Chapter Twenty-One
Lilith
Lilith carried a cup of chamomile tea into the living room, where Aunt Jacqueline lounged in her recliner, now cleaned up
in pleated pants and a blue-striped blouse.
Thankfully, she’d shaken whatever trance had brought her to the manor.
Lilith set the mug on the table beside Aunt Jacqueline, the sweet herbal fragrance scenting the air.
Aunt Jacqueline startled at the tap of the mug on the table and looked at Lilith in surprise. “I didn’t see you there.” She
smiled. “Thank you, dear.”
Outside, the crunch of gravel under tires told Lilith Asher had arrived.
Anxious excitement tightened in her chest. She was desperate to return to the manor, to see if she could find Jacinda again.
Perhaps locate…whatever it was she was supposed to find.
And yet, she needed to press Aunt Jacqueline again, to understand what the older woman had meant, not only about the peppermint tea, but also her cryptic claim that the house had been waiting.
Had she meant the house had been waiting for Lilith? Or for something else?
All Lilith knew was that she might not get another chance.
Licking suddenly dry lips, she addressed the older woman. “When you brought the peppermint tea, you said it would open my
eyes, and that the house had been waiting. Do you remember?”
Aunt Jacqueline looked blankly at her, as she had done before.
“Did you mean Brackenmere Manor has been waiting for me?” Lilith asked.
This time, Aunt Jacqueline settled her hand over Lilith’s, cool and dry and threaded with ropy blue veins beneath her thin
skin. “Yes, dear. The house has been waiting a long time. Since even before Asher—”
The front door opened and Asher rushed in with Toby at his side. “Aunt Jacqueline, thank God you’re safe.”
She shot her nephew an indignant look. “Why in heaven would I not be?”
Asher’s shoulders lowered, with relief or resignation, Lilith couldn’t tell which. “Because Lilith found you wandering around
outside by the manor and you collapsed.”
It was the story Lilith spun for him when she’d called him at work. She said Aunt Jacqueline had been outside the manor rather
than inside, which absolved them both of guilt since Aunt Jacqueline gave her the key.
Aunt Jacqueline scoffed and rolled her eyes. “I had important business to tend to. I assure you, I’m fine.”
His lips thinned at her words and he turned to Lilith, his gaze softening with gratitude. “Thank you for helping her.”
Lilith waved off his apology. “Happy to.”
Toby growled suddenly, drawing their attention to the doorway, where a stout skunk waddled over the threshold.
“No,” Asher said firmly.
“Just for a few moments,” Aunt Jacqueline pleaded, her voice suddenly frail in a clear tactic of manipulation.
“Absolutely not.”
Toby snarled louder, echoing his master’s sentiments.
Aunt Jacqueline huffed, exasperated. “Oh, he won’t spray.”
Lilith looked between the two, who appeared to be locked in an argument they’d had many times before. “Is this…her…pet?”
Asher heaved a beleaguered sigh, and Aunt Jacqueline spoke up, “Allow me to introduce you to Lord Wimbleton the third.”
“There’s been three of them?” Lilith asked in surprise.
“No, there hasn’t,” Asher replied dryly. “And he’s not coming inside.” He looked pointedly at his aunt, who sank back into
her chair with a pout, like a sulking child.
“You’re the one who gave him to me,” she said in a petulant tone.
Lilith looked at Asher in confusion. “You gave her…a skunk?”
“As you know, skunks aren’t native to England.”
“Oh…right.” She hoped she sounded convincing because she, in fact, did not know skunks weren’t native to England.
Asher nodded to the creature. “The skunk—”
“Lord Wimbleton the third,” Aunt Jacqueline corrected.
“Yes,” Asher said tiredly. “Lord Wimbleton the third was part of an exotic animal menagerie owned by an eccentric millionaire.
When he passed, many were taken to zoos, but no one wanted a skunk.”
“And so, we took him in to love him,” Aunt Jacqueline said with a coo of affection.
“Under the promise that he remain outside.” Asher gave a pointed look at his aunt.
In the doorway, the skunk—Lord Wimbleton the third—was slowly backing away from Toby’s glare.
“I can take it from here.” Asher gave Lilith a grin that hit her right in the solar plexus. “Thanks again. I genuinely appreciate
your kindness.”
She nodded in reply, her cheeks warming. How embarrassing that one little compliment could undo her. Self-consciously, she
tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and gave him a shy smile.
The corners of his eyes crinkled and he turned back to his aunt to see to her.
Now that she was being tended to, the afternoon opened up for Lilith. The manor called to her, tugging the thread of curiosity
about what Jacinda had asked her to find. Lilith wanted to see Jacinda again, to talk to her again.
Because as much as Lilith tried to rationalize away the idea that she was just seeing things, she knew that conversation had
happened. She had seen and spoken to Jacinda.
But she certainly wasn’t so unfeeling as to ask Asher to take her to the manor after he’d left work early to tend to his aunt.
Instead, Lilith hovered there in her own awkwardness, not sure what to do with her arms or the rest of her body before finally
slinking to her room. A wave of unexpected homesickness slammed into her.
At least in Savannah, she had a whole house to disappear into. Here in someone’s home with one rented room, there was the
sense of being contained, judged.
She picked up her phone and tapped out a message to Essie: I miss home.
Essie: No, you don’t.
Lilith gave an incredulous scoff. You’re right about a lot of things, but I’m pretty sure I’m right about how I’m feeling.
Essie: And I’m pretty sure you need this adventure in your life. Lil, you were so excited about this trip, talking about the manor
and finding a connection to your past.
Lilith: Except Mr. Darcy won’t let me go to the manor without him.
The dots appeared, then disappeared. Then appeared.
Lilith smirked and tapped out a reply: Do not tell me you’re trying to find a way to lawyer-talk me into permission to break in.
Essie: I was trying, but really can’t justify breaking and entering, especially in a country where you’re a foreign national. Sorry.
Lilith decided not to mention that she had already disobeyed Asher’s wishes using Aunt Jacqueline’s key, since it might technically
be considered breaking and entering.
Essie: This is the first time in years that you’ve been so enthusiastic about something. Don’t let Mr. Darcy take that away from
you. And don’t let missing home get you down either. If it helps, Savannah is ridiculously hot right now. Like I had to change
my bra cuz of all the boob sweat after a client wanted to eat outside at lunch kind of hot.
Lilith laughed and replied back: Boob sweat is the worst.
Essie started typing again: What about that museum? Moblys?
Lilith: Moyse’s Hall
Essie: Have you been yet?
The birthmark on Lilith’s arm tingled, echoing Essie’s sentiments.
Essie replied again: I take your silence for a no, which means you can go there today.
Lilith: It’s unfair how right you always are.
Essie: I’d say it’s a blessing and a curse, but it’s really just a blessing.
Lilith: Lucky for me you share that blessing with me.
Essie: Can I remind you of that in the future?
Lilith: You’re going to anyway.
Essie replied back with a grinning emoji face and a red heart emoji. Good luck!
Lilith needed all the luck she could get.
Heat pulsed beneath her birthmark, causing her to flinch in surprise. This time, the certainty of the sensation echoed in
the twist in her gut.
Whatever waited in Moyes’s Hall, she knew it was something she needed to see.