Carved in Stone: Monochrome Destiny

by T L Blake

  Nestled halfway up the inlet, it was larger than Holbrook cottage and could be called a house, but was still small, quaint and characterful. Like her own place, it was double fronted with the entrance right in the middle of the building, but this door was surrounded by a small wooden porch, built to keep the wind at bay. Four small sash windows adorned the front façade, their woodwork painted white to match the porch, they stared out in perfect symmetry. The house had a slate roof that was edged on either side by a small chimney. Two terracotta pots adorned each and one of those now produced a column of white smoke. Surrounded by trees and backed into a rocky cliff, the house was enveloped by a natural picturesque landscape and seemed tiny compared to the majesty of the surroundings. With the smallest of gardens at the front, laid entirely to paving slabs, it was beautiful, homely, and completely the opposite of what she had been expecting.

  Andrew’s car was parked just outside the gate. Polished so highly that it reflected the sky, the black RS3 stuck out as modern against its surroundings. A gravelled track led away from the house and up the hill to what, Robyn presumed, was the road. They crossed this track to enter the gate. Further proving his good manners, Andrew allowed Robyn through first.

  Half an hour later, Robyn found herself huddled on one of two sofas, wrapped in a robe that was too large for her. The fireplace glowed as the coal smouldered to let out the last of its heat, but it was not the fire that reddened her cheeks. It was the fact that she was naked beneath the cotton cloth.

  “Drink this.” Andrew ordered, handing her a cup of hot chocolate before sitting on the opposite sofa.

  Upon Andrew’s insistence, Robyn had taken off her soiled clothing and had a steaming hot shower to warm up. Her clothes were currently on a wash and dry cycle.

  Max lay on the carpet snoozing at her feet and she curled her bare legs up on the seat to cover them with the cloth of the robe before gently blowing on the hot chocolate. She felt very uncomfortable.

  “Why were you in the graveyard?” Andrew’s tone was abrasive. There was nothing new there.

  “Are you this direct with everybody?” Her anger had not waned. He had ordered her around since arriving and she was fed up with it.

  “Perhaps. Now answer the question.”

  He sat back, relaxed and stretched out, his long limbs crossed in front of him and his arms resting on the back of the sofa. Robyn hated to admit it, but he was a picture. He still stared at her with irritation however, and his tone had not eased.

  “You may have me at a distinct disadvantage,” she gestured to the robe, and what was missing beneath it, “but I don’t usually respond to demands.”

  He studied her for a second, his eyes moving proprietarily slowly whilst his body remained still. Robyn fought the urge to squirm under the intensity of his gaze.

  He sensed her discomfort. “If I wanted you at a disadvantage, I can assure you I would have used other means.”

  Andrew’s eyes blazed and she knew he was waiting for a response. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction, nor would she respond to the sudden clenching within her core.

  “But I would like to know what had you so intrigued in the churchyard? So I ask, politely, if you would like to share that with me?” His lips curled into a smile that almost undid her, and so, with careful consideration, she decided to answer. Purposeful or not, she was at a disadvantage, and overtly polite Andrew was more unnerving than aloof Andrew.

  “I was trying to read the engravings on the gravestones, not that it concerns you.” She blew another breath over the chocolate before taking a tentative sip.

  Andrew’s brows rose a little, perhaps because she wouldn’t kowtow to him.

  “Did you find anything interesting?” He played one finger across his lip. It was an innocent enough move, but it exposed his interest and was incredibly distracting.

  “Perhaps. Perhaps, more mysterious than interesting.” Robyn looked at him over the rim of the chocolate as she took another sip. She saw his eyes flash for a moment and that finger played with that lip again. She felt empowered.

  “Are you going to keep it to yourself?” He shifted his legs, uncrossed them and planted them on the floor before leaning forwards. It was a challenge, she could see it plainly but she would not be played.

