The Awakening
"I died that day, March 19th. I died in every way a woman can die, except in the one way that mattered, my damned heart just wouldn't stop beating and I didn't have the guts to stop it."
Chapter one
I sat at the table wondering what to do next. I couldn't stay here and I didn't have anywhere to go. The bills were mounting up and I couldn't pay them. Caitlin was too busy turning the barn into a veterinary clinic to notice that the farm was going under with no one to work the land. Caitlin expected me to pay the bills and when the clinic was finished she expected me to handle all the administration, cleaning and any other duties, while she Caitlin, (my daughter) dealt with the important work, being a vet.
As I was contemplating my plight, an email arrived:
"Thank you for your interest in the position of Administrator for Dracinis Enterprises PLC, I am pleased to attach a job specification and application form. The completed form can be emailed to..."
I had applied for a few jobs over the past few weeks, but the name didn't ring a bell. When I opened the job description PDF I was even more surprised, the position was for an administrator on a farm, the position I had held here at home for the past 20 something years, while my husband Ralph had been the farmer. It was as if the job was made for me, yet I couldn't remember seeing it advertised let alone sending in my CV.
The causality of the next few minutes, now looking back, was totally astounding.
I had read the job specification. The job would entail everything I had been doing for the past twenty something years, only this would also be a livestock farm not just an agricultural farm. The job would entail me 'living in' Monday to Friday, and the odd weekend overtime. The job was situated in the Highlands with directions on how to get there. On the A9 follow to B8079, at Pitlochry, take the exit for Blair castle, take your first left then second right, follow the road to the end. I looked on Google Earth but could see nothing but rugged terrain.
So I sat, I had filled in the form, and still I sat contemplating applying, and I probably would have closed the form without sending. I thought about Caitlin and how she needed me just starting out in business, she couldn't pay for everything, (not that I could I worked as a part time receptionist at the local doctors surgery), and she couldn't do it all alone, it wasn't fair of me to consider leaving her, after all I had just got her back after five years of being away at college and university. Even though the farm was bought and paid for long since, the outgoings were still much more than my income, and as yet Caitlin wasn't in business and she certainly couldn't afford the bills without having the land worked, then there was the business of the land. Neither of us could work it, I couldn't afford to take anyone on to do it and pay them till I received an income from it, I was left with the unenviable decision of selling, at least I knew that more than one property developer was interested, which in the long run would bode well for Caitlin's surgery. The downside was Ralph would turn in his grave if he knew I was contemplating selling the land he had inherited from his forefathers.
At that moment Caitlin breezed in.
"The floor has set in the surgery you can go clean it now."
And that was it, that was the catalyst right there, it wasn't a request, a question or a plea or my daughter asking me to give her a hand, it was my daughter being bone idle lazy expecting everyone to run round after her like the spoilt little brat she was and she was barking out an order, I was to go and clean the surgery floor while she undoubtedly went out or put her feet up, at which as if to emphasise the point I had just made in my head, she sat down, plucked a Satsuma from the fruit bowl, put her feet up on the chair adjacent and proceeded to peel it, eat it and watch television. She had started as she had meant to go on, the builders laid the floor and I was to clean it.
"Did you hear me? You can go and clean the floor now." [Send] she said looking over her shoulder at me.
I picked up the laptop and stormed from the kitchen. I could hear Caitlin yelling after me not to forget the floor I was so annoyed I yelled back that she could go do it herself. I stomped straight up the stairs and into my bedroom, I knew as did Caitlin that to approach me when I was in this mood
wasn't a good idea, I knew she'd leave me in peace and I was right.
I switched the telly on and left the laptop humming away on the dresser. I was vaguely aware of receiving an email but was deliberately too engrossed in my movie to look at it, whatever it was could wait till morning. I hated coming to bed now I didn't have Ralph to share it with, and resented Caitlin for making me feel like I couldn't relax in my own lounge, not that that really would be much better, while in the living room I'd constantly look at Ralph's chair expecting him to be sat there and being desperately disappointed when he wasn't and it was like being hit with grief over and over again, the home I had loved so much had become the house I detested.
Ever since I was six years old Ralph was all I'd known, all I'd loved and now he'd gone and I just didn't know how to deal with that. He had been ten years older than me but that hadn't bothered me. I'd handed him a daisy when he was in the top field with his friends and they'd made fun of him that 'the lady of the manor' wanted to marry him, and instead of upsetting a little six year old, he'd simply told me to ask him again when I was sixteen. Naturally in the interim we had become great friends, my father owned the land adjacent to the farm and we saw each other often, each year on my birthday I'd present him with a daisy and ask him to marry me, much the way I had when I was six and every year he'd answer me the same, 'ask me again when you're sixteen'.
We fell out when I turned fifteen. Ralph was very anti-hunt and my family were very pro hunting, and I'd joined the hunt. I'd excitedly gone to Ralph to tell him what I was doing and he'd promptly ordered me off his land and I wasn't to darken his door with my presence no more. I'd stormed off in a huff and gone on the hunt anyway, and was very sorry I had, the whole thing made me throw up, I'd never been so disillusioned with anything in my life, and felt sorry for the poor creature that had nowhere to go and wanted to snatch it up and run away with it as the hounds bore down on it. After the kill they had tried to bleed me, initiate me into their sick satanic rite and out of horror and revulsion I'd kicked my horse pretty hard forgetting I was wearing spurs the horse bolted. Somewhere across the fields between the fox's final resting place, my house and Ralph's farm the horse threw me as we'd approached a gate flat out and the horse stopped suddenly, I went over the top. I don't remember much more, I'd woken several days later with a fractured skull, it had been raining and because I was already under the weather, I had pneumonia. Ralph had found me, but still wasn't talking to me and that's the way it went on for months, right up until I joined the anti-hunt lobby and he could see I was genuine in my repulsion of the hunt.
