Descent Into Dust (26 page)
It took several minutes to arrange my comfort to his satisfaction. Only after Mrs. Tigwalt had come and gone with the tea tray did I meet Father Luke’s eye. “You wished to see me. And I am anxious to speak with you. I am hopeful we can come to some understanding to help one another.”
I had the sense he was struggling with something as he settled in a well-worn leather armchair. “Mrs. Andrews, humor me if this seems unrelated to what is clearly on your mind, but how well do you know Mr. Fox?”
I was stunned by the question, and immediately wary. “We’ve only met a few weeks ago, but we have grown close with the extraordinary circumstances we’ve shared.”
“Do you recall when we were at Mr. Hess’s house, you gave me a switch from the hawthorn tree to use as a weapon? It was good thinking, by the way, bringing a branch from the tree. I understand you have certain instincts which make you rather adept at these things. For instance, you knew where Marius
was before he materialized.” He smiled at me. “That saved my life.”
“A favor in turn, for your arrival there that night saved mine, and Mr. Fox’s.” I tilted my head. “But you did not come for us. You never knew we’d be there. You intended to sanctify George Hess’s corpse.”
He inclined his head.
“I read the Book of Tobit,” I said suddenly. “Is it a demon in the tree up on The Sanctuary?”
He inhaled thoughtfully. “You take my lesson too literally. I had merely wished to illustrate to you the proven concept of using live trees to harness and hold wickedness. Corrupt and corrupting energy, if you will. What manner of evil, what dark energy or being—this I was never told. It was not deemed necessary. That I know what to do should it be required, that is what matters. My instructions are very clear.
“The day I saw the seal was broken, I knew I would be the one, out of the hundreds of men who served in this church through the years, to uphold the sanctity of the tree. It is part of my solemn vow to prevent the release onto the earth of that which the tree holds—this task I maintain in the utmost reverence. It is required that I alone see to it, for I have been trained. I cannot help you, Mrs. Andrews. I wish for you to understand why and to know that were it within my power, I would tell you everything.”
“It could perhaps be a vampire,” I pressed, uninterested in his explanation. “Perhaps one of Marius’s ancestors whose loyalty he commands.”
He shrugged, showing agreement. “It matters not what this Marius plans with the evil imprisoned in my tree. It
shall not
be
released. I have assured you I would see to that, and you must trust me.”
“It is a rather large request to make of me, Father Luke. How can I trust anyone to see to my chief concern? I care about Henrietta’s safety, first and foremost. I must protect her—that is
my
duty, to be undertaken at any cost.”
His face darkened. “The danger to your beloved Henrietta is an unspeakable thing. But there is more at stake here, Mrs. Andrews, than this one life, as precious as it might be.”
One life? I reacted silently, considering the implications that he might consider this “one life” not important enough to notice. I was resolved, however, that it was the only thing that mattered and in this—I realized—Father Luke and I were at odds.
He had asked that I trust him. I knew I dared not.
Father Luke cocked his elbow on the armrest and frowned as his large hand scrubbed thoughtfully against his chin. “But let us talk more of the hawthorn switch. You do not have it?”
This was no idle musing, I realized. “You think it is important?” I asked pointedly.
“I do not like loose ends. I returned to Mr. Hess’s house for it the following day. His housekeeper admitted me, and I was told no one had been yet that day to visit the body. I searched the room. When I could not find it, I hoped you had it.”
“No,” I said, meeting his gaze in alarm. “But why do you want it?”
He forced a smile. His features, which were so overpowering, achieved mildness when he relaxed them. He could have been handsome, or at least far less forbidding than he was, had humor or peace ever lightened his features. “I am probably worried for nothing.”
I knew he did not believe this, but allowed the comment to pass. I had more urgent matters on my mind, namely Henrietta. “Father, is there anything else you can teach me to help me guard the child? I do what I can to protect her as strongly as possible, but somehow Marius is still influencing her.”
“There is no speaking to the parents? It would be best if she could be removed from Avebury altogether.”
“No, I am sorry to say. I am viewed with suspicion for reasons too complex to go into at the moment. I would have no sway with any tales of danger to Henrietta. They would ship me to Bedlam before they would listen to such a radical suggestion.”
