Dead Tempted - BOOK 1 - Pomegranate Seeds

PART THREE - VIII

Donovan watched the unholy horse carrying his only child away with the Devil.

Perhaps his future son-in-law? He laughed humourlessly. It was like killing her all over again.

He waited on the porch while the thing went out if sight, just as another rider came trundling towards the house from the opposite direction.

Donovan squinted to see who approached and knew from the large size and dark clothes of the rider that it was Denny.

"Donovan," he said, puffing and out of breath even though he was on a horse.

"What are you doing here?" Donovan demanded. Denny never came to see him during the day and even at night, he only came when it was something important. Donovan's immediate assumption was that someone else in the group had died.

"A... meeting... has been... called," Denny puffed as he dismounted with a thud, the horse complaining as the man yanked on its mane to steady himself.

"What does Velna want now?" Donovan said gruffly.

"Not Velna," Denny said as he awkwardly tried to tie his horse to the marble pillar at the bottom of the porch stairs. He gave in trying to reach around it and loosely knotted the reins to one of the potted trees next to the door. "Kole."

Donovan eyes widened and he turned back into the house, cursing profusely.

"James!" he yelled in the hallway as he headed for his study.

"Yes milord?" Mr Durward entered the hallway, looking anxious from his master's tone.

"Send someone to cancel my meetings for the day and I will not be back tonight." Donovan went to his study, then added in a more regretful tone. "And tell Bronwen I am sorry, I cannot spend the evening with her."

Donovan didn't wait for the butler's reply and locked the door to his study behind him. He knew Denny would wait outside and he wouldn't be long.

He picked up the letter opener on his desk, pulling it out from underneath the ornament of a unicorn, stood protectively above it. He went to the picture frame on the opposite wall, ignoring the portrait of his departed wife staring down at him and ran the letter opener down the side of the picture frame, through the hidden seam that entered the wall.

Donovan heard the lock click as the knife moved it and he used the frame of the picture to turn the painting like a handle and pull the secret door open.

There were no windows in the study, so Donovan didn't have to worry about onlookers as he walked into the hidden room, looking lovingly at the opposing portrait of his wife behind the door, wearing no clothes at all, a subtle smile on her red lips and a crimson cloth pooling at her feet. Despite her being naked, this was the more comfortable looking picture of her. She had been unbearably beautiful and the wicked glint in her eyes always made Donovan's groin stiffen and his heart break.

He turned away, closing the door behind him. There was light in this room, it had been specifically designed for it in an elaborate and intelligent architectural design that could not be seen from the outside of the house. One of the long windows on the landing above was slightly longer than the rest and the bottom of this served as the window to the secret room. From the inside of the house, the wall cut off the bottom of this window and it was not possible from the angle to see that it extended further. Then, from the outside, it just looked like an ordinary decorated window, too high up to get close enough for anyone to see inside.

The room itself was small, no more than a cupboard and full of the darkest implements imaginable; poisons, various knifes, a small chemistry set for making the poisons, vials of different blood samples with labels Donovan had never known the meaning of. The room also had a secret tunnel that led out of the house and came out at a small stone building next to a woodland stream. It was how his wife had snuck out in the night without anyone knowing.