“Who is Marianne?”

Wilbur asked again. The lady cast an indignant look over her shoulder at them.

“That vas not Marianne.”

The Baron answered quietly.

“Such a likeness I never sav.”

He tightened his grip under Wilbur’s arm and urged him forward.

“ Keep movink ve need to fvind somevhere else to stay. Ve cannot go back to the inn and your house vill be vatched.”

“Who’s Marianne, Baron?”

“Marianne? Marianne vas fvrom a lonk time ago. Ven I fvirst came to England, I came to England because I vas expelled fvrom my home and country. I sought refuge in this England and found it still a troubled country. King Charles the second vas on the throne. The Roundheads led by Oliver Cromwell had executed his father Charles the first, some years previously. This vas a time of changes the civil var vas von by the King and the cavaliers. The Roundheads vere still beink rounded up and trialed. Properties seized durrink the var by the Roundheads durrink their reign in pover vere nov beink given back to their Cavalier ovners if livink, if not they vere given to loyal Cavaliers as revards fvor their service to the King.

It vas 1661, I called myself Edgar Forset. I passed myself off as an English nobleman; I brought enough riches vith me to turn heads in court. I vas a peacock dressed in the bold, bright colours of the Cavaliers. Vith my fvine fveathers I could have had any lady of my choice. My skin vas not as vhite as it iss nov, but flushed so I could pass as a mortal after I had had my fill on their blood. Huntink vas easier then.

One lady caught my eye above all others. Lady Marianne Janin. Daughter to a Cavalier nobleman, an elderly man vho fought as a lieutenant in the var beside the King. He died before the summer vas ended, Of course he vould have died naturally in the vinter vithout my interference. Through him I met milady. I made myself available to her in her time of grief. Durrink our evenink meetinks  ve grev to be friends. I had been courtink her a year, ven vun mornink she died. I fled fvrom England and have never returned.”

*** flashback ***

The Baron walks by a lady’s side. His clothes are the same he wears in present day but they are new here, in their original pristine boldly coloured state. A sword hangs at his side. His hair is the same colour black peppered with grey, it’s worn loose and is curled. He smiles at the lady. She is laughing and turns her face to look up at him. Her baby blue satin dress rustles as she turns and her silk slippers glide silently on the grass.

“It is getting late, dear Edgar. It would not do for a lady to spend so much time in the company of a gentleman so late at night.”

“Milady Marianne. I knov you must go in.”

He takes her hands in his and holds them gently as if they were baby birds.

“Please do me the honour, nay the privilege… I mean do please meet vith me tomorov night after sunset.”

“Edgar”

She was laughing.

“I always meet you after sunset!”

“I vish to ask you somethink particular.”

She looked up at him and smiled.

“Of course. I must go in now. Until tomorrow Edgar.”

He watched as she ran inside to their watchers, who watched from behind the windows and balconies. The ladies virtue was at stake he understood why they watched. He waited until she was safely inside then walked from the garden and her land via the gate.

~

There was a pounding on his bedchamber door. The Baron rose and opened it with the servant still pounding on the door.

“Milord! Baron. The Lady Janin. She is dead!”

“Vot did you say?”

Anger swelled up inside him. Blind rage roared in his ears. He didn’t listen to the servant all he could think was that he had seen her only hours before. This man was lying.  He pulled the servant into the room by his neck. The sickening crack announced the neck was broken. To hell with the ancient practice, habit of romancing or hypnotising the victim into submission. He plunged his teeth into the servant’s neck and gorged.

When he had finished he threw the body to the floor, pulled on his velvet cloak, jammed on his hat and called for his horse. The thundering hooves of the horse galloping to the Janin estate were nothing to the blood thumping in his ears. He saw nothing of the ride, he did not see the servants open the doors for him, nor did he see their faces as he took the stairs two at a time, smoke billowed from his clothes he was burning from where he had caught the sun.

He was by her side. By his lady’s Marianne’s bedside. Tears rolled own his cheeks. The tears were blood. He kissed her face and arms. He cut one of her brown ringlets from her head and pocketed it.  She was dead. Her hazel eyes had glazed up and stared blankly at the ceiling. Her ski jump nose and her soft mouth he kissed. Her skin was white, never more would it flush in happiness.

A movement behind him in the doorway told him he had company. The lady walked round to the other side of the bed and pulled the bed sheets down to reveal the unmistakeable bite of a vampire on her neck. The Baron looked up at the lady in disbelief. Her green eyes met his tear filled grey ones. She wore a mocking smile.

“Your lady is dead”

The Baron blinked and his eyes cleared. The lady was dressed in black velvet with her hands on her hips smiling triumphantly, she was none other than Killishandra.

“Did you do thisss?”

He hissed.

“Ve summoned you to come home.”

“You sent me avay Killishandra”

“Did I forget to send the letter askink you back? Oops!”

“ Do not mock me! Vhy did you take her fvrom me?”

“Are you sayink you vould settle for this plain lookink human?”

“ I loved her Killishandra”

“Love!”

She scoffed.

“Love! you? Fall for a human! You vould have tired of her in a veek and eaten her”

“I vould never do that to Marianne. I,I, I courted her fvor a year. I vas goink to marry her.”

“I heard. And live your life playing as a mortal? She gettink older and you never agink?”

“I could have made it vork! You took her fvron me!”

“There is nothink left for you here. I am commandink you to come home. To your clan. You are heir to the Burrovs do your duty. Come!”

She walked out the room.

"Killishandra ... why? "

" I said come!"

***    ***

The Baron marched Wilbur quickly in the rain. They stopped so Wilbur could catch his breath. The Baron sheltered under a porch and took from his pocket a silver cigarette case inside was a lock of hair, a brown ringlet.  He stroked it once, snapped the silver case shut and hurried Wilbur into the rain.