Disclaimer: Crimson Peak belongs to Guillermo del Toro and The Lodgers belongs to Brian O'Malley.

Summary: Sean Nally was supposed to die that fateful night when he tried to help Rachel escape her fate. He was supposed to be the price of her freedom. So why and how did he find himself in Allerdale Hall, far from home, serving the Sharpes?

Author's note: Please note that my first language is not English, it's French. If you find any mistakes or weird sentence, let me know, so I can better myself. While I know I am almost fluent and while I do read after myself and use Grammarly to help, sometimes, a mistake can pass by.

Entwined Souls

Chapter 2

Lucille admitted shamelessly that she had been lost and unsure about what to do when that creature, that Sean, passed out of exhaustion.

What the hell was going on?

What had just happened?

Who was that man?

Why was he here?

And most importantly, what to do with him?

Thomas seemed to think faster than she did as he tried to carry the man by himself.

"What are you doing?" She asked, her voice shaking more than she wanted

"That man will die if we don't help him." Her brother replied

"This thing could snap your neck! It came from the tanks!"

" I've seen that. It doesn't change the fact that he will die if we don't help him. And if he dies, he won't have our answers. We'll decide afterwards."

He had restrained himself from suggesting poisoning him or smothering him in his sleep. The fact that the thought crossed his mind so naturally scared him to the core. Was Lucille right? The first one was the scariest, wasn't it? His first wife had just died by the hands of her sister-in-law, he had helped in setting her demise, he was feeling guilty five minutes ago and now, well, he had contemplated murdering an innocent that managed to survive God knew what, begging for their help.

"Can you help me, Sister? I'll definitely need your expertise."

Lucille managed to compose herself.

"You're the head of this house, Thomas. Of course, I'm by your side."

XXXXX

Once Sean had been cleaned up, all of Lucille's fears about the being of the tanks being dangerous vanished.

Or almost all of them.

She was a suspicious woman by nature. That was her way to prepare and be able to protect her brother like she always did. But that thing, that Sean, looked like any other human being on Earth. And quite harmless too. Rather tall, he certainly was a soldier in the past. He was muscular, his body had signs of old wounds and burns healing. And of course, there was this missing leg. His right leg cut a bit under his knee. He had certainly lost it during the war that was raging. Thomas had told her he had spotted an Irish accent. It kept adding up. Right now, England and Ireland were at war for independence. His moves were certainly clumsy and slow. He could easily be neutralized if he appeared too dangerous to her own liking. His left hand bore the signs of a recent fight. Something had pierced it completely through. And of course, there was the fact that he had almost drowned. Harmless or almost indeed. Physically speaking, the man was gorgeous, she couldn't deny it. Certainly in his early twenties, mid at best, his features had that special particularity of showing a boy inside a man's body. His face was rather round with soft traits, a straight nose and full lips. While his hair was still damp, as it was slowly drying, it appeared to be a light chestnut colour. As for the colour of his skin, while she assumed he was not particularly tanned, he was still too white to make any deduction out of it. His forehead bore the trace of the shovel she used against him.

"He seems stable." She said, more for herself than for Thomas

"Yet, there is no denying he needed medical attention, and will still. You don't recover from almost drowning that easily. I fear his hand might have gotten infected with the water, the clay and the dust. He could have drunk some of the water too if he gasped for air under there."

"If he takes too long to recover, we'll have to get rid of him. We can't afford a useless mouth to feed, you know that."

"I'm not so sure."

Lucille looked at her sibling and raised a curious eyebrow when she saw that he was kind of excited by all of this.

"I'm sure I can make him a new leg in my workshop."

"And why would you show him this courtesy?"

"Because he can help me in return."

She smirked.

"I thought you had turned philanthropist."

A moan of pain startled them. They had almost forgotten that he lived.

