A Cold Legacy (13 page)

“D
ON'T LOOK QUITE THE
same, do I?” he added at my shocked silence. “We've finally melded, Edward and I. He won physically, but I won mentally. My mind in his body—a bit of a sacrifice, but nothing I can't work with.”

A thousand fears flowed into my chest. Somehow, the Beast had defeated Edward. He'd won possession of Edward's body and broken free of his chains and, for all I knew, had slaughtered Lucy and the rest of the household. Sweat broke out on my forehead. I knew I should fear him, and I did—but I also felt a terrible kinship.

You and I
, the Beast had once said,
are more alike than you want to believe
.

“How did you break the chains?” I whispered, taking a step back, but the kitchen table prevented me from going any farther.

His yellow eyes reflected in the low light—the only part of him that hadn't belonged to Edward. “I didn't have to. Lucy unlocked them. She was convinced Edward was still
in here, but I had long ago won the battle. It was easy to pose as him, delirious and weak. She planned to slit his throat, reassuring him the entire time it would be only temporary and the mistress of this house would bring him back to life. A neat trick, I must say. But she couldn't bring herself to kill him. Such a naive soul.” He took a step closer. “That's when I dropped the pretense and made myself known.”

Fury flooded my veins. “What did you do with her?”

He clutched the rifle so casually. “It's sweet how much you care about your friend.”

He was taunting me now, and it made my blood boil. “Where is she, and Elizabeth, and Balthazar?”

“That lumbering puppy should have smelled me a mile away. I suppose he was too distracted by his master bleeding out on the front porch.” He leaned toward me, bracing either arm on the table at my side. “Oh yes, I've a keen nose, too.”

“Where are they?” I demanded.

He was only inches away now, close enough for me to feel the heat coming from his skin. I had always expected the Beast to be cold, but he was burning up with fury, just like I was.

“Don't worry about them, my love.”

“Stop calling me that! You aren't even a true person. Edward told us that you're a manifestation of a disease, a strain of rabies and malaria and damaged animal organs. You're a virus attacking a host. You can't live on your own because you were never real!”

His yellow eyes flashed like I'd slapped him.

“Disease?” he whispered. “Yes, it's true. Perhaps I am
born of disease, but what are you born of, Juliet? My perverse nature may be physical, whereas yours is psychological—but no less potent. At least my identity is based in the flesh. Yours is nothing more than ideas your father put in your mind.” He cocked his head. “Has Montgomery told you the secret he's been keeping from you all these years?”

I clenched my jaw, trying to withhold my fury.

“Ah, he hasn't. I didn't think you'd be standing here if he had.”

“If you know it, just tell me,” I snapped. “Stop toying with me.”

“But that's what I do, my love. Cat and mouse. Predator and prey.” He straightened, the rifle still in one hand. “Unfortunately, I'm growing tired of games. They are childish things, and we are both adults, are we not?” He leaned in, his lips only a breath away from my jaw, and fear knifed in my stomach.

“I saw Montgomery in your father's laboratory,” he whispered in my ear. “He didn't know I was watching. He burned an entire file along with a letter. I only saw the first line.
To my daughter
, it said.
It's time for you to know the truth
.”

I drew in a sharp breath. Montgomery had burned a letter that my father had written to me? What had it said, and what was in those files? I'd never felt so confused.

“You're lying,” I said. “Just like you always are. Tell me where Lucy and Elizabeth are.”

“I could take you to them, but I'm not sure you would like it. Did you know there's a cellar here filled with corpses? Makes me wonder what exactly the mistress has been
getting up to—she might be a woman after my own heart. In any case, there was plenty of room for more bodies.”

For a moment, the world seemed to stop. I blinked, replaying his words back through my head, refusing to believe them. Had he
killed
them?

“No!” I hurled myself at him, clawing his face, but he caught my wrists and laughed low in his throat.

“Don't act so surprised.” He fought me off easily, then took my hands in his, pulling me into a waltz around the room. “Remember when we kissed beneath the mistletoe at the ball in London? How badly I wanted to dance with you then. Now we can forever. This house can be ours, our private escape from the world.”

