„Someone’s sins are nails stubbed in his soul that bleeds till death”
„Bardain, wait a minute!” Eva cried after the teamster, one morning when she got out of the house to have a walk as she was having lately and she saw Bardain heading toward the carriage with a bowed head.
The fact that Eva asked him to wait for her amazed Bardain a lot, for even if he knew she’s very kind and that she often used to talk to the servants among who she grew up, he had never expected, yet, that she’ll talk to him, for they weren’t either too close or that open to each other to have a free talk. Yet, he stopped, thinking that maybe she called him to ask him to do something for her as he was going to town: what exactly Eva could ask him to do, he didn’t know. Anyway, it couldn’t be anything out of the common: just to take a letter to Beth or Mrs. Huntington or to ask him to buy something she needed.
Yet, he’s been wrong, for once got next to him, Eva neither asked him to take a letter to the town nor asked him to buy something she needed. Per contra, she simply told him: „I would like to have a walk together if you don’t mind.”
Bardain stared at her thunderstruck: „a walk with me?”
„Yes. I don’t know why, but I feel the need to have a walk, but not alone, and while Stan and Brian aren’t home, the only one left to accompany me is you.”
„But, Ms. Stonebridge, I…”
„I know you have to go to town with business. That’s why I promise that the walk won’t take long. So, should we go now?”
At that moment, Bardain only had to accept, for, eventually, she was the woman Brian loved and he knew very well how much his young master had suffered being away from her. That’s why Bardain followed her in silence for a while. Then, when Eva stopped to wait for him, Bardain quickened his pace till he got by her side and Eva right away grasped his arm, murmuring: „I feel dizzy! I’ll bear against your arm if you don’t mind.”
„Of course, of course, Miss Stonebridge!” the teamster mumbled, pacing slower than before and thus giving her the opportunity to keep pace with him.
After a few steps, taken in silence, Eva said: „You seem upbeat lately, Bardain. Something happens?”
Bardain again stared thunderstruck at her, for he hadn’t expected her to notice his tune because since he opened that box with memories, he suddenly became so sad, even more upbeat than he generally was. But even so, he had thought that he forced himself a lot to look as if he was fine.
„Don’t even try to deny this, Bardain, for you can’t turn me round so easily,” Eva told him in a cheerful voice, seeing the old man so confused and understanding that very soon he’ll tell her one of those common excuses the men use to tell women often when they feel ambushed or they were trying to hide something, an excuse that was generally starting with „I’m fine… Don’t worry… I just…,” and which was often ending with „we are now together, right?”
„Do you see?! I’ve been right!” Eva said, seeing Bardain looking elsewhere and slowly biting his lower lip as he used to do each time he felt caught in a trap or that his feelings have been so freely noticed by someone. „Actually, there’ve been a few days already spotting you in this state of mind. But… each time I’ve tried to find a logical cause for this, I couldn’t. At least I understood that it can be only because of a heart cause.”
Bardain smiled: „because of heart! Maybe you’re right!”
„Not „maybe"… I’m sure I am, for… I’ve passed through something similar and this feeling is so familiar to me,” Eva murmured, sadly smiling. „And, even if I know that what I lived in the past can’t be compared with what you lived, Bardain, yet, I know very well that our hearts suffer the same.”
„This is so. And… to be honest, Miss Stonebridge, not only the two of us are suffering,” the old man murmured and finally looked at her with kind eyes, with the eyes of a man in which the pain of a soul and the melancholy could be seen, but which were also trying to reflect some blinks of life too.
Thus, when Bardain stopped, Eva did the same. But she was so surprised by what he said, not understanding at all what did he mean: „not only we are suffering? Then? Who else also suffers?”
„Mister Beneath! He also suffers because even if he has you by his side, he thinks that you are so far away from one of the other… with the soul.”
„Not that far, actually,” Eva said, smiling, remembering the last nights spent in Brian’s arms. But… she couldn’t tell Bardain about this, feeling a kind of strange shame in front of the old man, for… she wasn’t Brian’s wife… she was only the mistress… a social status she chose when she denied Brian’s proposal of marriage which eventually only managed to push him away from her. And now, when they were slowly getting closer, she was afraid to talk to him about marriage when she refused that idea for so long. „Anyway, I’m sure that Brian’s sufferance can’t be compared with yours. Eventually, we are now one by the side of the other while you, Bardain, are alone. Or… maybe Brian isn’t suffering because of me?!” Eva looked elsewhere, feeling her eyes filling with tears and her jaw started to slowly tremble because of an old upset.
„If you meant that Mister Beneath suffers because of Mrs. Beatrice Evans then you are so wrong, for between they hadn’t been anything of what do you think.”
