Cursed (25 page)

I couldn’t understand what she was saying and the ringing in my head was getting louder.
I was still dizzy but one thing that was registering was I could definitely smell smoke.

“Breathe it in, Aiden.
The smell of fire and fury. The smell of burning flesh, because that is where your beloved is. She’d gone to the stables to look for you when you were late, and the door closed behind her. Catherine and her silly horses. Can you hear them all scream?”

I listened, not wanting to believe her and desperately wanting to hear the normal sounds of the house, but I heard it.
Screaming. And I could smell the smoke. It was coming from outside my room. People outside. And that was where the sounds of the bells came from. The fire department was arriving.

I tried to run but she leapt in front of me like a cat.
I guarded my wrists knowing full well I was still spent from her last attack. I had a sick feeling in my stomach.

“Where do you think you are going, virgin?
I need you here – I need the pure life force of a virgin. And we all know you will be no use with a fire. It scares you doesn’t it?” Her lips curled into that smile that I dreaded as she enjoyed watching my anguish. “Scares you down to your pitiful soul . . . You can’t save her.” And that’s when she started laughing. A deep throaty laugh that crawled under my skin and made me think I would lose my mind.

“Out of my way!” I screamed and tried to push her to the side but she was stronger than a normal woman and
I was still weakened.

“Leave me now, Aiden, and you will be sorry.
For all the miserable days of your life. You don’t want a woman like me? Well I will make sure no one will ever want you as a man after tonight.” Selena’s cat and mouse look disappeared and the mask of pure hatred replaced it. When she spoke, her voice had grown menacing and powerful. “A curse upon you shall fall, Aiden Murphy, and for each person’s stare, and each person’s pity, your body will grow into a hideous and grotesque mess, masking your handsomeness and youth. And one life time isn’t enough for this misery. No, I think you will need several life times of being pitied and shunned. You shall live one year for every other man’s ten!”

I stepped back, realizing the rumors were in fact true and I had just been cursed.
“You are a witch!”

She smiled, that curled malicious smile, and started laughing again as I ran out of the room and out the lower level door to the courtyard.
By the time I made it outside I saw Mrs. Todd holding Penny back. Tears were running down both their faces which were lit with an orange glow from the flames.

The screams from the horses were blood curdling.
I saw the firemen getting their hoses in place and looked up in time to see trees starting to catch fire overhead. People from neighboring buildings were running around, some of the men trying to help or wet their own homes to avoid catching fire.

I pushed forward towards the stables and the heat was unbearable, making my skin feel like it was frying and shriveling.
I saw a firefighter I knew and he waived for me to stay back.

Anna was there, her silhouette harshly illuminated, crying and pointing at the stable.
She shouted over the roar of the flames that Mr. Todd had gone in to fetch Catherine.

That was all I needed to hear and I pushed forward towards the door which was open a crack.
The smell was awful and I knew instinctively that it was the smell of burning horse flesh. The cries of the horses were dying down and in one way I was glad their pain and suffering was coming to an end, but in another instant I realized time was quickly diminishing for saving Catherine.

I stepped through the door and it felt like I was on fire.
The smoke was heavy and I immediately started coughing. My lungs burned like I had inhaled burning embers, but I pushed on. I could quickly see she wasn’t in the front stall where the carriage was parked or with the cobs. That’s when I realized she would be in the back, with Raindrop’s foal. I heard coughing and saw Mr. Todd crawling from a stall. As I reached him a beam fell, crushing his body underneath. There was no movement and he was aflame; all I could do was look away.

I had been yelling Catherine’s name the whole time but there was no reply.
I took off my shirt and wrapped it around my hand. All around me was the crackling and popping of the blaze and the creaking and moaning of the structure itself. It was like a roar in my ears. I can remember coughing and feeling like I wasn’t getting any air back in. I dropped to my knees and started crawling to the foal’s stall at the back.”

He stopped to see how Sarah was doing with all this news.
Tears streaked down Sarah's face and she had her fist pushed against her mouth, attempting to hold back sobs. When he paused Sarah broke down.

“That was my dream.
It was the horses screaming, and probably me too. But they were going mad with the smell of smoke and the fire from the outside. It had been so dark when I went in and heard the door close behind me. I couldn’t open the door or find the lantern to light. Stumbling around, trying to feel my way along the wall, I bumped into the carriage and fell. I started to smell smoke and I just wanted to let the horses out.” She swallowed hard, holding back the flood of tears trying to come out.

“I’m scared, Mason.” She moved closer
Mason reached out to smooth her hair.

“When I awoke, my arm was wrapped and so was my head in white gauzy bandages and I was in a room I didn’t recognize.
It was on the second floor of the house and I realized it was a guest room. The bed was comfortable, the most comfortable one I had ever slept in, and I was glad not to be in the sullied bed in my room.

My first word through dry lips was ‘Catherine’ and I started coughing.
Mrs. Todd, who had been sitting by the window, called out and rang a bell before starting to weep. I knew the answer.

They told me one of the firefighters had gone in after me and carried me out.
  I had collapsed from smoke inhalation and was lucky to have not been burned too badly before the firefighter found me. I thanked God that these brave men risk their lives to protect or I know I would have surely died within minutes.

In the weeks that came, the family’s doctor came to visit and check my bandages and Delia was there every day, striking up a pleasant friendship with Mrs. Todd and Penny as well.
O’Malley would come by and talked about the fire finally, telling me it was arson and that a ring of fire had been set with an accelerant, most likely set off by a tipped lantern.

No one had seen Selena since the fire; she had snuck off into the night.
I told Mrs. Burke it was Selena that set the fire and that Selena had attacked me. I verified her suspicions that Selena had some life sapping powers. Mrs. Burke was like a mother hen, baking special breads and pastries for me but I couldn’t eat.

