„Friendships are born from care; partnerships - from necessity; hatred - from the desire of being supreme”

  „Mrs. Huntington, what exactly are Marianne Chesterman hiding?” Eva had asked the old lady after they left Chesterman’s property and both were sitting one next to the other in that carriage that was rushing on the wet streets of London.

  Mrs. Huntington preferred not to answer. But she did this not because she didn’t trust Eva, for she knew that the young girl was reliable and if she promised something, she would keep that promise till death, but because Alice Huntington made a vow, one day, long ago, a vow about a secret born from hatred, a secret that could destroy many destinies and even kill, and the old woman intended to take that secret in the grave eventually.

  But she had been forced to break that vow that day and this because Anne Ross had been about to lose her baby, and this reminded her of her huge tragedy, that took place 4 decades ago.

  That’s why she took Eva and came to Marianne’s house - to make that woman understand that Anne wasn’t alone, to make her fear and think about the consequences that her madness can bring eventually. Another way out of that situation, she didn’t find and, even if it was risky to reappear in front of Marianne, Alice took that risk, for what she hated the most was to see the sufferance in a woman’s eyes: sufferance caused by the thought that she lost or could lose her baby.

  Now instead, alone in that carriage, after leaving Eva in Christine’s house and she ordered her new teamster, the one she hired understanding that she can’t take Stan away from Brian at that moment, to bring her home, Alice understood that maybe she rushed taking that decision.

  „Maybe should I have waited for a little more?” the old woman murmured. „Eventually, mother and child are fine. But… it could have ended tragically and everything because of her stupid pride, for… Marianne Chesterman has always been an irrational person, a woman that always fell prey to her emotions, but who also suffered a lot. Yet, I also consider that it has been necessary, for if I hadn’t let her know that I’m here, if I hadn’t told her to limit her madness, who knows what she would have done eventually.”

  Arriving in front of her home, Alice has been forced to interrupt her thoughts, more, when descending from the carriage, she saw in amazement the person who was waiting for her: Vincent Keen.

  Seeing her, Keen slightly bowed. Then, he approached her and kissed her hand when Alice stretched her hand to greet him, more as a reflex, and not because she was happy to see him.

  „Mrs. Huntington!” mumbled Keen, still holding her hand into his and waiting to see at least a weird blink in her eyes, for he had that feeling that she was hiding something since they had that small talk inside the Stonebridge’s house.

  „Detective! I’m so surprised to see you here! I thought that we told everything to each other, last time I saw you in Image.”

  „Yet, I still have the strange feeling in my chest that you still have something to tell me. Something that Brian Beneath mustn’t know about, but which can influence his life eventually. And this secret you are hiding from me has a single name: Bardain Jones.”

  Alice suddenly winced, and her reaction told Keen that he was right. But when Mrs. Huntington looked around, from the corner of her eyes, his cop instinct told him that it was dangerous to keep talking there, in the street, with the teamster next to them and with that spy at the corner of the street, who he had noticed since he came and about who the old woman seemed also be aware of.

  „Let’s better talk inside!” Alice said, grabbing Keen’s arm. Yet, before entering the house, she told her teamster, a man about 50, named Edgar, to take the horses to the stable and then to take the day off, till the evening when they must go to Mrs. Bircham’s house to check how things are going. The teamster slightly bent and grabbed the horses’bridles, spurring them to follow him to the stables, for he understood that he was interrupting something there and that discussion wasn’t for his ears. Also, it wasn’t something to bother him, for his master’s talk with the stranger wasn’t something to care about and regarding the guy he also saw at the corner of the street - well, as long as that one wasn’t after him, he hadn’t why to be afraid of.

  Getting inside instead, Mrs. Huntington told Keen to follow her to her room and didn’t invite him as usual to the living room as she used to receive her guests, and this gave the detective the feeling that what she had to tell him was something private.

  So, without questioning himself more about this, he followed Alice to her room. Yet, he had to wait for half an hour, till she turned back from somewhere - where she had been, he had no idea. But she didn’t come alone - she was followed by Beth, who was carrying a tray with tea, some sweets, and cookies. Then, leaving the tray on the table, Mrs. Huntington asked Beth to leave her alone with the guest.

  And Beth listened to her right away, for she had too many things to do that day and also to think about Eva than to beat her brains with Mrs. Huntington’s strange guests. So, leaving the room, being in a rush, she had been about to squash Moon with the door, who, as usual, tried to sneak inside.

  „Moon, no! Out! Now!” Beth demanded the cat, trying to catch up with her. But that cat was smart and knew where to look for comfort. Thus, she right away jumped on the old woman’s lap. But when Beth’s hands were about to grab her fur and take her out of the room, Moon arched and, in a jerk, she got on Keen’s lap.

