Amelia and the Secret of Stoney Manor (Amelia Series Book 1)

by Michelle Bradshaw

  “Okay, Grandmother,” I murmured feeling embarrassed now that the fear had left me. My nerves made the walk from the kitchen to the sitting room feel like an eternity. Though I had taken lessons for as long as I can remember, doubt in my ability plagued my mind as the fear of embarrassment danced hand in hand with it. What if I mess up? Will he laugh at me? I wondered as I slowly stumbled past the door and to the piano almost tripping as I sat down on the bench. Good. He didn’t see that, I hoped quietly to myself.

  “Are you okay?” asked Matthew as he went to sit down in the chair next to the window.

  Crap, I thought.

  Meooow, shrieked Luna as she bolted out from under him.

  “Oh, sorry, kitty,” hollered Matthew jumping up. Luna just swished her tale, as if to say “talk to the tail” and ran to greet Grandmother who had just walked in the door.

  Grandmother swooped up Luna, patted her on the head, and sat down in her usual place on the couch. She cleared her throat, as if to say, “Play something, Amelia.” I glanced to look at Matthew and he smiled. It was if every musical composition I had ever learned was erased from my brain entirely.

  What to play … what to play? I panicked. Chopin’s “Raindrops” was about the only song to come to mind. As I began to play, I hit the wrong key, but quickly recovered. I nervously glanced out of the corner of my eye at Matthew. He wasn’t laughing, just smiling that brilliant smile of his. Feeling more at ease I began to pelt out the notes, my confidence growing with every key. A smile began to spread across my face as I continued to play through the song. Before I knew it, I was done.

  “Bravo, Amelia,” cheered Grandmother clapping.

  “Nice job,” yelled Matthew, making me melt as he smiled.

  “Thank you both,” I said quickly, before I could blush, and doing an impromptu curtsy jokingly.

  “Well, now it is your turn, my lad,” urged Grandmother refocusing her attention on our guest.

  “Huh?” said Matthew, as if caught off guard from his own thoughts while looking at me.

  No, he couldn’t have been looking at me. How could that handsome prince want a girl like me? No, no. He just didn’t expect to have to entertain tonight, I deduced quickly. “Can you favor us with something tonight?” requested Grandmother, breaking me from my personal debate with myself.

  “Well,” confessed Matthew blushing, “my instrument of choice is actually the guitar, and it’s at home. The best I could do for you on the piano would be ‘Chopsticks’ or ‘Mary had a Little Lamb,’ ” he laughed. “Maybe Amelia could teach me sometime,” he smiled turning his attention to me.

  “I … um … sure,” I stammered. Grandmother looked as if she was going to say something, but seemed to hesitate. Dong, dong, dong rang the grandfather clock, announcing it was ten o’clock.

  “Well, I guess I should be going,” muttered Matthew almost frowning. “My uncle will be expecting me home soon.” I just nodded as a frown made its way onto my once smiling face.

  “Will we be seeing you bright and early again?” asked Grandmother breaking our concentration from each other.

  “Yes ma’am,” replied Matthew.

  “All right then. Good night, lad. It has been a pleasant evening. See you in the morning. Amelia, make sure you see Matthew to the door and lock up dear,” she said, trying to stifle a grin as she turned to head to her bedroom but not before setting Luna on the floor.

  “I will. Goodnight, Grandmother.”

  “Goodnight, Amelia. Night, lad,” she waved goodbye as she continued on to her room.

  “Well, this way,” I informed him, slowly turning to head back to the front entrance of the house with Luna following close at my heels.

  “It’s been a nice evening here,” said Matthew as we passed the dining room door. “The nicest I’ve had in a long time,” he admitted as sadness appeared in his eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, Uncle Bart is great. I just mean … um … before I moved here … um, well … anyway thanks.” I just smiled, not knowing what to say and wondering what brought him so much pain and wishing I could take that pain away.

