Misleading The Marquis

35 - Gina Marie

Bane's hand was holding hers as if he would not be letting go... ever... and it was making her a little weak so far as her resolve to throw herself down another set of stairs went.

He'd just told her loved her... her... the wrong Georgina St. John who was trying to bring his home to the ground one fire at a time. And now he was pulling her alongside him, their fingers wound together, leaving her to sort out just what that meant all on her own as he attended to Malcolm's newest emergency.

They stood gathered with the others in her scorched bedchamber once again. The scent of burning rose petals reminded her too much of death, and she covered her nose and mouth with the dressing gown Blair had brought her at some point between being burned alive and rolling down the stairs. It did block the smell a bit, but as lamps were gathered, and spread throughout the room, Gina realized just what a close call she'd escaped here. Everything was blackened... almost as if a fueling agent had been spread first and then a match dropped into its waiting essence.

"Do you see it?" Mal was muttering to his brother, waving a lantern here and there as Bane grumbled back in a matching low growl. One of the curtain valance collapsed without warning, and Gina jumped, pulling herself closer to Bane. Without breaking tempo from his urgent conversation she felt him wrap an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer still, so that her head rested just under his chin. Pressing her ear to his chest, Gina began to listen in to what the brothers were discussing.

"It's the exact pattern in the seventh chapter, Mal," Bane was saying, though this did not seem to be any kind of good news.

"You said the relic was stolen?" Malcolm asked as he raised the lantern higher. Gina squinted, trying to find what it was everyone else seemed to be seeing.

"That first night..." Bane confirmed with a slow nod, "No one would know this ritual unless they had it directly from the relic," he added, his voice tight. Gina looked up at him, then back at whatever Mal was swinging the lantern to now.

"It is the resurrection spell," Blair murmured, her face looking white in the eery blue light of the solar lamps.

"Spell?" Gina repeated, her voice rasping as she finally spoke.

"Someone meant for this to be here - someone is trying to raise the dead -" Grandmother was explaining, her voice chilled with fear.

"Bane?" Gina asked in a squeak looking up her husband, more questions than she could count.

"There is an old relic," Bane told her in a quiet tone, though none of the others spoke either, "It's been passed down in the family for generations - from the old times, magik that no one even recognizes anymore, let alone is permissible for practice or teaching. We are only allowed to keep it because of the grandfathering writ," he added, she felt his hand move up and down her arm as if to comfort her.

"Someone made the unholy mark - " Blair added, her eyes round with fear as she traced the pattern through the air over the floor. Gina followed her finger... and then she saw it... the black roses were in a formation she'd never seen before and wouldn't have recognized as having any meaning... but they were definitely deliberate.

"And your bride was to be the blood sacrifice..." Malcolm finished for his sister, his glance meeting Bane's just over Gina's head.

"This doesn't make any sense," Bane answered, sounding distant as he continued to rub a hand against Gina's arm, "How would anyone know about this spell? Let alone how to find the relic?"

"And who were they trying to resurrect?' Joshua added thoughtfully.

"It must've been me," Gina answered with a shake of her head, Bane's hand stopped its motion against her arm as he turned to stare at her.

"You knew about the relic?" he asked, eyes narrowed. Gina bit her lip self consciously.

"Well... no," she admitted.

"And you've done this sort of thing before?" Mal asked, the twist in his mouth touting his disbelief. Gina shrugged silently, "Didn't think so," Mal said briskly, turning away from her once again, "Though I'm sure you'll throw yourself down the stairs in penance if we just give you time, eh?"

"The fire..." Bane muttered almost to himself before his gaze met Gina's, "Is it possible?" he asked quietly, and Gina scowled in confusion.

"I've only been trying to tell you Bane - it's very possible that I've gone made and I am the one who's done all of this -"

"You're being an idiot, again," Malcolm chimed in a mocking sing song voice. Gina scowled at him impatiently.

"It just so happens that I could've... poisoned myself... and set fire to my own bedroom... and left the roses for Bane to find... "

"And shot at us from inside the carriage, all on your own, hmm?" Harry pointed out with a wince at her flawed logic. Gina sighed in defeat, her theory cracking like plaster.

"And you've been carrying the relic with you ever since, without a single piece of luggage?" Blair pointed out next, her face in a much softer version of Harry's disbelief.

"Fine," Gina admitted, swiping a hand across her face in frustration, "Then who? Who would do this?" she repeated the question that they were all asking now.

"If I hadn't received word that your brother was dead..." Bane said it quietly, still looking off into a corner of the room as if lost in his thoughts as his family reigned in Gina's over active conscience before she bolted for another set of stairs.

"Brother?" Mal echoed.

"What brother?" Harry asked next.

"I - I - " Gina stammered as she looked at each of them... she might be willing to throw herself down a flight of stairs to protect them... but now that the moment had arrived, the very last thing she wanted to do was tell them about Ben's condition. They would see her differently, they would suspect her at last. They would know what she'd done to Bane.

But before she was called upon to answer - the lights went out.