Gatehaven Read online

“Ian Colquhoun is my oldest and dearest friend.” She stabbed a slice of pear with her fork. “We grew up together, and Ian is my brother’s friend, too.”

  “Forgive me for staring, Miss Aimee, but you remind me of someone— someone I knew long ago,” he said with deep emotion.

  “You are talking about the woman in the portrait, are you not?”

  “Yes. Old memories flood my mind as I look into your beautiful green eyes.”

  The Frenchman looked as if he might weep at any moment, and Shannon empathized with his apparent loss. At the same time, he shouldn’t have complimented the color of her eyes or said that they were beautiful. She and Gabeau were hardly more than strangers, after all.

  “Forgive me. I have displeased you,” he said. “I can tell by the look on your face that I have.”

  He looked so repentant she had to accept his apology even if it wasn’t sincere.

  “But you look so much like her,” he went on. “You saw the portrait at my home. So you know my words are true. Would you like to see the portrait again someday?”

  Shannon nodded. “Yes.”

  It was a lie, of course. She had no wish to see a portrait of the Frenchman’s lost love—or whoever she was. But she thought it seemed polite to say that she did. Manners were all-important at an event like this.

  “Maybe some day Mr. Colquhoun could drive you out to my estate for another visit,” Monsieur Gabeau said. “You and your chaperone, of course. Would you agree to that, Miss Aimee?”

  “Perhaps. We must wait and see.”

  The dinner ended, and the women went into the green room while the men drank whatever such men drank. Shannon had seen and heard enough and wanted to go up to her room. However, she sat down beside Miss Foster and forced a smile. She was getting good at producing smiles at will without giving it a thought. All at once all the women were staring at her. She would have crawled under her chair if that had been an option.

  Lady Catherine glared at her. “I understand you met my son in Scotland, Miss Aimee. But I still do not understand why you came to England. I first thought you came to find employment. If not, would you mind explaining why you did come? And if you are seeking employment, I cannot see why the earl invited you to our table tonight.”

  “The earl—” She cleared her throat. “The earl invited me to come to Gatehaven as his guest.” Shannon sent Miss Foster a “help me” look. “Is that not true, Miss Foster?”

  “The earl hired me to serve as Miss Aimee’s chaperone during her stay in England.”

  “Humph.” Lady Catherine shook her head and shrugged. “Chaperone indeed. Since when does a common house maid need a chaperone?”

  Shannon bit her lower lip to keep from saying what she really thought and perhaps sounding disrespectful. She hadn’t planned to tell the earl’s family why she really came to England. She’d wanted them to hear it from the earl. Now she had no choice but to tell the truth.

  “I am not a housemaid, Lady Catherine.” Shannon lifted her head as if she wore a tiara that outshined all the others. “The earl has asked me to be his wife, and I accepted. I came to Gatehaven to meet his family.”

  “Wife?” Lady Catherine threw up her hands. “Are you insane? My son is an earl.” Her blue eyes bulged as if they were in danger of popping out of her head.

  Shannon gripped the arms of her chair and glanced at the earl’s grandmother. Her head shook vigorously, and she had leaned forward to such an extent that her chair tipped forward. Miss Foster jumped up as if to keep the older woman from falling to the floor.

  Lady Catherine stood, shaking her forefinger at Shannon. “You are a willful young opportunist, and a wicked one at that. You have no connections— none that I know of. And you are a silly girl, indeed, if you think an earl would marry the likes of you.

  “You are no longer welcome in my home, Miss Aimee,” Lady Catherine shouted. “Tomorrow, my driver will return you to your home in Scotland without delay.” She nodded to Shannon’s chaperone. “Miss Foster will serve as your chaperone during the trip, if she chooses to do so. If not, you must make it home without one.” Lady Catherine pointed to the door that led into the hallway. “Leave me now, miss. And it is my hope that I will never see you again.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  SHANNON’S HEART FELT so heavy inside her chest that she was sure it weighed a ton. She was insulted in a vicious and unmerciful way by the earl’s mother and grandmother. Did the earl know? Did he care?

