Madness (46 page)

Dr. Blake Sanderson arrived at Ferncliffe Castle just as dawn began to peep over the horizon. He stared at the building and shook his head.

He shivered with dread at the thought of what he might find inside. Of all the places to end up…

When he tramped into the house, he was shocked to discover the little family in what passed for the front room, sleeping as soundly as if they were in their own feather beds back home.

He looked around and shook his head. Well, he supposed it could have been worse.
 
Jesus had been born in a stable, after all….

“Good morning, all. Well, I can see I’m too late,” he said loudly enough to wake them, “and I am sure you did an excellent job, Gabrielle, and were a credit to Antony and Eswara's training, but let me just have a look at mother and baby to be on the safe side.”

Simon and Gabrielle started at the sound of the doctor's voice. She instinctively grabbed for their blanket and pulled it right over their heads as they tried to disengage their bodies from one another gently without getting so excited they lost control.

They began to adjust their clothing quickly, and smoothed their tousled hair from each other’s faces as their lips met for a tender kiss.

Blake talked soothingly to Lucinda, who remained silent. Then he cleared his throat.

“You did remarkably well considering this place is the most appalling vision of Hell I’ve ever encountered. It’s a wonder you didn’t all didn’t drown or catch pneumonia.”

“What?” Simon said, trying to open one bleary eye. His lids felt as though they were stuck together. While he had slept well, he was now feeling a bit stiff and sore.

Gabrielle succeeded in getting her eyes unglued at last, drew the blanket off their heads, and gasped. She stared at their surroundings and shivered.

“But, but—” Her mouth worked up and down wordlessly for a moment.
 
“I don’t understand.”

She had no idea what she would have said next, for Simon now distracted her shocked thoughts by having a sudden fit.

“I’m not mad. I’ve never been mad. They know I know things. They’ve left me here to rot. Couldn’t kill me in case they needed me. Please, I have to-” He clutched his head in agony now, and began to gurgle and choke.

“God, Simon!” Gabrielle gasped, rolling up onto her knees to grip him by the shoulders as he flailed and thrashed on the filthy floor. He hadn't had a fit in so long….

Blake fumbled for his bag and found a spoon.

“Stay with me, Simon, stay with me. It’s all right. Blake’s here, we’re all safe,” she sought to reassure him as he struggled and thrashed amid the roof debris and rubble scattered all around them.

At last the golden-eyed man calmed, and looked around at the dilapidated castle and then at Gabrielle in silent inquiry. His expression said it all:
The castle was naught more than a ruin. Yet last night…..

She shook her head, warning him not to pursue the subject further in front of Blake.

She looked over at her sister, but to her dismay, saw at once that
 
Lucinda was in her usual state of torpor. For once Gabrielle was glad she could not say anything and make their friend think they were insane.

Blake said. “Come. The sooner we get out of here, the better. This place makes me nervous.”

“Why?” she dared to ask, shivering with dread herself.

“Ah, well, it was a bit before I cane down here, actually, but a particularly nasty man, the Earl of Ferncliffe, lived here and gave Jonathan Deveril’s wife and brother-in-law a hard time."

"Oh?"

"I don’t recall all the particulars, just that he tried to trick Pamela into helping him restore this Gothic horror, the better to try to seduce her and steal her family’s property.”

“And his brother-in-law?”

“Yes, Alexander was supposed to be the true heir to his place. But it was a long time ago now, and he and Sarah are happy as they are.”

Simon said, “I can’t understand in how anyone could let a charming old building like this fall into such disrepair.”

“True. I think it’s got, er, potential,” Gabrielle said with a look around the room.

Blake shook his head at the holes in the ceiling and the smashed windows, the rodent droppings, nest debris and guano everywhere.
 
“You can evidently see something I can’t. But never mind that now. At least it gave you enough shelter so that Lucinda and baby are safe." He looked up at the sagging roof with a shake of his head.

"There have been trees down all over the district, roads washed out, livestock drowned. It took me hours to get here.
 
I would just as soon hurry back before the rain starts again, if you don't mind. He began gathering everything he could lay hands on back into the main pile on a not too dirty section of the stone floor.

"Randall would have come, but the children were terrified and worried about you. He didn’t dare leave them.”

