Reading sample Written in Stone

Chapter One

Yuletide had never been a particularly important season for the Godwin family. Ever since the death of Lord Gerald Godwin’s wife, Lady Ethel, the holiday hadn’t been the same. For Lord Dunstan Godwin, nephew to Lord Gerald, nothing had been the same since his own parents, Lord Ross and Lady Diana Godwin, and perished in a boating accident when he was a child.

“A little to the left,” Dunstan’s cousin-in-law, Lady Muriel, instructed her husband, Cedric, Dunstan’s cousin, as he and Dunstan’s brother, Alden, adjusted a massive fir tree that had been brought in from the countryside as decoration for the December holidays. “No, no, a little to the right now. Mmm, back to the left a bit.”

Cedric sighed and stepped back from where he had practically been buried in the tree while adjusting it in the stand that had been constructed to hold it upright. “My dear,” he said, his voice tight. “Are you entirely certain you should still be on your feet in your condition?”

Lady Muriel, whose belly was as round as a whale, narrowed her eyes at Cedric. “My current condition has not affected my eyesight,” she said. “I will be able to see that the tree is not upright whether I am seated or standing.”

“It’s a bit skewed, isn’t it?” Lady Muriel’s brother, and the Godwin family’s special guest for the yuletide season, Lord Arnold Grouse, asked as he came to stand by his sister’s side. He cocked his head to the side and rested his weight on one hip before peeking at his sister with a mischievous grin and saying, “Then again, we all know I like things bent.”

Lady Muriel snorted and elbowed her brother with a laugh. Cedric huffed a sigh and frowned at Lord Arnold, like he was not helping the matter.

“Who brings trees inside their homes as winter decorations at any rate?” Cedric’s brother and Dunstan’s cousin, Waldorf, demanded as he came to stand on Lady Muriel’s other side. “Shouldn’t trees be kept outside in their natural habitat?”

“It was Alden’s idea,” Cedric said, still frowning as he glanced across the tree to Alden.

Alden was in the middle of securing the tree in its wide stand, but he glanced up long enough to say, “I have an entire ballroom filled with trees of every description at Lyndhurst, but those are mostly tropical. Since my darling Bernadette enjoys the terrarium so much, I thought it would be brilliant to recreate the spirit of that place here at Godwin Castle by bringing in local flora.”

Dunstan and the others turned to the collection of chairs and sofas near the great hall’s large fireplace, where Alden’s wife, Lady Bernadette—who was round, but not quite as round as Lady Muriel—sat in conversation with Dunstan’s other new cousins-in-law, Lady Kat and Lady Minerva, his brother, Lawrence, and his Uncle Gerald.

Lady Bernadette glanced up when Alden called out, “Isn’t that right, my love?”

The conversation near the fireplace stopped, and everyone glanced toward the cluster around the tree.

“What is that, my dear?” Lady Bernadette asked.

“I said that you loved the terrarium so much that you thought it would be a grand idea to recreate the concept with local trees here in Godwin Castle,” Alden said.

Lady Bernadette rolled her eyes a bit, even as her face pinked with affection, and sent a look to her friends and fellow Godwin brides. “You said that, my love, not me. Most definitely not me.”

Lady Minerva laughed out loud at that, which set Lawrence off as well. Lawrence and Minerva had only just recently married, and the two of them were like children with each other most of the time, laughing and snickering at everything. It was particularly quaint as, up until very recently, Lady Minerva had a habit of dressing in all black and embracing a gothic spirit.

“Well, it’s too late now,” Alden said with a sigh. “We’ve brought in this tree and half a dozen others to decorate the great hall in advance of the Christmas ball Uncle Gerald is hosting next week. The poor trees cannot be reunited with their stumps at this rate.”

“More’s the pity,” Cedric grumbled.

He moved to Lady Muriel, who patted his arm sympathetically, gazing adoringly into his eyes. Alden stepped away from the tree and went to kiss Lady Bernadette as well. Between those shows of affection, the way Lawrence and Lady Minerva were still giggling with each other, and the way Waldorf and his bride, Lady Kat, seemed to be having some sort of duel with their feet as they sat on opposing chairs near the fire, Dunstan heaved a massive sigh.