„And yet: Brian didn’t deny this when I asked him.”
„Maybe he had his reasons to make you think so. Maybe he simply couldn’t reveal to you the secrets of that partnership, for Mister Beneath and Mrs. Evans have been seen together in the last few months only because of the businesses they had together.”
„The bad mouths” talk about something else, Bardain,” Eva murmured and stepped forward, still bearing against his arm. „And they don’t care about businesses, partnerships, and the rest. And, to be honest, I don’t think that there is someone in this world to be interested in this kind of relationship between a man and a woman because you also know that if a man and a woman are seen together it can be only because of one obvious reason: pleasure.”
„Miss Eva, I don’t know if I’m worthy to give you guidance, but… I would like to do it if you allow me this.”
„A guidance? In which way?”
„Stop listening to the gossip invented by the society, for they only manage to destroy you. And… this is their main purpose in life… of the humans I mean, or at least this seems so: to destroy the others, especially those that are happy, and you and mister Beneath had been very happy together and I hope you’ll still be, eventually. That’s why others fought to separate you and I mean here Miss Davis and the rest. Actually… I was told that Lorenne Fabeau is in town and I think that she’ll pay you a visit as soon as possible.”
Eva winced. Then she swallowed hard and squeezed her fists, for… even if she had adored Lorenne while living together or at least she had admired her for her manner of seeing life, and then she had felt pity for what she suffered in her past, she was still afraid of that woman and she didn’t know why.
„Lorenne Fabeau in town!” she eventually murmured, stopping in front of the jasmine land and deeply breathing in the scent of the damp soil, strongly imbued with the cold scent of the autumn. „Maybe it’ll be better if I and Lorenne never see each other again.”
„Why?” Bardain asked in amazement, for he had heard that Lorenne wasn’t that mean as others were talking about her.
But Eva thought differently, especially after she had found out about Albert’s death and that Emily was missing. „Because… our path in life separated in Brighton and it doesn't have any tangent line in Image or London. That’s why, if someone looks for me at Mrs. Huntington’s residence, tell that person that Eva Stonebridge isn’t in the country and that she won’t ever turn back.”
After that, Eva stood for a long time, watching in silence the slow movement of the jasmine bushes’offsets that were lacking flowers and life, but which still had some breath in the embracement of the harsh and cold autumn wind that was felt so well lately, wandering the surroundings.
***
„That’s why, if someone looks for me at Mrs. Huntington’s residence, tell that person that Eva Stonebridge isn’t in the country and that she won’t ever turn back,” was still resounding in Bardain’s ears while he was spurring the horses to get to the town as soon as possible, to do what he had to do there, and then to turn back to Image, for Brian asked him to take care of Eva and not to leave her alone while he was out of the town along with Stan, because Brian had some business out of London those days and he had decided to leave at that moment before Eva gives birth.
„Interesting! Why is Miss Stonebridge so afraid of Lorenne Fabeau?” Bardain thought and he again drew bit, rushing the two black horses. „What God could have happened in Brighton if such a good Miss as Eva refuses to remember about those times? Maybe… did Emily Davis try to force her to do some … things for the „Red Ants?” But… if was so, if Eva was already part of that organization, I’m still confused because it seems to me weird that they just let her go and that in these two months since she’s with Mister Beneath nobody looked for her…” murmured Bardain and he again rushed the horses.
On his way to London, Bardain had changed his mind eventually and he had decided that it was better to go to Shelby Storm’s castle where he knew that Brian was and to talk to him about his fears, for he wasn’t aware why, but he knew that it would have been better if Brian and Eva had left England for a while and the sooner the better. That’s why when he got to a crossroad, Bardain pulled the reins and turned left, even if he should have gone straight to get to London.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
However, when he forced the horses to turn left, being too immersed in thoughts, he didn’t notice the carriage that was meeting him half way and that seemed to rush to the places that Bardain was leaving behind: to Image.
***
„Bardain, what’s going on? Why are you here?” Brian asked in amazement, getting out of the castle and heading in a rush toward the carriage stopped not that far from the entrance, after being told by Stan that the old teamster came there in a hurry and that seems he has an urgent talk to Brian. „Is Eva? Something happened to her?” Brian asked, concerned.
„No, Mister Beneath. Miss Stonebridge is fine. For the moment.”
„But…,” Brian insisted, feeling that after the sentence told in the gallop of the rough breathing of the old teamster, was coming a „but.”
„I feel that you and Miss Stonebridge should leave Image the sooner the better. I also think that it’ll be a better idea to leave the country for a while. Not the other, but… the „Red Ants” are after Miss Stonebridge and very soon something will happen.”
