Chapter Fifteen
D unstan marched through the halls of Godwin Castle with the scroll containing the Godwin family tree in one hand and Carys’s hand in the other, feeling bolder and stronger than he had in a very long time. He was not certain whether it was the moments he’d spent laughing with Carys and the confession he’d made—a confession that had come as a surprise both in terms of content and timing—or the certainty that Edgar might very well be behind the bizarre occurrences of the last few weeks, but it had reinvigorated him.
“Danny, see to it that Mr. Pearce is called to the great hall,” he ordered one of the footmen they came across just before entering the hall itself.
“Yes, my lord,” Danny said, setting down the chair he had been moving at once, sending Carys a look as though he were impressed, then heading off deeper into the castle.
The argument with Lord William and Lady Alexandra was still ongoing as Dunstan and Carys made their way across the great hall to the cluster of chairs near the fireplace. He dropped Carys’s hand, mostly because he did not want accusations of his affection for her to override other accusations he was about to make.
The ladies of the family had come down from their various bedchambers in the time that he and Carys had been in the library, giving him an audience worthy of the opening night of a London play as he came to a stop in front of them all.
“Well?” Uncle Gerald demanded, raising a hand to stop whatever rant Lord William had been in the middle of. He glanced between Dunstan and Carys as though he were far more interested in anything that had transpired between them than he was in answers to Lord William’s ridiculous claim.
Dunstan blinked and shifted his attention to Lord William and Lady Alexandra. He’d intended to charge straight into asking his uncle about Edgar’s connection to the family, but the newfound vigor he felt urged him to end whatever presumptions his former in-laws had before moving on to the greater matter at hand.
“You’ve found proof that we are entitled to a share of your fortune, haven’t you?” Lady Alexandra said with a triumphant grin. “That is why you cannot speak or admit to your wrongdoing.”
“I have no idea what sort of wrongdoing you believe I am guilty of,” Dunstan said, standing straighter. “I believe you know as well as I do that Charlotte was the one who rejected the responsibilities of our marriage and sought her pleasure elsewhere.”
Lady Alexandra gasped as though he’d used much more colorful language to describe Charlotte’s behavior.
Charlotte had been dead and gone for many years, however, and was not, in fact, any part of the matter at hand.
“You will leave Godwin Castle at once,” Dunstan told Lord William and Lady Alexandra in no uncertain terms. They balked, but Dunstan continued with, “My family and I have been more than accommodating already in even deigning to investigate this absurd claim of yours.”
“It is not absurd,” Lord William argued. “It is—”
“Quiet!” Uncle Gerald snapped, grimacing at the two interlopers as if he would rise up and bodily toss them out himself.
“Charlotte has been in her grave for nearly twenty years,” Dunstan continued, attempting to sound both firm and compassionate. “She made her own choices, and that was the end of that. In no way is it even conceivable that you should be entitled to a portion of my inheritance simply because the law bound us together for a few, short years. You are fortune-hunting opportunists, and you will leave Godwin Castle within the hour.”
“Bravo!” Alden called out from where he and Lady Bernadette were sitting. “I always knew you had it in you, brother,” he added with a wink for Dunstan.
Dunstan smiled quickly at him, but returned to seriousness as he faced Lord William and Lady Alexandra once more. He raised one eyebrow at them. He’d given the order, and his expression was to demand why they weren’t moving.
“Insult!” Lord William said, rising and helping his wife to stand. “Blasphemy!”
It amazed Dunstan how inconsequential his former in-laws suddenly felt to him. The stir of bigger things afoot truly had renewed him.
“But this is wrong,” Lady Alexandra lamented as her husband took her arm and proceeded to drag her across the great hall toward the door. “We were told that we were entitled to a share of the wealth. I have creditors to pay and things to purchase.”
Uncle Gerald barked a laugh. “You could have saved your money by staying home instead of bringing your fictions to our doorstep.”
“But they are not fictions,” Lady Alexandra continued to insist as Lord William dragged her more forcefully. “We received a letter assuring us we were due part of the inheritance. The gentleman told us as much last night.”
“You still have not given us a reasonable answer as to who that gentleman was,” Cedric said from where he stood behind the chair in which Lady Muriel sat.
