The Darkness You Fear Page 26

  He’d drifted alone after that. Allie and Cager were always together, speaking some strange language of their own making, but they were rarely conscious of their own existence. The ghosts of the First People slept, stirred only when the living arrived, and then they arose, little more than wisps of vengeance looking for those who still felt fear and pain and guilt.

  Now, as he led his brother and Becky to the exit, Edwin floated above Becky, wishing he could touch her, hold her, speak to her. She could sense his thoughts, but she couldn’t seem to hear his words. There was daylight above him, and before, he’d been repelled by the sight, as if the living world repulsed him. Now, it seemed to be drawing him.

  He heard Allie and Cager behind him, talking in their secret language. And then they were at the threshold, and Edwin felt himself drawn forward as if by a strong, sucking wind. But he held back for one more moment.

  He reached out with a ghostly hand and brushed Becky’s face, and she put her hand to her cheek in wonder.

  Goodbye, Becky. I always loved you.

  He let go and felt the blue sky pull him upward, felt his soul melting into eternity, and he smiled.

  Epilogue

  Portland, Oregon Territory, November 1851

  “Hello, Bidwell,” Virginia kept her voice soft. “We have unfinished business.”

  He turned around, and when he saw who it was, he gave her a slow grin. He started to take off his clothes, and she let him.

  Virginia waited in the shadows of the rose bushes and watched Mary leave. Mary was allowed to meet the wives of other prominent men for a meeting of the Ladies Aid Society once a week. It was one of the few times her husband let her go out unaccompanied.

  The butler, Mr. Lee, had retired for the day and was inside his cottage. Virginia wished she could confront him, for there was no doubt that he was completely aware of what was happening in the mansion.

  She waited until Mary’s carriage was out of sight, then slipped through the servant’s entrance. It was unlocked. The maid, Jane, was reading on her bed, with the door to her room open. She looked up as Virginia passed and nodded.

  Virginia made her way to the library in the dark and took a seat. Oliver Hoskins would come in for a nightcap soon after dinner. According to Jane, he usually drank two or three classes of sherry, sometimes more.

  He walked in muttering to himself, lit the lamp, and turned around. When he saw Virginia, his hands went to his waist as if to reach for a weapon, but he was wearing his housecoat, and he was unarmed. For a moment, he seemed to expand, like a wild animal trying to make itself bigger and more intimidating. Then he relaxed and smiled.

  “Miss Reed,” he said. “You just missed Mary. She won’t be back for a few hours.”

  “I’m not here to see Mary,” Virginia said.

  “I see,” Hoskins said. His brows pinched together, perplexed. “In that case, will you join me for a drink?”

  “I won’t be staying that long, Mr. Hoskins.”

  He turned his back on her, as if to signal that he wasn’t afraid of her in the slightest. He poured himself a full glass of sherry. Then he turned back around and took a sip. He raised his eyebrows as if signaling for her to continue.

  “I thought you should know that there will be no more gold coming from Jonathan Meredith,” Virginia said.

  He shrugged. “I’ve met the man, but whatever makes you think we’re business associates?”

  “At first I thought it was mere coincidence that Mary ended up here. But the more I thought about it, the more mysterious it became. I believe that after you learned of the gold, you tracked down Mary Perkins. Perhaps you didn’t intend to marry her at first, just to use her, but somewhere along the line, you realized that nothing short of being her husband would unlock the secret of the Lost Blue Bucket Mine.”

  “The lost what?”

  Virginia ignored the question. “I wondered how Jonathan Meredith rose so far and so fast in Portland society. Gold itself will buy only so much. For him to have succeeded so fast in business, he must have had help. When I finally tracked down Meredith, I noticed that his supplies and equipment all came from your stores.”

  “Miss Reed, most of the miners in this area buy their supplies from me. That is hardly unusual.”

  “Perhaps,” Virginia said. “But I thought your interest in me and Mary was most unusual. I believe you have known all along about the Lost Blue Bucket Mine, and that you provided the seed money for Meredith’s enterprises.”

  Hoskins shrugged again and drained his sherry glass. He turned to pour himself another. “Even if that is true, there is nothing nefarious in it,” he said.

  “You had to have known what Meredith was doing to his miners,” Virginia said. “All the missing men worked for you.”

  “How could you possibly know that?”

  “I met them,” Virginia said. “Or rather, I met their ghosts.”

