Hallow House - Part One Read online

  A month later, instead of Boris returning, he sent a letter. Metta was with Alicia when she read it.

  "He come home when?" Metta asked

  "Oh, Metta," Alicia cried, "I don't know when. He says he's sailing for Russia."

  "No! Bad. He die."

  Alicia stared at her in alarm.

  "Why he go Russia?" Metta asked.

  "He says he's received information his young sister Adele has been abducted and he's going back to rescue her."

  Metta shook her head. "Danger. They kill him."

  "Not Boris! He's too strong and clever."

  Metta eyed her shrewdly. "Boris wolf," she said. "Hunters chase wolf."

  With no other recourse, Alicia wrote a desperate letter to Mr. Woodward in Massachusetts, detailing the problem about the buried mummified twin and Boris's absence. She closed by saying she feared Tabitha would soon be out of her control.

  A month later, he arrived, having traveling across the continent by train and by stage from Oakland. Tabitha greeted him affectionately, but almost immediately begged his help in finding her "other boy."

  "Not tonight," he said wearily. "We'll discuss it tomorrow."

  "Alicia says Micah is my only son," Tabitha told her father the next morning while he was holding his grandson. "I know better. They've hidden him from me and soon it will be too late to save him. I keep journals now and I've written what the voices tell me. Read this and you will understand." She thrust a open leather bound book at him.

  Mr. Woodward handed Micah to Alicia, put on his glasses and scrutinized his daughter's spidery handwriting. Alicia, who hadn't been offered so much as a glimpse at anything Tabitha had written, peered over his shoulder.

  "Above the domes the owls fly,

  Below the earth the white bones cry

  Of children two and one must die.

  Brick and mortar, wood and stone

  Build a house but not a home.

  Fear and terror stalk each hall

  Hallowed no longer, it will fall."

  "So you see, Papa," Tabitha said, "you must help me search.

  Henry Woodward closed the book and stared at his daughter in despair. Dropping it onto the table, he turned away and hurried from the room,

  Tabitha began to keen, a heart-rending wail that Alicia tried desperately to quell. Calling Benita, she handed the baby over and urged Tabitha to her room where she persuaded her to take the last of the pills Mr. Woodward had provided before and then rest on the bed.

  Asking Juana to keep watch, Alicia hurried to find Mr. Woodward, interrupting his pacing in the parlor. "What shall we do?" she asked.

  He took a deep breath. "I had supposed her husband would stay around to take responsibility. Never did I believe he'd abandon his wife and sail to Russia. One can only hope he'll eventually return. In the meantime, you must do the best you can."

  "You'll help me?" she pleaded.

  He shook his head. "I can't stay. The truth is I cannot bear the sight of my daughter after the agony of watching her mother's similar decline. Unless Boris can find some other solution, I greatly fear Tabitha will wind up in a private asylum like her mother."

  Alicia frowned. "You told me your wife was dead."

  He sighed. "I wish it were true. I concealed her whereabouts from Tabitha by saying her mother had died. In vain, I see now. My daughter has inherited the same streak of madness that afflicts my wife. The doctors say nothing can ever be done. We can only pray little Micah will not also be a victim."

  Alicia put it bluntly. "You mean you're washing your hands of Tabitha."

  "She is no longer my responsibility. You will have to cope until Boris returns. Do not call on me again, for I shan't respond--except for the pills, of course. I brought a supply and will send more when needed."

  What Alicia had really wanted from him was another person to bear the burden, but it was clear Henry Woodward couldn't and wouldn't supply such help. She supposed she should be thankful he'd brought more pills, even though they didn't always work.

  After Mr. Woodward had left to go back to Massachusetts, Alicia realized she faced a grave problem of her own in addition to Tabitha's increasing disorientation and the necessity of keeping the household running. Indications were she was carrying Boris's child.

  Soon after this, Metta took to her bed, ill, leaving Alicia dependent on the servants for all help, with no one to advise her.

