Page 26 of Winterset

“I came back because of a dream,” Reed said with the air of a man owning up to a dreadful flaw.

“A dream?”

He nodded. “Yes. I dreamed that I was with Anna, and that she was in trouble. Something was pulling her away from me in the dream, and I could not move, could not reach her. It sounds foolish when I say it, I know, but you cannot imagine how real the dream was. Even after I woke up, I was seized with something close to terror because I could not help her. I tried to tell myself that it was only a dream—and that whatever happened to Anna was not my concern, anyway. I felt sure that she would not welcome my help. But I knew I could not stay away. I had to see if she was all right. I had to help her if I could.” Reed cast his sister an abashed glance. “You have every right to think I am insane.”

“Why? Because you’ve had one of the famous Moreland dreams?” Kyria asked lightly. “I am the last person who would say you were foolish to do something on the basis of a dream—or a feeling. You know what happened with that reliquary.”

She paused, thinking back to two years ago, when a man had died at the Morelands’ house, bringing with him a reliquary and setting into motion a strange chain of events that had brought her love and almost cost her her life. Kyria could remember quite clearly the sense of connection she had felt with the reliquary and the huge black diamond on its side, and the peculiar dreams she had experienced after she held it.

“Or what happened with Olivia and Stephen,” Rafe added, alluding to Reed’s and Kyria’s sister and the man she had married, Lord St. Leger. Rafe had been Stephen’s best friend and had shared part of their eerie adventure. “The dreams they shared…the couple seemingly speaking to them from the past…”

“Maybe Grandmother was right,” Kyria told Reed. “Perhaps there is a special…sensitivity in our family.”

Reed rolled his eyes. “I have a little trouble believing that Grandmother was sensitive in any way. I think her ‘visions’ were more a way of keeping everyone’s attention focused on her than anything else.”

Kyria chuckled. “That may be. But I know what happened with me, and I don’t doubt that there were forces at work there that were far beyond my understanding. When that happens, I think it’s best not to fight it. You felt that she was in trouble and you should come here. And I think that is what you should have done.”

“I felt a fool when I got here and spoke with her. Everything was obviously all right with her, and she wished me gone. I could see that. But now, after tonight, I wonder….”

“You think your dream was prophetic? That she is going to be in trouble before long?” Kyria asked.

“And that this maid’s death is part of the trouble that she is in—or will be in?” Rafe added.

“I don’t know. Obviously, it is a terrible thing, although I cannot see how it connects to Anna—I mean, more than superficially. But clearly I am dealing with something that I don’t understand. If I heard someone else say the sort of things I’ve just been saying, I would be certain he was an idiot.”

“Well, murder is very real,” Kyria said.

“If the maid was murdered. It could have been an accident,” Reed pointed out.

“You think she was really killed by an animal?” Kyria asked skeptically.

Reed cast her a sardonic look. “I doubt it was some mythical beast, if that is what you mean. That is simply the sort of sensational story people seem to prefer to the truth.”

“People always love a good story about a supernatural beast,” Rafe put in, taking a sip of the fiery cognac. “I remember a story that used to go around home about the swamp cat. There was some swampland not too far from where I lived, closer to the coast, and people swore there was a black panther that lived in there. But not just any old panther—no, sir, this one was bigger and stronger than any ordinary cat, and he had eyes that glowed like red coals in his head. People said he couldn’t be killed, no matter how many times you shot him. The devil’s cat, they said, and if you got lost in the swamp, when nighttime came, you were likely to meet him. Thing was, he didn’t just kill you—he took your soul, as well.”

“I think it’s most likely that the maid was attacked by an actual animal,” Kyria put in.

“Like what?” Rafe responded. “That’s the problem I see. I haven’t noticed too many wildcats or bears or such running loose in England.”

“No. But it could have been a mad dog, I suppose.”

“What I find the most intriguing about it,” Kyria said, “is the fact that it’s like those killings that took place almost fifty years ago.”

“If it is like them,” Reed pointed out. “We have very little information about either the original killings or the body that was found.”

“Well, it seems clear to me that we need to find out more about both this death and the murders that took place fifty years ago,” Kyria decided.

“‘We?’” Reed asked. “I was just about to suggest that you and Rafe take the twins, Emily and Miss Farrington, and go back to London.”

“You are kicking us out?” Kyria asked with mock indignation.

Reed grimaced. “Hardly. But if there was a murder here, it scarcely seems like the place for children or a gently reared young lady like Miss Farrington. And someone has to take them back.”

Kyria started to speak, then stopped and sighed. “Yes, I can see your point. It’s all so different when one has a child, isn’t it? But I cannot really see how this woman’s death, even if it is murder, could affect one of us. I mean, obviously it has to do with the local people and something that was going on before we arrived.”

“Mmm. Probably this fellow that Miss Holcomb was saying they thought the girl ran away with,” Rafe agreed.

“That may be. But I think you will agree that investigations of evildoing have a way of getting out of hand,” Reed said.