Haunted

Page 34

She pulled away from him, searching his eyes. “I didn’t know you were coming. I thought you were really involved with the situation in London.”
“Indeed, but apparently, that will be solved at another time,” he told her. “I hadn’t heard from you, young woman!” he told her sternly.
She laughed. “Adam, you’re the one with the international cell phone. You could have called me, too.”
He shrugged. “I leave you alone, unless you call to say you need me. You know that.”
She arched a brow. “Did I send out a psychic distress signal of which I’m not aware?”
“Can you really do that?” Penny inquired with awe.
Darcy laughed, looking away from Adam to smile down at Penny, at the head of the table where she remained seated. “I’m not sure,” she told Penny.
“Anything is possible,” Adam assured Penny. “But no, I simply came because, as I said, the situation in London is complex, and must be handled at a later time. And since Matt’s granddad and I were such great old chums—not to mention the fact that I paid Matt, rather than having Matt pay me, a most unusual experience, I do assure you—I thought that I should add my moral support to Darcy’s work here.”
“Moral support?” Penny said. “But you’re the head of the company—”
“Ah, but not nearly as gifted as my very special associate here,” Adam assured her. Darcy realized that he was looking at her with concern. “I hear you nearly had a terrible fall yesterday.”
“Boards rotted, Adam. It was nothing. I didn’t really fall at all. And it probably wasn’t a life-threatening situation. I might have broken a few bones.”
“Any kind of a feeling about it?” he asked.
“Did a ghost in the library shove me through the boards?” she queried ruefully. “No. No feeling whatsoever. Boards rotted. Period.”
“Ah, but Penny has been telling me that you made an excellent discovery in the woods,” Adam said.
Darcy had to smile. “Adam, I’m not sure that everyone would refer to a skull as an excellent discovery.”
“A poor, brutalized girl can now be put to rest,” Adam said, and his tone was both sad and serious.
“We will have a church ceremony, no matter how Matt feels,” Penny said.
“Matt just doesn’t want a circus, I’m sure,” Darcy murmured.
Penny leapt to her feet suddenly. “I’m sorry, I’ve just been so charmed to see Adam that I’ve completely forgotten my manners. Let me get you some coffee, dear.”
“Penny, I’m a big girl. I know where to get the coffee,” Darcy assured her.
“But Penny is a Southern hostess of the most gracious variety,” Adam said, staring at her in a way that said, Let Penny get the coffee!
“It’s absolutely my pleasure,” Penny said.
“Then I will most graciously accept a cup of coffee, thank you, Penny,” Darcy said.
With a brilliant smile, Penny went off to get the coffee.
“So?” Adam said, frowning. “What’s going on here?”
“Adam, honestly, I don’t know. Usually, a wounded spirit is pleased to be eased. There’s just something…I don’t know.”
“Josh hasn’t been able to help you?”
It had taken a very long time, but Adam had accepted his son’s death. He had even known it was coming, though he had never really sat down with Darcy and explained how, if Josh had talked to him, or if he had intuited the short life span of such a special young man. She thought for many years, though he had kept his own counsel on his feelings as well, that Adam felt a certain pain that she could communicate with his deceased son, while he could not. But whatever his personal pain, kindness had always been one of Adam Harrison’s greatest virtues. His son had inherited the trait. For the good or the bad of it, she was sure it was why she and Josh had been best friends, and why he was still so often with her, even now.
She shook her head slowly. “It’s very strange. It’s almost as if he can’t enter this house. As if there’s a block…he helped me find Amy’s skull, to see what happened in the woods, picture her murder. But I’ve tried to reach him while I’m in here. I can’t.”
“Very strange,” Adam said.
Darcy shrugged, opened her mouth to agree, then shut it again. Penny was returning with a mug full of coffee for her.
“Did you see Matt?” Darcy asked Adam, after thanking Penny.
“Briefly. He was hurrying off to work when I arrived,” Adam said.
“He’s a very good sheriff,” Penny said proudly.
“Um. And you might have mentioned that fact to me when sending me out here,” Darcy said.
“Come now. I’m sure you two have managed to get along okay,” Adam said.
Darcy was glad that he wasn’t blessed with a true second sight, but she began to suspect he did have a special intuition, he seemed so amused as he spoke.
