The Vanishing at Loxby Manor by Abigail Wilson (grave mercy .TXT) 📕

eyes.” Hugh turned his attentionto the painted ceiling as if he could see through the plaster to Seline’s room. “Tell her when she’s ready to entertain visitors,I want to come. We can meet in the garden as she likes to do. You’ll tell her that, won’t you?”

I blinked. “Of course.”

Priscilla had said earlier in the evening that her brother rarely left the house. Interesting that he had continued to meetSeline in the place where the three of us had once enjoyed our pretend tea parties.

Perhaps Priscilla wasn’t privy to Hugh’s excursions after all.

“Hugh, I—”

“Charity, dear.” Mrs. Cavanagh’s booming voice stifled any further conversation. “Would you run and fetch my shawl? It’s ratherdrafty in here after you and Piers had the ridiculous notion of opening the door in this weather.”

My shoulders sank. My moment with Hugh was gone all too quickly, and I had so many questions. “Certainly, Mrs. Cavanagh. I’llhurry.”

It wasn’t until I reached the door that I felt Hugh’s hand at my arm. He pressed in close to my ear, his words a fervent whisper.“Would you give this to her for me?”

Something smooth and cold slid into my hand, and I glanced down to see a folded note with Seline’s name written on the outside.

Chapter 9

When I returned to the drawing room with Mrs. Cavanagh’s shawl in hand, I realized all too quickly that I’d made the tripto her room in vain. Mrs. Cavanagh was in the process of declaring it time to retire for the night.

She gave a great show of it, but unfortunately her departure took with it all opportunity I might have had to engage furtherwith any of the party guests, particularly Hugh.

Mrs. Cavanagh gave a fluttery whiff of her fan as she stole across the carpet, and Avery jumped up immediately to assist her.Of course the impending absence of Avery was all Priscilla needed to insist that she and Hugh should leave as well. It seemedshe had nothing to gain by humoring the rest of us. My gaze fell to Tony, and as expected he and his cousin fell in step behindthe Daunts.

Piers and I watched the guests amble from the drawing room to the awaiting servants in the front entryway, and Piers nudgedmy arm. “You must be tired. I’ll see the guests to the front drive. No need to linger.”

“No need to linger”? Did he want me out of the way?

My chest tightened, but I nodded nonetheless. After all, Piers’s desire to escort his guests to their carriages alone was perfectly appropriate. He was the master of the house, and I only a guest. But something in the tone of his dismissal made me glare at his retreating form until he was lost to view.

Before I left for Ceylon, I’d never been made to feel like a guest at Loxby Manor, not by Seline or Avery. I circled aroundto the grand staircase as a rather disconcerting discovery struck me. The Cavanagh’s were not exactly the family I remembered.Piers had arranged a duel for goodness’ sake and then declined to show up. Moreover, he’d refused to explain himself to hisfriends or family. And after a bit of prying tonight, I’d learned that Seline had toyed with not only Hugh but Tony as well.

I leaned on the banister as I reached the top of the stairs, the letter Hugh had given me burning in my pocket. How much hadchanged at Loxby Manor. The people I thought I knew inside and out had proved to be mere shadows of their former selves. Mymother told me before I left that I could never go back to the way things were, not really. But I hadn’t wanted to believeher.

The air felt thick in my lungs.

Tony said he had actually proposed marriage—to Seline of all people. It was all so strange really. Hugh had always been theone enraptured with her, and she with Lord Kendal. And then Seline had had the audacity to turn around and insinuate thatboth gentlemen would be a good match for me! The entire notion was the outside of enough.

I turned down the dark corridor that housed my room before stopping at a small rococo table in the hall, the weight of discoverya fresh burden on my shoulders.

Interesting how our intimate group of friends had all managed to converge at Kinwich Abbey the night Seline disappeared. I reached for the door to my room in something of a fog, but everything changed when I heard a skittering at my back. How easily I could go from perfect ease to heart-pounding alarm.

I spun around and raised my candle into the all-encompassing gloom of the empty hall. At first I saw nothing, but achinglyslowly, a round shadow emerged against the far wall.

My hand shook, and I nearly dropped the pewter candleholder as a scream lodged in my throat and burned like fire to emerge.Yet it was only an insidious shadow, growing and shrinking as I moved the light. I forced myself motionless. Now was not thetime to revert to the frightened girl from Ceylon whom I loathed with a passion. There was no one at Loxby Manor who mightattack me.

Then I heard it, and my chest heaved with relief.

A soft, glorious meow.

Carefully I lowered the solitary flame to illuminate the carpet at my feet. The little white cat I’d met on my first nightat Loxby had found her way inside once again. Carefully I set the candle on the floor and rubbed the ache from my chest, thepretty little creature with ice-blue eyes watching my every move.

I extended my hand. “Here kitty.”

The cat remained deathly still. She was as scared as I was.

I inched a bit closer, but even the slightest movement incited panic and she jerked away. I sat back on my feet unmoving,simply regarding her. I daresay the poor little thing had not been met with kindness in this house, certainly not by Selineor her mother, and I understood her fear all too well. I would have to let her be to come to me on her