She opened the door to the kitchen and stumbled into a wall. Then the wall moved, and she shrieked and jumped away. An arm shot out and steadied her.
“Let me go!” she said.
“Calm down, woman,” he said. He sighed. “Stay there before you walk into anything else. I was looking for a torch.”
“There are candles in the pantry,” said Indra. “I’ll get them.”
He flicked on his phone torch to guide her.
She found what she needed in the pantry, returned to the kitchen, and lit the candles with a shaking hand. Simply being near the man affected her, and she could hardly think straight. He touched her arm gently this time, steadying it so the match didn’t go out.
She looked up and met his gaze. He was so close that the sudden ignition of the candle flame sparked in his eyes, obscuring the darkness she’d always seen there. His eyes crinkled at the corner and she suddenly realized he was smiling.
He released her arm and stepped away. “I’ve never seen you so nervous before, Indra,” he said. “Is it me or the darkness?”
“I’m not nervous,” she said, jumping away like a scalded cat. “Why should I be? I’ve dealt with situations like this before.”
“Situations? Like being alone with a man in a thunderstorm?”
She shrugged. “Sure.” But not a man like Sebastian, she thought. “I was just about to switch on the back-up generator. Sometimes the power can be off for hours. I wouldn’t want the contents of the freezer to spoil. And my cell phone charge is low.”
She busied herself looking through the drawers in the utility room until she found what she was looking for. A couple of heavy duty torches. She glanced at Sebastian, who stood watching her, deep in thought, and felt a frisson of something which most definitely wasn’t nerves — or if it was, had nothing to do with fear and was all about the way he looked at her. Maybe it was the light which glanced off the planes of his face, or maybe it was her imagination, but he was looking at her as if he wanted to devour her.
She fumbled with the door handle, flung the door open wide and ran outside toward the barn. The wind had risen, and buffeted her in all directions, and the ground was slick with mud underfoot. Within minutes the lashing rain had soaked her clothes. The sudden darkness which followed a flash of lightning disoriented her and she stumbled, slipped and fell.
“Here,” he called out above the thunder, reaching down for her. She reached up and gripped his hand and he yanked her to standing. This time, he didn’t release her hand. Together they walked over to the barn, which Sebastian opened, thrusting up the wooden bar which held the barn doors together.
Once inside, he closed them again and all was silence within the hay-filled walls of the barn. She shivered.
“You’re soaking wet. Do what you have to do and then let’s get back before you catch a chill.”
He held the lamp high while she checked the dials and flicked on the switches, until light flooded the barn. She double-checked the reading before stepping back. “That should keep us going overnight anyway.”
She glanced at him, but he was looking around.
“I haven’t been inside here since I was a small boy.”
“I can’t imagine the place full of young boys. It’s always been so quiet. Just me, my mother and Charles.”
He lifted the light so he could see her expression better. She felt naked before him but refused to turn away.
“And I can’t imagine the three of you living like that. My father must have changed. He must have loved your mother and you very much to have become the kind of man people are telling me he became in later life.”
“He did love us. But I am sure he also loved your mother and his sons.”
“Are you? Because I’m not.”
She plucked up the courage to ask. “What happened, Sebastian? To you and him? What happened to make you hate him so much?”
He never looked indecisive but he did now.
“Please. I’d like to know. I need to make sense of it.”
Their gazes locked and tangled within the glow of the lamp. All around the wind howled, making the barn creak and groan.
“He locked me up the first time I did it.”
“Locked you up? Why? What on earth did you do?”