Demons and Diamonds

Prologue: 1912

Midnight in Maple Grove is darker than anywhere else. The night comes on quickly, like a thick quilt being thrown over a candle. The streets are deserted at this time, ominously so, as if all life has been sucked out of the town, leaving this one woman, Eliza Stark, hurrying home from a dinner party. She'd been offered an escort, and had declined. She had suffered enough embarrassment for ten people that night. Tears welled in her eyes, but her clamped-down fury stopped them from escaping any further. She stayed in the weak glow of the streetlights, the heels of her boots making sharp clicking noises in the otherwise silent night. Far behind her, she heard a carriage pull away from a stable and she found comfort in the familiar sound of horses' hooves against the cobblestones. But then it was silent once again. A cool breeze ruffled her carefully pinned hair and she pulled her coat tighter around her slender frame. Her husband, drunk and obnoxious, had just accused her of infidelity in front of all their close friends. She'd left her wedding ring on the doormat and began heading home, towards her sister's house, where she would most likely spend the remainder of her life. Divorcee women were low on the pecking order in this town.

Eliza's light blonde hair was in tightly bunched curls, her lips shiny and red. She staggered as one of the heels of her boots caught in a crack in the road and snapped off. Muttering to herself, she tore off her shoes and tossed them into an alleyway. A wretch would surely love the offering. However, she'd not gone ten paces before she regretted it. The stockings covering her feet were thin and the cobblestones were slick with the rain that had come over earlier that evening. Icy moisture soaked into the soles of her stockings, and Eliza began to shiver, and then laugh. She laughed at how pathetic she was and how unladylike she was being, staggering along alone in the middle of the night with no shoes on. She had no husband, no children and certainly no dignity.

"No man would be looked at sideways, was he in my position." Eliza said snidely to herself. "Men stagger drunken through the streets every night, while their wives wait expectantly at home with a warm meal and soft bed."

Suddenly, a shadow skittered across the wall of the bakery across the street, and then it was gone, as quickly as it had appeared. Eliza froze, her heart picking up in pace. She wished she had accepted the clergyman's escort.

"Who's there?" She called into the night, but there was no response. There was a clattering of stones in the darkness ahead of her. "I'm warning you, I'm more dangerous than I look!"

Eliza saw the shadow skitter again, closer this time, and much too large to be an animal. She began walking again, her eyes set on the police station the next block over. Surely there would be an officer willing to take her home.

But still, the shadow crept closer and closer, until Eliza was running, glancing all around her, but seeing nothing but the shadow. "Help me!" She cried. "Somebody please help!"

She was cut off as her feet slipped on the smooth stones and she fell to the ground, grazing the palms of her hands and smacking her head so hard that her vision swam in and out. Whimpering and struggling to pull herself to her feet, Eliza managed to turn around, still unable to stand, and gasped. A young gentleman stood not four feet away from her. He wore a pair of black trousers and a loose white dress shirt, the top buttons undone, showing his smooth, well-formed chest. His hat was tilted to the side and his perfect lips were quirked up at one side in a wicked grin. The hat shadowed the top half of his face, and Eliza's heart raced.

"P-please...don't hurt me." Eliza scrambled backwards, her hair coming loose of it's tightly pinned curls.

The smile got wider and the young man took a step closer, kneeling down to her level and tucking a loose curl behind Eliza's ear. "Trust me," He crooned, and she finally got a glimpse of his eyes. A beautiful sea green in the light of the streetlamp. "You won't feel a thing."