Gene of Isis

never was.

The lives of my brother and his family depend on you, the ghost told me. I’m sorry I must place such a burden on your tiny shoulders, but you are the only channel open to me—

‘Ashlee!’ Father’s patience came to an end.

‘There is a ghost, papa,’ I stammered, ‘and he insists that he is the brother of Lord Derby, come to warn that their family is in danger.’

‘What?’ gasped the earl and his wife, whilst my father’s angry astonishment steadily snowballed to render him speechless. Lord Cavandish recovered his wits swiftly. ‘It is true my brother is deceased…he died in very mysterious circumstances.’ It surprised everyone that the earl would award me his interest, patience and, more astonishingly, his confidence. ‘It has been like a dagger in my heart to think that my brother would not come to me for help before circumstances became so desperate that he would take his own life!’

Everybody gasped as one, except the ghost and me.

‘Mr Cavandish, have your wits taken their leave?’ demanded his wife. They had obviously gone to great lengths to keep the suicide a secret. ‘You have no place raising such issues with a child!’

Thus was the guilt of the first son and heir to an earldom. The younger brother had had little by comparison and Lord Cavandish couldn’t help but feel partly responsible for his brother’s sad end. I had hit an emotional nerve and the lifeblood of the lord’s guilt had come pouring out; even he now looked surprised at his reaction.

‘I see the dagger in your heart, my lord.’ I gamely defended the earl as he had defended me. ‘I understand that there is unrest in a good heart that should be at peace.’

All eyes turned my way. My father would have apprehended me at once, but he saw fit to apologise to Lord Cavandish first, who wouldn’t hear a bar of it. His focus remained on me. ‘How do you see these things, Miss Granville?’

Allow me to handle this. The ghost knelt before me on one knee to beseech my permission.

I nodded, unaware of what I was really agreeing to. There was a rush of stabbing cold, reminiscent of the chill I felt when I had first sought the whereabouts of the watch. It seemed likely that this spectre had caused the watch to go missing, specifically so that I might find it.

The rest of that night I can only recall from my Nanny Beat’s account of what followed.

‘Don’t feel guilty, Eric.’ I stood tall to say this to the Earl of Derby, the deep male voice emanating from my mouth a shock to one and all. ‘I didn’t take my own life, my life was stolen from me.’

‘Damian?’ Lord Cavandish was mortified to recognise his brother’s voice, and he caught Lady Cavandish as she fainted.

My parents were too stunned for rational thought and nobody dared move as Lord Cavandish pursued his answers.

‘You were murdered, dear brother? By whom?’

‘Her name is Miss Eleanora Parks.’

‘A woman?’ My father was surprised to learn the murderer’s gender.

‘A woman with several large brothers,’ Damian replied.

‘We have a governess named Mrs Eleanora Parks.’ The earl looked a little panicked as he stated this.

‘Well, Miss Parks would have to be known as Mrs,’ Damian explained, ‘to disguise the fact that her son was the bastard of a nobleman.’

Now Lord Cavandish was turning pale. ‘What are you saying, Damian?’

‘I took advantage of Miss Parks once and she in turn took revenge upon me!’

‘Oh, dear god.’ My mother crossed herself and retreated to the house, for she couldn’t listen to any more.

‘I must believe your confession, Damian.’ Lord Cavandish was appalled. ‘Was there no end to your wretchedness?’

‘Fear not, dear brother, because Miss Parks put an end to me,’ Damian retorted in spite. ‘She had me trapped and then tortured until I would recognise the child she carried as my own. She forced me to marry her and then she had me hanged!’

‘Oh, my god,’ gasped Lord Cavandish, as he took a step backward. Damian had been found hanging from the rafters of a cheap hotel room.

‘Now there is only a handful of lives standing between Miss Parks and her son inheriting the entire Cavandish estate! I know I caused you grief while I was alive, Eric. I hated being second-in-line and I never did much to improve upon my lot. However, you and yours do not deserve to die by that woman’s hand. Your children are already ailing with her poisons…please, go home immediately! Before it is too late for your heirs…’

Despite my father’s assurances that I was quite likely ill, and certainly delusional, Lord Cavandish and his wife left for home in all haste. My father had been greatly looking forward to having some intelligent male company and my little flight of fancy had brought that to an abrupt end. He should have known better than to encourage my delusions, he raged to himself—was Ashlee possessed?

Thomas Granville was not a religious man, although he followed the teachings of the Church of England as befitted his social standing. He was a Nationalist, and a keen follower and supporter of the sciences, technologies, business and commerce, all of which, to his mind, were often hindered by the superstitions of the church! He had belonged to a secret brotherhood at one time, and although he appreciated the social connections available to him through such a society, he’d found their initiations too ritualistic for his liking. During the incident that had led him to abandon the society, Thomas was pretty sure he’d been drugged. The memory made him shiver, but he pushed it back into the dark recesses of his memory to consider more pressing matters.

Perhaps Ashlee was insane?