  The detective smiled, seeing that cattish dare. Then, still smiling, he looked at Beth, who blushed: „let the cat with us! It doesn’t bother me! Anyway: even if she hears our secrets, she won’t tell anyone!” he made a joke.

  „If Moon doesn’t bother the detective, then she can stay,” Alice told Beth, who right away withdrew.

  But even so, Beth had the feeling that she had been left aside, even if she hadn’t that much interest in the talk Keen and Alice will have. But this didn’t mean she wasn’t furious that Moon attainted her once again.

  „I’ll get you eventually, you fleabag!” Beth hissed through her teeth after she had exited the room and was rushing toward the kitchen. „Now that Stan isn’t here, you’re looking for comfort in a stranger’s lap, it seems to me. Well-well, you’ll be hungry later and you’ll come looking for me. But: I assure you that I’ll send you to be fed by the one in whose lap you purred your dreams,” she mumbled till she entered the kitchen, slamming the door behind her.

  Only when she heard the door slamming behind Beth and the noise of her footsteps stopped being heard in the corridor, did Mrs. Huntington look at Keen, who was caressing the cat’s fur, looking completely immersed in that new hobby. „Yet, detective Keen, your visit surprises me a lot. I thought that Bardain told you everything he had to tell you when he came to see you.”

  „This means you saw him after he had left my office,” said Keen, staring into Alice’s eyes.

  But Mrs. Huntington faced too many tigers in her life to be afraid of dogs, that were showing their fangs to her, from time to time, and Keen wasn’t for her more than a dog at that moment, and not because she was thinking ill of him, but because she had nothing against him: she neither hated him nor he liked him that much. He was for her one of the many she saw somewhere sometime. Yet, she answered his question: „it’s true. Bardain came here that night. He entered through the back door, after, at his age, he had jumped over the fence and crossed the yard.”

  „Was he followed by someone?”

  „It seemed so.”

  „Who exactly? Was that man that still stays at the corner of the street and follows you?”

  „This is something I’m not aware of, to be honest. What I know is that he had met Brian that day, earlier, at the castle of a count.”

  „Count Shark,” mumbled Keen. But seeing Mrs. Huntington’s glance focused on his, he said: „nothing. Just a thought. I’m listening to you.”

  „There’s not much to tell, anyway: he just came to say goodbye to me and, I don’t know why, the words he told me then, resounded as if he was saying goodbye forever.”

  „The words? Like?”

  „Sometimes is better to vanish before time, than to eventually regret not having done this. As is better to face your enemies while you still have that power than when you’re kneeled in front of them and about to lose your head.”

  „That’s a too long sentence for saying goodbye, don’t you think? And damn twisted in my opinion, for… on one side - those words are clear, but on the other side - the message they send it’s unclear.”

  „Me instead - I know their meaning.”

  „Do you know it?” asked Keen, even more, surprised than before.

  „Yes, I know them, for I used to know Bardain well. A long time ago. When we were still young and our feelings were like a savage bird in our chests.”

  „A romance?”

  „It’s better to say a fugitive love story, with a sad ending.”

  „Why?”

  „Because… each of us chose another path to walk onto in this life: Bardain chose to be faithful with Baron Beneath, who crossed a difficult time at that moment, and he told me then that he hadn’t time for something else than helping his master, while I was too eager to love, to feel the taste of life, and to let myself floating on the wind’s wings.”

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  „And? Where did those wings lead you eventually?”

  „Where you are seeing me now: alone and deserted inside,” Alice sadly murmured. „Anyway, let’s turn back to our businesses: what I think is that Bardain went that night to see that eternal rival he was talking about so much lately. He even told me, last time he saw me, that he also talked to Brian about this.”

  „And that famous enemy was count Shark?”

  „It’s possible. But I don’t know why I think that’s something more than this, for if he had gone to face that old count that night, these spies wouldn’t have hoovered now around my house. What I think is that Bardain went eventually to see someone else. Who exactly, I can’t tell you.”

  „But… who eventually brought the carriage to your house? As far as I know, from Brian and his teamster, Stan, Bardain left that castle with mister Beneath’s carriage.”

  „If I’m not mistaken, it was the worker of a smith. One of the workers of Bardain’s friend. But I don’t know that person. Maybe Stan and Mister Beneath know him.”

  „Then… I’ll ask them about this. But… I would like to know something else if you allow me to ask this.”

  „About Eva and her sudden departure from Image?”

  „Exactly. But… it’ll be discordant from me to ask this now, right?”

  „Right, for neither this is a truth you should know nor anyone asked for your help. Yet, I promise you something: if things turn bad, the first one who I’ll ask for help, it’ll be you.”

