GARY WOKE EARLY THE next morning. Ceallaigh was still asleep alongside him. Outside the windows, the clouds were touched with pink pre-dawn light, but remnants of the previous night’s storm clouds were moving below them. Gary pushed the sheets aside and dressed. He felt uneasy and restless, as if the house’s energy was pulling at him, willing him to move, to find Jago. As if he were needed.
He padded downstairs. Olympe, one of the night maids, was sweeping the floor.
‘Lord Branok?’ Gary asked her.
She pointed to the lawn outside. ‘I saw the master and Hitchcock going down the cliff stairs fifteen minutes ago or so, sir.’
Jago was standing on the pebbles of the beach below the cliffs. Alongside him, just behind the tidal line, a body lay covered in a blanket. Hitchcock, attired as usual in his tuxedo and white gloves, was crouched down, tucking the blanket around the body. Shredded remnants of dark clouds hurried past in the wind, and the surf was high, though the sky had cleared at the horizon, sending shafts of sunlight to pierce the morning fog off the sea.
Jago, masked as always, turned to watch Gary approach. ‘Dylan Hardesty’s gone. So is Susan Strathmore.’
‘Gone? Gone where?’ Gary asked. The blanketed body was far too short to be Herne, and there appeared to be no antlers on the covered head. ‘I was thinking that if the phone lines were up, we could call DS Truscott and tell her we had a rather large gift for her.’
‘Mr Hardesty and Ms Strathmore are not anywhere in DS Truscott’s jurisdiction at this point. But I do need to have her come to Loveday.’ Jago pointed to the body. ‘Nigel Walmsley’s committed suicide, and I’m told that Mr Beattie was devoured by a giant octopus. That’s something I’ll have to tell the Superintendent. There’s damage and injuries everywhere from the storm, and perhaps other deaths. The authorities are dealing with all that now. I suspect a suicide, a single death, and a couple of missing people that we know for certain were still alive after the storm are going to be low on their list of priorities. Those of the household who were injured have already been helped. I’ll have Dr Quiller come up later to check on them.’
‘There’s also Colette, sir, but we don’t have her body, and I daresay there’s no record of her ever having been here,’ Hitchcock added. ‘Perhaps we shouldn’t mention her to DS Truscott. I’ll have a memorial service for her arranged with the staff later.’
‘Thank you, Hitchcock. I also have staff coming to take Nigel’s body to the cold store until the coroner arrives.’ Jago pressed his lips together under his mask. ‘I’ll be having a difficult conversation with DS Truscott when she does arrive. None of our guests should leave until their statements are taken, assuming that the causeway hasn’t been so damaged that no cars could cross it anyway. Hitchcock, Gary, if you’ll gather our remaining guests in the drawing room so I can speak to them, I’d appreciate it. See that they’re given food and whatever else they require in the meantime.’
Jago started towards the cliffside stairs – stopped, turned. Behind the mask, his eyes stared at Gary. ‘I know. You’re thinking I should have taken the Morwens’ threats more seriously. But look—’ He pointed towards the towers of Loveday House, visible beyond the cliff. ‘Mad Morwen’s “great and terrible storm” has passed over us, and Loveday House remains standing. The Morwens have no real power, Gary. Not any more. We both know their doors remain locked.’
The mistake was Gary’s, but once said, it couldn’t be unsaid.
Ceallaigh was among the staff assigned to help Hitchcock and Gary attend to the guests while they waited for DS Truscott and her people to arrive. Gary saw her across the room. ‘Caitlyn!’ he called out. She didn’t turn, didn’t look at him. Gary followed her. ‘Hey, Caitlyn,’ he said again. ‘Good morning. Sorry I left this morning without …’
She set down the tray of sandwiches she was holding and turned to look at him. The heat of her gaze was stronger than the embarrassed heat that rose up in him as he realized the name with which he’d addressed her.
‘I’m sorry. I called you Caitlyn. I’m so sorry, Ceallaigh. I just …’
‘You just what?’ she asked.