At sixteen I had again picked a daisy, and gone to seek him out, his dad told me he was in the hay loft, I was already laughing when I pulled the barn door open, and I just couldn't stop, suddenly I felt so stupid, ten years of the same ritual, what was going to be his excuse this year? He started laughing as he called me up to the loft, we we're in fits laughing, he'd wished me happy birthday still giggling like a school boy, (he was 26 by this time), and had what looked like a picnic covered by a gingham cloth, we fell on the hay laughing as I handed him the daisy, instead of asking him to marry me I'd asked him what his excuse not to was going to be. He'd uncovered the 'picnic', there was a bottle of champagne and two champagne flutes, I'll never know how he managed it, but somehow he had the engagement ring round the stem of the glass and engraved on the glass was one word, 'Yes', I'd immediately started crying and flung my arms around him we were married weeks later. And that was us for 26 years right till the 19th of March.
The sound of another email pulled me from my reverie, the movie was just ending and even though I had deliberately turned my attention to it my memories of Ralph won over, as always. I turned my face into the pillow and as I had done every night for the past three months I cried myself to sleep.
The following morning I awoke frantic with fright. I hadn't slept well and the nightmares were getting worse. It was like as if psychologically I knew I was alone in the bedroom, even while I slept, and in my dreams someone was coming to get me, and I had no one to protect me. This morning I had awoken just as the hand reached out, my assailant was getting closer.
I doggedly dragged myself into the kitchen; it was already 6 am much later than I would usually get up. Working on a farm a lie in was 5 am. I put two spoons of coffee and two spoons of sugar into my cup, I really needed a kick start, and jumped when the phone rang. That was the first weird thing to happen that day, the line went dead when I answered it and when I did 1471 it told me I hadn't had a call since the day before at 3.15 p.m. stupid telephone lines, you'd think in this day and age they'd stop them from playing up like that.
I grabbed my coffee and made my way back up the stairs to my bedroom. The laptop was still on the dresser and the lid was open, whereas I was sure I had closed it down the night before. As I turned the screen to face me, a big message flashed across the screen alerting me to the fact that I
had mail.
I had in fact several new emails. One from my mother telling me that technology was useless and that she didn't see the point of email, (so why email me to tell me that?). This however was a distinct improvement on our usual mode of communication, silence. My parents barely spoke to me after I married Ralph, as far as they were concerned I had wasted my life, married below my station and they disinherited me. However since Ralph's death my mother had been attempting to bridge the gap, my father had even attended Ralph's funeral.
The next email was from Caitlin to say she was sorry, (heard that one before) and that of course I could clean the floor whenever I was ready, but could it be this morning as she had fitters coming in this afternoon.
One was from Dumitrache Cristea, head of human resources at Dracinis Enterprises advising me that my application had been received and awaiting consideration. The next some twenty minutes later was again from Dumitrache Cristea, inviting me to interview either Friday, (which was tomorrow) or Saturday. I found this weird; I couldn't fathom what kind of farm would interview for new staff on a Saturday, and what kind of farm considered employment applications in the middle of the night? The interview was to be accompanied by an overnight stay the night prior to enable the candidates to freshen up and prepare for their interview. I would be expected to arrive no earlier than 8 p.m. the night before, which as it was a seven hour drive, my morning shift at the doctors finished at 11.30, would be timed almost to perfection.
The rest of my emails were spam and were deleted. I wrote my mother a few lines back, told Caitlin that she would have to do it herself as I had to go out. I'd need a new suit for the interview, which meant if I wanted a decent suit, one that I could by no means afford, I'd have to go into the city to get it. Dumitrache had mentioned that my travel costs to the interview would be reimbursed to me. For that I was eternally grateful. My spirits were lifted, albeit slightly, for the first time in three months. Maybe this was just what I needed, to get away from all the things that could remind me of Ralph. But that thought made me feel guilty, I didn't really want to stop being reminded of him, but maybe now it was time to get away and allow myself time to heal.
Caitlin groaned at having to clean the floor herself but resigned to do it anyway after she had fed the hens. Caitlin reappeared at the back door a few minutes later looking ashen. A fox had got in the hen house and killed all the chickens. I told her to get her grandfather to come down and shoot it, to which I received a stream of verbal abuse. As much as she defended the fox, she was annoyed that it had got past the electric fence and gone in to kill the chickens rather than eat them. I went to clean up that mess, if there was one thing Caitlin couldn't handle it was needless slaughter.
The electric fence still hummed away like the protector it was supposed to be. It wasn't the first time foxes had killed our hens but one hadn't got past this contraption since we had had it installed. I threw a barb at the fence and it sparked so it definitely worked. I cut the power and entered the coop. All the chickens lay dead, headless, it actually looked more like vandals than foxes, the heads had been ripped off them. That infuriated me, who would want to kill a few harmless chickens? Caitlin would be the only vet for miles and miles so I couldn't see it being a competitor, although I somehow didn't think any vet would stoop so low as to kill competitors hens, weren't these guys supposed to love animals? We didn't have any enemies, our farm, was the only one of its kind in the borough, and I couldn't see the village teenagers coming out here to kill a few chickens, it was a good four miles. The slaughter of the hens just didn't make sense.
I went into the city to get the suit. As I stepped back out into the street from buying a very nice high waist dark gray suit, a little dog started growling at me. Little dogs growling is nothing new, but this mutt went berserk and its owner looked at me as if I'd done something to set it off. As I walked away the dog calmed down, but remained hidden behind its owner till I was out of sight. I wasn't sure why but the way that dog carried on really unnerved me.