  Then Richard Fennel, Boris's business partner, arrived unexpectedly. She had never been so glad to see anyone in her life. Closeted with him in the library, she tried to remain business-like.

  "I was hoping you'd had word from Boris," he said.

  "Oh dear, no," she told him. "I was hoping you'd come to tell me you'd heard from him."

  He shook his head. "It worries me. Never have I made business decisions without him. But it seems I must continue to do so indefinitely. How is Mrs. Gregory? I understand she was poorly after their son was born."

  "She is--she's--" Alicia couldn't go on. Casting him an anguished look, she put her hands over her face and began to sob. The next she knew, he was bending over her, urging her to her feet, putting his arms around her.

  "Whatever is wrong I'll help," he said. "You can count on me."

  Her sobs were diminishing to silent tears when she suddenly realized Mr. Fennel had more than merely comforting her in mind. Recognizing his intent, her first impulse was to push him away, but his words had taken root in her mind and she did not. I'll help, he'd told her.

  It occurred to her he could do exactly that, but not in the way he might have thought. Insidious as her idea was, it took possession of her.

  If the child she carried were Richard's, nothing would stand in the way of his marrying her. Of course such a thing would be wickedly deceitful...

  Chapter 4

  After Alicia and Richard Fennel married, he agreed there was no choice for him but to spend as much time as he could at Hallow House, since his wife obviously couldn't leave there until Boris returned. Without her presence, chaos would reign.

  Two days after their daughter, Celia, was born, Great-aunt Metta expired, leaving Alicia as the only one responsible for the household. She came to depend a great deal on Richard's help. Not for a minute did she regret her decision to allow him to seduce her and, later, marry him.

  She was particularly glad of his presence the night Tabitha managed to creep from the house unobserved and disappear into the darkness.

  In the morning, with her still missing, all the horses were commandeered, as well as those workers who could ride, and the search fanned outward from the house. It was Richard who found Tabitha, by what he claimed was a lucky fluke. Running across a slipper she'd lost at the bottom of an incline, he dismounted and searched the immediate area, finally locating her, slumped unconscious in the mouth of an out-of-the way cave.

  She came to when he picked her up and babbled of skulls in the cave, which undoubtedly was nothing more than her strange imaginings.

  After that, Tabitha's door was locked each night by Juana and the key hidden. Tabitha still periodically searched for "the other" but had become fairly tractable despite her increasing mental aberration.

  Celia became Micah's playmate and the two children grew close. Hilda, a friend of Agnes' from Porterville, was hired as nursemaid for the two children.

  President Grant, re-elected, was serving his second term in office when Boris Gregory finally returned to Hallow House with not one, but two frightened young women, Adele and Theola.

  He was a thin and haggard version of the robust man who'd sailed away three years before and he was too exhausted to take command. Within a day of his return, he became ill. Richard sent for the local Porterville doctor, who prescribed a tonic and told them Boris needed to rest.

  Since his sister, Adele, and Theola, who seemed to be some kind of cousin, refused to be separated, Alicia made the decision to allot the master bedroom suite at the head of the stairs to them. She coaxed Tabitha into cho
osing another bedroom down the corridor and, surprisingly, Tabitha became almost clear-headed after the move, insisting Ramos be called in to do some carpentry in her new room.

  Seeing no harm in this, Alicia arranged for it. Juana moved into the room across the hall from Tabitha, with a cot placed in Tabitha's room in case of an emergency.

  After her marriage, Alicia had moved Richard and her into the largest room along the corridor, which suited them very well. Celia slept in the two room nursery, along with Micah and Hilda, the nursemaid.

  Since, as a married woman, Alicia didn't feel it was her place to look after Boris, she was glad Tabitha's improvement made it possible for Juana to tend to whatever needs he had until he got better.

  She quelled her need to be with Boris. The sight of him had awakened all her old feelings, but she suppressed them. Grateful to Richard, she meant to be a good and faithful wife to him.

  Two weeks after his return home, Boris emerged from his room, declaring himself to be fit and ready to resume his place as master of Hallow House.

