant in with proper training in the north east with knowledge of Welshport, Christian was reassigned to his rural Maine island home after the scandal with Sebastian’s parents: The murder of Sabrina and David’s sudden disappearance. Christian’s return to the island was met with constant shadowy double talk by locals who never dared speak ill of the richest most powerful family in New England and were the employers to half the village, as acting deputy Filipe acted as a buffer between the returned Constable and the mistrusting townspeople. 

Christian still wanted to keep the law in everyone’s peripheral. Even the town’s most reckless woman: Mary Goode. 

“It’s all just become so odd. It’s not just Mary.” Celeste added. 

“What do you mean?” Filipe asked filling her bowl with his soup. 

“Did something else happen?” Christina wondered.

Celeste took a breathe before replying because of the strange happenings at Tirymôr—but let it all out. “Charlotte bit the new Mrs. Lord, Evie. Bit her so hard she drew blood! I’ve never seen such a such a thing. It was as if she was trying to, I don’t know, take something from her. A piece of Evie. Just in the way she did it and wouldn’t let go. It was horrifying. ” 

“God!” Filipe exclaimed as he stirred the soup. “That must of been fantastic for old Jacob. His daughter the blood thirsty 10 year old.” 

“She could be just acting out. But I’d like to get back to this Mary Goode conversation. Celeste if you think her threats are viable I should really know.” Christian explained. 

“She’s just an angry woman. Nothing more. Why are you so intrigued by her” Celeste replied.

“Mary has a knack for telling the drunk sailors that come into her bar stories about the Lords. Some have got back to me and it worries me. I know that when we were kids and she’d come in to the village for school Sebastian would be the only one who’d defend her. Now all she can do is talk about them in the most negative of ways. I don’t feel shes in her right mind. I just want to keep my eye on her.” Christian said as he sipped from his soup. 

“Hmm…” Filipe said with a grin. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” 

“Oh!” Celeste scoffed. 

“Mary is not just any woman we all know she’s had something in her mind spinning away against that family for a while now. For my own peace of mind and maybe yours Celeste I’ll be at the wedding. The more eyes on the look out for the unstable Goode girl the better.” Christian said. 

Celeste smiled. It was a good idea. Both she and Filipe knew that the only way to keep anyone safe around a gathering of Lord family members was to have as many witnesses as humanly possible. They were a secretive family that did things in ways that no one really understood. Christian was ready for them.

****

Two nights before the wedding, Evie tossed and turned in her bed. The rustling of the down-comforter overstuffed with Canadian goose feathers seemed meld with the quiet cracking of the dimming fire in the fireplace. 

Electricity had come to Welshport only a few years earlier and Evie’s room had been fitted with a fancy dimmer switch to keep her room slightly lit while she continued to toss and turn under the canopy bed of rosewood and oak. 

In her sleeping state Evie fell into a dark cloud like dream the engulfed her whole body in a laid out state. She was dreaming, a nightmare really, choked by the black cloud in her mind. 

As she laid there in her dream she reached up but her hands were blocked. She reached to her side, blackness surrounding her and again her hands blocked by an invisible wall. She was completely surrounded by this invisible barricade. Locked somewhere in the dark. She screamed out loud but she could tell the sound was going no where. 

As she continued to struggled in her dream, her room in real life had suddenly gotten colder. A breeze of ocean air had invaded her bedroom and blew out even the hottest embers. Her bedroom door creaked open and someone in what looked like a light nightgown crept in the room and watched as Evie was tormented her in sleep.

While in that sleep Evie could hear a muffling sound above her. It was strange and sounded as if someone was walking over her in a second story house. But she was not in a house. The darkness of her surroundings made her feel like she was trapped somewhere. Then a woman’s voice came to her ears, just as muffled and hard to understand as the foot steps. 

Evie screamed for help but again the sound of her voice only went as far as whatever was containing her. She kicked and punched but the wall, invisible to her eye stood strong locking her in. 

Then, finally she heard the words that chilled her to her bones. They were clear and perfectly articulated.

“May she Rest In Peace.” The voice said. 

Evie repeated what she heard “rest in peace?” Then it dawned on her — she was buried...alive. The containing force around her suddenly went from invisible to visible and took the shape of a coffin from the inside. Evie screamed and screamed but still her voice stayed in her coffin. 

