The Grieving Widow

She was in her sitting room, the sergeant informed me as he led me upstairs. Lady Grace Seraphin had been returning from a late night soiree (at none other than my sister Marian's house) with her maid, when she found her husband impaled on the railings outside their house.

My heart twisted in pity for Grace, for I was certain that I would never be rid of the image of my brother's bloodied body, yet I knew it would be ten times worse for someone who was not accustomed to viewing corpses.

The policeman informed me that the maid had had to be sedated as she became hysterical, but Grace refused all such medical attention, claiming it would do her more harm than good.

I found her sitting on a chaise lounge, eyes staring blankly ahead, looking oddly out of place as she was still in her evening gown. Yet her hair was dishevelled and the hem of her dress was stained in my brother's blood. She blinked dazedly when she saw me, her face slowly registering mine.

Then Grace inhaled sharply, as a sailor does upon reaching the surface, and whispered my name. I was at her side in a moment, pulling her up into my arms.

(The sergeant wisely left as silently as possible.)

Grace's entire frame shuddered violently and she began to sob unceasingly against my chest.

I sensed she had been too disturbed to shed a tear until that moment, but the resemblance between myself and Sebastian was too much to bear.

The sound of her weeping almost broke me as well, and though my throat burned, I bit the inside of my mouth until it bled to hold myself in check. Now was not the time. The pain was too raw, too unbelievable for tears yet.

Suddenly Grace began to beat her fists against me.

"Six weeks!" she sobbed, "six weeks! That's all we had together! We were meant to have a lifetime!"

I took the beating silently, gathering the courage to soothe  her into silence.

Suddenly  she slumped against me- the impact of Sebastian's death finally overwhelming her.

I carried her unconscious form gently over to the sofa and laid her down, studying her beautiful, terrible, tear-stained face with a growing sense of unease.

She truly had loved my brother after all.

There was some small, stupidly vain part of me that imagined she still held a candle for me as I did for her.

After witnessing her violent grief, my hopes were finally snuffed out.

It was then that a  sickening dread crept over me.

How on earth was I to explain to her my dreadful theories about Lucius?

If he had escaped, then I might as well have pushed Sebastian off the balcony myself.

For I had released a devil into this lovers' paradise.

'WHEN SERAPHIN FALL' WILL RETURN IN 2018