“Of course.” He frowned deeply as he thought for a few moments. “I am going to do something quite unorthodox, Mrs. Andrews. Pardon me for a moment while I fetch something that will help you.”
He returned quickly with a gold filial the size and approximate shape of a candlestick, fitted with a sunburst at the top. “Do you know what this is?” he asked as he held it for me to see. “It is called a monstrance. It is the most powerful force against evil that exists, for it holds the body and blood of Christ. By church law, no one can touch the consecrated host but an ordained priest.”
A glass receptacle in the center of the golden sun showed a slim wafer of bread. I looked at the priest in shock.
“I give this to you for the child, even at the peril of breaking with the rules of the Church, perhaps even at the peril of mortal sin. I want you to understand how deeply I am moved by your lonely burden to protect this precious one.”
He handed the monstrance to me, adding, “But you must still see to the other things you have been doing. Most important, seal the doors and windows of her rooms. A thick line
of salt will do. Make very certain no one you do not know is allowed in. The old belief that any agent of evil cannot enter a dwelling uninvited is true.”
“But there are so many people in the house.” I frowned. “You are right. It is imperative to shield her completely from Marius. I shall sit by her side at night. Mr. Fox and I shall take turns.”
At the mention of Valerian Fox, his brows forked into a deep “V.” “Have a care there, Mrs. Andrews.”
I looked at him sharply. “You do not like Fox.”
Father Luke hesitated, then said, “We all have our reasons for being here, one way or another. Mine, I have stated clearly. Yours, I understand the most of all. It is the purest of motives: love. But ask yourself, what does Mr. Fox have to gain?”
“He has hunted the vampire Marius for many years,” I replied.
“But why? When I asked him, he said simply that this Marius had taken something from him. What? A child, a wife, a sister, a brother? Why is he so reluctant to explain himself further?”
He had hit a sore spot, for although I knew Mr. Fox’s tale of witnessing the awful sight of the vampire feeding on the streets of Montmartre, I only now realized I did not completely understand why this had been so compelling as to change his entire life. Or what the vampire lord taken from him. Father Luke was correct. If I had suspected before that Fox had a secret, I knew now it was true. But I trusted him nonetheless. He had more than proven his loyalty to me on several occasions.
“We all have our secrets, do we not?” I said.
Father Luke peered at me with a mysterious smile. “Even you?”
“I should think all my secrets have been revealed.”
“Then you must have been referring to my secrets. I do not
deny them, and I realize it must frustrate you but I assure you, what I choose to keep hidden from you will not help you protect your precious child, Mrs. Andrews. My path in this is set. To involve you and Mr. Fox would complicate things, perhaps fatally.”
“You cannot think we would ever betray you.”
He struggled for a moment. “Not intentionally. But if it came to a choice, and if my goals and yours ever came into conflict, I would have made a grave error in showing my hand, as it were.”
“But our ends are the same. How would we be in disagreement?”
He seemed to wince, and I saw this idea was a matter of great dread. “We might. Remember, my orders are quite clear. My loyalties equally so. I am a man of compassion and conscience, but duty must take priority over everything. You must understand this.”
I was quiet for a moment. I had accepted that Father Luke would not help us, as he stubbornly maintained his own solitary path. But how could he and I—both fighting on the side of good against an almost overwhelming evil—ever find ourselves in opposition?
He did not trust Fox—he’d said as much. And me? With what he knew of me, did he think…?
Marius’s words echoed in my mind.
There is something of the vampire in you.
Was it me, more than recalcitrant Mr. Fox, he did not trust?
“Please,” Father Luke said softly, reaching for my hand and patting it. “We must agree to go separately about our own means and ends. But I will help you, indeed I will, Mrs. Andrews. In any and all ways I can.”
I saw this was true. He was not a selfish or cruel man. Indeed, the sincerity I saw in his face was genuine. But he was a man bound by his own beliefs, and his allegiance to his church. And the distance that yawned between his world and mine would not be breached.
