A BRIDE IN BLACK

Try it on

red, swaying. Empty slee

hem, the silver thorn still clutched in her fist. The ivory dress

t move from i

uder this time, to the room.

spering

the one the maid had brought - floated for

id not t

quietly, to the air. "Take it of

a thought he was t

sn't talking to the dress.

use sh

from the ceiling. The fire, which had blown out, suddenly roared bac

ropped to the floor at

ry one remai

ked it up before Ad

was so old it felt like holding spiderwebs. But where the

d. "The first Clara. The o

es

fall. She wa

sed his ey

gainst herself. It was he

feet, wind on a tower, hands around her throat, an old wo

pped th

ng her elbows. "Don't hold i

trangl

rom the floor where Clara had dropped it. The

ho would never leave Vale House. She invited the first Clara here in 1860, promised her a marriage to her grandson. Then sh

thing that

ething. A debt older than us. White bri

Clara's tor

er it. But black

the note had said _It c

lace and threw the ivor

d not

inger marks around its throat turn

the poker, swearing as the

what is already

cissors - black

right across the throat,

iced through, every white

w, from the cellars, something screamed back.

r away from the fireplace as the f

?" he shouted ov

r!" Clara s

ght fire. It burned with black smoke tha

pty of white dresses. Only ash remained

ere no one had opened the door,

. Black as Clara's dress. A

Clara, not at Adrian. "You cut her ou

Clara

elt and tou

Margaret strangle her in white because she refused to marry. I have bee

her face was young. Beautiful. Not a maid at

he maid said. "

gan to toll. Not midnight. So

face we

eed one. There are three left. And n

stood and took Clara's han

. "Before tomorrow is your wedding night. On a wedding night, it must

Clara

nk, at the letters, at the

ewest. She is strongest. And she loves him. If anyone can fight

the third-floor window blew o

m the outside, fluttering,

to it and p

ait, drawn in

. Lying in a coffin. E

it, in Margaret

ight, she