The Castle: Prequel to the Guardian Angel Series

by Melissa Johnson

  ***

  Heather blew a kiss at her daughter and softly closed Ariana’s door. For a long moment she rested her hand on the oak. Today had been a long and difficult day, another mark against the happiness she’d found. Stolen, was more accurate, with the help of her new identity.

  “I’m not quite Lady Such-and-Such, Mari,” she whispered. “But very close.”

  All those years ago, Vivian, Baroness Amberleigh, had been a dear and accepting friend, easing her way into her new life by claiming her as a widowed cousin. Like that day she’d sat with her on the grassy banks of the Ha-Ha, she’d simply agreed with her when, every day Heather had told she wouldn’t be here for long. The days grew into months. Ariana had been born. The specter of her unfinished business became pushed further and further into the recesses of her mind, only surfacing in her nightmares. And then, incredibly, Robert had come into her life and persisted to court her. She’d been broken when she’d met him, grieving like the widow he thought she was. In spite of that, he’d done the impossible. One day he’d made her laugh. But it had taken a long time before she accepted a new life and didn’t look back.

  Now she feared her past was coming back to haunt her, threatening her peace. She didn’t think she could hide from it much longer. And Robert didn’t laugh as easily these days.

  She straightened her shoulders and walked to the nursery, slipping quietly inside.

  Robert stood by Harry’s cot and he jumped when she touched his shoulder. “Sorry,” she whispered. “Ariana is still awake if you’d like to say goodnight.”

  “No, not tonight.”

  She sighed and bent over Harry, smoothing back his curls. Such fine hair, the color of sunshine.

  “We can’t go on this way.”

  Heather turned to Robert, surprised by his abrupt and ominous pronouncement. “What are you suggesting we do?”

  “We must let Thaddeus take her,” he said firmly.

  She couldn’t have heard him right. He’d said the impossible. The room seemed to tilt. “Thaddeus?” Just saying the name made her shudder. “What do you know of…him?”

  “From what you told me, not much,” Robert said defensively. “But I think it’s time we let him help us.”

  “Help us? Have you lost your mind?” Heather clapped her mouth over her mouth, as though afraid her former brother-in-law could hear her.

  Robert looked taken aback at her outburst, but he couldn’t be nearly as shocked as her. She took a hasty step backwards. He didn’t understand. She blamed herself for that. There was so much she hadn’t told him.

  Robert stepped closer. “Don’t look like that, Heather love. I know you didn’t get along…”

  An odd little noise escaped her throat.

  “… but it will only be for a short while. Once she has learned some control she can come back for visits.”

  Had she so thoroughly reduced life and death to a family misunderstanding? Now he wanted her to contact Thaddeus. She sucked in a shaky breath, but the room lacked sufficient oxygen. She hadn’t wanted to tell him anything of her past. But knowing a day like this would come, she had told him part of it. A version of it. Obviously, her version had too many holes.

  He thought there would be visits.

  “No! Do not say another word. I would never let Ariana go with him. Never! How could you think I could send her away? What mother would do that?”

  Harry whimpered and Heather abruptly cut off her words when she realized her voice had risen. They both froze for a long minute, waiting to see if Harry would wake with a full-fledged wail. Thankfully, their baby fell back to sleep, unaware of the turmoil around him.

  Robert took her elbow and led her away from the cot before he answered, his voice low but fierce. “What mother would do that, you ask? How about a mother concerned with what would happen if her four-year-old took it in her mind to take her baby brother God only knows where!”

  “She didn’t do that!”

  “She very nearly did.”

  He let her go and moved back to Harry’s cot, gripping the railing with his hands until his knuckles showed white. Heather stepped forward and laid her hand on top of his.

  “It will be all right, Robert,” she said quietly. “Today was an accident.”

  He shook his head. “Ariana needs to be with others like herself.”

  Heather frowned. Others like herself? Where did he get these words? He didn’t sound at all like himself.

  Robert continued, not looking up from their baby. “We must think of Harry’s safety.”

  His words pulled her long buried Guardian instincts to the surface. “Oh, Robert,” she said as gently has she knew how. “In time, Ariana will be the best protector Harry could possibly have.”

  “But will we survive until that day?”

  She heard the helpless frustration in his voice. She hadn’t realized how tormented he had been. How long had he been thinking this way?

  “Robert, do you love my child?”

  He stiffened. But he turned toward her. “I do love her, Heather. She is a miniature of you, so how could I not?”

  She smiled, relieved.

  “But you ask me to place too much trust in a small child.”

  They seemed to be at an impasse, each refusing to give ground. She didn’t know how to bridge the difference of opinion between them. Heather bit her lip. Her secrets were smothering her. Heaven help her, she hadn’t even told him about the locket. For so long she’d hidden the locket’s existence, afraid to speak of it until recently in her game with Ariana. It might reassure Robert to know the locket meant Heather wasn’t completely without her powers, but it was only a matter of time before the locket didn’t work for her. Its power was being transferred to its new owner – Ariana.