“You're mad!” I yelled. “I'll kill you if you've hurt them!”

“You can certainly try.”

My heart was pounding, telling me to get away from him, but he was too strong. I balled my fists, ready to tear him apart with whatever I could get my hands on in McKenna's kitchen. The iron skillet. A rolling pin. I just had to get close enough to the cabinets.

A gunshot blasted through the kitchen.

The Beast went stiff. I screamed in shock and pushed away from him as his dark blood splattered onto my dress. The floor was already slick with drops of blood. He lunged for me, but I ducked his hand.

“Juliet!” Montgomery slumped in the doorway, holding a rifle. “This way—run!”

I shoved at the Beast, who clawed at me with his
fingernails. With a growl, I dug my fingers into the mess of his shoulder where the rifle blast had hit. He roared, and I was able to shove him to the ground, tripping over him in my heavy skirts, and race toward the door.

“Outside,” I said. “We can lose him in the gardens.”

“The wind is too strong. It will carry our scent.”

Angry cries came from the kitchen, amid the clashing of pots and pans. I cringed; all I wanted to do was pull myself into a ball and hide from the world.

“Over here,” a small voice said.

I whipped my head around the vast foyer but saw no one. Had someone survived the Beast's wrath? Montgomery pointed to the dusty tapestries flanking the grand fireplace. One of the tapestries ruffled, and a little face stared out at us. One milky white eye, the other dark brown.

“Hensley!” I helped Montgomery hobble to the tapestry. It hid a wooden panel that slid open to admit us to the secret passageways. I lifted my skirts to climb in and tried to help Montgomery, but he was too heavy. To my surprise, Hensley—though he barely came up to Montgomery's ribs—easily lifted him over the panel and into the tunnel. I slid the panel closed, and we were bathed in darkness.

“This way” came Hensley's disembodied voice.

“Hensley, are you alone? Is anyone else alive?”

“Shh,” he said. “That creature will hear us. He doesn't know about the narrow rooms.”

He moved almost too fast for us to follow. My thoughts were in a daze as I stumbled over loose bricks. How could I kill the Beast with Montgomery wounded and only a little
boy to help? If I offered to stay with the Beast, waltz with him like a madwoman around the kitchen, would he let Montgomery go?

Hensley hurried down a flight of narrow stairs that Montgomery struggled with.

“Hensley?” I called, loud as I dared. “Hensley, wait for us!”

At the bottom of the stairs, I stumbled into a sudden brick wall that marked the end of the passageway. No call answered mine.

“Blast, we've lost him,” I said.

A squeak came from the darkness, though whether it was a child or rat or rusty hinge, I wasn't sure. My heart leaped at the sound. I felt the wall until my fingers grazed a narrow opening, too low and narrow for Montgomery's wide shoulders.

“You can make it if you lie on your stomach,” Montgomery said. “Leave me here. I have the rifle. You heard Hensley—the Beast doesn't know about the passages.”

I shook my head fiercely. “I don't want to leave you.”

“You must.”

I kissed him, trying to convey my love, ignoring what the Beast had said about the secret he was keeping. Then I crawled through the passageway on hands and knees. More sounds came from someplace ahead of me, a sort of scratching that stilled my breath. Was this one of mad Lord Ballentyne's traps? I couldn't turn around now, even if I wanted to. I crawled faster, desperate to fill my lungs with air. At last I reached a small door at the end. My hand
searched for a handle, a knob, but there was nothing but the smooth end to the tunnel. I pounded on it. Shoved it with my shoulder. Called for someone to help me get out.

Suddenly the door was flung open. Light stung my eyes. Strong hands pulled me from the damp tunnel. I coughed for air, blinked furiously as a frigid cold bit into my skin.

I recoiled, fearing the Beast, but no yellow eyes met mine. Beneath me was a familiar stone floor, bodies wrapped in white sheets stretched out on benches, a cross in the wall: I was in the cellar chapel. Holding on to me was a girl with dark hair and eyes as blue as my own.

