From scraps of paper found in the room of Mrs. Philip (Temperance) Castmarble, St. Armengard’s Respite House:

” … the full moon’s light streaming in through the painted glass … Mrs. Dreadpenny at the harpsichord, so pale but sternly focused … fingers flying from the keys like birds fleeing their cages … am spellbound … she, only a beginner, but sounds so powerful and rich in their melancholy filled the parlor without effort and without end … it could not be!”

“The servants moved quickly from the back of the house to the upper rooms with purpose but not running … remember thinking they cannot be cleaning at this hour of night … horrible, heart-breaking music resonating in the chamber and I cried out “This will put me in the ground!” … silence … Her beautiful, haunting face before mine whispering “… not to bury, but to unearth, madam” … a creak at the back door …”

“Something dragging itself through the hunt door, breathing heavily and unevenly … my arms a mass of gooseflesh … no one uses that door save the master of the house home from gaming … the master of this house is long since vanished … the light relentless upon her as she sits motionless against the instrument with her eyes locked on the darkness in the hallway … what happens next … I am feverish … “Arabella”, says the voice … “Arabella, my love” … it is a rich baritone, scratched and gutteral with lack of use … a voice from a throat filled with dirt …”

Here ends Part the First.