“It’s all right. We’ve managed. We're all fine, as you can see,” Gabrielle replied.

He looked up from his work to peer at Simon more closely. “Are you feeling better?”

“Mmm, yes.” He rose from the floor slowly but steadily, and when he saw that he was able to manage on his own, he began to fold the blankets, and then helped Gabrielle gather the rest of their supplies.

“Are you better now, dearest?” she asked Simon after a time.

“Aye."

"What do you think happened?"

He shrugged. "I thought I had been here before. But it was probably just a trick of the light, the flashes in the storm.”

But he didn’t meet her eyes as he said this.

Gabrielle looked around again, and shivered once more, with unease more than fear.

Clutching each other’s hands tightly for a brief moment, they bustled about gathering their things, and then Lucinda and the baby into Blake's carriage, eager to leave the mysterious old medieval ruins as soon as possible to get back to the brightness of Barkston House.

“But I
saw
it,” Gabrielle said later in the privacy of their room, once Lucinda and little Christopher were safely asleep in their room. “I saw it with my own two eyes,
felt
it. Fenton did too. All of us. It wasn’t my imagination. I don’t want you to think for a minute that you’re mad.”

He shook his head. “If we are, then all four of us are together.”

“I don’t undersand it, but it was quite clearly a sign. Of what I’m not sure.”

“Maybe that there’s a benevolent deity?”

She looked at him for a time, considering his words carefully. At length she said, “You told me the house looked familiar.”

“Yes, though don’t ask me why. It's something from my childhood I’m afraid to try to recollect for fear of having a seizure.”

“There’s only one thing wrong with that theory.”

“Hmm?” Simon said, evidently very uncomfortable with the topic.

“If I was something from your childhood, well, that would be twenty or thirty years ago even, wouldn’t it?”

Simon did some quick calculations.
 
“Yes. I don't recall my precise date of birth, but I would say that’s a good guess.”

“Except that all those fabrics and furnishings in the castle, in the rooms we saw, well, they were the latest styles and fashions. Remember? We even saw some of them in the shops around Bath yesterday.”

He paused to consider that for a moment, then nodded. “So what do you think happened? That our wishful thinking made us, what, create a house for ourselves? That we all conjured up the ideal home out of thin air, and that it looked the same to all of us?”

“What did you see?”

He described the room in burgundy and blue, and then consulted with Lucinda when the baby woke a short time later demanding to be fed.

She agreed with them. “The sofas were just like the samples we saw in Lawrence Howard’s new shop window. The Peking Drouguet with the navy background, burgundy flowers and thin gold stripe,” she confirmed, before turning her undivided attention to the baby once more.

Gabrielle frowned. “What was it, a fantasy, a vision of the future?”

“I don’t know. But it was lovely and it felt, well, like home.”

“And this doesn’t?” she asked quietly.

He looked around. “It does too, but I think that felt like our future home for our new family. Christopher is a sign of that future. And I would love it if you would fall pregnant, my love, I have to admit.”

She gave him a loving kiss, running her fingers through his raven locks. “I don’t mind trying if you don’t. We can leave off using Eswara’s sponges.”

“Not now, pet. But sometime soon?”

“And the castle?” she asked softly.

“We can make discreet enquiries, and see what turns up.”

Gabrielle sighed, and tried to pull them out of the fantasy and back to practicalities. “But it would be a huge undertaking, and more money than we could ever hope—”

“It might be something to aspire to,” he suggested. “I suppose it’s pretty odd, though. I mean, I never imagined in a million years having a home one tenth as fine as this, let alone
that
. Not when I was locked in Bedlam.”

“I can just imagine. Even thinking of a little bedsit of your own was probably a vision of Heaven."

He nodded.

"But then ever since we met, all our wishes have come true. We’ve made them together as we’ve built our life with each other.”

He stroked her cheek tenderly. “And you made the children’s dreams come true too, Gabrielle, for we came home with half the goods in Bath, and a new baby brother.”

She grinned at him. “You have to take at least half the credit for that.”

"Gladly, my love."

“Thank you again.” She kissed him soundly. “Anyway, just try to put the whole affair out of your mind. It’s over now.”

“What was the place called again?”

Gabrielle frowned. “Blake said Fern- something. Ferncliffe. Ferncliffe Castle.”