Things went swiftly from bad to worse, I came home from the city to find my property swarming with police. Sergeant Todd approached me and escorted me into the farmhouse. When we were inside, he asked me if I'd noticed anything unusual the night previous, so I told him apart from my beheaded chickens this morning, nothing out of the ordinary.
Our farm bordered three other properties, my dad's house at the top of the hill, Richards sheep farm and Still's dairy. Pete Richards had been found dead in his bed this morning, he had been decapitated. I wasn't sure if I was standing when Sergeant Todd broke the news, but I felt myself sink into my chair. Pete had moved here some ten years ago with his wife Polly, she had upped and left him about eighteen months ago and Pete had pretty much kept himself to himself since. Sergeant Todd advised me to go away for a while until the murderer was caught. I called Caitlin and told her to stay at Toby's (her boyfriend's) house and decided it was time I paid my father a visit. The first in twenty-something years.
My father agreed to oversee Caitlin's building work, and just generally check on the farm in the interim, although I really wanted them to leave the area, my father's house was like Fort Knox and he was convinced no one could get in. He was very friendly with Sergeant Todd (both members of the funny handshake brigade) and they would both keep an eye out. It was dark before I got home. I had called Dr Kumar to tell him I wouldn't be able to work tomorrow, I was to leave for Scotland the following morning, the sooner the better, for tonight though I was staying at my parents house.
My father and Sergeant Todd accompanied me to the farmhouse, I went upstairs alone. I opened the bedroom door and my blood ran cold, on Ralph's side of the bed there was a figure under the covers. It was just like a scene from a horror movie the light wouldn't switch on. My voice caught in my throat. I thought I saw it move. In the half light from the outside security light I made my way over to the bed, I felt like I was moving in slow motion. I gripped the quilt and pulled it back.
Nothing. It was just the way the quilt must have fallen as I'd thrown it down this morning, I mustn't have made the bed. Suddenly the light came on and an involuntary scream escaped my lips bringing my father and Sergeant Todd thundering up the stairs and made me feel very stupid indeed. Now I was imagining things, worse in fact I was imagining my dead husband had come back to haunt me. We had an exterior electricity generator that often stuttered which was why the light hadn't come on immediately. I really did need to get away.
At my father's house I decided to do my homework on Dracinis Enterprises PLC, to find out inevitably what kind of employer I would be working for. Surgical appliances, plasma, medical and pharmaceutical, the list was endless. They were responsible for innovations in modern medicine the world over. My father was a bio-chemical engineer incorporating biotechnology, (hence the house being like Fort Knox, thankfully not everyone agreed with his line of work), part of his work included pharmaceutical development, which naturally went against Caitlin's line of work, she had told me that every time she argued however, he simply told her, without his animals, her animals wouldn't have the medicines necessary to cure them, she followed it up with, "heartless swine". One thing which was strange however, the oldest joke in the house was, my father's 'other woman' was his pet Labrador 'Lady'.
Father had indeed heard of Dracinis, and swelled with pride when I mentioned that I had an interview with them. Then he deflated again when I told him it was for a lowly administrator. He had met what must be the present director's father many years ago but in fathers words never had the pleasure of working for him. He perked up again when he decided it might be a change in the right direction for me and that I could do a degree in biotechnology and... at which I raised my eyebrows, then he nose-dived when I told him it would mean me moving to Scotland.
"But I just got you back". He protested, so I reminded him he had disowned me. He looked off seemingly out of the window as he cleaned his glasses, but I knew his mind was elsewhere. When I asked him he just told me flatly that it had been Ralph he had disowned and disassociated himself from. I pushed him for more, knowing that he had more to say and when he had finished, I wished I hadn't, in fact I wished I hadn't gone there that night.
I knew Ralph had been 'into' animal rights per-se. I knew he often went to meetings, from which I was excluded on the grounds of being Sir Parker Reams-Barrington's daughter. Ralph and a woman called Dawn Pritchard had been using any information gleaned from me as a weapon against my father, for years. In fact Ralph and this Dawn Pritchard had a seven-year-old son together. Ralph was the reason my father's house was a fortress. Ralph had used me, used me from the word go. Part of me wanted to believe my father was lying, part of me knew he wasn't and had no reason to. In fact he had spent the past twenty-something years protecting me from the truth, and in the process alienating me. Now more than ever I wanted to run away, run away and never come back, or curl up in a ball somewhere and die. They had all been laughing at me all these years and the biggest one laughing the hardest was the man I thought had loved me.
It had been many years since I had spent any time in the company of my father. In fact even as a small child I couldn't recall him spending any time with, or ever showing me any affection. At the age of eleven I was sent to boarding school during the week and spent weekends with my mother and or governess but father was rarely there; he was always away on business or conducting some experiment or something, something other than spending time with his wife and daughter.
What I certainly couldn't recall was the amount of brandy he was consuming now. In fact I couldn't ever remember seeing him drunk at all before that night.
He called to Lady, being rather surprised that she hadn't taken up her usual spot at his feet. When lady appeared at the door to the lounge, she started to growl, very obviously, at me. She was clearly in a quandary, defy her master, or enter the room with this strange interloper in it. Quite clearly she wanted to do neither, choosing instead to stay by the door and continue to growl.
Father turned on her with such ferocity it stunned us both, and I only just managed to grab the walking stick from his hand before he had chance to reign, what would quite possibly have been a
fatal blow upon the poor dogs head. I reminded him quite sternly that Lady was protecting him from what she deemed to be a stranger in his house, a job she was trained and expected to do. Another first in my lifetime, my father cried.