  We walked in silence the rest of the way, both of us seeming to be lost in our world. For a second I almost imagined he tried to hold my hand, but he just put it in his pocket. “Well, here’s the door,” I said with what seemed like my one-millionth duh moment of the day.

  “Yep,” said Matthew as I opened the door and we both tried to go out it at the same time.

  “Oh, sorry,” I uttered as my body brushed against his body and we stopped to look at each other in the doorway.

  “That’s okay,” Matthew reassured me almost subconsciously still staring into my eyes. “Has anyone ever told you that you have the most beautiful eyes.” he divulged, almost unsure of himself. I blushed and tried to brush an imaginary strand of hair out of my face as I tried to divert my attention to something on the floor. He gently placed his hand on my face, bringing my attention back to his eyes. Having never been in this situation before, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do next, nor did I want to tell my handsome beau that either, so I just continued to gaze at his beauty. Slowly he closed his eyes and began to move his lips in the direction of mine. I closed my eyes and anxiously awaited what my precious books that I read would call my first kiss. I wonder if this is what Juliet felt like before Romeo kissed her, I reflected. Just as our lips were about to meet Luna shrieked, Meeeooowww!! as if to stop us, tearing us both from the wonderful moment we were about to have.

  Matthew looked embarrassed, “I guess I should be on my way. I’ll see you in the morning, Amelia,” he acknowledged backing out the doorway quickly. “Bye.” And with a wave, he darted off to his truck. I waited until his truck left the gate and I had shut and locked the door to yell at Luna.

  “Why did you have to do that? It was a nice moment. It was the first one I had ever had like that. I just know he was going to kiss me.”

  Meow, countered Luna simply.

  “I will never understand you!” I retorted stomping off to my bedroom. Out of the corner of my eye, I could have sworn she shook her head, as if to say “one day,” but I knew it was just my imagination playing tricks on me again.

  I hurried up the stairs and dressed quickly for bed. I had considered banning Luna from my room, but knew I couldn’t stay mad at her forever. After all, she had been my only friend for as long as I can remember. “Come on up here,” I told her as I patted the bed next to me. “Don’t make a habit of what you did tonight though or I might not be so forgiving next time,” I warned her as I pet her.

  Meow, remarked Luna as if in agreement. With daydreams filled with Matthew and the almost kiss, my eyes finally closed as I drifted off to sleep.

  CHAPTER SIX

  AMELIA

  LEMONADE & SUGAR COOKIES

  I drifted off to a place with pink, puffy clouds and a clear, crystal blue babbling brook with green grass as far as the eye can see. Birds seemed to happily chirp as butterflies danced around beautiful white daises. As I took in a breath to take it all in, there she was … my mother. She was sitting on what seemed to be a picnic blanket by the brook, wearing a pale blue sundress and a white sun hat. Her hair was black like mine, but her eyes were a beautiful golden-brown, almond color. She had the same sun-kissed, caramel skin tone as my grandmother. I watched as her hair blew in the breeze and then settled down again on her shoulders. I was afraid to move … afraid to speak … afraid if I did she would be gone again. I had wanted to know what she was like for as long as I can remember. I wish this wasn’t just a dream, I contemplated to myself. I wish I could hear her voice.

  Then she spoke catching me off guard. “Amelia,” She had a voice as heavenly as an angel.

  I gasped as my breath caught in my throat. “Mother?” I asked slowly trying to make the words come out.

  “Come, sit with me, Amelia. I made your favorites. Lemonade and sugar cookies,” she said as she motioned for me to come sit beside her on the blanket.

  How did
she know that? I wondered as I arched my brow, but silenced it knowing this was probably just my mind playing things out in my dream of how I wish they were in reality. Mother offered me a cookie, and I took it subconsciously and bit into it. Wow, this is actually really good, I noticed, savoring every morsel and then taking a sip of the lemonade which ran down my throat like honey, making me consume the entire glass. “That was good. Thank you,” I said in a quiet voice after I had finished.

  “I’m glad you enjoyed it,” responded my mother smiling. When she smiled, it was if light radiated from inside of her which doused any lingering fear I had and made me feel at peace.

