Page 52 of Once Upon a Midnight Dreary
The whispered word whistled through the trees.A sudden fog churned around their ankles.And Victoria knew it was time to return inside the manor.The raven let out a harsh croak before fluttering to another nearby branch.
“I should have brought breadcrumbs.I seemed to have offended your guardian,” he said with a laugh.
He didn’t know the half of it.Victoria turned back the way they came.“Perhaps we should go inside.I’m sure luncheon is ready to be served.”
She needed to usher them off the path and quickly, before something dreadful happened.She thought of the shattered greenhouse and the hiding gravestones and needed out of this garden.
“Perhaps you’re right,” Lord Charles said.
“Yes,” Aunt Eloise added.“I’m quite famished.”
As they walked back to the manor, though, dread coiled low and hot in Victoria’s gut.
Once inside, she led them to the dining room where Gabriel had already set the table.The rattling of dishes in the kitchen was the only indication he was nearby.Lord Charles held her chair for her, then her aunt, then took the seat opposite them.Aunt Eloise examined the room with a critical eye.Victoria braced herself.
“I forgot how charming this room is.The last time I was here was at a dinner party your parents hosted,” she said, placing her napkin in her lap.“Could use a renovation though.It feels ghastly archaic.”
Victoria ignored the barb and focused on something the woman said.Her aunt had never mentioned being here before.“I didn’t realize you’d visited.”
“You lived here before?”Lord Charles asked.
“Yes, when I was a child,” she replied.
At that moment, Gabriel entered to serve the soup—parsnip and thyme in porcelain bowls garnished with a drizzle of spiced oil and black pepper.He left a loaf of rustic brown bread in the center and disappeared to the kitchen without a word.
Victoria had tried to catch his gaze, but he avoided her like she had the plague.She picked up the soup spoon.
“I hadn’t realized you lived here before,” Lord Charles said.“What was that like?”
There was nothing she wanted to share with him about that experience.He wouldn’t understand she saw Gabriel lurking through the west wing, or the ghastly apparition of the little girl she now knew was his daughter.
“It was a long time ago, my lord, and I was very young.I’m afraid I don’t remember much,” she replied.
But Aunt Eloise couldn’t wait to add her thoughts.“Her father was a foreign envoy to the crown.Always traveling abroad.Diplomatic dinners, extravagant galas, and the like.Why, my poor sister barely had time to unpack her trunks before they were off again!Of course, this was after they’d left Ravenfell.Before that, they spent several years here shortly after Victoria was born.That’s when Eleanor started planting her garden.”
Victoria stiffened at the way she spewed the information as though it were nothing more than common knowledge.
“I believe my father knew yours, Miss Ravenwood,” Lord Charles said.
“Oh?”The word came out on a breath as she sat, frozen.Her stomach clenched tight.Her appetite gone.
“Your father was quite the statesman, you know.My father spoke very highly of him.He often said how he had a knack for turning enemies into allies with nothing more than a vintage glass of port.”He dabbed the corners of his mouth with the napkin before pushing away the soup bowl.
“He never talked about his work,” she said.
Gabriel entered then to clear away the dishes and place the next course.Poached pheasant in a red wine reduction with roasted root vegetables.As he placed it in front of her, she peered up at him in the hopes she would catch his gaze.But no.He turned away immediately and placed a plate in front her aunt, then moved to the earl.
The way he ignored her cut her to the bone.
She picked up her fork and started to dive in when it struck her how the dark sauce pooled like blood on the plate.She put down her fork, her stomach queasy.
Lord Charles continued as though there was no interruption.“He was discreet, of course.All good diplomats are.My father admired him.Called him a gentleman of rare conviction.”
But was he?It suddenly struck her as she sat there listening to Lord Charles ramble on about her father that he was the one who was interested in Lenore Blackmore.She recalled the letter she found in the study urging him caution in the investigation, which made her wonder if he knew about the death of the woman and the child in the manor and he was looking for answers.
Just like she was.
How was it, though, he never knew Gabriel skulked along the halls?