After father had been safely tucked up in bed with Lady diligently laying at his feet, mother and I returned to the lounge, where she presented me with a folder. Father wanted me to take his word for Ralph's behaviour, mother wanted me to see the evidence.
Ralph had actually been arrested on more than one occasion, however due to the chief of police being a close personal friend of my fathers', he had no more than a caution, the irony of which was flabbergasting. Dawn's name kept cropping up, I was more annoyed that they had seen fit to get her off more than Ralph, in a way I could understand Ralph being let off as he was my husband, but why should she? Unbeknown to that harlot, her time for let off's had run out, I was going to make sure she paid for what she'd put my family through. All this though would have to be put on hold until I returned from Scotland.
The following morning my father had a surprise for me. After looking at my clapped out old banger and deciding that no daughter of his was going to drive such a heap to a Dracinis interview, I was to borrow one of his motors with the exception of the Daimler Super Eight and the Aston Martin Vanquish. I chose the less conspicuous MG TF. Father filled the tank and pushed two £50 notes into my hand for me to keep, making sure I had enough money to get home should the Dracinis company decide not to honour the agreement of the travelling costs.
Even though I had bought a suit, my mother had an Armani pin striped suit that fitted me like a glove. A cream Valentino silk blouse, which complemented it perfectly, and a pair of Christian Louboutin pumps that could have been made for me they were such a perfect fit. All in all a little too much for an interview for an administrators position but my parents looked so happy to be able to help that I couldn't refuse.
I chose to ring Caitlin en-route and let her know I was selling the land to the highest bidder. I'd put it to her that a housing estate would bring plenty of business to her veterinarian clinic and if she argued, I'd simply tell her to go and talk to her grandmother.
Father was having his solicitors deal with the valuation and the legal side of selling the land. I only hoped that Pete Richards killer would be apprehended sooner rather than later, as I had a feeling a crime of that magnitude would have an adverse effect on the value of the land. As for Ralph, he could stick his forefathers' land up his dead backside.
Father had helped me put together a fantastic résumé. St Mary's school had been one of the finest public schools of its era and held an excellent reputation. It was a mere 200 miles from home so I could come home at weekends (although 200 miles to an eleven year old girl may as well be Africa and back). I had achieved my 'A' Levels and I had since done courses in business administration and accounts and held an RSA Level 3. The way father presented the résumé made it look like the position was made for me, he took all the requirements and specifications and put them into the profile. Then he gave me a D'Arcy folder to present it in. It bothered me slightly that they had already had one copy of a very basic curriculum vitae and this résumé albeit the same in its makeup had the power of perfect presentation and factual delivery timing.
I grabbed a flask of espresso for the journey. The drive itself would take at least eight hours, that was supposing I didn't hit any heavy traffic. Although the MG was a fine-tuned sports car, every stone and hole in the road felt like I was driving over a house brick.
Chapter Two
Graystings
Where the road had seemed to end on Google, there lay tarmac, brown in colour so it was feasible it could have blended in to the surroundings. I came to a gate about a half-mile up the mountain from where the brown tarmac began. To the left of me was a cliff face to the right a steep drop. As I approached, the gate slid open, and a camera perched on top followed my car till I was out of view of it.
"She's on her way",
A woman's whisper very clearly in the car. I was so startled I slammed on the brakes. I swung round in the two-seater to see where the voice had come from; naturally there was nothing and no one there. I checked my mobile it didn't have a signal. The radio was off; there was a sheer cliff to my left and a sheer drop to my right, where the heck had the voice come from?
Several miles up the mountain, I turned a bend and found a castle had been built into the cliff face, I certainly hadn't seen that on Google. The peak of the mountain appeared to be just above. The land in front had been transformed into a car park with enough room for ten cars, with a fountain in
the middle of a small drive.
The car park was practically full. I knew there would be another seven candidates, and it appeared I was the last to arrive. I hadn't been able to drive in the Louboutin pumps, so I changed into them before I exited the car, grabbing my father's briefcase off the floor. With a quick check in the mirror I got out of the car and made my way to the door.
The castle was very impressive and its situation phenomenal. The rock had been cut away and the castle slotted in. I imagined it to be rather dark inside with no windows at the back or sides.
The door slid open as I approached and a woman greeted me, probably about sixty-five years of age, with grey curly hair, slender, wearing what looked like a Fair Isle grey sweater and grey pleated skirt. I guessed she must be the housekeeper although she were very stylishly dressed for the role. She greeted me with a huge smile and I warmed to her instantly, I would have felt quite comfortable throwing my arms around her and giving her a hug even though I wasn't a tactile person, it took all my will power not to grab hold of her.
Her smile was warm and enthusiastic; she said my name and told me I was expected, beckoning me through the hallway. Her eyes smiled at me and seemed so young in such an old face. She showed me into a reception room containing seven other women who all looked round as I entered, and one man whose attention was caught by a petite blonde in the corner.
The man looked round, nodded once at the housekeeper, once at me and returned his attention to the blonde. I was suddenly irritated; as illogical as I knew it was, I suddenly wanted to run over and rip her head off her shoulders. I immediately knew the eight or so hours was a wasted journey, this twenty year old who probably had no experience in administration, probably not even in office work, was going to get the job, because her primary skill was in the bedroom giving head, and opening her legs to her boss, who I assumed would be the man whose attention she now demanded. I turned my irritated gaze to him and realized there weren't many women who wouldn't drop their knickers for him, the phrase devastatingly handsome just didn't cover it. He had a face that would stop any female in her tracks at twenty paces, and a body that would make Adonis humble, his muscular torso could be plainly seen through the tight fawn sweater he wore, his wavy black hair framed his face beautifully.
