Darkest Dreams Page 16

  “What?” Bridget cried, outraged. “You’ve never let me—”

  Stuart spoke louder to be heard over Bridget. “BUT when it comes to a woman’s actually physical safety and future, I can’t stand back and let her hang herself.”

  “What’s he talking about, Cassie?” Bridget demanded.

  I wanted to know too, but I didn’t have to ask. Since I was holding Cassie’s hand I saw her flash of memory. I saw her talking to Stuart, then going into Sean’s bedroom, finding him in pain, her kissing Sean in his bed…I snatched my hand from Cassie’s.

  “I’ll tell you later,” Cassie said. “Show Stuart the symbol and what you told us, Bridget.”

  Stuart looked at the symbol and paled. “It’s here,” he said. “At least most of it is. Just eliminate the oval from the center of the circle, and you find the rest of it carved inside the sacrificial bowl at Daghdha’s feet over there. We need to tell Sean and notify Constable Poole.”

  “Then it wasn’t a poacher this summer, was it?” Cassie whispered.

  “What are you talking about, Cassie?” I asked.

  “The bowl at Daghdha’s feet. Bridget and I walked through the site on our way back from the village one Sunday and found blood in the bowl.”

  “I don’t know if it was a poacher or not,” Stuart said. “I found an animal trap in the woods not far away that day. There was blood on it, but nobody has come and reset it since. I’ve been checking on it. Now I think we should all leave.”

  I didn’t argue. I didn’t need to peek into the sacrificial bowl, not with the story of a sacrifice so fresh in my mind. We returned to the house, sobered by the ominous implications that someone in this modern day and age had taken up the ritual of offering blood to a pagan god. And perhaps offering more than just the blood of animals—offering the lives of women.

  Chapter Thirteen

  That night I couldn’t sleep, too many things swirling through my mind. Thoughts about Alex and the prison he’d sentenced himself to, remembrances of Aphrodite seducing her Alexander that led me to think about seducing Alex, then the whole discovery about the symbol’s connection to the Druid ruins.

  Cassie had told me about the legend behind the Circle of the Stone Virgins earlier this summer, when Gemini and I had first come to live at Killdaren’s Castle. Daghdha, High King of the famed faery folk the Tuatha de Danaan, and a god worshiped by the Druids, was notorious for seducing mortal women, a fact that made his queen very jealous. At the Circle of the Stone Virgins it is said that he played his harp made of living oak, the Uaithne, to seduce seven of the world’s most beautiful mortal virgins on the eve of Beltane. Then, after having his pleasure of them, he turned their earthly bodies to stone so that his queen would never learn of his deed. Or, it was rumored that he put the stones there to dupe his queen, and actually kidnapped the seven virgins and took them to a secret lair to pleasure him for eternity.

  Giving up on sleep, I lit my lamp and searched for a warmer robe in my armoire. My hand came in contact with the Dragon’s Curse book. I eagerly snatched it up, shuddering as I pushed away the historical fact cards I had stolen from the music room. Daghdha had used music to lure his seven virgins, and music had played a role in each of the women’s deaths. I wondered if there was a connection.

  It was enough to make me think twice about doing something as simple as singing a song, or listening to an instrument for that matter.

  I stretched out on the gold brocade divan in the corner of my room, but the more I read about the Dragon’s Curse and how horrifically it had played out in the Killdaren family history, the more chilled I became. I finally had to move to my bed to read, curled up under the thick blue-and-gold-tasseled counterpane to keep from shivering. Age after age, time and again, whenever male twins were born, one died at the other’s hand. When I reached the year of 1490 and read where one brother in an authoritative position in Cornwall had accused his brother of heresy and saw to not only his public execution but had had his brother’s wife burned at the stake for witchcraft as well, I shut the book. The Dragon’s Curse seemed so real and so hopeless to overcome that it was more than I could absorb. I needed time to think about what I’d read and to get some perspective on it before I could do anything to help Alex or Sean.

