by LENOX, KIM
“Don’t be ridiculous, dear. There are Gypsies camped in the field just across the way.” Her ladyship peered into the darkening sky and grasped a gloved hand against the fur at her throat. “And it’s getting dark.”
“If we stay another moment, it will be I who expires next,” muttered Astrid in a dour tone.
“Please,” Mina entreated. She lifted her handkerchief to her nose for dramatic effect, acting upon lessons she’d learned observing her cousins. “I’m simply not ready to leave him just yet.”
“Oh, dear. Very well, then,” her aunt ceded, faced with the threat of tears. “We’ll collect Trafford and leave the second coach and two footmen to attend you. I must insist you don’t stay past dark.”
Moments later, after instructing the footmen to remain behind at the carriage, Mina hurried along the tree-shadowed lane. She knew the way. She had walked the path the day before when her uncle had shown her where her father’s coffin would be interred. Only then the sun had hung high in the sky, and the cemetery had been crowded with visitors. Now darkness seeped up from the earth, along with low, curling wisps of fog. A stone angel appeared to ward her away with open palms. Only the sound of her shoes on the path, and the furtive scratching of birds and other unseen creatures in the trees and underbrush, broke the silence.
Mina paused for only a moment outside the arched entrance to the Egyptian Avenue, braced on either side by twin columns and matching obelisks. A dense veil of ivy tumbled down from above. She swept beneath, into the darkness. Immense, Etruscan-style crypts lined the avenue, each bearing a massive iron door and two inverted torches symbolizing lives extinguished. She quickly broke free of the smothering tunnel and emerged into Lebanon Circle, where two rows of mausolea surrounded a towering cedar.
Although the Traffords owned a centerpiece crypt for the interment of their titled members, her father, who had married into the family, was to be placed beside her mother in the less-exclusive Terrace Catacomb above. Mina grasped her skirts and ascended the stone steps. A sudden gust of wind lifted the boughs of the evergreens all around, filling the circle with a thousand unintelligible whispers.
In the subsequent silence came the repetitive chink of metal striking against metal.
Chink. Chink. Chink.
Fear twisted in her throat, and deeper, into her chest, but she swallowed it away. Over the past year, she had faced far worse than evening shadows and imaginary phantoms. The sounds she heard were likely created by the cemetery workers doing their final bit of work for the day.
Chink. Chink.
Her lip, where she bit into her flesh, throbbed dully. What task could possibly require such repetitive blows? She arrived at the catacomb where her father’s coffin was to have been deposited. The door featured a small, square opening, scored with iron bars and banded with decorative rivets. Shuffling sounds came from within.
Chink.
She launched herself onto the tips of her toes and grasped the edge, peering inside. In the darkness, she could barely perceive coffins, stacked on shelves . . . and a shadow that moved.
“You! You there. What are you doing? Stop!”
Mina grasped the handle and tugged, but to no avail. The door was locked. To her horror, the sound of splintering wood emanated from inside.
She whirled, returning to the edge of the circle, searching for any worker, any guest, to whom she could shout out her accusations of grave desecration. She saw no one. Again she returned to the door, pressing her fingertips against her mouth, suppressing the urge to scream. She twisted the ball clasp on her bag and snatched out her pistol.
“I’m warning you. Come out of there!” she bellowed.
Desperate to stop the shadow, desperate to protect her secret, she thrust her arm between the metal bars, gun in hand. She would merely fire a warning shot, and flush the person out—at least then she would know with whom she dealt.
A large stone hurtled from the darkness to strike the door beside her head.
The shadow grew larger. Bronze eyes blinked . . . and glowed.
Mina screamed. The creature roared and twisted toward her.
She fired.