“Lucy!” Relief flooded me. Behind her stood Elizabeth and McKenna and all the servant girls huddled together for warmth, and Balthazar pacing near the door.

“Juliet!” Lucy said. “Balthazar told us what happened. We feared the Beast had gotten you.”

“I thought he'd gotten you! He practically told me he slaughtered you all!” I hugged her close.

“He was toying with you,” Lucy said, holding me tight. “He locked us down here this morning after he'd frightened us all he could and grew bored. Where's Montgomery?”

“Safe, for now. He's in the passageways, but he was shot. He'll need medical attention soon.” I looked around the room, frowning. “Where's Hensley?”

A deep wrinkle creased Elizabeth's forehead. “You saw him? He's been missing this entire time. Just before the Beast awoke, I'd denied him a second helping of pudding and he flew into a rage and vanished.” She tugged on her
sleeves, and I saw angry blue welts there. My heart leaped to my throat—suffocating rats was bad enough, but he even hurt Elizabeth?

“He helped Montgomery and me escape the Beast, but then he vanished.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Good. He'll be safer than any of us. You should go back into the walls as well, Juliet. The Beast will no doubt come down to check on us soon, and he can't find you here.”

“If I may, miss,” Balthazar said to me, knitting his hands together, “I believe I know how you might throw him off. If you can convince him you've left the manor for the moors, he'll leave the house and you can pass safely through the passageways and perhaps help these ladies and girls get out as well.”

Elizabeth considered this. “That's not a bad idea. If we could get outside, there's a hidden cellar in the barn where Lord Ballentyne stored his winter ale. We'd be safe there, with the animals to mask our scent.”

I hugged my arms for warmth, thinking through their words. We didn't have much to work with. Montgomery was wounded. Hensley was missing again, and judging by the bruises on Elizabeth's wrist, he was growing more unpredictable.

As I wracked my brain, footsteps sounded on the stairs outside the door.

Lucy whirled on me. “The Beast. Hurry, Juliet, into the walls!”

“There isn't time,” Elizabeth said. Her eyes fell on
one of the white funeral sheets and she picked it up. “Under here. Lie next to the body. The smell of decay will hide your scent.”

I sank to the floor, crawling under the sheet, trying to ignore the rigidly cold body at my side. There was a distinct odor, but it wasn't the sweet headiness of decaying flesh, more like ice and blood. Elizabeth smoothed the sheet over me just as I heard the chapel's heavy door swing open.

Footsteps approached slowly.

I
CLAMPED A HAND
over my mouth. I could hear people breathing, a few of the younger girls crying, and heavy, deliberate footsteps. I kept waiting for the telltale
tap-tap-tap
of the Beast's claws on the stone floor, but none came. Were his claws gone completely? I wondered what exactly had happened within that body. The Beast had won, but not without a cost.

“Well, well,” his voice came as his footsteps wove in and out among his captives. “How are we doing down here? Haven't frozen to death yet? Pity.”

“You can't keep us down here forever,” Elizabeth said. “Not if you like living in this house. You'll need someone to keep the electricity running and to feed the animals.”

“The animals?” He laughed, dry and brittle. “You should be far more concerned with your own fate, mistress. Now tell me, have you had any secret visitors?”

From the corner of my eye I could see the person whose funeral shroud I was sharing: a girl a little younger than me
with wild red hair and freckles. The cold had frozen her eyelids open and iced over the corneas. There was dried blood on her lips. I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Visitors?” Elizabeth said. “There's just the one door, and you have the only key.” She paused for drama's sake. “Why, has someone come? It isn't Juliet and Montgomery, is it?”

“Quiet, woman,” the Beast snapped. “Your only concern should be trying not to starve down here.”

“That's just it,” Elizabeth said boldly. “We might starve, but you might, too. Let a few of my girls free, just to work in the kitchen. They can make enough food to keep us all alive, including you.” For a moment there was silence, and I was desperate to know what was happening. “Come now,” she entreated. “What was your plan—slaughtering the lambs in the barn and eating them raw? Not much of a proper meal. Wouldn't you rather have roasted chops with a rosemary glaze, and buttered potatoes on the side? McKenna makes the most succulent lamb chops, I can assure you.”

