Falling From Grace

By Claire Simons

In 2011 Claire is leaving London and a broken relationship as she makes a new life for herself at Ellis Chase, a grand estate that was once the Ellingham Lunatic Asylum. From the moment she moves to her new home, strange things begin happening, and she is haunted by terrifying dreams and visions. Claire fears she is losing her sanity.

In 1887 Evie was trapped in an unhappy marriage awaiting the birth of her first child. She had a chance at happiness, but her brutal husband would stop at nothing to block it--even if that meant committing her to Ellingham Lunatic Asylum for a crime she did not commit.

The fates of the two women become increasingly entwined. Evie cannot rest until she has saved Claire and proven her own innocence. Can Evie save her, or is Claire doomed to repeat Evie's tragic history?

• Language: English
• Publisher: L.A. Tripp
• Release date: Mar 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476316840

Book preview

Falling From Grace

By Claire Simons

Published by Page Turners Publishing, LLC

All rights reserved. Any part of this book used without permission is subject to legal action. All characters and places within this book are fiction and any similarity is purely coincidental.

Smashwords Edition

Prologue

Alone in the suffocating darkness, all Evie could hear was the pounding of her heart and the sound of her laboured breathing. She knew with cold certainty that she would never leave this place alive.

The shackles chaffed her delicate wrists and ankles. The leg chain was fixed to the filthy wooden crib on which she sat. The straw beneath her bare feet was soaked in urine and feces. Added to the dampness leaching down the windowless walls, the smell was unbearable. She retched repeatedly until her throat dry and sore. There was nothing left inside of her she thought bitterly, not even vomit.

The two burly warders had chained Evie in the tiny cell even though the fight had now long since left her. What was left to fight for? She knew that she would never be allowed to see the light of day again, and with Grace gone, so had her reason for living. Tom had even abandoned her despite his ardent claim that he would die for her. So much was the depth of his love.

Evie wishes that she could simply command her treacherous heart to stop beating. Her lungs to stop breathing in the fetid air. She prayed that death would come on swift wings. When it did, she would welcome it with grateful arms and the desperate hope that in death she would once again find Grace.

Chapter One

Don't lie to me! Mike yelled as he smashed the bunch of flowers against the wall. Red petals showered to the floor where they lay, resembling small pools of blood; vivid against the creamy tiles.

Claire coloured angrily. You’ve got it all wrong!

You’re a lying bitch! He lunged forward and backhanded her across the face. She stumbled, nearly falling under the force of the blow. He stood looking at her his chest heaving and his breath coming in short gasps. His eyes were dark and cold. She stared in shock at the stranger in front of her. She felt a hot wetness on her lips and realized she was bleeding where his heavy signet ring had torn into the soft flesh of her cheek.

What have you done? She despised the quiver in her voice. Her eyes were bright with tears of pain and anger. She stood up straight, looked him in the eye and refused to let him see how much he was intimidating her.

At the sight of her blood, Mike’s shoulders slumped and his breathing began to even out. He reached a tentative hand out towards her in a conciliatory gesture. Claire backed away, her hand cradling her injured face.

Don’t touch me! Warily she circled Mike and moved to the door. Keeping her eyes on him, she scrabbled for the handle and backed out of the kitchen. Mike made no move to pursue her.

On shaking legs, she scrambled up the stairs to their bedroom. Feeling sick she closed the door behind her and wedged a chair firmly beneath the handle. She sat down heavily on the bed, her legs unable to hold her any longer. She stared at her reflection in the dressing table mirror. Her cheek was livid red, and her hair was disheveled.

She couldn’t comprehend what had just happened between Mike and her. Her thoughts were in utter turmoil as she absently wiped at her cheek with a tissue and saw the shock of red against white, just like the rose petals on the kitchen floor.