  "I consider myself fortunate to have such a loyal partner," he told Richard after dinner that evening, when the three of them were seated in the library. "From what you tell me the business has expanded and you have also managed to keep my household functioning."

  "I can take some credit for the business prospering," Richard said, "but my wife deserves all the credit for the management of Hallow House.”

  Boris's gaze flicked to Alicia and she looked away from the pain and anger in his eyes. Since she couldn't tell him she had no choice but to marry Richard without revealing whose child Celia was, he would just have to assume she'd betrayed their love. Which had been wrong and sinful to begin with. Even if she did still love him.

  "I imagine you've quite a story to tell about the rescue of your sister and cousin," Richard said.

  "Adele is actually my half-sister. As for Theola, I expect she might be as well, though illegitimate. When I hinted of this to Adele, though, she grew so agitated that I believe we'll have to go along with it being 'Cousin' Theola."

  Boris sighed. "The two girls were abducted by Cossacks and suffered the usual humiliations at their hands. I had a devil of a time locating them, but was lucky enough to be able to spirit them away without undue fuss. The poor things are just now coming out of their terror and still shrink from any company other than their own. Their fear of men is so great I doubt they'll ever marry."

  "I'm proud to be in the company of a bona-fide hero," Richard said.

  Shrugging, Boris said. "Yet I'm helpless to rescue my wife from whatever prison she's secluded herself in." He looked at Alicia. "What was all the hammering I kept hearing?"

  "Tabitha wanted some changes to her room," she said. "Ramos did the work." It occurred to her that it had taken Ramos several days and she wondered exactly what it was Tabitha had asked him to do. She must check the room tomorrow. With Tabitha, one was never sure.

  "She has lucid periods, then? When I tried to speak to her she babbled of her search for something or other. I'm not completely sure she knew who I was, even though I told her."

  "On occasion she can be quite clear-headed, though we take the precaution of locking her door at night. Other times her agitation requires Juana to sleep in the room with her."

  "She seemed to think her father had visited her."

  Alicia nodded. "Several years ago I wrote and asked him to come. I was at my wit's end about Tabitha, who was completely out of her head. He brought more of her pills, which do help. He's also sent some since."

  Boris fixed her with a hawk's piercing gaze. "More of her pills? What pills?"

  She chose her words carefully. "Tabitha has always had a nervous disorder. No one could have predicted it would take the turn it has."

  "Never did I think you and I would see our children playing together," Richard said to Boris. "I enjoy watching them, my Celia's fairness a perfect foil for Micah's dark curls. He certainly has the Gregory eyes."

  Boris smiled. "They do get on well together."

  "Yes, I suspect Celia will be heartbroken when we tell her that she won't be seeing Micah every day."

  Alicia felt as startled as Boris looked.

  "I haven't discussed this with Alicia yet," Richard went on, "but we'll be moving to my home in San Francisco now that you've returned. Naturally we'll stay until you feel completely fit, but Hallow House is not our home, as I'm sure you understand."

  "Of course." Boris's tone was so neutral that Alicia couldn't tell how he felt about Richard's announcement.

  She, herself, felt heartsick. Though she should have realized a move might be in the offing, Hallow House had not only been her home but her responsibility for so long that she hadn't ever thought to leave it.

  Within a week, Alicia, Richard and Celia, were packed and ready to leave for San Francisco. Boris offered a clipped goodbye to her and a hearty handshake to Richard. At the last minute, Celia broke away and ran to Micah, hugging him and sobbing, until Alicia pried her loose and carried her out to the waiting carriage. Celia cried until she exhausted herself and fell asleep.

  The one good thing about living away from Hallow House, Alicia found, was that she had more time to spend with her daughter. Which Celia badly needed because she kept mourning the loss of Micah.

  She was a pretty little girl, with flyaway fair hair and hazel eyes that were more green than brown. She didn't look like Richard, of course, but that didn't matter because she didn't resemble Boris either.

  Like her daughter, Alicia missed Hallow House, though she was careful never to give any indication she did. She also worried about how Tabitha was faring, but never mentioned it. Richard deserved a wife devoted to him and she tried her best to be one.