  Hoskins laughed, but the ridicule was unconvincing. Until that moment, Virginia hadn’t been sure just how much the man knew.

  He is the mastermind of the whole plan, she thought.

  “I must warn you,” Virginia said. “The Lost Blue Bucket Mine is no longer accessible to you.”

  Hoskins drained his second glass of sherry and poured a third. He walked over toward Virginia, who tensed, all her Canowiki senses at full alert. He sat down in the chair across from her and leaned forward.

  “To be honest, I don’t know where the mine is,” he said. “That was the one secret I could not pry from Meredith. I had him followed, of course, but he was very canny about covering his tracks. You’re right that his workers came from my docks. They were supposed to report back to me, but none of them returned, as far as I know. So your precious mine is all yours.”

  “Not mine,” Virginia said. “It belongs to the people who have lived there for thousands of years.”

  Hoskins snorted, as if to dismiss the entire idea.

  “One final matter before I leave you,” Virginia said. “Mary is my friend. If you do anything to try to make her reveal the location of the mine…I will make you pay.”

  “Does she know the location?” Hoskins asked, sitting back in his chair, giving Virginia a speculative look. Only then was she certain that he really didn’t know.

  “She does not,” Virginia said. “It was the children who found the gold. They were the ones who suffered at Meredith’s hands. You may think it is simply business, Mr. Hoskins, but their blood is on your hands as well.”

  “I had nothing to do with it,” Hoskins said. “As far as the gold is concerned, I would like to have had more, of course, but…” he shrugged “…for me, the matter is finished.”

  Virginia rose from her chair, but Hoskins made no effort to join her. She went to the door, and then turned around.

  “Mary is frightened of you, Mr. Hoskins. I don’t know who or what you are, but I’m warning you now to treat her kindly. If I hear different, I will return and make you sorry you were ever born.”

  Hoskins didn’t even acknowledge her.

  Virginia left the library, letting the door slam behind her. A loud crash came from the library, and the hairs on the back of her neck rose. An inhuman howl came from behind the door, and then the mansion shook as if something huge and menacing had stomped down so hard that the entire structure shook.

  Whatever was behind the closed doors to the library was no longer human, but something powerful and supernatural.

  Go back and confront the beast now, she thought. Mary will never be safe living under his roof.

  She heard a carriage pulling up in front of the mansion. Mary was returning home early. Virginia hurried down the narrow staircase to the servant’s quarters. Jane was waiting by the back door, white faced.

  “Keep an eye on Mary,” Virginia said. “Let me know the moment that anything happens.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a large gold nugget.

  “I will,” Jane said. “You don’t have to pay me, Miss Reed. I will do it
without reward.”

  “I’d rather you have it,” Virginia said, pressing the nugget into her hand. “Be careful, Jane. Whatever you do, don’t let Mr. Hoskins or Mr. Lee know what you are doing. Promise?”

  Jane stared down at the gold nugget as if mesmerized.

  “Jane!” Virginia said sharply. “This is for the two of you if you should ever need to escape this place.”

  “Yes, Miss Reed, I’ll be careful.”

  Virginia turned to go, still feeling reluctant. It’s a mistake to leave, she thought. But I can’t just kill Mary’s husband because I suspect him of being unnatural.

  She made her way down the long driveway to where Angus was waiting with the horses.

  “Are we done, Miss Reed?” he asked, handing her the reins to the Appaloosa.

  “For now, Angus,” she said. She mounted the horse, and amazingly, her heart lifted. She was going home to dearest Frank at last. She could only hope that nothing would make her leave again.

  She felt the Canowiki within her stir but then subside, apparently having decided to let her keep her illusions for now. The joy of going home crowded out all other thoughts and fears. For now, the darkness was lifted.

  I’m coming home, Frank.

  About the Author

  Duncan McGeary is a native Oregonian, who has lived most of his life in Bend, Oregon, on the dry side of the Cascade Mountains. (His stories are often located in this western terrain.) After graduating for the University of Oregon (Go Ducks!) he returned to his hometown, having had his first three fantasy novels published in the early 1980's.

  He bought a bookstore, Pegasus Books, in downtown Bend in 1984, got married to Linda, raised two sons, Todd and Toby, and spent the next 30 years trying to keep the store alive.

  With the store thriving, he is now devoting his stored up creative energies writing again. Visit his website at http://www.duncanmcgeary.com/.