She began to scratch at the silk lining of her coffin lid. Pulling down every stitch of fabric she could while crying hysterically, screaming at the top of her lungs until the wood of the lid could be seen from the ripped off fabric lining. She scratched and clawed so violently at the lid's underside just inches from her pale terrified screaming face that the ends of her fingers were bleeding causing bloody smear marks to splatter across the area right over her face. 

She kicked her legs. She punched at the side of the coffin as hard as she could. But she was trapped.

The air was now getting thinner. She was losing oxygen quickly inside the dark coffin that seemed to have a sinister red glow coming from an unknown source. As the final gulps of oxygen began to vanish, Evie screamed one more time, to the people above her grave: “I AM ALIVE!!!!!”

The scream from with her dream was so loud, that it woke her up in a sweaty breathless mess to a shocking guest in her bedroom staring right at her.

It was Charlotte. 

“Charlotte? What are you doing?” Evie asked trying to compose herself after waking from her nightmare. 

“I needed to say I was sorry. I hurt you.” The girl said carefully placing herself on the edge of Evie’s large bed. 

Evie felt a coolness of air kiss the back back of her moist neck, wet from sweat from the nightmare. 

“It’s ok.” Evie replied pulling the covers closer to her chest to warm her from the cold air. “You should go back to your room. It’s very late and we have a big day tomorrow.” She added. 

“Are you happy to marry Sebastian?” Charlotte asked out of nowhere.

Evie smirked at the surprise question and replied “very much so.”

“Do you love him?” Charlotte asked again.

Evie looked at her soon-to-be in law, her hand aching, a reminder of the bite she gave her earlier that day.

“Of course I do. I love him very much and I am so happy to become part of your family. Now go on, go back to your room and rest. We’ll chat in the morning.” Evie said.

“I just want him to be happy. And for you to be happy.” Charlotte added.

Evie looked at the young Lord girl and could see a sort of sadness ooze from her eyes. She could literally feel the Sadness coming from Charlotte as if it were her own. The emotion gripped Evie’s heart like a hand squeezing an orange to the point Evie began to unexpectedly tear up.

“You love your cousin very much don’t you Charlotte.” She asked. 

“He’s the kindest person I have ever met. I wouldn’t hurt him ever.” Charlotte replied.

“That’s very good. It’s good to keep those you love and protect them and not hurt them. But your hurt me. Why did you bite me?” Evie asked seeing a moment to connect and bond with the odd girl. 

Charlotte didn’t answer at first she only stared at Evie’s bandaged hand that she then went over and caressed. 

“Sometimes I feel strange and I feel like I’m someone else. I don’t know, it’s like a warm feeling but also very scary. I just felt like I needed to do something it was an urge. Something strong and I feel awful about it. I hurt you, I know I did.. I didn’t mean to.” Charlotte explained. 

And in that moment Evie knew that she wasn’t the only one feeling out of place. For Charlotte, Evie believed, being the only young lady in a world such as the one the Lord family traveled in, probably felt unbearably stressful and it seemed to reason the bite was Charlotte reacting with stress at the changing dynamic. Biting someone was perhaps a bizarre extreme way to do it, but Evie felt it better to just move on and heal. Literally.

“I understand. When I was your age I sometimes did things to get a rise out of my father too. But I want us to be friends. Good friends. Is that ok with you?” Evie asked. 

 Charlotte smiled. 

“It’s Ok with me.” The girl said as she slid off the bed. But before she left she came up to Evie who felt her whole body freeze with apprehension. She felt somewhat silly that she was a bit frightened of the 10 year old but their history had already hit a rough patch. 

Charlotte leaned over the soft bed covering and kissed Evie sweetly on the cheek surprising the new Lord family member. 

Then Charlotte looked at Evie dead in her eyes. Her tone and honey language suddenly changed and she almost looked stoic and mature then she said in a whisper of a voice “You’ll watch over him, won’t you? Take care of him? For as long as you live?” 

“Sebastian? Of course. Of course.” Evie replied in the same low whispered voice. 

“Because you must. He is …” the girl paused.

“What? What it is Charlotte?” Evie asked, picking up Charlotte’s strange feeling of uncertainty of what to say next.

“He’s important. Very important to all of us. But I will trust in you.” Charlotte replied, sounding older than her 10 years.

Evie felt the conversation was strange but smiled politely and nodded yes, then watched the young girl take her leave from the room satisfied with Evie’s agreement to take care of Sebastian, her beloved cousin.

