Midnight Secrets (36 page)

“Cassie!”

Thundering steps and the flickering light of torches filled the chamber, telling me I wasn’t dreaming.

“Sean!” I screamed as loud as I could.

“Nooo! Hurt you,” Jamie yelled.

“He has a knife!”

“Drop the knife, Jamie, now!” Stuart yelled.

There was a loud scuffle and Jamie’s deep sobbing filled the chamber.
 

“God, it’s Mary.” Sean voice rang with horror. “Bloody hell, Cassie. Where in God’s name are you?”

“Here,” I gasped. “Behind a Stone Virgin.” I tried to move and couldn’t, suddenly I couldn’t breathe and my heart raced. “Oh God, I think I am stuck.”

Scraping and heavy breathing sounded near the opening. I couldn’t see Sean, but I knew he was there. The heat of him reached me before his voice. “Cassie? More scraping. “I can’t reach you.”

“Nor could Jamie,” I said. “Where is he?”

“Stuart has tied him. He can’t hurt you.”

“He killed Mary,” I said, nearly sobbing. “And kept her body in this room.”

“Cassie. Come out, please. I need to see that you’re all right.”

I tried to move again and couldn’t. “I can’t,” I cried, tears stinging my eyes. It was irrational to feel that I was going to die there, but I did. “I can’t.”

“Yes, you can. Just remember exactly how you held your body to get in there. Don’t cry. Let your body relax. Close your eyes. Think. Be calm. Think of yourself as small and soft. Reach for me and I will be there.”

Closing my eyes, I focused on his voice and listened to him as he repeated his words over and over again. Slowly, moving closer to him an inch at a time, I freed myself. The moment I reached the edge of the crevice, he pulled me out, into his arms. Warm and solid, I wanted to sink into him and never move again, but I pulled back instead. “Spiders. Please. Get them off me. Please.”

Sean quickly brushed me off, using his coat to combat the webs as I scrubbed my fingers through my hair. I took his coat when he finished. My heart wept at the sight of Mary on the cold stone and I laid the coat over her.
 

I looked and saw Jamie, lying on the ground crying, his hands tied behind his back, his feet tied together. Stuart sat on the ground next to Jamie, his arm on Jamie’s shoulder as tears ran unchecked.

“He must have killed her for some reason.” Tears filled my eyes. “He loved her, but he must have killed her. Where are we?”

“A burial chamber beneath the Stone Virgins,” Sean said gravely. “Do you think he became confused about the legend, Stuart? Wanted to keep the woman he loved forever?”

“Send for Constable Poole.” Stuart’s face was ravaged with pain.

“You’re sure?” Sean whispered.
 

“Yes,” Stuart rasped. “Jamie won’t understand…being hanged, perhaps there’ll be another way to end this for him…” His voice choked into a sob.

And more tears filled my eyes. Sean swung me into his arms. “Shh. You’re safe now, lass.”

I shook my head and buried my face against him. I couldn’t stem the flow of tears as he, limping without his cane, carried me from the room.

“Sean, you’ll hurt yourself. I can walk.”

“I’m fine.” He pulled me tighter. Even in my distraught state, I could tell he was far from fine. Without his cane, his stride hitched too sharply to be balanced in carrying my weight. He stumbled a little and cursed.

I buried my face against his neck. “Please, Sean. Just having you with me helps more than anything. Let me walk beside you.”

He sighed, letting my legs slide down to the dirt floor. Holding me a moment, he dropped his forehead to mine. “Cassie.” Cupping my cheeks in his hands, he pressed his lips reverently to mine. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
 

A cry from Jamie echoed into the tunnel before I could speak. Sean stepped back and put his arm about my shoulder. “Come. We must hurry.”

Drawing a breath, I nodded. And we hurried forward, helping each other. The tunnel now flickered with torchlight and the acrid scent of smoke filled the air. Several sharp turns ahead, we met the earl and Sir Warwick coming our way. They were armed with pistols and sported far from their usual bored countenances.

“You have the lass, thank God,” the earl said.

“I thought these bloody tunnels were boarded up,” Sean answered harshly.

“I thought they were too,” said the earl. “Alex appears to be using the caves to sea for some bloody reason. We’ve just come from that way, having met Constable Poole on the beach investigating a report of smuggling.”

Sir Warwick peered at me. “So you found the wench alive.”

