Chapter 14

TILLY ENTERED MAB’S bedroom dressed in a blisteringly white shift and matching dressing gown, holding a tray with a steaming pot of tea.

“The m-maids always have a pot waiting for me at this time in the evening,” she mumbled quietly as Mab gestured her towards the armchairs by the fire.

“I’ll only be a moment,” Mab said as she darted behind the dressing screen to get changed into her nightwear. “There should be some scones on the side table.”

Just as Mab pulled her nightdress over her head, Tilly let out a little squeal. Mab darted across the room, her arm still tangled in one of her sleeves. “Tilly!” she cried. “What’s the matter?”

Tilly’s eyes flashed from Mab to the side table. Nestled beside her plate of scones was her mother-of-pearl pistol.

“Oh, don’t mind that,” Mab said, feeling a sheepish grin tug on her face as she picked up the pistol and carefully deposited it into the first drawer she could find. “I was under the impression that I would be staying with the more, er, rowdy side of my family when I was packing my bag. It was quite a surprise when I found out this place was real.”

Tilly’s lip twitched but didn’t quite pull into a smile .

Mab pulled on her dressing gown and joined Tilly by the fire. The pair quietly nibbled on their scones. Mab had never met anyone as jittery as Tilly and thought it best to remain quiet until the girl had familiarised herself with her surroundings.

Rain tattooed off the stained-glass windows, and a fork of lightning lit up the air around them, causing Mab to jump. The clap of thunder that followed was disturbingly close for comfort. Tilly, surprisingly, remained still and unbothered by the thunder and lightning.

“It doesn’t frighten you?”

Tilly shook her head. “N-no. There are far more frightening things out there than a storm,” she said quietly.

Mab felt a stab of pity for the young girl. In the light of the fire, Mab realised that Tilly was much younger than she’d initially thought. She couldn’t be older than seventeen, if that.

“You’ve been here for a while then?” Mab asked.

Tilly nodded. “Just over a year.”

“And Aunt áine has treated you well?”

“Oh, y-yes. She’s been my saviour. I, uh, I had, em,” Tilly started.

Mab placed her hand on Tilly’s. “You don’t have to tell me, Tilly. I didn’t mean to pry. I just was wondering what this place was like in case I don’t find a husband and decide to live out my years here.”

Tilly looked at Mab, the joke clearly going over her head. Admittedly, it was a terrible one, but Mab thought Tilly was perhaps a bit too timid for her usual sense of humour, which her father repeatedly reminded her was only fit for the slums of Liverpool.

“You don’t w-want a husband?” Tilly asked.

“I never have. I aspired to be a spinster. But then ... well, it’s a long story. I caught the eye of a man that ... well, and my father had decided to agree to his proposal ... and I might have done something that was scandalous enough for my father to decide to send me here. But at least I didn’t have to marry that rotten man. My father was very angry, and I don’t think he’d allow me back unless I’m married. But I am a stubborn woman, and I think I’ll remain a spinster here out of spite.” Mab grinned, and, surprisingly, Tilly grinned back at her.

“I think I t-too will remain a spinster, though not out of spite,” she said.

“You wish to find a husband?” Mab asked, slightly confused. Mab had guessed that something very traumatic must have happened to the poor girl and had just assumed that she would want nothing more to do with men.

Tilly nodded her head. “I have a son, you see. And I wish to raise him. I want to find a g-good man to help me. Someone with a kind manner.”

“Would your family not help you?” Mab asked. While having a child out of wedlock was scandalous, surely her family could do what others did in the same situation and just pretend the baby was a distant relative.

Tilly shook her head and gazed into the fire. “I would d-die before I let my family near him,” she whispered.

“Have you found a suitable candidate?” Mab asked, hoping to change the subject from that of Tilly’s family.

The young girl shook her head again. “They frighten me,” she said. “The men, that is. I am t-trying, though. Aunt áine has really helped me with my confidence. Today is the first day in a very long time that I’ve ventured down to the ballroom. I think I just need a l-little bit longer before I’m ready to stay for the soiree.”

“That is incredibly admirable,” Mab said earnestly.

“I know they’re not all bad. But when I look at them, all I can see is his i-icy eyes. I couldn’t do anything. I was powerless. That’s what scares me more than anything, knowing that whatever man I meet has the power to do that to me again if he wants to. And I wouldn’t be able to do a t-thing to stop them.”

Mab placed her hand on Tilly’s. She couldn’t even begin to comprehend the fear that Tilly felt. Of course, there were many occasions during her visits to her docker cousins’ when Mab had been put in a dangerous situation – but she’d always had family on her side, and the confidence of youth and her natural sense of adventure had dampened whatever fear she ought to have felt in those situations. But the kind of trauma Tilly carried, that seeped its way out into her everyday life ... Mab felt guilty for the feeling of relief that crept over her. Relief that she’d been fortunate enough not to cross paths with the kind of man that poor Tilly had.

They sat like that for a long time before Tilly asked, “Why did you not want to m-marry the man who had proposed?”

“He was a bit of an arse, that’s why,” Mab said without thinking. She suddenly clasped her hands over her mouth, and Tilly’s eyes widened in surprise.

Tilly chuckled, and the air hummed with laughter as Mab joined in.

“Sorry,” Mab said as the last of the laughter died. “I shouldn’t talk like that.”

“That’s the first time I’ve l-laughed in what seems like forever,” Tilly said, using her sleeve to wipe away her tears.

“No. In truth, Mr Alabaster—”

Thunk .

