Suddenly, the letter Gabriel Vandenberg sent his mother—the one Jude showed me inside The Cobbler—comes into crystal clarity. He couldn’t find his father’s cousin in Winchester. Nor any account of the Vandenberg name. Which never made sense. If Raphael married in Winchester,had children in Winchester, and died in Winchester, there would at least be an account.
But Gabriel couldn’t find one.
Because Winchester was a ruse.
Raphael Vandenberg may havegonethere, but he never married there. Or had children there. He certainly didn’t die there.
The room tilts.
My hands shake.
Rafe isn’tfroma spoiled bloodline.
There neverwasa spoiled bloodline.
Reuben is Frank.
Frank is Thomas.
And Thomas …
My skin erupts in goosebumps.
Seraphina brought Raphael back to life.
And he’s remained that way ever since—the bad egg through history, frozen in time. Torturing first his brother, then his nephew, then his great nephew. All the way down the line.
Why does Rafe want to open the tomb?
Because he’s the one who loved her.
RaphaelisRafe.
And now, he wants her back.
42
BRAVO, SELAH
The next morning, I walk through fog as thick as soup, the manor a hulking shadow in the gray haze. Not until I reach the fountain does the portico take shape. With my heart pounding and the photographs pressed nervously between my palms, I climb the stone steps.
The front doors fly open.
Just like yesterday.
Only this time, it isn’t Jude on the other side with a compass and a brittle sheet of paper. It’s Rafe with his car keys. And for just a moment, before he realizes I’m there with him, he looks wild. Unhinged. Terrifying.
My thoughts lurch to our first encounter in the graveyard.
You remind me of a girl I sort of know.
From a portrait painted by hisbrother.
Rafe is Raphael.
And Raphael is Rafe.
He seduced Molly Ludwig. Did he poison Lydia, too? Has he been the harbinger of this curse, a living ghost through the centuries, tormenting Ezra’s descendants and killing off innocent women?
