Tall Dark & Lonely: A Pyte Series Novel Read online

  Tall, Dark & Lonely

  by

  R.L. Mathewson

  Copyright 2010 by R.L. Mathewson

  A Smashwords Edition

  Other titles by R.L. Mathewson:

  Tall, Dark & Lonely: A Pyte Series Novel

  A Humble Heart: A Hollywood Hearts Novel

  Playing for Keeps: A Neighbor from Hell novel

  Perfection: A Neighbor from Hell Novel

  Sudden Response: An EMS Novel

  A Reclusive Heart: A Hollywood Hearts Novel

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events described in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Tall, Dark & Lonely: A Pyte Series Novel © R.L. Mathewson 2010. All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 978-0-9832125-2-2

  e-book ISBN: 978-0-9832125-0-8

  To everyone who has ever made me laugh and to my children who will always be my inspiration.

  Tall, Dark & Lonely

  Prologue

  Lancashire, England 1819

  “He’s the devil!” a woman cried.

  “Hush, woman! Just show the magistrate your wound!” his father demanded.

  Ephraim couldn’t focus. His eyes were too heavy to open and his body felt limp. Everything felt so distant and fuzzy. He was so tired….he just needed sleep. A little sleep and then he would ask why they were in his bedchamber.

  “This woman is obviously prone to hysterics, Your Grace. This is clearly an animal bite or she stabbed herself in hopes of creating trouble for you. I would dismiss her at once without a reference,” a cold voice said.

  “I ain’t lying, m'lord! Look at his mouth!” the woman demanded. Was that Mary the upstairs maid? Ephraim tried to focus. She was obviously upset about something.

  “First tell me who this man is,” the cold voice ordered.

  "Tell you who it is?" his father repeated in confusion. “I told you who it is! That’s my middle son Ephraim!” his father snapped.

  Ephraim heard a chuckle. “That’s not Ephraim.”

  “Yes, it is!”

  “No, it’s not.” The man sounded annoyed.

  What the bloody hell was going on?

  Someone grabbed his chin none too gently and yanked it to the side. Ephraim wanted to protest, but the only sound he managed was a weak groan.

  “This is Ephraim!”

  “But….but….Ephraim is sixteen and he looks….well he looks….like….”

  “Like a ten year old boy,” he heard his older brother Henry answer in an amused tone. Good old Henry. He would have to remember to box his ears later.

  “Yes!” the magistrate agreed. “This is a twenty-five year old man. Is someone playing a jest? I assure you I do not find this funny or tolerable!”

  “I would never do such a thing. This is Ephraim. I wouldn’t believe it either, but I’ve watched over him for the last month.”

  “What happened to him?” the magistrate asked.

  Good, that’s a good question, Ephraim thought. Answer that! Ephraim had so many of his own questions. None of them seemed to be able to leave his lips at the moment so he would rely on this man to ask them on his behalf.

  “He’s always been the devil! We all knew it! Not natural for a man to stay a boy! Not natural and now he feeds on virginal blood!” the maid screeched.

  Someone chuckled. “Come now, Mary, virginal? I think that claim is five years too late.” Of course Henry would know. He had a reputation of lifting every skirt in the town. Henry liked to diverse his attentions.

  “Quiet!” their father yelled.

  “I want to know how a boy known for his youthful appearance is sick for one month and then he turns into this.”

  His father sighed wearily. “We’re at a loss. All the surgeons I’ve brought in are at a loss as well. They’ve drained him, cooled him, heated him, poured bile liquid down his throat and still he remained asleep and….changed.”

  The magistrate scoffed. “Changed is putting it mildly. He looks like a man. Are you positive this is Ephraim and your boys aren’t playing a joke?”

  “I’m sure. I sat at his bedside every day for the last month.” His father sounded weary. “I watched the changes happen.”

  “Explain to me why he’s chained to the bed.”

