Her false bravado still lingered, but Victoria had no idea from where it gained its strength. “I think you should come up with a better plan.”
“You think so, do you? Well, we’ll just see how it goes when Will sees you in my arms with this.” He pulled out a knife.
Victoria knew it would be the same knife with which he’d stab Will or cut the throats of her children if her own plan wasn’t successful or if he found Alice and the children. She nearly screamed at the sight of it. In the same moment, Nathan pulled the cellar door open, determined to use her as his weapon against Will. At least this wasn’t how the original plan had worked out, she thought. At least, this way she might be the only one to die if things didn’t go the way she and Will planned them.
The cellar was dark. The light from the kitchen flowed down, lighting six or seven steps and then the rest of them were lost in an ocean of pitch black.
“Will, dear brother, I’ve got your woman. You and I need to talk. We need to negotiate a deal,” Nathan yelled down.
Victoria felt like laughing. Anyone with any brains would see Will wouldn’t be down in the pitch black. There was not even the light of a single candle. At least he didn’t hold the knife to her in any threatening way. Why would he? Will was his threat, and he was nowhere to be seen. Not to mention, in Nathan’s original plan, he wanted Victoria for himself. He wouldn’t be so quick as to hurt her. That idea made her breathe a little easier, but not much.
“Willy boy, where are you?” he yelled louder.
“Right behind you.”
Nathan turned. Will swung the spade. Victoria watched the motion with an odd sense of fascination. It was the same spade Will had used to dig in the cellar to find Alice and his children. On Will’s face, she saw all his anger, all the love for his children, and all the hatred he felt at his brother’s betrayal. It mixed with fear. She wanted to tell him she was fine, to not fear for her. But there wasn’t time.
The sound of the shovel when it connected with Nathan’s face was a strange, dull thunk, sounding a bit like a bell that might be stuffed with paper. Nathan let out an involuntary cry as he tumbled backwards down the stairs, blood spurting from his nose and lip. The knife he gripped sliced through the air and caught Victoria on the arm. She let out a cry that nearly matched Nathan’s. With his other hand, he grasped at air and found nothing to stop his fall. Before she even felt pain at the cut on her arm, she watched him tumble down the steps. The soft floor of earth at the bottom stopped his fall. He landed in a heap, moaning.
Will grabbed Victoria and balanced her to keep her from tumbling down with him. He grabbed a small cloth towel and held it to her bleeding arm. “Damn, Torrie, I’m sorry he got so close to you.”
“I’m all right, or I will be. Please just finish this. I can’t stand to hear him moaning.” It was comforting to be close to Will. Even more so, hearing Will call her Torrie as he had while she’d refurbished the house. At the same time, confusion washed through her. It was as if the future and the past blended together and she couldn’t see either clearly. But once again, she was Torrie, the woman Will hired to decorate his house. At the same time, she was his wife. Somehow, she was living a second life. She didn’t understand how, but she wanted this life with Will Hargrove more than her next breath. She took the towel from him and pressed it to her arm. Odd there still was no pain.
He took a match and lit the taper that sat on the windowsill near the cellar door. After he fanned out the match, he picked up the candleholder and headed down the dark stairs where Nathan Hargrove all but wailed in pain. Torrie followed him. By the light of that single candle, he stared down at his brother’s bloody face. “Remind me to have the electricity wires put down here,” he said absently.
“Will, damn you, Will, what the hell’s the matter with you?” Nathan’s words sounded more like a croaking frog as he forced them out. And with his obvious broken nose and no telling how many other broken bones in his face from making contact with the shovel, the words sounded as if he talked holding his nose shut.
“You held a knife to my wife,” Will reminded him, his face empty of any emotion as he looked down at his evil brother.
“I wasn’t really going to hurt her. You have to know that. You know I’ve always had a thing for her, always thought she should be with me instead of you.”
“Yes, I know.” Torrie thought Will’s flat tone was as frightening as the situation.
Nathan tried to move and groaned loudly. “I think you broke my back.”
“I hope I broke your back.”
“What the hell’s the matter with you? Why are you trying to kill me? I’m your brother, as if you didn’t remember that.” He attempted to yell, but couldn’t seem to gain the strength or momentum and the words came out raspy and squeaky.
“How could I ever forget? And don’t act like you don’t know why I’d try to kill you. You did, after all, come here with the plans to kill me and my children, before you took my wife and stole all the money in my safe. Isn’t that true?”
“That’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard.”
“With the way you need to pant between words, I’d venture to guess the fall damaged your lungs in some way,” Will pointed out. “And I don’t think it sounds ridiculous at all, especially since it’s true, isn’t it?”
“Of course it isn’t true,” Nathan insisted.
“Then why did you ask Torrie—Victoria—where our children were? Why was it so important that you find them right then? You killed them first after Alice, didn’t you? You promised me you’d spare them when you stabbed me in the back, promised you’d spare them if I told you how to open the safe, and all the while, they were already dead, isn’t that so? After all, you’ve already spent the evening down here digging graves.” Will’s voice rose in anger.
“Will?” Torrie grabbed his attention as she called his name from four steps up. She fought to keep her voice even. She fought harder to ignore the graves in the cellar floor. “Don’t let the past confuse the future,” she reminded him. It was obviously as hard for him as it was for her.
“It is how he did it,” Will remembered.
“It’s how he planned it,” she put in. “Our children are safe, my love.”
