Page 61 of Once Upon a Midnight Dreary
She leaned closer.
The Parliamentary Committee on Occult Affairs was disbanded years ago, but I feel now it is time to restore it.There might be something to these old family rumors.I truly believe the committee could help with next steps in this situation.
Victoria sat back on her heels, absorbing the weight of his words.Her father had tried.He’d reached out to others.No one had listened.
She flipped to the final entry.
The Chancellor was no help and so it falls to me to find the answers.And I have.I found the death certificate for both Lenore Blackmore and her daughter, Lily.Lenore died under mysterious circumstances after the girl drowned in a nearby pond.Tragic.The man she was married to—Gabriel?I couldn’t find a marriage license on record—was, apparently, her second husband.Her first was Lord Hector Blackmore, who was much older than her.A marriage of convenience.He died a year into their marriage.
After further tracing, I discovered Lenore inherited Ravenfell estate from her parents.She is, in fact, a Ravenwood.I was able to trace—
Her breath caught in her throat.The candle flared as if reacting to the revelation, casting her elongated shadow across the study wall.
Lenore wasn’t just a ghost.
She was part of her blood.
Chapter 24
Itwasastunningrevelation.
Victoria read the words her father had written so long ago, now in faded ink, over and over.She flipped a few more pages and halted when she found a crudely drawn family tree.It looked as though someone had drawn it while thinking, trying to work out how Lenore was connected to the man who built Ravenfell Manor more than two centuries ago.Someone—perhaps her father—had scrawled the nameLord Alaric Ravenwood.He had several children, but there appeared to be two main branches.
One leading down from his son.The other from his daughter.
Over the next three generations, the family line split.Titles and property passed down to firstborn sons or closest male heirs.The secondary line went in a much different direction with one word and a question mark written there—Mystic?
Her father suspected, but did not know.
As her gaze slipped down the page, she saw her grandfather’s name, Lord Thomas Ravenwood, followed by her father’s Lord Abner Ravenwood.On the other side of the branch, Lenore married to Gabriel.
The two lines had split and then managed to converge again…in her.
Lenore was a distant cousin.
And Victoria had both her blood and her father’s.
That seemed significant somehow, but she wasn’t sure how, yet.
She peered into the cabinet to see if there was anything else, but it was empty.Then she once again flipped through the loose letters and pages on the floor.Perhaps she had missed something.
Her hands halted when she came upon a copy of Lenore’s death certificate.She stared down at it for a long, quiet moment, her heart lodged in her throat.Before she could stop them, the tears came.Mourning the loss of the woman who must have been drowning in grief over the tragic and untimely death of her daughter.She blinked them away furiously and set aside the death certificate.
There was nothing left to find.She’d gone through all the papers, the journal.
She remained there on the floor, her legs numb beneath her, as she processed everything she learned that night.Certainly, Gabriel knew of this, but was unwilling to tell her anything.And if he didn’t know, perhaps it was time for her to tell him.
Victoria stacked the papers in a neat pile, picked up the journal, and then closed the cabinet door.Cradling them all in her arms, she pushed herself to her feet.Then she grabbed the candle and headed for the door.
When she opened it and stepped into the hallway, she sensed a shift in the air.Something she couldn’t quite discern.She heard the muffled sounds in the kitchen.Heading down the hall, she paused in the foyer listening to the tick-tock of the grandfather clock.
Gods.Morning already.The darkness hadn’t lifted inside her, but the light had returned outside.She’d spent the entire night in the study reading her father’s journal and the papers she now held.
And in the kitchen, Gabriel was preparing the morning meal.
She glanced down at her wrinkled gown smudged with dust.But she wasn’t willing to waste precious time changing.It was now or never, if she meant to confront Gabriel.
Inhaling slowly, she headed into the dining room.He’d already set the table, preparing for her arrival.She heard him in the kitchen, doing the final preparations for breakfast.She smelled the soft aroma of Darjeeling, which was a warm comfort to her.
