Chapter 16

16

Farryn

Through the gap in the trees overhead, black birds circled beneath the dark sky, seen only by the luminous bands of the moon that reached down for me. Round and round, the birds reminded me of vultures, waiting for the kill. Whispers reached my ear. So many at once, they overlapped in my head.

In the woods.

She’s alone.

Where the moon touches the grass.

Hurry. She sees us.

Still woozy and struggling to catch my breath, I rolled over onto my stomach, pausing for a moment to assess my condition. Wriggling my ankles and wrists proved no bones were broken, as I inhaled deeply to find no pain with the act. Somehow, I’d managed to fall from the sky with no more than a few scratches, and possibly a bruise where a thick branch had whacked my thigh and arm. An ache at my forehead told me I may have taken a small hit to my face, as well. I could definitely feel the throb of a growing knot there.

It was as I pushed up from the ground that I realized where I’d fallen. In the thick of the woods, nothing but brush and trees all around me, the fog so dense, I could see little else past their spectral white trunks. A gust of winter-cold air stole my breath, and I shuddered as the needling sensation settled deep in my bones.

So cold.

The surrounding darkness of night sent a tendril of fear down my spine. Pushing to my feet, I stumbled to the side in trying to get my footing. The effects of the tea still echoed with a dizzy sensation that rendered me unsteady. Thankfully, it seemed to be fading, though, as I didn’t feel the nausea or heavy sleepiness of before. For a brief moment, all had settled to an ominous quiet, while my senses returned from a lazy slumber.

Tugging my cellphone from my pocket, I found the screen completely black. Not a single drop of reception. Not that I’d have expected Purgatory to have cell towers. Although, a part of me still didn’t quite believe I’d crossed a plane to another world. Even if my surroundings were completely foreign to me, it still looked like the world I knew. Still had trees, and birds, and skies with stars, like any forest.

It was only the foreign sounds which chirped and buzzed and screeched, and the unbearable cold that left me questioning the possibility. An intense, penetrating cold that felt more like the chill of fear than something temperate.

On a huff of expelled steam from my mouth, I shoved the phone back into my pocket and made a quick scan over the tenebrous forest in search of a way out of the maze of trees.

The crackle of branches echoed somewhere in the distance, and I froze in place, peering through the ghostly mist dancing between silhouettes of trees.

Hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

A growl rumbled from somewhere in the darkness, the sound innervating every nerve ending as it traveled across the back of my neck. A black shadow prowled between motionless pillars of white birch. Like the creaking wood of an old rocking chair, the growling persisted, patient in its drawl. With slow and careful steps, I backed myself out of the center of the clearing. At the edge of the trees, I could make out two glowing, red eyes.

A thrum of fear pounded through me with a relentless fury.

This is where I’ll die.

There wasn’t a doubt in my mind. Surely, whatever beast prowled the woods had honed its skills, and I was nothing but an enticing morsel of fresh meat on its hunting grounds.

And still, I had no intentions of going down without a fight.

I spun around on my heel and made a wild and desperate dash through the trees. The cold air burned my lungs, while dark skies above me made little effort to shine a light on my path. An obscure tree trunk slammed into my shoulder, knocking me off balance, but I kept on. Through the brush that grabbed for my ankles and beneath branches that hung low enough to tangle my hair. A scream tugged at the back of my throat, but I refused to make a noise.

The gallop of heavy feet trailed behind me. I could hear its coarse breathing. Closer suddenly. Closing in on me.

Chasing me.

Fire scorched my muscles, my legs on the verge of collapsing with fatigue. I pushed for more speed, ignoring the dry blaze in my lungs that felt as if it might explode any second.

I didn’t dare look over my shoulder, for fear of the distance it’d already gained on me.

A sharp, needling pain swiped at my calves.

A hoarse scream flew past my lips.

Thickets of brush wrapped around my ankles, and I face-planted the prickly sponge of branches.

Something black swooped past me, and my stomach lurched with terror. A horrible screech echoed from behind. Too many sights and sounds coming at me from all directions, I didn’t know which one posed the greater threat.

Scrambling free from my ligneous binds, I forced one more burst of speed from my legs and stumbled out onto a dirt road, into the path of a black horse that reared up over me. Startled myself, I teetered backward, falling onto the base of my spine, which sent a jolt of pain across my back.

