Okay. So Victor is half English (William's side) and half German (Nell's side). And I've cleverly started to work my spectacular explanatory idea into the story! There was supposed to be a bit with Pastor Galswells in this chapter too, but I think I'll either tack it on later or make it a part of another chapter because this one's already more than 2000 words long and I REALLY wanted to update before everyone lost interest in my story. And I fucking hate my sister.

Chapter Four

(Less Than) Pleasant Conversation

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. It was a short, commanding knock with several syllables worked into it, like a submarine captain or a fighter pilot's knock. Even Nell, who would have loved to ignore any visitors they might have received that day, was forced to look away from her stuttering son to gaze down the hallway. The knock had come a second time before anyone realised that Mayhew was not going to answer it. William glanced anxiously towards the ceiling as he hoisted himself from his armchair. "I'll get it, Father." Victor ejaculated, jumped up from his place on the spindly-legged loveseat, and dashed down the hall. Anything to escape their slack-jawed stares!

The raven-haired youth yanked open the front door with unnecessary force and nearly stumbled across the threshold. Had he not caught himself in time he would have found himself in the arms of another man, the butler of the Everglot home. Victor looked at the newcomer dubiously. He didn't trust the older man's parrot-like nose, his squinty eyes, or his perfectionist air. "Why have you come?" Victor asked of him. William's kind, nasal voice sounded from down the hall, "Victor, that's no way to greet our guest!"

Victor' father ushered the butler genteelly inside, all the while apologising for his son's impoliteness. "He means well," William explained. "I think he's just nervous about something." Victor winced apologetically behind the butler's back. William saw it and smiled understandingly.

In the sitting room, the man declined Nell's offer of a chair. He'd not be staying long, he informed them; he'd only come to fetch the doctor.

"The doctor?" asked Nell. "Whatever for?" (Perhaps it was Nell who needed to be apologised for!)

"It is none of your concern, ma'am," the butler answered shortly. "But usually when a doctor is called for, it means that someone is ill."

This piqued Victor's interest. A servant of the Everglot estate, someone ill? It could only mean one thing --- either Mister or Misses Everglot had had a heart attack or an aneurysm or a stroke or something. It was only a matter of time, he thought, until those uptight, old bats found out that their daughter had been communing with the living dead and spending times in the arms of a man who was not her husband. A sinking feeling followed the end piece of that thought, however, and his near elation became a pit in his stomach. In his mind he cursed himself for allowing himself to do more than hold her hand. They hadn't touched lips; only she'd laid her lovely head against his chest and he'd wrapped his arms around her. Why were the most beautiful things deemed improper? He wanted to ask which one it was, Finnis or Maudeleine, who was nearer to the crossing of the river Styx, but knew that asking, 'Who's ill?' would be more socially incorrect than his earlier directness in asking 'Why have you come?'. Instead he settled for, "Someone's ill?"

Nell prodded him with her fan, but lightly. She wanted to know too. Gossip.

"No," was the curt answer from the butler. Victor and Nell's faces showed similar signs of shock.

"Then why do you need the doctor?" Nell exclaimed. The dismay in her voice was disgusting.

William, of course, came to the rescue. He coughed into his fist, "Ahem," and explained the situation to the parrot-faced man. "You see, sir," said he. "The doctor is upstairs attending to Pastor Galswells, and our family would not like to see the doctor leave for something trivial. If someone else is sick, then by all means, take the doctor with you as soon as he's finished here, but if not, then we'd prefer the doctor stayed."

One name seemed to be the only thing the butler caught. "So Father Galswells is here and...alive? My employers will be glad to know that he's not been murdered too." A sneer painted the tiny lips beneath his enormous nose.

Victor opened his mouth to speak, but William was quicker. "Yes, Pastor Galswells is here. My wife and I took him in last night."

"Well, my mistress begged me not to return without the doctor. Because Miss Victoria's well-being is not trivial to her, I shall do as she asks."

"Victoria?" Victor gasped. "Victoria's ill?"

"I'll wait for the doctor to come down."

The Van Dort family sat in silence. Their guest stood staring stonily out the window. William occasionally looked to the ceiling as if willing the doctor to hurry his examination. Nell fanned herself nervously. Victor bit his lip; his mind was ablaze. Only the clock chattered gaily.

Presently the doctor announced his arrival downstairs; the creaking of the steps beneath his weight gave him away. The doctor's entry into the sitting room was watched intently by four pairs of eyes --- twice the amount which had been there when he'd ascended. He seemed to take this in stride and dabbed indifferently at his forehead with a kerchief.

"The pastor," began the doctor. "Is dying," There was a collective shudder. "But his death will have been of natural causes. Old age, you see, and probably a calcium deficiency. Can't say how long he has left, could be several years if he's properly looked after. You folks, " He nodded to Mister and Misses Van Dort. "Did a jolly good thing taking the old bloke in last night. I think he's been living in the church these past few months because it's too strenuous for him to keep walking to and from his house! Then what with the snow and the dead things walking about, he's been under a lot of stress." The doctor shook his grey head. "I'm not prescribing anything because there's nothing I can do. Keep him warm, try to keep his mind off of things like ghosts and corpses and he should be fine. I think he might be catching cold too. Might want to keep an eye on that."

"Thank you, doctor." said William. Nell nodded.

"If that's all, then I'll toddle off. G'day."

The doctor took his hat and coat from William who had retrieved them from the brass coat stand in the hall.

"Just a moment," the butler interjected.

The doctor pulled his coat up over his shoulder. "Yes?"

"A few of the townspeople (he said the word with obvious dislike) said that I would find you here.I've come from the home of Lord and Lady Everglot. They wondered if you might find the time to have a look at their daughter."