„Bardain,” Brian scolded the old man, understanding that this one had again one of his paranoia crises, one of those he had often had after Baron’s death, in which he was saying that Brian is in danger and that he must leave, „I think that’s not the right moment to talk about superstitions, but to make wise decisions, for… one thing: Eva isn’t in the condition for long journeys, and second of all - it’s illogical for the „Red Ants” to be after Eva because I’m sure she has nothing to do with that organization.”
„She hasn’t?” Bardain murmured confusedly. „How do you know that?”
„Because I had asked her. After we moved to Image, we had a talk about this, for … the same as you are, I’ve been concerned that something might happen to her if she leaves that organization. But Eva ensured me that she has nothing to do with them and that she hadn’t been ever involved in anything strange or dangerous with them.”
„And… do you believe her, Mister Beneath? Let’s not forget that Miss Stonebridge had been for months in their hands and we don’t know for sure what could have happened to her while being there. Especially… we don’t know why she left Brighton so urgently, and that’s so weird, I’m sure about this. Thus, they wouldn’t have found that man dead as they found him.”
And with „that man,” Bardain was talking about Albert and about his suspicious death. But Brian hung tough because he trusted in Eva, and if she said that nothing weird happened to her in Brighton, then she told him the truth.
Well, nothing else weird, except the fact that Emily Davis tried to take their child and that’s why she made everything to separate them. But even so, he was sure that he can protect Eva and keep her away from the „Red Ants.” That’s why he came to Shelby Storm: to ask for his advice and to ask him to put into effect their plan of pointing a finger at Christine Bircham and of the one who was leading „Red Ants” from the shadows because he was sure now that Christine wasn’t the leader of that organization, even if she made everybody think so.
„Mister Beneath, maybe it’ll be better to listen to my advice at least this time. Miss Stonebridge…”
„That’s enough, Bardain!” Brian told him harshly. „I don’t contemplate listening to your eternal concerns. You know very well what I think about them. That’s why I kindly ask you to turn back to Image and… as soon as possible. I’ll be back, too, as soon I finish my businesses here.” Then, Brian turned his back on the teamster and rushed to enter the castle.
Thunderstruck, Bardain stood in the same place for a while, staring at the door that slammed behind Brian and, what he has been so afraid of, had happened: Brian became irrational and he wasn’t listening to anyone, except that old man, Shelby Storm, who he didn’t know why, but Bardain wasn’t trusting.
Yet, he came back to his senses and he turned on his heels, intending to go to the carriage and leave. But he stopped and looked to his right, seeing another carriage heading toward the castle. But not the carriage caught his eyes, but the teamster: a 40 years old man, with an ugly scar on his face.
Bardain shuddered, seeing that man, and he right away remembered where he saw him: at Beneath’s manor, twenty years ago, when Baron Beneath committed suicide. And he was sure of this: that man has been there and not only once, but twice.
The first time when Bardain saw him, has been when the gendarmes took Baron’s body out of the house and were heading toward the police carriage: he saw him standing among the viewers, somewhere behind them. But he had left, seeing Bardain piercing him with his glance. But even if he tried to hide his face with the hat, Bardain got to see the scar on his left cheek.
The second time when the two men saw each other has been months after Baron’s death when the man with the scar came to Beneath’s manor and told Bardain that he must help him to get something that Baron had to give to his master: a yellow envelope.
It was the same yellow envelope Bardain had hidden from the gendarmes. But even if he heard that man talking about that evidence and that amazed him a lot, Bardain managed not to reveal that he knew what the man was talking about. So, looking into that one’s eyes, he invited him into Baron’s office to look together for that envelope, but they didn’t find anything there.
„Are you sure that Mister Beneath didn’t send it already?” Bardain calmly asked the man, staring into his eyes.
„I’m sure,” that one said. „As far as I can tell, you were the one who took care of Mister Beneath correspondence,” and the man with the scar deeply stared into Bardain’s eyes, looking at least for feedback, for a tremble of the face’s muscles, for a weird blink in his eyes or the trembling of the hand.
But nothing of all he had expected happened, for Bardain was used to hide his feelings. That's why he pretended to be amazed: „and… wherefrom did you know all that? From what I know, this is the first time we see each other.”
The man with the scar on the left cheek again looked into his eyes, for he was sure that Bardain had seen him the day of Baron’s death. But yet… he was affirming the opposite. Or… didn’t he see him then?!
„Anyway, I won’t waste anymore my time in this,” Bardain said confidently. „You also saw that there’s nothing of what you’re looking for here. That’s why I’ll ask you to look for that thing elsewhere, for… it’s true that I’ve been in charge of Mister Beneath correspondence. But… not of his secret correspondence. This was someone else’s job.”
„Someone else’s? Who exactly?” the visitor asked.