As Charlotte left Evie’s room, she passed a large gold framed oval floor mirror that stood next to the door of the bedroom, but when she passed, the reflection was a full grown woman in a similar colored dressed with dark hair, pale skin, thin frame and beautiful.

The shocking visual sent chills up Evie’s spine and she shouted “CHARLOTTE!” 

The little girl turned and stepped back passing the mirror again. 

“What is it?” The startled little girl asked.

But this time the reflection was of Charlotte, her 10 year old tiny body perfectly framed in the mirror she stood beside.

Evie exhaled thankful for seeing the right person in the reflection. But her heart still pounded like a freight train in her chest. 

“Nothing. Nothing. Uh…Good night.” She replied stammering in her speech.

Charlotte smiled and left the room leaving Evie alone again in a room where the temperature slowly began to warm again. The embers in the fire place glowing hotter all on their own. 

Evie wasn’t sure what she saw. She wasn’t sure what she dreamed but she knew that this house, Tirymôr House, was a place where her heart and mind were going to be tested at every turn. 

She rolled over in her bed and stared out of the window unable to sleep.

As Charlotte walked back to her room, all the glass and picture coverings reflected the older woman’s body just as it had in the mirror in Evie’s room: it was the spirit of Sabrina Lord inhabiting the body of her little niece Charlotte, living a new life and she was there to stay. 

In the other room that shared a wall with Evie that had a large painting of a woman hanging in it, the eyes once again changed. Someone had decided to watch Evie sleep just after Charlotte left —it was Jacob. 

His diabolical mind was quickly at play. He could tell the young woman from England, his nephew’s bride to be, was in a way finding it hard to be away from home. And perhaps in over her head.

He could see the vulnerability in her, it was alluring. There was something about her. He knew he could use her innocence to his own advantage. 

Evie and her wedding to Sebastian stood in the way of Jacob and his family’s vast publishing fortune.

With a wicked plot floating in his mind to correct this, Jacob had unlisted Gaspar with a hefty paycheck to deceive Rebecca with fake psychic powers and get rid of each of the other family rivals one one by one to make Jacob the sole Lord family heir.

All he had to do now was put the plan in motion, one piece of the puzzle at a time, and like dominos they would all fall and he would be the last Lord standings. 

As Evie fell back asleep Jacob slid the cover of the painted eyes back returning the woman’s painted face back to its frozen state of eternal worry.

B1/Ch3: LAND OF THE LORDS

Evie in her room 

Down a long ornately decorated hallway with red carpeting and gold leaf shaped electrical light fixtures, some of the first electrical lines on the island, was a beautifully freshly cleaned bedroom suite set up for the new young woman from England that would soon become the newest Lord family member, Evie Jordan.

Evie sat on an olive green velvet love seat who's legs ended with four lion's paws as feet. Her dress cascaded down to the ground like a waterfall of fabric as she looked around her new bedroom awash in orange light from the hearth in the center of the room.

There was cream colored daffodils carefully painted on the wallpaper and near the large bay window that over looked a stunning lush garden was a baby blue loves seat that had one of her suitcases open showed some of her lovely clothes.  

It was just hours into her arrival at Tirymôr house and Evie was still stunned at Charlotte biting her on the hand. She looked down at the wound, it stung as her new lady-in-waiting Celeste DeViana carefully cleaned it with iodine and soft wash clothes of pink terrycloth. 

"She's never done this before miss." Celeste said, looking up from the clotted bites.

"She’s never acted out this way?" Evie asked, her voice attempting to piece together what on earth might have been going through Charlotte's mind to make her bite so hard that her tiny little girl canine teeth broke skin.

"No, no...she's a very polite young lady. Mrs. Lord has raised her very well. Only the best edicate classes for that little girl." Celeste said finally wrapping Evie's hand in a bandage. 

"I guess it just some sort of baptism into the family, huh??" Evie joked.

"You must be very tired. I could leave you now if you'd like?" Celeste asked.

"No, no. I'm glad you're here. I just feel like so much is happening so fast that to sit and talk with someone about regular things feels good." Evie answered.

"Well, as long as I've lived on this island, and it has been all my life, I can tell you there has been nothing more exciting than what is going to happen with you and Sebastian. Your wedding is a very big deal miss. Especially after all the sadness and—” Celeste stopped herself before revealing too much. 