"Looks like Sleeping Beauty is awakening." Thomas joked

XXXXX

In the beginning, Sean couldn't feel anything. He was in that state where the body, the mind and the soul were disconnected, all three resting for a time they couldn't estimate until they reunited and read the hour on a watch or a clock.

Then, piece by piece, feelings came back to him.

First came the sensation of comfort, of warmth, of his body surrounded by something soft and hot, like a cocoon. It became more and more precise gradually. His fingers started to feel the fabrics under them, his back the firmness of a mattress, the skin of his face the gentle caress of the air surrounding him. Then, he was able to hear. He heard the rain hitting on windows. He heard two voices, a man and a woman, chatting peacefully.

All was well until several peaks of pains hit him like waves.

His hand was hurting him and something was preventing him to move it freely. A part of his head was throbbing. And while he could breathe, he could definitely tell they were recovering from some trauma, as they too caused him pain. His entire body felt weak and sore. He couldn't prevent his voice from cracking. He slowly opened his eyes. His hand, the one Edward had stabbed, was bandaged. By his side, there were a man and a woman. The woman seemed to be the oldest of them and they kind of looked alike. He felt too tired to try and study them more.

"Looks like Sleeping Beauty is awakening."

XXXXX

Once fully awake, Sean tried to sit in the bed, only to groan and feel dizzy. Lucille sat by his side and offered him a glass of fresh water.

"You should take it easy." She said, offering her best smile and sweetest voice, gently stroking his arm in a sign of protection

"My sister is right. You gave us quite a scare, Sean Nally."

Accepting the glass, the sick man looked at his host, puzzled.

"How do you know my name?" He asked, his voice hoarse

"You told us when Lucille was hitting you with a shovel." Thomas casually replied

"I'm so sorry about that!" Lucille apologized "You were so scary, crawling and dripping in clay!"

"You asked her to stop, cried for help and when I asked you who you were, you told me."

Sean admitted he didn't really remember. Everything was blurry. The house in the forest, Edward, Rachel, the ghosts, drowning, coming back to life, that ghastly voice before the vortex... Just thinking of it made his head spin.

"Was... was there a girl with me?" He managed to ask

Brother and sister shared a worried look.

"No, you were alone." Thomas confirmed

Rachel had made it then. Sean wanted to believe she had survived too. He hoped that it had been easier for her.

"My name is Thomas, Thomas Sharpe." The man introduced himself. "And this is my lovely sister Lucille."

The woman smiled.

"Pleasure to meet you. I'm Sean Nally. Even if you knew that already." Sean awkwardly said

He then asked where he was.

"You are in Allerdale Hall. I actually am a baronet, this is our ancestral home."

"I'm in England?"

He thanked God he was actually good when it came to geography and tried to ignore the irony of almost dying in a cursed ancestral home to be found in another one, minus the ghosts.

"And you are Irish if I hear correctly?"

"Yes, I am, my lord."

"Lord?" Thomas raised an eyebrow

"You are a baronet. You are thus a noble."

Thomas caught Lucille's pleased expression. That man had just won points with his difficult to please sister.

"Tell us, Sean, how did you arrive here?" She warmly asked

"She's such a great actress!" Thomas thought

"You'd think I'm crazy if I told you the truth."

"We like a bit of craziness here." She insisted "Go on. We promise you, we won't laugh."

Sean tried to remember everything correctly and tried to explain the best he could, without exposing Rachel's family's secrets. No one else needed to know. He kept the names secret. He explained how he met her, how desperate she was to get out of a toxic place where she was held in like a prisoner, how he tried to get her out of there, only for the curse of the house to strike, causing them to almost drown, the voice and him finally emerging in Allerdale Hall. Facing their silence, he had expected anything but Lucille's hand gently taking his.

"It's true that it is a story no one will believe. But you have no reason to lie to us. No man in your condition has the strength to lie. I can't say I fully believe you. But I can't say you're a liar either. We'll leave you to rest."

"I know I already owe you a lot, but could I ask for a favour?"

