Chapter 16

James took the room key and headed straight for the stairs. He had a bottle of whiskey in his duffle bag and he was dying to pop it open. Just as he reached the staircase a man stepped in front of him to block his way.

“Good evening friend” the man extended his hand, “My name is Malachi.”

“I don’t give a good god damn who you are and I ani’t your friend.” James spat in a deep Southern drawl. He attempted to move around but Malachi stepped in his way again.

“Your itchin’ for an ass whipping boy” James dropped his duffle bag to the floor and started rolling up his sleeves.

“Well I see that polite conversation is lost on you so I will get right down to business.” Malachi replied stiffly, “You are looking for someone and I know where to find her.”

“I’m listening” James nodded.

“Yes I thought you might be interested” Malachi smiled. “So why don’t we go up to your room and have a drink of that fine whiskey hidden in your duffle and have ourselves a little chat shall we?” 

James thought it over a mere second before he nodded. Why the hell not he reasoned. If this guy was yanking his chain he would beat him to a pulp, relieve from bent up frustrations. And if he really did know something then it was well worth sharing his whiskey.

Malachi’s lips parted in a wide smile as he moved aside to let James lead the way.

******************

Audrey’s eyes fluttered slowly open. As her vision cleared she saw the library around her. She had been moved to the settee where she now lay. She pushed herself up to a sitting position and rubbed her head. A large lump had formed on the left side of her head where she hit the stone floor.

“Ah she wakes.” Nicholas stood by the fireplace, one arm resting on the mantle. “I shall have Max pack your things. I shall grant you safe passage back to the village. If you ever venture to return here or tell anyone of this place, I will kill you.” His tone was devoid of any emotion, he might have been giving her driving directions.

“My things …what …” Audrey fought to clear the clouds in her head. “I am leaving? Why? I thought …”

Nicholas turned his head to regard her in cold contempt. “Do you think me a fool? I welcomed you into my home, I provided for your every need.” His voice rose as did his fury. “You have fed me one lie after another since you arrived! Nothing you have told me is true save your name and it is only a half-truth!”

“Nicholas please …” Audrey pleaded, her cheeks burned hot under his vicious gaze.

Nicholas moved to snatch the newspaper off the table “This man hunts you and you have led him to my door!” Nicholas threw the paper at her.

“I …didn’t know …” Audrey began.

“Another lie!” Nicholas raged on. “You knew he would come for you! You knew!”

“I am sorry” Audrey said softly. She lowered her head, unable to look at him. “What was I suppose to say? I did not expect …”

“To live.” Nicholas finished for her, his tone softening. “But still he would have followed you here. You do not understand what is at stake.”

Heavy silence fell between them. Nicholas went back to the fireplace. He poured himself another glass of wine from a decanter on the mantle. He twirled the red liquid in his glass but did not drink.

“I … do not want to leave.” Audrey’s voice was little more than a whisper.

“Is it fear of this man that ties you here?” Nicholas turned his head to look at her.

“I do fear him” Audrey nodded. She gathered her courage and met his gaze. “But that is not why I want to stay.”

“Finally” A wide grin plays across Nicholas’s lips, “The Lady speaks the truth.” 

Chapter 15

Audrey had been in the library all afternoon. She combed through the volumes, too overwhelmed to choose something at first. There were so many books, of all ages, and on every subject imaginable. She did not know if Heaven really existed or what it was like but she thought if it did, this was close.

She had finally selected several books and retired herself to an overstuffed chair. The hours passed without her noticing. Outside the sun had slipped from the horizon. Audrey put down the book she was reading and stretched. Her legs were stiff from being folded beneath her and her back ached. She got up from the chair and walked around the room working out the stiffness.

She wondered where Nicholas was. How did he fill his days, for she had never seen him before the evening?

Audrey’s steps brought her to Nicholas’s desk. His chair was pushed neatly under the desk. She pulled out the chair, admiring the upholstery. It was molded by his form, the plush fabric probably held his scent. She knew it was silly but she could not resist sinking down into the chair. Blushing, she leaned over to smell the fabric wrapped around the wooden arm.  

Smiling like a school girl Audrey leaned back in the chair. Her eyes floated about the room and again she wondered where Nicholas was. Would she see him tonight at all? Why was Audrey still here? Audrey knew she had nowhere else to go, but why was Nicholas allowing her to stay and for how long? And the questions still remained, who was Nicholas really. What was he?

Audrey’s began to pout, her gaze falling down at the desk. She saw something then she had not noticed. Neatly placed in the middle of the desk lay a leather bound book, its cover held no inscription of any kind.

