Eternal Oath

by Jewel Quinlan

  At last, a small amber flicker on the edge of her vision drew her. Her heart quickened in response. The light pulsated in an irregular beat at first and then, as she focused on it, grew stronger and became a solid beacon. Somehow, she knew it was the girl. When she arrived at the brilliant heart of the light, she somehow merged with it and moved into the dream sequence. Once again, dream girl’s lips moved with no sound emerging. As before, she sat looking at a mirror through the steam of a pot of something boiling in front of her.

  “Wait a minute. What did you say?” Her brow scrunched in concentration. Falk’s last words echoed in her ears. She had to get the girl to speak up this time.

  The girl’s lips continued to move. She tried to move closer but an invisible barrier held her back. She slammed her hands against it. “I can’t hear you!” she cried. “What are you saying?”

  Thinking back, she remembered what she’d done prior to hearing the girl’s voice last time. Pressing her hands against her chest, she concentrated on her breathing, steadying the rhythm until it became slow and deep. Her mind calmed until it was still as the lake during early morning.

  Just like that, the sound switched back on and she could hear the girl’s voice. But this time, it was like hearing the girl from down a long corridor in echoes. “Attacking…tonight…they’re coming. Run and hide. The men… coming…tonight… Go now!”

  Linda bolted upright in bed, awake and aware, every sense tight and thrumming. They had to get out of here! They had to run! But when she felt the covers beside her, Falk was nowhere to be found. Panic filled her every sense.

  She stumbled out of bed, covers coming with her as she fumbled around for the light and then her clothes. She hurried but, at the same time, did her best not to make too much noise. Had they taken him? Did they have Falk already? Her heart hammered in her ears, a stark contrast to the quiet air of tension. Who is coming? Her logical brain questioned. But she had no answer for it and the girl hadn’t said. She ran on pure instinct. The urge to flee was strong.

  Once her shoes were on her feet and she had a jacket on, she walked through the sitting room. The chair remained against the locked door. “Falk?” she called in a quavering whisper. “Where are you?”

  A bad feeling came over her, freezing her joints in place. Had he left her side for some reason? He’d promised to watch all night. Tears congregated in her eyes, and her breaths came faster.

  Someone tapped her on the shoulder, and she barely concealed her frightened squeal as she spun around, arms raised in a defensive posture.

  But it was him.

  Falk’s eyes were wide as he looked at her with confusion. “Linda? What’s going on?”

  She flung her arms around him with relief but then let him go, her body on full alert.

  “I’m fine,” she said. But she didn’t have time to explain. She couldn’t ignore the suffocating feeling in her chest. “We have to go. Now,” she whispered in a quavering voice. “Follow me.”

  She jerked the chair away then turned to unlock the door. She eased it open and stuck her head into the dark hall, turning it in different angles as she listened for sounds. Any kinds of sounds. But silence met her, so she gave up.

  She clasped his hand in hers and pulled him along down the hall toward the servant’s stairs, shushing him as he began to ask questions. She could feel every single second passing, and they could not afford to lose even one more. They scurried down the stairs past the first floor and then to the basement where they took an exit leading out of the house into the dark night. Linda had to shush Falk once again as he questioned where they were going.

  The truth was she had no clue. But she felt better with the night air wafting across her cheeks, away from the confines of the house. “Hold on. Let me think.”

  Together, they paused against the side of the house while Linda closed her eyes and concentrated on everything she had felt and perceived from her younger self. Praying she’d picked up on some subliminal message in the dream that would help. She tried to still herself again, since that seemed to work before. But it was difficult to do right now with adrenaline shooting through her veins. There had been way more in the message than words. There had been an undertone of imagery. Subtle, but it had been there. The more she concentrated, the more solidly an image came through as she called everything to mind.

  How she was able to detect such a thing, she had no idea. But she would take any help she could get in order to save both their lives. She glanced up at Falk. He watched her, his expression uncertain. He’d never looked at her that way before, and she didn’t like it one bit. She would give anything to wipe the look from his face. If he had thought her sick before, now he must be certain she was insane.

  She did her best to ignore the feelings it stirred up in her. They had to get to safety this instant. That’s what mattered. “The greenhouse,” she said, “we have to hide there.”

  He looked doubtful but swiveled in the right direction.

  She was grateful he was open to doing that, at least. She could tell he didn’t believe anything she said.

  She knew the property by heart, and he followed her as she ran around the eastern perimeter in the darkness as silently as she could. Linda kept an eye on the house as they ran, and when she saw a series of lights come on—first in the cellar then on the first floor and then the second floor where their bedrooms were—she tugged on Falk’s hand and made sure he saw it, too.

  They paused by the far gate to watch.

  The shadows of figures rushed by the windows. Not in the steady pace of servants going about doing their duty, but in the furtive and stealthy way of people up to no good. When the figures passed the windows along the long hall on the second floor, Linda could see hints of jagged instruments held in their hands, making her shudder. The lights went on in their bedrooms, one after the other. When their bedrooms were discovered empty, shouts rang out.

  “Believe me now?” Linda asked Falk.