Yes, yuletide was most certainly different this year. Every one of the Godwin males but Dunstan had suddenly married within the last twelve months. Two new grandchildren were on their way. The family was hosting a holiday event for the first time in a decade to which it seemed half of Wessex had been invited. And Dunstan was now irrevocably the heir to Godwin Castle…and its curse.

It seemed only right, if Dunstan was honest with himself. The Curse of Godwin Castle brought horrific bad luck to whoever owned the castle. For more generations than anyone could count, since the nine hundreds, the Godwin family had endured tragedy and misfortune, and all because their founding ancestor, Lord Aethelbore Godwin, had scorned the woman who loved him and married the daughter of the king instead of her.

Granted, that marriage had provided the family with their title when Aethelbore was made the Duke of Amesbury, it had made their fortunes and given them land and estates across Wessex, but it had simultaneously set into motion a series of events that had ruined the lives of countless Godwins for nearly a millennia.

Dunstan certainly felt that as he watched the happiness of his brother and cousins. As the others laughed and kissed, displaying their love for each other openly and effusively, he shuffled over to the tree, which had been secured in its stand by Alden, to make certain it really had been correctly erected.

Dunstan hadn’t needed to officially inherit the castle to feel the effects of the curse. He’d been cursed his entire life, from the moments his parents had died. It seemed as though everything precious he’d ever owned, from carriages to cravats, had broken or been misplaced. He’d overslept and missed important exams at university, which had thwarted his desire to become a lawyer. He’d had letters go missing and had his pockets picked while in London more times than he could count.

And then there had been his disastrous marriage to a fortune-hunting woman, Charlotte. His bride had married him for money and been furious after their wedding night, when she learned that, aside from his family’s wealth, which he was not privy to, he had only an average income.

That fury had led to a nightmarish two years, in which Charlotte had publicly berated him on numerous occasions and made his home life unbearable. She had refused even to touch him, let alone give him a chance to make things up to her by giving her a child. And then she was killed in a carriage accident while fleeing to the Kingdom of Scotland with her lover. The public gossip that had followed had been eviscerating and had destroyed any standing with the ton Dunstan had ever had.

All that had happened nearly twenty years ago, but its effects lingered over Dunstan like a bad smell that kept him from venturing out to try again where love was concerned. He’d been burned once, and now he was terrified of fire. The best thing that had come out of those nightmare years was Charlotte’s demise, which had led to his freedom.

Dunstan sighed again as he brushed his hand over the pine branches. It was wicked of him to think even for a moment that the death of a woman was the only blessing in his life, or that the Curse of Godwin Castle had done him some good instead of constantly bringing misfortune. He often thought that it would have been better if he had been the one in the carriage that fateful night instead of Charlotte and her lover. Then again, considering the full circumstances, it was possible Charlotte brought her misfortune upon herself.

“What a lovely sight,” Uncle Gerald commented from the cozy circle of affectionate husbands and wives placed around him near the fire. “This is precisely the Christmas gift I desired when I set out forcing you lot to marry at last.”

It was a testament to how happy his family had suddenly become that not a single one of Dunstan’s cousins or his brother rolled their eyes at Uncle Gerald. They all hummed and cooed and stole another kiss from their ladies.

There was no point in Dunstan denying that he felt left out. But then, he’d felt separate and awkward for his entire life. His other male relatives had never bothered attempting to marry before. Dunstan had married, and he’d failed at it. That failure haunted him.

The only ray of sunlight in the gloomy feelings attempting to push their way into Dunstan’s heart and mind was the arrival of Godwin Castle’s housekeeper, Mrs. Carys Weatherby, with a large tray of tea things.

Dunstan didn’t hesitate for a moment. He leapt into motion, striding across the hall to intercept Carys with a quick, “Here, let me help you with that.”

“Thank you, Lord Dunstan,” Carys smiled at him. “You take that one and Ruby can bring the tray with teacups.” She twisted to glance back at the timid young woman who had only just been hired to assist the family for the holidays.