At that moment, Edgar entered the great hall with Danny trailing behind him.
“Him!” Lady Alexandra cried out, pointing a shaking finger at Edgar. “There he is. That is the gentleman.”
“Tell them the information you shared with us, sir,” Lord William growled, letting go of his wife’s arm to march up to Edgar.
Edgar stumbled back, his eyes wide, as if he had unexpectedly walked into a lion’s den. He turned and tried to flee, but Uncle Gerald’s shout of, “Mr. Pearce! Come forward and explain yourself!” echoed through the hall, freezing him in his place.
The entire great hall went silent. Dunstan noted that the servants who had been cleaning after the ball had all retreated to the edges of the room, and that they now looked on, like a stunned audience witnessing a crime.
“You will come forward and explain yourself,” Uncle Gerald went on.
Edgar sent a timid look to Lord William and Lady Alexandra, who stood their ground at the end of the room, and proceeded to inch and shuffle forward, wringing his hands.
“Can I be of assistance in some way, my lord?” he asked Uncle Gerald, his voice unnaturally soft and submissive.
He sent a glance to Carys as he reached the center of the discussion that told a different tale. His eyes were filled with spite and greed. So much so that Dunstan shifted slightly to block Carys from his glare.
Carys was no fainting violet, however. She might have had a moment of weakness in the face of extreme emotional upset earlier in the morning, but like Dunstan, their conversation and moment of truth and clarity with each other had restored her vigor as well.
Carys took the scroll from Dunstan’s hand and marched over to Uncle Gerald’s chair. “I should like to know two things, my lord,” she said, unrolling the family tree and placing it on the table beside Uncle Gerald’s chair. “Firstly, I should like to know why Mr. Pearce is determined to undermine the Godwin family by stirring up every manner of trouble, and secondly, I should like to know why his name appears on the Godwin family tree, but with a dotted line instead of a solid one.” She pointed to Edgar’s place on the parchment as she spoke.
Uncle Gerald hummed ominously and glanced at the scroll, but only for a moment. He turned to narrow his eyes at Edgar and folded his hands in front of him.
“Yes,” he said, appearing more like the patriarch of the family than Dunstan had ever seen him. “I, too, should like to know why, after the kindness my family has shown you, after giving you a home and employment for the better part of your life, you should wish to repay our kindness by importuning these people.” He gestured toward Lord William and Lady Alexandra. “And perhaps we should send for Mr. Isaacson to ask why you sent him on a fool’s errand to Godwin Castle when it was well-documented that the taxes on Godwin Castle have, indeed, been paid.”
“What other letters have you written to stir up trouble and cause mischief for the family, sir?” Waldorf demanded, looking far more imposing than anyone in the rest of the family could. He took a threatening step toward Edgar, cracking his knuckles, before saying, “I have ways of helping you to confess, if you would rather travel down that route.”
Edgar let out a small whimper and attempted to take a step back. Danny had moved in behind him, however, and though he was young and not exactly a member of the family, the stalwart footman crossed his arms and blocked Edgar’s escape as if he knew full well where his loyalties lay.
But it was Lady Alexandra who spoke with, “This man lied to us?” She blinked and then glared at Edgar. “You lied to us, both in writing and in person, by telling us we should pursue our daughter’s claim to Lord Dunstan’s inheritance?”
“What sort of tomfoolery is this?” Lord William roared, stepping forward as if he would grab Edgar by the collar and shake him. “Is this some sort of a jest to you? You would dare make sport of your betters?”
“I…you truly did…I should not…It wasn’t like….” Edgar did not know who to defend himself from or how to wriggle out of the trap he’d set for others but caught himself in. He writhed on his spot, as if the fires of hell were licking at him, then burst out with, “All of this should be mine!”
Lord William and Lady Alexandra reeled back, clutching at each other as if Edgar were a wild animal that had just been let out of its cage.
The rest of the family merely gaped at him, beyond confused.
“What rubbish,” Uncle Gerald said at last with a sniff.
“It is not rubbish,” Edgar insisted, marching forward a few steps with a frown. He stopped his forward progress when Waldorf moved into his path, but he did not end his assault. “I am the rightful heir of Godwin Castle!” he shouted. “I should have been given the castle, the title, and everything associated with it!”