  And I either needed to find something else to read or forget sleep for the rest of not only the night but my life as well. Dark dreams were sure to plague me. Donning my slippers, I snatched up my lamp and headed for the library. Even Bridget and Cassie’s book on vampires would be more conducive to helping me get to sleep than reading or thinking about so much ill intent and death.

  The library shelves were ordered by subjects. I started with the As, passing through an entire case of books on astronomy, and moved quickly to the Es, thinking that a book on equestrian matters, especially if I could locate one on the Friesian breed, would give me something to discuss with Alex, or at least prompt a few intelligent questions on the subject. Something needed to bridge the gap I felt had been made by his walking away from my touch today. I found an interesting book on equine dressage. As I slipped it from the shelf another title jumped out at me. A Gentleman’s Treatise Upon the Art of Fencing. Looking further, I found Coup de Temps: Besting Your Opponent.

  Fingers tingling, I stacked the books in my arms and turned to leave the library only to come to a started halt in the middle of the room. For a moment, in the shadowed light, I thought Alex stood with his back against the doorjamb and his arms crossed in a familiar way, but it was Sean.

  “You’re up late,” he said.

  “I couldn’t sleep. I thought you and Cassie would be hard at work on the stars tonight.”

  He sighed heavily. “Cassie’s not speaking to me, and I can’t concentrate. It’s a good thing no astronomical events were predicted for tonight.”

  “I guess Cassie is still angry then.”

  “That would be an understatement,” he said, pushing from the doorway to march across the room with a limping stride, his hands fisted with frustration. He didn’t have his cane with him tonight, so his gait was more marked. “Why won’t she listen to reason?” he demanded.

  “All she wanted to do was to ride into town with you, the earl and Stuart to report what we discovered to Constable Poole. Why was her request unreasonable?”

  “Because,” he said, tossing his hands up in the air to prove his point, “I can’t allow her to involve herself any more in this investigation. Don’t you understand? Even if it turns out that Jamie didn’t mean Cassie any harm in kidnapping her, it still happened. Now that she is with child…I—”

  “It makes loving her even more painful.”

  “Bloody hell, yes!” Despite his disability, he swung around so fast that I stepped back in surprise and had to juggle to keep the books in my arms. “Sorry, that’s exactly how I feel,” he said, reaching out to help steady the books. “Fencing?”

  Heat flagged my cheeks and I cleared my throat. “Well, your brother sort of offered to teach me a little about it.”

  “He did!” Both of Sean’s dark brows shot up. “I thought you were cataloguing the eyesores our ancestors hung about our necks.”

  I stiffened my back. “I am, and they are most certainly not eyesores. They’re an amazingly rich inheritance of history that needs to be properly noted and displayed, not just stuffed into a room and forgotten. Now, let’s talk about Cassie. Have you told her how you feel?”

  “She knows how much I love her.”

  “That isn’t the same as telling her, now. Also, you’re going to have to realize that you married a woman who has never sat idle or docile. I think you should involve her with the investigation on some level.”

  “No. I won’t compromise her safety, but I will make sure she completely understands how much I love her.”

  “Well, I guess I’ll say goodnight then.” I started from the library.

  “Wait, Andromeda. What exactly is Alex showing you about fencing?”

  “Very little as
of yet. He’s extremely good. He mentioned that you both began learning to be sword masters together before…”

  “You can speak of the fight.”

  “I was going to say accident. He didn’t mean for you to fall from the cliff. It was an accident, and both of you need to stop punishing him for it.”

  “You’re talking about something you know nothing of. You weren’t there. You don’t know what it was like. The anger.”

  “No. I wasn’t there. I don’t know what it was like, but I do know that a man doesn’t sentence himself to a life of desolation because he meant to kill someone and didn’t. Only a man who didn’t mean to kill someone and almost did would.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “While your brother wasn’t at home, I went to catalogue any pictures or art or artifacts in his quarters, figuring that his would be similar to yours. You’ve a wealth of interesting antiquities, from medieval weaponry to suited armor in your chambers.”

  He lifted a skeptical brow that had me blushing from my lie. “And?”