“A Journal?” Audrey questioned the empty room. “I shouldn’t, it wouldn’t be right …” She was already opening the cover.

She found it more than a journal. From the first entry it seemed to be some sort of memoir, a chronicle of his life. Without the slightest of provocation Audrey began reading …

How does one catalogue a life that has spanned centuries? And more importantly, why would one do so if there is no one left to care? I am alone here.

Perchance it is some human coil that remains inside me. For has it not often been a human need to chronicles one’s life before they meet their end?

Or perhaps I possess some need to revisit the events in my life which have brought me to my inevitable fate. Even now, when all is nearly done, there remains so much I do not understand. I suppose lingering questions matter little now. I have made my choice and shall meet my destiny with bravery and honor.

I have lived longer than any deserve. I have watched time as it passes into history. I have witnessed senseless wars and the rise and fall of countless kingdoms. I have seen both great beauty and the grotesque. I have tried to live my life with honor and failed miserably. I have experienced loss, torment, pain, and death. And I have dealt pain and death to others. But I have also loved, and I have been loved. It is a love that brought warmth to my solitude and chased away the shadows of despair. And now it has brought me to my end.

                                                            Sir Nicholas Rochester

                                                            August 11, 2011

Audrey slammed the book shut with a loud snap. She was not ready to understand what those words had meant. “A life that has spanned centuries” … “I have dealt pain and death” …what did that mean? What could it mean?

“Ahem.” Nicholas cleared his throat. Audrey looked up to find him standing in the doorway, a news paper folder under one arm.

“Hello Sir Nicholas” Audrey smiled and quickly stood and moved away from his desk. Despite her efforts to appear otherwise she knew her guilt was written all over her face. “Thank you for the beautiful clothes, you really shouldn’t have.”

Nicholas took a seat in an armchair and opened his paper. It was a copy of the New York Times. “I could not very well leave you to wander my home in the same soiled garments and one shoe. It is quite unseemly.”

“Well thank you anyway” Audrey caught herself wringing her hands and quickly stopped. “And for the use of the library.”

“Max will be bringing dinner soon.” Nicholas said from behind the paper.

Audrey nodded uncomfortably as if Nicholas could see her through the pages of news print. Audrey took her previous seat and picked up a book and pretended to read.

Not a word passed between them. When Max finally entered to break the monotony Audrey felt like hugging the big man.

Max made up the small table at which Audrey and Nicholas had dined before. The table was covered with a linen cloth and placed with china plates but nothing like the previous grandeur she was shown. But the food was every much as divine. There were fresh fruits and crème, cheeses and artesian breads. At the table’s center lay an herb encrusted turkey, stuffed with glazed garden vegetables.

Max pulled out a chair for Audrey. She was seated alone at the table; Nicholas had not stirred from his reading. Max poured two goblets of wine then retreated from the room.

Audrey did not want to offend her host so she remained sitting with her hands in her lap, waiting for him to join her. She did not realize how hungry she was until the inviting aromas were laid before her. Her stomach rumbled.

 “Please, help yourself.” Nicholas folded the paper and stood up. He joined her at the table, laying the news paper beside his empty plate.

“Are you not hungry?” Audrey had already filled her plate.

Nicholas waved a hand, and took a sip of wine, “I was reading the most interesting article just now. It does amaze me how fickle Lady Justice can be. I often like to read the American news papers you see. I have a particular affection for the New York Times. I have been following one story in particular recently… and being from California was isn’t?” Nicholas paused to flash Audrey a charming smile. “Yes well you may not be privy to this case but it is quite the sensation. It seems a man has been on trial for murder and the kidnapping of several young girls. Apparently he has kept these women for years undetected. Can you imagine?”

Audrey lay her fork down with a shaking hand, “No, no I can’t”

“Well it seems the prosecution’s star witness, the oldest of the victims recovered I believe, disappeared before taking the stand. Though it seems it mattered little. This article indicates the police have somehow managed to mishandle the investigation which has led to this man’s release. ”

The blood had rushed from Audrey’s face.

“Are you quite all right my dear? Perhaps you have eaten too fast?” Nicholas smiled. “Perhaps you would like to read the article yourself.” Nicholas had folded the paper to ensure the man’s photo was fully exposed. He laid the paper beside her plate. “His name is Roberts, James Roberts.”

Audrey glanced at the photo briefly. Her eyes slipped back in their sockets as she slid from the chair and crumbled to the floor. 