Shielding my face was all I could do before chunky hooves slammed into the gravel at either side of me.

I scooted backward to avoid a horrible trampling, only to find a carriage at the beast’s rear. The startled expression of an older woman stared down at me, her graying hair tucked beneath a multi-colored scarf.

“Whatever are you doing out here, child! You nearly got trampled!”

Body still trembling, I glanced around me, searching for the red eyes.

“S-s-something … is chasing me,” My whisper arrived as a broken rasp. Didn’t sound at all like my voice, as if I had marbles stuffed in my cheeks. “An animal.”

“Hmmm. An animal, you say.”

A cold drop of water hit my arm, and I tipped my head back toward the mist of rain that’d begun to fall around me.

“Well, I can’t let you stay out here in the cold and rain. Where is your home?”

Home.

Another glance up toward the dark sky, and remnants of memory flickered through my head. Falling. Heavy. So heavy.

“I don’t …. I can’t remember.”

“You’re not from around here, then?”

“No. I, um … I think I’m lost.”

“Oh, you poor thing. Come. At least get out of the rain.” She flicked her fingers, reaching out for me, and I took her hand, climbing up onto the carriage, where the overhang kept the rain off my skin. Once aboard, she lifted a folded blanket from the bench beside her, and the moment she wrapped it around my shoulders, the warmth of it settled into my bones. I closed my eyes, breathing through my nose to settle the shivers still wracking me.

“What’s your name, dear?” The woman gave one sharp flick of the reins and set the horse into motion again. Its hooves clicked along the dirt as we put a small bit of distance between me and the woods.

My name. What was my name? Surely, I could remember it.

Yes, of course I remembered.

“Farryn. Farryn Ravenshaw.”

“Farryn? What a pretty name. Mine’s Anya.”?Lifting her nose into the air, she paused, nostrils flaring, as if she smelled something. She leaned toward me, sniffing, the sight of which sent a new chill through me. “My, you have an unusual scent. I can’t place what it might be.” Sniffing again, she frowned. “Sort of hits the back of the throat.”

“Bad?” My jaw was so cold and stiff, I could hardly push out the words.

“No, no. Just … unusual, is all. Oddly comforting. Of course, I’ve always fancied the smell of skunks, as well.”

Teeth chattering, I exhaled a shuddering breath. “Where … am I … exactly?”

“This is the historical Stygian Falls. We just left the Misty Hollow Forest.”

Everything sounded like something out of a fairytale. One I swore I’d read before.

“We’re one of the older villages in the area,”?she added.

“Villages? You have villages here?” I’d always perceived Purgatory, or whatever this place was, as a barren land of wandering souls.

Not quite as freezing, too.

My father had always owned baroque paintings of naked humans immersed in fire, reaching up for the angels. One particularly frightening scene had shown bodies marching in a straight line, along an endless mountain with no summit.

“Small, but yes,” she answered.

Much as I tried to wrap my head around the structure of this world, and how crossing planes worked, I couldn’t. It didn’t make sense that something would exist where something else already did.

“What is it that brought you to Stygian Falls?”

“I’m looking for someone.” Untucking the locket from my shirt, I opened it up to the picture inside. “My father. Any chance you’ve seen him?”

Anya tuned up a crank beside her, which created light beaming overhead, and twisting in my seat allowed me to see the lantern attached to the carriage.

A quick study of the locket, and she shook her head. “I’m afraid I’ve not seen him.” She glanced over at me, gaze quickly flicking away, as if she didn’t want to stare too long.

In looking away myself, I caught sight of my arm and the enormous bruise and small cuts that had me looking like I’d lost a fight with someone. I couldn’t even imagine what my face looked like after that fall, with as achy as I felt.

I touched a hand to my forehead, my fingertips skating over a sizable knot along my hairline. Given what I palpated, I wondered if the horse was more frightened of the way I looked than my having jumped into his path. “Thank you. For picking me up.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble. You said an animal chased you through the woods. Did you happen to see it, by chance?”

“No. It was very dark.” A look around showed black contours of trees whose branches reminded me of crooked claws, the way they seemed to reach for the sky. The path we followed ran adjacent to a small cluster of Bavarian-style structures that sat along a narrow river, with wooden crossing bridges and cobblestone streets lit by gas lamps, which flickered as we passed. Dark and eerie.

