The Baskerville Tales (Short Stories) by Emma Jane Holloway Read Free Book Online Page B

thing I don’t understand,” Evelina said. There were plenty, but she had no intention of prolonging contact with the girl. “What made you think to take the book?”
    Violet lifted her chin. “I saw the article in the newspaper. It said the workmen had found a chest with things belonging to Hester Barnes. She was my father’s mother’s ancestor, so whatever she had was mine by rights.”
    So the Barnes bloodline hadn’t completely died out. The rector, like so many, had neglected the female line. That made sense, given that Violet had evidently inherited a touch of Hester Barnes’s powers. Otherwise, the spell would never have worked.
    Violet’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you, Cooper? How do you know about magic?”
    Evelina wasn’t opening that door. “Just be glad I do.”
    “How are you going to stop …” Violet waved a hand at the paper.
    “Did you set any kind of timeline on this spell? A time or date Tom had to follow?”
    “I gave him until tonight to come to me. The ball.”
    That was exactly what Evelina feared, and it must have showed on her face.
    “I thought it would be his ghost that came. That’s not it, is it?”
    Evelina shook her head.
    Violet’s lips trembled. She was visibly swinging between fear and fury. “I’m so sick of you. So smart and so cocky, acting like you don’t need anyone, always with your books and your theories and your superior airs. If you ever tell anyone about any of this, I’ll see
you
dead.”
    “Violet,” Evelina said, swallowing down a wave of shock. “After tomorrow, after we leave Wollaston, just stay out of my path.”
    “Get out of my room!” Violet snarled.
    Evelina didn’t argue. She couldn’t wait to put distance between them.
    * * *
    Evelina hurried down to the road toward the graveyard, keeping to the shadows. It was frosty out, the waning moon leaking a pale, pearly light over the sparkling fields. She carried a slide lantern opened just far enough to see the path ahead. Her breath came in clouds as her boots crunched across the grass.
    Evelina had studied Violet’s spell. The stolen page had no instructions for unraveling the magic, and Evelina didn’t know enough about death magic to make something up. That left only the backup plan she’d concocted with Dr. Larch.
    The rector theorized that Tom had been hiding close to familiar ground, either in the graveyard or near his old home. She’d hoped to find Tom’s hiding place before nightfall, when the Risen were weakest, but time had slipped away. Now she was counting on him stopping by the graveyard to unearth a snack before his rendezvous with Violet at the dance. It was hoursbefore midnight, so maybe he wouldn’t be in a rush.
    She was wrong. Something was moving on the road ahead. Evelina dove for the safety of the ditch the workmen had been digging to lay pipe beside the road. The pipe had not been put down yet, so there was room to hide. The afternoon rain hadn’t quite frozen at the bottom. She crouched, feeling the instant her knees touched the muddy, cold, wet of the ground. The bitter scent of earth and dead vegetation rose around her. She clicked her lantern shut and drew the pistol out, holding it close to her side so that even the faint sheen of moonlight wouldn’t betray her.
    She huddled down, waiting with one hand over her nose and mouth to stifle the mist from her breath. Far away, something yapped. A fox? A dog? Every other night sound was suddenly absent, as if anything with sense had vacated the area.
    It wasn’t hard to figure out why. Even in the cold air, the stench that preceded Tom was unforgiving. Evelina tucked her nose into the elbow of her sleeve, trying to think past the smell. She could hear the sliding shuffle of unsteady feet. The wet, open-mouthed panting from lungs slimy with putrescence. The snuffling sound of a beast in search of prey.
    She blinked away tears of fright, wishing Imogen were there to make her brave. She was always bolder if there was