  He turned from the house back to her, his profile visible in the shadows of night. The stubble on the edge of his clenched jaw glinted in the moonlight. “Yeah, I do. But I don’t get it. Who are they? And what do we do now? I left my cell back there on the nightstand. Damn it.”

  She shook her head. She’d forgotten her purse as well. “I don’t know who they are. I just know we have to get to the greenhouse.”

  “Seriously?” Falk’s tone was incredulous. “We’re just going to hide among the foliage in a glass house?”

  Normally, in the face of such open doubt from Falk, Linda would have questioned herself. He was so intelligent and his opinion meant so much to her she would have second-guessed their course. But tonight was different. She had no doubts.

  Instead of answering, she pulled him along behind her onto the narrow path winding through the shrubs.

  Falk matched his steps to Linda’s as they fumbled through the brush in the dark. Nothing made sense. At first, he’d thought she’d gone off the edge. But that didn’t explain the people moving around in the house. What logical explanation could there be for it at this hour? It was coming on five in the morning. None of the servants rose earlier than six.

  They reached the greenhouse. A huge monstrosity toward the back corner of the plot of land, just at the edge of the timber grounds. It had been built for the wife of one of their ancestors long ago who’d had a penchant for gardening.

  Linda fumbled to find the key in the potted fern next to the door. In the moonlight, Falk could see her hands shaking.

  “Allow me.” He stepped in to help. Whatever was going on, he wouldn’t let Linda pass out with terror. Nor would he sit back and wait if there were people out to get them. He secured the key within seconds from its fake hiding rock in the planter and unlocked the door. Once inside, he locked the door behind him and pocketed the key. “Now what?” Once daylight hit, there was nowhere to really hide in here. They would be exposed if they tried to run. Although full of plants,
it was still a literal glass house.

  “This way.” She jerked him toward the back of the room. “We’ll be safe here.”

  It was the section of the greenhouse where the roses were kept. She pulled him into the center of the numerous potted of plants. This late in winter they were thin and scraggly.

  “Are you sure there’s enough coverage?” He eyed their camouflage. “The sun will be up soon and we’ll be exposed.”

  “I don’t think we can risk crashing through the brush in the darkness. They’ll hear us. We need to stay here until there’s more light and we can pick our way through. At least it’s warm in here.”

  He nodded and noticed she shivered even though she wore a jacket. “Okay.” He’d forgotten his own jacket, but he had a sweater on over a T-shirt. He’d always been warm-blooded and had gotten used to being outside in the early morning from his time at the mills, so his lack of a jacket didn’t bother him.

  Voices came from outside. They looked at each other with fear and then did their best to crouch down in between the large containers. From the sound of the voices, they were still farther down the path but headed in the direction of the greenhouse.

  Linda threaded her fingers in his and squeezed his hand.

  He squeezed back. “Don’t worry. I’ll never leave you. And they’re not going to touch one hair on your head.” He felt his protective instincts well up, and, at lightning speed, his mind conjured up the hundreds of memories connected with her. She’d been there as his confidant, the sandpaper to his pride, his best friend…. Every smile and every laugh they’d shared sparking forth with a breathtaking clarity. Some were memories he’d forgotten for a while and they filled him with the same joy as when they’d happened in real life. He could not imagine living in a world where he would never be able to see or speak to her again. She was everything to him.

  In the darkness, he felt around on the floor among the containers for something, anything, to use as a weapon. His fingers encountered dirt, bags of potting soil, some twine, and, at last, a couple of short wooden stakes. He handed one to Linda and took one up himself. He had hoped to find a trowel or spade or something, but he supposed the gardener kept those in the tool shed. The stakes would have to do. At least Linda would have some way to defend herself.

  The voices came closer, right outside the door, and Falk could see the dim glow of a flashlight. Shit.

  “They wouldn’t have come in here,” said one voice, low and gruff. “They’re not stupid. Probably halfway to town by now on the road.”

  “Still, you know how she is. We’d better at least take a look around. If they’re on the road, they haven’t gotten far yet.” The other voice was a higher, thinner tone.

  Falk stared at Linda, barely able to see her features in the dark. Her look mirrored his own. They knew those voices! It was Jensen and Andrew.

  The metal handle of the door rattled as they tried it.

  “Door’s locked,” Jensen said.

  Andrew chuffed. “Well then, if it is, they probably ain’t in there.”

  “Nonsense. They could be anywhere. Maybe they went in and locked it behind them.”

  Dull thuds followed as someone threw their body against the door, making the walls of the greenhouse rattle. And then came a sharp chink and the cracking sound of a glass pane breaking as the weak lock popped open and freed the door. The hinges squeaked as it opened, scraping Falk’s nerves. Two pairs of footsteps splitting off from each other followed as the men took opposite sides of the room.

  “Christ, these flashlights suck,” said Jensen.

  “Well, in the kitchen I don’t need them for more than poking about in the back of a cupboard,” said Andrew. “If you want a better one, you can go back to the house and get it.

  “We don’t have time,” Jensen snapped.

