RDAU_10-11_Oct_Nov Issue

readersdigest.com.au 151 reader ’ s digest exploited, but to see it as a positive step. Perhaps once my apparition was on the page, he would disappear frommy life once and for all. Unaware of my thoughts, Bram glanced at Noel, then leaned over excitedly. ‘Then, yesterday, I found this book in the library.’ He drew it out of his satchel and placed it on the table. I picked it up. An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia by William Wilkinson. ‘The library here has some fascinating tomes, but it was this one, Florrie, this one,’ he struck the cover with his knuckles, ‘that clarified all the ideas whirling in my brain.’ ‘Oh?’ ‘It’s about the Carpathians, to be exact.’ He took it fromme and began to leaf through the pages. ‘It says here —’ he gave a dramatic pause, finger against a line on the page, ‘that “dracula” in the Wallachian language means “devil”.’ A shadow passed over me. Noel reached for my hand, clutching it tightly. ‘ Dracula ,’ enunciated Bram. ‘What a magnificent word. It conjures so much just in the saying, don’t you think? Drak-u-lah. ’ He lowered his voice, waggled his brows. ‘Wallachians bestowed it as a surname upon any person who rendered himself conspicuous by courage, cruel actions or cunning. It’s a name to be given to a hero. Or a villain …’ He snapped the book shut. I smelled dust and myth; death and blood-soaked tales. Bram sat back and looked at me triumphantly. PHOTO CREDIT TO COME