‘It’s already been a long day, and it’s still morning – that’s a poor excuse, but it’s the only one I have. I made a stupid, stupid mistake.’
‘Aye, you did.’ Flatly. ‘An’ I have to attend to our guests here, so any apologies you intend to make will have to wait until later, though I don’t know whether I’ll be listening to them or not.’
She turned away, picking up the tray once more. You idiot! Gary cursed himself, closing his eyes momentarily. When he opened them again, Ceallaigh was across the room, talking to Topper and smiling as if nothing had happened.
DS Truscott and her entourage arrived later that morning, and Gary was once again pressed into herding the guests into interview rooms for the police. It was evening before Truscott and her people were satisfied, the coroner had taken away Nigel’s body, and arrangements were made for the remaining guests to leave.
Gary went up to his room and found Ceallaigh there. He noted the closed suitcases on his bed. Her suitcases.
‘Gary,’ she said before he could speak, ‘I feel like I’m still dealing with the emotional baggage you bring to our relationship. That’s not your fault, darling, but it’s not mine either. It’s just there: a wall between us. You’re still attached to your past and to your life on Rathlin.’
Gary started to speak, but Ceallaigh lifted an index finger.
‘No, let me finish this while I still have the speech I rehearsed in me mind. Aye, I still love you. But as I’ve told you before, I’m not your Caitlyn. I won’t ever be Caitlyn, and I refuse to be a replacement for her in your affection. I need to know yeh love me, not some warped reflection of Caitlyn you’re seeing instead. I know yeh feel you’ve found Caitlyn, your stepdaughter, and Duncan again here in Loveday, but those are just images that the house is pulling from inside your head. They’re not real – but I most definitely am real. Unless and until you realize that and make your peace with it, I cannot be with you. So, I’ll be moving back into me old apartment below stairs.’
‘Ceallaigh …’
‘No. Let me finish. My moving out hopefully isn’t forever. Just give me space and time to work on things in me own head. But, Gary, love … You need to finally and completely let your Caitlyn go. And that does need to be forever.’
For several months, Gary could believe that Jago was right, that the various Lady Morwens were locked away and no longer capable of causing problems. The strange visitations at night had ended – at least, there were no more than there had ever been before – and Gary never encountered ‘his’ Morwen when he prowled the old hallways (as he still did occasionally). Following the storm, Mad Morwen’s presence seemed to have vanished from Loveday House.
Ceallaigh had yet to move back into Gary’s rooms, though she had stayed with him overnight a few times recently. She was laughing and smiling again, and Gary, for his part, was very careful to never call her Caitlyn or to bring up his time in Rathlin.
‘I miss having you here every night,’ he told her one morning after she’d stayed the night. He poured tea into her cup and pushed the plate of Chef Daniel’s scones towards her. ‘These rooms feel empty without you in them.’
Ceallaigh took one of the scones. She bit into it, chewing with a look of deep appreciation on her face, before swallowing and taking a sip of the tea. ‘And do you still go wandering through Loveday of a night?’ she asked.
‘Now and then,’ he admitted, ‘but I’m not looking for anyone except Lady Morwen. The others whom I’ve lost … Well, I’ve come to terms with my grief and put them away. I know I can’t really find them here again.’
‘Is that the honest truth you’re telling me?’ She reached out and put her hand over his.
He interlaced his finger with hers, brown flesh against pale. ‘Yes. I’ve left the past in the past. I’ll remember it fondly, but I won’t dwell on it, and I won’t go looking for it.’
Ceallaigh pressed her fingers against his. She lifted his hand and kissed it. ‘Then I’ll move back in, if you like.’
Gary grinned. ‘I’d like that more than anything.’
‘You have two weeks to prepare some new guise dances,’ Jago told Gary a few weeks later. His mask was midnight blue, covering his face from hairline to his upper lip. Tiny LEDs were embedded in the mask like stars; Gary could even recognize a few of the constellations.
‘Another party?’