  Chained? He was chained? What the hell was going on? After several long minutes of heavy concentration he was able to force his eyes open. The images slowly changed from blurry to sharp.

  He slowly looked around his room. His two older brothers stood in the corner, looking bored. Several footmen stood in the room, holding cricket bats and glaring at him. Mary was whimpering and cowering near the door. His father and Magistrate Nichols, a man in his early thirties and well known for his cruelties, stood on either side of his bed looking down at him. His father looked worried. Magistrate Nichols looked at him with annoyance.

  “What’s your name?” Nichols demanded.

  He cleared his throat. It felt like he swallowed sand. “E-Ephraim.”

  “See!” His father thrust a hand in his direction.

  Nichols leveled a glare on Ephraim that made him squirm. “Has someone put you up to this?”

  Ephraim turned his head to look at his father only to have cold bony fingers grab his face and yank his head back callously. “I asked you a question.”

  “No,” Ephraim said. “What’s going on?” His voice was raspy and deep like a man’s. It wasn’t his voice! He had a boy’s voice. Something was very wrong here.

  “We’re about to find out,” Nichols said, nodding to himself. “Bring the girl!” he snapped.

  “No! No! Please!” Mary screamed.

  Ephraim watched as two footmen grabbed Mary and dragged her kicking and screaming to his bedside. Henry and Marc started laughing.

  “Papa, this is ridiculous! This girl is just looking for a way to fatten her purse. Ephraim finally grows some hairs on his sack, albeit he did so in a coma. It’s odd, but there's nothing evil about it,” Marc said in a bored tone.

  Henry laughed harder. “She’s just adding to the gossip. You know people have always talked about Ephraim like he’s some kind of freak. It’s not his fault he took so long. Toss her out.”

  “No! I’m not lying, yer Grace! He bit me!” she screamed.

  “We’ll see about that,” Nichols said as he grabbed her arm and thrust it in front of Ephraim’s face. “Did you do this?” he demanded.

  Ephraim’s eyes focused on two small scabs a half inch apart. He shook his head. He’d never been more frightened in his life. They were accusing him of biting a maid, who was accusing him of being the devil. He needed to focus.

  He felt his strength slowly coming back into his body. He raised his arms and sighed with relief that he could move. He dropped his arms and was startled by the sound of chains clinking. He raised both hands again and gently turned them over. They were different. They were longer, tanner and muscular and he was chained! He raised his feet, too. They were covered by a sheet, but he felt the chains.

  “Why?” he asked, lifting his arms again.

  “Girl, you lied! You’ll wish you never tried this!” Nichols threw her violently to the ground.

  She shook her head frantically. Fresh tears poured down her face. “No! I ain’t lying! He bit me!”

  His father gestured to the footmen. “Get her out of here and remove Ephraim’s chains.”

  Relief surged through him. “Thank you, father,” he managed to say.

  “No! I can prove it!” Mary said.

  Nichols turned around in time to see Mary shove past as she ran towards Ephraim, wielding a knife. br />
  “Stop!” Ephraim cried weakly.

  She brought the knife down across her own palm as she made her way to his bed. He couldn’t figure out what she hoped to accomplish by cutting herself.

  Ephraim struggled to push himself up in the bed and away from this deranged woman. Everything seemed to happen at once. Nichols stumbled backwards, his father tried to race around the bed, his brothers pushed off the wall and were at a full run towards him, the footmen seemed confused and were the last to react.

  Mary thrust her hand a few inches from his face. Blood streamed down her hand.

  “Get away from me!” Ephraim ordered.

  She didn’t. She curled her hand into a fist, forcing more blood to drip onto his chest. Ephraim eyed the blood with disgust even as his stomach rumbled at the sight. He ignored it even as his mouth began to water. His reaction to the blood frightened him more than anything.

  “Get away from me!”

  His father and brothers came to a skidding halt just behind her. Magistrate Nichols grabbed Mary by the hair and yanked out of the way.

