Stalking Shadows
Stalking Shadows
The hall swallowed me up. A wide staircase framed with dark mahogany wood stretched up toward the second-level gallery. Faded images of angels with dusty blue robes and feathery wings stared down at me from the ceiling with huge, bulging eyes. The artist hadn't been very good. The angels didn't make me feel welcome or safe – instead my skin tingled with the urge to turn around. I wouldn't though. Not when I was this close to a cure for Ama.
A large clock stood sentry by the door, its great brass ticker swinging back and forth with a heavy sound. Weak light trailed in from the two windows and illuminated specks of dust drifting up from the carpet with each step the servant woman took. She wrapped her hand around a small candelabra and pulled it from an alcove.
“Come with me.”
Lucien had grabbed back onto my hand. How strange that he should cling to a stranger in his own home. Pity welled in my chest, but I took a breath and forced it down. There was no room for weakness here.
“Are you taking me to Master Sebastian?”
The woman gave me a sad smile, exposing a gap where one of her front teeth should have been. The rest of her teeth were graying in bright red gums.
“Don't play games with him, Miss. He's known enough heartache already.”
I swallowed on a dry throat. That was exactly what I planned to do with him – play a game. And I was making up the rules as I went, which didn't sit well with me. I preferred well-laid plans and hedging my bets. But I didn't have time for any of that now. I had to figure out what happened to Ama in this house before the hunters came for her. Before she killed another child.
Something deep and dark had happened within these walls, some kind of magic I barely wanted to imagine. What had Ama seen, what had she felt on that night? Had she trusted her mistress and been betrayed? Had she seen it coming? Anger and fear warred in my heart. My sister had been hurt here. Would I be hurt in this house too?
“I only want to help,” I said, to hear the sound of my voice in the too-quiet hall.
“That's true of very few people in this world,” the old woman said, leading me on anyway.
With Papa never home and the burden of trying to make their worn and dilapidated house into a comfortable home falling squarely on her shoulders, Marie works hard to earn a few precious coins by mixing perfumes to sell at the market. But the scents that she creates also serve a darker purpose. Marie also uses them to mark her sister's victims, a task she has had to take on ever since her father sold Ama to the Lord and Lady LaClaire to be their servant until his debt to them was paid. When Ama returned, she was different: cursed by Lady LaClaire. Now, each month, she turns into a wild beast who craves flesh. And it falls to Marie to determine who Ama's victim will be each time she transforms. Marie struggles to keep her sister under control and to keep from arousing the suspicions of the neighbours in their small French village.
But when the baker's young son is killed, fear and anger prompt the villagers to demand that something be done about the wild beast in the forest that rumours have circulated about for years. With the villagers' rage and determination to destroy the beast fuelling her own anxiety, Marie knows that she has to do something to help Ama once and for all. She knows that she absolutely must find a way to break the curse. Because, even though Ama insists that she was not the one responsible for the boy's death, Marie isn't sure. She can sense that Ama is growing wilder and more difficult to control. Soon she may not be able to keep their secret nor to keep Ama safe. Or to keep the villagers safe from her.
So Marie heads to the mansion on the hill in search of a cure for the curse. Although both the Lord and Lady LaClaire are dead, Marie is sure that the key to releasing the curse is to be found in the Lady's spellbook which she feels certain is still somewhere in the manor. By her offering to find a cure for young Master Lucien's consumption, Marie convinces Lord Sebastian LaClaire to take her in. As she witnesses the love between these two brothers and Lord Sebastian's anguish over his brother's illness, she struggles to find the answers she seeks to help her sister. Although guilt-ridden at the various ways that she must deceive Lord Sebastian, the two, nevertheless, begin to forge an unlikely bond. Ultimately, she discovers that she has not been the only one keeping secrets, and this multitude of secrets threatens to overwhelm them all.
With lush prose, this highly atmospheric nod to “Beauty and the Beast” is thoughtful and nuanced and thoroughly engaging. The main characters are sympathetic and authentically flawed. Both Marie and Sebastian are deeply devoted to their siblings and determined to help them no matter what the cost. This singularity of purpose creates a commonality between the two despite their differences, one that is realistic and heartwarming. Furthermore, Sebastian's grief for the mother he has lost, his anguish in the face of his brother's suffering and his sense of helplessness as he tries to protect the people of his village from the sinister threat that has been plaguing them renders him as a relatable character with a strong will, a kind heart and good intentions. Marie's desperation to protect Ama and to cure her is vividly depicted and gives readers the sense that she is, and always has been, prepared to sacrifice her own happiness for her sister. But her quest brings to light many unexpected revelations: about her own family, about Lady LaClaire and about the very nature of the “curse” that she has been seeking so hard to undo. Stalking Shadows is an intriguing reflection on the ties that bind, on familial love and on embracing the truth in oneself and in others.
Lisa is Co-Manager of Woozles Children’s Bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia.