Page 13 of The Beast of Ashwood Manor

The corner of my mouth twitched. “No,” I said, taking a gulp from my cup of milk. “No cursed food here. That part’s already done with.”

He looked down, frowning, and ate the eggs.

Relieved he was eating, I started on my own plate.

It was quiet for a few minutes, until he broke the silence with, “Do you know of Tolburg?”

“Yes.” I cleared my throat. “Before we were cursed, I had the others go there for supplies.”

Cale poked his ham before cutting off a piece and eating it. His face lit up. “This is really good.”

“We raise pigs. We’ve turned the courtyard out back into a farm.”

“Oh? Hm, yes, I guess you’ve probably had to.” He ate a few more bites before he asked, “Is there any way you can tell me about the curse?”

I took in a heavy breath and blew it out slowly. I hadn’t talked to someone about the curse since Natalie and Eugenia came here six years ago. “After breakfast,” I said, hoping he’d forget.

He was quiet the rest of the meal. Before I showed him the rooms of the house, I led him outside first to show him the courtyard, where Edgar was busy tending to the chickens.

The rain had lessened to a drizzle as I showed Cale the goat and pig pens and chicken coop to the right. Then I showed him the garden that sat to the left, across the path. The courtyard was much bigger than what one would see behind the house, where Cale had tried to escape from, and it had all turned into one big field for farming. Cale constantly looked around. No doubt, it was overwhelming.

Before we went back inside, I showed him the well, where we drew up water for the kitchen and baths, and even this alone seemed to make him relax more.

On our way back, he asked, “What did Eugenia mean? About the barrier?”

“Nothing. We just have to take extra precautions to make sure nothing attacks us.” I didn’t give him a chance to ask anything more and headed inside. I showed him the sitting room, where the others gathered at night, and the library, which housed a great collection of books. I told him which bedrooms belonged to who on the second floor and who he should go to at night if there was a problem. When we came to the end of the hall opposite from the one he was staying on, he glanced at the wooden door at the end.

“What’s in there?” he asked.

“My chamber,” I replied.

“Are you not going to show it to me?”

I crossed my arms, thinking carefully of my next words. “There’s no reason for anyone to come up to my room unless they want my company.”

It took him a moment to understand my meaning, and then his cheeks tinted red. “Oh,” he said, his eyes roving over a few paintings hanging on the wall. “I was only asking in case you expect me to come in and clean your room. Though it seems the kitchen or outside work is more fitting.”

“You can try anything you’d like and see what you enjoy the most. I don’t require any of them to clean, but we all pull our weight with the food and making sure there are warm blankets and firewood.”

When he had nothing more to say, I walked him back to his room.

“I’ll leave you to think this all over,” I told him.

“But what about the curse?” Cale asked. “You said you’d tell me about it.”

My fists clenched, and I grit my teeth as I tried to keep a straight face. “There is a way to break it, as you said, but I can’t tell you why.”

“Why not?” he asked.

“I’m barred from doing so. The curse won’t allow me to speak of what it is, nor write it out. The only thing I can tell you is that it exists, and now, you’re part of it, part of the manor and people stuck here in some other realm I know to be more dangerous than the living one you know.”

“How old were you when it happened?”

I licked my lips and made my way to the window. “Eighteen. We’ve been here for fourteen years.”

“What happened? For you to be cursed, I mean. Surely you can tell me that.”

I crossed my arms and leaned against the windowsill. “You don’t get to know that.”

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