4.
~ Without a knock, Grace Eames let herself into Arthur's study.
"Are you finished in here, Dear?" She asked leaning on her cane. "Only, I wanted to show our guest the rose garden before dinner."
"Grace, she's not staying for dinner." Arthur said. His voice back to sounding grumpy and cold.
"Well of course she is! What have you been told about arguing with an old lady, young man?" Grace said giving Arthur a secret smile.
Ariadne looked back and forth from one to the other. It was like they shared some kind of inside joke that only Grace thought was funny.
Arthur scowled and looked out the window.
"It looks like rain." He said darkly.
"All the more reason to see them now!" Grace said filled with a strange energy.
~ Ariadne was grateful for Grace's presence. The older woman's chatter was welcomed after the information Arthur had reveled to her before.
"When I was a little girl, my father and I were responsible for planting all of these roses." She said waving at the colorful and impressive rose garden. "Roses had not been at Blackwood Castle since the storm of 1845. It took a lot of convincing to let us plant them."
"Convincing?" Ariadne said looking over the well tended roses. "Who did you have to convince? Archibald?"
Grace smiled.
"He was, and still is, difficult." She said in a far away voice.
"1845, the storm that killed the Blunt family?" Ariadne asked remembering the gas station owner. It felt like years ago now. "All except the three sons." She added.
"The village still talks I see." Grace said with an amused little chuckle. "Yes, they love a good scary story don't they? The three sons were actually first cousins." Grace explained. "Their grandparents were the Lord and Lady Blunt."
"How were the three sons cursed?" Ariadne asked.
"Well, how is anything cursed?" Grace asked as the two women watched the sun sinking into the sea. "It had to do with a lovely village girl. One of the three sons fell in love with her and tried to help her when the village wanted to burn her as a witch."
"Burn her?" Ariadne asked.
"It was 1845." Grace said with a shrug of the shoulders. "Anyway, the young men tried to hide her but she was accidentally killed in the storm. Her body was never found. Word has it that when the servants fled in the morning, the Blunts were all dead. All except the three sons."
"Dead from what?" Ariadne asked.
"Who knows?" Grace said with a smile. "All I can tell you is this family is happy and healthy today. I have lived my entire life in their love and never wanted for anything." She said as she guided her back to the house. "So much for curses."
"Do you remember when I was here?" Ariadne asked.
"Oh, no." Grace said sadly. "I was living in Europe until a few years ago. I moved out of Blackwood Castle with my father when I was 20." She said with a smile. "I only came back here to die. Like all the Blunts do."
~ It had started to rain and Grace insisted Ariadne stay for dinner.
"I so rarely have company." Grace admonished Arthur when he protested. "You won't deny an old lady her wishes, will you?"
Ariadne wondered why Grace was always calling herself old in front of Arthur like that. As if she was teasing him.
"Ariadne, we would love to have you stay." Dom said coming into the dining room. Behind him was a tall blond young man in his mid forties.
"Ariadne, this is my older brother, James." Dom said introducing him. James looked like Dom with only a few subtle differences other then age.
"Please to meet you." James said looking Ariadne over in surprise. "We haven't had visitors in a long time." He said.
"Oh Ariadne." Grace called when another man walked casually into the dinning room. Ariadne wondered how many relatives could be hiding in the walls when Grace introduced them.
"This is my grandson son, Eames." Grace said to the handsome gentleman in his early thirties.
"Well, Phillipa has prepared an excellent dinner for our guest tonight." Grace said as Eames gave Ariadne a curious look.
A flash of lighting and roll of thunder sounded ominously outside and seemed to reverberate through the castle.
"The acoustics." Arthur whispered pulling out a chair for her. "It picks up all sorts of noises, inside and out."
Ariadne sat at Grace's side as Phillipa presented dinner for them. James and Phillipa seemed to look to their younger brother, Dom, as how they should act and what they should say to Ariadne. Both of them giving her the odd glance as the party ate in silence.
"So, Ariadne." Eames said as he sat across from her. Like Grace, he had an English accent. "Tell us what you think of this colorful lot. All of the sisters, brothers, cousins and grandmothers."
"Eames." Arthur said coldly from Ariadne's other side. "You will keep a civil tongue at this table."
"I'm just curious what our guest thinks about our little family." Eames said obviously arriving drunk to dinner. "Tell us. What do you think of my Grandmother?" He said throwing Grace a spiteful look. Grace said nothing and sulked back in her seat like and admonished child.
"Eames." Dom said sternly. "Why don't you go upstairs? We can bring you up a tray later."
"It happened here you know." Eames said.
"Eames." Arthur said slowly.
"Where they found all the dead Blunts." He went on.
"Eames." Cobb said more rationally.
"Dead right here at this very table. Murdered." Eames said spitefully.
"Eames!" Arthur shouted standing up.
Ariadne suddenly wanted to flee the room and the castle. She wanted to get into her car and drive as far away from this place as possible.
"Leave." Arthur said with a warning glint in his eye. Arthur and Eames seemed to stare at each other for a long time before the latter finally abandoned the dinner party.
"I do apologize." Grace said.
"Don't apologize for him, Grace." Arthur grumbled as he sat back down. "He always was the back sheep."
Ariadne realized she was breathing hard from the exchange.
"You see, my grandson has been very upset since word came of my diagnosis." Grace offered. "I was diagnosed with cancer of the liver. I have only a short while left. I wanted to spend them here at the family estate. My grandson, never liked it here and didn't want to come back." She explained.
"Eames, he's your cousin?" Ariadne asked the table. Only Arthur and Dom nodded. James and Phillipa looked at their younger brother before returning to their meal.
~ "It's really coming down." Ariadne said after a quite meal and dry small talk. "I need to get back on the road. I stayed a lot longer then I should have."
"Oh no." Grace said. "It's too bad out there. The roads are far too treacherous for you to drive."
"Grace is right." Arthur said reluctantly. "The drive off our property is not safe. Especially in this weather."
"No. I'll be fine." Ariadne said opening the big front door with it's handsome stained glass and taking a deep breath before the rain hit her.
"Arthur!" Grace was shouting over the storm. "Arthur, don't let her go!"
Ariadne had just reached her car and was already soaking wet when Arthur was beside her.
"Please, come back inside. I can't let you leave in this." He told her offering his hand. The rain pelting down on them. The drops so hard it hurt when they hit.
"No, it was a mistake to came here!" Ariadne shouted over the heavy rain. She could hear the ocean crashing from somewhere as lighting pierced through the sky making both of them jump.
"Please, come back inside." Arthur begged taking her hand. "I hate storms."
His voice was so honest, so sincere, she felt herself go with him. Allowed him to take her back inside.
Back into Blackwood Castle.