“Her name is Cassie,” Sean said coldly. “Mary’s cousin. Her suspicion that Mary’s death wasn’t an accident has proved true, so you might as well go back and get the constable. We need him.” He turned an angry and disgusted look toward his father. “I wouldn’t go into the Stone Virgins’ burial chamber, Father. Only more consequences to your sins lie there. You never should have passed your used goods onto a groomsman. Jamie would have never ended up as he is.” Sean started walking away, pulling me with him.

“You don’t know what in the bloody hell you’re talking about,” the earl yelled. I winced at the pain in his voice, and wanted to reach out to him, but Sean had pulled us too far away. “Until you’ve loved and lost, don’t condemn another.”

Sean stopped in his tracks, but he didn’t turn around to face his father. He looked at me in the flickering light a moment then moved on. Silently, more determined than before, as if he were running from a greater tragedy than what we’d left in the burial chamber.

He didn’t say anything as we reached the ladder leading from the caves, only urged me up ahead of him into the broken gazebo, then guided me through the shadowed maze. It wasn’t even dark yet. I’d only been with Jamie a short time, but it seemed so much longer. Still, the hedges of the maze loomed so darkly that it felt as if night had descended, a starless, moonless night.

I shuddered as we emerged to see the sun, a bare sliver of fading hope on the horizon. Squinting, Sean flinched, holding his arm up to block the light as he turned his face from it.

“You’re in pain.” I pressed my hand to the rough warmth of his shadowed cheek and then to the bandage on his temple. He flinched away from my touch.

“No more than usual.” His voice sounded strained.

I nodded toward the maze. “This is where Lady Helen died?”

“I’ve often thought about cutting it down.”

“Why haven’t you?”

“Destroying something my mother created for fun won’t change what happened. So there’d be no point.”

“Who killed Lady Helen? I don’t believe you did and I have to wonder if your brother did, either. With the tunnel here, anyone could have killed her and not been seen. Why did only you and Alex fall under suspicion?” I drew a deep breath. “Could Jamie have done it?”

“At sixteen? He was large enough then to have harmed someone, but even now it is difficult to believe he intentionally hurt Mary. Helen was beaten, brutally so. I don’t think Jamie had anything to do with her death.” He sighed. “She was an angel, and Alex and I were the only ones who would have had any reason to kill her.”

“Are you sure? Isn’t it possible someone else could have? There seems to be so many unanswered questions.”

“Bloody hell, Cassie,” Sean exploded. “Don’t you understand? There isn’t going to be any happy ending, with all the ribbons tied into pretty bows. Yes, another man could have murdered Helen. But it doesn’t change things. The Dragon’s Curse still stands for me and Alex, so it doesn’t matter what suspicion clouds our lives. In fact, it’s better this way for everyone.” The growing darkness cast shadows on his stark features, revealing the hopelessness of his thoughts. “So, let it go. You can’t change the past and you can’t run away from fate.”
 

“Only if you’re blind, you can’t.” I turned from him. “And I don’t think Lady Helen would agree with you. She deserves justice.” Anger fueling me, I marched to the house.
 

“Cassie, wait.” Sean caught up with me and grabbed my hand. For a moment I thought he would reach out to me, grasp hold of a future for us, and tell me that he loved me. “They know who you are,” he said, and my heart seemed to break, tears filled my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. “Stuart told everyone you are Mary’s cousin. I think he hoped to keep the men who were searching for you from shooting Jamie on sight. He tried to convince everyone that Jamie had only taken you because he was trying to protect Mary’s cousin.” His voice roughed with anger. “Mary’s death may have been an accident, but harming Rebecca and you was unconscionable. Hanging Jamie would be like hanging a child, though. So I’m going to have Constable Poole assure me that he’ll be locked up instead.”

“Mary wouldn’t want Jamie to hang either, but I want to see the constable before he leaves.”

“You’ll never know how deeply I regret that any of this ever happened.”

As I stared into his eyes, I realized that he spoke of more than just Mary’s tragedy. He regretted knowing me as well. That hurt worse than his refusal to believe in a future. I bit down on the inside of my cheek, determined not to cry. I realized then that he truly did not love me as I loved him. For I would never regret, loving him, touching him, and knowing him with my mind, body, and soul.

The kitchen door opened and I turned away from what would never be mine to hold again.

Bridget came running out, tears pouring from reddened blue eyes filled with worry. She ran up and hugged me. “I should be spanking you for lying to us all. You’re bloody proper Cassiopeia from the paper, who’d have believed it.”

“I’m sorry.”