  Ephraim sighed, “Thank you, s-“

  Nichols grabbed his jaw and yanked Ephraim’s mouth open. “Dear God in heaven,” he muttered. Ephraim watched in horror as Nichols’ finger came towards his mouth. He felt pressure against one of his teeth and then felt something sweet and delicious hit his tongue.

  “Christ almighty!” Nichols pulled back a bloody finger and shook it off. “They’re razor sharp!”

  “What?” Ephraim asked stunned.

  He watched as his father and brothers paled. He couldn’t understand any of this. The only thing that he was sure of is that he wanted more of that sweet delicious liquid, badly. He ran his tongue over his lips hoping to lap up more. His tongue came across something pointed in his mouth. He ran his tongue over the sharp tip only to find a second one in his mouth. What was going on? Did the surgeons do something to his mouth?

  “I told you he was the devil!” Mary said smugly. She held her bleeding hand against her bosom. Ephraim stared at it like a man dying of thirst.

  “Shut her up!” Nichols yelled. He turned to his father. “We need to talk.” Ephraim watched as his father was dragged to the corner of the room. He was sure they were whispering, but he could hear everything they said loud and clear as if they were standing by his bed.

  “Is he a devil worshipper?” Nichols asked.

  “No!” his father protested.

  “Tell me about his birth,” Nichols demanded.

  Ephraim ignored the looks his brother were giving him and the fact that they were now swiftly moving away from his bed as if he were a leper and focused on the private conversation.

  For ten years he pleaded and begged his father to tell him about his birth. The only thing he was told was that his mother died in childbirth. His stepmother refused to tell him anything. That didn’t surprise him since she hated him. She referred to him as the “thing” she was forced to tolerate. He never understood that and now it seemed he was about to get some answers.

  “The mother was attacked was she not? An animal the villagers say,” Nicholls prompted.

  He heard his father drag in a harsh breath. Odd that was. His father was over twenty feet from him. He could hear everything clearly, too clearly. It was starting to hurt his head. He heard the sounds of clothes rustling, steps, breathing, heart beats, bugs flying in the room, someone downstairs dropped a pan in the kitchen and swore. That was the oddest thing because they were on the second floor in the west wing, very far away from the kitchen, but he was positive that he could hear Mrs. Brown working in the kitchen.

  Ephraim forced himself to ignore every competing sound and focus. His father looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was close enough to hear before continuing.

  His father shook his head. “No, it wasn’t an animal attack.”

  “I thought as much. I’ve heard rumors that a mad man from Bedlam escaped and attacked your first wife during the last month of her confinement.”

  “Yes, I’m afraid that’s as close to the truth as we’ll ever get. I was holding a coming out ball for my youngest sister, Amy. My wife was restless with her confinement. Our two boys were asleep in the nursery and she desperately wanted to see Amy dance.”

  “Understandable. Please continue.”

  “Marc, what the hell is he?” Henry asked loudly. Ephraim ignored them.

  “Shut up, Henry,” Marc said coldly.

  “She…she….we….” his father’s voice cracked. Ephraim never once heard of his father crying. “We found the bastard bent over her body. She was so pale…and….and….”

  “What?”

  “He was feeding her his blood! She was drinking his blood!” his father whispered harshly.

  Nichols didn’t say anything. “We chased the bastard off, but not soon enough. She went into labor…but she was dead. The boy just….he came…..the surgeon couldn’t understand it. He thought we were going to have to cut her.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m rather confused. You said she was dead? I saw her myself in the village not a week after the boy’s birth. I was led to believe she died a few days later from complications.”

  His father looked over his shoulder again. “We had to tell everyone that….truth is she woke up the next morning like nothing happened. She tried to take the boy. She was screaming nonsense. I had to throw her out, but she came back for the boy with him!”

  Nichols cleared his throat. “I hate to ask, but is it possible the boy isn’t yours.”

