Chapter Two: A Man About the House

Every night was the same. Ann saw the carriage with her father, the Earl Dudley, inside with the Countess by his side. She heard the screeching howls approaching and tried to warn them, but her cries went unheeded. She saw the driver and tried to urge him on, demanding he go faster—if only they could outrun the creatures, they would be safe.

But then it was too late. The pack of huge lizards descended up the carriage and proceeded to rip it open with their five-inch claws. Two other lizards joined them, killing the horses by ripping their bellies open and eating them alive. The driver leapt from the carriage and broke his leg in the fall. One of the lizards eating the horses left his meal to quickly dispatch the driver.

Soon the carriage was cut open and Ann saw her father cover her mother protectively with his body. Ann started screaming as the lizard nearly bit the earl in half. He was dead when they started eating him, but her mother wasn't quite so lucky.

Behind her she heard a man laugh cruelly as Ann was forced to watch the horrific scene. Tonight she would see him; she would know who was responsible for destroying her family. She forced herself to turn in the direction of the laughter…

Countess Ann Dudley woke up to the sound of someone screaming. She cried out in frustration as the details of her nightmare slipped away. She had almost seen the fiend who had killed her parents, but now the vision was lost and someone was screaming. Ann clutched her father's sapphire ring that hung from a chain around her neck as if it were a powerful talisman giving her courage. Could it be the lizards attacking the house? She trembled at the thought.

Her maid Clara burst into her room. "It's Mr. Anslow, he's gone mad!"

Oh. It was just the butler.

The countess threw on her dressing gown, then she and her maid ran to the servant's quarters and found the butler tearing at his clothes and jumping around as if he were standing on hot coals. Polly the cook peeked inside his room and looked as if she would faint. Clara tried to hold the young countess back but Ann had to see for herself. She was the mistress of this manor after all.

"Oh dear!" It wasn't giant lizards, but even she was a bit disconcerted by the sight of thousands of spiders crawling about the room and hanging from the beamed ceiling by their webs. A spider in the kitchen was a common enough sight, but this was…unnatural. Ann became aware of Mr. Anslow again. "This is a mad house, this is! You can send me my wages!" With that, the butler ran into the kitchen and out the back door.

Another butler gone. How many was that now, four in as many weeks? The Dudley family butler John Hunter disappeared the day after her parents' murders, making him a suspect in the crime as far as Ann was concerned. They haven't been able to keep a butler since then. Some were put off by her father's collection of insects, reptiles, and strange artifacts; others thought the manor was haunted. Ann was convinced it was the latter. Her nightmares were proof enough that the late Earl Dudley and his wife would roam the earth until their only child brought their murderer to justice.

Ann hated the thought of killing the spiders, but it could hardly be helped. "Try to shoo as many out the window as you can, Clara."

"Yes, mistress," the maid replied uneasily.

Polly shuddered and turned away from the spider-filled room. "Shall I make enquiries about finding a new butler?"

"Do we really need one, Polly?" Ann asked wearily.

"Of course we do, my lady. A manor this grand demands a butler, besides we need a man around the house."

"I suppose." The young countess shrugged. "Perhaps the fifth one's the charm."

It was not quite teatime when the doorbell rang. Everyone Lady Ann knew and cared about was either dead or already living on the premises, so she had no interest in seeing who it was. Instead she chose to remain cloistered in her father's study, her favorite room in the manor. Most of his prized specimens were there, rare arachnids and butterflies, even dinosaur fossils, including the giant femur of a Megalosaurus.

He also had hundreds of journals and diaries, both private and scientific, but Ann couldn't bring herself to read them yet. It was too soon—she missed them both so much and wondered if the pain in her heart would even mend. She wished she could cry to let some of the pain escape, if only temporarily, but her despair was such the tears would no longer come.

Someone knocked on the study door a short time later. "Yes?"

Clara peeked her head in. "It's the new butler, my lady."

"Already? Anslow left only this morning. Tell Polly to engage him if she thinks he'll do. I don't wish to see anyone."

"Well, he wishes to see you, wants to know who his new mistress is I suppose. And if you don't mind me sayin'," Clara said, her cheeks flushing, "you'll want to see him."

"All right," she said with a forced smile, "send him in."

A moment later she heard another knock at the door. "Come in."

Ann was startled by the sight of the new butler pushing a tea trolley into the study and thought it rather presumptuous—after all he just got here. "I am Claude Faustus, the new Dudley butler," he announced. "For tea we have a fine Earl Grey from Whittard of Chelsea and a raspberry walnut tart." He spread the napkin over her lap and placed the cup and the plate in front of her. The raspberry tart looked delicious. She couldn't remember Polly ever making one before.

After the man had served her, he straightened up and gazed straight ahead with a tea towel draped over his arm. Now that she could get a good look at him, she understood Clara's fuss. To say the butler was a handsome man would have been something of an insult. He was beautiful, tall and muscular, his dark hair seemingly carelessly swept up and back out of his face, his rectangular spectacles framing his strangely golden eyes. He wasn't a dandy by any means; his stoic professionalism belied that.

An odd, almost liquid feeling came over her followed by an unbidden thrill that shot through her sex. She sensed a blush rise to her cheeks and suddenly felt like a lovesick little girl. "Mister, uh, Faustus."

"Claude, my lady." A slight smirk played across his perfect lips. He knew how he was affecting her and he was enjoying it. Her father had warned her about handsome men who would try to manipulate her because of her fortune and position. She had assumed they would come in the form of poor nobles or ambitious businessmen, not impertinent butlers.

Ann pushed the plate away untouched and laid her napkin on top of it. "Mr. Faustus, I'm certain you are an excellent butler, but I'm afraid you would be unhappy here. We haven't been able to keep a butler since my parents died."

"Perhaps you have not employed the right one," he said meeting her gaze with seductive ease. "I'm certain I will prove my worth—"

"All you have proven so far is your impudence! I am no simpering maid to be twisted around your handsome finger." She stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. "What did you come here for? Money? A title?"

The flash of anger and suspicion in her eyes only heightened his desire for her soul, but this was not going as well as he had hoped. "Those things hold no value for me," he replied honestly. "I only wish to serve you, Countess; to exact that revenge you lust for in your otherwise pure heart."

She gazed at him in shock. "What are you talking about? I want no revenge—"

It was at times like this that his Shinigami connections came in very handy. That man-crazed Reaper Grell Sutcliffe hadn't given Claude all the information he craved when the demon bedded him, but it was enough to make an impression on the young countess. "Your dear parents were brutally murdered on their way home from London, their bodies torn apart by some preternatural creature."

Ann covered her ears. "Stop it!"

He took her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes almost gently. "I can help you find those responsible and do the same to them as they did to your poor parents. I can rip them limb from limb, tear open their bellies and eat them alive if you so wish it."

The pain was still as fresh as the moment she first heard about their demise. All those so-called negative emotions this good girl kept in check came bubbling to the surface. The hatred and rage was like the bittersweet icing atop a delicate white cake. The hunger he felt gnawed at him, but her soul needed ripening. "How do you know all this?" she cried. "Who told you?"

"It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you let me help you."

"The nightmares," she sobbed, her small body suddenly overcome by fatigue. She leaned on him slightly for support. "I would give anything to make them stop."

He smiled slightly as he stroked her cheek. "I can put an end to your pain, once and for all."

Ann gazed up at him, wide-eyed with hope. She believed him—one major obstacle overcome. "What do you want in return?"

His demon senses could tell she wasn't quite ready to hear the whole truth, but she was close. "Just a small thing," he said. "You'll hardly miss it all."

To be continued…