A ripple of surprise and indignation filled the room. The servants in the room clustered together to whisper to each other, and the family exchanged confused looks.
Carys was the one who broke the silence with. “I take it your claim to all of this resides in the mystery of this dotted line?”
The family glanced from Edgar to Carys to the family tree.
“I am the only child of the eldest son, Lord Stanley Godwin,” Edgar said, tilting his head higher.
A beat of silence followed before Uncle Gerald said, “You are the son of the village apothecary’s daughter who Uncle Stanley importuned one summer when he was holed up in Godwin Castle with a broken leg.”
That was another revelation that had the family buzzing with curiosity and exchanging looks to see if anyone else had known.
“They were married,” Edgar insisted, standing taller but shaking slightly. “My mother’s people have the license in their possession.”
“They were never married,” Uncle Gerald said, huffing with impatience. “Your mother invented the document because she was disgraced for pursuing the affair with a much older man far above her station.”
Dunstan glanced quickly at Carys. It could be argued that she, too, had pursued a connection with a Godwin above her station. That was the very sort of fear that had caused her to push him to arm’s length. But at the same time, what the two of them had felt so much purer than what it seemed Great-Uncle Stanley and the apothecary’s daughter had.
“I am recorded on your family tree!” Edgar argued. “It is written in ink, right there.” He pointed to the document.
“With a dotted line,” Uncle Gerald pointed out. “Your existence has been noted, but your right to any sort of inheritance does not exist.”
“It does!” Edgar insisted. “This should all be mine. I should be the future Duke of Amesbury, not that clod.” He gestured to Cedric, who balked at being singled out. “And you should have given the castle to me, not to a weakling who wastes his time idling away, hiding from a world he finds too harsh for him.”
Dunstan’s eyes went wide at that characterization of himself. Part of him wanted to argue, but a greater part of him found the situation too bizarre for him to reason with.
“The matter of your legitimacy was decided long before you were given a position in the castle,” Uncle Gerald said. “Your mother was set straight and discontinued her insistence that she was owed anything. The family has been more than generous with you from the day of your birth, but no longer. You will pack your things and leave this house before the sun sets tonight.”
“But you cannot…I…this is my home! Tell them!” Edgar appealed to Carys.
Carys’s back stiffened. “I think it is best that you leave, Cousin,” she said. “I am certain one of your sisters will take you in, though perhaps you will want to mention none of this to them.”
“You, too?” Edgar seemed forlorn as well as angry. “When I would have wed you, made you mistress of all this, and ended the curse all in one?”
At his mention of ending the curse, a wave of gasps filled the great hall.
“What do you mean by that?” Cedric asked, eyes wide.
“I am a Godwin,” Edgar insisted. “She comes from a family that has been associated with this castle and this island since records were kept. She is as likely as anyone to have a drop of Morgana’s blood in her.”
Dunstan’s brow shot up. That was the precise argument the family had made for him to marry a local woman. It had felt like something of a blind guess to him when the idea was first bandied about, but it did not feel as outrageous to him now.
He glanced to Carys, but before she could even look in his direction, Uncle Gerald pushed himself to stand, a feat which had everyone’s hearts sinking into their feet, and shouted, “Get out of my house at once, you snake! And if you are ever seen on the Isle of Portland again, I shall have the constable throw you into the Channel!”
“I will not—”
Edgar’s protest was cut off at once as Waldorf stepped forward and Danny stepped up from behind to grasp Edgar’s arm. Between the two of them, they dragged a sputtering, protesting Edgar out of the room. His shouts could still be heard in the hall as he was, presumably, taken down to the servants’ hall.
“Where have Lord William and Lady Alexandra gone?” Lady Kat asked once the fuss of the moment had subsided.
Dunstan glanced around, as did the others. Lord William and Lady Alexandra were completely missing.
“If you please, my lord,” Ruby stepped forward from the startled group of servants, curtsying. “They snuck out while everything else was happening.”
She curtsied again, then moved back to the wall.
