Oxford Shadows (26 page)

With every last ounce of her strength, Madison turned toward Rupert and said in a controlled voice, “Call an ambulance now.”

“Maddie …” The pain in Rupert’s eyes conveyed a silent message Madison didn’t want to hear.

“It’s too late,” Louise whispered.

Panic punched Madison in her stomach. She struggled to catch her next breath. The cold fingers of her aunt—slippery with her own blood—seized her. Their joined hands slid toward the crucifix Louise wore around her neck at all times. When they settled there, a faint smile brightened her ashen face.

“Rupert?” Louise said, but her gaze didn’t move away from Madison.

Rupert knelt by Madison and his hand settled gently on her thigh.

“You need to protect her from them,” Louise begged.

“I will. I promise, I will.”

Madison could hear the tears trapped in Rupert’s throat.

“They thought I would betray their secrets. That’s why they came for me. They don’t know that you know. Keep it that way.”

“We’ll free Madison from them.” Rupert’s gaze sought out Sam, who nodded. “You have my word.”

“Thank you,” Louise managed in a rasp, her gaze once again settling on Madison. “I love you, my darling.”

The pressure Madison had felt from Louise’s fingers around hers loosened. A hiccup shook her aunt’s ribcage, and a veil dulled the fragile light in her eyes. Then the light flickered and died.

“No!”
Madison screamed. “No.” Her hands untangled themselves from her aunt’s and grabbed her shoulders. “Please, no.”

Madison’s body started convulsing. Waves of grief rocked her breathing.

Around her, Sam and Rupert were moving.

“Clean the handle of the knife,” she heard Rupert say.

“We need to move before the police come.” That was Sam.

“You go. We stay. Everyone can see our car outside. I’m calling the police.”

“I can’t dump that on you.” Sam again.

“Her aunt asked her to come and see her. We did, and this is how we found her.”

She saw rather than felt Rupert’s hands circling her wrists and untangling her fingers from the grasp they had taken on the material of Louise’s shirt.

“Baby, let me take care of you.” Rupert talked to her as if she were a child. His breath was warm against her cheek. She wanted to lean against him, but her will wasn’t enough to make her body shift. He lifted her and directed her outside the room.

A police siren screeched in the night outside. The piercing sound stabbed at her. She looked down at her breastbone, but there was nothing. Had she expected to see the same wound as the one that had killed her aunt?

Aunt Louise was dead.

Another sob shook her.

“How can the police know about Louise’s death already? You haven’t called anybody yet.” Sam’s question to Rupert was filled with shock.

“No, I didn’t dial anyone. You’ve been set up.”

Rupert took charge because Madison’s brain cells were obviously fried. “Sam, go to the back of the house and get out through a window. We’ll keep them busy.”

Sam cradled her face and his eyes were fixed on her with intent. “Pumpkin, I’ll be back for you. I promise. Our dad won’t let anything else happen to you.”

Life threw out the most unexpected things at the most unexpected times. Had she gained a father when she had just lost an aunt? Was God taking something from her only to replace it with something else? Well, it didn’t work like that in her book. She wanted to say exactly that to Sam. She’d give up on the chance to have a father if only she could get Aunt Louise back.

But Sam was gone.

The entrance door burst wide open and two men in uniform stepped in. Rupert’s voice next to her welcomed them. He sounded weird and distracted.

Her sight blurred at the same time as her hearing failed her. The shape of the policemen shrank then expanded as if under a magnifying glass. Finally, all her senses switched off. She collapsed. Her head hit the corner of the side table. Pain radiated through her, a reminder she was still alive. She crashed to the floor.

Then even the pain went away. She traveled back in time, her soul now entwined with Liliana’s. Or maybe Laura’s.

I have left my son at his school, the memory of his sad face squeezing my heart. He wore that cute uniform and tried so hard to keep from crying. He is a brave little one; I am so proud of him. I would walk barefoot on burning coals for him.

Stepping back into the grand mansion we live in, I look forward to lying down in bed. I had planned to meet a friend, but the early stage of pregnancy has overwhelmed me. Just as when I was expecting my son. I need to rest, to look after myself and the life growing inside me.

Our London house is a desert. I keep the servants to a minimum so our family can live in total privacy. Slowly I climb the spiral staircase. Even this minimal effort requires an intensity of energy. Energy I do not have. I am so tired and I suspect fever has chosen me as its victim.

Another floor and I will reach our marital room.

Noise disturbs my already sleepy head. Muffled voices, shuffling … it comes from my room. Could a thief have entered the house in my short absence? Most of my jewelry is in a safe hidden in that very room. I should retreat, call the police, but now I recognize one of the voices. It belongs to Henry, my husband.

I push the door open slightly. The curtains have been closed, and I struggle to distinguish the forms that lie on our bed. When I do, my lifeline is severed.

I see a woman: her legs, her naked back, her bare hips. They undulate in a sensual rhythm I recognize well. Beneath her lies Henry. His expression is of utter rapture, so close to the one he gives me when we make love.

The lovers have not noticed my presence. I step back and hide again behind the door.

Pain rips through my heart and stabs my belly. Over and over. I break to pieces and a warm liquid flows down my legs.

Blood.

I am losing my child.

36

LOOKING BACK AT THE past twenty-four hours, Rupert gave himself a pat on the back for asking one of his dad’s men to take care of his car … and the snakes.

Chief Inspector Crawley—who now led the investigation into Louise LeBon’s murder—was already suspicious enough. He was the one who had been in charge of finding Miss Lindsey’s murderer not even two months ago in Madison’s college room. By some bizarre twist of fate, the same man had covered the death of Rupert’s own mother in the car crash four years earlier …

Yeah, there was really no need to draw Crawley’s attention to the sick joke Aurélie had played on him and his car. There was no doubt in Rupert’s mind that Aurélie was also behind Louise’s death.

