He reached for his bed robe and snatched it up. He left the bed and closed his eyes to the sounds of words and voices in his head. Slipping his arms through his robe, he began to pace back and forth. Was she correct? Had he truly spoken with them? Did he allow the animals to kill George Gable? Did he want them to disfigure Harry Gable? Did he…command them to do it? He clutched his head and shook it. None of this could be real. Did he have the power to forget everything?
There was one other person who would know. He stopped pacing and let go of his head. “Bring Harper to me. Find Miss Darling, and bring her as well,” he added.
“But she is not here, my lord. Not in the castle.”
“Not in the castle?” he repeated, hoping he heard wrong. He glanced at the window. It was dark outside. “Where is she?”
“She is at my house, probably with Will.”
It was hard to discern the rushing stream of emotions coursing through him. Most were so unfamiliar and confusing, he almost didn’t recognize himself. What did he care that she was with Will Gable? She’d gone out alone to get him. That’s what he was angry about. He didn’t care if she could fight off five men. One knife, sword, or pistol in the wrong hands and she could be killed. Perhaps she missed Will Gable. The stabbing hook in his chest warned that he was allowing his heart to become involved.
“Send someone to your house to bring her back.”
“Yes, my lord.”
He watched Sarah leave, thankful that she didn’t ask him what to do if Miss Darling refused to return. Wasn’t Will Gable the first person his guest thought about when Gray couldn’t check the rest of the doors with her. Hadn’t Gable taken her in first, and didn’t Will have a mother and a sister who were kind-spirited?
He heard the faint squeak of a mouse. It was an unfamiliar sound since every trace of an animal in the castle had been removed or exterminated when Gray was ten to keep them away from him and possibly overthrowing his father.
But vaguely he remembered listening to a mouse named Kitty defend his mother. Kitty. Why was he remembering her only now? He almost smiled at the irony of the head mouse’s name.
With a heedless clench of his jaw and his fists, he whispered. “Can you hear me?”
He listened but all he heard was his heart booming in his ears. If he could speak to them, should he? How could he finally face them after running away from them for so long? The thought of it pained him and almost doubled him over. How long could he keep running away?Find Miss Darling and come tell me where she is and if she’s safe.
Should he laugh at his own madness?
“Grayson,” Harper said his name from the bedroom door, then hurried inside. “What are you doing out of bed?”
“Was I able to communicate with animals before?” he asked her. “I’ve asked you before and you said you knew nothing of what I could and could not do. I’m asking you again. Please speak only the truth to me.”
“What happened at the coffee house, Grayson?”
“I was knocked out by a patron and as I’m told, the birds outside the windows began crashing into them, even dying to break the glass.”
Harper nodded, narrowing her eyes on him. “The men who escaped the coffee house were attacked by birds that dove at them as if spit from the charcoal clouds to attack and kill them.”
“And then the birds stopped and left them alone,” Gray said through clenched teeth. He would never let the animals take the blame for him again. Not ever.
“Were you responsible?”
He nodded. Did she still not know him? “For the latter, yes.”
“Then you have already answered your question,” she told him with one of her serene smiles.
He remembered coming to in the coffee house. The first thing he’d been aware of was Miss Darling laying on him, shielding his body against…Toric? Hadn’t the black raven that killed George Gable been shot down? What was it doing inside the coffee house, circling him and the woman covering him? He had sensed urgency and rage outside and instinctually relayed soothing thoughts to calm and quiet them. He didn’t think about doing it. He did it because birds in that condition smash into things and he didn’t want any of them to get hurt. When he went outside and found the bodies of the other birds, guilt overwhelmed him again. The least he could do was bury them. She had helped.
“How is it possible?”
“Many things are possible. Especially for you, Grayson.”
“Like what, Harper. I can speak to animals. What else?”
“It’s unknown. Men of your bloodline are rare. We know of the gifts of time-travel, animal communication, dream communing, which we believe you possess since you were able to speak to your mother in dreams. Seeing the future or the meaning of things, and the ability to see and communicate with spirits are other gifts. And before you get angry at me for not telling you this sooner, there are laws and rules by which the Blagdens must abide. You chose to forget. Forcing you to remember would only cause your mind pain. You had to remember on your own.”
He felt numb and then something she said stood out in his mind. “I can travel through time?”
“It’s very likely, but—”