“So that is the end of that, then,” Lady Kat said, smiling. “You have banished the man who has been causing all the trouble for the past few weeks, and the guests who never should have been invited have left as well.”
“That is not quite the end of that,” Lady Minerva spoke up from the sofa where she sat with Lawrence. “The curse is still in effect.”
“Not the curse again,” Lord Arnold sighed. He turned to Mr. Entwistle, who was wedged into the small sofa with him and said, “You see, the Godwin family was cursed long ago by a woman who was scorned by the original Godwin—”
“Shush, love. Yes. I know about the curse,” Mr. Entwistle hushed Lord Arnold quietly.
Arnold grinned back at the man like a besotted fool.
Dunstan almost laughed at the incongruous interruption.
“She has a point, though,” Lady Muriel said, presumably referring to what Lady Minerva had said. “Every bizarre occurrence over the last few days and weeks proves that the curse continues to hang over Godwin Castle.”
“The misfortunes of Stanley Godwin and the apothecary’s daughter could be seen as proof that the curse ruined lives in past generations,” Lady Bernadette pointed out.
“Have we come any closer to discovering clues as to how to reverse it?” Lady Katherine asked.
Dunstan exchanged a look with Cedric as if to say the ladies who had married into the family would not be swayed from the purpose of ridding the Godwins of the curse, even with so many other shocking events transpiring around them.
“We have all of the diaries and journals,” Lady Bernadette pointed out.
“It will take years to read all of those,” Lady Muriel sighed, rubbing her belly. “I do not believe I shall have the time to help once this little one joins us.”
“I will help in any way I can,” Carys offered.
Dunstan smiled at her. That smile widened when she glanced to him.
“It is a pity we cannot simply ask Aethelbore and Morgana how to end the curse,” Lawrence said, taking his wife’s hand. “That would save so much time.”
Rather than lamenting the impossibility of the task ahead of them, Lady Minerva gasped and jolted suddenly straighter. “We can ask them directly,” she said, her expression bubbling with excitement.
“Er, you do realize, my dear, that the two of them have been dead for almost a thousand years,” Lawrence said, almost teasingly.
“Yes,” Lady Minerva said, sitting even straighter and scooting to the edge of the sofa. She glanced around at her fellow brides and declared, “We must have a séance to contact the two of them at once.”
Uncle Gerald nearly choked before roaring with laughter.
“You must be joking,” Cedric said with a frown.
“No, no I am not,” Lady Minerva said, standing. “The only way to settle the matter once and for all is to perform a ritual that will enable us to speak with the dead.”
“Good lord. We truly have crossed over into Bedlam now,” Alden murmured, rolling his eyes.
“What would it hurt to try?” Lady Bernadette asked him, perhaps even batting her eyelashes a bit.
“Well, I suppose the attempt would not hurt,” Alden said, changing his tune at once.
“We could conduct the ceremony in the oldest part of the castle,” Lady Minerva said. “The part Aethelbore and Morgana would have known. I would wager anything that their spirits are still hovering in that part of the premises.”
“I will not have everyone invading my bedchamber with chants and incense,” Dunstan said, putting his foot down at once.
“Yes, but there are other rooms in that part of the castle,” Carys pointed out. “The room directly under your bedchamber used to be a sitting room.”
“What is it currently?” Lady Minerva asked, as if she’s already begun planning the ritual in her mind.
Carys shrugged. “It is partially storage and partially a study.”
“Can we clear everything out and, perhaps, bring chairs or cushions into the room for us all to sit in?” Lady Minerva asked.
“How exciting!” Lord Arnold interjected. “I’ve never attended a séance before.”
“This is madness,” Cedric sighed, rubbing his forehead.
“Sometimes madness is required to get to the heart of things,” Lady Muriel said.
“It is decided, then,” Uncle Gerald declared. “Since everything else is topsy-turvy at the moment, we might as well go through all this to contact my dead ancestors. And what better night to do so than Christmas Eve?”
“What better night indeed.” Cedric said wryly.
Dunstan kept his comments to himself. He had no idea whether they’d all lost their minds due to the curse or not. But he was willing to go along with the idea because Carys seemed willing. Very little else mattered to him at the moment besides what the woman he loved wanted.