Who were
they,
and what did they need more for? Cold shivers raced up and down my spine. There was something far larger at play here, and we had just glimpsed a tiny part of it.
Scorched vermin covered Rose's mother, each one a blackened scale on monstrous armour. We took as many as we could with our swords before they threatened to overwhelm us. The look in her eyes would forever haunt me. She knew what she had become, and she begged for me to end it. Perhaps there was some mercy that they took her first, and she didn't know the fate that had befallen her little girl. I wiped away a tear before the men noticed, and we continued our examination.
We walked with care, watching each step we took. Heads lay among shields and fallen swords. In one corner sat a chariot with two skeletal horses still in their harness, although the blast had knocked them sideways, and one now lay on top of the other. Soldiers picked up spears and pinned wriggling hands to the earth, before they could find the body that still had an intact head.
We found nothing larger than a hand trying to crawl away. In all, we counted thirty-seven skulls, but there was a chance some belonged to the original residents. Or had the queen summoned them as well? Could a vermin convert the already dead? There was a question for the War Office to ponder. Although if they could, why did they grab a rural farmer's wife to be their queen, and not turn the warrior in their midst?
"Do you think this is the end of them?" Lieutenant Bain asked.
I shook my head. "No. This is one hive in this corner of Somerset, I imagine there will be many more, hidden in rural areas all over the globe. Who knows how many vermin queens our country alone can support? Their drones and workers will spread out and seek new recruits."
The men pulled the skeletons away from the tunnel, and we were able to walk out into the fresh air. Smoke clung to my clothing and hair, and I longed for a bath to scrub myself clean, but my journey was not over yet.
Seth clapped his hands together. "Let's go back to Serenity House for breakfast, I think we have all deserved one."
We walked over to the vehicles. The welcoming sun warmed my back, but still the cold remained, rooted deep inside me. Seth held open the car door for me and took my chilled hand. I looked up to meet his worried gaze. "I have to go home and face them."
Chapter Twenty Four
It was a quiet trip back through the country lanes to the estate. I was lost in my thoughts, worried about father and how to deal with step-mother. I expected to find my scant belongings scattering the cobbles in the yard when I returned.
Seth stroked the back of my hand in comforting circles. "The War Office is extremely interested in employing you, if you're looking for another occupation and could stomach working with me?"
I had to smile at that. Yes, I think I could stomach working alongside the Duke of Leithfield, especially if it involved cramped quarters with him holding me close. But the idea of leaving made my mind stutter, like a vermin cut off from the queen. That would leave father at home, and my friends exposed to
her
toxicity. Could I chase my own career and leave them all behind? I longed deeply for freedom, but part of me couldn't do it. Not until I dealt to her and removed her from our lives. Somehow.
"Let me make it through today first, and then we can discuss it." My smile dropped, I was too exhausted and still had too much to do. The world pressed down on me.
"Hey," he whispered and tilted my face to his. "You're not alone. You have friends who worry and will support you. I'll come find you this afternoon."
He drew me into his arms and kissed me, not hard like my body cried out for, but gentle. His lips brushed mine in the merest hint of a kiss, and then he released me. "We'll talk later, when you have other matters resolved."
For the rest of the ride he simply held me, tucked in against his side. I couldn't speak, my body lost the adrenaline that had kept me going, and weariness crashed through me. Then I climbed out of his large motor, and into the sidecar. Henry piloted the motorcycle as we rattled and jostled along the narrow lane. The knot of anxiety grew bigger in my gut with each mile passing under the tyres.
As we came up the driveway, I gazed at the grey stone of the house, and thought it looked no different than normal. I shielded my eyes and tried to see if father sat at the window, waiting for my return, but couldn't see past the sun reflecting off the glass.
A small measure of relief came back to me to see that my clothes weren't flung in the dirt. Perhaps she burned them instead? I squeezed Henry's arm as I climbed out, and he patted my hand. With a deep breath, I pushed into the kitchen, expecting her to start screaming at me as soon as I touched the wood. Instead, I found only the normal activity. Magda stirred a pot on the range, looking up to smile at me.
"Rather exciting night, I hear." She chuckled to herself.
"Yes, things went off with a bang." I looked around, waiting for the ambush. Elizabeth made it clear I was thrown out, homeless and unemployed. The suspense was worse than creeping through the destroyed mound. "Where is she?"
"Upstairs, haven't heard her arise yet." She gestured with the wooden spoon.
Right, temporary reprieve then while I try to figure out what exactly I will say.
I climbed the stairs and stood in the hallway, wondering what course of action to take. Did I wake her up and demand… what? My quandary was interrupted by muffled noises coming from father's room. My heart jumped, was he awake and calling out?
I pushed his door opened and beheld something worse than scattered vermin. Elizabeth sat on father's chest, a pillow over his face as she leaned her weight against the object.
My brain froze. I faced lunging vermin, had just cleaned out the first nest we had ever discovered, and I couldn't rescue my father from the evil cow trying to kill him. Even more shocking, he
struggled
against her. His hands clawed at her legs, weakly, but he still moved.
"Henry!" I screamed down the hallway for help, praying he would hear me.
Then I launched myself at her.
"You have ruined everything," she said, fighting on two fronts and striking out as I crawled over the huge bed.
Henry burst through the door and stopped in the threshold. At least it wasn't just me who took valuable seconds to process the fact that father was moving. Father flung out a hand and grabbed the first thing he touched, a paring knife, left beside an apple. He racked it down her arm as Henry and I dragged her off.
Henry held her around the waist as she kicked and fought. Blood welled up along the gash in her forearm. Father lay back down, as though he had a temporary resurrection. But he moved, we all saw it. He had reacted and defended himself.