She merely smiled. “I imagine he was quite glad to see you. I told you that he found me a poor substitute when I first arrived.”
“He was glad to see me,” Adam said. “Naturally—his granddad and I went way back.” Adam hesitated, studying her. “He’s also anxious about you being here now.”
“Oh?” Darcy said carefully.
“He’s afraid you’re going to get hurt.”
She couldn’t help the flare of anger that went through her. She’d bared her soul to the man the night before, and he’d claimed—at least, she thought that he’d claimed—to have something of an open mind. But now day had come and Adam had arrived, and he wanted her out. “I fell through some old floorboards, and didn’t get hurt. And he doesn’t believe in ghosts, so…?”
Adam arched a brow to her just a hair, his eyes indicating the fact that Penny was listening. They never discussed their progress—or lack thereof—in front of others.
“Matt is convinced that someone very much alive is pulling pranks,” Penny said.
“Attempting to kill or injure someone is a prank?” Adam said.
Penny waved a hand in the air. “Floorboards do rot. Matt is just being Matt. Suspicious. Because he thinks someone has been causing the disturbances at the house—again, someone alive, and not a ghost.”
Darcy was silent, uneasy for a moment. Because that one night, she had been convinced that there had been someone, alive and well, playing tricks as well.
“Having you attempted using sensors, photography, or tape as yet?” Adam asked Darcy.
“No. You know me. I like to spend time without equipment first.”
“Right. But don’t you think it’s time to bring it in?”
She lowered her head slowly in acknowledgment, thinking that it was actually a damned good thing that she hadn’t set up sound or videotape in her room as yet.
“I’ll call Jenner later—I understand his company is our contact,” Adam said. “For the moment…Penny, would you excuse us? I’d like Darcy to show me the woods.”
“Of course!” Penny said. “You two go right on and get to work.”
“Thanks, Penny,” Darcy murmured, and started out of the dining room, and then the house, Adam Harrison behind her.
They’d passed the stables and walked some distance from the house before Adam spoke again. “Just what do you think is happening in the house?”
She glanced at him, smiling ruefully. “It’s crawling with ghosts. There is a Civil War soldier in the place, definitely. A benign fellow, I believe. And perhaps he’s happy, watching over the place. Most of the time, the feeling is quite good.”
“Except for in the Lee Room.”
Darcy shrugged. “Mostly. I had a pretty strange chill in the living room once.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what’s going on, Adam. It doesn’t make any sense. I’ve done a lot of reading. There was a young woman who was having an affair with the heir to the house many years ago. She was supposedly an illegitimate relation from a few generations back. The young heir then married a proper young woman and his mistress, Arabella, disappeared. At least from the record books. She’s not among Penny’s known ‘haunts,’ or those she tells about on her legends tours. But I’ve tried connecting with her…and I get no response. It seems as well that Josh isn’t able to connect in the house, or in the Lee Room. As I said, it’s very strange. Arabella should want to communicate, to let me find her, wherever she is, and perhaps bring to light the fact that she was murdered—if, indeed, she was.”
Adam was quiet as they moved down the path. “Do you feel as if you’re in any danger?”
She stopped, staring at him. “Adam, you know that, sometimes, I experience the fear of what went on years before. And I’ve woken here shaken and frightened—but it’s nothing I haven’t lived with before, and I’m really determined now that I am on to something, that I can get to the bottom of this. I do believe that someone was murdered in that room. I’ve gotten snatches of what happened in my dreams. Several times. You understand how that works with me. I’m asleep, and somewhere in my mind, I know that I’m dreaming. But I also become that other person in a way, and see and experience the situation from their point of view—as it happened. I’ve slipped in to the past life of a woman in the room—and into the life of the man who came after her.”
“Can you see their faces?”
She shook her head. “Not yet. I’ve seen him reach the house. I’ve seen her as she’s been here, alone first, then realizing that he’s come.” She shrugged and let out a long sigh. “Last night, I saw him race up the stairs after her, and he was furious. He’s carrying a stretch or broken rein—long enough to wrap around her neck, which is what I believe he eventually does. But the dream eluded me before I could see the end of it. Or even make out faces.”