'Don't look, Lillian. Never look into the eyes of a Sin-Eater, you will be as cursed as he is and will forever languish in darkness.'
Lillian Elmes remembers the warning her mother gave her about the town's Sin-Eater only too well.
How could she n...
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The journey back to the Darborough house feels like the longest I have ever known.
The horses are almost spent, and I cannot blame them for I have pushed them to their limits today, just as I have pushed my very heart to its limits. The shocks have been many, and I am not sure how much more my broken heart can take before the day is done.
'It has to be the Rector,' I say, I think, for the fifth time now.
Daniel has commandeered the reigns on my behalf, knowing that our visit to the Shelton Hospital has rocked me to my very core. He snaps on the reigns as much as he dares, for if he pushes the horses too much, we may not make it back at all.
'Think on it,' I say, as if I have not asked him to think on it already. 'He was the one who took great delight in arresting you and yet where was he when I came to fetch you from gaol? Detained, Percival said. Detained? And yet he sends a man with no authority by law or from the Church to escort you to Shrewsbury Prison?' I frown, my head crowded with thoughts and imaginings of which I cannot make any sense. 'But what of Mr. Baker, Percival's father? Another one who has mysteriously disappeared. Percival said he had left on business, but has he? Both men were part of the original plot to exorcise Andrew Hawkstone of his demons, and yet now, neither can be found.'
Daniel snags his bottom lip with his teeth, his eyes immeasurably troubled. I see something in his face I do not like. Doubt at my words? Or something more?
'You do not think it can be true?' I say, wishing I could breathe a sigh of relief when I spy the Darborough house in the distance, when I feel only a heightened level of anxiety.
'I know not what to think,' he replies. The weather has cooled remarkably since we left Shelton, and his cheeks are ruddy, making his skin look paler than usual. 'Why them? Of all the men involved in the ritual, why would either the Rector or Mr. Baker become turncoats?'
I shake my head. 'I do not know either. Although it was not long ago that I feared my own father was a part of this dark design.' I pat the reticule, which contains not only Lizzie's letter, but the vial of blood found in Papa's secret box and Daniel's Bible. 'The truth is, any one of these gentlemen could be involved.' A terrible thought strikes me. 'Oh, my goodness! What if it is Darborough? What if the tale of his supposed madness was a trick to lure Papa to his fate?'
