Was it some kind of spell he’d cast over me that, instead of feeling angry for what he’d done, my heart wrenched over the aching loneliness behind all his words?
No. I couldn’t see howanyonewho read such a letter could think him truly a monster.
I folded the paper and put it away. Before going inside, I cast a last glance out at the gentle landscape—and froze. The mist had risen thick as twilight came on, but I was certain there was something moving on the heath.
As if feeling my gaze, the thing halted—and seemed to watch me back.
In the Leaves
“Mina?”
I jumped. Jack had come up behind me from around the side of the house. I had bolted the front door, and he’d probably been knocking.
“What are you doing out here?” he said.
“I ...” I glanced back to the heath, straining to see as the mist drifted. The thing I’d glimpsed—or thought I’d glimpsed—hadn’t seemed to be a person. It had moved in a low, rolling way, almost like a hare, though it had been much larger.
“Mina.”
I turned to Jack, pressing a hand against the pocket where I’d tucked Mr. Tregarrick’s letter. “Just—just getting some air. Where have you been? Mrs. Moyle made dinner, but I didn’t know when you’d come back, so we ate already.”
I was practiced at knowing how much he’d drunk by his eyes and his speech. He was more sober than I’d seen him in a while, if you didn’t count mornings, when he was peaked and ill-tempered from the previous night’s drinking.
“At church,” he mumbled.
I stared, thinking he must be joking. But he looked troubled. “What were you doing at church?”
He frowned. “It’s the Sabbath, an’t it?”
Now Iknewhe wasn’t serious. When our parents were alive, we went every Sunday. Since then, I’d made it to services only once ortwice a month, and really only to visit our parents’ graves. But Jack never went. He said he “could sleep through the morning at home and be more comfortable, too, thank you very much.”
“Fine,” I muttered, “don’t tell me.”
Opening the back door, he said, “You come on in. It’s not safe for you to be out here alone.”
His voice was gentle enough, but I felt the distance between us more keenly than ever.
I followed him inside—with one glance back to the heath—and then went to reheat his supper. As I set it before him, he took a bottle of gin from his coat pocket. I knew he was sober because he actually poured it into a glass.
After waking rested and stronger the next morning, I baked pasties for Jack’s lunch and for Mrs. Moyle, since she had promised a visit. When she came, she drank a cup of tea and stayed long enough to look me over. Declaring me much improved (“The color is back in your freckles”), she returned to open The Magpie.
Once she’d left, I curled in a chair with the mending while my thoughts spun in circles. In bed last night, I had all but convinced myself the thing I’d seen on the heath had simply been a deer that the twilight, the fog, and my imagination had turned into something else. Yet this morning my mind kept returning to it. I’d read Mr. Tregarrick’s letter again and again.Until I am able to secure the village of Roche against the present threat,he’d said. He was still searching for the other vampire. Might that be what I had seen?
With every passing moment, it became plainer that I wouldn’t be able to tolerate sitting quietly inside all day, as Jack had admonished. I could see through the window that the weather was fine. I could rest outdoors as well as in.AndI could keep an eye out for the creature from last night. If I saw it again, I would find a way to get word to Mr.Tregarrick. Mrs. Moyle might know Roger Carew, and if she didn’t, she might be able to ask around.
Just as I was putting away my sewing things, there came a knock at the door, and my heart bounced. Had Mr. Carew come back? I called through the door, but the voice that answered belonged to Mr. Hilliard.
My da once told me that only people who had something to hide were afraid of the constable. I supposed I was one of those people now, because I had to wipe sweat from my palms before I opened the door.
“Happy to see you so recovered, Miss Penrose,” he said, removing his hat. His gaze lowered to the bandage around my neck. “May I come in?”
“Yes, sir,” I replied, stepping back to admit him.
I invited him to sit at the table, and I put on the kettle for tea. Mainly to have something to do so he wouldn’t notice how nervous I was.
“No need for that,” he said. “Come and sit down. I just have a few questions for you.”
I took off the kettle and joined him.
