CHAPTER NINETEEN

The man—Dunston—had said she had cast a spell on his brother.

But that was utterly impossible. She knew nothing about charms or spells.

And I promised to meet him, Julia told herself as she let her father lead her back into the house. Why had she agreed to meet him? Surely he wasn’t serious when he accused her and her father of being responsible for casting spells.

“I hope he didn’t upset you, my dear,” her father said. “He is the new doctor I mentioned. I never thought he would be so strange a man.”

“What did it all mean?” Julia asked.

“He had some insane notion that I—or you—cast a spell on his younger brother. He most likely read the old Cagliostro stories and heard I lived here in the same town. This is the sort of thing that used to crop up constantly. That is why my father changed our name when we moved to this country. I see people do not change, and they never seem to forget.”

“I saw that man last night, Father, in my dream. I was in his house. I met his younger brother.”

“You dreamed you saw that man last night. You dreamed you were in his house. You dreamed you met his brother. You dreamed all of it, Julia. None of it actually happened.”

“But he recognized me also. He said I was in his house and that I put a spell on his brother.”

“I’ll have no more talk of Dunston and his insane ravings. He and his brother were staying at the inn the night you lodged there. You most likely saw them and dreamed about them. The subconscious mind is a very tricky fellow. You could well have seen them and not realized it.”

“But Father—”

“No, no more, Julia. Please. Dunston managed to upset me quite enough. Come. Let’s have our breakfast and try to settle ourselves and forget all about dreams and madmen like Dunston.”

They ate, almost in silence, each consumed by his own secret thoughts. Dunston had very obviously upset him, Julia thought as she watched her father pick at his food. She couldn’t help but wonder why her father kept avoiding the obvious possibility that her dreams were much more than dreams. She hadn’t seen Dunston or his brother at Aunt Rose’s inn. Besides, Aunt Rose said she never took in lodgers, especially strangers, and Dunston, according to her father, was new in Belham.

She hadn’t intended keeping the rendezvous with Dunston, but suddenly she found herself looking at things differently. Her father refused to discuss her dreams. She had to talk about them to someone. Dunston was a doctor. Perhaps he would be able to help her.

The morning dragged. Dr. Cagliostro closeted himself in his study. Julia tried to take an interest in the new paint and drapery samples, but her mind wasn’t on decorating. She glanced at the clock a thousand times, trying to find some excuse to get out of the house and into Belham.

“Oh, dear,” Julia said as she dropped some fabrics over a chair. “Today was the day I promised Aunt Rose I’d stop in and visit.”

Matilda looked up from her work. “Your Aunt Rose? I didn’t think you had spoken to her since you came here.”

“I ran into her the other day when father and I were in town,” she lied. “She invited me to visit. I might just as well join her for lunch and it will save you the bother, Matilda.”

The old woman grunted and went on with whatever it was she was doing.

Julia left the house without even bothering to change her dress. She was early, but simply to justify her lie, she decided to stop at the inn and visit with Aunt Rose for a few minutes.

Aunt Rose was surprised when Julia walked through the front door. “I thought the old house swallowed you up for good,” she said as she kissed the girl’s cheek. “I get all the reports about how hard you’re working.” She laid a finger alongside her cheek and studied Julia’s face for a moment. “You look tired, Julia. Your father’s working you too hard.”

Julia shook her head. “No, it isn’t his fault. I just haven’t been sleeping as soundly as I’d like. I’m still in the throes of getting used to the change in my living habits,” she said. “I’ll adjust soon enough.”

Her Aunt regarded her for a moment longer, then smiled. “Of course you will. Come along, I’ll fix you a bit of lunch.”

“No, thank you, Aunt Rose. I can’t stay but a few minutes. I just came in to shop at the general store. I need some thread and things. Oh, and by the way, I met a man at the house this morning who father said is new in Belham. His name is Dunston, I believe. He is a doctor or something.”

“Oh, yes. Jason Dunston. Yep, he’s a doctor all right. He has a younger brother, Danny, I think the boy’s name is. What was Dunston doing at your father’s house?”

“Just stopped to speak with father about something. I saw him and he looked very familiar. I told my father that I thought I’d met him before. He said it was possible that I’d seen him here, that he and his brother were staying here the night I arrived.”