„A certain John. But… I didn’t pay too much attention to that guy, to be honest, for it wasn’t my problem what kind of business had that one with Mister Beneath. But… if you’re interested in this, you can look for him and ask him about this. And now, please excuse me, but after Mister Baron’s death, his son, Brian, is completely broken inside. That’s why, I must be always by his side,” and Bardain motioned to the visitor to leave the office.
Thus, the visitor had to listen to Bardain, because there wasn’t anything else to do. Yet, a few days after that visit, when Bardain and Brian were out of town, visiting a friend of Baron Beneath, someone got on their property and destroyed a lot of things, looking for something.
But even if Bardain was sure who was the person who entered the house, he told the gendarmes that he had no idea who the thief might be. The same said Brian, for he really wasn’t aware of anything related to his father’s businesses, those he had before his death. More than that, Brian asked the police to not investigate that incident, for the thief didn’t get anything out of the house, and this was really weird, for in the house Brian kept some money and some valued things.
Suddenly, Bardain turned back to reality, leaving those strange memories in his head, and, grabbing Stan’s hand, he pulled him toward him when the boy was passing by.
„Who’s the guy?” the old teamster asked Stan, motioning with the head toward the one with the scar that was carrying some boxes with things inside the castle, through a side door.
„Aaa, that one,” Stan mumbled, somehow bothered to see Shelby Storm’s man. „They call him the Bulldog. But I don’t know why they call him so.”
„And his name?” Bardain insisted.
„To be honest… I don’t know it, for even if Mister Beneath and I've been here for two days already, I saw this guy only once or twice, but I never heard anyone calling him by his name. Only: „hey, bulldog, wait!” That’s all.”
„Hey, bulldog, wait!” Bardain murmured. „As if he’s a dog or something,” and he ironically smiled. „Listen, Stan, do you think you can do me a favor?” Bardain asked, staring at the door through which the „bulldog” vanished.
„A favor?” the boy asked in amazement. „Which one?”
„Don’t lose sight of this man and… if possible, as discreetly as possible, for… I don’t know why, but I have the feeling that Mister Beneath can be in danger here.”
„In danger?” Stan blested. „I thought that this place is of a friend…?”
„I also thought so, but… I’m not that sure anymore. That’s why I ask you to stand guard, my boy, and if something happens, go straight to London and look for detective Vincent Keen and trust only that man to reveal some secrets to. Did you understand me?”
„Yes, I got you, but… I don’t understand why should we keep this secret, from Mister Brian I mean. He seems to trust this man. And… the old man doesn’t look like someone one should be afraid of. Or… at least it was the first impression I had of him.”
„Did you see him?” Bardain asked in amazement. „I mean, did you see cont-shark? Shelby Storm?”
„Mmm, I saw him. Yesterday, because curious as you know I am, I entered the house and I got to the living room where he was. Actually, I was looking for Mister Beneath more than being curious, but instead of him, I measured noses with that old man. And… we also exchanged some thoughts and he seemed nice to me.”
„You exchanged some words?! What exactly did you talk about?”
„Nothing out of the normal. He just asked me about Image, if I like working with Mister Beneath, and… how to get to London or to Image on the short way.”
„This was the matter!” Bardain murmured feverishly. „The old fox is trying to pump the secrets out of Stan, for… he’s still after the yellow envelope. Even after 20 years, he’s still after that. That’s why he got closer to Brian. That’s why the shark Shelby Storm met the young master: he’s still looking for what he thinks is his. But… he won’t ever get what is mister Brian’s,” he told himself.
„Listen, Stan, and listen to me very carefully: never and to nobody reveal secrets about Mister Brian and Eva. Neither you should say something about the places we live onto, or we are frequenting, for… this is a snare others try to lay for us. It seems to me that they are after Mister Beneath, but he’s still blind to trust us. That’s why we must protect him, even from himself. So: no matter what that old man will ask you in the future, say that you don’t know it, you aren’t aware of this, or… invent things. Say anything, except the truth, for… it's probably to be the one in charge of protecting the future of an entire family. Did you get my words?”
Stan nodded yes, but he was so confused, for having no idea why Bardain was so frightened or why he shouldn’t tell Brian about this. Yet, he had decided that oldness might mean wit too. That’s why he had decided to keep silent and to do what Bardain told him to do, for if what the old teamster says is true, then saving Brian Beneath means doing him great kindness and this is how great people act.
After that, Bardain rushed and climbed on the driving box and pulled the reins right away, spurring the horses to leave that property as soon as possible, for the time was short, and the danger closer, and he, Bardain, felt that so well, so cold on his skin, and he had to make sure that Brian will come out alive, eventually, of all this.