My train of thought suddenly knocked me sideways as I realized I had never looked at another man in such a way, I had only ever had eyes for Ralph. For a split second I felt guilty, then I remembered that, that fidelity wasn't returned.
I needed the toilet pretty desperately and as I turned toward the door the housekeeper appeared with two trays of food. She gave me directions to the toilet down the hall. She smiled as she talked and again I got the overwhelming urge to hug her like a friend I hadn't seen for a long time. Her eyes so black I couldn't see where her pupils ended and her irises began, eyes that still lit as she talked to me with such wonderful warmth it radiated from her. She spoke with a slight accent I couldn't quite place, but her English was absolutely perfect.
I set off down the hall and was surprised to find it very light and airy even for the lack of windows. I passed two closed doors and found the visitors' toilet just before the door at the end of the hall marked 'kitchen'.
On my way back to the reception room one of the doors that had been closed was now open. I looked in as I passed and stopped in my tracks. On the far wall was a huge painting, at least seven by twelve feet; it took up much of the windowless wall.
The scene was of a couple on what looked like a night hunt, though the dogs looked more like huskies than blood hounds and the dress was seventeenth maybe eighteenth century. The woman and man stood in profile so only the sides of their faces were visible, she dressed in a long blue coat had long black curly hair and she was holding hands with the gentleman and they were looking at each other lovingly. The print was so large and lifelike for a split second I was there on the hunt that night watching the couple.
I felt something wet touch my fingertips, I looked down to find a husky licking my fingers, she could have stepped right out of the painting so like her predecessors was she. She stopped, turned back toward the door as if she had been called and ran from the room.
"The mistress is back." I heard someone say. 'HA!' I thought, that would put a spanner in the blondes works. I thought back to my Caitlin, she was young, beautiful and blonde and men flocked to her, but she didn't flirt, she didn't have to, why did some women have to be whorish?
I turned my attention back to the print wondering whether I should just leave, I tugged at my short black hair subconsciously as I thought back to the blonde with her long bouncy curls and her big blue eyes, and her flirty demeanour, even the way she stood was irritating. Her weight shifted to her left leg while she rested the toe of her right foot lightly on the floor the leg bent slightly at the knee, every sinew screaming flirt.
"She's very beautiful isn't she?"
I was snapped from my reverie by a voice at my ear. I jumped and yelped as I turned to find the gentleman from the reception room stood next to me. I could usually sense someone approaching, but I had been so caught up in my memory of the irritating woman, I hadn't noticed him enter.
He repeated his question and introduced himself as Rad Frumo, but made no move to shake hands instead he stood with his hands clasped behind his back almost as if he deliverately didn't want to touch me. For the first time in my life I suddenly felt like a foolish schoolgirl, I realised my thoughts were jumbled and I couldn't seem to concentrate on anything but how good looking he was, nobody had ever had this affect on me, not even Ralph.
I introduced myself and turned my attention back to the painting in order to be able to continue the conversation, it was easier to collect my thoughts when I wasn't looking him in the eye. Considering I hadn't been aware of him entering the room, I was suddenly totally aware of him with every sinew in my body. A ridiculous way for a forty-three year old to react.
I asked about the couple in the print, he answered that she was a noblewoman and he was a prince. He smiled as he said her name Sophia Kisslinger of Braşov.
I stopped smiling, her name was so familiar to me, like a name I'd known always "She was beheaded." I stated quite matter of fact before I realised I had uttered the words out loud. That was one of those moments where I realised I was being silly, I must have had Pete's murder playing on my mind, and there is no way I could have known that.
"Yes, she was, but how did you…?" he left the question hanging in the air, and I didn't have an answer for him. Quite simply I didn't and issued a mumbled excuse about it being coincidence or I'd learned it in some history lesson somewhere and mumbled an apology. In my minds eye however I saw Sophia very clearly, standing in a chapel, as a sword swung round and cut off her head.
I changed the subject by apologising for wandering through his house uninvited and we turned to return to the reception room. In the hall we met the dog again and she came to me, head bowed tail wagging. Rad was pleased she had taken to me and joked that she was one of the interview techniques, all candidates had to pass the 'Lady' test. I laughed, she had the same name as my father's dog, what a coincidence.
As we walked back to the reception room Rad was explaining about wanting to spend some time with each of the candidates and apologised for not introducing himself properly earlier. As he spoke the irritating blonde came out of the reception room. Even though I was mid sentence in my reply, she spoke over me as though I wasn't there and asked him where the toilet was giving me a sideways glance as she did, and the resulting sneer told me she saw me as no threat to her, Lady decided she didn't like this rude woman either and promptly growled at her. The woman made a huge fuss about being attacked by 'that mutt' and promptly flung herself into Rad's arms incredibly dramatically, it was like a scene from a 1920's movie, damsel not really in distress, throwing herself at the nearest thing with a penis. Rad told Lady that was enough and she slinked away toward the door marked kitchen, pushed it open and disappeared. Rad was telling 'Annabel' that there really was no need to worry, that the dog didn't bite, but Annabel was having none of it, she demanded he escorted her to the toilet "in case that beast comes back and attacks me". I gestured to Rad to go with her and made my own way back to the reception room.
When we were all back in the reception room Rad gained everyone's attention and explained that this evening was about getting to know everyone and the formal interviews would take place the following day. He said he couldn't stress enough how important to him this position was and it was immensely important that he hired the right person for the job, and how he didn't think he could know that in one formal interview. He said he had no intention of discussing business or the position that night. What an incredibly clever thing to do, to spend a few hours with us getting to know us in order to find out which one of us had the right credentials. Interviews were well rehearsed, a gathering in a relaxed atmosphere would get people to open up and be more themselves as Annabel quite promptly proved.