  “Are you always this demanding?” She placed the cup down on the table between them and slowly unravelled her bare legs, letting them slide to the floor before leaning forwards herself.

  He smiled, it was hidden behind his hand but she saw it.

  “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not. Perhaps it is just with you.”

  Nerves knotted in her stomach, but she would not yield.

  “Well then, maybe I did find something, maybe I didn’t. It would depend on your point of view.” She stared at him, met his gaze with her own but let nothing show on her face.

  “You goad me, Miss Darrow.” There was mischief there. She could see it through the brooding. He was enjoying this. It was a game. One she intended to play.

  “I should say that you started it, Mr Obursen.”

  Something glistened in his eyes despite his face remaining placid. It was too subtle to interpret, but Robyn was beginning to decipher it when he moved. Swiftly and with ease, he stood, stepped forwards and settled beside her on the sofa; close, too close considering she wore nothing beneath the robe.

  Her head turned to follow Andrew as he leaned over her, his eyes piercing. Her chest felt suddenly tight, as if a band were being tightened around it. She swallowed as Andrew stilled, his face only inches from hers, his interest in her alone. God, he smelled so good, dark spice and earthy musk, masculinity in aromatic form. It was a scent she could wilfully bury herself in, a scent that scared her.

  Andrew’s eyes brushed over the features of Robyn’s face and then, purposefully slowly, he lowered his gaze, first down and then back up again as she held herself steady, wondering what he intended to do.

  “How can I help solve the mystery if you do not let me know what it is?” The words brushed her skin, the caress making her want to sigh. Her mouth was dry and her heart a flutter. This handsome man was powerful and he knew it, and that made him very dangerous. The way he moved, with dark confidence and utter control. Robyn knew that she couldn’t handle this. Not him. Not Andrew. Her heart pounded harder, as warm nervous tingles swept up and down her body.

  Andrew’s lips pulled into a satisfied smile. He had her, and he knew it. He pulled back.

  “Speak.” He commanded.

  She did.

  “I found headstones showing several family members dying on the same date.”

  “Headstones? All on exactly the same date?” His head tilted with intrigue but the demand was still in his tone.

  “Not all the same, I mean, the headstones themselves were not all dated the same. But on each one several people, those buried there, each died on the same day as each other.”

  “How many?” His eyes bore into her with a directness that made her uncomfortable.

  “Five the other day and another today.” She watched him roll the information around in his mind.

  “That’s why you were scrubbing off the moss?”

  So he had been watching her.

  “Yes, I couldn’t make out the lettering. I found three names on the stone so far, but there could be more. I just can’t fathom what could have happened to explain the mass deaths.”

  “What have you considered?” There was a light in him that hadn’t been there before. This was his area, he was the history teacher.

  “I’ve wondered about accidents, particularly fire, and illnesses, but that seems unlikely, and I’m struggling with anything else.” She reached for her drink, suddenly needing the refreshment.

  “Fire would be my top choice for one or maybe two stones in a graveyard of that size but six, maybe more? No. Why did you dismiss illness?” He looked at her in question but there was something more she couldn’t put her finger on.

  “Um, well, I couldn’
t think of anything to explain it, you know, all of them dying on the same day. Illness affects individuals differently and spreads from one to another. Different generations don’t all become infected at once and die together.”

  “No, but who says they died together?”

  She raised an eyebrow but he continued

  “Did you make a note of the dates of the deaths? Do all the stones have the same date or close?”

  “Um no. They didn’t happen at the same time. I didn’t take notes of the exact dates although I do have pictures, but they are spread between 1846 and 1912, so far.”

  Andrew sat for a second, looking out of the window, showing her a perfect profile. “In the early 1800s there was a lot of disease. When Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 there was very little hygiene. Sewage seeped into water due to bad drainage design, people didn’t use baths and the way poor people lived, all crowded together only helped disease spread. Influenza was around and affected everyone, but typhus, typhoid and cholera affected mainly the poor. Typhus was a big issue when Victoria came to the throne, but that’s a bit early for your dates. It came back in the late 1840’s though with the flu and together they killed over fifty thousand.”