Evie smiled politely hoping Celeste would continued but she changed the subject.

"—You'll be happy to know the weather around here is much like England's. I'm sure you packed accordingly." Celeste said.

Evie could tell Celeste was holding back. She thought about all what had happened in the last two hours, and decided to try and see if Celeste would break; the strangeness of everything coupled with what Catherine told her on the ship became too much for her own head to contain.

 As she sat there, just days from getting married in her perfect new bridal bedroom, Evie suddenly let it happen; the words, the questions they all came bubbling up and they spilled out from her mouth.

Evie needed to know the truth about Sebastian's father. Those horrible rumor of the murder I cure beach. Were they true?

"Celeste, there's something else I need to ask you." Evie said, her voice now more serious.

Celeste took a gulp of air as if she knew what was going to come out of Evie's moth next.

Then across the room under the shadows, just as Celeste’s anxiety about what Evie was about to ask boiled over, something happened completely unnoticed. 

Near a side door that lead to a private bathroom in Evie’s suite was a large painting of a Lord family ancestor from centuries before. The woman, Sebastian’s great aunt who once inhabited the same room, looked out from her painted frame with a strange and cold gaze. There was something about the painting’s eyes. The seemed vacant and distant from the rest of the painted face. Almost real. 

As the two women talked, the eyes of the painting went blank as a painted card from the other side of the wall was removed allowing someone to look through undetected through the eyes of the painting. 

Celeste, knowing the house backwards and forwards glanced over at the painting without Evie noticing. She knew they were being watched from the other side of the wall by someone in the family. 

"Anything, miss. What is it?" Celeste said to Evie about her query never giving away that she knew they were being watched. 

"The woman on the ship that I roomed with, she...well she said something to me that made me have a strange feeling, and I feel foolish even getting to this point because there is always a very good explanations for things, but she told me something about Sebastian's father David...." Evie began before Celeste slowly turned around at the mention of David Lord's name. 

"She did, did she? What did she say?" Celeste wondered.

"I don't really want to say it out loud because, well it's rather upsetting to be honest. But it had to do with his disappearance after a terrible event with his mother. She said that everyone in this area was talking about it but it sounds like some sort of folklore. It can't be true, can it?" Evie asked.

Celeste felt her stomach drop. She could see that there was some worry in Evie's eyes; a young woman who had just left her whole life behind. Her family, her world, everything. Celeste had to make a choice, tell her the truth and clean up any of the myths Catherine may have slipped in of the event that shrouded David and Serena Lord's scandalous life or put the young bride-to-be at ease.

She chose the latter, a recited the Lord family script. 

"As you can imagine, miss, this part of the world is filled with this type of nonsense especially when it has to do with prominent families like this Lords. The fictional versions are always much more entertaining. The truth is, Mrs. Sabrina Lord died of influenza. It was horrible. She suffered so... and David, well he couldn't deal with her passing when it finally happened. He did indeed vanish but it was after his poor wife died of such a horrible death. It was the most painful thing to watch." Celeste explained pausing to look out of the window as her eyes frosted over. 

Just outside of Evie’s window, Celeste stared at a large thick branch from a beautiful bare oak tree. A black crow flew down and landed on the branch and looked into the window and locked eyes with Celeste. Celeste kept eye contact with the crow as to not look into Evie’s eyes fearing detection or her lie. 

"Influenza." Evie's voice said, breaking Celeste's trance like gaze with the bird in the window. It seemed like too much or too easy of an explanation. But Evie decided not to rock the boat and accepted it as truth and Catherine's story as fodder, in truth it was just easier for her. 

"Influenza." Celeste repeated, knowing it was not the truth. "I should leave you now miss. You've had a very long day of travel and...everything else, tomorrow will be a better day and we can get you better acquainted with your new family. Please, rest well." Celeste said as she curtsied and began to leave.

"Wait, Celeste, please wait. One more thing." Evie asked.

"Yes, Miss?" 

"As long as I live here, please call me Evie, none of this Miss or Mrs. I know it's protocol, but it makes me more comfortable if we are more friends than anything else. I'll certainly need a friend here in the land of the Lords." She smirked shyly. 

Celeste smiled a large grin. "Evie." She said again with a curtsey.

"OH! One more thing..." Evie exclaimed holding her bandaged bite wound that Celeste helped clean and wrap. NO curtsies." she added to Celeste's second grin of approval.  