  The weak beams of the flashlights darted about the greenhouse, casting strange shadows as they revealed the foliage housed there. The footsteps slowly came closer, boots crunching the gravel floor. Once in a while, the beams of light reflected off the weapons the men held in their hands. It looked like Andrew had a cleaver and Jensen had a knife.

  Falk clenched the stake in his hand, ready to leap out and attack at the first hint of discovery. His blood rushed through his veins, and his nerves kept firing the conflicting messages of “fight” and “freeze.” Outside, the deep purple sky hinted the first rays of the sun would be making their appearance soon.

  Time seemed to stretch on forever as they waited for the two servants to see them, to attack them. But no attack came. Falk gauged every sound of their footfalls as their steps met at the back of the building and then when they walked together to the front and out the door.

  “She’s going to be pissed.” Falk heard Andrew say as they walked away.

  He and Linda remained crouched, frozen, for several seconds more before they let out deep breaths, rose, and hugged each other.

  Chapter Nine

  “Oh, my God, what is going on? Why would Andrew and Jensen want to attack us?” Linda asked Falk as they made their way out from behind the roses. “I feel like I’m trapped in one of my visions. They mentioned a she. Who else do you think is in on it?” The hair on the back of her neck had stood on end the entire time they’d crouched behind the rose bushes. She was shocked to learn the identity of the men. But now knowing there was a third involved, a woman, surprised her. Who could it be? They had several women on staff who did the cleaning, laundry, and various other tasks. It could be one of them, or even someone outside the house.

  “I don’t know.” Falk’s voice was low and deep. “At this point, anyone is suspect.”

  “But they’ve been faithful employees! How could this be happening? And why now? They could have killed us long before today.”

  “I’m the most shocked at Jensen’s involvement,” Falk said. “He’s been with the family for, what? More than ten years? Andrew I can believe. He’s only been here for six.”

  “Do you think Jensen has been planning this all along? Or maybe Andrew came along and is manipulating him?” Linda folded her arms against herself as she thought. The first rays of light came across the horizon, and she could see the serious look on Falk’s face. His expression mirrored how she felt.

  “No, I doubt it’s Andrew.” Falk shook his head. “He doesn’t have enough depth to mastermind something like this.”

  Linda grabbed his arm as a sudden thought occurred to her, making her panic. “Do you think Sarah’s okay? What if they hurt her? Falk, we need to go check on her! Tell her what’s going on! We have to call the police.” Another panic seized her at the thought of sweet Sarah, the mother figure she had most of her life, being injured by Jensen and Andrew. She was part of the family, their relative. Would they harm an old lady? They couldn’t leave her.

  “I know. I hope they haven’t done anything to her,” he said. “But we’re going to have to be careful and fast. The light’s coming back.”

  The one thing they’d urgently needed a few minutes ago was the last thing they wanted now. Falk pulled her toward the greenhouse door and paused. Next to them was a small green shed. He pulled the door open, revealing a gleaming assortment of gardening tools hanging on hooks and pegs.

  “But first,” he said, “we need some real weapons.”

  They opted for smaller tools like gardening shears and trowels instead of larger things like clippers and rakes. They didn’t want anything that might bump into doors and walls while they snuck through the house, or ran. There was also a small flashlight Falk pocketed.

  Linda tucked a pair of pruners and an herb snipper into her waistband and held a trowel in her hand. Falk outfitted himself similarly.

  In the dim light of dawn, they took a roundabout way back to the house on the arm of the hiking trail hidden by trees and bushes. Where it ended into a clear space near the house, they ducked and maneuvered down the side through deeper brush so they could access the service door.
They’d used it many times as children when they wanted to play pranks on people.

  A door to the hidden passageways offered the best option for them to get to Sarah without having to tangle with the others.

  “Jensen’s got to know about these passageways” A bad feeling swelled in her. “He knows everything there is to know about the house.”

  “He probably does.” Falk grabbed the door handle. “But he’s with Andrew right now and they said something about checking the road, right? Maybe they’re in a car doing that. We don’t have a lot of time to assess everything. Let’s just go.”

  Linda hesitated. It was Falk’s nature to dive in and hers to take a step back and evaluate. If they’d had the time, she would have suggested a circuit around the house to figure out where the men were so they could weigh the risks. But he was right. They didn’t have time. Even trying to get to a phone first meant leaving Sarah exposed for that much longer, and Linda wasn’t willing to take the risk.

  She clenched her fists to stave off her fear. “Okay.”

  In the old days, the passageways had been used by servants to unobtrusively enter and clean the rooms. But as time had gone on, that way had been abandoned. When she and Falk were children, they used to play in them. Back then, she hadn’t realized how narrow they were. At this point, left undisturbed for years, they were dank and dusty. There wouldn’t be any way to fight if they encountered Jensen and Andrew. Well, maybe Falk might be able to if he encountered them from his end.

  Linda strained her ears for noise as she followed Falk down what she recognized as the length of the house. He used the flashlight from the gardening shed to see the way. They could almost have done it from memory. Both walked as quietly as they could. But in their hurry, their footsteps still made soft thuds on the floor, which made her cringe. She prayed no one would hear. After passing many doorways and hallways leading to other rooms, they came to a narrow stairway leading to the second floor.