  Her throat tightened. The muscles around her mouth contracted as well. If the floor under her feet had suddenly opened and she’d tumbled down, down—to her former room in the basement—she wouldn’t have cared. At least in the maid’s quarters, she wouldn’t have to look at the haughty, hate-filled expressions on the women’s faces.

  She gazed at her chaperone, hoping the woman would give her some sign that she still supported her. Miss Foster sent Shannon a cold glance and looked away.

  Shannon stood. Despite everything that was said, she straightened her back and lifted her chin a notch. “I don’t have to listen to this. If you will excuse me?” She peered at the earl’s mother and his grandmother for a moment, and then she bobbed her head, forcing her face not to reveal the pain and humiliation she felt. At last, she left the room.

  She raced down the dark corridor with no destination in mind. In the entry hall, she paused in front of the up stairway she saw on the day she arrived. She wanted to go down to the basement kitchen and talk to Millie. The young maid had been kind to Shannon. But Miss Foster had said that Millie no longer worked as a maid at Gatehaven.

  If she went up to her room on the second floor and stayed the night, she would be shipped back to Scotland in the morning without getting to tell Ian good-bye, and she needed to see him. She’d never missed Ian more.

  What should she do? Papa would say she should pray. Shannon put the palms of her hands together, pressing her forefingers against her lips, and closed her eyes.

  She prayed for strength and for guidance, and then she thanked God for hearing her prayer.

  I will go up to my room now, she thought. I will gather a few of my things and leave Gatehaven forever.

  She tiptoed up the stairs.

  At the first landing, she noticed several lighted candles in metal bowls with handles. She grabbed the handle of the first one and continued on, praying again as she went. The candle’s weak light flickered as she moved. She hoped it wouldn’t go out completely.

  Three hallways intersected at the head of the stairs. Gatehaven was so huge that for an instant, she couldn’t recall which one to take. Then she remembered.

  Miss Foster had said that the hall to the right led to the earl’s private quarters. The one to the left led to the rooms occupied by the earl’s mother and grandmother. To get to her room, she must go straight ahead, walk a short distance, and take the hallway to her left.

  Before moving on, Shannon glanced toward the earl’s rooms—perhaps secretly hoping to see him one last time. A wide hall seemed to pull her toward it. The walls were made of stone and painted white. Red chair rails the color of blood were nailed, end-to-end, to the walls on both sides of the corridor and at the end of it as well. The rails were placed about three feet from the floor, forming a thin line. Each board looked to be about five inches wide.

  About twelve feet from where she stood, the red boards stretched across the corridor from one side of the hall to the other like a kind of barrier; she dared not cross it. A shiver shot down her. Clearly, a kind of red line blocked entry to the earl’s bedchamber, a fence that shouldn’t be there; and yet, it was.

  Was this the red gate the earl and Miss Foster mentioned—the one that gave Gatehaven its name? As her father would say, she needed to pray.

  Shannon blinked and looked again. The red barrier had disappeared as if it had never been there. She could still see the red line, but it was nailed to the back wall as it should be and not only a few feet from where she stood.

  My eyes d
eceived me, she thought. Perhaps my mind as well.

  Did witchcraft and other evil practices have a hand in this? She looked away.

  With God’s help, she’d faced the red gate and conquered it. She wouldn’t go down that hall no matter how much she wanted to see the earl. She would lift her head and move forward.

  Still, a feeling of foreboding swept over her as she continued down the dark center hall—again on tiptoes. Before she reached the first turn, she heard footsteps. Shannon pressed her body as close to the wall as she could get it, blew out the candle, and sidestepped to the first turn. Should she take a look around the corner? Or walk on to her room as if she had nothing to fear?

  I am hated here and have plenty to fear. But God is with me

  Slowly, she peeped around the corner. Shannon gasped. In the dim light coming from lamps stationed at intervals along the walls of the hallway, she swallowed a second gasp.