“Nope, they never stayed here.” Suddenly Aunt Rose bit her tongue. “Your father said that, huh? Well, now that I think of it, I do believe they did ask to stay a day or two recently. They rented old Mr. Hastings place and the roof was leaking or some such thing, and they wanted me to put them up for a night or two.”

“Oh, then, that explains it. I most likely caught a glimpse of them and didn’t remember.”

“That’s possible,” her aunt agreed.

“Well, I should be off,” Julia said, glancing at her watch. “There is so much to be done. You will have to come up and see all Matilda and I have accomplished with the old place. It’s beginning to look like a house, instead of an aging relic. But come at a decent hour when I can show you around, not after midnight.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I noticed you following Adrian to the house the other night. I went down—”

Aunt Rose cut her off with, “Adrian? Who’s Adrian?”

Why did everyone ask that same question whenever she mentioned Adrian’s name. Matilda had done the same thing. “Adrian. You know. The man who works for my father.”

“Oh, him.”

Matilda had said that too, Julia remembered.

“I didn’t come to the house the other night,” her aunt said.

“Of course you did. I saw you. I went downstairs to meet you all, but I got lost in the house.”

“You must have been dreaming, girl. I haven’t set foot in that house of yours since I don’t know when.”

Julia forced herself to smile. “Maybe you’re right. I have been pestered by strange dreams of late. Oh, well. I should be off. There is so much to be done.”

“Don’t be a stranger, now. Come when we can have more time to chat. There is so much I want to tell you.”

Julia stopped at the general store, even though it was after twelve, and bought a few notions. She tucked them into her handbag and strolled leisurely toward the old abandoned church she’d seen when she first arrived in Belham.

Suddenly she wondered why the only church in Belham was abandoned? It hadn’t occurred to her before. Now it looked like a derelict ship adrift on a dead sea.

Dunston was nowhere to be seen when she entered the rear of the church. The inside, she found, was as she had expected: dusty, neglected, and murky. There was something about the atmosphere of the place that bristled the hairs on the back of her neck.

Julia walked slowly down the center aisle. She had her back to the altar niche, but something made her turn and look at it. She felt a stab of fear as she looked at the stripped altar. There was nothing to be afraid of, she told herself, yet she was afraid nonetheless. She took an involuntary step backward, then another.

What was frightening her? She felt compelled to keep her eyes averted from the little niche. What was there to be afraid of? She’d been in churches and chapels in the past and never felt like this.

She forced herself to look directly at the altar niche. Her eyes widened with fright again and she covered her face with her hands. What was it? What was frightening her so? There was nothing on the altar; it was stripped bare. There were no statues or figures or shapes to scare or alarm her. Yet she continued to keep her eyes averted for fear of whatever it was that was there, frightening her.

She heard a door open and looked around. The man, Dunston, stood in the doorway that led to a small room. He motioned to her. Wanting to get away from the altar niche, Julia rushed to him.

Once inside the room, she closed the door and leaned against it. She found she was breathing heavily. Dunston studied her for a moment. He had an odd expression on his face. His eyes too had a strange look about them.

“I just did not think,” he said.

“What? What do you mean?” Julia asked with a frown.

He waved the remark aside. “Never mind. Are you all right now?”

“Yes. I don’t know what came over me. There was something out there that frightened the wits out of me. But there was nothing there.”

“Just the stained-glass window behind the altar,” he said. “Come.” He took her hand and led her to a straight-backed chair that sat in the center of the room. He dusted the seat with his handkerchief and sat her down.

“I think we’d better start at the beginning,” he said. “I’m sure I did the right thing by asking you to meet me here, and now that I see what happened, I’m convinced of it.”

“You’re making no sense. What do you mean, ‘what happened’? I don’t understand.”

“You said something out there scared you. And you don’t know why you were frightened?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Can’t you guess?”

“Guess what?”

He shook his head. “Then you really don’t know about your father and this town of Belham.”

“Will you please make sense. First you’re asking me to guess why I’m afraid of the inside of an old, abandoned church, and then you imply that there is something amiss in Belham and with my father.”

“Something amiss?” He threw back his head and laughed.

Julia stared at him. He was as mad as her father claimed him to be.

He must have read her mind. “You believe me mad, I suppose.” He shook his head as though to shake off an unpleasant thought. “I might well be mad, for all I know. Ever since I got mixed up in this Cagliostro business, I find it harder and harder to believe the cruelty and the insanity that is going on.”

