The Heirs (The Heart's Edge Series, Book #1)

Chapter 9

There was a loud bang on the door. Not the door that led to the outside but the door that joined my bedroom to Julius's. I bolted out of my bed. My heart threatened to burst out of my chest. I stood still - no noise came. Stillness hovered over the entire house as far as I could tell. I backed away from the door, in fear that it might be torn down any second. The sound was too loud and clear to be my imagination. There was a single lamp that I had left glowing. I held it in front of myself. The cold crept through my thin nightgown. I considered crawling under the bed. Then, I convinced myself - Julius would never.

History is littered with the bodies of women who thought 'he would never'.

Julius would never.

Another bang came. I covered my yelp with a hand on my mouth. The door rattled, I knelt on the opposite side of the bed. I gathered my nightgown up and ducked my head down.

No other sound came for a while - then a knock. "Colfield? Are you awake?"

I didn't answer.

"Don't tell me you slept through this ruckus." It was followed with a sigh and the knocking was louder. "Colfield! There was possibly some troll that slipped and fell. Maybe you should wake up and take notice."

I stood up and frowned at the door. The door did rattle- there was no doubt about that. Perhaps he couldn't get through the door himself so he wanted to coerce me into opening it.

Julius would never.

I knocked down a thick diary resting on a table.

He said, "For the love of everything that's holy, stop tossing and turning and answer me for once." He sounded sleepy and a little hoarse. Some shuffling came from the other side.

I voiced myself, "Didn't the door just rattle?"

"I thought so too." He replied. "And thank you for waking up. We should probably go out and see what that noise was."

"I will leave through the other door." I said carefully. "Meet me in the hallw-"

A loud noise made the door shake again. It came from above the door. Like the rattling of tapestries after slamming the door. We both dashed outside from our respective doors. The door in the middle remains closed. The house was dark as there were no servants around anymore. A lone candle was flickering near the window. I saw Julius in a hallway on the outside. Most of the lamps had been put out by now but he was carrying his own. I diverted my eyes when they landed on his half exposed chest. It briefly reminded me of my own thin clothes that covered little compared to the gowns I usually wear but another loud boom shook the house.

He stepped closer to me as we both tried to search for the source of the sound. The house was still now so we breathed quietly. The cold sent shivers up my spine and I closed a nearby open window.

"Where do you think it came from?" Julius whispered at last.

"I thought it was you banging on the door." I replied, a little embarrassed.

"Why would I do that, Colfield?" He clicked his tongue. "That has be quite a good way to upset a lady."

"The door was shaking." I defensively said.

He looked up at the ceiling. "So it must be something right above the door that was banging with such force that it rattled the door."

I eyed a staircase to my right. "We should go and check if it was indeed a troll as you claimed."

"If it is a troll, I'd rather you go." He retorted.

Rolling my eyes at him, I said, "And here I thought you didn't want to upset a lady."

"I imagine dueling with a troll is something you do when you have spare time on your hands so it should be no problem for you." He gestured to himself. "I have already ruined my best shirt by sleeping in it, I'd rather not have a troll touch it."

After trying to glare his smile off his face, I scoffed. "Well it's not really the Lady's fault that you weren't smart enough to bring other clothes."

"I could have." He shrugged. "But I was hoping you'd unbutton it yourself."

That earned him a slap on his shoulder. "Don't you dare let other people hear your scandalous mouth." I threatened.

"Because you want to keep it to yourself?" He smirked at me.

Biting down on the urge to stab him in the eye with a candle, I turned to the problem at hand.

The house was eerily calm. I was sure there must have been some people here except up. Even the owner would have woken up. I stepped closer to the stairs. There were no lamps so I couldn't see past the fourth stair. Julius walked up behind me and inspected the staircase. This one was quite narrow and I was sure there must be another way to enter the upper section of the house when something caught my eye.

At the very top of the staircase, something fluttered. Without thinking about anything, I dashed upwards. The lamp almost slipped from my hand as I reached the top and stopped for a split second before marching to my left. The darkness was like deep ink trying to engulf me and I was too hesitant to open any doors.

Julius, who has been right at my tail got a hold of my elbow. He didn't try to stop me, however, only gripped on tightly as I tore through the entire place. There was not a single lamp in sight and I could barely see a step in front of me. Layers of dust caked the entire place and no footprints were in sight.

Maybe it was an animal that got in?

I stopped short and turned towards Julius. He stopped midway into trying to open a door. "What happened?" He asked.

"What if it was an animal? It's winter, maybe they sneaked in to get some warmth." I whispered.

Some color was collecting at his cheeks from the sudden sprint up the stairs. He looked around for a minute. "If it's an animal it would respond to us calling it."

"They might be scared. And don't call an animals 'it'." I chided while turning around. "You wouldn't call a pet 'it'."

"Right. They must be wild then. A wild animal in the dark is not something we should be around." He observed.

Although I agreed, a part of me said, "But what if it's someone?"

He bit his lip. He was glowing golden from the light of the lamp. The golden in his eyes stood out more and some strands in his honey colored hair shone on his forehead. I had the strange urge to remove them from his forehead.

He tugged at my elbow that he was still holding, "Let's check the place above our door for now. I will come back later to inspect this place."

I wanted to see the whole place but the lamp was already starting to flicker and it wouldn't be wise to stay there so I nodded in agreement. We silently moved towards the room that was directly above our own. It was a set of heavy doors that didn't bulge even when Julius tried to forcefully open it.

A pain started at the pit of my stomach and on my temple. I had to sudden urge to vomit out my dinner.

"We should leave." Julius said at last.

I had been holding my hand against her mouth and said quietly, "The owner must have the keys. I'm telling her to open this the first thing in the morning."

He nodded and stepped back. I too started towards the staircase. When I was a few steps away from it, Julius called out to me. "Colfield?"

"Yes?"

"The keyhole is clean." He looked up from the door. "Someone recently used it."