Page 43 of Now Comes the Mist

The maid sets down a tray of tea and my favorite strawberry pastries. “Yes, madam. A ship came into harbor late last night, and people are saying that an enormous dog, or perhaps a wolf, jumped off and ran through town. Everyone is still quite nervous about it.”

“A ship? In this weather?” I ask as innocently as if I hadn’t witnessed its arrival myself.

“Yes, miss. I expect it will be all over the papers today,” Harriet says, her face drawn and frightened. “Such terrible things as I heard in town. I’m sure I shall have nightmares from what the men were saying. They found none alive on board. Just thirty boxes full of earth.”

“Boxes full of earth?” Mina repeats, exchanging glances with me. “Strange cargo.”

My mother shakes her head. “What a needless tragedy! I wonder at the captain’s decision to sail in such a storm. He might have waited safely elsewhere for a day or two.”

“There was no one on board?” I ask, frowning.

“Only two people, miss, both of them dead. The captain and one sailor. People were saying that such a large vessel must have left port with a sizable crew, and yet only these two men were found. What became of all the others, no one can guess,” Harriet says miserably, and my mother covers her mouth in horror and Mina crosses herself, whispering a prayer. “But I heard someone say that something had drained these two bodies of all their blood. That beastly dog that got away, perhaps.”

I hold my breath as I listen, every nerve in my body tingling with apprehension.

Mina sinks into a chair, her eyes wet. “Those poor men. They must have wives waiting for their return,” she says, her face white as a sheet. She brings her engagement ring to her lips.

“The captain was dead?” I demand. “How did he steer the vessel into harbor?”

“No one knows, miss,” Harriet says. “They found his body lashed to the ship’s wheel with rope, as though trying not to go overboard in the storm. Oh, it’s too awful!”

“That’s enough,” Mamma says, glancing at me. “I don’t want Miss Lucy upset any more than she already is. Return to your duties and try not to think about all this.”

“I’ll try, madam,” Harriet says, though the doubt is plain on her face. At the door, she turns and looks back at me with pleading eyes. “Miss Lucy, please let me lock your bedroom door tonight. I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you!”

“I’m to be shut up like a prisoner, then?” I ask, though I am touched by her concern.

“It is a sensible suggestion,” Mina says gently. “You should not be walking around at night, unconscious, when there is a dog or … or worse, lying in wait.”

My mother nods. “I agree. But,” she adds, seeing the look on my face, “perhaps we need not resort to such measures yet, if you would stay with Lucy for a few more nights, Mina.”

“Of course.” Mina closes her eyes, shuddering. “A dark ship coming into harbor at night, carrying the dead. It is such an evil,evilomen, and I fear for us all.”

“Wait, Harriet,” I call. “Did you hear anything else about the ship? Perhaps its name?”

The maid nods. “It was a Russian vessel out of Bulgaria, they said. TheDemeter.”

A shocking cold spreads over me. If I had any belief left that my nightly visits with my strange friend were merely the visions of a troubled sleeper, then this has destroyed it for good. It is impossible that I could have dreamed such a ship ever existed, let alone predicted where it would sail from or that it would disembark here in Whitby. Everything that passed between Vlad and me this summer—every word, every look, and every kiss—really and truly happened.

Mina is studying me. “Are you all right, Lucy?”

“She needs food,” my mother says. She stands up and glances out the window at the brightening sky. “And perhaps some fresh air. Now that the storm has passed, won’t you both come to town with me to post a few letters? It would do you good.”

Mina looks reluctant, but I am desperate for news of theDemeter… or of Vlad. “We’ll meet you downstairs,” I say, and my mother nods and leaves the room.

“Are you quite well?” Mina asks again when we are alone. “When Harriet told you the name of the ship, you looked as though you might faint.”

“A good thing I’m still in bed, then,” I say, taking a large bite of pastry to keep from having to say more. But Mina gives me her best stern governess look, and I brush the crumbs off my coverlet, wondering how I could possibly explain to her. She would not believe me, my Mina of the methodical brain. She would not accept that I had met a man in my dreams and had learned of his ship’s arrival before it had even happened. “I can’t tell you. Not yet.”

“This ship means something to you,” she persists. “ThisDemeter.”

The name is disturbing coming from her lips, as though she has spoken aloud my private dream. “Please, Mina, not now,” I say, and I must look so distressed that she sighs and gives up.

Within the hour, we are walking into town with Mamma. The grey sky is clearing, the ocean is calmer, and the air smells clean and new. There are people everywhere, flitting into shops or gathering in the streets to gossip about theDemeter’s macabre arrival.

“Come along,” Mamma says, hurrying us away from them. “Here is the post office.”

“Might Mina and I wait outside? There’s such a crowd in there, and I prefer the fresh air,” I say, and my mother agrees. Mina and I stand like obedient children by the door, surveying the cobblestone street. It is tidy and picturesque, with pots of flowers and little iron tables and chairs full of people on holiday, some of them chattering in foreign languages. Through the sound of steady conversation and laughter is the tinkle of bells as customers go in and out of the shops. Suddenly, I hear children shouting as a tiny white dog, no bigger than my two hands placed side by side, scampers mischievously through the crowd, tongue lolling and tail wagging.

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