Chapter Ten.
Lucian
Maggie appeared distracted by the portrait of Margery. She kept looking at it while Mr Evans and his team knocked down the last of the second wall so they could peer inside. Lucian watched as she cocked her head one way and then another.
“What’s wrong?” Lucian asked quietly.
Maggie frowned.
“The painting is off. See how Margery’s hands are clasped? It’s almost as if she’s holding something, but there’s nothing but her dress.” Maggie squinted at the picture even further and then dragged a chair over. She stood on it as Lucian grabbed it to keep it steady and rubbed at Margery’s fists. To Lucian’s astonishment, some of the paint flaked off, and he spotted a milky white colour.
“Could you get me a cloth, please?” Maggie asked, and Lucian whisked one to his hand and grinned as Maggie rolled her eyes. Maggie took it from him and began scrubbing gently at the painting. To their surprise, large pieces rubbed off, revealing an egg-shaped opal in Margery’s palms. It was around the size of a teacup, Lucian noted, and it glowed. But Lucian couldn’t ever remember seeing it before today.
“Strange,” he muttered.
“Are you ready, lad?” Mr Evans asked, interrupting. “We’ve broken down the brick, but in front of that is a heavy linen curtain, and we have not cut it. Didn’t seem right to.”
“I guess I am,” Lucian said. But his eyes didn’t leave the jewel in Margery’s hands. What did it mean? Finally, he tore his gaze away when Maggie jumped lightly down from the chair and took his hand. Lucian dipped his head and smiled warmly before leading her behind the protective barrier and through the room.
A good part of the wall had been knocked down, and Lucian could clearly understand what Mr Evans referred to. Taking a sharp blade offered to him, Lucian slit the linen down the middle and opened it up. What met his eyes made him choke.
The first thing his gaze lit on was a withered corpse. It lay on the floor and was dressed in rags. Rags the same colour as Margery’s dress in the portrait. He looked away, and he feared seeing his own body. But it wasn’t there. Lucian spotted an altar with various dust-covered items, a bowl, jug, chalice, and the opal Maggie had just uncovered on a stand. Lucian felt a prod at his back and shifted to allow Maggie to see. There would be no stopping her.
He stepped over the torn linen and entered the room, avoiding the mummified corpse. Maggie walked in after him, and her soft gasp filled the area. Lucian noted the pentagram on the floor on which Margery’s body resided and the candles that had burned halfway down. Margery had been interrupted in the middle of the spell, Lucian surmised.
“You stabbed her,” Maggie said softly from the other side, and Lucian strode around to see what Maggie saw. A dagger, not his, was sunk deep into Margery’s heart. By the markings on it, Lucian guessed it had belonged to Margery. His gaze swept the room and stopped on a chair that had ropes surrounding it that had been cut. A small carving of a cow lay next to it, a child’s toy, and Lucian knew this was where the last child had been held captive.
“This looks awfully like congealed blood,” Maggie stated from the altar, and Lucian hurried to join her.
“We need to burn all this,” Lucian replied, taking in even more spell components.
“We have to destroy the bundles, too. Clear the evil from everything Margery touched,” Maggie said, sidling closer to the opal stone.
“Please don’t touch that,” Lucian ordered.
Maggie cocked her head.
“What do you suppose it is?” Maggie asked.
“Something Margery was using for her dark spell. I can sense the power in it but not understand what its purpose was,” Lucian admitted. Before he could stop her, Maggie reached out and took the opal.
“Maggie!” Lucian cursed and rushed across to her. He lifted her head and was relieved when she stared back at him.
“There’s grief and pain here,” Maggie whispered and handed over the orb to Lucian. A whispering noise made them both jump, and they spun around. Lucian instinctively shoved Maggie behind him as he looked for the danger. To his astonished eyes, Margery’s body had begun to collapse, flakes drifting away into a beam of light.
“What is that?” Maggie cried, sticking her head out. Lucian sighed. Damn his future bride’s nosiness. Lucian allowed Maggie to come out but kept a hand locked on her in case he needed to defend her. Together, they watched in silence as Margery’s body vanished into dust.
“Well, at least we don’t have to bury her; I’ll get the hoover,” Maggie said saucily. Lucian’s eyebrows disappeared under his hair. Trust Maggie to think of that!
Maggie
Lucian was concerned about Maggie taking the opal to the hotel with her. But Maggie thought leaving it at the Jekyll would give Margery a power boost. They’d argued all afternoon while they traipsed back and forth to collect the items Margery had left behind before sticking them into an empty skip and burning them. To Lucian’s resignment, the jug, chalice, bowl, dagger, and stand did not melt. Lucian swept them up before Maggie could reach them and swore he’d have them buried in consecrated ground when one of the Rakehell men arrived. They were stored in a locked drawer with the hearts Lucian had previously found.
When Maggie left that night, she had mixed emotions. Maggie was heartened and overjoyed her food had been eaten and praised. She loved making people happy with cooking, and today seemed like she’d achieved something.
Maggie was also sad. Those hearts had belonged to innocent children and had been torn away from them by a wicked woman. Those poor babies hadn’t grown up, discovered life and love, and grew old. They’d barely started out before Margery ripped out any hopes and dreams they might have had.
And in addition, Maggie was curious and angry. She was interested in the spell and the opal. Furious that Margery had been killing innocent people and getting away with it. And on top of everything else was Maggie’s feelings for Lucian. She wanted what the Rakehell Six had. A man to love and adore her. Nobody could deny that the Rakehell Six doted on their partners, and the men were very lucky in their lives!