“Ah. Shame. We’ve been getting a number of reports lately. You’re lucky to have escaped, if it happened to be one of those creatures I’ve been reading about. Vicious beasts, them.”

“Something on the loose in the woods?”

“In the woods. In town. They’ve even broken into homes, stealing folks from their beds as they sleep! Terrible what they do, too. Animals, at least, are very honest and straightforward about their kills.” Shifting on the bench of the carriage, she cleared her throat. “We certainly have our share of sadistic creatures here in Stygian Falls, but nothing so … barbaric!”

Just looking at Anya, I couldn’t say whether she was human, or something else. She looked human. Sounded human. Except Xhiphias had told me his kind roamed Chicago, easily disguised in the crowd.

“There was something else. With wings. Black wings.”

“This hollow is brimming with peculiar beasts and birds, miss. It’s best if you don’t go off anywhere by yourself.” Sat forward, she directed her attention upward, as if searching the sky for one, then eased back onto the bench. “Speaking of beasts, when we arrive at the Van Croix Estate, please stay close to me.”

An even colder chill than the air zipped up my back at the mention of his name. “Wait. Did you just say Van Croix Estate?” No way it was the same Van Croix. What were the odds that the first person I’d run into would be someone headed toward the very place I intended to begin my search?

It seemed impossibly coincidental.

“Yes, Master Van Croix is my employer. Aside from the fact that he happens to keep three very intense canines on the property to guard it, he’s also quite particular about guests. He’ll not appreciate me bringing in any strays. He’s a quiet man, but his mannerisms can be quite abrasive. Not to frighten you, but he has been known to scare off a number of trespassers.”

Given what I’d already learned about him, it had to be the same guy. “He sounds intense. Is it true he has a bit of a reputation?”

“Oh, well, I was under the impression you weren’t from these parts! Seems you know the rumors quite well.”

“Gossip travels.” Across planes, even.

“While it’s true that he is somewhat strange and aloof, he certainly doesn’t deserve the moniker of Death. Good grief.”

“Strange how?”

Brows knitting together, she sighed. “He … sometimes talks to birds. Ravens. And up until recently, he wasn’t prone to sleeping much. He often locks himself in the bell tower for hours at a time.”

“But other than that, he’s normal?”

“Well, now, how do you mean? I just described a number of very abnormal things.”

While strange, as she’d said, none of it sounded as outlandish as what I’d expected of this place, which left me hesitant to ask the question burning in my mind. “Do you see many winged creatures here, by chance? Perhaps … human-like?”

After staring for a moment, her already wrinkled face pinched tighter to a frown. In the next blink, she snapped into laughter. Hysterical laughter, as if such a thing were absurd in a place where I’d heard they walked freely.

Unless they didn’t walk as freely as I’d been told.

Unless she had as little awareness about them as I did.

“Seems you need your rest, miss. You must be quite tired, to ask about winged humans.”

“Yeah.” I smiled sheepishly. “You’re probably right. I appreciate you putting me up for the night.”

“Of course, dear. I’ll not let you wander around by yourself. The estate has far too many rooms that go unoccupied for a young girl like yourself to be sleeping in the woods.”

“That’s very kind of you.”

“Not too far now.” She nodded her head, and I shifted my gaze toward an ominous looking mountain ahead of us, most of which was hidden by a thick shield of fog. Perched on the peak of its treacherously-steep cliff stood an elaborate structure that reminded me of a cathedral--confirmed when Anya said, “Blackwater Cathedral. Beautiful, isn’t it?”

It was. Something about it called to my heart. “So strange. It feels familiar to me.”

“It’s belonged to the Van Croix’s for centuries. Lightning struck its belltower a number of years ago, and it--”

“Burned. To the ground.” The words arrived automatically, somehow.

“Yes. That’s correct. Seems you know a bit of our history here. In addition to the rumors.”

I didn’t, though. I had no idea what’d prompted me to answer so matter-of-factly, aside from the fact that I’d grown up playing in the ruins of an old church not far from our house, which my father told me had been burned due to lightning. A small bit of history that certainly wouldn’t have had anything to do with this world.

“Master Van Croix erected a new tower in its place,” Anya prattled on. “Of course, the interior of the cathedral is more of a living space, with rooms where the monks’ quarters once were.”

“It’s beautiful.”