I wondered if Elizabeth had noticed the same thing I had—that the Beast was more human than he had been before. Roasted potatoes would never have appealed to him previously. It wasn't just the lack of claws, but the fact that he'd kept Elizabeth and the others imprisoned instead of killing them. Could he have found a bit of humanity? Could he possibly be reasoned with?

“An interesting proposal, mistress.” I could practically hear his mouth watering. “But I don't know your servants,
and therefore I don't trust them. I shall take someone of my own choosing.”

His boots whirled, and then a startled cry came from one of the girls—only this cry I recognized.

“Lucy,” he said, low and seductive. “You've always been in love with Edward, haven't you? He's gone, but we do bear a striking resemblance. You can take care of
me
now. Come.” She shrieked as he dragged her toward the door. “I hope you know your way around a kitchen.”

The door slammed closed, and the massive lock clicked. It was but another moment before Elizabeth threw back the sheet. I jolted upright, away from the redheaded girl's body, gasping for fresh air. I scrambled to the far end of the room, putting as much distance as I could between me and the bodies.

“He took Lucy,” Elizabeth said.

“I know.” I pressed a hand against my head, trying to think. “She won't be safe for long, not once he realizes she doesn't know the first thing about cooking. He might turn on her—any of us—at any moment. I don't care that he doesn't look like a monster anymore. He is one, at heart.” I squeezed my fist hard enough that my nails dug into my palm.

Elizabeth opened the secret door into the passageway and drew a key from a hidden pocket in her petticoats. “I've kept this from the Beast. It's the key to my laboratory. You'll find all manner of instruments there that can be used as weapons. If the passageways lead there, I've never known about it, so you'll have to enter the main part of the house.”
She went to McKenna and returned with a small sewing kit that she pressed into my hand as well. “For Montgomery.”

“Thank you. I'll be back for you all as soon as I can.”

I started to crawl back into the narrow passageway, but Elizabeth touched my back. “Wait, Juliet. If you see Hensley, please tell him to be careful. But also—be careful yourself. The Beast isn't the only unpredictable one.” Her hand drifted to her bruised wrist. “Like most children, Hensley is subject to wild changes in moods over nothing. But unlike most children, he has unnatural strength. He doesn't always realize when he hurts those he loves.”

I swallowed uneasily. “I understand.”

I crawled back through the tunnel until it opened more, and in the light from the wall seams I was able to retrace my own dusty footprints from earlier.

“Montgomery?” I whispered as loud as I dared.

“Here” came a faint call.

I crawled faster until I found him. He'd moved into an alcove protected from view, leaving a trail of small dots of blood. I touched his hair, his face, his arms, to reassure myself he was safe.

“Take this,” I said, pressing the sewing kit into his hands. “Elizabeth gave it to me for your shoulder.”

“Elizabeth! She's alive?”

“All of them are. The Beast locked them in the cellar.” I paused. “He's different, Montgomery. He melded with Edward. He's more human than he was before.”

In the shadows, I couldn't make out Montgomery's
face. “Does that change anything?”

I balled my fists. There were times for mercy, but this wasn't one of them. “No. He took Lucy. If I don't stop him, there's no telling what he'll do to her. Besides, it isn't just Lucy I'm worried about. We need to get everyone out of the house, so that you and I can face the Beast on our own. Balthazar came up with an idea. If one of us could lure him out of the house, the other could lead the servant girls to safety using the passageways.” I frowned down at his wounds. “I'm afraid you can't do either, though.”

“It's my shoulder that was hit, not my legs,” he said. “I can walk. I'll stitch the wound myself and then sneak out of the house and set the goats loose. The Beast will smell them and come outside to investigate. That should give you time.”

I nodded, thinking. “We'll need a signal for you to know everyone is safe and it's time to lure the Beast back into the house.” I tapped my fingers anxiously against the wall. “The windmill. I'll stain the sheets a different color for the signal.”