Chapter 14

Malachi was seated at a table well away from the room’s few other patrons. The common room of the inn was not spacious, but quaint in an old world way. The walls were made of stone and wood, their surfaces dotted with old paintings in tarnished gilded frames. Wooden chairs and tables were splayed out in front of a massive stone hearth. The check in desk was carved of a deep cherry wood. Wood racks for holding glasses stood empty above the desk giving a hint of the building’s former use. The bedchambers up stairs all held the same timeless and charming quality of the common room. But Malachi appreciated none of it.

Each time the door opened Malachi glanced up, and each time he became more irritable. He despised having to rely on humans. They were hapless, pathetic creatures. But unfortunately they were a necessity.  There were certain tasks that had to be performed during daylight hours, and that of course was not a possibility for his kind.

The bell over the door chimed as a young man stepped through. His eyes met Malachi’s and he quickly joined him at his table.

“I hope your news is good?” Malachi glared at the kid, he thought his name was Jack, or Jake. He did not remember or care.

Jake was around eighteen, and had been on the streets since he was sixteen. His shoulder length dark hair hung in greasy clumps. The lifeless tresses framed a face that was pasty and riddled with pock marks. He wore faded jeans, a black t-shirt, and an army green jacket. All of his clothing was worse for wear and smelled of sweat and stale cigarettes. Jake sighed and swallowed hard. “There is something out there for sure man.” Another customer looked their way. Malachi cringed and uttered a hiss. Jake lowered his voice before going on. “There are powerful wards on that place man; we’re talking old fuckin’ magick.”

Malachi sneered, “Tell me something I do not know.” Since following the girl to the “haunted forest” neither he nor any other of his kind had been able to get even close enough to touch the stone gate. They could get as far as the edge of the road and then it was like an invisible wall blocked their path. They had no better luck trying to access the forest from above. “Is there a way to break through?”

“Yeah … hell yeah” Jake nodded, “All spells can be broken. You just have to know how.  I am on it man.”

Jake rambled on but Malachi was no longer listening. He had heard all the human had to offer at the moment. Malachi was instead watching a man who had just entered the inn. The man approached the check in desk, shifting from foot to foot in discomfort and impatience.

The man looked anxiously around the room then focused his attention on a painting hanging behind the check in desk. He had no interest in the painting but it was something to focus on as he forced his mind to calm. The painting was yellowed with age. It was apparently a family portrait; a father and mother and two young boys were posed in a perfectly manicured garden, a castle loomed behind them in the distance. The family wore a style of dress he was too uneducated to recognize as the sixteenth century. The mother was seated, her husband stood behind her. The two boys stood on either side of their mother. The boys could not have looked more different. One, presumably the eldest was already well built for his age. His skinned was tanned from the sun. His head was crowned by a shock of red hair, matching his mother’s. The other boy was slight of build and much too pale. His hair was raven black, his eyes a deep green.

“That is the Rochester family.”  Reginald, the inn’s proprietor, had arrived at the desk. They founded this village; all of this land and much more was once a part of their summer estate. The Lady Rochester and her younger son in particular spent a great deal of time here. Their castle has long been lost but … “

“I care about this shit why?” The man scowled. Malachi who was listening perfectly from across the room took note the man was American.

“Forgive me” Reginald’s English dignity kept him from showing his distaste for the man’s rudeness.  “Are you being served Sir?”

“This girl …” the man shoved a worn photo in Reginald’s face. “Have you seen her?”

Reginald looked at the photo, remembering the woman immediately. “I am afraid not Sir.” He lied.

The man locked Reginald in a scrutinizing gaze for a few moments then slammed a credit card on the counter. “I need a room.”

Malachi watched as the proprietor checked the man in and slipped him a room key. Malachi had no need to see the photo to know he and the stranger had been following the same woman. Malachi’s interest in the woman was only a means to an end, to help him discover what lay beyond that stone gate. Malachi wondered what this man’s connection to the woman was and how Malachi could use it to further his own interests.

Chapter 13

 She stands on the battlements of a great castle. Below her, as far as the eye can see everything has been reduced to smoldering ash. Thick black smoke swirls around her choking her. The air that rips at her billowing skirts is hot. Her throat and lungs are seared with every breath.

The wedding dress she wears is streaked with blood and soot. She watches in strange fascination as the gown catches fire. The flames eat ferociously at the delicate satin and lace. She swallows hard, tears weaving tracks down her soot covered face. It is not fear she feels, but profound sadness.

Arms held out wide, her whole body wreathed in flames, she plunges from the battements as if she were a phoenix taking flight.  

