An Unexpected Pleasure (The Mad Morelands #4)(99)

“I see.” Megan nodded, looking thoughtful. “But we would not have told anyone about it. You could have written to us and let us know, sworn us to secrecy.”

“Maybe it would have been safe,” he agreed. “But I could not be sure. What if my letter had gone astray? What if some curious person somewhere along the way had decided to open it and see what it said? What if the news had seemed so extraordinary that Da just had to mention it to someone? Or had felt he had to tell Aunt Bridget that I was all right, and she had to tell Mrs. Shaughnessy about this miraculous place. Or Mary Margaret carried the tale to the priest in confession? I just could not risk it, Megan. It wasn’t for my sake. I had a duty to protect all those innocent villagers. I couldn’t risk them, even to save you grief. And I didn’t know that you thought Theo had killed me—why, in the name of all that’s holy, did you believe that?”

“Because that is the tale that Coffey told,” Theo explained.

“But why?”

“To keep the suspicion off himself,” Megan replied. “Why do you think?”

“But Theo knew the truth.”

“No. I didn’t. I did not know that it was Coffey inside that mask. I had no idea who it was, and he convinced me that you had been killed by a village priest. That you had violated some religious practice or other, and so the priest had killed you and was after us. I was ill and weak, and he whisked me out of there. Then, though I did not know it, he told Barchester that I had killed you, and Barchester was kind enough to tell your parents that.”

“Coffey!” Dennis sneered, his face twisting with contempt and hatred. “When I get my hands on him, it will be the last lie he’ll ever tell.” His fists knotted, and he went on, “That is why I am here.”

“To kill Coffey?” Theo asked. “But why—I mean, after all this time?”

“Not for what he did to me.” Dennis made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “Not even for what he has done to us over the years. But now he has taken my daughter from me. He has kidnapped Caya!”





CHAPTER 19




“Your daughter?” Megan repeated, stunned. “He stole your daughter? Oh, my God, that is the something precious that was taken from you!”

“What?”

Both Theo and Dennis looked at her in confusion.

“Deirdre had a dream,” Megan said.

“Ah.” Her brother nodded, understanding.

“What are you talking about?” Theo asked.

“My sister Deirdre. She has these dreams…. She sees things in them. Things that other people can’t see. I didn’t tell you, because I was afraid you would think I was crazy. That my whole family was.”

Theo’s eyebrows vaulted upward. “After our dream? Besides, the Morelands are always having…unusual dreams.”

Megan shrugged. “Well, I had difficulty believing it. But Da has always believed that Deirdre has special abilities. She dreamed about Dennis. She dreamed that he was asking her for help, that he had lost something precious. Da was certain that you had stolen something from Dennis. We thought that you two had perhaps argued about it. It was why we came to London—to find out what had happened, to recover this ‘precious’ object so that Dennis could find peace. It never occurred to us that the something precious was a person.”

“I have to get her back,” Dennis said earnestly. “That is why I came to you, Theo. You were the only person I could think of who could help me. I’m desperate.”

“Why has he taken her?” Theo exclaimed. “Has he gone mad?”

“I fear he has,” Dennis replied. “He has become obsessed with whatever keeps the villagers from aging.”

“He knows about that?”

Dennis nodded wearily. “Yes. Coffey came back. I noticed over the course of the next two or three years that other treasures went missing. That cloak and mask, for one thing. He was not able to take them with him the first time—he wouldn’t have had room for more than a few small items. But two years later, the cloak and mask disappeared. I suspected that Julian had taken them. The villagers were inclined to believe that the gods had simply used some of their belongings.” He shrugged. “But eventually I persuaded them to put guards in that cave, at least in the dry season, when Julian was most likely to come. And they caught him.”

“What happened?”

“We let him go.” Dennis’s expression hardened at the memory. “With his treasure. He threatened to reveal the existence of the village. That is what they fear most—the outside world discovering them. They think it will anger the gods, and they will lose all their magic. And I know it would destroy them.”

“So he blackmailed the whole village.”

“Essentially, yes. The villagers thought it would be easier and more pleasing to the gods to pay him a ‘tribute’ every year than to have the secret revealed.”

“Why didn’t they just put him in jail or something?” Megan asked. “I mean, he tried to kill you. He was stealing from them.”

“The years of peaceful living in that place have changed the villagers. They live without war or fighting. The ancient Incas used to sacrifice animals and even people as part of their religious ceremonies. But these people have grown to believe that they are blessed in part because of the lack of violence in their lives. They don’t even sacrifice animals now. They believe that the gifts of goldwork and food and such that they give the gods are sacrifice enough. They don’t have a jail. They could not bring themselves to harm Coffey, and they had no facility for locking him up. Jail is a foreign concept to them, anyway.”