Dark Remnants (The Last Library Book 2)

by Jill Cooper

  “Something the hunters can’t undo,” the young miss said to him, her lips perched in amusement.

  She shouldn’t have said it. She could go to the gallows for such a thing, but his heart joined her in rejoice. “Indeed,” Mitchell said and felt a sliver of hope take place in his heart. If this rainbow could exist in such vile darkness, maybe love would have a reprieve for the likes of him.

  ****

  Mitchell left for work early, but thanks to the commotion outside, he arrived exactly one minute late. He walked fast and rigid, hurrying to his desk right outside of the Minister of City Affair’s office, but no one seemed to notice.

  The area he worked in was quiet and kempt. Dark gray carpets met light gray walls, and he made his home at his dingy brown desk, but his seat cushion on an old wooden chair gave him a welcome rest. Being at work with the minister was better than being at home with his wife and son in every way.

  Being home was torturous in more ways than one. When he was around Dani, he fought the urge to touch her constantly. Under the watchful eyes of his family, Mitchell’s growing desire grew almost unquenchable. An awkward situation for all those around.

  Mitchell removed his pen and daily ledger, not that it was filled with words. They used symbols and simple lines to represent what needed to be said and counted. He prepared to go through the motions of his morning duties when the double doors opened at the end of the hall. The minister quickly walked through them with a limp, using his cane to hurry toward his office.

  “In my office, Mitchell,” the minister grumbled as he hurried to the right-side office door.

  “Yes, Minister.” Mitchell leapt to his feet and followed the minister into the roomy space. For the first time, he noticed the minister wipe his hands on a cloth. When he tossed it into the wastepaper basket beside his desk, it was splattered with blood. Human blood. Mitchell eyebrows rose as he waited for the coming assignment.

  The minister clapped his hands to his fireplace, and it roared with fire, not the first time Michell had watched this feat. The minister ignored him as he warmed his hands by it.

  “Minister? Did you have something you wished of me?”

  The minister barely nodded, distracted. It was almost as if his mind was lost somewhere else. “The day of worship will be moved up to tomorrow. It will continue for three days. Any appointments, cancel them. Make sure the citizens of Rottenwood understand worship of the Dark Lord Creighton is mandatory and they will present their bounty and sacrifice to him.”

  “Sir?” Mitchell’s heart thumped quickly. He certainly heard the minister wrong. “Sir, the bounty was not to come for another three months. Many won’t have had time to gather an appropriate gift for the dark lord yet.”

  “You take me for a fool, Mitchell? You think I don’t know?” The minister threw Mitchell a glance, and his lip twitched with anger. “The dark lord gets what he wants. He needs the worship now more than ever considering what is happening out there. Don’t question the orders of the minister’s office.”

  The dark lord was losing power? He needed the worship to replenish, recharge, everyone knew, but had the rainbow somehow sapped him of his strength? Or had it been something else?

  “Forgive me, sir.” Mitchell bowed down low. “It’ll be done, I swear it.” He paused and licked his lips. “My own son is to marry in one month’s time, before the bounty and sacrifice was required. Am I wrong to think he will receive his reprieve?”

  The minister grunted with disgust. “Abby Taylor, wasn’t it?”

  Mitchell nodded. “Yes, sir. She’s been sent on a merchant’s errand but should return in a few days’ time. The wedding can occur as soon as she’s back in town, Minister.”

  The minister shook his head, and Mitchell’s heart sank deep into his toes. “I’m afraid not, Mitchell. Abigail Taylor is a criminal. An enemy of the dark lord himself. She’ll not be returning in any condition.”

  All the color went out of Mitchell’s face, and he wobbled on his feet. “I’m… but my son…”

  “I can offer you no respite again. He should have married long before now. I’m afraid, Mr. Richardson, your son’s life is no longer his own. We will see him at worship on the second day presented to the dark lord. He will be deemed a bachelor and thrown from society.”

  No, it couldn’t be. Mitchell nearly fell backwards as he rocked on his heel, but he steadied himself. What could he do? How could he possibly save his son? Mitchell stepped forward. There had to be something he could say, something he could do. “Sir, if you would please listen to reason.”