Audrey gasped, her eyes opened wide. She sat up in bed, clutching the bed linen tightly to her breast. The dream was so vivid, so real it placed her mind in a strange state between the dream world she had left and the reality she had woken to. She found herself shaken and afraid, but also strangely curious. She had not dreamt in years or at least had not remembered any dreams if she had them. She thought she read somewhere that everyone dreamed whether they thought they did or not. Whether that be true or not, why now after all these years would she wake from a dream so intense. She could not help but think it meant something.

“Yeah it means you are just freaked out from last night.” She spoke to the empty room in an attempt to be her own voice of reason. Her mind tried to replay the previous night’s events but she pushed the thoughts away. She knew on some level it was impossible to rationally explain how Nicholas had managed to save her. So her sanity, seeking its own self preservation, found it easier to dismiss it. All that mattered was she had been wrong about wanting to die, and she was lucky to have figured that out before it was too late.

 “It was just a stupid dream.” Audrey sighed, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She swung her legs over the side of the bed. It was then she noticed several boxes and shopping bags piled upon the settee. Audrey unconsciously pulled the bed cover tightly to her naked body. Someone had entered her room while she slept. Was it Max? Or was it Nicholas? She blushed in shame realizing the thought of Nicholas entering her bed chamber thrilled her.

Audrey, wrapping the bed linens around her, slipped from the bed. She lowered to her knees in front of the settee. A folded white card lay on top of the pile of boxes. With tingling fingers she unfolded to reveal a note written in Sir Nicholas’s flowing elegant hand.

I regret to inform you that when you did not return to your lodgings your belongings were destroyed. I have taken the liberty of settling your debt with the proprietor and I have endeavored to compensate you for the loss of your possessions.

Regards,

Sir Nicholas Rochester

Audrey shook her head and laid the note aside. It’s cold tone did little to fend off her sense of unease. “How …” It was a small village, finding out where she was staying would not be difficult she reasoned. But why not just ask? And why was he concerned with where she was staying? “He was just being kind … probably sending for my things.”

Shaking off her unease she reached for the first package. Audrey carefully untied the ribbon securing the box closed. She laid it aside thinking it would look lovely in her hair if Nicholas asked her to dine with him again. She removed the box lid and pushed aside a layer of thin tissue to reveal a silk robe and matching negligee. The garments were a deep rich blue and their style simple and elegant. A smile danced across her face, she had never owned anything so beautiful.

Audrey opened each box one by one and inside each she found a garment lovelier than the last. She found sundresses in shades of pale blues, yellows, and greens. There were several pairs of jeans and blouses of every color. Inside the shopping bags she found under garments in delicate silks and lace. There were also boxes of shoes; boots, elegant heels, sneakers, and several pairs of sandals. Sandals were her favorite.

Audrey looked at all the beautiful garments lying around her; she could barely decide what to wear first. Everything was perfect, as if she had picked them out herself. She grabbed a pair of jeans and a forest green peasant top and carried them into the bath chamber to wash and dress.

Audrey, clean and refreshed, modeled her new clothes in the full length mirror. They fit perfectly.

A knock on the bed chamber door rouses her attention.  She opened the door to reveal Max, burdened with a silver tray. “Your breakfast Madam” he walked past her into the room and laid the tray on the desk.  Max turned around and scanned the pile of empty boxes and bags “I do hope you everything to your liking?”

“They are perfect … Nicholas is really too kind …” Audrey lowered her gaze shyly.

“Indeed” Max sniffed. “He has also granted you permission to use his library as you like. He is under the impression you would enjoy his book collection.”

“I would love it!” Audrey tried to contain a squeal of excitement. “Where is he, I wish to thank him for the clothes, for everything.”

When Audrey moved towards the door Max stepped in front of her. “I must remind you not to wander this castle alone. My Lord is a busy man and you shall not venture to disturb him. If he desires your company he shall send for you.”  Max’s tone was commanding, but fear played behind his eyes.

                               

“Max, what is he?” Dread slithered up her spine, but Audrey forced herself to stand firm.

“He is the Lord of this castle; he is one who is as dear to me if he were my own son.”

“You know what I mean Max, he is not human is he?” Audrey captured his eyes with hers.

Max sighed, “He has suffered much in his life, so much that no one can begrudge him for seeking solitude. He has his faults like any other, thought he tries to better himself. He re-lives the pain of his past every day, yet he remains generous and caring. In his heart he has great love and compassion. I would say that makes him very human.”

Max moved towards the door then lingered in its frame, “If you require anything else Madam please do not hesitate to ask.”