Page 95 of The Phantom Duke
Damien only grunted in response. Although he had agreed to show Ezekiel about the place, at Maria’s behest, Damien could not say that he was delighted with the prospect. He had determined to dislike this young man, and despite all evidence to the contrary, Damien did not believe him.
This fair-haired, delicate creature could not have possibly had the same sire as he. It just was impossible.
“Where are the duchess’s chambers?” Ezekiel asked.
An innocent question, as far as Damien could tell. Still, Damien cast him a withering glare. Ezekiel’s friendly smile fell.
“You have no need to know where her chambers are,” Damien said brusquely, as he quickened his pace.
Ezekiel kept up easily with him, which was to be expected of a young man but also remarkably vexing.
“This stone is ancient,” Ezekiel said.
“It is.”
Damien wanted nothing more than to end this insipid conversation. The only benefit of it was that he seemed to be having no small effect on the young man, who sometimes looked as if he might fall to pieces in Damien’s presence.
Let him. This young man needs to realize that I am the lord and master of this domain.
“You must tread softly here,” Damien said. “I do not tolerate trespassers, but there are regrettably many of them. I have placed traps in the woods to deter them, and it is nothing short of miraculous that you did not stumble into a trap yourself.”
He darkly thought that if the young man had it would have solved so many of his problems.
Ezekiel gulped. “R—right, Your Grace.”
And Damien smiled.
Maria walked the hallways of Winterleigh, carrying a lamp to dispel the darkness. Three weeks had passed since Ezekiel’s arrival. Three weeks during which Maria had been occupied in helping to arrange the ball that Anna would be hosting. She did not believe Damien would attend, but was determined to try to persuade him.
He no longer wears the mask inside or outside the house. That is progress. Now, I need to bring him out into the world. Let the world see the Damien Alaric that I know.
That mission had proved difficult for the last three days because she had seen little of her husband. He had devoted his time to Ezekiel. She hoped that meant he was accepting his brother, deriving solace from finding him. Perhaps they were sharing memories of their mother, discovering new things and which of their memories overlapped.
She stopped, listening. The other issue she was determined to resolve was the voices she had heard more than once in Winterleigh. Not servants, not the normal sounds of an old house. Ghosts? Or something mysterious; something Damien knew about but refused to say, and sought to distract her from.
She felt herself blush at the memory of Damien’s skillful distractions. That evening had ended. Eventually, they had returned to their separate rooms, but only after much… distraction.
A sound reached her. It was unmistakably the soft noise of footsteps on carpet. It was approaching slowly from the darkness, coming towards her. She raised the lamp higher, and Ezekiel almost ran into the pool of light.
He was breathing hard and sweating. His eyes were wide and his hair wild, as though he had been disturbed from his sleep. At the sight of her, he backed away, looking back in the direction from which he had come.
“Ezekiel? Are you well? You look like you’ve been haunted,” Maria said.
“Your Grace! I… that is… I could not sleep, and so I decided to stretch my legs. This house is so huge that I thought I could wander for a while until sleep found me. But I… I found something…”
“You found something?” she asked. “What?”
Is this the answer to the mystery? Has Ezekiel discovered what Damien is hiding?
Maria felt a chill at the notion that his secret was such that it had clearly terrified Ezekiel. What could it possibly be?
“It would be easier to show you, I think. Will you come?”
Maria hesitated for a moment as Ezekiel reached out a hand to her.
There has been too much distrust in this house. Too much suspicion. Someone has to show trust.
She took a deep breath and took the offered hand. Ezekiel led her through the midnight hallways until they reached a set of double doors bisecting a corridor. One half stood open, and beyond was a narrow stone staircase, twisting downward.