Rad came back over to me, Annabel followed. He motioned me toward the food. Annabel stayed glued to his side. In the end, he asked her to go and mingle. She declined, and quite smugly I could see she was irritating him as well. I made my way over to two women I had spoken to earlier and left Rad to move on to the next candidate, with Annabel glued firmly to his side.
Christine was about my age, she had the warmest, funniest personality, she was a big woman with a big personality, and I guessed a big heart to match. Charlene, was blonde, slender, stunning, about 25 years old, with a quiet personality but she was good company and a lot of fun to be around after her second glass of wine. She was far better looking than Annabel, but without the whorish, self centred, selfish attitude Annabel possessed, I warmed to Charlene immediately, and secretly hoped that if Rad wanted eye candy, Charlene would be his choice, not Annabel. Looking round the room I could see some of the candidates were in far more need of this position than I was. A week ago I had been panicking about paying the bills, now I knew that my parents would handle everything until the sale of the land went through. I didn't really need this job, but I did really want it.
A while later Nikolai came to the door and caught Rad's attention. Rad broke away from the
ladies who had gone over now to talk to him, in fact all the ladies except Christine, Charlene and myself had gathered round him. They both looked in my direction for a moment or so I thought, then I thought I was being totally ridiculous. Nikolai's face broke out into a huge grin and then he did look straight at me and his wholehearted warm grin lit up the room in his elderly face, I instinctively waved, he waved back. That's when it hit me, this was the first time I'd seen this elderly gent, I really had no idea that his name was Nikolai. As I turned back Christine had been surveying the exchange with interest and asked me if I knew him. I lied and told her I'd met him in the corridor when I went to the toilet. I did catch the suspicious look on her face. Rad left the room with Nikolai and Annabel suddenly came over to us. We stopped our conversation dead in its tracks because we had been talking about what a shameless tramp she was. Without warning she launched into a reverie about how famously her and Rad were getting on and how he was showering her with attention, at which she flicked her hair back, giving me the filthiest of looks. I said I thought Charlene had the position as even though Rad had been over there with them, his eyes had remained very fixedly on Charlene. I hadn't actually noticed who or where he was looking, I'd been having such a wonderful time with Christine and Charlene. As Annabel walked away Christine made a comment that she thought Rad had actually been looking more in my direction, Charlene agreed, I simply laughed, 'yeah right!' I said.
The evening passed pleasantly, whenever Rad came over to speak to us three 'outsiders' the rest of the group followed. He rolled his eyes when he tried for the third time and we laughed. I decided I was tired from the days travel and after exchanging telephone numbers with Charlene and Christine decided to make my way to bed. As I stood up Rad was at my side, offering to show me to my 'dormitory'. The look on Annabel's face was a picture, I gave him thanks, and though I could have found it myself if he had told me where it was, as he insisted, I decided to let him take me. We were both quite astounded when Annabel turned to accompany us. She stated that she was going to bed too, and that Rad could show me where my room was and then show her. Rad clicked his fingers and Nikolai appeared, he told Nikolai to show Annabel to her room. The look on her face I would have actually paid to see. In all honesty I have never taken such a dislike to anyone in my entire existence as I did that woman, and I couldn't help shooting a smirk at her over my shoulder.
We went up two flights of stairs and through a doorway.
"So who would you choose to be my assistant?"
The question took me a little by surprise as he motioned me toward a door that I took led to my dormitory. I asked him why he asked, he told me straight, I had run a farm for twenty-three years, in that time I had hired and fired farmhands, it stood to reason I would know what I was looking for. The stance he assumed at the door took me more by surprise. This was a man who was used to getting his own way, moreover using any means fair or foul to get it. I quickly realised I was never here in a prospective employee capacity, only ever in an advisory capacity. Rad adopted flirt mode, as I said fair means or foul. He leaned against the wall with his forearm, shooting his most smouldering look at me, running his free hand through his hair. For a moment I was most flattered, then reality hit, there were two absolutely beautiful girls half my age gagging for him, why the hell would he give me a second glance. He wanted free advice. So he got it.
As angry as I was, I told him straight. If he wanted eye candy with a pair of open legs, then Annabel was the right choice. If he wanted eye candy with brains and capability, someone he could trust to do the job properly, then Charlene was the right choice. If he wanted someone who would be trustworthy, capable, wouldn't miss anything or overlook anything, then Christine was the correct choice. As for the other four ladies I couldn't comment.
"What about you?"
I looked him straight in the eye; my honest appraisal had obviously struck a chord.
"I don't want the job anymore." I had chance to register the look of shock on his face before I opened the 'dormitory' door and went through it closing it deftly behind me.
I leaned with my back against the door. Why had I said that? I did want this position, more than anything I DID want this job. I felt something move on the other side of the door, I could envisage Rad leaning symmetrically to me.
"Oh yes you do." He said simply, I felt him push off from the door and heard his footsteps walk away down the corridor. Only when he had gone was I aware that I was shaking. I was aware of three other things, no man had the right to have this effect on me, and no man had the right to KNOW he had this affect on me, and thirdly I was being bloody stupid letting a man have this effect on me, especially one who had no interest in me other than in my professional expertise in hiring and firing farm hands. I decided it was my common sense telling me not to take the job, even if it were offered, which now looked highly unlikely anyway, I decided to leave first thing in the morning and save myself the humiliation of the interview.
