McCann's Manor (33 page)

"I know, ‘tis a nasty cure, but it will counteract the poison and you will feel better in no time,” he assured her. “Now, suppose you tell me about these secrets you know about me?"

Liz winced as she tried to sidle out from under his abrasive rubbing of her face. “That was only a bluff,” she said.

"A bluff?"

"Yes. I told them I knew your secret because they told me first you wouldn't see me and then that you had died last year,” she said.

"Why did you want to see me? What do you know of me? And who are you, anyway?” he asked.

"My name is Elizabeth Carr and I wanted to see you because I thought you could help me get back to my own time,” she answered.

"Then ‘tis true you came here from the future?"

She nodded wearily, pushed his hand gently away from her face. “Please; it's all I can stand of that."

He smiled slightly as he withdrew his hand, laid the cloth on the table and replaced the lid on the vial. “Start at the beginning and tell me all about how you came to be here,” he instructed.

"It is a very long story,” she said.

He sat beside her on the bed, folded his hands. “That may be, but you will tell it to me,
if
you really expect me to help you return to your home,” he coaxed.

Liz studied the man in front of her, took a deep breath. He was not at all like she had imagined he would be. This man had saved her from Moira and those unaccountable animals downstairs. Maybe if she told him the entire story, he would help her more than simply sending her back to her own time.
Maybe
he would actually divulge something that would tell her the reason his spirit became so embittered and vengeful. It was worth a try. She quietly began her tale.

She told him about Missy and John and how she and Kim had come to live at Ben's manor. She revealed Ben's murder at the hands of his business partner and how she had witnessed what Spencer had done to Ben. She disclosed her dream in which Tarrh himself had choked her and her resulting swollen neck that nearly cost her life. She told him of the two conversations she'd had with his spirit and the things he had told her; she finished her tale by revealing the click she had heard as they opened one of the secret passages and how she had wound up here in his house.

Tarrh kept his silence for several minutes after she finished her story. He watched her closely as though he might be pondering the validity of the things she had told him. He nodded, then cocked his head to the side, gazing at her without seeming to see her at all.

"Please tell me you believe all this,” she pleaded.

"I believe you. Benjamin
has
visited me here, once or twice. I did not know what to make of him at first, but you are wrong in assuming he is a descendant of mine. Moira and I have no children, nor are we likely to,” he said.

"You and Moira? She is your—"

"My wife, yes. She and my dear brother are slowly poisoning me and perhaps Benjamin is the result of
their
union, but he is not of my loins directly,” he said flatly.

"
Poisoning
?” Liz asked.

He gave her a bittersweet smile then that melted her heart, an expression full of sadness; yet there was a depth to his eyes, his manner that bespoke a deeper understanding and keener intellect than Liz had ever seen before in anyone. He harbored no self-pity behind those eyes; only a sadness too abiding to overcome. “They think they have convinced me I have somehow contracted some deadly disease, but I know what goes on in my own house. Moira and I had a pleasant enough marriage until Sean came. He is the bastard son of my father's indiscretions and now he has shown up here to claim what he believes is rightfully his. Moira fancies him. Together, they have hatched this plan to rid themselves of me forever."

"Why don't you make them leave?” Liz asked.

"Elizabeth, you are a gentle soul, but the damage is already done. The first dose of poison would have been enough to get rid of me, but it works slowly; too slowly for their satisfaction. So they continue to feed it to me so it will work faster,” he said. “I did not know what they were doing until after I had taken the first dose."

"But this house is a portal through time,” she said. “Why don't you go back in time before it happened and—"

"The house is
not
a portal, Elizabeth,” he said.

"
Not
a portal? What do you mean?” Liz asked.

"There are places on the Earth, and other worlds as well, that can transport one through time and space. This
place
is one of them,” he explained. “I built my house here because I wanted to go back in time to see for myself how things really were before. Moira wants to be here for other reasons, selfish reasons; motives of greed, revenge, control."

