Descent Into Dust

Descent Into Dust Read Online Free PDF Page B

Book: Descent Into Dust Read Online Free PDF
Author: Jacqueline Lepore
Tags: Fiction, General
certain?”
    My father drank, and I could not tolerate a man too fond of spirits. I moved before I knew what I was doing, going directly up to him and taking the glass, empty now but ready for a second filling, and putting it on the sideboard with a gentle slap. “I shall face them sober, Mr. Dulwich. And if I must, then you may as well do so with me. Should it become too much for you, then you’ve only to think of Milton and there find sweet, blissful numbness.”
    “But…” His protest was feeble as he watched me place the decanter back in its place. Then he threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, Cousin Emma, you are the devil. I do so like that in a person.”
    “I am not your cousin, Mr. Dulwich.”
    I meant that he should address me as Mrs. Andrews, as was proper, but when he shrugged and said, “Oh, Emma, you must call me Sebastian,” I somehow did not refuse. I had found a friend at Dulwich Manor. I was not about to quibble over the terms.
    Friendship, I learned, did not come without a price. Sebastian insisted on my accompanying him the following morning horseback riding despite my protests. I told him plainly I was not an able horsewoman and would be more hindrance than companion on a countryside jaunt. But even my wounded hand did not excuse me, and in the end, I had to give in.
    Of course, he deviled me the entire time. “Come, Emma, you are taking all day!” he goaded.
    “Stop being beastly. I shall find myself sprawled on the ground if I attempt to go any faster. If you refuse to allow me to continue at this stately pace, I will turn back.”
    He circled around to pass me, maneuvering his horse in ahigh-stepping prance. “My dear, you have no sense of adventure.”
    “Ah. You’ve found me out. No doubt it is the result of all that reading.”
    “Indeed,” he agreed. “Absolute poison.” But he slowed.
    He took me in the opposite direction of The Sanctuary. I was glad not to be going back to that place. I did not know what it was I had sensed or seen yesterday, or what I thought about the disturbing confidences of Henrietta regarding her new imaginary friend. I felt a certain desperate desire to dismiss it, to brand it a figment of fancy and turn my thoughts away. Because of Laura, I’d lived all my life with the fear of my own mind betraying me one day. One mustn’t entertain fancy too deeply, or too long.
    “A storm is coming.” Sebastian frowned at the sky, where a tower of thick, gray clouds loomed over the trees. The far-off meadows were already darkened under the encroaching shadow. “It is going to be a monster,” he muttered as he pulled on the reins to bring his horse around. “Let us ride. This coat will be in a ruin if it gets wet. Come now, hurry!”
    “Go on ahead,” I told him. “You shall get a drenching if you wait for me.”
    “Oh, indeed, and that would make me a knave. I’ve been called a cad, a bounder, a rascal, and an ignoramus—but never a knave. I won’t have it. Come, now, Emma, kick that mule you’re riding and simply hold on. You might get your teeth rattled, but we’ll make it in.”
    The first splats of water hit us. He muttered a curse and glanced over his shoulder. I followed suit, and found the clouds had overtaken us. Then I saw something else, and in one leap, my heart bounded up from my chest to lodge firmly in the baseof my throat. Faintly, against the smoky sky, one gunmetal-gray cloud appeared to be collecting itself into a shape.
    It seemed to be an image of a great bird. I thought of the crow, the large black bird that had menaced me from the tree. But this shape was different.
    I turned back around, suddenly infused with terror, and spurred my horse forward. Clasping the reins desperately, I glanced back and saw that the billowing formation had made itself into the suggestion of a large and looming serpent.
    “Do you see that?” I blurted, shouting over the sound of the horses’ hooves.
    “What?” Sebastian glanced back. “Is it
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