I switched the light on and jumped, there was something on the bed, then the something started wagging its tail and looking at me very dolefully, if she could have spoken Lady would have said, 'let me stay, please'. I had half a mind to, but she'd probably be missed or might make a mess, so I gave her a big fuss and then guided her to the door, and with a kiss on her nose, and a big 'very cold' sloppy kiss in return, sent her on her way.
I turned my attention to the room then in awe. The Queen Anne four-poster in mahogany with crimson drapes was simply superb. Crimson seemed to be the theme running throughout the room, dark red wood flooring with a crimson and white rug, so deep it buried my toes, crimson satin bedding, crimson crushed velvet drapes, I saw light behind and even though it was night time, stupidly I imagined a window behind but it was a light box. A mahogany dresser, and to finish it off a gothic style light fitting. All in all rather fantastic.
The room was en-suite so I made my way to the bathroom to shower and change for bed. The ornate fixtures and fittings were indeed as splendid as anything the bedroom had to offer, and the gothic theme ran throughout.
After I was showered I pulled the sheets back and climbed into the huge bed, I sank swiftly into the soft deep mattress and as soon as my head hit the pillow I went out like a light.
"She's dead!"
I'm not sure when exactly I was aware there was a problem, I'm almost sure it was before I awoke, but hearing those two words clinched it, moreover because I thought it was being said about me.
I grabbed a robe, and headed to the door. There was a lot of activity somewhere in the house, but not this far up, so I made my way down to the first floor. Here I met Christine who was looking intently at a closed door.
"One of the dogs attacked Annabel, and from what I can gather, I think she's dead."
It took a moment for me to realise that she meant Annabel was dead. I knew at this juncture I should feel or at least feign concern, but I couldn't, so I went back to bed.
I lay on the bed and 'nothing'. I knew I should feel something, anything, but there was just nothing. It wasn't even like I was numb with shock. I just didn't care. I lay there thinking about the farm, Caitlin, my cell phone, I even tried to feel pity for Annabel, but nothing came. Then I wondered which dog had killed her, I knew it couldn't have been 'Lady', she was far too sweet, what a co-incidence she had the same name as my fathers dog. There must be another dog somewhere round here.
I realised three things in quick succession. First my hair was longer than it had been when I got in to bed, not by much, but definitely longer. Second I wasn't in my nightclothes, definitely not wearing what I went to bed in. Thirdly I had a boil on my neck the size of Mount Everest, that was too sore to touch let alone burst and it was making my whole neck throb.
I ran to the bathroom, to look in the mirror, there was definite hair growth, I had coloured my hair earlier in the week, there was no way it could have grown a centimetre in three days, but there it was a centimetre of my natural very dark brown against the black of the dyed hair, at least there didn't appear to be any grey. As for the night-clothes I had no idea. My flannelette pyjamas had been replaced with a crimson satin negligee, and the robe I had grabbed had been a crimson full-length lace gown. I could explain putting the robe on, but I had no idea how the negligee had got on, or where my pyjamas had gone too, it was all quite worrying.
I was ripped from my reverie by the housekeeper knocking on the door and walking in. When I asked about my pyjamas she gave me a very strange look, then shrugged her shoulders. Moreover she started humming as she batted down the bed, quite clearly cutting any further conversation dead. Eventually she left, bowing out of the room backwards, smiling all the while.
I decided at that moment I was leaving. It all seemed like something out of the twilight zone and it was beginning to give me the heebie-jeebies. I quickly showered, dried my hair, put my face on, dressed casually and opened the bedroom door.
"She remembers nothing."
I heard the whisper quite clearly but had no idea from which direction it came, or had any idea to whom it pertained. Wild thoughts started running round my head. After the incident with the negligee, I even entertained the idea that I had been the subject of some cruel experiment or hoax, probably by some animal rights extremists trying to get at my father and probably set up by the whore who'd been sleeping with my husband. As I reached the top of the stairs Rad stepped out of the shadows.
He looked drawn, for a moment I entertained the idea it might be because Annabel had been found in the early hours, then I wondered if it could be because he was rumbled and I was quite obviously making my escape, my not being in a suit for an interview should give that away.
He looked as if he had been up all night, his skin, for all its olive caste seemed gray underneath. His lips were tinged slightly blue as if he were suffering from a circulation problem, and the dark circles under his eyes screamed of one sleepless night too many. For all that he still cut a pretty incredible figure, especially here in the half light of the stairwell.
He wore an expensive navy blue suit with silk tie. He advised me the police wanted to interview everyone who had been staying at the house the night before and escorted me to an office on the ground floor.
As we entered, he introduced me and left. I turned to face the officer. A plain clothes detective sat behind an expensive mahogany desk. He was bald and overweight, probably about forty-five, looked a lot older, and if I didn't believe he were a cop I'd probably think he were a rapist. He had nasty little piggy eyes set in a big round face. The thought crossed my mind about a hoax, so I asked him for some identification. If this were a hoax or experiment I was stopping it now. He handed me his identification and I sat down.
The questioning began fairly straight forward enough. What time had I seen Annabel last? Where had that been? Who had she been with? It didn't take me long to realise the questioning was aimed at a suspicious death, which I supposed death by vicious dog could be deemed suspicious.
Then the questioning got a little more personal. What was my opinion of Annabel? Did I like or dislike her? I told him straight, what little I knew of her I didn't like. I didn't like her behaviour. I didn't like her attitude. I didn't like the way she used her appearance and sexual prowess to gain an unfair advantage on the other candidates.