“What Cagliostro business?” Julia demanded. “You are speaking of my family.”

Dunston sighed. “Have you always known you were Cagliostro’s daughter?”

“No,” she answered, surprised at his question. “I knew my mother was Bridget Bishop. I was brought up in an orphanage. They said my father was unknown.”

“Bridget Bishop. Then you didn’t know about the Cagliostro family until you came here?”

“My father told me his real name was Cagliostro and not Bishop. He gave me a book to read. I’m familiar somewhat now with my ancestors.”

“And you read about the infamous Count Cagliostro?”

“Yes. My father laughed about him. He said he was the worst of the lot. What I read about him I did not particularly enjoy, but that was centuries ago.”

“And you don’t think anyone practices those arts anymore?”

“Surely not. This is the twentieth century. Everyone knows that such things are utter nonsense.”

Dunston gazed at her for a moment and then started pacing back and forth in front of her. “Years ago I graduated from medical school convinced that a doctor was the only person who could make the lame walk, the blind see, the sick well. I learned over the years, however, that actually it isn’t the doctor and it isn’t the medicine that cures. It is the mind. A pill won’t stop pain unless the taker of that pill, in his mind, has faith in the power of the pill. It isn’t the pill’s strength really that does the work, it is the mind power that cures the pain.”

Julia watched him as he went back and forth, back and forth. She was trying to understand what he was getting at.

“I became interested in the workings of the mind and took up studies in psychiatry. From there I moved into the realms of the various religious beliefs, because religion is nothing more than a state of mind. It was during my research of religions that I stumbled upon a group of Satanists—people who worship the Devil.”

Julia opened her mouth to say something, but he waved her to be still a moment longer.

“I was married at the time to a lovely young thing.” He smiled at Julia. “You remind me a great deal of Nancy, my wife.” He turned his head quickly and cleared his throat. “Nancy fell under the spell of these Satan worshipers. I, of course, was convinced that it was a bunch of hogwash, but Nancy firmly believed that through the right kind of concentration, Lucifer could be conjured up.

“I refused to get too deeply involved with the Satanists and I ordered Nancy to stay away from them. But she was meeting with them in secret. I didn’t know anything about it. Then one day she disappeared. They found her body several weeks later.”

He bowed his head. For a moment he was unable to continue. Finally he looked at Julia again. “I’ll spare you the details of the condition in which Nancy was found,” he said. “It was horrible. She’d been sacrificed.”

“Sacrificed?” she gasped.

“There was evidence of drugs in her system. A ceremonial knife was found near the body.”

“I began tracing the cult, but I didn’t have much success at first. Little by little I gleaned information here and there and pieced it all together. Ultimately I came up with the name Cagliostro. I then heard about Belham. That is why I came here. It is not revenge I’m seeking. What happened to Nancy I’m afraid she brought about herself. I’m sure they have had other victims whom they sacrificed. I want to make sure there are no more in the future. I intend destroying Cagliostro and the entire village of Satanists which he controls.”

“Belham...Satanists? Oh, no,” Julia said. “You must be mistaken. There are no such practices going on here.”

“How can you say that? You’ve only recently arrived in Belham. I have been here for a good many weeks and I have had a chance to investigate. The house in which you live is where their rites are held. I have no proof, but I am sure sacrifices have been performed there.”

Julia suddenly felt horror-struck. She remembered the dream in which she had carried the child and given it to Adrian, who put it on the altar in the secret room. But it had been only a dream, she reminded herself, remembering too that no one had reported a child missing.

“Surely you are mistaken, Dr. Dunston,” Julia argued.

“I am not mistaken. Your father is the Devil’s advocate, if not the Devil himself. There is too much evidence in that direction for me to be mistaken. He knows that I am suspicious of his carryings-on. That is why he sent you to put a spell on Danny. It was supposed to be a warning.”

“Who is Danny?”

“My younger brother. I shouldn’t have brought him here, but when my parents died I had no other choice. It was you who came to my cottage last night to put Danny under that spell. You have got to get him out of it.”

Julia looked startled and confused. “But I know nothing of trances or spells or any such thing. I dreamed I was at your house. But it was only a dream. My father said I’d seen you and your brother at the inn, and it stuck in my mind and recurred last night in a dream.”

