Craven Manor(55)

The crows were coming in to roost. One at a time, they swooped down from the heavens to alight on branches or stones. Their mournful cries drifted through the cooling night air, and their feathers made a rustling cacophony as they shuffled and bickered among themselves.

Their cries followed Daniel as he took the path he’d cleared back to the crypt. He stopped outside the stone tomb for a moment to clear away weeds that had started to grow in his absence and to say a silent goodbye to Annalise. He didn’t know if he would be able to help her. He had a theory that she stayed because her mother was trapped, and that once Eliza’s ghost was free, Annalise would follow. If Mrs. Kirshner’s account was accurate, it sounded like the mother and daughter had formed a close bond.

But if freeing Eliza didn’t save Annalise, Daniel would have to play the situation by ear. There were no locks, salt, or binding runes on Annalise’s door. Maybe the girl herself didn’t even know why she was trapped on earth. If that was the case, there might not be anything Daniel could do for her. She seemed so friendly and curious, he hated the idea of her being left alone with a man as evil as Bran.

Focus. One step at a time. Look after Eliza first.

He cleared up a few fallen leaves from the front of the tomb then stepped back. He wished he could warn her about what was coming, but he bit his tongue. It would be dangerous to show his cards too soon. Annalise was still loyal to her brother.

Daniel returned to his cottage. He focussed on keeping his routine as mundane as possible. Not much of the house was visible from his window, but for all he knew, Bran might be watching him, unseen, as a crow in the trees. He kept the window’s curtains open as he washed up, prepared dinner, and ate. Then he changed into his bed clothes, pulled the curtains, and blew out the lamp.

He sat on the edge of the bed for hours. The clock’s hands were barely visible in the darkness, but he watched as they crept past nine then ten. Finally, at eleven, he rose and changed into an all-black outfit.

If Bran had been watching the house, he would think Daniel had fallen asleep after dinner. With luck, he would have gotten bored of watching the cottage hours before. Still, Daniel kept his movements small and light as he turned the cottage’s handle and crept through a narrow gap in the door.

There was no sign of the crow or the cat. Daniel kept his senses alert as he slipped through the shadowed garden. Day birds had fallen silent, but the bats and night animals chattered. Instead of taking the easiest routes, Daniel deliberately kept to the thickest and darkest parts of the garden as he approached the gate.

He found the bag he’d hidden in the bushes and dug through its contents for the watch and binoculars. Then he slung the bag over his shoulder and began climbing through the trees.

He found a nook between two trunks with ferns growing around. It offered him a view of the cottage without having to get to close, and the ferns helped shield him. He leaned his back against one tree and tucked his legs in. The space was so gloomy that he felt certain anyone looking in his direction would miss him, but it was still hard to repress the impulse to curl into a ball.

He kept the watch out as he waited. Every few minutes, he shifted position to keep his legs from falling asleep. Time crept by painfully slowly, and tiredness began to make him drowsy. He pinched his arms until they were blue to keep himself alert.

Eventually, his watch ticked over to midnight, and Daniel lifted the binoculars. He could see the cottage’s front door and the small cleared space around it. He panned the lens across the space, looking for signs of movement amongst the plants. It was hard not to feel paranoid. By ten minutes past midnight, he was sweating. At fifteen past, the paranoia morphed into a dogged fear that something was creeping up behind him. It took all of his self-control to keep his eyes focussed ahead.

Finally, at twenty past midnight, a glimmer of motion darted between the trees. Annalise frisked towards the cottage, her dress and hair streaming behind her as she leapt over fallen logs. She was so fast and faint that Daniel had trouble keeping the binoculars trained on her.

Daniel was tempted to watch the girl frolic, but she wasn’t his primary concern. He turned the binoculars towards the tree boughs and panned across them. A flurry of motion in a large pine twenty meters from the cottage caught his attention, and Daniel had to bite his lip to keep a cheer inside. As he’d hoped, Bran had left the mansion to watch over his sister’s play. The great crow alighted in the pine tree and fluffed its feathers as it settled.

Fresh nerves shook off the last hint of Daniel’s tiredness. He simultaneously felt the press of limited time and paranoia that moving too soon would attract Bran’s attention. He watched as Annalise tapped on the cottage door. She tilted her head to the side, waiting for Daniel’s response. When the door didn’t open, she skirted around the building and began tapping on the window and walls.

The massive crow sat as still as a statue. His attention seemed focussed on his sister, and he showed no sign of impatience. Daniel finally dared to pack away the binoculars and crept backwards, deeper into the forest. He clutched his bag of supplies close as he wove towards Craven Manor.





Chapter Twenty-Five





Daniel’s progress was agonizing. He was afraid that if he moved too slowly, Bran would return to the manor before his task was finished. But if he went too fast, he risked making too much noise. He was breathless and shaking with tension by the time he reached the manor’s stone steps.