Page 86 of The Curse of Penryth Hall
“No. That they don’t.” When she opened her eyes again, they were clear. A far cry from the woman who’d tried to cut my throat seconds before. Whatever madness had possessed her had flown away, out the window, and had been borne to sea upon the Cornish winds. “Edward found out about the marriage and was furious. And my Lizzie was worried, so Sir Joseph sent her away. I went with her of course, because she was near her time. I’d lived at the hall with them for months. Lizzie showed me the passages in the walls, all the secrets of the house. She wasproud to be its mistress. But even the house and all her secrets couldn’t keep us safe. Not once Edward realized the child would be legitimate.”
“So it was you that Fiachna noticed in the walls.”
She nodded grimly.
“And you that attacked me in my bed.”
She nodded again. “I didn’t know it was you. I didn’t, maid. Not that it makes it right what I did.”
“You thought it was her.” I tilted my head to Tamsyn, thinking back on the bruises I’d first spotted on her cheek. Mrs. Martin squeezed her eyes shut.
“I did, maid. I thought you were her. With Sir Edward out of the way, if she were gone then…” Tears fell down her cheeks and she hastily wiped them away. “I don’t know why. I don’t understand what happened, what came over me.”
“It’s all right,” Tamsyn said softly, her chin resting on her son’s head. “What’s done is done and we can’t change it. Now tell us the rest.”
It most certainlywasn’tall right. But I held my tongue all the same.
Alice frowned, her hands trembling as she fiddled with the sleeves of her robe. “We stayed in Falmouth with my mother’s cousin. He’d have never found us there—Edward, that is.” Her voice hitched with barely tethered emotion. “Sometimes I wish I hadn’t let her return. I argued with her. I did!” Her hands formed into fists. “I wanted her to stay in Falmouth with little George. Sir Joseph told her that he’d come for us once he’d settled things with his nephew, and it was all fine and well until his letters stopped. Lizzie grew frantic. We all knew of the curse, everyone in these parts does. And she was convinced some evil befell him.”
“Some evil did,” I grumbled.
Ruan shot me a quelling look, his back straight and expressiongrave as he focused every ounce of himself on the task at hand. “Go on, Alice.” His voice was so even and cool I scarcely recognized it. He was their Pellar now.
“We left Georgie in Falmouth and traveled back to Lothlel Green. She had to know why he’d stopped writing. When we returned, the village was in a panic. The curse had returned and taken him.”
“But it wasn’t the curse, was it, Mrs. Martin?”
“No. It was Edward. He’d killed his uncle. Just as he killed my sister. I saw him do it. I’d gone for a walk while she was at her prayers. Thought to give her a little peace with her grief. If I’d known… if I’d even thought that he was coming for her as well, I’d have never left her side. I was coming back through the hidden passageway to the morning room and I saw him. I should have done something. Anything. But I was so young and afraid that I ran.”
Like Charles had in the churchyard.
“And you’d have been killed too if you’d tried,” Ruan said gently. “You can’t blame yourself for that.”
She took in a shaky breath. “I suppose not.”
“Did you tell anyone what you saw?” Tamsyn asked, looking among the three of us.
“And who would believe me? My word against the Chenowyth heir?”
“But why now? Why hurt the boys? Why me? Why Nellie? Why… Alice? After all this time, tell me why.” I threw my hands up in frustration, the knife still in my palm.
“Enough, Ruby.” Ruan’s voice was low. But he was correct. This moment wasn’t about me. Not now. I blew out a breath and took another step backward, the three of us in some sort of unholy triangle around Alice. The witch. The heiress. And the mother. We could have been etched on a page from one ofRuan’s grimoires, set in gilt. There was something ancient in what was happening in this room. Something I couldn’t quite understand. Not yet. Perhaps not ever.
“It doesn’t matter, Pellar. There’s nothing she could say to me that I wouldn’t deserve. I… I don’t know what came over me. I’d been coming here for years, visiting with Dorothea, and then a few months ago I saw the baby. Saw him in the house and I knew he was George’s boy. So I’d come more often, bringing treats and sweets. I thought I could live that way, that it would be enough to share in that tiny piece of him. Then something changed. A few weeks ago I…” Her gaze was fixed on the back of Jori’s head. “I grew convinced… Iwasconvinced—certain he was my boy… I—”
“You let your grief take hold?” Ruan’s voice was tender when he spoke. It was a wonder he could summon the emotion considering Alice was quite literally a step away from slitting my throat when he walked in the nursery.
“For weeks now I’ve tried to get him. Waiting until he was alone, or someone was asleep, but there were always people about.” Her eyes remained downcast, unable to witness what her pain had caused. “I couldn’t help myself, couldn’t stop it. The voices were too strong, telling me to take him. That Sir Edward would kill him as he did my Georgie. That this was the only way to keep him safe…” Her voice broke.
Weeks… she’d been trying for weeks. I swallowed down the lump in my throat. What if I hadn’t come to Lothlel Green when I did? “But why kill the boy’s mother?”
Alice had no answer. She opened her mouth then shut it again tight. “There’s no excuse for what I’ve done. Nothing I can say for myself.”
Tamsyn darted her gaze between Ruan and me. She paused, wetting her lips. “There is another choice.”
“The woman tried to kill you. There is no other choice.”
Tamsyn ignored me, her expression unreadable. “She could leave here. Leave Cornwall and never return.”
