Page 34 of Tomb of Ancients
“Now thatisinteresting,” Henry drawled. He glanced with sparkling yellow eyes at Mary and Khent, nodding. “You three make a formidable little army. Fortunately for us, you escaped the riffraff in town. Your timing is appreciated.”
“Where are Lee and Mrs. Haylam?” Mary piped up, her arm linked with Chijioke’s. “They’re not... Are they well?”
Mr. Morningside took the final step off the staircase, waving away Mary’s questions with his handkerchief. He hadat last noticed Mother, and nothing in the world could have torn his attention away from her as he took short, slow steps in her direction.
“They’re counting beans in the larder,” he said. “Supplies have been scarce since the shepherd began his campaign. But who is this? That is what I want to know.Who is this?”
It must have been a leftover protective instinct from when she was a very small, very crushable spider, but I leapt in front of her. She did not move me aside, yet placed an infinitely caring hand on my shoulder. I knew without a glance that she was smiling over my head at Henry. With her other hand she lifted her veil, and I watched him go pale and gasp.
“Greetings, Dark One. It has been too long.”
Mr. Morningside struggled to come up with a response, then swallowed hard and swept her, and I supposeme, a bow.
“He looks nervous,” I said under my breath to Dalton.
He smirked. “Henry has been keeping Dark Fae here under contract, hasn’t he? They’re practically prisoners. Now Mother has returned. I would be sweating if I were him, too.”
“No,” I told him, still softly. “They like working here.”
“Do they?” Dalton lifted a brow. “Will they still think that way when Henry shows his true colors?”
“He’s fooled everyone this long...”
“It won’t go on forever,” Dalton whispered. “It can’t.”
Henry, meanwhile, kept a weather eye on Mother. “Graciousme, how long has it been?” His voice was too high to be casual. “Seven hundred years? Eight?”
“Longer,” she said.
“Indeed.” Mr. Morningside stuffed his handkerchief away and fussed with his blue cravat. “And the nature of this... this visit?”
Mother’s other hand landed on my shoulder, and I could feel the warmth of her skin through my cloak and dress. “I am here for Louisa. Father’s twisted spirit resides in her, and there is reason to believe you or one of your kind may know how to change that. Help her, Star of the Morning, and there will be no quarrel between us.”
The smallest flicker of darkness flitted across his eyes. It was there and then gone so quickly, I couldn’t be certain I’d seen it at all. The corner of his mouth twitched, and his hand went still on his cravat. A plan had begun forming in his head, and if that hint of darkness was to be believed, it was nothing good.
“Of course,” he said, his face splitting with a wide, white smile. “Anything for a dear, old friend.”
I crept silently into the kitchens, anxious to find Lee, though decidedly less interested in running across Mrs. Haylam. She had been my introduction to the house, but she’d never warmed to me. All along she must have suspected something, that I was not just a wayward girl, recently escaped from school, butpart of this world beneath the world. I was beginning to suspect that she was the “Ara” mentioned frequently in Dalton’s diary. The physical description—particularly her many strange markings—fit, and so did the sour attitude.
There was no sign of Mrs. Haylam and her severe, iron-colored hair, always neatly in a bun, nor sound of her sharp voice. I heard only a rustling coming from the pantry to the left, and I rounded the tall table near the stoves, a place I had sat many, many times for meals. On good days at Coldthistle House, those meals had felt like family suppers, but now the kitchen was hollow with loneliness, the windows grimy and gray, as if the place had not heard laughter or cheer in years. A large, rough hole had been dug through the tiles near the door leading to the lawn, and when I drew closer, I could see it ran deep.
I found Lee in the pantry, his back to me, golden curls slicked back from his head with sweat as he feverishly stacked jars of dried goods. Those jars might have been far heavier, but most of them were only a quarter full. Lee whispered to himself, keeping a constant tally of what he shifted from the left side of the pantry to the right.
“Need help?” I was exhausted, but then, he seemed tired and harried, too.
Lee started, dropping the jar he was carrying, but only a few inches. Luckily, it did not shatter. I rushed forward and caughtit before it could tip, righting the heavy crock of pickled green beans.
Lee blinked at me in the low light of the pantry. A single lantern had been placed on a shoulder-high shelf, making the left side of his face glow orange. “Are you often in the habit of rescuing young men and their beans?” he asked.
“Aye,” I said with a sad smile. “I feel gallant now.”
It had been almost two years since he swept my spoon out of the mud, but we had changed far more than two years warranted. That same spoon, I saw now—slightly bent from rough handling—was hanging around his neck, dangling out the open neck of his shirt.
Out of impulse or shock, he rocked toward me, pulling me into a tight embrace. I was glad for it and sighed with relief. Even road weary, I feared being alone with my thoughts. Father was quiet, but he could always return. There was going to be no pulling Mary and Chijioke apart for some time, and Khent had promised to keep an eye on Mother while I looked in on Lee. Dalton had agreed to apprise Mr. Morningside of all that had occurred between Sparrow’s attack and the present moment, a conversation that I had little interest in joining. The chilliness between them was palpable, and I was in no rush to tell Mr. Morningside I had been reading his friend’s personal accounts of their former adventures.
“I knew you would come back,” Lee said, pulling away andholding me at arm’s length. “You’ve come just in time, Louisa. Everything has gone upside down.”
“It’s the same in London,” I told him, taking the jar of beans and hoisting it onto his stack. “We were all but chased out of the city. I have no idea if the shepherd wanted to force us here or just to eliminate us altogether.”
