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“You have been chanting,” Myles said quietly, feeling strangely sick that he hadn’t picked up on this before. “You were chanting when you whisper as you walk these halls in just the same way as you were chanting in the woods just now. I have no doubt that
when we have all believed you were in the tower room you have been meeting with your associates from the village in the woods, playing your ridiculous games.”
Vernon suddenly rounded on Myles.
Isaac struggled to stand, intent on helping Myles should Vernon pose any physical risk to them. Aware of his injuries, Barnabas stood before him to shield him. There was nothing he could do about Myles or Estelle, who were left to face Eva and Vernon alone together.
“So you have both been making free of the family’s personal possessions while enjoying the benevolence of a relation you have been double-crossing and plotting to kill. Not only that, but you have been undertaking practices of Devil worship in the Whispering Woods with the intent of securing yourself a more permanent base in this house once we are all murdered. What about Estelle? How are you going to explain her death?” Myles challenged.
“Our colleague is a doctor,” Vernon told them with a smirk. “He can put whatever he wants on the death certificates. My associates can pass it about the village that Myles ran her over but, rather than take her to the doctor, he brought her to the house to hide the fact that he had killed her. I doubt they will question it, nor will that old woman your doxy lives with.”
Myles shook his head in disbelief that two people who had been a part of the family could be so devoid of humanity.
“You won’t get away with this,” he warned, and lifted his hand holding his gun. “I am afraid that I can take you out with one shot, Vernon. Eva, you don’t stand a chance against me, Barnabas, Estelle, and Isaac, even wounded as he is.”
Myles watched Vernon look at Eva, a little unnerved that neither seemed perplexed by the problem they faced. His gaze slid to Estelle. He needed to know that she was handling this situation, and was unsurprised to see stunned disbelief on her face. It was the way he felt, if he was honest; disbelieving, and incredibly angry.
Before he could say anything else, all Hell broke loose.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
He barely had the time to think before Vernon launched himself across the room at him. Rather than head straight for him, Vernon lifted a vase off the small table at the end of the chaise and launched it at his head. Dodging out of the way, Myles leaned into Vernon’s tackle and went down with a heavy thud.
Estelle screamed when Eva launched herself at her. Thankfully, Eva was not armed with a gun, but didn’t lack for strength and was difficult to fight off, especially when she produced a wicked looking knife out of her bodice and pointed it at Estelle’s throat.
Estelle froze. She couldn’t move. She daren’t even breathe.
“Now come toward me slowly. Any sudden moves and I will slice you from ear-to-ear,” Eva ordered coldly.
Estelle felt the sharp bite of the blade dig painfully into the tender flesh of her throat.
“It was you who tried to strangle me,” she whispered.
Eva snorted. “I was a little busy at the time with Beatrice. Vernon did that, but couldn’t even get that right.”
Estelle stared at the venom in the woman’s eyes and wondered if she was unhinged, or nonsensical because of the opiates she had undoubtedly inhaled in the woods. Either way, she was incredibly dangerous. Stepping carefully around the end of the chaise, Estelle did as instructed and backed all the way to the door.
“Don’t do anything stupid, Eva. You cannot go anywhere with this,” Barnabas warned. “Unless you have the magistrate worshiping Satan as well, you are going to go to prison.”
Eva ignored him.
“I am not going down that tunnel,” Estelle warned bravely when they entered the hallway. She could hear the cursing and heavy grunts of the men battling over the gun.
“Stay away,” Eva snarled, when Isaac stumbled toward them. “Stay away or I will cut her.”
Estelle felt tears sting her eyes but she blinked them away. She couldn’t afford to stumble because she couldn’t see. A burning trail of pain was starting to form in her neck, but she daren’t think about why. All she could think about was that death was close to her again. With it came a now familiar determination to survive.
“You will do as I tell you,” Eva ordered when Estelle hesitated.
“The entrance is blocked. We blocked it when we entered the house. You won’t get the heavy piece of furniture blocking it moved, and neither will I,” Estelle explained, more calmly than she had expected to be.
This threw Eva momentarily. The woman looked at her. Once out in the hallway, she paused as though contemplating what to do. Before Estelle could caution her any further, the tension was interrupted by the arrival of someone new.
“You will not get away with this, Eva Frenchay,” the old woman warned from her position on the stairs.
“You!” Estelle breathed as she studied the same old woman she had seen in the woods the other night. “I didn’t imagine you.”
The old woman levelled a pair of brilliant blue eyes on her that could only be described as piercing. “No, you didn’t imagine me. I told you to get away from the area.”
