The Montgomery House

Prologue

1918. The Montgomery House, Northumberland, United Kingdom.

"Janet?... Juliette?..." She whispered frantically into her darkened surroundings, sweat clung to her forehead and matted her mousy blonde hair, sticking it uncomfortably to the back of her neck. Knowing that her mother abhorred hysterics, Jacqueline anxiously chewed her bottom lip to quiet any lingering sobs. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Jacqueline stubbornly swiped at her tear-stained cheeks, frantically trying to erase any evidence that she'd been crying in her sleep; the ingrained manners her mother had demanded since she was old enough to walk and talk to forced her to silently reprimand herself for not acting like the lady her mother expected her to be.

Shaken by the nightmare which hovered at the edges of her consciousness, Jacqueline visually swept the room for any sign of her sisters, her breath catching when she saw and heard no sign to indicate that either one of them was still asleep and safe within the shelter of their shared room.

Panicked Jacqueline's pale blue eyes stared forlornly at the empty beds before they shifted to rest upon the open door of the box room she'd been forced into sharing with her younger sisters after their father had announced he was going to sell the estate.

Bewildered by the fact they had managed to sneak past her and escape in the first place, Jaqui as her mother so affectionately called her, sucked in a shaky breath to steady herself and willed her gangling legs and knobbly knees into moving. Slipping silently from the comfort and warmth of her duvet, the pre-teen hissed indignantly as the soles of her bare feet touched the cold hardwood floor her father insisted remained bare throughout what he considered to be the children's bedrooms.

Swearing a silent oath to kill both her sisters just as soon as she saved them from their father's wrath, Jaqui shivered violently at the icy draft from the single-glazed window at the far side of the room. Wrapping her skinny arms around her pre-adolescent chest, in a futile attempt to shelter herself from the worst of the cold, Jaqui tiptoed nimbly across the compact space and out into the once-inviting labyrinth of hallways which had been the Montgomery children's playground and prison, their entire lives.

Sighing in relief as her numb toes touched the slightly warmer and gentler fabric of the Persian rug her mother had rescued from the auction house and laid back out the previous evening, Jaqui tiptoed her way slowly down the dark narrow corridor towards the grand staircase, the sight of the dust voids where her mother's prized furniture and family heirlooms had once stood, made her want to weep in frustration at the ruin of her family.

The scandal and scorn of the local society women, when her father had announced to the local newspaper that the proud Montgomery family had fallen on hard times and subsequently would be selling off the main house and surrounding farmland still stung, the ostracisation and forced expulsion from her cherished social circles and causes had been almost too much for her mother to bare, the memory of her mother's tears etched itself onto her brain.

Despite his failures, her father's blame had fallen squarely upon the shoulders of his wife and young children, his mood had been so dark and his temper so volatile throughout the day that her mother had sent them all to bed early and without supper in an attempt to appease him.

She lay awake long into the night, her stomach aching at the lack of food, listening to the sound of the ebb and flow of her father's loud, angry voice and her mother's continuous sobbing. Eventually, her tense body relaxed at the familiar sound of her mother's heavy footsteps ascending the stairs, the faint memory of her mother's smile and soothing laughter as her father twirled her around the dining room whilst making grand declarations of love lulled her sadly to sleep.

She couldn't remember the nightmare that had woken her exactly, only perhaps the faint sound of someone crying. But with her heart hammering hysterically in her chest, and a fresh band of sweat beading on her forehead, she could imagine it had been something similar to the one she was experiencing right now.