  “There’s no reason. It’s for the good of society. This is how we do things. If he won’t be productive, if he won’t work and produce an heir, there’s nothing than can be done.”

  “I implore you…” Mitchell searched and searched. In every corner of his mind, he looked for the answer that might solve this riddle.

  “Implore me nothing. You and your wife will be lucky to keep the seal of this office. Count your workmen blessings and leave me be. I’ve had a hard enough day without your whining. Children come, children go. The ministers, the dark lord is forever, and our word is final.”

  Mitchell felt slapped, punched, and gutted. He nodded without thought and slowly backed away from the minister and toward the exit. “Yes, of course. Please accept my apologies for adding to your stress, Minister.”

  He hurried out the office and slammed the door shut. Hand over his mouth, he bent over his desk and tried to imagine what he would do next. His wife would lose her mind if Timothy was reduced to nothing more than a bachelor and in turn a house butler. Just the word caused Mitchell to shudder and shake. His teeth hurt, and his fingernails rattled.

  Mitchell’s life was a mess. His servant was pregnant with his child, he loathed the air his wife breathed, and now his son would be sentenced to a life of servitude. Somewhere in there had to be the answer, but neither Dani nor Timothy would like it.

  As for his wife? Mitchell would make sure she’d go along with it, or she’d go to a quick end.

  Chapter Four

  The Richardsons

  “What are you doing?” Evelyn hissed and followed Mitchell around the waiting room of her front level shop. “Why are you even home? What is going on, Mitchell? I have clients!”

  He drew the curtains and locked the front door, flipping the sign with a giant X in red to face outward to the street.

  “I asked you a question, Mitchell!” Evelyn grabbed his arm. Why wasn’t he answering her? What was wrong with men always doing and taking what they wanted, never having to answer for it or themselves? Meanwhile, she was left trying to hold the family together, day after day. Year after year.

  Finally, he looked at her, and there was worry on his face. More than when baby Timothy had been born too early and they nearly lost him. He had never loved her, barely could stand touching her, but he loved their son.

  Mitchell spoke quick and fast, getting the words out in such a hurry, it left her dizzy. “You won’t like what I have to say, but you must listen to it in its entirety before you go off on one of your tantrums. Do you understand?”

  Talking to her like she was stupid, like she didn’t have her own brain. How common was that? Too common. Evelyn placed her manicured fingers onto her hips. “You’ll explain yourself, Mitchell, and you’ll do it now. Why so much drama? What has happened that’s caused you to flit about like this? Some of us have work.”

  She tried to push past him to reach the door, but he strong armed her back in a way he never had. Evelyn was torn between finding it extremely rude and being impressed.

  “Evelyn, Abby Taylor has been marked as an enemy of the Great Lord Creighton. She’s branded. She won’t be returning to Rottenwood, if she’s not dead already.”

  She tried to process the information. “Well… all right. She was a bad fit for us and our family anyhow. Those nasty Taylors thinking they’re so much better than common folk because they’re merchants! Well, I have news for them,
they are the common folk. We’ll find someone better suited for Timothy. Maybe from Evertown.”

  Mitchell shook his head. “The Great Lord Creighton is in town. The worship ceremony starts tomorrow, and the gifting and sacrifice has been moved up a month. They won’t offer us a reprieve again. Timothy is unwed, and he is to be presented on the second day.”

  Ridiculous! “Who told you such nonsense?! We have the official seal of the minister. The minister, Mitchell! He’ll award us whatever it is I ask of him!” Evelyn stormed toward the door in a show of force. Whoever Mitchell had been talking to had been lying.

  Lying. Her son wouldn’t be lost like a piece of livestock going to slaughter.

  Mitchell grabbed her arm and pulled her back toward him. “My boss, the Minister of City Affairs. I begged. I pleaded. He refuses to help us, Evie.”

  His words sunk in, and despair circled her heart. Evelyn shook her head and covered her mouth. “Not our boy, Mitchell. Not our boy!” Her face scrunched up, and she felt her resolve leaving her. Timothy would be branded a bachelor and turned into a house slave, just like Dani, the one Evelyn beat and mistreated.

