Share
Chapter 52: Ella, a new woman
Related chapters
Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 53: Charlotte, training assault chickens
In my previous life I had never paid chickens much attention. Or even thought about them at all. I knew they were birds and the source of eggs. My knowledge stopped there. Now I found myself caretaker to a small flock of six hens and one puffed up rooster. There was a certain comfort in watching their busy scratching, chatting to each other like a group of older women. I learned to delight in the way they tilted their heads when you spoke to them. They became my friends, running when they heard me call here chicken, chicken, eager to peck the scraps of bread scattered at my feet.Bird brains sticking together, I heard Louise say.To further my education, I learned that a broody hen could deliver quite a sharp peck if you tried to slide a hand under to see what she was keeping warm. Today one hen hogged the end nesting box. The perverse little creatures had access to a multitude of spots to lay, but if one went broody the others all decided only that particular box would do. The trait
Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 54: Ella. Work. Play. Slay.
Millicent deMage clung to her secrets. Day by day we worked to dig them up but found only a snippet here or an oblique reference there. Despite what I had imagined, her diaries weren't full of witches?hexes, gory details of people she had ruined, or an outline of how to release an undead plague on the world. Each page was crammed with the boring description of daily life in Elizabethan England. Of interest to a historian, but I struggled to keep my eyes open.While merely conjuring her image still made me shudder, she was an enemy we needed to understand. The more I learned of her through her words, the less I feared her. At night, all the disjointed threads we chased spun through my mind. Like silvery strands from a spider's web, they seemed unrelated until you stood back and saw them woven together. Now I only needed to decipher what the pattern said.I closed the last diary and tossed it on a teetering stack. Seth was occupied on the telephone talking to the War Office and trying
Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 55
At first light, Alice and I were ready to leave. Magda hugged us both, and then she tapped the end of Alice's nose. "Behave and don't go leading Ella into any trouble."Alice snorted. "Of course not. I am her secretary and chaperone."She lifted her nose in the air in a haughty manner, but she winked over the top of Magda's head and I knew mischief was exactly on her mind. Frank's suffering was about to get a whole lot worse. She picked up the suitcase we shared for the trip and we walked out to the driveway. Dawn bled across the sky as we waited for the motorcar."Red sky in morning, shepherd's warning," Alice whispered the old saying. She wore a practical walking suit left behind by Louise. The dark green pinstripe was a perfect match for her chocolate hair and pale skin.Alice's words shivered over my skin under my clothing and I hoped it wasn't a premonition. While my friend looked the epitome of the working girl, I had tossed and turned all night, trying to decide what to wear. I
Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 56: Charlotte, taking small steps on a new road
Lieutenant Bain became a regular visitor, knocking on the manse door every afternoon and staying for at least two hours. His quiet presence wrought a slow transformation upon Reverend Mason that began the day we cornered the Turned in the orchard. The reverend began to answer, and the lieutenant no longer had to keep up a steady monologue. Simple, single word answers at first, then one day a snatch of conversation.Over a period of days, Mr Mason returned to the world around him. Like a sleeper emerging from an overlong slumber he rubbed his eyes and stretched. His thought processes were still somewhat muddled and his words confused, but he climbed out of his isolation and took stock of his surroundings.Mr Mason even visited the barber for both a shave and a long overdue haircut. His frame was too thin for such a large man, but the warmth and intelligence returned to his gaze. He still spent hours in his study, but now it was poring over old books and scribbling notes that he discusse
Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 57: Ella, hot jazz and land ships
Seth took me to what he called a nightclub. It seemed so frivolous to spend a night dancing at such a time. We now knew that Crowley not only started the pandemic but planned to rouse Millicent. We should hurry back to Somerset and find out all we could about the witch. Instead of contemplating digging up Seth's ancestor to confirm her death, I was wearing a gorgeous gown and drinking champagne.Our destination was a playground for the wealthy and popular, housed below street level in a vibrant part of London. People jostled on the pavement as the motorcar stopped. As I stepped from the car, a flash went off in my face and I turned away, blinded for a moment."Blasted reporters," Seth said as he took my elbow and guided me across the pavement. "We'll be in tomorrow's paper unless something more exciting happens tonight."My heart tightened at the thought of our picture in the newspaper. We would be publicly linked. My vision returned to normal and we took the steps leading down. Two
Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 58: Ella, embarking on a witch hunt
We arrived back at the farm early afternoon. I barely had time to kiss Father's cheek before I climbed the stairs and headed straight for bed. I drew my curtains, peeled off my clothes, and crept between fresh sheets. Sleep claimed me eagerly and didn't relinquish its hold for fifteen hours.The next morning I awoke refreshed, and Alice and I took the cart to Serenity House. Seth waited in his study, dressed for riding. He stood next to the large table, studying the battlefield. While there was much to admire about a commanding man in jodhpurs and tall boots, still my heart sank.He turned on hearing my light tread and smiled. "We can't put it off, Ella. We both know what we need to do." He held out a hand to me.No we couldn't put it off, but I could grumble about it. Which I did all the way out to the courtyard. Two horses with gleaming coats waited for us. Attached behind their saddles were hurricane lamps, coils of rope, and a crowbar. It looked more like we were going on a mountai
Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 59: Charlotte, things lost and found
Even as the wound on my arm healed, I continued to scratch my skin. The angry red line itched and I worried at it, waiting for my pulse to slow and then stop as I became one of them. In the days that followed finding that horrid thing in the backyard, the scratch it had left?oozed.Lieutenant Bain?David?came every day to change the dressing. A noxious black substance stuck to the cotton as though my body repelled some poison. He never once showed any revulsion at the task he undertook or the foul odour that clung to the bandage.David's gentle friendship was so at odds with everything I knew that it did something mother's cruel words used to do. It drove me to tears. At night I sobbed into my pillow, trying to grasp that he might genuinely like me.From the day I was born, I knew only criticism. It was a constant disappointment to my mother that I wasn't as beautiful, poised, or talented as either her or Louise. Every single day of my life I had been judged and found wanting. Until now
Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 60: Ella, weaving together the web
Lieutenant Bain excused himself to help Charlotte with the washing up. He stacked the laden trays and left the library humming ?It's a long way to Tipperary,?and I briefly wondered if he was thinking of the sweetest girl he knew. As the library door snicked shut, my mind returned to the issue of witches. I digested the new information and then grasped a tenuous strand of spun silk. The web began to make a pattern I could discern, and this particular fibre could hold the missing patch in a larger question.I turned to Reverend Mason, the idea still spinning in my head. "Are you able to trace genealogies?"His eyes lit up and he rubbed his hands together. "Of course. Nothing the clergy likes better than to keep records of births, marriages and deaths. Or hatched, matched, and dispatched, as we say. What did you have in mind?""Sarah Wynn and Anne Oakley, can you trace their maternal lines to the current generation?" A persistent niggle in my mind refused to go away. How did Elizabeth
Latest chapter
- Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 90
- Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 89
- Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 88
- Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 87
- Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 86
- Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 85
- Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 84
- Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 83
- Serenity House: Ella's Journey Chapter 82