The horse and carriage followed the path along the edge of the mountain, which overlooked water so dark and still, it appeared as black glass through the mist that hung on the air. A fearsome backdrop to the cathedral. Suddenly, Blackwater made sense.

Where rock meets sea.

Xhiphias had told me it was inevitable that I’d find it.

The moon sat high as a backdrop, a brightly glowing orb, bigger than I’d ever seen it before and reflecting across the water below like a dark mirror. Toward the west, through the fog, I could make out the dotted lights of a small town, or village, off in the distance.

I couldn’t say what I’d expected of Nightshade, perhaps a barren land of suffering and carnage, but it certainly wasn’t the enchantment of an old cathedral.

“It looks so peaceful.”

“Don’t let it fool you. When it storms, those waters turn furious.”

Higher and higher the carriage climbed alongside the mountain, until my fears kicked in and I could no longer peer over the edge. Instead, I kept my attention forward and breathed hard through my nose.

“Everything all right? You seem a little on edge?”?Anya smiled beside me.

“I’m fine. Just a little tired, is all.”

“Of course, we’ll get you settled right in.”

Anya brought the carriage to a stop before an enormous black, wrought iron fence, housed within a stone arc tunnel. Cast iron spearheads stuck up from the top of it, and at either side sat a stony gargoyle perched high on concrete pillars. Without prompting, the gates parted on a creaking sound, as if by their own will. Frowning, I examined the entrance as we passed, looking for any gears, or cranks, that would explain its movement, without her having pressed a button, but I found nothing. Once through, I leaned to the side, looking around the edge of the carriage to see them close on their own, as well.

Another snap of the reins, and the horse plodded along the long and winding drive toward where the cathedral stood in the distance.?Outside of the few gas lamps that lined the stony path ahead, silvery bands of moonlight illuminated nearby hedges that seemed intentionally arranged around vine-covered stone arches. A soaring bell tower had me sitting forward in my seat to catch a glimpse of the enormous clock face sat below the iron bell at its peak. To the left, at the break of a long hedge, a lantern hung from the bracket on a pole, marking the entrance to a maze within. Mossy coated statues of warrior angels stood about the yard, hidden within browning, frost-ravaged gardens, surrounded in a magnificent splendor of decay.

Regardless of whether, or not, the rumors about Van Croix were true, this place was death. I could feel it in my bones, and yet, its tragically beautiful gloom touched a part of me I hadn’t felt since the days of running amuck in the church ruins. It sang an exquisite dirge to my heart that’d somehow grown more morose with age.

It reminded me of home.

“The cathedral is where he lives, then?” I asked, drinking in the captivating gloom of the building.

“Yes. As I mentioned, while many of the chapels remain, a number of rooms have been renovated to living quarters.”

Anya pulled into the half-circle drive, where I had a better view of the stone exterior with its two, roofed turrets and pointed spires. Flying buttresses at either side of the ribbed vaults that made up the entrance could hardly be seen with the thick vines climbing over its stony exterior. A rose window and stone carvings of what I guessed were archangels made for extraordinary detail when seen up close.

Darkly magnificent.

In the distance of the yard, something moved, and for a moment, I thought it was the creature from the woods bounding toward me.

Perhaps worse than that, three enormous, black dogs cut toward the carriage with the kind of determination that had my stomach twisting over on itself.

“And here we go …” Anya climbed out of the carriage, as the trio circled it, snarling and baring teeth that I imagined would’ve torn into me with little effort. “She’s with me! Go on now! Back to bed! Shoo!”

Her batting at them failed to deter them much, though, and the larger of the three lurched toward the carriage on a bark.

I startled backward, nearly falling off the other side of it. Odd that the horse seemed completely unafraid of the dogs, not so much as flinching in response to all that vicious barking. As if it knew they were after me, instead.

“Enough of that! Cerberus, I won’t tell you again.”

The dog made one more swipe of its teeth toward me, before Anya swatted him on the backside. “Go back to bed, or I’ll fetch your master, and then you’ll be sorry! Fenrir! Nero! You get back at once!”

It wasn’t until she pulled out what looked to be a whistle tucked into her collar and set it to her lips that the dogs snapped to attention. Not a single sound reached my ears, so it must’ve been an unusual dog whistle, because even the ones I was familiar with let out a scratchy hissing noise when blown. She puffed her cheeks and blew again.