He replayed again and again his encounter with the woman outside the Turf. The way Aurélie had blatantly undressed him made him sick to the stomach.

She was vicious, and her plans had nothing to do with voodooism. Madison's aunt had understood that truth too late, and it had cost Louise her life. Rupert was sorry for her death. He truly was. But Louise’s blindness had put Madison’s life on the line.

Madison shifted under the duvet. She lay on his bed after finally surrendering to sleep in the late afternoon. After her fall at Louise’s house, she had refused to go to the hospital. Instead she had answered Crawley’s questions right away. Her determination might have paid off. Crawley had left them alone afterwards.

Rupert rubbed his hand over his itchy eyes and stretched. He sat on the antique chair next to the bay window in his bedroom. Sleep eluded him but he didn’t want to keep tossing and risk waking Madison up. She needed to recover.

Another rustle warned him his wish might not be fulfilled. He turned his gaze back to his bed where Madison had sat up, her hair tousled around her sleepy face.

“What time is it?” she asked with a yawn.

“One A.M. You need to get back to sleep.”

“You too. You spent all day sorting things out for Aunt—”

Madison didn’t finish her sentence. She hadn’t been able to pronounce her aunt’s name since they had found the body in the prayer room. Giving the news to her mother and grandmother, which had been worse than the blow to her head, had finally broken Madison.

“Don’t force yourself to say her name. In your own time.” Rupert hadn’t been able to pronounce the word “Mum” until a year after the car accident. His own experience of grief was still vivid in his mind and his heart.

“I’d never have been able to handle all the red tape the way you did today.”

“Don’t mention it, Maddie. That’s what I’m here for, to help you. You’d do the same for me.”

She didn’t answer but she didn’t have to. If there was one thing Rupert admired about Madison, it was her loyalty. That same loyalty—to her family, her heritage—was the reason he feared for her life now.

In a kitten-like move, Madison extracted herself from the bundle of the duvet and came to stand in front of him. She wore one of his shirts. The top buttons were undone, revealing the valley between her breasts.

Desire shot through him, the feeling soon mixing with guilt. He crossed his legs to hide the bulge twitching inside his jeans. Once he’d regained sufficient control, he took hold of Madison’s waist and lowered her so that she sat on his knees.

“I’ll book the flights tomorrow. We’ll be with your family in a couple of days, I promise.”

She nodded. They didn’t say anything more for a couple of minutes, while his fingertips caressed her bare thighs.

“What about Camilla?” Madison asked. “The twenty-fifth is only ten days away.”

Yeah, there was that as well. Guilt seeped through him again. Rupert had no idea how long they’d stay in Louisiana and the ghost had warned that Camilla would die before the child was born.

He exhaled and buried his face in the nape of Madison’s neck. What was he supposed to do? His stepmother might be in danger, true. But deep down he couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that the threat came from a …
ghost
. The ghost of Henry the Eighth.

On the other hand, his girlfriend faced real grief, real death in the hands of a very alive psycho.

“You’re still not convinced Camilla’s in danger.”

Rupert shook himself under the scrutiny of Madison’s gaze. “I don’t want to leave you alone. Not with Aurélie still roaming around. She might follow you back to the States and strike when you’re at your weakest. Or even use your grandmother as leverage. Next time she won’t warn you with a few snakes.”

“I might have to play along with her plans, let her believe I’m still in that crazy prophecy of hers, at least until Sam’s back in the picture with my … dad. And her text message seems to give us some time to figure out what to do.”

Earlier that afternoon Madison had received a text from an unknown number: TAKE THE TIME TO GRIEVE YOUR AUNT, CHILD. I’LL BE IN TOUCH SOON. A.

The “A” had given the mystery away.

Rupert let out a sad laugh. “That’s a lot to digest in a short amount of time. Are you ready to believe in what Sam said?”

“I could reverse the question. You trusted him enough to let him go before the police arrived.”

“He was clearly set up to take the fall for …” Rupert avoided referring directly to Louise’s death. “It means Aurélie considers him a threat. That kind of convinces me we’re fighting on the same side. At least until further notice.”

Another silent pause stretched between them. Her arm circled around his shoulders and her face brushed against his, the point of her nose nuzzling against his.

“I think you should stay here,” she whispered. “I want you with me, but I’ll never forgive myself if something happens to Camilla and the baby while we’re away.”

The thought of abandoning Madison at such a difficult time—of letting her down—crashed against his protective instinct. He started opposing her suggestion, but she stopped him by laying her finger over his mouth.

“You’re not letting me down by staying here.” She dropped a light kiss on his lips and rested her forehead against his. “Plus, the university agreed to give me a short leave to attend the funerals, but they won’t do that for you. Your absence will cause you problems.”

“In the grand scheme of things, that doesn’t really matter. We’ll stay in London tomorrow night and see how things are with Camilla and my father. He shouldn’t be back from Asia for another three days. In the meantime maybe we can convince Camilla there’s real danger.” His voice betrayed his lack of faith in the prospect of turning Camilla’s mind around. “Tomorrow I’ll call the guy who sorted out the … snakes for me. We’ll discuss a way for him to look after Camilla in my absence.”

That was the best compromise he could offer Madison. She nodded, and her lips started teasing his lips. His hands moved upwards to reach the top of her thighs and the edge of her underwear. His tongue searched for hers. When they found each other, she gave a gentle bite on his lower lip. He groaned and forced himself to lean back and remove his hands from under the material of her knickers

“I shouldn’t do that to you now. You’re hurt and—”