“I’ve never been to the inn and neither has my brother. I had never seen you before last night when I saw you standing in front of Danny, pressing his temples and making strange signs on his head.”

“But it wasn’t me. I only dreamed I was there.”

“Talk sense, girl. How could it have been a dream if I saw you with my very own eyes? I spoke to you. You ran out into the rain. I would have followed you if it hadn’t been for the strange spell you put on Danny.”

“But I don’t remember being there, except in my dream. Besides, I couldn’t have been there. My father locked me in my room because I had been guilty of sleepwalking of late.”

“Your father locked you in your room?”

“Yes. I’ve been having very strange dreams. Just the other night I dreamed—” She interrupted herself. She didn’t think she should tell him about having dreamed of kidnapping a small girl from her bed.

“Yes,” he urged. “What did you dream?”

“Nothing,” she said, putting him off. “It was just a silly dream. It meant nothing.”

He gave her a suspicious look. After a moment he said, “I believe your father is trying to put you under his control, if he hasn’t already done so. You must get out of that house before it is too late. I have a feeling that you are not completely in his power yet, but your fear of that stained-glass window makes me suspect that it won’t be long before you will take your place beside Cagliostro.”

“What does the stained-glass window have to do with anything? I saw no window behind the altar.”

“You did, but you refused to recognize it.” He paused to put emphasis on his next remark. “The window is in the shape of a giant crucifix.”

Her eyes widened. She had heard stories of how devils and vampires cower before the Christian symbol. “You don’t mean....” Her voice faltered.

“I believe your father is bent upon your becoming an advocate of Satan’s. He will consecrate you into the hierarchy of his cult. You are a Cagliostro, he claims. That holds much prestige and many privileges in Satanic worship.”

“No, you’re wrong. My father...the Cagliostros are not involved in that sort of thing anymore,” she argued.

“How do you know? Are you even certain the man who says he is your father actually is your father? You might not be a Cagliostro after all. How can you be so positive that you’re his daughter?”

“He says my birth certificate is among his papers.”

“But he never showed it to you?”

Julia shook her head.

“Then it is quite possible that you are not his daughter. You said your records at the orphanage showed that you were the child of a Bridget Bishop. Your father may not be the man he claims he is.”

“That can’t be. My Aunt Rose said—”

He cut her off. “But how do you know she is your Aunt Rose? Remember, the whole town is controlled by Cagliostro. They will do and say whatever he tells them to do and say. Who is this Aunt Rose you mention?”

“The woman who owns the inn.” She told him quickly of her arrival in Weaver and then in Belham. She told of her little trick to get lodging at the inn. “They didn’t want me there at all. They told me to get out of Belham.”

“They thought you were a spy like myself, most likely, an enemy of their cause.”

“If they didn’t want me in Belham, why did they suddenly change their minds when I told them my name was Julia Carson and that my mother was Bridget Bishop?”

Dunston scratched his chin. “Bridget Bishop was obviously someone of importance in the town. Possibly she was closely akin to Cagliostro.”

“She was his wife. And she was my mother.”

“No, I don’t think that’s true. I don’t believe any man as cruel or as evil as Dr. Cagliostro would ever take a wife. He is too debauched for that.”

Julia bristled. “He is my father and I love him very much.”

“Julia,” he said softly. “Please listen to me. The man who calls himself your father is evil. He means evil for you as well. Run away from him. Get out of that house before he possesses you completely. He can do that, believe me. Once you are consecrated to Satan you can never be free of him. Cagliostro means to destroy you, Julia. Oh, perhaps he will not do it physically, but there are other more terrible ways to destroy. Run away. Run away from him before it is too late. Please, Julia, listen to what I tell you.”

“Run away? And where would you suggest I run, Dr. Dunston. To you, perhaps?”

She did not want to listen to anything more this man had to say. She wanted to have time to reason things out for herself. She had to get away from Dunston. She had to be alone to think.

“Go anywhere you wish. Only make sure it is outside of Belham and away from the man who claims to be your father.”

“No!” she said sharply. “My father is a good and kind man. He is not what you say. I love him very much. Don’t say those horrible things about him. They aren’t true, I tell you!” She turned and ran out of the room.

By the time Dunston reached the door, she was gone.