  „Things?”

  „It’s the only thing I can tell you right now, detective and, if you don’t mind, I would like to be left alone. There are still many things to do in this house while fate leads my footsteps in so many places these days.”

  „Of course - of course,” Keen rushed to say and he right away stood up. But he didn’t leave Moon on the floor. He took her with him when he left the room, caressing her fur. Yet, before exiting, he once again kissed Alice’s hand, a hint that he’ll be available for her at any time and that’s only a matter of time to come to see her if she sends a word to him.

  But… Keen’s eyes were hiding so many things, for he hadn't believed everything Alice told him. Something deep inside him told him that there was one more secret she had held for her. „What exactly she didn’t tell me?” Keen wondered, heading toward the kitchen and still caressing the black-like pitch fur of the cat, that was so sweetly purring in his arms. „I have the feeling that Bardain told her where he went that night and that he told her not to tell anyone. Just as he told me not to tell Brian that he came to see me. But… where did he eventually go?” he murmured.

  „The flaws of the job?” he heard Beth’s ironic voice behind him, something that made him wince and stare at her.

  The girl instead, who was just turning back from the still room and was bringing a basket with apples for baking a pie, looked at him eventually as if she had a rival in front of her: she hated something at Keen and probably her hatred had something to do with the fact that Moon was sweetly purring at his chest and that she denied following the girl earlier.

  „Aaa, Miss Alby,” Keen happily shouted eventually when he came to his senses, acting like usual - damn suspicious with everyone, but always happy when he had questions to ask: „I was looking for you.”

  „Me?” asked Beth suspiciously. „Why exactly?”

  „I’ve been told that you saw mister Beneath’s teamster a few days ago,” Keen said, throwing out a feeler.

  „Stan? Yeah, so?”

  „No, no Stan. I meant the older one. Bardain.”

  „I? I saw him? When was that? And… who exactly did you say that told you that I saw him?” the girl murmured nervously, for more than being questioned about things she knew, she hated to be involved in dangerous games like the one Keen tried to involve her with trying to make her confess that she saw Bardain a few days ago, for even if she saw Bardain sneaking toward Mrs. Huntington’s room, a few evenings ago, she didn’t tell anyone about this, for… it wasn’t something hers and, as it was Alice’s secret, she preferred to keep it.

  „Should I take it as a fact that I was wrong?” Keen tried to make things take a new direction.

  „Absolutely,” murmured Beth furious this time and, after she left that basket with apples on the floor, she took Moon from the detective’s arms and, after she had left the cat on the floor, she took the basket back in her hand, hissing Keen through her teeth: „huh, others made the most of you, that you are a damn good detective. But, to be honest, it seems to me that those were only smoke,” she made a hint at the words he heard from Stan, a day ago. „What a shame, detective, and you looked like a reliable person. But I understand that I was right thinking that one shouldn’t believe the detectives.” After that, after she had told him everything she kept in her soul, Beth showed him where the door was and, turning her back to him, she proudly walked toward the kitchen.

  Moon followed her right away, for - on one hand: it was felt a divine smell coming out of there and she knew that if she entered there, it was a sure fact that she’ll have something taste at dinner, and secondly - she had also to make peace with the girl. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have received only a spanking, a dreadful one as only Beth used to give her, but without hurting her of course, each time the girl was catching Moon checking the jars with cream, but she would have been thrown in the street for sure, for being a traitor.

  Left alone, Keen looked thunderstruck behind the girl. And how he had not to look like that when he had been scolded by a girl, and this only because he had tried to make her talk. „Nice, what can I say?!” he mumbled, eventually. „You have just been knocked down by a girl, dude Keen,” he scolded himself. „This means you are already old,” and, reproachfully shaking his head, he left the house eventually.

***

  Alice Huntington secretly wiped her tears, standing in front of the window and looking at the outside night that was rushing to fall over the surroundings. And what made her eventually weep and what made her feel pain in her heart was the talk she had with Keen about her past relationship with Bardain. More than that: the fact that Bardain had disappeared so suddenly, especially after he had told her about an eventual danger that could lurk on him, made her fear for him with all her heart.

  „And… where did you eventually go, Bardain?” the old lady murmured, touching her heart as if she felt a sudden pain in her chest. „You didn’t even spread the word that you are fine. Thus, we don’t know either if you are fine or if what you are doing is safe for you! Did I mean so few for you? Did we mean so few for each other?” she started to lament, facing that night that was watching her through the window.