Mab twisted to face the wall where the loud noise had emanated from. A girlish giggle came from her neighbour’s room. Mab made a tutting sound before turning back to face Tilly, but she’d gone. She caught sight of Tilly’s white skirts disappearing through the door just as another flash of lightning lit up the room. Mab had barely got to her feet when she heard Tilly’s horrified scream, followed directly by the scream of a man.

Mab ran to the door, only to be met by the largest man she’d ever seen, clutching his chest and breathing heavily. A split second later, the woman she recognised as Deidre poked her head out the door.

“David? What’s going on?” Deidre asked.

“I saw a ghost,” the giant said. “A real life ghost! ”

“It wasn’t a ghost!” shouted Mab. “It was Tilly!”

“Tilly?” Deidre asked, striding over to the giant. “What was Tilly doing out here? She never leaves her room.”

Mab gritted her teeth – it was all her fault that Tilly hadn’t been tucked up in her own room and had had to meet one of the scariest looking men (at least that Mab had ever encountered) in the hallway.

“C’mon,” Deidre said, edging the giant back into her room. “You’d better wait in here while we look for her.”

Deidre took the lead, marching down the hallway like a general off to battle. As they approached the stairways, a guard leaned over the banister of the stairs, staring down.

“Did you see Tilly come down here?” Deidre asked.

“Was that Tilly?” he replied, a slight edge of relief to his voice. “She scared the life out of me! I thought she was a ghost. Aye, I saw her. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of us around. I’m sure someone will find her soon.”

“Can we look for her too?” asked Mab. She felt that she had to do something. It was her fault, after all.

“I don’t see why not,” the guard said. “There needs to be at least one guard here at all times, so I have to stay. Just let the other guards you come across know. The more people looking for her, the better.”

Mab and Deidre practically threw themselves down the stairs as a flash of lightning illuminated the hallway again.

“What way should we go?” Deidre asked, looking up and down the long stretch of corridors.

“You take that way,” Mab said, pointing a finger to her left. “The soiree is down there, and you know the people better. You can tell them to keep their eyes peeled. I’ll go down this way,” she said, pointing to the gloomy corridor on her right. “I’ll just have a quick peek in the rooms and then come back and find you.”

Deidre nodded. She tightened her dressing gown around her waist before speeding off towards the sound of music. Mab walked over to the nearest table and picked up a metal candlestick holder, the once-long candle well melted. An empty chair with a perfect imprint of a bottom sat beside the table, and Mab wondered if the guard had taken off down the corridor she was about to explore. Mab wasn’t a massive fan of the dark, even less so when a storm was involved. The last thing she wanted was to bump into someone in a shadowy, unfamiliar corridor – she’d had enough frights for one night.

Mab went from room to room, barely registering the interiors in her panic. Thrusting her candle holding arm into the room, she’d call Tilly’s name, wait a moment, and swiftly move on to the next. With a discouraged sigh, she opened the final door.

An ice-cold wind whipped through the room, causing Mab’s teeth to chatter. She only just managed to put her hand up in time to save the little candle flame from going out. Another cruel breeze tore through the room as Mab crossed to the open window, its sheer net curtains floating violently back and forth. Mab battled her way through the netting and stuck her head out of the window, her eyes narrowing against the torrent of rain. Just as Mab caught a glimpse of a figure in the distance, the last of the full moon was engulfed by thick clouds, and a pitch blackness overwhelmed the grounds. Before desperation fully overwhelmed her, a strike of lightning illuminated the gardens, and Mab could just make out the ghostly figure of someone walking across the lawn and towards the ancient mound.

With a sigh, Mab clambered up onto the sill and swung her legs out of the window. The drop had to only be a few feet – she was on the ground floor, after all – but she couldn’t see anything beyond the little light the candle provided. Holding her breath, she took a leap of faith and landed on the gravel path, her candle sputtering out upon impact.

She had to be all kinds of mad to willingly walk away from the safety of the house, over unfamiliar grounds, in the pitch darkness in the middle of a Scottish storm.

Determined to right her wrong, Mab took off, arms outstretched in front of her, in the general direction of the figure she’d seen. She stumbled almost immediately when the gravel was abruptly replaced by grass, and again when the lawn began a steep incline. Mab cursed every profanity she knew as she pulled herself up, feeling blindly for the exposed bits of rock with their ancient carvings to help haul herself up the mound. It had looked much smaller when she’d seen it in the daylight, and she cursed herself for having found the steep, rock-clad side to climb up instead of the nice, gentle, unexcavated side. Thankfully, another strike of lightning illuminated the gardens, and she recognised the shivering form of a body huddled under the skeletal tree.

Mab called out, knowing that Tilly wouldn’t be able to hear her over the storm. Finally, after another few minutes of clambering through the slippery mud, she made it to the top. The slightest sliver of moon had managed to find its way through the storm clouds, and Mab could make out Tilly’s white nightdress through the darkness before it was once again engulfed.

“Tilly!” she called out.

“M-Mab?”

“Thank heavens!” Mab said as she felt her way around, finally coming into contact with the thick tree trunk. A bit more shuffling, and her outstretched hand made contact with Tilly. The poor girl felt ice cold and was shivering violently.

“Why did you run?” Mab asked, helping the girl to her feet.

“I just ... your s-story ... and then there was that m-man ... and I just had to get o-out,” Tilly said through chattering teeth.

“C’mon,” Mab soothed, wrapping her arm around Tilly’s shoulder. “We should get you back.”