  As much as she hated to go back, to remember, she knew she had to give him more of what had happened. Robert must get this idea of Thaddeus helping them out of his head.

  “Come,” Heather said, taking his hand. “Sit with me and I will tell you what I can.”

  She led him to the window seat and kept her voice low. “You don’t know Thaddeus like I do. We did not have a simple…misunderstanding when we parted ways. He…banished me.”

  Robert snapped his head up. “Banished? What do you mean by ‘banished?’ I thought you left by choice.”

  “No,” she said flatly. “I had no choice.”

  Eric, she knew, would disagree. The old fear came back as though it were yesterday. In her mind she saw that first horrible day when Thaddeus had invented his title. The next horrible day played out and the next, trapping her in a loop of memories that spiraled toward that last day.

  “I can still remember his exact words when he…banished me.”

  Robert looked oddly pale. “What did he say?”

  “He said, “I will enjoy imagining how you will cope with a child with Guardian abilities when you have none.”

  “He took your powers?” Robert gripped her shoulders. “Heather! This is important! Can Thaddeus give you back your powers?”

  His urgency frightened her. “Of course he can, but he won’t. He hates me. You have no idea how much he hates me.”

  “He hates you? Why?”

  Heather flinched. Thaddeus had asked her the same thing. Why, Heather? Why?

  Robert’s voice brought her back to the present. “Tell me!”

  “I – I almost killed him.”

  Robert released her and jumped to his feet. “Good God.”

  She’d repulsed him. Her hands twisted the fabric of her green silk gown as she watched him rake his hands through his hair and stare at her, absolutely stunned. Oh, why had she said it that way, with no explanation? “It is…hard to explain why…”

  But Robert held up his hand, looking dazed. “I cannot begin to know your reasons, but I’m sure you had them.”

  She gave a jerky nod, grateful
for the reprieve. “Do you understand now? There is no possibility of letting Ariana go to Thaddeus.” Her voice broke. “He won’t bring her back.”

  “But he promised,” Robert said, half to himself. “He promised he would bring her back.”

  Heather was slow to absorb what Robert was saying. Thaddeus had made him a promise? Thaddeus had been here?

  In an instant she was beside him, clutching the lapels of his coat. “What have you done, Robert? What have you done?”

  She shook him out of his lethargy and he looked down at her. “I think…I think I made a deal with the devil.”

  She froze, her blood turned cold. Robert gripped her hands tightly. “I will fix this Heather. I swear, I will…”

  His voice trailed off. They heard music coming from down the hallway. Robert cocked his head to the side. “What is that?”

  The tune sounded like a circus melody. It didn’t belong.

  She broke away from Robert and raced out the door. Ariana! She had to get to her. A step before she reached Ariana’s door, a brilliant light flashed under the doorway.

  No!

  Robert reached around her and rattled the door handle. It wouldn’t open. He glanced at her for a split-second before stepping back and throwing himself bodily at the door. Wood splintered as it gave way. Heather rushed into the room after him, running into his back when he abruptly stopped. In the moonlight she saw that the bed was empty except for a ragged doll. Around the doll’s neck shimmered a gold locket.

  Heather cried out, or she thought she did. She heard the sound as if it had been made by someone else, and it echoed, sweeping her back in time.

  Robert shouted to the empty room. “Thaddeus! I changed my mind! Thaddeus, bring her back!”

  She moved like a sleepwalker toward the bed. He had her. She picked up the doll, thinking how Ariana had named the doll Lucy, after the maid. He had her. Her knees buckled and she collapsed in a crumpled heap to the floor. Her hands shook and she took the locket off the doll. With the locket she could still go back.

  “I must go.”

  She didn’t realize she’d spoken out loud until Robert answered her.

  “Go where?”

  “Dra --,” Heather cut herself off, shocked to realize she’d almost said Dragon’s Keep. “I’m going to the Castle.”

  “You can do that?”

  “Yes.” Further explanations were beyond her at the moment. She moved to get to her feet but her legs were wobbly. Robert put a steadying hand under her elbow. “Take me with you.”

  “No!” She pulled her arm away, rejecting his offer more harshly than she intended. If she were to get into the Castle undetected, she must do this alone. “I need to find my daughter.”

  “Our daughter,” he said hoarsely. “I love her too, please believe that.”

  She couldn’t think of anything except getting Ariana back. “I must go.”

  Robert swung her around. “Look at me, Heather! What about us? What about Harry?”

  Heather sucked in her breath and finally looked fully at Robert. A gray cast to his face, he looked as if he were about to be ill. He thought she was leaving him…leaving them. “I will be back.”

  Robert swallowed hard.

  “You promise?”

  “I promise.”

  Again she made a promise. Heather had a sinking feeling she was going to have to choose which life was hers once and for all.