"But you could—"

"Aye, I could, perhaps,” he agreed, “but that would be cheating, would it not? Being able to travel through time carries with it a responsibility not to tamper with the things the gods and goddesses have ordained. My fate was sealed when I took Moira as my wife. I knew she was evil, but I thought I could redeem her; instead I doomed myself. I must live with the consequences of my decisions, however ignorant those decisions may have been."

"She
tricked
you,” Liz protested.

"Aye, what you say is true, which is why I have bound their souls to mine. When I die, I intend to hold their essences and pull them into a pit so deep and black they will never escape to torment anyone else again. I will not take their lives, but when they do die, their souls will join mine,” he said gravely.

Liz sat upright in the bed, shook her head. Things were beginning to make more sense to her now. Her head reeled with the knowledge Tarrh had just given her. “They
will
escape, Tarrh; it is a fact! We have to undo what you have done,” she said.

He stroked her disheveled hair softly, whispered, “What I have done cannot be undone. I made certain of that. If I must lose my own soul to restrain theirs, I am resigned to that."

"Is there no antidote? Why do you continue to let them give you more of the poison?"

"There is no antidote, dear lady; I am a dead man either way, so why refuse them now? I tire of this life anyway,” he said, a faraway look in his eyes.

Liz sighed. Tarrh had obviously been hurt to the core by his deceptive wife and his brother. He had trusted Moira enough to turn a deaf ear to his own inner reason. Now she robbed him daily of more of the life force he had given to her willingly for the taking. He no longer had a desire to fight against her, even if there might be some reason to hope. The futility of his situation made Liz feel deeply saddened.

"Do you understand what will happen to your soul because of this binding you have worked?” she asked.

"I will lose the right to go to
Tir nan Og
,” he said simply.

"There is more to it than that, Tarrh,” she said. “You and they will become enmeshed as one spirit. Benjamin will unleash that composite entity by accident in the future and will somehow manage to send it back to that pit of yours. Generations later, two
innocent
people will loose it again and will lose their lives because of it. Don't you see? The trouble they are causing won't stop because you have bound them."

Tarrh looked her steadily in the eye. “What would you have me do?"

"I don't know. Surely there is
something
we can do. Can you tell me how to banish the spirit to the pit?” She asked.

"I know only how to go there and bind them to join me; Benjamin would be the one to ask about sending us back, since you say he did it once,” Tarrh said thoughtfully.

Liz nodded, hung her head. “Will you help me return home?"

"I cannot help you,” he replied.

"You mean I'm stuck here?” she asked.

"There is no control over the portal, as far as I can tell. It takes a person to some random time and place and when the time is right, it returns them whence they came,” he said.

"You mean at some point I will just find myself back there, without doing anything to get there?” Liz asked.

"That is the way it has always worked for me,” he replied.

"That's a relief, I
think
!” she said.

He smiled at her. “You have a good heart. You need to be aware, however; we all know you now;
they
will try to destroy you."

Liz laughed uncontrollably. “I have already
experienced
that—thanks for the warning!"

He stared deeply into her eyes, his hands on her shoulders. “If there is any way I manage to retain any control over them, I will not let them harm you, Elizabeth, because you would help me if you could; I
see that
in your eyes."

"I
would
help you, Tarrh; if there is a way, I
will
help you,” she vowed.

Liz trudged wearily into her bedroom and sank onto the edge of the bed without turning on the light. Her time travels had left her exhausted and she wanted sleep. She knew maybe she should wake Kim and tell her she was home, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to walk to the other end of that long hall. She slipped out of her shoes and pants, climbed under the covers.

Thoughts of Tarrh McCann filled her mind. She couldn't help feeling compassion for him and the position he had put himself in. She wondered if the three souls Tarrh had banished to spend eternity in the dark pit had actually melded into one, or if there was still some vestige of each individual in that unlikely composite essence he had created. If he still existed as a separate entity, perhaps he could be separated from the other two; then Moira and Sean could be banished and Tarrh could be sent to the light. He was a good man; no question in her mind about it. Why should he have to continue to pay for a mistake he had made in judging Moira's character, or lack of it?

