A BRIDE IN BLACK

nd Clara's an

ike something that had been

t let go. Its nails were long

rised. She set the white dress down on th

"She didn't like the last one.

inch, toward the dark space under the bed. She could see now - a f

d her

er. Maybe

d kicking an

loosened,

d down with

the black dress she had cut from her mother's curtains. She

lack lace tore,

It was the sound of wind

o and vanished

strip of black lace was still in her fist. The silver t

aid h

pered. "You spill

od had fallen onto the white dress on the b

was faster. She pressed the bloodied st

e dress

g, smoking where the black touched it. The maid screa

e corridor outside - other voices joined in. Screa

overed

droom door

high, his shirt open at the throat, hi

k, the smoking white dre

the maid, his voic

ed white dress to her chest like a child. "S

aid

fl

locked it. He set the lantern

you h

where the hand had held

ushed up her black skirt just enough to see the mark. Five w

she had never h

and wrapped it tightly around the bruise. Th

if reminding himself. "My gr

Clara," C

lever ones

against the bed, exhausted. The lan

lready," he said. "I told

them? Th

eed to be told. It k

attered across the floor. "How many letters

ou found

ine? She was

hite, the house would stop wanting a Clara. She

u knew I was coming? Bef

closed

been paying its debts with that name for one hundred and twenty years. When your fa

bough

wns for twelve months without a bri

er twelv

y were dark gray, like

l take you anyway. Unless you learn

felt

you did with

e volunteered.

- told her more than any story co

Clara asked before s

ress, bleeding onto black lace, sittin

id. "I don'

ed. "Then you won't m

drian Vale laughed. It was a sho

bed, something

Adrian b

her this time, like a chi

lowly and lift

No face. No hand. Only a small, folded pi

eached

ng, done in ch

dress, standing in a towe

ace. The woman h

tom, in a chil

G TONIGHT. DON

rom her fingers. His face

t this?" he asked

r the bed.

ot from the other

e at the be

soft k

was on the

ew out th

falling through her, was a woman in a white dress, sm

Clara's fac

Evang

ite dress, pressed again

ed through the glass. "It's