After a quick look at his watch, the doctor nodded. "Yes, I suppose I could."

"Wonderful."

And with that the two men left.

There was barely a moment's silence after their departure because immediately after the door shut behind them, Victor, Nell, and William had turned to face each other once again. "What did he mean when he implied that Pastor Galswells had been murdered?" Victor enquired. His mother and father shifted uncomfortably. His question had been delivered forcefully, but had still retained a certain innocence that made his ignorance about his present social standing obvious.

"Well, Victor," William started. "There's been a bit of gossip going on,"

Victor continued to gaze at him confusedly. William sighed.

"Here," he said, pushed aside the heavy curtains and opened the window. The voice of the town crier drifted inside over the wind, "VICTOR VAN DORT SUSPECTED IN THE DEATH OF LORD BARKIS BIT-TERN!"

Victor was incredulous. "Me? Why am I a suspect? He killed himself!"

"Did he?" Nell asked, leaning forward. It was the first time they'd heard anything different from the town crier's reports.

"Yes!" Victor nodded earnestly. There was hope yet. His parents would believe him surely! "I was in the church. I finished Emily's vows for her and I was about to drink the poison Elder Gutknedt prepared, but she stopped me and turned me around and Victoria was there! But I thought that she'd been married earlier that day! Turns out she was, of course, because only a minute later he burst into the church and threatened Victoria and I and then Emily recognized him as the lover who'd killed her and we dueled, or rather, he dueled with me, I was just trying not to be filleted! He was cornered and he started ---"

"Victor!" Nell screeched. "You're not making any sense! Who is Emily? And you were dueling?"

"Not really. I was just trying to stay alive! It was Lord Barkis who was doing all the stabbing."

"Is Emily your corpse bride?" William asked.

Victor turned away from his mother. She was useless. "Yes. I married her accidentally after I left the wedding rehearsal the other night. I was practising my vows in the woods and I placed the ring on a twig that was poking out of the ground. That twig was actually her finger and she rose up out of the ground. I fainted on the bridge, I think, and when I woke up, I was in the Land of the Dead."

"The Land of the Dead?" Nell squeaked. "What's all this nonsense?"

"The Land of the Dead. There are corpses and skeletons, but they're still alive to some extent. It's a sort of necropolis beneath the earth, but it's not hell. There's no eternal fire, no suffering, no pain. There's no sunlight, surely, but it's tolerable."

"Tolerable?" Nell exclaimed.

"Well, the people are nice. And Scraps was there! Emily gave him to me as a wedding present."

"They're not people if they're dead!" Nell gasped.

"Victor, Scraps has been dead for years! You can't have gotten him as a wedding present." William shook his head.

"But I did! He didn't have fur anymore, or organs for that matter, but he recognized me and ---" The looks on his parents faces told him it would be of no good to go on. They didn't believe him. They were staring at him with wide, sad eyes. They were disappointed and scared. Their only son had cracked. Victor's heart sunk; his face fell. "But didn't you...see...the dead people...walking around last night?"

His parents shook their heads slowly. William leaned heavily on his chair. "We were in the woods last night. We'd gone to look for you, but Mayhew passed away sometime on the way there and the horses went off in their own direction."

"But horses have an excellent sense of direction!" Victor argued. "They would have brought you home!"

"And they did," William replied in his most soothing voice. "But when we passed the church, we did not see any corpses. There were candles lit, but no one was outside. No one was outside in town either. About an hour later we heard Pastor Galswells yelling outside and we took him in. A lot of people say they saw the living dead last night, Victor, but we didn't see them ourselves."

"You believe Pastor Galswells, don't you? And the rest of the town? The Everglots saw them! Please, Mother! Father! Why don't you believe me?"

Nell fanned herself more quickly and hid her face behind its lacey folds. "It's just strange, Victor. Everyone says that you murdered Lord Barkis and that you were the one marrying a corpse! Why would you marry a dead woman, Victor! Why!"

Victor looked desperately towards his father.

William was equally doubtful. "When you're suspected of murder, Victor, you need a believable alibi. This Land of the Dead story is really..." He hesitated, trying to think of a right word.

"You were gone for more than a whole day!"

"Victor, if you've been dabbling in the black arts..."

"There is no Land of the Dead! There's only heaven and hell, Victor!"

Victor covered his ears with his hands. How could they be saying this? Why didn't they believe him? "Maybe you're wrong, mother!" Victor shouted. "Maybe there is such a thing as purgatory and the whole of Protestantism is wrong!"

Nell was on her feet and Victor cowered before her despite his considerable height advantage. "And maybe your returning to England was wrong! You could have stayed in Germany after University and settled down with a nice, German girl but no! You wanted to be nearer to the Romantics! You wanted to be among writers and scientists! There are writers and scientists in Germany!"

"Now, dear," William said as he eased his wife back into her chair. "This has nothing to do with Victor's returning to England. I think his being in England is a good thing."

"Even though he can't hold public office!"

"That's because of our family's religious beliefs, not because of anything he's done. And you'd be good to remember that you converted me to Lutheranism."

Nell stewed silently in her chair.

"Father's right," Victor whispered. "If I hadn't come back to England, I would never have met Victoria. She is the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"Is that why you didn't come home last night, Victor?" William asked quietly. "Because of her?"

"I love her, Father. I walked her to her house after Lord Barkis drank the poison. I would have come home, but I was locked out. When we left for the wedding rehearsal the other night I hadn't thought to take a key with me because I'd thought I'd be returning home with you."

Nell got up again and disappeared. She returned holding two silver house keys. They were the only ones that the family possessed. Victor had truthfully been locked out of the house.

William and Nell shared a grieved glance. What were they to do?