“That will work. Once you've gotten everyone to safety, promise me you'll stay near Balthazar. He'll keep you safe.” He took my hand.

I intertwined my fingers with his. Who would keep
him
safe, I wondered?

“Go on,” he said softly. “They need you. But Juliet . . .” He pulled me closer. “Be careful.” He pressed his lips to mine, and I longed to hold on to him forever. Neither of us was blameless. We both had sins to atone for. And yet my love for him didn't diminish.

He broke the kiss. “Go.”

I crawled between the walls, up ancient stone foundations, past another alcove where I found a narrow ladder. It led to a trapdoor that opened into a dark room smelling of animals: fur and feces and straw. It was the secret room where Elizabeth kept the rats. I dusted off my hands as the rats squeaked softly, most likely thinking I was Elizabeth with their daily meal.

“Shh,” I whispered to them. “You'll give me away.”

I took a deep breath. I had only to run through Hensley's room and climb the spiral staircase and I'd be in the laboratory. I closed my eyes to listen for footsteps. There was nothing save the usual creaking of the house and my own ragged breathing.

It was now or never.

I darted through his room and up the stairs as quickly as I could, clutching Elizabeth's key, afraid the Beast was right behind me. I threw myself at the laboratory door, unlocking it and then slamming it behind me. My breath came shallow. Had I closed it too loudly? I went to the window. The sun was high now. These winter days were far too short. There was no sign of Montgomery or the Beast, but the goats were loose in the front yard. Montgomery must have succeeded in his half of the plan.

I turned to the laboratory cabinets. Bone saws, surgical knives, scalpels. I snatched up a wicker basket and filled it with anything sharp. My hands wrapped around the instruments like old friends. Any of them, used properly, could yield a deadly blow. In a drawer, I even found a small
silver pistol. That went into the basket as well.

I felt far more confident as I left the laboratory. I retraced my footsteps through the passageways, avoiding Lord Ballentyne's ancient traps, and peeked through the spy holes until I found the kitchen. There was Lucy, standing alone by the oven with one of McKenna's recipe books, looking completely lost.

“Lucy,” I whispered through the spy hole. “Over here.”

The panel opened wide enough for me to reach my hand out. She shrieked at the sight of a disembodied hand reaching through the wall, but then raced over.

“Juliet,” she whispered. “You gave me a fright!”

“The Beast hasn't come back, has he?”

“I heard the front door slam about twenty minutes ago—I think he went outside. He left me here to make a feast but took away all the knives and anything sharp. How am I to peel the potatoes? I barely know what a raw potato looks like!”

“I have a plan. I found weapons in the laboratory, so I'll arm everyone in the cellar for their safety, and then set them free while the Beast is distracted. Once I give the signal, Montgomery will lure him back to the house. Balthazar and I will be waiting for him. As soon as you hear any commotion, you must hide. There's a trapdoor to the passageways in the pickling room. Hide just behind the trapdoor and wait for me to come get you—don't venture deeper into the passageways unless you want to stumble down one of mad Lord Ballentyne's traps. And take this.” I passed her one of the surgical knives through the spy hole.

She took the blade with as much dread as if she were handling one of Hensley's pet rats. Her face twisted in anguish.

“It's all my fault, isn't it? I was a fool to unchain him, but he was so convincing, and he looked just like Edward. I realized too late that he'd tricked me. I had a knife—not so different from this one. I was going to slice Edward's throat so that Elizabeth would bring him back cured, but I couldn't do it.”

I squeezed her hand through the wall. “Be thankful, Lucy. Killing easily is not a trait one should ever desire. Besides, he would have gotten free one way or another. This confrontation was inevitable.”

She studied her reflection in the gleaming knife blade. “If I get another chance, I won't make the same mistake again.”

Dread filled me. I didn't want to leave her in that big empty kitchen, when the Beast might return at any moment. And yet Montgomery couldn't hold him back forever.

“Just remember, no matter what he looks like, it isn't Edward anymore.” I gave her hand one more squeeze, then closed the panel, plunging my world back into darkness.