Alexander-Fyn-Sanguinarian

this woman had raked Raven’s face.
    She seemed capable of anything. “You will never be Lady Ravenscroft, a small sickly-looking faerie like you. You will disgrace the family name.”
    Evangeline recoiled from the madness so evident in the woman. “I have no wish to be Lady Ravenscroft,” she spoke softly, not wanting to provoke her. “I want to go home. Will you help me?”
    “Help you, why should I? I should kill you. I will kill you if you take my Dominic away from me!”
    “No, you may have Dominic. Keep him. I do not want him. Please help me get away and then he will be all yours again.”
    There followed a long pause during which the Lady Ravenscroft assessed her with narrowed eyes, her full lips pursed. Then she took the key from her pocket and held it up in front of Evangeline who dared not reach for it. “I’m going back to Dominic. If you tell him I was here I will have to kill you. In fact, I might anyway.”
    Stunned by the threat, Evangeline recovered herself sufficiently to say. “My lady, was it you who cried out to him yesterday? I heard someone.”
    “He leaves me to come to you, which makes me very angry.”

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    “He did not come to me yesterday, save very briefly in the evening.”
    “Then where was he?” she demanded.
    “I have no idea and I would prefer he was anywhere but with me.”
    “You don’t want my Dominic? You’re mad,” she stated, her eyes blazing.
    “Do you love him?” Evangeline enquired.
    “I adore him.”
    “Even though he wants to marry me?”
    “I will forgive him if you leave and never come back,” she said.
    Evangeline phrased the next question carefully, not wanting to shock the woman. “Has Lord Ravenscroft ever suggested he might want to consume your blood?”
    Lady Ravenscroft laughed. “Of course he has. He does it all the time.”
    Evangeline’s mouth dropped open. “And you allow him to?”
    “His thirst becomes a raging beast within him if I do not. Aside from that I like to feed him. It gives me pleasure.”
    For a moment Evangeline could not speak. This beautiful woman was telling her that she gained pleasure from letting The Raven drink her blood. “And tell me, Lady Ravenscroft, is he a...”—she paused, before daring to whisper—“a vampire?”
    “Foolish girl, what do you think he is?” she snapped. Just when Evangeline thought the woman would never leave she dropped the key onto the bed and left without looking back.
    Waiting until she was certain the woman was gone, Evangeline crept up, looking fearfully out into the dark, freezing cold passage.
    Ensuring there was no one coming, she tried the key in the lock, almost laughing with delight when it fit. She had the key to her prison tower.
    Outside, the rain beat upon the windows. The few trees out on the moors were bent nearly double by the raging wind. This was no night to try to escape. She would become hopelessly lost out on the moor—

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    she could easily die out there tonight. There was no choice just now but to lock herself in again and wait for the opportunity to escape, and it would have to be soon as she had only a little time left before the wedding.
    After locking the door from the inside and hiding the key between two loose stones in the chimney breast, she sat down beside the fire to contemplate what the evening had brought.
    Why had Raven sought a wife when he already had one? Perhaps she had been unable to bear him a child, thus invalidating his receiving his inheritance and making it necessary for him to acquire another wife. The strangeness of Castle Haven grew more profound with every passing day. Evangeline began to fear for her very life, not just her integrity and sense of decency. Lady Ravenscroft had threatened to kill her and she had no doubt the woman would do so if she did not escape soon.
    With a sudden desperate pain she missed Mrs. Brackett terribly, dear Mrs. Brackett whom she loved so dearly. How she longed to see her again, to be comforted and reassured by her. At least the woman now had money at her disposal. Evangeline had taken her entire inheritance in cash and Mrs. Brackett still had it, thank goodness. She could buy herself the house they had dreamed of and Evangeline hoped she would. The dear woman deserved to get something for all she had done to help her young mistress.
    The events of the past hour were so strange that Evangeline got up more than once to check that the key was truly there, to make