This is a major revelation that connects to The House on Blackstone Moor. It reveals Dr. Bannion's motivation in that first book of The Blackstone Vampires Series with regard to Rose Baines. Dr. Bannion treated Rose after she discovered her family's murders. But he always had plans for her.
From Eco's journal:
"It all changed when Bannion came to tell me he was going to have a marvelous girl installed in his home.
“You
might remember her, Eco. She’s the one I told you about, the one who had the
father that let me watch him…Rose Baines is her name. And well, I’ve come to
tell you the father has killed his family and himself!”
Rose, I
must tell you this now. I am sorry, but I want you to know the truth. There I
was, listening to Bannion telling me he was there when you discovered the
carnage! In between the telling of this horrendous tale, he kept saying how he
wished me to see you.
Now, for
the first time, my existence was divided in half and would be forever: the time
before I laid eyes upon you and that time which would follow.
I recall
that day more clearly than any other. I hadn’t wished to go with Bannion. Yet,
demon that I am, I was tempted by his manner for it seemed to me there was the
promise of untold sin. His eyes glowed and his face looked feverish. I had
never seen him so excited.
His words
struck me. “Come we shall see her…I want you to see her.”
I was
curious. Well, he had gone on about you for years. And now, he had contrived to
have you installed somewhere. He said it would be in his house. I doubted that,
for by this time he had a home he shared with one Alice Mott…yes, his woman,
Alice. A former patient he had previously put in his residence.
He spoke
of how he had orchestrated this whole thing, setting your father up to do his
bidding. The more he went on, the more I wondered how he had gained such
influence with your father. How had he done that?
I’ve told
you that he knew your father from years ago. Apparently, their peculiar
friendship blossomed. His campaign to get you began in earnest from the first.
And if you think about it, it wasn’t difficult as your father must have looked
up to him.
Further,
Bannion continued to bolster your father’s confidence. He contrived with him so
that your father came to depend on him more and more and then, truthfully,
there were the drugs.
Oh yes,
drugs came into it. Opium was a great favorite of Bannion’s. It was his choice
at Marsh. Yes, Rose, I am sad to remind you of this but I must.
Now we
get to the crux of it all. How he manipulated your father to do what he did.
Bannion
saw him the night before the murders. And so followed the first stage of his
terrible plan: his telling your father you had been meeting him secretly,
behind your father’s back!
“I’ve had
her,” he said. “She gave herself freely to me. She says she wants no other,
least of all her doddery, spital-faced father!”
Your
father believed him and it wasn’t long before he got in a rage, mad as he was.
Of
course, the question arises, how could he have been certain you wouldn’t come
in and be murdered as well? That was easy, as he was with your father the
entire time!
He was
there. He witnessed the murders and then beguiled your father into committing
suicide!
When it
was over, he came for me. We arrived back at your house at the same time as the
hospital wagon.
It was
then that I first saw you. A girl,
so pale and frightened looking. You could hardly stand. A man and woman half
carried you down the steps.
A crowd
had formed nearby and there was a gasp as you were unable to walk. They helped
you into the carriage. I watched it pull away. He then told me how he was going
to see you at the hospital.
“She’ll
be mine before you know it…”
eFestival of Words 2014: Best Villain, Eco/ Best Horror, The House on Blackstone Moor
"92 Horror authors you need to read right now"
Carole Gill -- the Blackstone Vampires series
~Charlotte Books - EXAMINER
.
"In the attempt to find the just measure of horror and terror, I came upon the writing of Carole Gill whose work revealed a whole new dimension to me. The figure of the gothic child was there. Stoker's horror was there. Along with the romance! At the heart of her writing one stumbles upon a genuine search for that darkness we lost with the loss of Stoker."
DR. MARGARITA GEORGIEVA ~ Gothic Readings in The Dark
BOOK 3, ON OFFER 99 CENTS
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