The Vanishing at Loxby Manor, Abigail Wilson [best value ebook reader .TXT] 📗

the funeral and the arrival of her brother-in-law,Charles, leaving Piers and Avery the difficult task of telling their father what had transpired.

At the close of the week, I was informed by a servant that the doctor was summoned due to Mr. Cavanagh’s deteriorating health,but thankfully the concern passed within the next few days. Even so, Piers and Avery decided it was best to remain at theirfather’s bedside for the immediate future. Rightfully so, I was not asked to visit or share in his care, but I had grown fondof Mr. Cavanagh, and the sudden removal of him from my life only furthered my isolation.

Thus, I was left to process the reality of Seline’s tragic death in my own time and my own way. The days leading up to the funeral and shortly after were the worst. I found it hard even to think or move. After all, I was the one person who could have stopped her from leaving the house that night—at times I found the crushing guilt almost too difficult to bear.

Snowdrop rarely left my side as I spent the long hours in my bedchamber or alone in the library, my favorite refuge in thosedifficult days. It wasn’t long before I realized books offered me a blessed escape that calmed my mind and refocused my purposein remaining at Loxby Manor.

Though I’d hoped with all my heart to find Seline alive, soon enough questions about the strange circumstances of her demisebegan to trickle back into my mind. If I couldn’t save her, perhaps I could do some good in bringing her killer to justice.

It was a passing thought that took root, deeper and deeper, in the weeks that followed, which only hardened my resolve touncover the truth. Piers and I had made quite a bit of progress in our prior investigation, yet something remained elusive,a piece of information we had yet to learn, and I was determined to figure out what it was.

My gaze flicked to the bookshelf, to the very top where Piers and I had found the leather journal detailing the intricaciesof the Gormogon secret society. Though at first Avery had scoffed at the idea that his group of friends could somehow be involvedin Seline’s disappearance, now everything had changed. Nothing could be glossed over or dismissed. Seline, my dearest friend,was dead and not in any normal way. She had been struck over the head, as Miles Lacy had, and buried where her murderer meantfor her to be forgotten.

I tapped my fingers against the soft fabric of the sofa. All the clues thus far pointed back one way or another to that secretivegroup of Avery’s. If I had to guess, the key to what happened to Seline lay somewhere in the complexities of the Noble Order.

I sat motionless for a moment, breathing in the fresh scent of a rolling fire, the flames swaying before my eyes. Piers had said the order was abolished with all other secret societies by a law in 1799, but what if factions of the group had prevailed? Or someone had revived it at a later date? But for what purpose?

Avery, Tony, and Hugh seemed to think their little group a pledge to friendship, but there was something more, something deviousto the ritualistic practices of the meeting I’d observed—and the even more surprising movement of the faceless statue.

I imagined the men huddled in their cloaks before the fire. I could see them all sitting there as if the meeting had happenedyesterday. Avery, Hugh, Tony, and Lord Kendal.

Wait . . . My eyes widened. There had been five stone seats encircling the fire at Kinwich Abbey, yet there were only fourmembers that we knew of. I stiffened, my nerves prickling across my skin like a horde of spiders. What if there was a fifthmember?

I flew to my feet and made my way over to the bookcase. The servants had repaired the shelf and ladder and replaced the booksin their proper places, but a few steps forward and I could already see that something was different.

The leather-bound journal was gone.

*  *  *

I searched for Piers all afternoon, as he could have easily been the one to take the book about the Gormogons, but it washe who found me on the east rise as I strolled the grounds.

He had to make a bit of a dash to catch me and drew up beside me panting. Then he laughed. “I’m not certain I’ve run so farin years.”

I mirrored his amusement. “Then I’m glad I provided you with some exercise.”

We stopped in the shade of an oak tree, Loxby Manor tucked behind the far hill. It was the time of year where the sun was hot but the shade a blessed cool.

“How is your father today?”

I was happy to see that the dark circles that had lived beneath Piers’s eyes for the past few weeks had faded a bit. His facewas far less pale. He affected a smile. “I believe he is a little better today. He allowed me to help him to his chair. Ithink Avery and I can turn over most of the nursing duties to the staff at this point.”

“And your mother?”

He looked down. “She continues to keep to her room, but I asked if she’d allow you to visit, and I do think she would appreciatea change in her daily routine.”

“Then I shall go to her at once.”

His arm shot out. “Please, will you stay for a moment with me? I have something I wish to talk to you about.”

It took me a moment to answer, but I could think of no excuse. “All right.”

He paced the shadowed ground. “I had a dream last night. It was about Seline, only I never really saw her face. I saw a cloakedfigure on horseback, and it brought something to mind.”

The breeze was a refreshing one, a cool splash of spring, and I turned my head to enjoy it. “Yes?”

“You see, I woke in a panic, the images my mind had created still lifelike before me. That’s when I made the connection.”He stopped, his