Chapter 7 - The Dead Walk
The woman in the dark cloak stepped out from the shadow of the stone angel, her soft leather boots making no sound on the wet grass.
"Hello, Victor," she said softly. Her voice was slightly raspy, bearing the permanent damage of smoke inhalation, but it was unmistakably the voice of his wife—the woman he had buried in an empty coffin eighteen months ago.
Victor took a trembling step forward, his mind reeling in a chaotic storm of shock, horror, and fierce love. "You... you died in the east wing... I searched for days..."
"I almost died," Eleanor corrected quietly, her dark eyes shining with tragic tenderness in the moonlight. "If it weren't for Caleb"—she placed a hand on the dirty boy's shoulder—"I would have perished in the cellar."
"Caleb?" Victor repeated, his mind racing to connect the pieces. "Who is he, Eleanor? What is happening?"
Eleanor looked down at the boy, who stood quietly by her side, his posture calm and watchful.
"Caleb was the groundskeeper’s son," Eleanor explained, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "He was in the lower storage rooms when the fire was set. He saw who poured the accelerant under the nursery door, Victor. He tried to pull me out, but the beams collapsed. He hid me in the old wine cellars beneath the foundation until the police left."
Victor felt a knot of cold rage tighten in his stomach, choking out his grief. "Who set it, Eleanor? Tell me!"
"You already know," Eleanor said gently, pointing a delicate, scarred finger back toward the illuminated stained-glass windows of the grand ballroom. "Who benefited the most from Julian’s gambling debts being paid off by the family estate?"
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Victor’s eyes widened. "Julian..."
"He didn't just want the money, Victor," Eleanor continued, her voice trembling with emotion. "He wanted Chloe’s trust fund. And when he realized Caleb had survived and was tending to me in secret in the woods, he tried to poison Caleb with nerve toxin—the very same toxin that he secretly slipped into Chloe’s medicine for the past year to keep her paralyzed."