"Why?" It was the only word I could muster. Why would she seek to murder her husband? And yet, I was beyond rage. I occupied a state of eerie calm. Her actions over the years crashed over me like a breaking wave, drawing back to reveal the evil being she was at her centre. No better than a vermin, she just had more of a pulse.
"You ruined everything. With him out of the way, we could start afresh." She hissed and spat like a cornered cat.
"I don't understand. You would lose everything," I said.
She cackled at that. "I would gain everything. Hubert Jeffrey returned from the war with hideous burns. No woman will ever want him, so I gave him Charlotte. He would inherit this filthy farm, and we could stay here until Louise marries the duke."
I dropped to the bed as pieces fell into place. Hubert was Charlotte's long time correspondent. That was why she wanted to know who would inherit the estate, to ensure her daughter played her part in snaring him. I shook my head in disbelief, and tried to meet her wild gaze.
"Is there no level you would not stoop to do?" I whispered, but I knew the answer. She had chained me, helpless, and left me for a vermin to find. She had tried to murder father. None of us were safe with her around. Would she murder all of us in our beds?
"You have cast me as the evil queen in this charade, when all I ever did was look out for my girls," she screamed, struggling against Henry.
Blood ran down her arm, dribbling from her fingertips to the carpet. On instinct, I pulled the scarf from my pocket, and wrapped it tight to stem the flow. Otherwise she would make a mess, and then Alice and I would have to scrub the stains out.
"No. You have only ever advanced your own cause to the detriment of those around you. And now, you stoop to murder." I stood back and shook my head. We would have to alert the local constable, and there would be a trial. In court, it would be her word against Henry's and mine.
I blew out a sigh, and just then the light caught the handkerchief around her arm. The dark patches of sludge gleamed as a black line crept from under the fabric, and followed the path of her veins up her arm.
What have I done?
"You are right. I have made you a queen." I watched the black, fascinated as it raced along and then disappeared under the sleeve of her gown. It spread so fast.
Her nose wrinkled, and she laughed. "You're as mad as your father."
I pointed to the cloth where the vermin's blood seeped into her wound; already its black touch spread through her body. "I wore that handkerchief around my face when we slaughtered the vermin queen. It is coated in her blood."
Her eyes widened, no one could ever call Elizabeth dumb. When vermin blood met the blood of a living person, it transformed one into the other.
"No!" she cried and her hand clawed at the fabric.
Elizabeth wrenched free of Henry, or perhaps he let her go, not wanting to be tainted by her. She tore the bandage off and flung it to the floor. Too late. I had watched the exchange happen. Never had I seen it move so fast, but then we had no experience with a queen. Was this their royal jelly? Her nails tore at her skin, as though she could pull the disease out of her body.
The deed was done, whether consciously or not. All night I had brooded over how to remove her from our lives. Thought of how to repay every harsh word she spoke, every lash she laid across my back, every degradation she made us all suffer. My instinct had found a way. I could never raise a hand against my step-mother, but I could raise my sword to a vermin.
"You will transform into their queen. Like bees, vermin will be drawn to the smell of you. Wherever you go, they will seek you out, as they did Rose's mother at the barrow. Arise your highness, and run, for you are now the most hunted thing in this country."
I anointed her their queen, and yet still I could not strike. We needed answers, and Elizabeth's new state might just provide them.
She stared at me, and I watched in horror as the irises of her eyes turned black and filled with vermin blood. Elizabeth shuddered and blinked, and the black retreated. Louise ran into the room, drawn by her mother's screaming. Elizabeth reached for her daughter and wrapped her arms around her. Then, before Henry or I could do anything, she sunk her teeth into her daughter's neck. Louise's scream escalated in pitch, which brought Charlotte running. Henry was prepared this time and caught her as she barrelled through the door, keeping her hugged to his chest.
"I'm sorry," I said to Charlotte.
"You bit me!" Louise spat at her mother, struggling to free herself. Elizabeth let her go, and Louise shot to the other side of the room, one hand over the small wound with its tiny droplet of blood.
"What is going on? Mother, what is happening?" Charlotte's gaze flew around the room, trying to make sense of the wailing.
Father pushed himself up in bed. The movement drew my eye, but I had to stay focused on the two in front of me. I didn't know if Elizabeth could infect Louise at such an early state in her transformation, but what I saw pass through her eyes made me shudder.
"Henry. Take Charlotte to the kitchen and keep her there." I kept my voice low. It was time to dispel some of the panic swirling in the room. There were things that needed to be discussed.
He nodded, and Charlotte renewed her struggles and demands to know why everyone had been screaming.
Louise took her hand away from her neck and stared at the smear of blood and then glared at her mother. "What is going on, I demand to know." With her superior tone, she would do well as a queen vermin, but that was never my intention.
"Elizabeth was trying to suffocate father with a pillow. I stopped her, but not before father slashed her arm with a knife." I gestured to the gash running down her forearm.
Her eyes widened, and then she scoffed. "You expect me to believe the vegetable moved? You're mad. No court will ever believe a vindictive servant over us." She stepped backwards, closer to her mother.
"That's not all. I wrapped a rag around the cut, one I used last night slaying the vermin." The words dropped like bombs. It took long seconds for them to fall and then explode. Or perhaps longer, as Louise just frowned and stared at her mother.
"The polluted rag has infected her."
"You'll turn into one of them!" The hand flew to her neck and she started to moan. "You bit me. You filthy piece of undead scum, you bit me!" Her knees crumpled and she dropped to the floor, a low moan coming from her chest.