  No! She wouldn’t accept it.

  “I have a plan. You won’t like it, but it’s the only option we have.”

  Her mouth twitched. “What is it?”

  “Dani and I… your suspicions are right, we have been sleeping together for… a while. She’s pregnant now. We laid together, and we made a child.”

  Vile man. The hatred for him boiled over, and Evelyn pushed him back. She grabbed her umbrella tucked in the corner of the room and used it to bash him over the head and then poked him in the stomach with its tip. “How dare you sully our family like this? Do you have any idea what will happen now? What that child will do?”

  Mitchell held his hands up. “It’s the only answer to save Tim! We go to the minister and beg forgiveness. We’ll tell him Dani and Timothy are in love, made a child, and are prepared to wed. We will take our licks, but our son will live.”

  “Raising your bastard child?” Evelyn dropped her umbrella to the ground, the fight seeping out of her into the carpet. “This is your great solution?”

  Mitchell shrugged. “It’s the only one we have, I fear. We may lose everything in the end, but it’s the only chance we can give Timmy.”

  Timmy? When was the last time her husband had used the nickname for their son? “And your whore will do this for us?”

  “She will if I ask. She’ll do whatever I ask.”

  Of course she would. Mitchell wouldn’t love her otherwise, would he? “Then I’ll owe her my life, won’t I? I will be indebted to your bitch.” Evelyn stepped back, tears in her eyes and a cracking of her heart she had never felt before. She wished to never feel it again. “But I will never forgive you for this, Mitchell Richardson.”

  “I know,” he whispered. “I’m sorry you found out this way.”

  “What other way would you rather?” Evelyn snorted. “You were never going to tell me, were you? Maybe once it was obvious. Once it was ready to be born?” Maybe not even then. By the workmen, had he been planning on leaving her for the slave girl? A life on the run was better than a life with her?

  She hurried from the room so he wouldn’t see her cry. She ran up the stairs toward her bedroom. Blocking the way, Timothy stood with tears in his eyes and a ghostly complexion. He had heard everything. Maybe Evelyn should’ve cared, but right then she didn’t think there was room in her heart for anything but pain.

  “Mother,” he shook his head, “I can’t marry a slave girl. I can’t pretend I got her pregnant if it’s father’s. Please, don’t ask me to do this!”

  “I do not ask. I order you to do this. There’s no room for failure, stupid boy.” Evelyn’s words came out with spite, hatred, and an anger which knew no rival. “Your inability to take a wife led us here. This is your problem! It has come to roost, so you will stand with the whore. You will proclaim your devotion, and you will marry her. Otherwise, you will end up a house servant, which is far worse, trust me.”

  Evelyn knew what owners could do. She was one, wasn’t she? And a vile, abusive one at that. As much as she hated Mitchell, it wasn’t uncommon to use house servants and butlers to scratch an itch a spouse couldn’t. An unspoken truth, a horrible truth, with Timothy so handsome, so young…

  “Mother, please!” Timothy called out to her, begging. Pleading.

  She didn’t listen. She turned a deaf ear and charged into her room. The master bedroom was larger than all the other rooms in the house. It had a four-post wooden bed Evelyn had always been proud of and a big window overlooking the city skyline. Now it might as well have been prison.

  Evelyn lit the candle on the dresser and said a silent prayer she’d never repeat as tears fell down her cheeks. How could she be proud now? Her family would be destroyed, and her reputation would be in complete tatters.

  “Forgive me,” she whispered with a tremor in her lips. “I’m not strong enough, my dark lord, to do this on my own.”

  She closed her eyes as thick tears clung to her lashes and slowly slipped down her cheek. Her heart quaked, and a moment later she listened to singing coming from the adjoining room—the house servant’s quarters.

  Singing. In her house where they served the dark lord.

  Evelyn picked up the fireplace poker and marched herself into Dani’s quarters. A small room with a cramped mattress on the floor, and Dani’s work clothes crowded the space. The rivaling slave was kneeling at the small table she had, folding laundry and singing. An actual song, it reduced Evelyn’s soul to a quaking mess. It sounded beautiful, one of the most splendid things to ever reach her ears.

