24
Seth
Did you hear that?
The hardest thing I ever did was walk away from Ella, leaving her to do battle on her own. While on an intellectual level I understood the reverend's approach, that we needed to combat Millicent in this world and the one beyond, on an emotional level I rebelled. I would do what had to be done, but I wouldn't like it.
I had my foot on the accelerator and hard to the floor in the motorcar, racing back to Serenity House. Shingle spun under the tyres on each corner and Bain's fingers gripped the dash until his knuckles turned white. I stomped hard on the brake outside the front door and we both jumped from the car and ran up the steps.
Warrens pulled the door open a second before I ran into it.
"Cellars, bring lanterns," I yelled as I pounded down the long hall and headed for the original part of the house and the area that had once contained the kitchens.
It was easy to see why the old cellars had been long forgotten. The stairway had been bricked up and the wall plastered. Only the tiniest crack, and Warren's formidable determination and encyclopaedic knowledge of the house, found the entrance.
Frank had led the team to chip away the old bricks and mortar to reveal the dark hole that disappeared deeper into the ground. Someone had been determined to hide the entranceway and whatever rested down there. Bricks a foot thick had sealed the tomb.
Just last night, the men had finally broken through. All morning, while I was at the manse, Frank and his men had kept working to enlarge the hole. It was now large enough for a child to crawl through.
My half brother was covered in a light dusting of brick and plaster. "Nearly there," he said.
I shook my head. "Not soon enough. Ella has gone to fight Millicent in the other realm, so we need to find her physical body now."
I shrugged off my jacket and grabbed a nearby sledgehammer. I channelled all my worry and concern for Ella into the brick wall before me. Blow after blow rained shattered bits of brick around me, and the gaping hole grew larger.
Frank worked beside me. He never questioned what I did, he simply leant his back and strength to removing stones. Soon, with the two of us working like mad men, we had a gap big enough for a grown man to squeeze through. Assuming he hadn't over indulged at the dinner table.
I tossed the hammer to one side and climbed through. The rough bricks scraped my back and sides. I wiggled and crawled arm over arm, as though I crossed No Man's Land, until I emerged on the other side.
"Lantern," I barked.
Someone pushed a lantern through after me and I caught it and swung it into the dark. I stood on a small landing and stone steps spiralled away and called me downward. A quick glance behind showed first Frank and then Bain braving the short tunnel to stand next to me. Weapons were next and Frank handed me the sabre to buckle around my waist.
"Onward," I said. "The others can follow as they make it through."
More lanterns were passed along and soon the three of us each held a light high as we marched down into the earth beneath the house. The yellow light from the lanterns only penetrated a few feet at a time due to the sharp curve of the stairs. We walked a corkscrew, winding ourselves further into the ground.
I tried to gauge distance by judging the drop of each tread. Six inches over fifty steps put us twenty-fifty feet under the ground. A long way to haul potatoes if this was just a root cellar.
The stairs ended and the floor levelled off. We spread out, exploring the cellar. It wasn't overly large. Perhaps fifteen foot by fifteen foot. A wall of shelves had lain empty for centuries. Five large brandy barrels were lined up along the opposite wall.
The knock made me frown. Was there another door down here or did it come from above? Just as I convinced myself I had imagined it, the faint rap sounded again.
"Did you hear that?" I asked the other two.
We all paused. Then there were two raps in quick succession. Coming from one of the barrels.
"Over there," Frank waved his lantern at the barrel closest to the far end of the cellar.
I set my lantern on a shelf. Frank placed his on the floor. Then Lieutenant Bain held his light high as Frank and I rolled the barrel away from the others.
"Must be full, it's heavy," Frank grunted.
It didn't have the balanced feel of a liquid inside. And what could account for the noise? Perhaps it was nuts that had ripened and shed their outer husks with a short explosive burst?
I ran a hand along the top. "The lid is nailed down."
Bain fished in a pocket and handed me his Swiss Army knife. A handy invention, it allowed a soldier to keep a multitude of tools in his pocket. I flicked out the snub-nosed screw driver and banged the short length of metal between lid and barrel. As the knocking grew louder, I levered the nails out of the ancient wood.
As I reached half way, the rocking became more violent. I jumped back, pulling the knife away as the barrel lurched and the top exploded.
Frank jumped back with a yelp as the lid shot across the room.
I bit back a laugh. "Made you jump," I muttered.
He waved a finger at me. "Don't tell a soul—"
His words were cut off as the barrel toppled over and long pale fingers curled around the edge. A head with raven black hair followed. A woman looked around with curious black eyes as she slid the rest of her body from the tight confines of the barrel.
A very familiar looking woman.
"Wish I could say it was nice to meet you at last, Millicent." We would end her here. The stone walls would contain the fire when we doused her body with the kerosene in the lamps.
She rose on unsteady feet, the fabric of the dark gown she wore crushed after decades in the small space. She ignored us and held up a hand, staring at her fingers. She turned her hand this way and that, then she threw back her head and laughed. A hard sound that bounced off the stone walls. "I am here after so long. She failed! The useless girl failed."
A cold lead weight plummeted through my gut. "No." How could Ella fail? She was a competent soldier who I gladly took into battle at my side. She couldn't fail. Not the woman I loved.