Tucking their tails and whining, the dogs turned away, the closest one casting one more snarl toward me.

“Silly mongrels. Don’t even realize their master isn’t home. He’s out tonight, which means we need to hurry and get you settled before he returns.”

“Will he feed me to the dogs, if he finds me?” While nothing more than a joke on my part, the fact that Anya merely cleared her throat in response and pulled a bag from the front seat of the carriage had my stomach knotting up again. A reminder that this place wasn’t home. The people here could’ve been anything, and it was best to keep my guard up. “You’re certain it’s no trouble letting me stay?”

“No, no. So long as you stay out of sight, you have nothing to worry about. You can leave by morning, and no one will be the wiser.”

“Mister Van Croix, what you’ve told me, he isn’t …”

Brow quirked, she wore a question in her expression. “A bad man? He’s no saint, and certainly doesn’t fit into the categories of black and white. But he isn’t the worst you’ll find here.”

The place sounded like a playground for criminals, which probably made sense, if a bunch of fallen angels had free reign. Although, it didn’t sound like they were the winged creatures I’d been made to believe.

Making one more scan for the dogs, I hopped off the carriage, while Anya rounded the back of it and swung the door open. At the sound of grunting and her arms flailing in struggle, I padded toward her to help. On the floor of the carriage, a filthy man lay hog-tied, his body covered in bruises and patches of caked-on grime. Taking hold of his hair, she guided him out of the carriage with the kind of strength I wouldn’t have guessed for a woman her age.

“What is this? What are you doing to him?”

“He’s a criminal, thief, and murderer. He’s also fresh meat for the dogs.”

“You …. You’re not feeding him to the dogs, are you?”

“Heavens, no. Just a figure of speech, dear. He’s their new caretaker. Now, if they decide they don’t particularly care for their caretaker, that’s certainly another matter, but I wouldn’t intentionally cut him up and serve him on a platter. I’ve far more scruples than that.”

The man moaned and wriggled on the ground, as if trying to get away.

“Now, you hush, or I’ll have Cerberus drag you back to those kennels himself. The village intended to burn you alive, young man. As an example to all. Think about that for a moment. What you did to that poor girl was inexcusable.”

The man stilled on the ground, brows crimping in a frown.

“Yes, and Master Van Croix essentially spared you. So, unless you’d like to go back to the dingy cage where I found you, I suggest you behave. Are we clear?”

His eyes shot to me and back to her.

One swift kick to his groin set him curling in on himself, howling in pain, and as Anya loomed over him in a terrifying display of dominance, a tendril of uneasiness burrowed beneath my skin. “You lay one finger on any of the females on this estate, and I will see to it that your finger is the only thing left of you.”

Whatever the woman was, whether human, or not, she seemed to scare the crap out of him.

And me.

“Now, run along toward the kennels. Garic is back there and can get you squared away. The dogs have already scented you, so I don’t advise running. It’ll invite the kind of chase that won’t end in your favor. Trust me. I know.” Producing a knife from one of the pockets of her dress, she leaned down toward the man, and he flinched, kicking himself back. She took hold of his wrists and sliced through the binds with ease, then carefully slid the blade between his cheek and the gag tied to his face, slicing that away, as well. “Run along now. And good night to you.”

As if she were the greater threat, he raced off around the corner of the cathedral toward where the dogs had run, without so much as a backward glance.

“The village planned to burn him?” I stared after him, trying to imagine such a thing. The imagined scent of burning flesh had me wrinkling my nose.

“Oh, yes. He’s a despicable creature. Not that it matters much, but his name is Jesper. It’s best you stay away from him while you’re here. There are murderers, and then there are men like him.”

“Then, why spare him?”

“The master has his reasons, which, I’ll admit, elude me at times.” Once the man was out of sight, she spun to face me, a smile already stretching her lips. “Now to get you settled.”

Through a majestically carved, arched, wooden door, Anya led me inside the cathedral. An unexpected curtain of familiarity washed over me as I stepped within the elegant foyer, with its marble flooring and the flickering lanterns hung about walls. A warm, comforting feeling that belied the cathedral’s cold and unwelcomed entrance.

A life-size candelabra sculpture of a woman dressed like a goddess gave the room a soft glow that made the place look more like a dwelling than a church. The scent of old wood and age hung on the air, and I felt as if I’d gone back in time, to another era. Nostalgia tickled the back of my neck, and I tugged the borrowed blanket up higher, as I marveled the interior.