  “Fifty thousand?” It seemed such a high number. Robyn was shocked that with such a massive loss of life she didn’t know this.

  “That’s only the documented ones. Anyone that died without proper diagnosis or died out in the country where things weren’t so well recorded, they wouldn’t be included in those figures.”

  “That’s a lot of people”

  “That’s nothing. Measles and whooping cough would have killed the same number around that time. But the biggest killer was cholera.”

  She listened intently as Andrew explained the movement of cholera from Asia. After a huge outbreak along the banks of the Ganges, the movement of traders had spread the disease around the globe. Cholera was the first global pandemic and Britain did not avoid it.

  As Andrew talked, he sat back into the sofa, those long limbs stretched out, at ease again. Relaxed and totally in his comfort zone, he looked different, acted different. He was passionate about history and when he spoke you could feel it, and didn’t that just make him sexy. His passions stirred her own and she shook her head appalled at her lack of self-control. This was a man that she needed to stay away from. Domineering, aloof and arrogant, Andrew Obursen was not someone Robyn should get mixed up with, on any level. She inhaled slowly and blinked errant thoughts away.

  “Cholera kills in a really nasty way” Andrew continued, he didn’t go into detail but Robyn already knew that the disease gave its victim severe diarrhoea, and severely dehydrated the body. Victims suffered from intense pains of the limbs, stomach and abdominal muscles. It was a horrid way to go, and quick. Cholera patients could die in a day. “Most victims were poor. The general squalid conditions in which the poor lived, and their lack of hygiene and general poor health, helped the disease to kill most of the victims. Those few that survived found themselves so weak that they often succumbed to another infection shortly afterwards.”

  Robyn listened as he explained that the disease had killed thousands during the early Victorian era before they had an idea how to stop it and then she couldn’t help but smile when she realised that she knew some of this.

  “You’re smiling?” He asked her, curious as to why Robyn could seem happy about so much pain and death.

  She flushed. “Oh! Not about the disease. I just realised that I know this bit. This is where John Snow carries out his investigation at the Broad Street pump in Soho. We teach this in year 9, along with other famous early scientific discoveries that made huge differences to mortality rates.”

  “That’s right. He investigated the outbreak in 1854 and published the following year. But did you know that he had kind of worked it all out six years before, but no-one really listened to him?”

  “Really?” The amount of detail she needed when this was taught was limited. The main focus of the lesson was for the pupils to understand how scientific discovery had changed the world they live in and that, because of a few determined minds, they lived a relatively easy life. Robyn didn’t need to go into great detail and covered Joseph Lister, Edward Jenner and others in the same lesson.

  “The scientific minds of the time thought that disease was spread by smell; that clouds of noxious gas or ‘miasma’ as they called it, were carrying the illness. It was Snow who realised that something else was the cause, but the germ theory didn’t come out until the early 1860’s.”

  “I can’t believe I didn’t think of cholera.” She taught about the mapping of the Broad Street pump and yet hadn’t thought of cholera at all.

  “It’s a disease that still causes problems today. After all major disasters the World Health Organisation warns about cholera. All over the world people survive major catastrophe only to then be picked off by disease because water supply and drainage systems are damaged. There are still outbreaks across the developing world. It’s only where water is chlorinated that we have it under control. Now, do you think that disease could explain the deaths?” He asked, a smile curving his lips and turning him from aloof to approachable.

  “I. . . Um . . . I don’t know.” Unnerved by the sudden sensations flooding through her, she needed a moment to swallow. “Disease could certainly have killed all those people but whole families on the same day?”

  Andrew’s eyes focused intently upon Robyn’s and, for a second, she believed he could see straight through her. Blood threatened to pool in her cheeks and give her away, but she fought it with steely determination and met his gaze with cool, calm eyes.

