The Love of Monsters (In The Absence of Light Book 4) by Andy Monk

Author:Andy Monk [Monk, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-06-28T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

The Love of Monsters

Bennett House, Mortlake, Surrey - 1710

The room was comfortably furnished; there was a large bed with thick blankets, cotton sheets and feather pillows, a chest of drawers made of sturdy oak, a well-upholstered chair faced a fireplace next to which logs had been piled. A small table sat under the window with a vase of dried roses upon it. Outside the early morning sun was glinting off a river he assumed was the Thames. If he had known twenty-four hours earlier that Alyssa was going to whisk him away somewhere, this would not have been the kind of prison he would have imagined.

Caleb stared out of the window a good long while. He hadn’t expected to see the sun again.

He wasn’t entirely sure where he was. He hadn’t asked when they arrived in the early hours of the morning and had been ushered from the coach into a large well-appointed house. The river was narrower here than in London, so he assumed that they had gone west, he didn’t think they’d travelled long enough to reach another river as wide as the Thames, but he couldn’t be entirely sure. The passage of time had not been his primary concern during the coach journey.

Alyssa had brought him up to the room. Told him to treat the house as his home and, much to his surprise, had bid him good night. He didn’t know what to make of it at all.

He had thought, without a shadow of a doubt, that she had intended to kill him, probably slowly or, at the very least, drain him of his blood. Instead, she appeared to want him for other purposes entirely.

He sat on the bed, which was as comfortable as it had appeared though he had not tried to sleep on it, and left the memory of his brother to enjoy the view.

“’tis the strangest thing,” he said, pressing his nose against the glass, “even when you try to lop off their heads, women still appear to fall in love with you.”

“Gypsy love magic,” Caleb sighed.

“That must be it. There is no other possible explanation.”

“What am I to do?”

“Put it in a bottle it and sell it. You will make an absolute fortune.”

“I meant about… my situation.”

“Oh… well. The door is unlocked, the windows unbarred and the sun is shining brightly outside. There is nothing to keep you here.”

“Save the fact she will kill Danny, Elsa, Annabel and Harriet if I do.”

“Yes, there is that. How do you think she knew about Harriet?”

“I’m trying not to think about it. I can’t believe I have put her in danger for the sake of a drawing and a locket.”

“She must have been following you,” the memory of his brother mused, turning from the window. The morning sunshine was streaming through what remained of his body.

“Not in daylight.”

“Scaife then.”

“I would have recognised him.”

“You were too lost in your own misery to notice if Old Nick himself had been following you with his cloven feet clomping on the cobbles.

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