  “This is a beautiful place,” I proclaimed more relaxed now and looking around.

  “Yes, I agree,” she acknowledged. “You did a nice job of creating it.” I gave her a puzzled look, but said nothing. After all, it was only a dream, right? “My time with you grows short,” she announced as a frown flashed across her face. I didn’t like seeing her sad, so I reached over to hold her hand and she jerked back. Reading the emotions that flickered over my face, she said, “Forgive me, but we must not do anything like that, my Amelia.” She could tell I didn’t understand and smiled, melting all anxiety from me once again. “How about we talk?” she suggested.

  “What would you like to talk about?” I asked once again at ease.

  “Anything you like,” she replied.

  “Well, there is this boy, Matthew, who Grandmother hired to work in the gardens.” She nodded almost as if she already knew. “Well, I think I like him. I don’t really know him or even know how to act around him, but I just have this good feeling about him.”

  “You make sure you listen to that, Amelia,” she advised. It felt nice to finely have that Mother/Daughter relationship that I so desired to have. Not that I didn’t love Grandmother. I truly did, but this was different.

  “He is really cute, Mom,” I exclaimed, sounding more like my age than the grown up I usually personified. She just smiled. I told her everything about the day, including our almost kiss and how I honestly had wanted it to happen.

  “In time,” was her only response to the kiss. She seemed lost in a haze after I told her about my animal trouble lately.

  “So, you say you have seen a black raven, a cat, and a snake?” she asked, almost as if trying to piece a puzzle together. After a few moments of silence, she looked at me, almost pleading, “You be careful, Amelia. Just like some people, not every creature is good. You just follow what your gut tells you, okay? Promise me, Amelia.”

  “I promise, Mom,” I assured her as fear tried to edge its way back in.

  “Enough talk of scary things. Tell me about how your grandmother and Luna are doing.” As she spoke that, dark clouds begin to take over the once beautiful sky and all became quiet. Mother looked worried, quickly got up, and said quietly, “Our time is over for now, Amelia. You must wake up.”

  “No. I want to stay here with you,” I asked her as tears begin to roll down my cheek. I wanted to run and jump into her arms and hug her and stay here with her forever.

  “Just know I love you dearly, my Amelia.”

  “I love you, Mom,” and just like that my beautiful little world went black and she was gone. A feeling of anguish came over me, and I suddenly felt cold. I couldn’t see anything but thought I could hear a man’s laugh. A laugh which scared me deep into the depths of my soul. I wanted to scream for Mother, but no sound would come out. Wake up, Amelia! I shouted in my head as I tried to blink my eyes awake, but still nothing but darkness. “Why can’t I wake up?” I shrieked as fear pulsed through me.

  “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” I screamed as I shot straight up in bed. I was in my room. The dream was over.

  “Are you all right, Amelia?” called Grandmother as she hurried into my room turning on the light and rushing to my side, Luna following close behind her.

  I just nodded, wiping the sweat that had formed on my brow. “Just had a bad dream is all. Well, it was good, really good actually, and then got bad.”

  Grandmother nodded. “You want to tell me about it?” she said comfortingly.

  “No, I’m okay,” I lied, not wanting to hurt her feelings and tell her I dreamed of my mother. I knew I didn’t have control of that, but the fact is I so badly wanted to go back to that little picnic by the brook. She hugged me, told Luna to stay with me because she was going back to bed, but to let her know if I needed her. We both exchanged our “Goodnights,” and she left the room.