  Eventually, Alice sat down on the bed and stood like this, thoughtful, for a long while. Then she stood up again, approached the drawers, opened the one with the box with memories inside it, and took the box in her hands. But, that time, she opened the box there, next to the furniture, and took a photo out of it - a photo of her when she was young and, next to her, a young handsome man was standing, a man her heart had longed for him for so long and, when she saw him in that old and yellow photo, Alice’s heart jerked in her chest, again.

  And again, tears flowed from her eyes, the wheel of time of her mind turned back time and Alice Huntington remembered the last date she had with Bardain, the one from the photo, right in the middle of the street, under a street lamp.

  „Are you sure that you won’t regret this?” the young Alice asked him then, squeezing her fists, not to allow the tears freely flow on her cheeks. „At all?”

  „I don’t know,” the young man drily answered. „Maybe I’ll regret this… someday. But, Alice, I’m sure that I can’t give you what you want.”

  „I didn’t ask much. Only to have a family with you,” she suddenly shouted.”

  „But I can’t give you this. Not now.”

  „Why? Is it because you can’t stay away from your master?” the young girl hissed through her teeth.

  „Yes,” he again drily answered. „I can’t forget how much did he help me, Alice. Thanks to him, I am where I am now. Thanks to him I could stand up and help my family to survive.”

  „But… what about us?” she shouted again. „Was it really something passenger? Can you give up on us so easily?”

  „I know that’s not easy. But yet: we’ll survive,” he said in a half a voice.

  „Like in the old talk: time heals everything?”

  „Yes.”

  „Then: I hope time will chase the sadness away, Bardain, and it will forgive you, for I won’t do this ever,” and, upset, with her eyes in tears and her cheeks in flames, the young Alice Huntington turned her back on the young Bardain and rushed to leave that place as if trying to run away from their breakup.

  Bardain instead stood in the same place that night, watching her leaving him. And when she disappeared at a crossroad, he turned his back to that place too and headed in an opposite direction, with his hands stuck in his pockets and with his head bent while the storm started to blow in his heart.

  Alice saw him leaving then, for when she turned to the right, she stopped and waited, thinking that he’ll follow her as he did each time, they had a quarrel. She had been wrong instead. And, seeing that minutes passed, but Bardain didn’t catch up with her, she reappeared at that crossroad and saw him leaving.

  And her heart squeezed in her chest then, like at that moment when, being already old, she had remembered those moments and, just like then, her cheeks were burning in flames despite the fact that streams of tears were flowing on them.

  But… even if she thought that their love story died that night, under that street lamp, that their feelings had been buried and forgotten, she had been wrong, for, two years later, when Bardain turned back to London from France, they met again.

  It was a beautiful and warm evening in May when she and Christopher Hall were slowly walking on the main boulevard of London, for Lord Hall didn’t care at all about what others said, as he cared less that Alice was the gossip of everybody. And Alice remembered well that moment when she saw Bardain again: he was waiting next to the carriage, in front of a coffee shop where Baron Beneath met someone and, when their glances crossed again, her heart jerked in her chest and she stopped, not knowing what to do.

  Yet, she had to quickly come back to her senses, for she didn’t want to let the lord know that she knew Bardain, for knowing that he was vengeful. And, when the old man looked in amazement at her, surprised that she stopped, Alice smiled and told him that she had thought that she saw someone she knew. But as it was only her impression, they moved further, passing by Bardain, without watching her.

  Bardain instead looked behind her till Alice and Christopher disappeared from his sight. And that ignoring hurt more Alice than Bardain then, or probably it hurt them both so much, for it was the ignoring of the beloved woman.

  Yet, life was stubborn and intended to bring them on the same path together for the second time, months after they saw each other again, after she gave birth to a dead child and the lord had forgotten her. Then, hearing about her situation, Bardain came to see her and propose she marry him, for he didn’t care about the world or about her past.

  But Alice cared about all this and, when he came to see her, she told him: „it’ll pass,” that pain felt in their chest and their feelings, that time will heal their wounds and that life will take a normal flow eventually. After that, they never saw each other again, till the moment Brian crossed the threshold of her house, looking for Eva, and that new meeting brought love back to their chests: like a savage bird that had been kept captive inside a cage and which, feeling the freedom close, started to madly beat from its wings.

  And Alice felt the same - like a mad bird at that moment, laying on the bed and holding the photo to her chest, tightly hugging her memories: as if she was a captive bird inside of a cage, dreaming about freedom.

  But she hadn’t enough time to longe for that freedom. Thus, when Beth knocked on the door and told her that Edgar prepared the carriage already, Alice stood up, leaving that photo on the bed, and left the room, taking with her a heart in flames.

  On the bed instead, she didn’t leave only the photo, but her past too: to wait for her, to longe for her, as Alice Huntington has always longed for love.