Page 41 of Once Upon a Midnight Dreary
But as Victoria looked into the eyes of the portrait, she knew instantly who he was.
Her stomach twisted.The room spun slightly.
How long had he been here?How long had he been watching, waiting, guarding?
The walls shivered, as if the house breathed in response to her knowing.She stepped back, heart hammering, the truth clawing up her throat.
The man in the portrait was Gabriel.
And he had never aged.
Chapter 17
Shedashedfromtheroom, the cold draft following on her heels.Once she was back in the hall, she closed the door with a snap and leaned against it, the fear pounding through her.Her hands shook as a chill raced through her.She knew Lenore was there.Hovering.Waiting.Watching.Knowing.
“Please,” she whispered, though she wasn’t sure what she was asking for.
He lied to you, didn’t he?
Her voice, sharp and dark, whispered near her ear.Then the lilting laugh echoed through the hall on a disappearing note.
Victoria clutched her elbows, a shudder pulsing through her.
Her feet pounded the ancient, creaking floor as she made her way out of the west wing and back into the main part of the manor.A breath of relief escaped her as she sagged against the wall.
Sunlight slanted there, fractured by the dirty windows in the hall.It should have felt like peace, but it didn’t.
She thought back to her first day here, when she insisted on a tour.Gabriel knew his portrait hung in that room.That’s why he didn’t want her to start there.To see.To know.He must have been so relieved when she didn’t make it past the child’s room.
The sinister feeling she got in that room was enough to make her never want to return.
And yet, her curiosity was more than she could bear.She had to know what else lay within those rooms.
Now she knew for certain Gabriel was the sorrowful figure who had lingered in the shadows of her childhood.What she didn’t understand was how her parents never saw him.
That wasn’t entirely true.Her mother sensed something about this house.She feared staying and urged her father to leave Ravenfell behind, perhaps even sell it.Her father, being pragmatic, agreed with his wife and left.The manor was his inheritance from his father, and so, he was unable to sell it.He hung on to it for years waiting to pass it down to her.
Victoria was starting to put the pieces of her childhood memories back together as she remembered more and more.Lenore was bound to this house.So was Gabriel.What she did not know was how they were connected.
The boy at the post mentioned a husband and his wife who died.A man who never left the manor after her death.And there was a child.A child who also died?
She didn’t know.
“Victoria?”
Gabriel’s voice jarred her out of her thoughts.She came back to her senses and glanced down the length of the stairs to see him standing at the foot gazing up at her with his dark, soulful eyes.
“You look pale.Are you well?”he asked.
She pressed a cold hand against her cheek.Her fingers still trembled.She wasn’t ready to confront him about the portrait.“I’m fine.Just a bit tired.”
The lie was a kindness.
“Perhaps rest is in order after luncheon,” he suggested.“It’s ready in the dining room.”
It was a welcome distraction.She dropped her hand and started down the stairs, taking the steps slow and one at a time.Her mind drifted back to the portrait and the way he looked in it.
She missed a step, her heel sliding off the edge.She started to fall, gripping the handrail tight to halt her tumble.Suddenly, he was there as he bounded up the stairs.His arms wrapped around her to steady her, making her fall against his chest.
