Alexander-Fyn-Sanguinarian

nipper. We stick together, you and me.”
    A freezing gust of wind clutched at the carriage, almost lifting it off the ground. For a moment the horses braced themselves. Then the door opened and the step was pulled down. “Let’s have you, ladies.”

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    Hodder’s voice, both familiar and comforting, was very welcome.
    A piercing scream suddenly cut the air, drowning even the raging screech of the wind. The colour drained from Evangeline’s face. She stared at Mrs. Brackett and Hodder in growing horror. “Good God, what was that?”
    “Seagulls, Miss,” the older man said, though he avoided her eyes.
    “Seagulls in the middle of the Yorkshire Moors?” Evangeline questioned, her voice nearly cracking as another scream followed the first, and then stopped abruptly.
    “That was a scream,” Mrs. Brackett accused him.
    “No, it wasn’t.”
    “It was! Take us back to London. I’m not letting my young lady get out of this carriage.” Mrs. Brackett dragged Evangeline back against the velvet seat, hanging on tightly to her. “Close that door.”
    “Now come on, Missis. You can’t stay in there all night. The master will be very angry and aside from that you’ll freeze, because I won’t be going anywhere tonight, and them horses need their stalls and a good feed.”
    “Then freeze we will,” Evangeline said. “That was most definitely a woman screaming in agony and that man has given me one too many surprises these last two days. I want no more from him. I won’t marry him, I won’t. He is unnatural.”
    “Get back on that seat and start driving for London,” Mrs.
    Brackett ordered, holding her ground while refusing to let go of her young mistress. “She’s right. That was a woman’s scream.”
    “No, no, you’re wrong,” Hodder protested. Then, seeing their determination, muttered, as he turned toward the castle, “The master will not be happy about this.”

    * * * *

    Raven took no pleasure in the woman’s death, but neither did he recoil from it. Leaning on the wall of the west turret, he considered 34
    Fyn Alexander
    dropping the corpse into the dense undergrowth far below. “Damn it all, the girl is here,” he ground out, catching sight of the carriage. He had planned to get the kill out of the way before she arrived, but Evangeline’s antics had caused him to be late. God forbid she had heard Eugenia’s last screams, because she had certainly screamed very loudly when she knew her death was imminent.
    He picked up the body easily in his arms and carried it inside the tower, laying it on the floor by the wall. What a shame to have to destroy such beauty. He shrugged and turned away. He would return later to dispose of the corpse.
    Halfway down the tower steps, a tall, solid, woman came toward him. A chain around her waist bore a ring of rattling keys. “Yes, Munk? You are not supposed to be in this part of the castle. It is dangerously derelict.”
    “My lord, the young lady has arrived with her companion.” Her deep voice filled the narrow stone stairway.
    “I know, don’t bother me with it. Show them to their chambers,”
    his tone dismissed her. “I should not have to tell you that.”
    “You don’t, my lord,” she said, her mouth a grim line.
    “Of course, forgive me, Munk.” She was an excellent
    housekeeper. He could never manage Dominica without her, or the castle for that matter. And she was the most loyal of servants.
    “The young lady and her companion are outside in the carriage, refusing to come in. According to Hodder, they heard a scream, my lord.”
    “Damn!” Raven swore, hurrying past the woman who strode after him. He muttered under his breath as he went, “That ridiculous child delayed me in London with her nonsense and now this. I won’t stand for any more trouble from her.”
    Two and three at a time he took the tower steps, coming out at last into the Great Hall where a fire blazed in the immense hearth. It took six good long logs to fill the fire grate and even so it offered heat only in the immediate area. The Great Hall was vast and dark, with only a Sanguinarian 35
    few candles burning in wall sconces in the very darkest corners. The fire was lit only for Evangeline’s sake.
    At the wide oak doors a footman met him. Several maids stood in attendance waiting to receive the new mistress of Castle Haven. They ducked their heads, dropping curtsies as their master passed them.
    Out on the step in the freezing wind, Hodder