Others poured out the kitchen door, the Murphys, Mrs. Frye and Prudence with Rebecca in her arms.
 

“You disappeared in a twinkling of the eye, you did. Was it Jamie?” Bridget asked.

“I’m afraid so,” Sean said. “Mary’s body was found in the chamber he took Cassie to. Apparently he’s been hiding there.”

“No! You can’t hurt him.” Mrs. Frye burst into tears. “You can’t.”
 

Mrs. Murphy reached for her. “Clara, I’m sorry but…”

“You don’t understand. I…I did it! It was an accident,” Mrs. Frye cried.

Chapter Nineteen

My breath caught as shock rippled through me and, judging by the sounds of surprise and denial cutting through the evening air, stunned everyone. Blindly reaching for her husband, Mrs. Murphy stepped back from Mrs. Frye.

Mrs. Frye flinched.
 

“Is that why you never told me that Mary’s mother wished to see me?” Sean asked harshly, his hands fisted.

“Yes.” Mrs. Frye backed away from everyone, her eyes fearful and her body shaking.

“You took Rebecca to the roof and left her there?” Sean’s voice lowered, becoming lethal in its roughness. The vibrating anger ripped through me.

Mrs. Frye shook her head, appearing confused. “N-n-no, n-n-no. Jamie must have been trying to protect me. I don’t know. I haven’t had time to figure it out. I really believed the child had wandered. He didn’t hurt Mary. The child isn’t hurt. They can’t hurt him. He’s been hurt enough, even before he was born.”

“How did the accident happen?” Sean demanded.

Mrs. Frye blinked. “I…an argument. We argued about Jamie. I was angry that she was making him want things he could never have. I shook her by the shoulders. She stumbled back, fell down the…sand dune, rolling faster until she hit her head on a sharp rock. Then she…was…dead.”

Sean moved closer to Mrs. Frye. “Why did you hide it? Why didn’t you just tell everyone what happened?”

“I don’t know,” Mrs. Frye sobbed. “They can’t hurt Jamie.”
 

Sean shook his head, as if the world rested on his shoulders. “You’re going to have to tell the authorities. They’ll probably arrest you and Jamie both until they determine exactly what happened, and why you felt you had to hide what happened.”
 

My head spun. The unfolding events were more than I could absorb. I must have wavered on my feet, for Bridget and Prudence reached for me at the same time.

“Cass,” Rebecca called, holding her arms out to me.

“I’m here, poppet.” I gave her a big hug.
 

“H-h-horseman g-g-gone? H-hurt no more?”

I looked over at Mrs. Frye, who was sobbing into her hands, and I wondered how Rebecca was confusing the sound of a horse with Mary’s death in an argument with Mrs. Frye. It didn’t even remotely match, but Rebecca desperately needed reassurance. “Yes,” I told Rebecca. “There’s nothing for you to worry about anymore.”

After giving me salve for my scrapes, the doctor declared that all I needed was a bath, hot broth, a brandy and a good rest. Bridget and Prudence took the doctor’s advice to heart. I delayed leaving Killdaren’s Castle long enough to gather my wits, clean myself up and to speak to Constable Poole.

Word that he awaited me in the library finally came.

“Well, if it isn’t the illustrious Miss Andrews,” Constable Poole said as I walked into the room, his cold voice stealing any warmth the hearth fire had flickered into the room.

“I gather you two have met then,” Sean said from off to my left. Jerking my head his way, I gasped and my heart raced, unable to free itself from his spell. I hadn’t expected Sean would be present.

“Yes, we’ve met, and none too pleasantly, either,” Constable Poole said. “On her arrival to Dartmoor’s End, Miss Andrews was quite adamant of the Killdaren’s involvement with her cousin’s disappearance. Though the guilty party wasn’t who you thought, I imagine you are quite pleased with yourself.” He smiled.

“I beg your pardon.” Fury whipped through me and any thought I had about bringing up the discrepancy in Rebecca’s horseman’s story and Mrs. Frye’s testimony died. I didn’t want this man anywhere near Rebecca, and now fully understood Prudence’s reluctance to have Rebecca questioned about Mary. Before I could say more, Sean stepped forward.

“Constable Poole. If your callous rudeness to Miss Andrews is to express your loyalty to my family, then it is a highly misplaced endeavor, and not appreciated. Despite her deception in entering my home, Miss Andrews has my complete respect and support, and is grieving for a loved one. I suggest you keep that in mind, sir!”