Page 48 of The Ordeals
‘I guess they mean what happened to Darley?’
‘Hmm.’ We begin walking through the courtyard, towards Hope Hall when I stop her.
‘I don’t like the sound of two killers, let alone one …’ Tessa says, hugging her coat around herself. ‘Maybe we shouldn’t go poking around.’
‘Or maybe, we should be better informed,’ I reply. It rankles me that I found no mention of my parents in Darley. It’s the last place I hadn’t checked yet at Killmarth. But with the mention of pale monsters, and them stalking the Morlagh, I guess there’s more pressing things to figure out. It was Edmund who mentioned them, Edmund Locke.
Which means that maybe Alden knows more than he’s let on.
Perhaps I’m reading too much into this, but …
‘I’m going to the library to search the archives. Want to come?’
‘Oh, I’d justloveto …’ Tessa throws up her hands, stalking afterme. ‘If you get me murdered, poking around this place and these secrets, I’ll be so pissed—’
I grin. ‘You’ll be dead.’
‘I’llhaunt you.’
The search through the newspaper archives proves fruitless as the archive room available to us only contains broadsheets, mostly reporting headline news happening in the city.
‘Apparently a few more deaths at Killmarth isn’t worthy of a headline,’ I say, carefully replacing a broadsheet. ‘Find anything?’
‘Nothing,’ Tessa says, frowning as she also closes a broadsheet, placing it back with the others. ‘Which seems strange. No mention of any murders; in fact eight years ago, the whole country was strangely rosy … The Crown welcomed a new baby, the economy was healthy and the only untoward news reports I can find are fairly commonplace.’
The lunch gong echoes up through the floor and we shuffle to the door of the archive room, past the key hung on a hook next to the door, which Tessa grabs to lock the door with, back to the stacks leading to the library entrance. A few scholars are closing books, placing them back on shelves, moving like us towards the armchairs and main doors. I nod to the librarian as we leave, a woman wearing spectacles with thick, wavy brown hair pinned back to try and tame it. She smiles at us both as Tessa hands her the key and she places it with the others, two copies of each door in the lock box behind the desk. ‘No luck in the archives?’
‘Not today,’ I say, hiding my disappointment. ‘But thank you.’
She moves away from us to pick up the discarded books left onthe scatter of low tables, her grey slacks rasping against her legs as she moves. ‘Enjoy your afternoon, ladies.’
We join the throng of scholars heading for the staircase that will take us down to Gantry Hall. ‘By the way, how’s Greg doing?’
Tessa smiles and I just catch it, like a flash of sunlight crossing her face. ‘He’s doing better. Complaining a lot, which is a good sign. He’s meant to be doing this Ordeal now they’re sure he won’t suddenly shift before the next full moon. He’s got that under control at least, and he’s healed well.’
‘Good news.’
‘Too right,’ she says as we clatter down the staircase. ‘I honestly didn’t think he’d make it to Killmarth, let alone survive an Ordeal. Thought I’d talked him out of it, then when I saw him at Alabaster House, I could have thumped the idiot.’
‘Sounds like you’re very fond of him.’
Tessa groans. ‘Don’t tell anyone. Really. It’s enough that he’s here being all Greg and a bit useless in that sweet, nice way of his …’
‘Kind of like a puppy?’
Tessa groans.
‘Tessa Godolphin, am I sensing acrush?’ I ask, mock-shocked, as we reach the landing by the hall.
She laughs, covering her face with her hands. ‘Is it weird that I find him more attractive now he’s a werewolf?’
‘Look if you’re into fur, no judgement …’
She laughs again, pushing open the door to the dining hall and I look up, at the room beyond. And for a single beat, I swear it’s not a hall at all. It’s … something else. Something dark with high walls and … gargoyles? Then I blink, and it shifts back to tables, scattered chairs, the waft of soup and fresh bread …
‘Tessa, wait—’
But I’m too late.