  “That’s easy to explain. Years ago, a family may not have all died on the same day but they certainly could have been discovered on the same day. Think about how remote some of the houses would be in a farming and fishing community like this. Neighbours may not have noticed somebody missing for days, even weeks. There wasn’t the knowledge back then to give a definitive time of death so often the dates on the death certificated were the date that the body was discovered. What’s written on those graves is not necessarily the day they died.”

  That idea was too awful to think about. The concept of lying undiscovered in a house for days, or being too ill to do anything but watch your family die around you, was terrible. The thought of having to lie with their bodies in the house, knowing that you were next, knowing the inevitable outcome, was awful. The problem was that it was plausible. The look of horror on Robyn’s face betrayed her.

  “You don’t like that theory?”

  “It’s a good theory. I don’t like the idea of being undiscovered because you live remotely that’s all.”

  Andrew’s eyes narrowed, ending that small respite from the brooding, “Afraid of being alone? You’ve chosen the wrong place to live if that’s the case.”

  She paled under his gaze. It shouldn’t have been possible with her light complexion, but he watched the blood drain from her face. She seemed to shrink before his eyes. He had enjoyed goading her earlier, she was a smooth opponent, but he hadn’t expected this. He stared at her as she struggled to take a breath and felt as if his own breath had been knocked out of him.

  He moved closer, thought about offering her a comforting arm and then realised that she would hate him for it. “Robyn?”

  She looked up, her eyes wide and fearful.

  Max, ever aware of human emotions, lifted his head to lay his brown face on Robyn’s lap. Andrew felt the briefest moment of jealousy before he saw that the dog helped her. She focused on Max and managed to slow her errant breathing.

  “What did I say?” he wanted desperately to take it back. It tormented him. Why did he care? His anger at himself came out in his voice and it sounded like he demanded an answer. Christ, what was it with this woman? Could he not control himself at all?

  “It’s fine, really. It’s just Kat’s not back yet and I was expecting her yesterday. I’ve not heard from her since sh
e left, so I don’t know what her plans are.”

  She was babbling yet her tone was flat. She was clearly worried but she was trying not to be.

  Andrew thought about another who had left without a word and his anger took a second to contain. He would not speak to her again with angry words. Not until she was over whatever this was anyway.

  “You’ve had no contact from her?”

  “No. She’s not answering her phone or returning messages. We had a falling out.” Her shoulders hunched and he could almost see the burden of guilt she carried. Whatever the ‘falling out’ had been about it was significant.

  “Do you think she’s angry with you?”

  Robyn looked up, her eyes glistening with unshed tears and her face gaunt. “Yes, she’s angry with me,” she sighed. “She’ll be home when she gets over it, I guess.”

  Andrew sat up straight. He couldn’t look at her, not when she was so distraught. He’d wanted to hold her for Christ’s sake and offer comfort. What the hell had gotten into him?

  “I’m sure she’ll be back before school.” He needed this conversation over and over now. He needed this woman out of his house.

  “I hope you’re right.”

  He forced a smile, “You’ll see.” He leaned back again, forcing his body away from hers. He needed to think of her as just another colleague. “I didn’t mean to worry you, Miss Darrow.”

  “Robyn,” she answered automatically, “my friends call me, Robyn.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Robyn dreamed of gravestones, giant grey monoliths set in a never-ending maze against the blackest night. As she ran through the solidified soldiers she knew that she had to find someone, but no matter in which direction she ran, she only found more giant headstones.

  Her legs were tired, her muscles ached with every step, stored energy spent. She didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. It was as if the air were made of treacle, a sticky atmosphere that held her back by adhering to her skin. Each step was so slow but she had to get through, she had to fight, for she was not alone. Something dangerous lurked in the corridors of stone. It was stalking, hunting and Robyn was its prey. She tried to scream, but no sound came out in the thick air.