Haunted Hearts

28

As they drove through the entrance of Kensal Green, Roderick stared at the tombs, headstones, and smaller mausoleums they passed, unsure of what he would say once they arrived at Reggie's grave.

It was a large part of why he'd avoided returning the past several months since the funeral. What more was there to say that hadn't already been said?

"Is that Rosalind's carriage up ahead?" Elphi asked as the carriage slowed.

Roderick blinked several times and craned his neck until he saw the unmistakable crest painted on the side door. This was the other reason he'd avoided visiting. There'd been too much risk he'd see her.

Muttering an expletive under his breath, he tried to ignore his hammering heart and wiped his sweating palms against his trousers. "Perhaps we should continue on; Reggie would understand."

"Actually, he's quite adamant that you go inside," Rufus said with a pointed stare as the vehicle stopped before he exited and helped Elphi alight.

"Of course," Roderick grumbled to the empty carriage, tempted to ignore Reggie's wishes and remain there until Rosalind left.

However, after sitting in solitude for three minutes while Rufus and Elphi stood on a patch of green lawn outside the Keating mausoleum, Rufus walked over, opened the door, and said, "He is threatening to haunt you and sing that song he made up about the sad colonial drummer boy—"

"Fine," Roderick growled, scowling at Rufus and the air on either side of him for good measure. "I will do as you wish, and go inside your musty mausoleum, Keating. Anything to ensure I never hear a single note of that obnoxious song ever again."

Moving aside as Roderick burst from the carriage with a bit more force than necessary, Rufus murmured with a grin, "He says you're a good chap."

Roderick grunted as he glanced at Rufus, straightened his waistcoat, and squared his shoulders, his gaze focused on the mausoleum ahead of him. "Did he know she was here?"

Rufus hesitated, then said, "Yes... now go inside and say your goodbyes; you have a train to catch."

"You and Elphi—"

"Will give you some privacy," Elphi murmured, taking Rufus's hand into hers. "We'll remain here... unless you prefer we go inside with you?"

"No," he said, even though a small part of him desperately wanted to say yes. "I won't be long."

Elphi's lips bent in a sympathetic smile, "All right."

Roderick forced a swallow down his suddenly parched throat, then walked across the gravel path and up the stairs to the mausoleum. His hand shook when he gripped the handle, but a strange calmness settled over him when he pushed it open without it making a sound and stepped inside.

Two large stained-glass windows, one bearing the Keating family coat of arms, painted the opposing stone walls and floor in a kaleidoscope of colors. Hanging oil lanterns with their amber glow attempted to soften what would otherwise be an oppressive space.

Thirty granite tombs, stone benches for the living to sit on while visiting, and empty pedestals for twenty more deceased to rest lined the walls with the foot of each tomb meeting toward the middle, creating an ample passageway from the main entrance of the spacious mausoleum through the middle of the building.

Roderick welcomed the silence for a few moments, allowing his eyes to adjust—or so he told himself, though deep down, he knew he was stalling—and tried to find the right words to say.

Rosalind, dressed in unrelenting black and looking every inch the grieving widow, quietly sat with her back to the door, tucked between Reggie's tomb and an empty grave pedestal.