Ruby followed Carys across the great hall with such timid steps that Dunstan worried he should have taken the tray from her instead of the one from Carys. Carys was his closest friend in the entire world, however, and his natural instinct was to help her in any way he could.

“I should warn you,” he whispered to Carys as they proceeded across the room toward the family, “they’re in rare form this morning. The season appears to have made them frisky.”

Carys laughed, then raised a hand to her mouth to stop herself. “Oh, dear,” she said, her eyes sparkling as she glanced to Dunstan.

Dunstan’s heart gave a happy jump in his chest. Never in all his life would he have imagined finding a friend like Carys. She had been the housekeeper at Godwin Castle since her mother relinquished the position ten years before. Her mother’s mother had held the position before that, and as far as Dunstan knew, Weatherby women had been housekeepers at the castle for at least five hundred years.

What was more extraordinary was that he and Carys had fallen into an easy friendship over a decade ago, when a bout of ague had forced him to stay at Godwin Castle for several weeks after Christmas instead of returning to his London townhouse or traveling abroad, as he had been wont to do to avoid his failures. Carys was easy to talk to, she judged no one, and the two of them shared an interest in the same sort of books. She was, perhaps, the reason Dunstan had spent more than a few weeks at the castle each year when his relatives usually had to be bribed to spend time there at all.

“I shall be on my guard,” she whispered back, adding a wink as a sign of their friendship.

“On your guard about what?” Uncle Gerald demanded of her once she and Dunstan were close.

“On guard about your tomfoolery, my lord,” Carys answered without hesitation. “With so many of your family members surrounding you and the issue of inheriting the castle settled, I would not put it past you to begin making other demands or setting other challenges for them. Are you now offering a prize for grandchildren?”

“Cheeky!” Uncle Gerald exclaimed, beaming at Carys.

Dunstan smiled as he set the tea tray down, then directed Ruby to put her tray on the table beside it. He was not the only one in the family who was inordinately fond of Carys. In fact, Carys was treated more like a daughter of the household than a servant.

“She does have a point,” Waldorf said with a smirk. “You enjoyed making us all dance to your tune this last year. I cannot imagine you would stop pestering us simply because we’ve all married.”

“Not all of us,” Dunstan said offhandedly as he straightened.

He immediately regretted his slip of the tongue. His statement was met with sighs and sympathetic looks from each of his family’s new brides, and even pity from his brother and cousins.

“It seems a terrible shame that our happiness has come at the price of Dunstan’s misery,” Alden said, stepping around the back of the sofa he’d leaned over to kiss his wife so that he could stand by Dunstan’s side, a hand on his back. “It really isn’t fair for you to be the one to inherit the curse.”

“It is always the best of men that find themselves faced with the unhappiest of circumstances,” Lady Kat said.

Her cat, Napoleon seemed to agree with her, as he jumped up onto her lap and purred while staring at Dunstan.

“I’m not entirely certain that’s true,” Lady Minerva argued, placing a hand on Lawrence’s thigh. “Larry is a lovely man, and he has fallen into the best of circumstances. He’s married me.”

“I believe we all know, Minnie, that I am your prize and not the other way around,” Lawrence teased her in return. The two of them had been ridiculous with their pet names in the last few weeks.

Dunstan exchanged a sly grin with Carys. They’d had more than a few humorous conversations about how silly with love Dunstan’s brother and cousins had become, despite their advanced ages, since marrying.

“Surely, something must be done to ensure Lord Dunstan’s happiness, despite the curse,” Lady Bernadette said, studying Dunstan with a genuinely caring look. “He will not inherit the castle until Lord Gerald has passed, and, God willing, that will not happen soon.”

“You never know, my dear, you never know,” Uncle Gerald said with a smile.

Despite his age, Uncle Gerald was certain to live another twenty years. The man was too stubborn to give up the self-satisfied happiness he’d found in forcing his younger family members to marry.

“Perhaps if Dunstan went abroad he could go far enough away from Godwin Castle not to feel its effects,” Alden suggested.

Dunstan tensed and stepped away from his brother and that idea. “You are the traveler in our family, not me,” he said. “Besides, I’ve tried that, and it did not work.”