An elaborate chandelier hung down from the high, arched ceiling, also laden with flickering candelabras and hundreds of small crystals that reflected their light. Heavenly scenes made up the tapestries and paintings hung about the frowning, dark-wood walls. Angels and demons battling each other in bloody gore. Interspersed between them were portraits that looked to be from another era. Men in armor, and women in busty dresses, whose coiffed hair fell in spongy curls around their faces. There were stairwells that went right and left, and balconies that overlooked the melancholy foyer of a home that no longer welcomed guests.

“Who were they? The Van Croixs?” I couldn’t keep my eyes from wandering the details of the place as I asked the question.

I’d have believed them to be royalty, given the luxuries that surrounded me, and yet, beneath the beauty of it all, there pulsed the grim and dying embers of a dynasty. The loneliness of a fallen lineage.

“Some say they came from noble blood, centuries ago. Not much was known about them. It’s only Master Jericho now, who seems to be exceptionally fond of being alone.”

“There’s no Mrs. Van Croix, then?”

“If there ever was, I’m not aware. I’ve always known him to keep to himself.”

I waited for Anya to offload her bag in the foyer and remove her scarf. “So, the dog--you called him Cerberus. As in the watchdog of the underworld?”

“You’re familiar with him?”

“Read about him. Yes.”

“Well, Cerberus is certainly no three-headed dog, but he likes to bark as if there were three mouths on him.”

“So, he’s a case of his bark being worse than his bite, then?”

“Oh, goodness no. His bite will snap your bones. Twice the strength of a lion’s.”

“Oh.” How did anyone ever leave the place without that whistle, then? The wary side of my brain kicked in, the one that’d always questioned human motives, and I couldn’t help but wonder if the dogs served that very purpose.

To contain.

Grabbing one of the candlesticks, she led me up the staircase, and with my closer proximity, I studied the portraits on the wall as we passed them.

“Are one of these the master of the house?”

“His bloodline. Master Van Croix has never been enamored with portraits. Many of them were lost in the fire. Only those stored in the vaults were spared.” She pointed to one hanging along the staircase--a beautiful woman with golden hair and glowing skin, standing next to a handsome man decked out in military armor. It looked like something I might’ve seen in history books, as a child.

“Relatives of Master Van Croix. These portraits were housed in the undercroft during the fire, thankfully. Otherwise, I’m afraid there’d be no evidence at all of the Van Croixs.”

“Wow. His family line goes way back, huh?”

“Centuries.”

We kept on up the staircase, to a long, dark passage. A thick wooden door with heavy, black iron hardware was where we came to a stop.

“You’ll sleep here,” Anya said, opening the door to an octagonal room.

Inside, the canopied bed, with its black, crushed velvet bedding and plush tapestries, reminded me of something a member of the royal family might sleep on. A matching velvet chaise stood off to the side, in front of ceiling-high windows and the longest set of drapes I’d ever seen. An old-fashioned armoire and vanity sat at the opposite wall.

“I’ll arrange to have ice brought up for your injury. Will you require a doctor’s examination?”

Touching my hand to my forehead again, I shook my head. “It’s just a small bump.”

“Very good. I’ll also have some food brought to your room, if you’re hungry. It’ll be left outside your door. And there’s a basin there with fresh linens, to wash up, if you’d like.”

“Thank you. You said Van Croix isn’t here right now?”

“No, he’s out for the evening. My hope is that, by the time he returns, you’ll already be fast asleep.”

“Might there be a chance that I could speak with him?”

The smile on her face pinched to a frown. “You wish to speak with him? May I ask the nature of such a meeting?”

“I’m under the impression he might have spoken to my father at one time.”

“Oh, I can’t imagine.” Hands clasped together, she snorted. “He rarely speaks with anyone. Not very generous with his time.”

“Still, if I might ask him a few questions, it would help put my mind at ease.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“Tonight?” I’d hoped not to come across as too eager and anxious, but the quicker I could speak with him, the less anxiety I’d feel about the whole meeting altogether.

“Definitely not tonight. I’ll arrange something for tomorrow.”

Schooling my disappointment with a slight smile, I nodded. “Okay. Thank you. Again. For graciously taking me in.”

“Of course, dear. And I trust you won’t make me regret it.”