  “There was nothing. Not a picture. Not a single item except a desk, a chair, a table, a lamp, an armoire and a bed. Your brother lives like a monk in many ways. He denies himself attachment to anything that is not functional for his existence. He goes through the motions of life on the surface. He can be seen riding a horse at breakneck speed or training one with a magical hand. He goes to town for an occasional event. He entertains Lord Ashton and Mr. Drayson at card games and can even be a charming host over a meal. But it is all a front, a smokescreen that hides the fact that every day he is just passing time until he dies, alone. And it is such a waste, because you don’t live the empty, dependent life he feels he condemned you to. You’re one of the most remarkable people I know. You’ve triumphed over tragedy and have carved a unique existence for yourself. You don’t need to have the title he’s sacrificing himself to give you. You have more than he ever will.” I turned quickly to leave, sadness scorching my heart.

  “Andromeda.” Sean set his hand on my shoulder before I reached the door, and my knees nearly buckled from the pain inside him. Pain of loving his brother, of being betrayed, and of fear that the Dragon’s Curse would continue. “What are you saying? I dissolved our pact to never marry. He’s free.”

  I stepped from the weight of his hand and faced him without the burden of his pain. “No, you didn’t, and you can’t free him. Because the pact isn’t with you; it’s inside himself and what he feels he owes you because of what happened. And don’t you dare tell him I said anything. He’ll never trust me again. I didn’t mean to tell you and I shouldn’t have. But no one seems to consider Alex in what happened.”

  Sean blinked at me a moment, stunned, and I took the opportunity to leave before I could say or do something else I shouldn’t, like give in to the tears filling my eyes.

  “You’re going to need an épée and a contre-attaque,” Sean called out to me down the corridor.

  “A what?”

  “Meet me in the center hall at dawn and I’ll show you. And thank you,” he said, “Cassie will have to talk to me now.”

  “Why?” I asked, blinking to bring him into focus.

  “Do you think she’ll miss out on a fencing lesson?”

  I went back to my room, shaking my head. Sean may have found a way to win this battle, but I hated to tell him that it wasn’t going to do a thing to solve the war brewing between him and Cassie. The trouble was, I understood both of them, and they were both right and both wrong.

  I traveled to Dragon’s Cove the next morning sure about only one thing: If the opportunity to spend more time with Alex presented itself, I wasn’t going to walk away from it. Alex needed me, and deep inside I knew my feelings for him were such that I’d never feel this deeply for another. Would it be right or wrong to allow myself to experience the fullness of our passion before I resigned myself to living a life alone?

  No matter what happened to me personally, I had to do what I could to make him see he had needlessly put himself into prison. And I thought I knew a way to force him to listen to me. At sword point, no less. When I left Killdaren’s Castle, Cassie and Sean were at blunted sword points with each other, and Cassie was talking to him, for now. Or at least at him.

  Seeing Sean in action this morning made me wonder if Alex even knew how well Sean had compensated for his disability. With the help of his cane, Sean’s movements were adept and deadly as he showed us some fencing maneuvers, especially considering the sharp, hooked blade hidden in the tip of his cane.

  A slight plan began to form, one that involved Alex, me, a challenge and, I hoped, just the right amount of luck to pull off the little trick Sean had taught me this morning. I’d done a good bit of reading late into the night and at least intellectually knew what a contre-attaque was.

  After yesterday, I expected Alex would have escaped to his ship to prowl the coast again, and I’d have to wait another week to see him. So the sight of him charging up on a splendid gelding with another saddled horse in tow stole my breath. I’d yet to enter the Dragon doors, but had stood on the steps seeing the doors in light of what I’d read about the Dragon’s Curse.

  Cassie was wrong. The dragons weren’t just wounded and standing. They were indeed dead, but had not fallen, and it was hard to imagine that Alex saw himself that way. His charismatic aura was so full of life.

