The Kingdom

here?”

“I thought your car was broken down.”

Her gaze darted away. “I…just got it fixed.”

Her nervous demeanor confirmed what I had suspected all along—that our meeting in town that day hadn’t been coincidental at all. I doubted she’d even had car trouble.

“Why did you follow me?” I asked sharply.

“I have to talk to you,” she muttered. “I just hope—”

“What?”

“I’m so worried about Tilly.”

“Why?” When she didn’t answer, I grabbed her arms. “There’s blood in here. Do you know something about that?”

Her eyes widened. “Blood? Are you sure?”

“Of course, I’m sure. See for yourself if you don’t believe me. But first, tell me why you’re looking for Tilly.”

She looked distraught as her gaze flitted around the bathroom like a frightened bird’s. “I never thought it would come to this. You have to believe me.”

“Come to what? Is Tilly in some kind of trouble?”

Her brown eyes filled with tears as she nodded. “I’m afraid she might be.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“Bad trouble. I think she’s in danger.”

“From whom?”

Catrice closed her eyes. “From Freya’s killer.”

My heart jumped. “Who killed her?”

“It could have been any one of us,” she whispered. “We were all there that night. And we’d talked about doing it before. Luna said we needed an offering and Freya was so easy to manipulate.”

“An offering…for what?”

“It was just talk, a stupid game,” she babbled. “I never thought anyone would go through with it.”

“But someone did.”

“Yes.”

“Who was there?”

“We three girls, Hugh and Edward. Freya had told Edward earlier that she was pregnant with his baby. He was in shock. We all were, especially considering that she was almost ready to deliver. She kept to herself so much and she had such a small frame that no one suspected. And why would we? Who would ever dream that he would be so careless with someone like…with an outsider? Luna was furious because she’d always planned to have the first Asher grandchild. Hugh wasn’t exactly thrilled, either. And poor Bryn. She was the most devastated of all.”

“Why?”

“She was crazy about Edward. She would have done anything to get his attention, and there he was, sleeping around with someone like Freya Pattershaw.”

“And you?”

She drew a trembling breath. “Oh, yes. I had my reasons, too. I wanted to fit in just as badly as Freya, so I went along with the game. And all these years…” She glanced down at her hands. Her fingers had curled back as though the joints were afflicted with arthritis. “I should have come forward a long time ago but I didn’t have the courage. I’ve been such a coward.”

“It’s not too late. You can still make it right. Catrice…who killed her? You must have some idea.”

“I swear I don’t know,” she said desperately. “Don’t you see? That’s the way we planned it. None of us would know…except the killer. We lured her up there and then we scared her into running off. It was like a game of hide-and-seek. We split up and searched for her. Whoever found her first…” She trailed off. “We would all be complicit, but only one would have blood on their hands.”

“But what about the fire?”

“That was just a cover. We all panicked when we realized…when Freya never turned up, so Luna went to Pell. She convinced him that Edward had killed Freya. Naturally, he took care of everything. The fire, the funeral arrangements. Everything.”

“How did Tilly burn her hands?”

“Somehow she got word of the blaze. A lot of people had gathered to watch the building burn, but no one tried to do anything to help. When Tilly got there, she tried to get Freya out. That was hard to watch because Freya was never inside. She had already been killed when Pell had the fire set.”

And Tilly knew that. So why had she rushed into that burning building?

“Wouldn’t it have made more sense to put Freya’s body in the building?”

“That would have given the killer away because no one else knew where the body was. And we promised ourselves we’d never tell a living soul. We’d just forget what had been done. Forget about Freya.” She touched a hand to her forehead. “But someone must have seen. They dug up the body and delivered Freya’s baby. It had to be Tilly. No one else could have done it.”

I pictured that lonely grave in the laurel bald. Freya’s grave. My grave.

“If Tilly knew Freya was in that grave, why would she try to get her out of a burning building?”

“Maybe she was already unhinged. Or maybe…” Catrice had gone very pale. “Maybe she knew that was what we would have expected her to do. Maybe she didn’t want us to know that she’d found the body because she was afraid for you. She burned her hands trying to protect you.”

I went very still. “You know who I am?” I asked in a strained voice.

“You have a certain way of turning your head…a certain way you smile. I see Edward in you.”

“Who else knows?”

“Luna, Bryn and Hugh. Pell, of course, because he’s the one who brought you here. You’re his last hope of producing an Asher heir. You and Thane.”

I stared at her in shock. “What do you mean?”

“He arranged to have you brought here so that Thane could seduce you.”

“No. That’s not true. He wouldn’t have anything to do with that.”

She looked at me with pity. “It is true. But Pell selfishly put you in danger because the fact that you’re alive proves Freya didn’t die in that fire.”

“Thane didn’t know,” I said numbly.

She put a comforting hand on my arm, but I jerked away from her.

She searched my face. “Don’t you understand?” she asked softly. “He’d do anything to solidify his position in that family. I think he might cut off his right arm for the chance of giving Pell Asher a grandson.”

I thought of Tilly’s warning about Thane. He covets what can never be his. And I thought about that night we were together in the cemetery, how the evil had found a way in through his weakness.

Terror washed over me at what might already have been done. “I’m calling the police.”

“You can’t,” Catrice said. “Not the local police. Wayne is too afraid of the Ashers to help us, and it’ll take too long for the state police to get here. Or even the county patrol. They’d have to come across on the next ferry because the back roads will be flooded by now. In this weather, it could take hours for them to get here.” Her gaze slowly lifted. “We’re completely isolated.”

Thirty-Five

I don’t know why I headed to the laurel bald, to Freya’s grave, but I had a strong sense that Tilly had gone there. Maybe I’d inherited her uncanny intuition, or maybe I could somehow hear her calling out to me. Maybe it was Freya’s ghost that guided me. I only knew that the pull was too powerful to ignore. And I knew of no place else to look for her.