  Men of all ages were lined up in front of a long table that had been set up in the hallway. Dark pieces of cloth were stacked in short piles on the table. Each man grabbed a cloth and walked on. Shannon assumed the men were gathering clean bedding for their rooms.

  The last man in line opened his cloth, wrapped it around his shoulders and stuck his arms in the armholes. Shannon held her breath in shocked amazement. Clearly his cloth was a robe, and he pulled the hood down— over his head. At last, he fell in line behind the others.

  When the robed men were out of sight, Shannon crept forward. Several grayish robes in neat stacks were left on the table. If she wore one of them, she might be less conspicuous as she continued to her room. Shannon looked both ways down the hall but didn’t see anybody. She grabbed a robe and put it on.

  Shannon draped the hood over her head, pushing the hood forward as she’d seen the men wear their robes. Looking down, she couldn’t see much in the dim light. She was barely able to see the floor under her feet.

  The robe was much too long for her and spread out around her feet. A monk or whoever the men were wouldn’t hold up the shirt of a robe as a woman might do. She had no choice but to take her chances that she wouldn’t trip and move on.

  In the hallway in front of her bedroom, she heard a squeaking sound— like someone had opened a door. She whirled around. Something like a rope coiled around her neck, and she reached up in order to pull it off. The loop grew tighter—and tighter. She mouthed the word help, but no sound came.

  Someone jerked the rope. Shannon coughed.

  Though still on her feet, she felt her body being pulled backward. Like a dog on a leash, she had no choice but to take a step back and then another and another.

  “Who are you?” a female voice said. “And why is the robe too long for you?”

  Shannon tried to loosen the rope so she could answer. It wouldn’t budge. But she kept her fingers between the rope and her skin. It felt better that way.

  “If I loosen the rope, will you promise not to scream?” the woman said.

  Shannon nodded.

  A hand touched hers. “Let go of the rope.”

  Shannon did as she was told. The rope loosened. She breathed in and out deeply. Then she coughed. Someone pulled the robe from her shoulders. She felt it slip to the floor in a pool of rough material. A candle in a metal cup was poked near her face.

  “Why, you’re a girl,” the woman said. “And you look no older than me. Who are you?”

  Shannon swallowed. “I—” She coughed again. “I am. I am Miss Sh— Miss Shannon Aimee.”

  “I thought as much. Maude told us about you one day when she brought us our trays.” The woman moved the candle from Shannon’s face, placing it near her own. “I mean brought me my tray.”

  Shannon’s jaw hung loose in astonishment. The woman with the candle was probably the young woman with black hair she’d seen standing at a window on the top floor.

  “Who are you?” Shannon asked.

  “My name is Calleen Winters, it is. Call me Cally.”

  “But why were you standing at the window? I saw you the day I arrived.”

  “I saw you, too,” the young woman said. “We all did. Follow me, and I’ll answer all your questions.”

  The young woman led the way into a large bedchamber. Light streamed through windows that lined the back wall. Shannon realized that she was in the bedroom across the hall from hers—the one she visited previously with Ian. But something was different. Something had been added since she came in the first time.

  The moon highlighted a china vase with a dragon’s face etched on it.

  The dragon’s red eyes seemed to watch her as she followed Cally to the French doors. Shannon’s skin prickled, and the roots of her hair did, too.

  “We can talk out on the porch,” Cally said. “It will be cooler there. But we must talk in whispers—can’t let them find us here.”

  Shannon nodded. “I understand. But who are ‘them’? The ones in the gray robes?

  “Yes. They are very evil. And they will be looking for me—for us.”

  They sat side by side on the same bench she shared with Ian. Shannon ran her fingertips over a carving on the arm of the bench, wondering if there were more carvings on the back of the bench. If so, did those carving depict two dragons facing each other? And did they have evil-looking eyes?