She wondered about Sean as well. Perhaps he, too, had been duped by the treacherous Moira. Was he truly Tarrh's brother? Strange, he more closely resembled Moira than Tarrh. Maybe they were actually the ones who were brother and sister, collaborating to steal Tarrh's fortune. Then who was Benjamin really related to? He undoubtedly bore little resemblance to any of them other than Tarrh, though similarities in appearance might have been tempered by the genetic variables of several generations. The answers to many of the questions she had about this house and its mysteries were becoming clearer to her, but each new answer she found only led her to more questions.

She rolled onto her side, closed her eyes.
Tomorrow
, she thought.
Tomorrow will be soon enough to continue unraveling the tangled past
. She was tired.

She was just drifting off when she felt a stir on the other side of the king-sized bed. Her eyes flew open; she reached for the bedside lamp, switched it on. John was staring wide-eyed at her. “You just scared five years off my life! What are you doing here?” she asked.

"
Thank God
you're back. I was so worried about you!” he said. “What happened to your face?"

She blinked groggily at him, shook her head and closed her eyes. “Ask me tomorrow. I'm going to sleep now."

"That looks like a nasty cut. We should put something on it,” John said.

"Don't—
touch
—my face,” she ordered. “It has already been scrubbed and accosted with potion. Mark can look at it in the morning when he comes to check on my
other
problem."

"But you haven't even taken your pill yet,” he reminded.

She opened one eye, turned off the light. “I made it through three hundred years and back without it—I don't need it now!” she growled. “Now shut up, or go away!"

"Good night, Liz.” he sighed. “Glad you're back and safe."

She took a deep breath and floated into oblivion.

In the morning, Liz found John and Kim downstairs at the bar chatting over coffee and eggs. She quietly took her place on a stool between them, sat with her head propped between her hands leaning on the bar.

"You're up early, sunshine,” John greeted.

Liz sighed, gave him a half smile. “Sorry I was rude last night. I was totally wiped out and not in the mood to discuss it."

"Want some breakfast?” Kim asked.

"Just toast and juice. I'll get it; you just stay there,” she replied as she got up and walked into the kitchen.

"So,” Kim said. “Where did your travels take you?"

Liz popped the bread into the toaster, pushed the lever. “You sure you want to know?"

"Well, yes; I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know,” Kim said.

"I had a quick visit with Tarrh and his wife, Moira—and his
brother
Sean—and Moira's two
dogs
,” she said as she poured her juice. She drank deeply, poured more.

"Sounds
interesting
,” John said.

"You have
no idea
,” Liz said as she poured a third glass of juice. She took the toast as it popped out of the toaster, spread a pat of butter on the first piece and proceeded to devour it.

"You
are
going to share your experiences with us, aren't you, Liz?” Kim asked, watching her friend wolf down the toast. “Good to see you got your appetite back."

"I'm going to ignore your sarcasm. Mark is coming soon, isn't he? I wanted to have something in my stomach before he gets here,” Liz said.

"Liz! What happened at Tarrh's house?” Kim pressed.

"Tarrh's not alone—Moira and Sean poisoned him and he knew he was dying. He worked some kind of binding to confine all of their souls together in some kind of limbo he called a dark black pit. He knew he couldn't save himself, so he decided to take them with him,” Liz said.

"You mean he killed them, too?” Kim asked.

"No. Apparently, they lived out their lives and possibly even had children together. But when they
did
die, their souls went to him. What I don't think he realized was that all three of them would actually mingle into a single entity,” Liz said.

"I don't understand. You're saying Tarrh bound their souls? How is that possible?” John asked.

"I didn't ask him to explain the process to me, John! I was too surprised to find him to be a civil, intelligent and humane person to ask him what method he used to take their souls captive,” she retorted.