His skin went ashen, and the furrows in his brow deepened. There was gravel in his voice as he said, “It would break me, Mina.”
His pain wrung my heart, and I nodded.
He took a breath as he raked a hand through his hair. “If it would stop the killings, I would do it. But only as a last resort.”
“It might give us time to think of something better.” I walked to my chair by the hearth and sat down. Harker bent and tossed another brick on the fire, and I said, “Do you think it would be possible to destroy Goosevar?”
He sat in the other chair. “I should think it’s possible to destroy any living creature. Though after seeing Goosevar, I don’t feel optimistic.”
“St. Gomonda killed Goosevar,” I noted. “Though since he’s very much alive, I suppose that’s just a story.”
“Well, as Goosevar is clearlynot‘just a story,’ I don’t think we should be too quick to dismiss anything.”
“Maybe there have been others like him?”
Harker nodded. “Though if our Goosevar is only one of a species, the fact they’ve remained undiscovered for centuries is rather remarkable.”
I reached up and gathered my hair over one shoulder, braiding it while I thought over all we’d discussed. Harker’s eyes followed the movements of my fingers, causing sparks to dance over my skin. When I finished, I had nothing to bind the plait, so I sighed and let it drop.
“Tell me again about the building of the chapel,” I said. “You mentioned that it was meant as a gift for the church. During the construction there were devilish pranks, and the church decided a demon was here—you thought maybe because of the St. Gomonda story—and they wouldn’t accept the gift. Then the manor burned down.”
“That’s it, essentially. After the fire, father and son moved into the chapel instead of rebuilding.”
“And the son was the first Tregarrick vampire.”
“Thomas, yes.”
I looked at him. “What’s interesting to me is how all of that happened at once.”
His eyes met mine. “Elaborate, please.”
Trying not to be distracted by his keen attention, I said, “Father Kelly seems to think the creature in the story might have been some kind of nature spirit or fairy, and my mother believed fairies could live forever. There are banshees in Ireland who follow the same families for generations. What if St. Gomonda onlybelievedhe had killed him? Maybe instead it was ... I don’t know, a kind of sleep that he woke from? I mean, if you think about what was happening on the estate when the trouble all started ...”
Harker’s face had gone ashen again. “Felling trees, digging up and hauling rocks, setting the granite blocks into the ridge.” Something flickered in his eyes. “Some of the rock for this chapel was taken from the ruins of an ancient village on the estate.”
My brows lifted. “What in heaven’s name could have possessed them to use stones from an old ruin? No farmer or miner or sheepherder would dream of doing such a thing.”
His smile was bitter. “But the Tregarricks were none of these. Much of the readily available stone on the estate would have been used in building the manor, and of course the chapel was builtbeforethe manor burned. Taking it from the ruins probably seemed like a sensible solution.”
“In the old stories,” I said, “people are tormented and cursed for disturbing fairy homes or sacred places. Your family affliction seems verylikea curse, though Goosevar also seems to have had a particular use for the Tregarricks.”
Harker thought for a moment. Then he stood and walked back to the table, where he took up his quill again and began writing. “We know—or at least believe with a fair degree of certainty—that he requires blood, and he requires the males of my family to consume it for him. We don’t know why, but we can probably assume this helps him avoid discovery.”
“His hunting might well be what got him into trouble with St. Gomonda. Now the Tregarricks are the ones who take all the risk.”
“Orwere.”
As he bent over his paper, the waves of his hair curtained his face. What would it feel like to reach out and push them back? I imagined his eyes lifting to mine as I did it. I imagined his lips curving in a fond smile.
Then his eyes did lift, and there was even the hint of a smile. “I couldn’t do this without you, Mina.”
His words raised a deep flush, and I let out a sheepish laugh. “It’s hard to see things sometimes when you’re so close to them.”
“No,” he said with a firm shake of his head. “It’s more than that. You’re bright, Mina. You are naturally very logical, and your mind is quick. Had you the advantages I’ve had—”
“I might be an alchemist too?” I smiled. “Somehow I don’t think it’s the same for a woman. My brother doesn’t even like me working in a tearoom.”
His lips pressed together, and he nodded. “You’re right, of course. But therearewomen in science and medicine, and one day there will be more.”