  “You mean did my wife cuckold me?” he asked bitterly. “I…I don’t know. He looks nothing like his brothers. I just don’t know and at that point it would have created a scandal for the boy to disappear and I was most certainly not going to send an innocent child with….oh god, she was dead I buried her myself….I…..do you think….”

  Ephraim looked at his brothers. They were not handsome men by anyone’s standards. They looked so much like their father. They were as Mrs. Brown liked to say "womanly men." They had very feminine features. They were pretty boys some of the ladies said. A lot of women liked that, but Ephraim always secretly prayed that he wouldn’t look like them. He always found comfort in the fact that everyone told him that he didn’t look like them. The only thing they shared was their mother’s black hair.

  He was always told that he looked like a “little man”. He was a rough little boy with a thick muscular frame unlike his brother’s much thinner frames. His startling blue eyes also set him apart. Could that have changed along with everything else? It seemed ridiculous even to him at the moment, but he didn’t want to look like a woman.

  Nichols looked back at him and shook his head. “He doesn’t look like you or your other sons except for the black hair. Does he look like the men on his mother’s side or does he look like-”

  “Him you mean?” His father made a sound of disgust.

  “Yes.”

  “He has a larger frame and different eyes but…I thought…I hoped he would look like us.” His father looked him over. “He looks like him. Do you think he’s contracted whatever ailed his mother then?”

  “Yes, I think it’s a good chance the boy is diseased. If you truly are not the boy’s father then he most likely is insane as well. Tell me what happened to his mother?”

  “What do you think we did? She was dead. We burned the bitch and her lover,” he said coldly. Ephraim’s breath caught.

  “You’re not my father?” he asked before he could stop himself.

  Both men slowly turned to stare at him. Their confused expressions turned horrified at the realization that he heard their entire whispered conversation. His father’s hand went to his chest as a collective gasp sounded throughout the large bed chamber.

  “His eyes! They’re red!” Henry shouted.

  “The devil!” A footman raised his weapon and backed up.

  “Father? What’s going on?” Ephraim couldn’t hide the fear in his voice.

&nbsp
; “Don’t call me that!” his father yelled. “You’re clearly not mine!”

  “No, father, please!” Ephraim tried to sit up, but his restraints held him down.

  “What do you want us to do with him?” Nichols asked.

  His father shook his head. “I don’t care what you do with him. Just get him out of my sight.”

  “Father?.....Father!” He watched his father and brothers hurry from the room. No one looked back at him. “Father, please!”

  Nichols walked over to the bed, smiling. “Tie the chains around him and make sure he can’t get lose,” he ordered.

  The footman hesitated coming any closer. “Now!” The men jumped and did as they were told. Ephraim could now move his arms and legs, but he was too weak to fight back.

  “Please, sir, if you let me talk to my father…there’s been a mistake.” The men released the chains from the bed. In one smooth move they flipped him onto the floor, roughly. He felt the wind knocked out of him. They quickly wrapped the chains around his body tightly.

  “Stop!” he screamed. It hurt. The chains were too tight, cutting off his air.

  Nicholls bent in front of him. “I’m sorry, my boy. I realize this isn’t your fault, but you must realize the position you’ve put me in. I cannot have you running around feeding off people.” He shook his head. “No, that will never do.” He looked up at the men. “Take him to my estate and lock him in the dungeon.”

  His dungeon? Ephraim’s stomach rolled. Nichols was known for being one of the most religious and straightforward men in the area. He was honored and accepted by every member of the ton. He was also known for being a sadistic bastard who took his job seriously. He tortured men, slowly.

  “Please, sir, no! Get my father! He wouldn’t want you to do this! Please!” He began sobbing.

  Nichols knelt beside him at a safe distance. “I promise you I will make this quick out of respect for your father. He wouldn’t want to know that you suffered.”

  “Oh, god no!” Ephraim shook his head and tried to fight his restraints.