I drew my sword. "If she has truly failed, then I will end you here and now in her name."
I took a step forward. Millicent's head shot up, as though she realised for the first time she wasn't alone. She sneered at me. "The current duke. A man in need of a wife to add a little something fatal to his night cap."
I swung the sword in my hand, limbering up my wrist. Although the idea of hacking clumsily at her slender white throat appealed. No torture would be enough if this witch had killed my Ella in the beyond.
Millicent tucked a piece of long hair behind her ear, her gaze drifted to her hand. Then the sneer froze on her face. "What has she done?" The words rasped from her mouth. Her alabaster complexion turned grey as we watched, like the descent of twilight over the landscape. Her skin greyed and wrinkled before our eyes.
"No. This isn't possible." She clutched at her breast that went from pert to saggy in the space of a breath.
"Make it stop!" She yelled at us.
Make what stop? I hadn't struck her yet.
Deep lines in her face formed, like fissures during an earthquake running through soil. She clasped her hands to her cheeks and pulled away a layer of skin.
"What's going on?" Frank asked as he stepped closer to me.
Her skin turned from grey to black. The fissures became cracks as her skin and flesh crumbled and fell to the floor. Millicent began to scream. I closed my ears to the sound as she dropped to her knees. Her hair grew white and then thinned, long pieces falling from her scalp and littering the ground.
"If I had to hazard a guess, it looks as though Millicent is aging over three hundred years in less than three minutes," I said.
Her scream turned to a gurgle as her jaw dislocated and then the bone fell away. Her clothing disintegrated into dust first, leaving her skeletal form naked. What skin didn't peel away, blackened and clung to bone as muscle and flesh withered and vanished. Soon a stripped skeleton moaned on the floor. Then brittle bone could no longer sustain its own weight.
Millicent shattered like dropped porcelain.
"Sweep up the dust. Gather all of it. Don't miss a single speck." I turned to leave.
Frank put a hand on my arm. "Where are you going?"
"She said Ella failed." I didn't need to say anything else. The screaming inside my mind wouldn't stop until I either saw the truth and held Ella one last time, or proved Millicent to be the liar history said she was.
Ella
Out with the old, in with the new
My eyes flung open and I sat upright with a gasp. The sofa was under my bottom and Charlotte lay on the carpet beside me. Seth and Lieutenant Bain sat on the opposite sofa, both looking grim.
Seth let out a deep sigh and stood up.
"Ella," he murmured my name and moved sofas. Sitting next to me, he pulled me into his arms and kissed the top of my head. "Thank God you are all right."
"Is this real?" I asked. Please don't let this be a cruel trick or another realm.
At my feet, Charlotte stirred and sat up. One hand went to her brow as though her head pained her. "Ella?"
I reached out and took her hand as David knelt on the carpet. He stroked her face with his hand. "What happened?"
Charlotte and I exchanged tired looks. Reverend Mason clapped his hands together from his armchair. "Yes. We need the entire story. But I shall put the kettle on first. You both look parched, and I think tea and biscuits are required."
Only when the door closed behind his tall frame did I meet Seth's worried gaze. "What happened? How long have Charlotte and I been asleep?"
Seth drew me closer to his body. "Two days. David and I have waited for you both to awaken. Millicent said you had failed."
I snorted. "I did. Apparently you can't take off someone's head in the other realm because they don't have a physical form."
A frown marred his face. "But Millicent died. We saw her. She climbed out of her hidey hole and simply aged and crumpled into dust."
"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust," Charlotte murmured as David helped her to the opposite sofa.
I smiled at my step-sister. "I failed, but Charlotte didn't. She woke Millicent up. She had been suspended between life and death for over three hundred years. Charlotte returned Millicent to her body, which unfortunately for her, had a couple hundred years of aging to catch up on."
Seth kissed my forehead. "I am surrounded by clever women."
"I happen to think Charlotte is extraordinary." She really was extraordinary. Millicent offered her everything. She could have been a princess in a dark court. She turned it all down for work as a housekeeper and the humble love of a lieutenant. She was my hero.
Charlotte's spell and the defeat of Millicent were like a stone tossed into a pond. Ripples slowly spread outward, with Serenity House at the centre. Like puppets with their strings cut, Turned fell to the ground wherever they stood. It took time, but over days and weeks, it spread. First Somerset, then all of England. Then ever outwards across the ocean, reaching other shores. One by one, the Turned sighed as release was gifted to them and their souls escaped from Millicent's domain.
My time was spent writing reports for the War Office and protecting Charlotte from being further poked and prodded to learn her secrets. The War Office decided they needed a witch in their ranks, and they laid claim to Charlotte.
Seth took the pen from my fingers and laid it on the desk. "I do believe, Miss Jeffrey, that you made me a promise. That you would say yes the next time I asked if you would marry me."
Humour and love sparkled in his grey eyes. How could I ever imagine a life without this man by my side?
I tapped a finger to my chin. "I do believe I did. But I retain some old fashioned values. You need to ask my father first."
"Ah." He frowned. "I shall remedy that first. But until then—"
He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me upward. His head descended to claim mine in a scorching kiss. As our tongues sparred and heat spread through my limbs, I briefly pondered that life was good. Charlotte made the right choice. Who wanted to be a princess when you could be a real woman?