  Shannon had hoped Cally would say more immediately—explain why she was standing at the window on the day Shannon arrived and why she put the rope around her neck. She thought she knew about the rope. Cally might have thought she was one of those strange robed men she called evil. But there were other questions Shannon wanted answered.

  At last, Shannon said, “Why were you standing at the window on the day I arrived? I told the earl I saw you, and he said I was imagining things.”

  “He would say that, he would,” Cally said. “I wasn’t supposed to be standing at windows where folks can see the likes of me. The girls living on the top floor were told not to let people know we lived at Gatehaven, much less see us standing at windows.”

  “Are you saying that other girls are up there on that top floor?” Shannon asked.

  “I am saying there were other girls up there. I was the last, I am.”

  “What happened to the others?”

  Cally shrugged. “I do not know.” She hesitated. “I can only guess.”

  Shannon tensed. “Please, guess. I have to know.”

  “Very well. But I must warn you. What I am about to say might make you cry—to say the least.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We are living in an evil place where witches in gray robes—”

  “Witches? I don’t believe in witches. I don’t believe they exist.”

  “Witches do not want you to believe they exist, my friend. But they do. I think the girls here were used in rituals.”

  “What kind of rituals?” Shannon asked.

  “I do not know, miss. But I know they could only come from the pit of hell. That is what I think—if you care to know.”

  “What happens in these—these services?” Shannon asked.

  Cally shook her head, and then she shrugged. “I cannot say for sure. All I know is that when the service ends, the girls never return to the big room we were kept in. I think they are dead.”

  The hairs on the back of Shannon’s head bristled again. “Murdered?”

  “Yes. I was to be next.”

  “How can you know that?”

  “I was the only one left. You see, the girls were taken one-by-one, and always on the night the men put on the gray robes.”

  Shannon thought of the human bone Ian finally told her he found. Could it be that—? She didn’t want to think that the bone was the remains of one of the girls, and she certainly didn’t want to mention it to Cally.

  “Were these girls your friends?” Shannon asked.

  Cally nodded. “There were only three of us on the day you got here. But as I said, I am the only one left. That is why I must escape. It was a miracle that I manage
d to get this far.”

  “Oh, Cally! I am so glad you did. My father says that God has a hand in all true miracles. But I refused to believe in miracles. Now, I am beginning to.”

  “I wager when you saw the men in robes tonight you were afraid,” Cally said. “Otherwise, you would never have put on that robe.”

  “It was the only disguise I could think of.”

  “I can see why you thought putting on a robe was a good idea,” Cally said. “But they would have known you weren’t one of them as soon as they saw you. They know their own.” She paused. “I would enjoy talking with you longer, but we haven’t got much time. When the robed men realize I am not in my room on the top floor, they will come looking for me. If we are going to escape from Gatehaven, we must do it now. Do you have any ideas?”

  “I was planning to leave anyway. I know of a side entrance on the first floor near the stairway. If we leave that way, we might have a chance.”

  “Yes,” Cally said with excitement. “Let us go at once.”

  Shannon glanced toward the door leading to the hallway. “I would like to go to my room first. I want to gather a few of my belongings before we leave.”

  Cally frowned. “Hurry then. As I said, the hooded ones are meeting tonight. And when they send for me and do not find me, they will come looking for me and probably for you as well.”

  Shannon hurried out the door, stepping over the robe in a heap on the hall floor. “I will not be long,” she said over her shoulder. She crossed to her own room on the other side of the hall.

  “Miss Aimee.”

  Shannon stopped before opening the door latch. Nobody said her name quite like the earl did.

  “I have missed you, my love.” He spread out his arms as if inviting her to step into his embrace.

  Shannon melted despite her misgivings. He still loves me, she thought.

  The earl took her in his arms and held her close. “My poor dear girl. My mother told me what she said to you, and I am so sorry. How can I ever make it up to you?” He kissed her on the forehead. “Do not worry, my love. You will not be sent home. But I will have to move you to another room until I can straighten things out. Do you agree with that?”