Nathan shifted slightly to look at her and groaned again. “How—how could you know?”
Torrie took another silent step down. “Let’s just say a little bird from the future warned us. He warned us of everything you planned.”
Will set the single candle on the steps.
“Please, Will—Willy, remember all our childhood together. You’re my brother, God, don’t do this. Please…”
Grabbing Nathan by the back of his collar, he hauled the large man toward the far end of the cellar—the far end where a hole waited patiently. It was the hole where Will had found Aiden, the furthest from the stairs.
Nathan fought but to no prevail. He was simply too injured from the fall and the broken bones in his face. He flailed his arms, but could get no grip on Will’s hands. His feet could find no friction in the earthen floor. He screamed and begged the entire time—was it only a few seconds or an entire lifetime—it took before Will pulled Nathan into the hole.
“NO! Please!!!”
The urgency in his voice was a frightening as the idea he’d come there to kill them, Torrie thought.
“You should have left my family alone, Nathan. You should have gotten on your train as you told everyone at the party you planned to do. Thank you for that alibi. And you wanted my gold?” Will pulled a handful of coins from his pocket. “Here, take some with you.” He dropped them down on his brother. One didn’t quite make it and rolled across the earthen floor a distance away.
“NO! NO! NO!!!”
The last no became an abrupt gasp as Will brought the shovel down like a guillotine using every bit of strength he possessed…
Will let out a huffed curse that echoed through the cellar, leaving Torrie’s heart pounding. He buried the edge of
the shovel into the earth next to Nathan, breathing heavily, missing his brother by inches. He turned to Torrie and met her gaze through the candlelight. She couldn’t help but see the pain in his eyes.
“Please, Will…” Nathan sounded as if he choked.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Nate’s voice was raspier than before.
“Torrie, open the cellar doors.”
Surprised and so caught up in the horror that almost consumed her family, it took Torrie a few seconds to grasp Will’s instructions. Then she moved to the back of the cellar and up the few steps where she unlatched the double doors that lead to the back yard.
To her amazement, Will’s first-hand man, Mr. Carson, and another man waited outside in the dark, cold snow.
“Ma’am.” Mr. Carson touched his hat to her.
He didn’t seem surprised to see her.
When she opened the doors, cold air rushed in and Nathan started screaming for help. Will immediately pulled out a handkerchief and used it to gag Nathan, stifling his screams. Carson and the other man whose name Torrie didn’t know helped Will drag Nathan from the shallow hole and up the stairs to the back yard. They then worked together to tie Nathan’s hands and feet. He fought them every inch of the way. He lost.
“Ever heard of McNeil’s Island, Nate?” Will asked.
Through moans and croaks, Nathan shook his head.
“It’s a prison island with no escape. My two friends are going to see that you arrive there safely, and the warden is going to assure me every few months or so that you’re comfortable there. Feel free to keep my gold. If by some fluke, you do manage to gain your freedom and I see you coming, I will not hesitate to kill you. Nod if you understand.”
Nathan nodded slowly, tears streaking down through the dirt on his face.
Carson and the other man put Nathan into a large trunk and slammed the lid. Carson locked it.
“You’ll contact me when he is delivered to my friend, Mr. Lawson on McNeil Island.”
“Yes, sir.” They hoisted the trunk onto the back of a buckboard.
Will handed Carson a small sack of coins. “Thank you.”
“Thank you, sir.”
They rode away, the sounds of the horses fading as they were taken by the darkness.
“You never really planned to kill him, did you?” Torrie asked, fighting down shivers and watching until she could no longer see them.
“I did. But I didn’t know if we could live with it or if our family or our marriage could survive it. So I hope I scared him enough to know I might. Until we know, until I get word from Lawson he’s on the island where he can never get back to us, I want you and the children to stay here, close to home.” Will took her hand and led her back into the cellar. Then he closed and latched the doors.
He took her in his arms. “Have I told you how much I love you?”
He kissed her, tenderly, so tenderly she swore heart melted. Then he pulled her ring from his pocket and slipped it back on her finger. Where it belonged.
She smiled, feeling tears of happiness in her eyes that they had succeeded in making things right. “I love you more. Forever.” She melted into his embrace, where she belonged.
The End
Dedication
To Rachel, Ben, Stephanie and Dex
With Love
Dear Reader,
I’d like to take this moment to tell you how much I appreciate you reading Hargrove House. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much I enjoyed writing it. I have always been intrigued with haunted houses and the reasons people dare to enter them. I’m excited to tell you I will continue The Haunted Series. Book Two — Montgomery Manor will be released in early spring 2016. Please be on the lookout for it. You can see all the books by Allie Harrison and Allie Quinn at: AllieQuinn.com
Thank you again,
Allie
Coming soon:
The Haunted
Book Two — Montgomery Manor
When Meg Falkner and her husband, Quint, inherit Montgomery Manor, Meg is afraid the huge old bed and breakfast is truly haunted. She will quickly learn, however, there are things more frightening than ghosts. And more deadly…
About the Author:
Allie Harrison lives with her husband in Southern Illinois. When she isn’t enjoying fun family time, games with friends, reading, crafts, music and winemaking, she’s working to build fictional worlds and unforgettable characters. She also writes as Allie Quinn and can be found at AllieQuinn.com
Copyright © 2015 Allie Harrison
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Thank you.
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