As he was walking me out, there was something else I wanted to know, a question he, as a priest, was in a unique position to answer. “Father, you understand that I…what I am, and what it means. My mother was afflicted…” Emotion stopped me from continuing. Perhaps, if he had donned his vestments and I were able to slip into the solace of the peculiar rite of penance, I could have spoken further. But I did not need to.
“I am aware,” he said calmly. “I know of the Dhampir.”
I swallowed. “If I am anointed to my gifts by the power of vampire blood…” I closed my eyes momentarily and gathered my courage. “Does it mean I am unclean?”
He changed, then, his guardedness slipping away as a look of true compassion passed over him. I thought for a moment he was going to reach for me, to touch my arm or hand reassuringly.
“I do not have the impulse to do evil,” I rushed to reassure him. “Quite the opposite. I am determined that my mother’s suffering, and her legacy to me that resulted from it, will have been for some good. But if the blood of the vampire is within me, I wish to know…Am I cursed?”
His eyes drifted over me, assessing my words. “I wish to tell you no, Mrs. Andrews, for I like you quite a great deal. And I feel great pity for your situation. But I cannot answer the question you pose, not as a point of dogma. I simply do not know.”
F
ox and I said prayers from the missal I’d taken from the church while anointing Henrietta’s bedchamber and the schoolroom with holy water. In the windows, we placed fresh garlic and dribbled a line of salt along the two doorways and the windowsill, so fine it was, hopefully, undetectable to the mortal eye.
When we were done, we looked at each other. “Is this enough?” I asked.
His eyes traveled over the room. He shook his head. “If Marius wants the child, these will not deter him. They may make his fetching of her more unpleasant, but stop him?” The frown lines on his forehead deepened.
“What about the monstrance?” I took the gold filial out of
the bag. I’d wrapped it carefully in felt. It felt heavy, substantial, in my hands.
Fox stared at it in awe and appreciation. “I may have underestimated our priest friend.”
“So now he is ‘our priest friend,’ is he?”
Fox shrugged and surprised me with a charmingly sheepish gesture. “Well, I suppose a gift like this can redeem anyone. Vampires find all things holy to be repellent, but this…This is something quite extraordinary, and very hard to come by for hunters.”
I looked at the gold sunburst, which housed the Holy Wafer. I was Christian enough to feel a deep sense of reverence. Fox came to stand beside me. He must have been thinking similar thoughts, for he said, “Putting the Eucharist in the hands of anyone not an ordained priest is most arduously forbidden. This is not something I would have ever expected from him.”
I thought about this, then said, “Sometimes, people surprise you.”
He shook his head. “Your faith in your fellow man touches me, but I cannot agree.”
I burst into a chorus of chuckles. “Why are you making complaint, Mr. Fox? I believe in you, do I not?” I paused, recalling that Father Luke was not as sanguine in his trust of Mr. Fox. “By the way, did you retrieve the hawthorn stick from Mr. Hess’s house?”
He looked at me strangely. “Why would you ask?”
I sighed in exasperation. “Must you answer all my questions with questions of your own? Father Luke was worried about it.”
He crossed his arms. “No. Does that satisfy?” He strode to a tall chest and tapped the top. “Before tonight, after the child is asleep, you must come back and put the monstrance here,
facing the door. After the nurse leaves, place it like so. Then Marius cannot approach or come anywhere near it. And take the crucifix from under her pillow. I would like it hanging from the headboard of her bed, directly over her head, just as a secondary precaution.”
“Here, then?” I hooked the chain over a post, fiddling with it to get it right.
A new voice cut in with startling volume. “What the devil are you two doing?”
Mr. Fox and I jumped guiltily and whirled to face Sebastian, who was standing in the doorway with arms crossed, his shoulder against the door jamb, a mocking grin on his face.
I spoke, snapping the tense silence with a lie. “Why, we are looking for Henrietta.”
“Really? In her bed? At this hour? Well, surely you could tell by now she is not here.” He pretended to scowl at us. “I hope this is not some tryst, you naughty pair! And if it is, I say it is a despicable choice of accommodations. A child’s room!”
I flushed. “Sebastian!”
He held up his hands, laughing, then paused. “What is that dreadful smell? Is that…What are you doing with garlic?”