  As soon as I was sure she was downstairs, tears began to stream down my face and escalated into a cry that I could neither stop nor contain. I had never really grieved over the fact that my mother was not in my life, so in seeing her it released those pent up emotions. I cried until I couldn’t cry anymore. As I lay almost weak and lifeless on my bed, a sense of peace seemed to come over me as Luna curled up next to me and began to purr as she always did when I had a bad dream. Sleep finally encompassed me, and I fell into a peaceful, dreamless sleep for the rest of the night.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  AMELIA

  THE GRIM TRUTH

  Morning came, as all mornings do, but this one felt different. Many different emotions plagued my mind and not even the sound of my beautiful songbirds could help me escape this mental feeling of anguish. I was ecstatic that Matthew was coming over again today, but memories of my mother danced around my head like a repeating song that you can’t forget. It was just a dream. Why did it bother me so? Duh, Amelia. It’s because you miss your mother … the one you never got to know. I knew the answer before I even thought it. I don’t know why it took practically sixteen years to come to that realization. Oh how I wished I could magically make myself go to sleep and return to the picnic by the brook and find her there. Better yet, to actually find that that world really existed and that my mother hadn’t died in the horrible car wreck with my father like my grandmother had always said. The weird thing is my grandmother had kept the article from the newspaper of my mother’s engagement to my father but kept no other proof that she ever existed or that she was dead.

  When I was little, I would question where Mommy and Daddy were on a daily basis? Why did the other kids at school have their parents and I didn’t? She would always say, “I will tell you when you are older, when you are old enough to understand.”

  One dreary, rainy day after school, Grandmother picked me up because I had once again been crying because some mean kids on the playground were saying awful things about my parents and where they were. They would make up stories of weird things that happened at the Manor. For example, how they thought my father was really a crazy, mad scientist and blew my mother up in an experiment gone wrong. They would end the story by saying the death of my mother drove my father insane and that he was locked away somewhere. Well, needless to say, I would go home crying at the mention of it all. I guess Grandmother grew weary of seeing me so distraught and that is why she finally pulled me out of school and explained the grim truth of my parents’ untimely death. Slowly, but surely. I came to terms and life went on as it always does and I got used to the way things are at the Manor. Never questioning, just doing.

  Many years later, when I was about thirteen, I brought up my parents again. My grandmother’s response was, “Amelia, we have talked about this.” I tried to question where they were going, when it happened, and that sort of thing and my grandmother seemed to be caught off guard, if you could call it that. She just didn’t seem to know how to answer my questions. She just shook her head and excused herself from the room. It made me feel as if she was hiding something. I just didn’t know what. After that day, I made my mind up to not think about them again. As awful as that might sound, it helped me to feel better. We’ve never discussed my parents since then, which is another reason why I didn’t want to tell her about my dream. Not only did I not want to hurt her by letting her know I wished I was with my mother, but I also didn’t want drudge up old memories and make her miss my mother as well. I was
determined only one of us in this house was allowed to feel this miserable, and it wasn’t going to be her.

  As I sat on my bed, pondering the life I would never have, my eye caught sight of the old antique clock that sat on my nightstand. “Oh, gosh. Matthew will be here in an hour,” I exclaimed to myself. Pushing all thoughts of my past memories, and my mother in general, into the deep caverns of my heart and locking them away, at least for now. I jumped up and ran to the bathroom to get ready.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  MATTHEW

  CHILDISH RAMBLINGS

  “Matthew,” called Uncle Bart, while helping two young boys and their mother pick out some flowers. “Hurry up, my boy. You must not be late getting to Ms. Matilda’s.”

  “I promise I won’t be late," I assured him.

  The boys, who had secretly been picking sunflower seeds off the sun flowers near the back of the store, stopped what they were doing and walked up to where I was standing. “You’re going to Weird Amelia’s house?” they questioned in utter amazement.

  “I wouldn’t call her weird,” I snapped back quickly as if in her defense. “She seems nice. To answer your question though, yes, I’m going there,” I replied in a disgusted, but relatively curious manner.

  “You are braver than I am,” said the youngest boy. “I would never be caught there.”

  Not being one for gossip, I went against my better judgment and continued the conversation. “Why do you say that?” I asked.

  “Don’t you know? Everyone knows her grandmother is a witch.”

  Gah, I thought, these little pre-teens and their wild imaginations. The boys, reading the look of disbelief on my face, said in unison, “Weird stuff happens there.”