“What if you made a conscious effort to take care of yourself in every way and to avoid dangers of all sorts?” Lady Minerva asked.

“He cannot live in a single, padded cell his entire life, avoiding anything that might harm him,” Lady Kat argued. “I believe that is what they do in Bedlam.”

“This castle is certainly mad enough for Bedlam at times,” Carys commented quietly as she poured the first few cups of tea.

Uncle Gerald laughed aloud at that, then patted the side of Carys’s face as she handed him his tea first.

“Marriage was the answer for all of us,” Cedric said with a shrug. “Perhaps if Dunstan married as well, the curse would be appeased.”

“I have absolutely no intention of ever marrying again,” Dunstan said with sudden severity.

Everyone froze in what they were doing and stared at him.

Dunstan winced. He’d spoken too harshly, he knew, but nearly two decades on, the scars that Charlotte had left him with still felt raw on his soul.

“Forgive me,” he said with an apologetic nod. “I did not intend to speak so strongly. It is just that you know what happened in my past. I do not think I could stand for that particular history to repeat itself.”

“So marriage is out of the question, eh?” Lord Arnold asked, perking up from where he sat on the arm of the sofa beside the place his sister had taken. “Are you, perhaps, looking for something else?”

He was close enough to Dunstan that when he stood, raking Dunstan with a lascivious look, he was near enough to trail his finger down Dunstan’s arm.

Dunstan laughed. “No, I’m afraid that isn’t it either,” he said, amused by Lord Arnold rather than offended, as some men would have been. “I do enjoy the company of women.” He instinctively glanced to Carys, who was pouring more tea.

Carys glanced up at him with an impish smile, but kept on with her work.

“If I ever change my inclinations,” Dunstan continued to Lord Arnold, “you’ll be the first to know.”

“Pity,” Lord Arnold sighed. He then leaned in and kissed Dunstan’s cheek.

Dunstan laughed, but poor Ruby must have been startled by what she’d seen. She gasped, and in the process, she knocked the side of the tray filled with teacups, upsetting the entire thing.

There was a moment when they all watched the tray teeter, and then came an almighty crash as the whole thing tumbled. It just so happened that the area where the table stood was not carpeted, which meant the majority of the teacups smashed on the stone floor.

“Oh!” Ruby shouted. “Oh, no! I’m so sorry!”

“It isn’t your fault,” Dunstan said, rushing to both comfort the maid and to help pick up the shattered pieces of teacups.

“No, it’s the Curse of Godwin Castle,” Lord Arnold commented unhelpfully.

That terrified Ruby even more, which did not help with the efforts to clean up the mess.

“There, there,” Carys said, coming over to rub Ruby’s back. “They are merely teacups. The castle has plenty more.”

“I will…I will fetch them,” Ruby said, breathless and pink-faced.

She turned to flee the scene, then tripped over the edge of the next carpet as she made her way across the room, nearly sending her sprawling. That only made her wail and run faster as she sped out of the great hall.

From his crouched position on the floor, picking up shards of teacups, Dunstan exchanged a wary look with Carys. Carys crouched with him, and the two of them quickly piled the upset tray with broken porcelain.

“She will be as right as rain in a bit,” Carys said, glancing from Dunstan to the family. “She’s a good girl who just needs training.”

“Quite right,” Uncle Gerald agreed.

“I’ll make certain she’s actually fetching new teacups and not weeping her eyes out,” Carys went on.

“I will help you,” Dunstan said, straightening and lifting the tray of porcelain pieces once they’d picked up everything. “And I’ll fetch a broom and dustpan to finish here.”

“You do not have to do that,” Carys told him, standing as well.

“I insist,” Dunstan said. “Many hands make light work.”

“Well, alright.” Carys smiled.

Dunstan felt as though the circle of his family was perhaps a bit quieter than he would have imagined they’d be after such a disturbance as he walked with Carys across the great hall and out of the room. He didn’t glance back to see if they were watching him, but then again, he didn’t need to. His entire family suddenly gave off the feeling that they’d caught onto an idea, one that had the hair on the back of his neck standing up.