When Jago nodded, the stars swayed. ‘Hitchcock sent out the invitations in yesterday’s post.’ Jago’s eyes narrowed slightly behind the mask. ‘I’d have thought you’d be pleased to be working again.’
‘And I am, but—’
‘You worry too much. I’ve checked the rooms deep within the house and made certain nothing lurks there. We’ll tell the guests, as always, that they’re not permitted to wander the house without a staff member guiding them. Lady Morwen’s storm has come and gone, and we have had no hint of her presences since. I’ve tested her doors again. They’re still locked, and when I call for her, she doesn’t answer. So set aside your worries and concerns. This will be like the gatherings I once had, Gary: a grand party and nothing more.’
There was a smile underneath the starry mask. Gary couldn’t help but smile back. The memories of the last few parties still lingered, but he remembered what he’d told Ceallaigh about leaving the past in the past. This wasn’t his house, and he still felt happy and comfortable here.
‘Then I’ll head into town tomorrow and see Richard Darke; he says he’s uncovered a few guise dances that have been nearly forgotten. I’ll see if I can convince him to show them to me.’
‘Wonderful!’ Jago said. ‘I’ll look forward to seeing them myself.’
In the early hours of the morning that the first guests were to arrive, there was a soft knock on Gary’s door. Ceallaigh didn’t wake, but Gary stirred from a dreamless sleep. When he looked, he saw that someone had slipped a small, white envelope under his door. Gary turned on the lamp on his nightstand; Ceallaigh’s head faced away from the light. When he opened the packet, he found a small ruby inside. No note, no explanation, nothing written on the envelope itself.
Yet the sight of the single tiny ruby made Gary’s breath stop in his throat. He glanced back at his nightstand. In the wan illumination of the lamp, he could see the pommel of Morwen’s dagger in its sheath, the facets of the far larger ruby set there glittering like a bloody eye. The clock alongside the dagger proclaimed it to be five a.m.
Rubies were reputedly Lady Morwen’s favourite jewel … Gary remembered Jago saying ages ago, when Lady Morwen had first attacked him. His chest tightened again, making breathing hard.
He dressed quickly, putting on Constance’s bathrobe and placing the sheathed dagger in the pocket. Going to Ceallaigh’s side of the bed, he leaned down and kissed her forehead.
‘What time is it?’ she asked.
‘It’s still early, darling. I have to go talk to Lord Branok about something. I’ll be back up before you need to leave for your duties.’
With that, he left the room and went down the stairs to the ground floor. He knocked on the door of Jago’s office. A minute later, Jago – still masked – came to the door, dressed as if he’d been awake for hours. ‘Gary? Is there a problem?’
Gary handed Jago the envelope. ‘This was placed under my door just a few minutes ago.’
Jago opened the envelope. He looked at the small jewel that dropped out into his palm. ‘You’re thinking this is from Lady Morwen?’
Gary nodded. ‘That was my first thought.’
Jago was already shaking his head. ‘Occam’s razor,’ he said. ‘More likely that one of our staff found the ruby, assumed it had been lost by someone and put it under your door so you’d take care of it. It’s a small jewel and could easily have come loose and fallen from someone’s ring or necklace. Several of our guests have worn rubies.’ He shook his head. ‘Lady Morwen hasn’t been seen in a long time. I suspect there’s some other explanation for this.’ Jago glanced at the wall clock. ‘Regardless, there’s nothing we can do about this now. Our first guests should be arriving in just a few hours.’
‘You could tell them that the party’s cancelled.’
Another shake of Jago’s head. ‘I appreciate your concern. Here’s what we’ll do. You and I will check those doors again immediately. If either of them is unlocked, I’ll tell our guests that we’ve had to cancel the event. Otherwise, the party will proceed as planned, though we’ll still take extra precautions. You, Hitchcock, Madame Amélie, and Elbrekt will let me know if anything else seems awry. Let me grab two torches, and you and I will go check on our Morwens.’
But they found her doors still apparently locked, and no one answered when Jago rattled and shook them.
By 5.45 a.m., Gary was back in bed with Ceallaigh.