The policeman's brow furrowed. He asked what I thought Annabel had made of Mr Frumo escorting me to my room and had we argued about the sleeping arrangements? I told him I supposed she didn't like Mr Frumo escorting me to my room, but I hadn't given it any thought. He asked me why I thought she wouldn't like it. So I told him she had spent the entire evening demanding Mr Frumo's attention. That's when he turned it on me, he accused me of spending the entire evening being obsessed with her and consumed by jealousy. He asked if Annabel and I had had an argument over Mr Frumo? I asked him if she was bit by a dog why was I being questioned like a murder suspect? He told me he was just covering every line of enquiry. I told him, I hadn't seen Annabel after I left the reception room. I didn't have an argument with her. I didn't know she was dead until this morning. Then I asked him was there anything else and that unless he was going to charge me with murder, I had nothing more to say. He motioned toward the door for me to leave. As I put my hand on the handle, he called me back; he told me I didn't seem in the slightest bit bothered that a young woman had died. I replied, that in all honesty, if it had been any other woman, I probably would be, but not her, she didn't deserve my pity and she wasn't going to get it. At which I turned and walked out of the door.
As I left the office I met Rad in the corridor, leaning against the wall opposite the door. I assumed he was waiting to talk to the police officer so I nodded and made to move away toward the entrance, he broke into stride at the side of me and brought me to a halt outside the reception room, motioning for me to enter.
I shook my head, but something in his eyes, something beseeching, made me refrain from leaving right there and then. I really didn't want to go into the reception room so I asked about the dog, I was stalling and we both knew it. He put his hands in his pockets and stared off toward the kitchen door at the far end of the hall and informed me 'Lady' had been dealt with. I snorted angrily; there was no way I could believe Lady could have attacked in such a way unless severely provoked.
He changed his stance. He leaned against the door frame with his legs crossed at the ankles, hands still in his pockets, just his shoulders and the back of his head touching the frame, his eyes distant as if he was in a faraway place as he looked down at the floor, then he turned to look at me.
"How can you be so sure a dog you do not know is not capable of an attack of which took a human beings life?"
I had nothing, I didn't know how I was so sure, but I just was.
He stood bolt upright so suddenly it made me jump, a look of contemplation on his face, then he gripped my arm and dragged me into the room opposite the reception room, I had the strangest sense of déjà vu, been here done this got the t-shirt, nothing to be afraid of.
I found myself in a lounge. A huge plasma screen on the wall, and a huge tropical fish tank taking up the wall at the back of the room. Rad beckoned me to sit on the huge oval shaped cream leather sofa the centre of which faced the fireplace and television, the left side the fish tank and the right side the huge heavy velvet drapes, firmly closed over the windows. I sat, Rad paced the room, turning every so often as if he were about to say something, then returning his eyes to the floor and continuing to pace. After a while he began to speak, but I wasn't sure if he were talking to me or thinking out loud. He seemed to be recalling the events of the night before, talking as if to himself, not
in particular to me, as if trying to reassure himself, or replay the events so he didn't forget them.
He had been in bed, 'Lady' had been as always at his feet, the door had opened, Lady had growled and jumped down from the bed, he had heard a woman's voice say 'damned dog', the bedroom door had shut, the next thing he knew it was 2a.m. and the servants were waking him to tell him of the incident.
'It's a lie, vampires don't sleep'.
It was a thought in my head, it had to be, Rad was still talking he obviously hadn't heard it. What a stupid thought to have, the longer I stayed here, the more this place was getting to me, I really had to leave, now, while I still had a shred of sanity left.
"What do you remember?"
He turned to me then. I knew nothing, I woke this morning when I heard someone say she was dead and I wasn't sure who they were talking about. I had slept quite soundly and not heard anything during the night, and as it had all taken place on the floor below and the walls were thick, it wasn't surprising I hadn't heard anything.
"My room is next to yours, I thought maybe Lady growling had woken you."
I looked at him blankly, I wasn't sure what I was shocked by, but I sure felt shocked. I had the room next to his? One of the questions the police officer had asked me kind of made sense now. Had Annabel and I had an argument about the sleeping arrangements?
"Who did it? Who bit her?"
I looked down, I looked up, he suddenly had my head in his hand, he was so close I could feel his breath on my lips, then he'd gone, and in a second I could hear his voice far off somewhere in the castle. How had he moved so far so fast? I was left reeling. Reeling from 'him', his smell, his presence, his beauty and this hunger deep down inside of me that I'd never felt before, and cold, his touch had been icy cold. I picked up my bag and left.
All the way back down the track my neck throbbed. It seemed the further I got from the castle, the more the boil hurt. As the gate opened, it was like as if the 'boil' was protesting loudly, my neck burned and throbbed. After another quarter mile I couldn't take the burning pain any longer and I pulled the car over, grabbed a pair of scissors from my over-night bag. I took hold of the boil, it seemed to be rooted deep down in my neck. I knew if I could relieve the pressure, it would relieve the pain and give some painkillers the chance to kick in. I squeezed the boil as I snipped it with the scissors.
I was expecting a pop and maybe some puss. The arterial spray caught me completely by surprise. I vaguely saw it hit the passenger window. I put my hand to my neck instinctively trying desperately to stem the pumping blood.
With each heart-beat I could feel the blood flow down my neck and chest. I grabbed the cravat and thrust it onto the wound, applying as much pressure as I could muster. I could feel the cravat soaking up the blood, and as if out of spite my heart started racing, disposing more of my life out through the hole in my neck. I frantically threw everything out of my handbag looking for my cell phone. 'No Signal' not even 'Emergency calls only', that was it, my last hope of being saved gone.
I could smell the blood. My head was spinning. I had a singing whistling noise in my ears. I felt myself go lightheaded and the bleeding just wouldn't stop, I couldn't call for help and I didn't dare drive the car the state I was in. I realised I was going to die right there and then. With that thought my eyelids grew heavy, black spots seemed to blur my vision. Then, everything went black.