Chapter 23

The sisters held hands tightly as they heard the secret door open. Quentin leered at them, his gaze unwavering, unfeeling. "Well well well," He said, "I'm so glad you've come back to me Nancy, you and I will be very happy together, like we were before." "I was never happy with you!" she spat, "You made my live a living hell!" His face changed, hardened, his eyes became slits of ice. "You have no idea what hell is. But you will. You should never have left me my dear, You'll have to be punished. Both of you. I'm going to get some rope, and when I return both of you will know, once and forever who is master here." The door closed, and the candle went out, leaving them in darkness. The girls huddled in fear. What was he planning to do to them? Torture them in some way no doubt, and then Rhiannon would die. "Barnabas will be here soon," Nancy said with determination, "he has to be, he'll save us. David was with him, They'll get us out, I know it."

It seemed ages since Quentin had left, and the expanded time was both a blessing and a curse. A temporary reprieve from the inevitable, but it left more time to brood in the dark of their fate. More time together, more time to say their goodbyes. They had no way to tell how much time had passed, what in actuality could have been mere minutes, seemed to drag into slow, agonizing hours. When next the door did open, Rhiannon, shaking buried her head in her sisters chest and wept, as did Nancy, her arms holding Rhiannon to her. This was the moment they had been waiting for, dreading. Rhiannon closed her eyes, savouring her sister's embrace, her scent. She thought of the mother she had so newly found, of the people she had thought of all her life as her parents, of her little brother and his eyes full of tears at the news of her passing. She thought of David and Barnabas arriving too late and gasping at the discovery of her body in that room. She prayed for death to be quick and painless. Nancy's rugged exhale of relief brought her out of her dark thoughts, and she looked to see Barnabas' concerned face looking over them.