Page 42 of Betrayal from Beyond
Lamps had been lit. The flickering light only served to showcase the dirty corners of the floor and the dust on the stone buttresses arching overhead. Two tables were centered in the room. One held a form covered in a sheet.
Wooten went to stand at the head of the table. Niall went to the other side. Kara took his arm and stood a half step behind him. The inspector shot him a questioning look, and Niall nodded.
Wooten pulled the sheet back only far enough to expose her face.
Niall let loose a long, relieved sigh.
“Wait. It’s her?” Kara was peering past him.
“It’s her.” Her hair was slicked away from her face. “Look at the nose and chin.” Her skin was very pale and bore myriad small marks.
“What’s happened to her?” Kara whispered. “What are those cuts and scratches from?”
“The coroner says the abrasions are likely from encountering objects in the currents,” Wooten told her. “She would have received them after she drowned.”
Kara still peered at her. “Look at her expression. She looks almost…frightened. I never thought to see such a thing.”
“If she came to a bad end, then it was no different from the many she brought to others,” Niall declared. He refused to feel sorry for the woman.
“I know I should feel relieved, but I can only think of her gifts and the opportunities she was given. It all might have gone so differently.”
“All I can remember is the uncontrollable rage which took her over that day. How her loss of control killed her best friend.” Niall’s tone grew harsher. “And then I consider the unrest she stirred up, and the chaos and confusion she meant to spread throughout Europe—all in hopes of profiting from it.” He shook his head. “She’s kept us virtual prisoners with her threats. She harmed Turner! I know I shouldn’t say it, but it is a relief that she is gone.”
“What will happen to her now?” Kara asked as Wooten covered her face once more.
“Her burial, you mean?” The inspector looked serious. “The Crown took over many assets owned by the League of Dissolution when you brought the organization down. I’ll make sure they pay for a proper burial.”
“Thank you.” Kara gave him a nod.
“It’s over,” Niall said with relief surging through his chest and making him feel lighter.
She hesitated, still staring at the form on the table. “Yes. You are right, of course.”
He took her hands. “Turner is safe. Harold is safe. We no longer have to worry about Gyda going into Town or fires being set on the estate. It’s over. Let’s go home. And get on with our lives.”
And at last, she smiled. “Yes. Thank goodness.” She shot Wooten a grateful look. “Thank you, Inspector. Please, send your wife our best wishes.”
Niall grinned as she breathed deeply and stepped out of the room. “Yes. Let’s go home.”
Chapter Eleven
Niall jumped withboth feet back into a resumption of normal life, but it took Kara nearly a week to truly accept that the threat was over. For days she still found herself watching out windows, scanning the horizon, and listening for a shout of trouble.
She did not understand why the end was so difficult for her to accept. Perhaps it had been the sight of Petra Scot’s body. The woman had been as much a force of nature as a storm that blew in, demanded attention, dictated movements, and overthrew the natural order of things. Seeing her so still, quiet, and somehow small—it had not felt real. And that expression, frozen on her face… Kara just could not imagine Petra afraid ofanything. She would have expected the woman to meet death with defiance and bluster, no matter the form it came in.
She wondered if it was just because the whole thing felt anticlimactic. Their last struggle with the woman had ended in abduction, intrigue, fire, and death. It had brought down an international conspiracy. To find the woman dead with no notion of what happened to her just felt…too easy.
And perhaps that was it, after all. Life had been one adventure after another since she’d met Niall on that fateful day in Mr. Grant’s study. Could it be that peace and quiet didn’t feel like the normal state of things anymore?
Niall clearly suffered no such doubts. He threw himself happily into constructing his marshland-themed gates. Hisconversation was full of details about beaver tails, willow, and meadowsweet.
Stayme returned to his own home. Turner went back to work, having received clearance and a warning to take things slowly from Balgate. When Harold wasn’t helping Niall or studying, the lad was practicing his lunges on the fencing strip or trying to conquer the rope climb in her gymnasium.
It was Gyda who finally pulled Kara from her haze. Her friend’s happiness was brilliant, bubbling, and contagious—as was her enthusiasm for her new beau’s project. Gyda convinced Kara to connect Lord Charles with a couple of bright young inventors she funded. In making the introductions, Kara found herself swept up in plans for the new museum. She even agreed to take a week’s turn in the living creation spot at the new venture—and thrilled Harold when she asked him to act as her assistant.
Together, the two of them discussed which projects they would work on during their time in the new space. They debated public interest versus what would move Kara forward on her latest commission. They decided to ride into Town one morning with Gyda, to measure the workspace, inspect the light, and finalize plans for their preparation.
It was a pretty, sunny start to the day. Kara could feel the approach of spring in the air as they set out for the train station and see it in the first push of bulbs through the earth. They booked a first-class car, and Gyda spoke of the work already accomplished at the museum during the short ride to London, while Harold worked on a sketch for the sword he meant for his Green Man automaton to carry.