"What is it?" Thomas asked

"Could you write my mother and my sister that I'm in England and that I'm fine?"

The man had a huge grin.

"I was about to ask you if you had any family members you'd like to contact. I will write them, just give me their address. I'll visit you later today, we have things to discuss together, once you are more rested."

XXXXX

"You... You want to offer me a new leg?"

Sean was speechless. That lord, that Thomas Sharpe had known him for a day at best and he was offering to make him, not buy him, make him, a new wooden leg. He couldn't believe his ears.

"The money I had got lost in the water." He said sheepishly

"You don't owe me a penny! I love creating objects and I've never made a wooden leg before, so we are even. You need a leg and I wanted a new experience."

The bedridden young man offered him a small, genuine, grateful smile.

"So, that girl and you, you wanted to elope?"

"It was more running away than eloping. She wanted to run away from the prison that was her home. And the place I once called home turned its back on me because I fought during the war."

"You fought against the independence of Ireland?"

"Ireland is mistreated, yes. We deserve better, yes. But not like this."

"And now, you need a plan for your future."

"I had something in mind."

"I'm all ears."

"Lady Lucille and you have shown nothing but kindness to a stranger like me, who arrived in their home in an... Unconventional way. I broke into your house, even if unwillingly, and you offer me a bed, food, you heal my wounds. Now, you even offer me a leg. Even if it takes time, I want to repay my debt towards you, one way or another."

Thomas had a grin on his lips.

"You and I, we think alike! I had thought of something too. You told me you can't go back home, not to live there permanently. You see, I have a dream. I want to make Allerdale Hall as beautiful as it once was before my father ruined our family. Our family used to provide clay for Europe, even in the colonies. But right now, this is in the past and I intend to make it a current fact again. I am working on a machine to extract the clay. And I'd need a new pair of arms to help me work on it. And around the house too, for repairs. God knows how much this place needs it. Lucille would be happy to have someone help her too. If you know how to wash sheets."

Sean smirked.

"My family served as launderers for my "friend's" family. I know the basics of cooking, I know how to clean and even how to repair."

"Then Sean Nally, consider yourself part of Allerdale Hall. Lucille and I will offer you what you need to live: food, clothes, medicine. You will have your room here too. In exchange, you help us out."

A handshake sealed their agreement.

XXXXX

"Is something wrong, Lucille?" Thomas asked as he was reading by the fireplace

It was getting late. The moon was high in the sky. He had joined his sister after making sure Sean was all right. He had found the young man fast and deeply asleep, exhausted by the journey he went through, maybe also the relief of knowing he was going to be okay for now.

"Did you find the girl Sean talked about?"

"No, there was nothing in the clay."

Her eyes were set on a piece of paper. Near her, the books containing their family's history and family tree.

"I don't like this." She whispered

Thomas hugged her.

"What is it?"

"An Irish man comes to this place through our clay due to ghosts or so he says. And we have received a letter from a cousin, apparently."

"Is he?"

"I've traced down her lineage. Our ancestors were brothers, so yes, she is a cousin. I still have some research to do though. There is something, but I can't put my finger on it."

The man took the letter and read. A woman named Rachel Sharpe, or so she claimed to be, announced that she had discovered their relationship as she was packing to leave her house, following the death of her twin brother, leaving her alone as her parents had died six years ago. She wanted to meet them, to get to know them, as well as some time to be able to think of a future for her. She had also sent some documents proving her claims. The seals were those the Sharpes used two centuries ago.

"Her request is reasonable enough."

"This place is becoming too crowded."

"Tell me. Is she from the "banned" Sharpes?"

"Yes."

"There you have nothing to worry about."

"I'm not afraid of her saying anything."

"Then what are you afraid of?"

Lucille pointed on the envelope the address it was sent from Loftus Hall, in the County Wexford.

The name of the village it was sent from was the same village Sean came from.

To Be Continued