When I was finally feeling better, Mrs. Todd asked me to stay on with the family.
They did not have any horses or stable but assured me there would always be work.

Only once did she ask me what happened the night of the fire.
I think she needed closure. What was odd was she said it had been Selena who had mentioned the change in time. That confirmed for me that she was the one that set it.

According to Mrs. Todd, Selena had come down the hall from the kitchen that night and stopped in the doorway to the parlor where they had all been relaxing after dinner.
She told the family that I had just gone out back to the stables and had suggested that they should plan for seven o’clock because rain was on its way. Mr. Todd quickly agreed, looking forward to his pipe. It was close to seven thirty when Catherine, obviously anxious, went out to the stables to find me and it was about ten minutes thereafter that Penny followed her sister out to the stables and came back to say the door was locked. Mr. Todd, fearing an impropriety, through down his paper and started out into the courtyard when he smelled smoke and yelled back inside for someone to get to a fire alarm pull box. Anna had heard the call and had run up to Columbus Ave. By the time she was back, Mr. Todd had finally pried the door open and had gone in, but the flames were growing along the outer walls and taken the hold of the roof and the horses were going mad. It was chaos.

I listened to this account of the evening, filling in missing pieces for me, but I didn’t have a good answer.
Not one I could give Mrs. Todd, or anyone else for that matter. All I could tell her was . . .

“I never told Selena to change the time.
As a matter of fact, I had been in my room waiting for the time Mr. Todd had set. Selena had her own agenda, and since she disappeared that night and the fire department determined there was arson involved, I fear she had something to do with the fire.”

“I fear the same,” Mrs. Todd confided.
“I never really liked that woman.”

“No one really did.”

“Samuel did.” I realized I never heard his given name before.

I didn’t have a good answer for this
either and thought it best to change the subject. “How is Penny doing with all of this? I haven’t seen much of her.”

“Penny is resilient.
I think she will be okay, but she feels a little lost right now and rightly so. Your friends, the O'Malley's, have been wonderful with her.” I smiled thinking of my adoptive family and how loving and nurturing they had been with me. “She will be happy to hear you are feeling better. I will have her come up to see you later.”

When Penny came, she sat on the edge of the bed and smiled a little.
It quickly faded and she looked sad again. “I’m glad you are ok.” Her voice was small and low and I had to struggle to hear her. We chatted for a few minutes avoiding the subject of her sister, father, horses, her governess, and the workmen out back cleaning up the mess. It didn’t leave much, so we talked about summer coming and the shift in weather. She told me that the O'Malley's had promised to take her out on the swan boats in Public Garden that weekend if her mother would let her go. They were the new attraction at the pond and all of Boston had been lining up for rides.

When Penny was about to go, she said she had to get something and would be right back.
I could hear the pattering of her boots as she disappeared up the hall and then returned. Penny had something rolled up in her hand. Tentatively she came closer to the bed and solemnly presented it to me.

“Catherine had been working on this.
It’s a needlepoint she was making for you.” Penny looked a little embarrassed about knowing something so personal. “My sister liked you, Aiden. I know she would want you to have this.”

“I looked down at a needlepoint that was nearly complete.
It must have taken her a long time for it was very intricate and she had used her artistic skill to create her own picture of her cob and its foal.”

Mason stood easily and walked over to the bag he had pulled the doll from earlier. At the bottom of the bag, a little discolored with age, was the needlepoint.

“May I?” Sarah asked and held out both hands. Mason set the needlepoint into her hands and sat back down,
keenly watching her.

Taking the old needlepoint she turned it over in her hands, letting her fingers brush lightly over the yarn. Closing her eyes she took a deep breath and held it, looking deep in thought, but still lightly touching the stitches and fabric. “Mason, this was for you. I remember. I was working on it and trying to decide how to give it to you.”

“Sarah, I told you all this, because I’m afraid we are in danger. Last night, that cat reminded me of the one we assumed was Selena’s all those years ago.”

“And . . . ?”

“Well, wonder if the cat was in fact Selena? Maybe that was the way she got around at night, creeping in and out of the house. Maybe that’s why the cat had the reaction it did when it saw me and maybe – just maybe – the cat had been keeping an eye on you while you slept at night.”

Sarah was quiet, contemplating all this and started to nod. Slowly at first until she looked up and met his eyes. That look of trust was there he noticed, and something else a little more indiscernible. It reminded him immediately of Catherine and he had to shake his head violently to remove the memory. He had to stay focused now.

“Mason, maybe you are right. I do get the impression that the cat was reacting to you being here.”

“She can’t hurt us in the house. It’s one of the first things I did when I was strong enough after the fire. There’s a Hag's stone hanging in the basement and I have brass bells in the basement, the entry on the first floor and out by the roof access.
These were known items to keep a witch from entering your home.”

Sarah looked like she remembered something. “I think I saw that, in the basement one day while I was doing laundry. I walked up near the front of the building, the dark end, and saw it hanging from a chain.”

“Yes, it made us all feel better to make sure she couldn’t come back. I knew the horseshoe above the stable door kept her out so I believed these other items of folklore and legend could work too.”

Mason’s face was very serious and he noticed Sarah looking at him again in a way he was not used to. “I spoke with Mrs. Todd and Delia one day and we decided to make a witches' jar. Mrs. Todd was the most knowledgeable about them as they were common in
England, but she didn't have all the answers. We had to get a glass jar and fill it with certain things like bent pins and nails, herbs, and personal items like fingernails, hair and urine, seal it and bury it cork side down in the yard.”