Celeste left the room and as she did she looked over and saw the painting’s eyes had returned to the artistic glazed state and she breathed a sigh of relief knowing she had kept the lie alive as her employers had always insisted. 

Celeste then made her way down the main stair case of the mansion that was shaped like a crescent moon. She held on tightly to the wooden and bronze banister as her long ruffled dressed with it's dark fringe ran across each step making a swishing sound that echoed in the domed chamber of the foyer. As was finally getting to the very last steps, Sebastian turned the corner and met her at the bottom of the staircase. 

"Celeste." He said, in a strange surprised voice, he had thought she went home.

"Sebastian!" Celeste said using her boss' first name, then looking around worried Rebecca over heard "I mean Mr. Lord, good evening." Celeste replied correcting herself just in case. 

He smirked at her silly correction.

"How is she? She must think we're all a bunch of insane rich people letting a little girl run amuck." 

"Actually, there was something she brought up that I think you should know about before you go up to see her." Celeste said, pulling Sebastian over to a quiet corner of the foyer where two large lanterns were glowing a peach tone of light under a large oil painting of David Lord standing on a rock over seeing Welshport Island.

Celeste and Sebastian had grown up together. Celeste's family had moved to the island decades ago, even before she was born. They had been a family of escaped slaves from Portuguese colonies that found refuge in the free north of America and Canada. Celeste's parents were born free, as of course was Celeste and her younger sister Aurora. The Lord family had given Celeste’s family members that came to America work on their land, homes and even at the various newspaper printing factories that made up the Lord family's vast Publishing empire. 

Celeste's family had prospered and made their own money and lived happily but always kept their loyalties to the wealthy family that helped their early beginning. The DeVianna family made sure that the generations to come would always had a place to work if they so wanted. 

The Lord family became synonymous with helping slaves during those awful years in the 1800s. Even Celeste's partner Filipe, a man she fell in love with only 5  years ago, had roots from the same colonies as Celeste. Together they had grown up around Sebastian, were his best friends and confidants. 

Celeste, with all the good in her, knew she had to protect the Lord family secret from Evie. To protect the secret was to protect the marriage and most of all to protect her friend Sebastian. 

"What is it? Is she having second thoughts about the wedding?" Sebastian asked in a hushed voice. 

"No, not exactly. But there was a bit of gossip spilled to her on the voyage over. She met a woman who told her about your father and she asked me about it." Celeste divulged.

"Jesus." Sebastian said, clutching his neck. "What did you tell her?" 

Celeste took a second to gather what she would reply. She knew that Sebastian trusted her, their friendship lasted all their lives and he was of course sure she didn't tell Evie the truth of the murder, but their stories needed to match and Sebastian knew it. 

"I said what you all have asked us to say if we were ever asked... that your mother died of influenza and your father's disappearance was due to a broken heart not ….well, guilt." she replied, as the light of the lanterns flushed a beautiful orange glow in her dark brown eyes. 

Sebastian thanked her for keeping the secret and gave her a quick hug. Celeste, covered herself in her dark cloak and rushed out the door before the night became too dark for anyone to be out on the village streets. 

Back in her room, Evie scoured the enormous bookshelf in her bedroom for any inkling of books on art and history that she so loved as she waited for her own belongings to be unpacked. 

She slowly walked along the carpeted floor, her dress bushing up against the shelf making a sweeping sound like a fingers scratching down a window screen. Just as the sound began to annoy her a knock came to her large oak door of the bedroom. Evie turned and took a deep breath knowing this would not be her new friend Celeste who had gone for the night. 

She quickly walked over to the warm fireplace where the light would catch her better and called for the person to come in. 

The door slowly opened and in stepped a very nervous Sebastian, the person she has been expecting. 

"Evangeline, good evening." He said shyly, as Once again the paintings eyes changed to watch the two soon to be newly weds.

"Sebastian! Please come in. And again--you can call me Evie." She replied as she scooted over to a large two seated love seat. 

"I wanted to check on you. I am so mortified about what Charlotte did. How are you holding up?" He asked.

"Don't be. I have younger brother Nicholas and when he was small he bit me all the time. Never broke the skin though." Evie joked. 

