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

Mrs. Cavanaghreally do? And I’d wonder all night what she wanted to say to me if I didn’t find out.

Slowly I nodded before following her into the servants’ wing, my steps tentative at best.

The kitchens were dark beyond the glow of the solitary candle in Mrs. Cavanagh’s unsteady hand. She went to work at once scrounging up some pastries from the larder and settled in across from me at a long wooden table.

Once seated she waited for me to take a bite before hunching over her own plate, her fingers fidgety with her pastry. “I’dlike you to speak to Avery and straightaway.”

“Avery?” I’m not certain what I expected her to say, ensconced as we were beneath the veil of secrecy and darkness, but itdefinitely didn’t involve him.

Her movements were edgy in the candlelight, and she was quick to glare over her shoulder. “He hasn’t been speaking to me oflate, and I had a terrible shock today. I dare not say anymore, but I have to know what he offered the society.”

I, too, took a sideways look at the door. “What do you mean?”

Her hand quivered as she ran her fingers across her forehead. “Everything has changed now. His pledge was not in the booklike those of the other members from before.”

Ice enfolded my heart. “You’re talking of the Gormogons.” So it was Mrs. Cavanagh who had the book.

Her gaze shot to mine. “I have to know before I do anything, before it’s too late.” Her chest caved in with each breath. “Don’tlook at me like that. I told you to leave this house. Why didn’t you do so when you had the chance?” She shook her head. “He’llkill again . . . and again. Whatever it takes to achieve the power he so desperately wants. And you’ve learned far too muchalready, my dear.”

“He, who?” Avery?

A sound echoed from somewhere beyond the walls, and she flew to her feet. “We haven’t time. Promise me you will go to Avery as soon as he arrives back at Rushridge and demand the truth.” She looked around frantically. “The walls have ears, my dear, and the darkness hides many things. I would advise you to head to the village, but it is getting late . . . very late indeed.” Her voice shook. “I fear something terrible might happen before morning. It would be too easy, far too easy. Please be careful. Go to your room at once and lock your door. I don’t know what I would tell your mother should something happen.”

Piers had said his mother’s mind might be slipping, but this flurry of ideas was full-on madness. How could I believe anythingshe said? Particularly when all the signs pointed to some level of her involvement in Seline’s death. I’d found the cloakin her dressing room of all places. And this new business about Avery—what a dilemma. He would not take kindly to my interference,nor feel at ease to tell me anything about what he offered the society.

“I shall return to my room as well.” Her voice sounded sickly sweet as she grasped the candleholder. “These things are outof our control, after all. What right do we have to tempt fate?”

I watched as Mrs. Cavanagh slunk out the kitchen door, my nerves coiled like springs throughout my body.

I sat stock-still in the dreariness of the kitchens, afraid to think, afraid to move. Whoever had killed Seline and Mileswas intimately involved with the Cavanagh family. That was certain. Finding the cloak in Mrs. Cavanagh’s room had proved that.

And if Mrs. Cavanagh was to be believed, here I was, alone in the depths of the grand Loxby Manor with Piers miles away—aperfect target, but for whom? And why?

Mrs. Cavanagh had focused in on Avery’s offering to the society. If I remembered correctly, Tony had detailed the process when we visited him. The book Piers and I had found in the library had done so as well. At least now I knew where the book had gone. I glanced at the door. I had no intention of stepping one foot inside Mrs. Cavanagh’s room to retrieve it. I thought back hard, reliving as best I could Tony’s conversation.

A loyalty pledge—that’s what he’d called it. Any new member to the Gormogons was forced to relinquish condemning informationto join, which would be kept by the society as collateral. My eyes widened. Why would Mrs. Cavanagh want to know what Averyhad turned over to the group?

Was that the piece of information we’d been missing?

The letter we discovered in Lord Kendal’s pocket mentioned something similar in regard to him. Whoever wrote the note heldKendal’s pledge. I tapped my fingers on the table. Who held Avery’s pledge?

The conversation at Tony’s estate returned to my mind. Tony had said Avery held his pledge and Kendal had Hugh’s, thus Hughmight very well have Avery’s information.

My eyes widened as the depths of Loxby Manor grew cold around me. What if Mrs. Cavanagh was right and I was indeed in danger?Except for a few servants, I was wholly unprotected. How easy it would be for someone to slip into the house.

Tingles crawled across my skin as the dark corners of the kitchen grew darker still. My gaze darted from one gloomy cornerto the next, my imagination filling in the gaps where my eyes could not, and all the while the unnatural feeling that I wasnot alone scaled its way up my neck.

I stood.

Rushridge was not so very far and Priscilla would be there to assist me, to keep me safe until Piers and Avery returned fromthe duel.

But I dare not tell anyone at Loxby of my plans. I would have to creep my way to the stables alone.

Alone.

The word hung like a vicious wraith in the darkness, leering at me from the shadows. The road to Rushridge would not be aneasy one, but Loxby Manor was no refuge. I tightened my fists and raised my chin. I could do this. I needed to do this.

My steps were small and my heart sought to betray me, but I made my way to the side door