  Singing broke the law. Music wasn’t allowed, the happiness Dani felt was ill-placed. Evelyn would make her pay.

  “Stand up!” Evelyn commanded. From how Dani gasped, it was obvious she thought to be alone. “Now! Don’t make me grab you by the hair!” In a rage, Evelyn smashed her poker against Dani’s table and broke the glass bottles her slave had been allowed to keep. Evelyn had been too kind, too respectful.

  The house servant struggled up to her feet. “Mum, what have I done to anger you? Whatever it is, I’m sorry.”

  “A lying whore.” Evelyn grabbed Dani’s hard stomach, seeing how it rounded and swelled in the baggy rags she wore. “If I didn’t need that baby to survive, I’d beat you to within an inch of your life.” She backhanded Dani.

  Dani gasped and grabbed her cheek. “Miss—” The horror in her eyes was too much for Evelyn.

  “Don’t you look at me like I’m the villain! You shrew! Praying on my family!” Evelyn grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her down onto the rug. Dani screamed, clawing at the carpet. It just made Evelyn’s anger swell. She drew her foot back to kick her slave.

  Just then, Mitchell ran into the room and jumped over Dani to protect her. He held his hands out to Evelyn. “This is not the way, my love. This isn’t the answer you’re looking for. I know you’re angry…”

  “How dare you call me your love?! Do you take me for a fool!?” She spat at Mitchell, narrowed her eyes and spat at Dani. “You will take her downstairs; do you hear me? Both of them. You will get them to practice holding hands, being in love, and go over the story we will tell the minister. You will watch them kiss, and you will make sure they look natural.”

  Mitchell nodded as he helped Dani off the floor. “Yes, I will do all of that and more. Things will work out, you’ll see, Evelyn.”

  She snorted. “I shall think not, but at least I will no longer need to hear you going at each other like animals. Get out of my sight.” Evelyn watched them go but felt no better. The rage was still there. The rage wouldn’t stop consuming her life.

  Turning to the short bed Dani had made her life on since moving in with them, Evelyn eyed the fabric scraps she had given the house servant to use as blankets. Nice fabrics, thick ones, and Evelyn had given them to her because she didn’t want Dani to be cold.

  Enraged
, Evelyn screamed. She picked up the cloth, one at a time, tearing and ripping while she cried, raged before moving on to the next piece. When it was done, she dug her poker into the mattress, tearing it open, throwing the stuffing around the room.

  She wouldn’t stop until the room was destroyed.

  Dani wouldn’t rest. She wouldn’t do anything until her son was safe from the dark lord. Evelyn would see to it that Dani didn’t sleep, didn’t eat, and maybe the anger in Evelyn’s heart would be sated.

  Chapter Five

  Tarnish Rose

  The barkeep, Rebecca, placed a pewter dish down in front of me with a cut of beef and some tender boiled potatoes and carrots with a splash of broth. My fork easily sliced through the beef, and it came alive in my mouth with something I hadn’t tasted before.

  “Hmm,” I couldn’t help saying as I took a sip of water.

  Sebastian grinned and leaned on his elbow beside me. We sat together at the bar counter away from the crowded tables of people. “It’s salt. Something in short supply in the civilized world. Your parents can probably barely remember. Here the mines are full, getting it out and to the tavern here is the problem.”

  Rebecca nodded. I gazed over at her as she put her hands on her hips. “It’s those damn scavengers. They’ll hit the caravans sometimes before they get here. Keeps us all on our toes. At least we grow our own hops.”

  “Hops?” I asked.

  “You civilized folk don’t know much, do you?” Rebecca’s eyes narrowed. “It’s the ale, sweetheart. The ale is what separates here from the animals and the likes of you.”

  My eyes fell down to my food, and my cheeks flamed. Maybe I wasn’t like her in her busty dress and hourglass corset. I didn’t like feeling like less of a person just because I didn’t drink beer or had never heard of salt before. Beer, wine, all of it was reserved for a wedding day and not good for much else.

  “All right, Rebecca. That’s uncalled for.” Sebastian leaned back and gave her a shake of his head. “Tarnish is my friend and my guest. Treat her with the same respect you treat me.”