Sebastian chuckled and felt quickly at ease with his bride-to-be. He found her stunning. Her dark hair and eyes were like the most beautiful he had ever laid his own eyes on. He had only small paintings over to see as they were sent over from England as she grew up to keep track of her but none, none at all, did her beauty any justice. He hoped that she too didn't feel slighted in the husband department but her kind smile gave him hope that she was indeed happy with the arrangement too. At least physically. 

"You know when we were little and I first met you I had no idea what I was going to get into and I had no idea what it would mean to marry you someday and it's so strange that it's finally here. It's a really archaic custom I guess, for two people to be betrothed and have you come all the way over here like some kind of package for me, but I want you to know that I will care for you and love you with everything I have in me. I want you to be happy here Evie. Welshport, the island the town, this house, it's your home now too." Sebastian said gripping her hand in his. 

A small tear came to Evie's eye. She was surprised at how sweet he was and how gentle he was being. She too had no idea what to expect when she first got to the island but his warmth was as hot as the hearth's and she could feel it not only from the vibration his seemingly loving gaze gave her but it was something she felt too coming from her to him. 

With all her might she wanted to be strong and to keep her mind clear. Evie wanted to hopefully get to know Sebastian more before her truth feelings came to the surface. She had always ready silly fairytales and never believed them. Perhaps it was homesickness setting in, perhaps it was the shock of the Charlotte biting her but Sebastian's sweetness wore her all of that hard exterior she was attempting to show down and she instantly knew that she was in love; an unexpected quick feeling that happened in a way she thought she'd have to pretend to feel. But it was there. Truthfully.

"I think the idea of an arranged marriage is ridiculous too but here we are. The very idea is so alien that I couldn't imagine doing it to my own child. Not in a million years. And yet here I am happier than I've ever been and wanting nothing more than to be your wife. Its all so silly!" She laughed. 

"Its not silly. It...well it is what it is." He said smiling. "Celeste said you asked about my parents." He added.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have but this woman on the ship with me made this whole thing about me coming here. She told me this story and I just had to find out if it were true. Not that the real story isn't just as tragic." Evie replied.

Sebastian smiled at her. Her eyes were so deep and brown and innocent. He hated to have to lie to her but the truth of his father kidding his mother was just too dark a take to tell just days before their wedding. Lying was awful, so Sebastian decided to add some of the truth in to at least ease his own conscious. 

"Before my mother died my grandmother was living in Philadelphia. It was just my parents and myself living here with my Uncle and Charlotte was just a baby here at Tirymôr. Then my grandfather Albert died and grandmother moved in. My father was incredibly depressed about Grand-dad's death. It slowly ate away at him and my grandmother. He began to drink and she began to dream in this world of the supernatural. Always trying to reach him in séances and tarot card readings. My father and his alcohol took control of him. A lot. And Grandma sort of looked away. When my mother died, it was all too much for him I guess. He …just...." Sebastian explained before Evie interjected part of the lie she was told. 

"He just left." She said. 

Sebastian nodded. 

"I'm here for you Sebastian. For anything. Forever." She replied sweetly. 

Sebastian's heart skipped a beat. It was as if they had been pared up perfectly. He leaned in and slowly went for her lips. She froze, unsure where to place her head: tilted? Straight forward? He gently placed his hands on her soft pink cheeks and kissed her on the lips. She opened her mouth slightly, they tasted each other and inside their bodies burned hot like fire.

It was a love that came from a magical unexpected place. 

As they pulled away from their romantic first kiss, they fire in the hearth cracked and burned warm air all around them. Over on the far wall near a second door that lead to a private bathroom the life-size painting of one of Sebastian Lord’s ancestors again went back to its painted state.

Satisfied with what they were seeing, the pair of real eyes quickly and quietly changed back to the painted eyes; on the other side of the wall was Rebecca Lord, Sebastian’s grandmother who had been watching the whole time. She stepped out of a hidden wall between the room she was in the Evie’s room that had been created using a fake door that lead into the small closet like space with the hole made to look through the painting.

As she stepped back into her room, sitting patiently on soft blue chairs were Rebecca’s personal mystic Gaspar Dubois and her son Jacob.

"Things are off to a good start." Rebecca said, quietly replacing the large door that matched the wallpaper concealing the hidden area of wall where she could step into and watch Evie's room.

"Good. But for how long? How long can we keep everything under wraps? Secrets, mother, always have a way of rising to the surface of even the murkiest of swampy families." Jacob said with a raised brow.