An hour ago she would have laughed at anyone who told her that Mike was capable of violence towards anyone, let alone her. It was true that he was a highly jealous and controlling man, but he had never raised a hand to her before. She recalled the expression he had worn as he hit her, as if he hated her. She gripped the sheets, forcing the thought away and tried to shepherd her thoughts into a plan of action. She marveled at how feelings could change. From thinking she couldn’t live without him, she now realized with sudden clarity, she couldn’t live with him any longer, especially not after this evening.

His rages were becoming more frequent and increasingly intense. Not one week now passed by without him losing his temper and it was taking less and less to arouse it each time. This new violence was something she could not make excuses for, or forgive. I can never trust him again, she thought. Her chest felt tight, her throat constricted and hot, but she did not cry. Her gaze turned from the mirror, coming to rest on the picture by the bed of Mike and her in happier times. A lump rose in her throat, choking her as she thought of what had come to pass. They had been so happy in the beginning. What had happened?

Claire and Mike had first met in Birmingham; just over a year ago, at a nineteenth century literary conference. He was an English teacher at a county high school, and she was a freelance writer. They experienced an instant attraction that day. They enjoyed fierce debate; sparking off one another, and she kept feeling his slate grey eyes on her appraisingly.

He had a ready wit and a dry, satirical sense of humour that she was immediately attracted to. They exchanged telephone numbers and were soon seeing each other on a regular basis. Although he was based in London and Claire lived in Cambridge, the distance didn’t hamper their romance.

Mike seemed to love taking her out, and they spent many happy hours visiting museums, going out for dinner and attending the theater; which was a mutual passion. When; after just four months, Mike told her that he loved her and asked her to move in with him, she readily agreed.

She had been a lonely person since her earliest memory. Her parents were distant figures, and she had grown up first at boarding school and then at university.

Her father was employed as a consultant in the Oil industry a job that took him and his wife all over the world. She saw them only at Christmas, and sometimes during the summer, but they were always busy with various engagements and had little time for her. She often wondered why they had conceived her, and if she had been an accident, a regrettable mistake.

She did not bond with her fellow pupils very well, and had always felt like an outsider. She felt ashamed that her parents seemed to care so little for her, and didn’t seem to want her with them. She often wondered what was wrong with her, and the constant agonizing kept her aloof from others.

Sports days and parents evenings were occasions to be dreaded. She would stand alone, a stilted little figure with shoulders hunched defensively; cultivating an aura of self sufficiency and an unconcern she didn’t feel.

Literature was her passion, and she passed much of her time engrossed in various works fearlessly engaging with countless people, places and situations in her imagination.

She graduated from university with a first class honours degree but her parents did not attend her graduation, and their relationship had become even more distant. That distance seemed to grow even further when her mother and father settled down permanently in America.

As she went through her Master’s program in English and Literary studies, she began to grow in confidence and make friends, but because she worked long hours; consumed by her studies, she had little time for a social life.

When she moved in with Mike her life changed forever. Kate; her closest friend, expressed concern at the suddenness of her decision, but she ignored her. Claire was in the hot haze of heat and preoccupation that comes with a new and passionate relationship. Kate and Mike had never really hit it off, which saddened her. They were the two people she loved most in the world, and she wanted them to get along, but the few times they got together, the conversation was forced and stilted. Despondent, she soon gave up trying.

When she pressed Kate on her feelings towards Mike, she was unusually reticent. Their friendship became strained and distant and weeks could pass when they didn’t contact each other. Claire missed her of course, but was engrossed with the new feeling of being in love and of being someone’s ‘other half’. It was only after the first few months that she had an inkling that all was not well, and she began to wonder if she really knew Mike at all.

From delighting in taking her out, the evenings with Mike gradually transformed from dinner and the cinema to meals in front of the TV with a DVD at home. At first she didn’t mind this, she was eager to spend time alone with him. He started to become very possessive and hated her talking to other men. She began to see less and less of her few friends as he told her he wanted to spend all of the spare time together as a couple that they could.

She began to feel anxious when telling him about her day. He would question her increasingly about where she had been and who she was with. She began to see a different side to Mike who; underneath the façade, was acutely insecure and alarmingly controlling.

She started to