  I watched him approach, reveling in him. His dark hair, like rich, black silk, waved back from the strong, sensual lines of his face to a daring length that brushed the tops of his broad shoulders. The gleam in his vibrant green gaze matched the unorthodox manner of his coatless attire, for he seemed to be undressing me with his eyes.

  “Iris has something to show you down by the stables,” he said. “You did say you could ride, didn’t you?”

  “Yes.” I stared warily at the lively brown mare he’d brought. “My experience, though, is somewhat limited to mares of notable age.”

  “Then Delilah will be perfect. She responds well to a light touch and will follow Samson to the ends of the earth.” He dismounted, bringing his strength, vitality and heat so close he made me tingle everywhere.

  “You must be riding Samson then,” I said, managing to sound inane despite my efforts.

  “None other,” he said. “Do you need help mounting?”

  “Well…” I glanced cautiously at Delilah. She was larger, younger and definitely had all four hooves on solid ground and none of them in the grave. Not at all similar to the other horses I’d ridden. “Maybe a little.” I swallowed hard. “Are you sure she’s gentle? From the way she glared at Samson as you rode up, Samson should be guarding his mane rather than grazing on sweet violets.”

  He laughed as he set his hands to my waist, unexpectedly picking me up to set me in the sidesaddle. “If she handles a blade as well as you do then he has nothing to fear.”

  “What?” I said, grabbing his shoulders even as I stiffened my back in protest of his slight. The result was disastrous in that I didn’t quite gain my balance in the sidesaddle before moving, and thus fell forward, burying my bosom in his face before I could push back. He slid his hand up from my waist to cup the sides of my breasts, seemingly pressing them even more firmly to him. I flushed from the tip of my toes to every mentionable and unmentionable place imaginable before I could extricate myself without any help whatsoever. All he did was laugh harder and, considering the dampness between my breasts, may have licked me.

  “You, sir, are no gentleman. That was an accident and you didn’t lift a finger.”

  He cocked a questioning brow, reminding me he’d adeptly lifted ten fingers.

  “To help me,” I added. “Not yourself.” I took Delilah’s reins from him, and she skittered back a little, making me bite my lip in fear.

  “My apologies,” he said, not looking the least bit contrite as he mounted Samson.

  I set my concentration on staying upright and trying to show a degree of confidence I didn’t quite have. Somet
hing I would never have unless I ventured out from the artifacts I buried myself beneath.

  “We’ll take the long way to the stables so you can see a little of the land,” he said, leading us to the left and the crash of the waves. After passing though a small barrier of low-lying trees, we came to a high edge of black rocks where the horizon became an endless vision of deep blue.

  “I suppose Dragon’s Cove was named from the Killdaren curse?” I asked, desperately trying to distract myself from the fact that I was on a horse. Even though the horse seemed to be docilely following Alex’s lead at a leisurely pace, I couldn’t seem to breathe. Every bumpy step bruised some unmentionable part of me.

  “Actually no. The Killdaren who settled here did so because the land seemed to be as cursed as the family. The castle is built on the crest of a high cliff that rises sharply from the sea. From a ship, the cliff and the treacherous rocks below have the appearance of a clawing dragon, with the crashing waves as its continuous roar. Ships sailing along the coast in the fog often wrecked upon the rocks, and the survivors swore the sleeping dragon had awakened and attacked their ships.”

  “It’s easy to see how those stories took root,” I said, looking out at the dark rocks, hearing the roar, and feeling the deadly energy.

  Once past the cliff, he paused at a trail. “If you follow this path, you wind your way down to a cove with a sandy beach.” I nodded, biting my lip against my discomfort. However did people enjoy riding? Moving back through the woods, he crossed in front of the castle and down a long stretch of rolling grass, increasing his pace, and I groaned at the sharp pain as I bounced stiffly in the saddle. Everything was so different than trudging along on a piebald mare around a training rink.

  He must have heard me because he dropped back to ride beside me. “You don’t have to concentrate so hard at riding, you know. You look as if you’re trying to solve the world’s problems. Relax and let your body flow with the movement of the horse’s steps. Use her movements to balance yourself and don’t try and fight her sway.”