  When he came home one evening and mentioned that Boris had invited them to spend the Christmas holidays at Hallow House, saying that Micah had insisted, her heart leapt. Then, having second thoughts, she frowned. "Do you think we should go?" she asked. "Would it be wise?"

  "I think Boris is lonely in that isolated old place, don't you? Certainly Tabitha is no companion. And think how Celia would enjoy seeing Micah again. She's always asking about him."

  It was true they had no reason not to go. She had no living relatives except Tabitha and Henry Woodward. Both Richard's parents were dead and he'd been the only surviving child. So a Christmas celebration at home would be just the three of them.

  Even though she wanted to go, Alicia had doubts about the visit. Wouldn't it be best to forget about Hallow House once and for all? But Richard insisted they should make the trip and "cheer old Boris up."

  Celia was beside herself with joy when she heard she would be visiting Micah, so Alicia kept her misgivings to herself.

  They arrived rather late on the twentieth of December, due to the thick tule fog shrouding the valley. Richard carried in the sleeping Celia, taking her to the nursery for Hilda to put to bed.

  He and Alicia did little more than bid good night to Boris before, they, too, retired to their old bedroom. As they got ready for bed, Alicia noticed Richard sitting on the side of the bed, a hand pressed to his chest.

  "Are you all right?" she asked.

  "Just a little ache."

  "You shouldn't have carried Celia up all those stairs," she scolded. "One of the servants could have done it."

  "It'll go away," he told her. "I'll be fine."

  And, in the morning, he was. After breakfast he and Boris closeted themselves in the library to discuss business. There'd been five of them at the breakfast table, but Adele and Theola huddled next to each other like frightened mice, obviously hoping no one would pay attention to them. Tabitha hadn't eaten in the dining room for years and the children were fed in the nursery.

  Alicia climbed to the second floor to visit Tabitha, but couldn't find her in her room. "Where has she gone?" she asked Juana, who now had a fair command of English.

  "Up," Juana said, pointing toward the third floor. "Go up muy mucho. She
no want me come. Get mad."

  For a moment Alicia was alarmed, then told herself not to be silly, Tabitha could never have gotten hold of a key to the black door because there had only been two keys. Boris had taken one and she had the other. Hers was not even with her, but back in San Francisco. Whatever Boris had done with his key, she was certain he'd left it in a safe place. Tabitha must have taken a liking to one of the towers. Since both were furnished with chairs and chaise lounges, they made comfortable rooms, with wonderful views of the countryside. She found Tabitha in the north tower, pushing a chair back against the wall.

  "Oh!" she cried when she saw Alicia. "How you startled me." There was no sign of recognition in her eyes and she was rather in disarray, with her hair mussed and black smudges on her gown.

  "It's your cousin come to see you," Alicia said. "You remember me, don't you?"

  Tabitha blinked. "Alicia?" she said slowly. "But you went away. Like Boris did."

  "I'm back for Christmas." She couldn't decide whether or not to hug her cousin, something in Tabitha's demeanor suggested it might not be wise.

  "Boris came back, too. But he's no longer my husband; he no longer shares my bed. Are you still my friend?"

  "I'm always your friend," Alicia assured her and then changed the subject. "Richard and I have brought Celia to play with Micah. How has he been?"

  "Micah doesn't need me,' Tabitha told her. "He never has. The other one does, but I can't find him."

  "Celia and Micah will enjoy spending Christmas together," Alicia went on, determined not to encourage talk of the other.

  "I remember Celia, the little blond girl."

  Encouraged, Alicia nodded.

  "Micah is dark, like Boris," Tabitha said.

  "Yes, the two children are quite a contrast to one another."

  "Two children," Tabitha repeated. "Two." She grasped Alicia's arm. "Two is danger. The curse says so." Without warning she spun away to the middle of the room, threw back her head and intoned:

  "Between the gates the two wolves lie

  Of children two the one must die.

  God hears not the prayers you send,