"Celeste did as we have always instructed the servants to swat away rumors of David and Sabrina. What else do you want? It’s not like you’ve done any better at keeping up appearances." Rebecca reminded her son who scowled at her but said nothing more. 

"There are ways to make sure our new friend stays away from asking any more questions." Gaspar said, opening up a darkly bound book that came out of a his coat pocket and tucked it under his arm. The book had no words on it's cover explaining it's contents. But Rebecca, familiar with everything Gaspar was about knew exactly what it was. 

“You expect her to continue to push for answers?” Rebecca wondered. 

“It’s possible. And if she is as curious as she’s been so far, that could be problematic for us all should she discover the truth.” Jacob said. 

“Disastrous even.” Gaspar replied. 

“So what do you suggest?” Rebecca asked Gaspar, her spiritual adviser.  

He then handed her his book of what he called “spiritual remedies and solvings.” — a spell book. 

He had often read from the book to her, "ideas and insurance for the future" he called it, never had she asked him to use anything in his mystical book to help her. Rebecca was a lot of things: strong willed, hard headed, a stubborn a battle ax, fearless. But there were things that frightened her. The supernatural. 

She worried the ghosts of her husbands would come for her. She worried that her secret affairs would come back to haunt her in ways she could not control via karmatic twists of fait that would put her family in constant peril. And indeed, the death of Sabrina by her own son felt as if that was one of the first major punishments of her own dabbling in the dark ways, in other words, she feared Gaspar's book like the devil feared the psalms. 

"Put that away!!" She shouted. 

"It could help Madame." Gaspar said in his French accent. 

"Nothing good can come of that. Nothing. I want to make sure Evangeline stays on the straight and narrow but in no way do I want to use anything from your book." 

"What exactly is in there?" Jacob wondered, as he looked over at Gaspar, the two men seeming to have a secret language of their own of glances and looks of their eyes. 

Gaspar, breaking from his glance at Jacob, began to speak before Rebecca rushed over and covered his mouth with black laced glove hand. 

"Not a word." She said to him.

"Mother for god's sake. Let the man explain! If there something he can do to keep us all out of harm's way what's the problem? You certainly have trusted him with other matters before, I would safely assume the matter of making sure Evie stays as far away from learning anything of our best would be something you were interested in." Jacob rattled off. 

"It is not what you think, Madame. Believe me." Gaspar said.

Rebecca furrowed her brow but pulled her hand off of Gaspar's mouth, still worried he summon daemons or bring on the darkness of all evil to surround the mansion and kill off any good spirits that still lived amongst them. She stepped back, frightening of any bizarre spiritual blow back she imagined spill from her mystic's mouth when suddenly from inside the book he pulled a small crystal tied with a red ribbon on one end.

"What is it?" Jacob asked. 

"This crystal, when used correctly can put someone to sleep. We can hypnotize Evangeline and help her forget what she heard on that ship. Using this will protect her from asking any further questions and insuring that no one from outside the family ever know the truth about David and Sabrina." Gaspar said.

"But people already assume it. That's why it was told Evie on the ship, don't you see? The story is out there!" Rebecca reminded them.

"Yes, but it can be squashed once and for all in Evie's mind. Hers is the mine we need to contain, the strain of this virus like story could kill her marriage to Sebastian. Having her continue to wonder what happened and whether or not it was true will only brew more danger Madame, think of the card we pulled just this morning and what they said of this family's future. Evie is the epicenter of the disaster that is to come if we do not take proper precautions. This crystal will protect your family from all of that. We must use it and take action." Gaspar said lifting the crystal in the air allowing tiny fragments of light to break into it causing a geometrical diamonds of light to dance on the wall across from it. 

Jacob shot a sly smirk and glance to Gaspar who lifted a brow and smiled too as if they knew more than they were saying to Rebecca. They too were holding a secret. A secret side plot that Rebecca was unaware of. 

Rebecca, not noticing the two men's mysterious glances to just each other, clutched the long strand of pearls around her neck that met at the center of her chest and walked over to the sparkling hypnotizing crystal and grabbed hold of it. She looked into it and knew that of course Gaspar was right. 

Evie's questioning of the secret surrounding David and Sabrina Lord had to be nipped in the bud as soon as possible, in fact, before the wedding or as Rebecca's tarot cards explained, all hell would break loose.