All in Bad Time
The Wisdom Court Series
Book Three
by
Yvonne Montgomery
Published by ePublishing Works!
www.epublishingworks.com
ISBN: 978-1-61417-905-4
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Copyright © 2016 by Yvonne Montgomery All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
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Author photo courtesy of Mark Stevens
Table of Contents
Cover
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Time Out of Time
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Time Out of Time
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Time Out of Time
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Time Out of Time
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Time Out of Time
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Time Out of Time
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Time Out of Time
Chapter 25
Time Out of Time
Chapter 26
Epilogue
Author's Note
Meet the Author
Dedication
For DB and the crew at Bear Mountain
Acknowledgements
It takes a group of sympathetic, tolerant people to birth a novel. My deep appreciation to Misty Ewegen Morehead for her enthusiasm and ideas over the course of this book, and for the times she pulled me back from the edge. My heartfelt thanks go to Shane M. Ewegen for his careful copy-editing and cogent comments.
Special thanks go to Doug Hawk and Carol Caverly for their clear-eyed readings and valuable corrections and suggestions.
Readers Betsy Cox and Judi Ruder provided helpful feedback at such useful times in the process. Margot Rounds Holmes has been a valued sounding board, always enthusiastic about Wisdom Court.
Thanks and love to my husband, Bob Ewegen, always in my corner.
To friends, family, and acquaintances who've told me of their own ghostly experiences, I thank you.
Many thanks to Karen Ryan, who works magic to free ideas.
I appreciate the ongoing support of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and Colorado Authors League.
My thanks to Nina Paules and Brian Paules, as well as the entire staff of ePublishing Works! for their wonderful work in bringing my books to fruition.
Time Out of Time
The small room looked as sterile as a laboratory. In the bluish light of the computer screen the shelved books and figures placed among them were no more than featureless lumps. Frames on the walls reflected light from the screen.
A slight woman sat at the desk, her hands moving over the computer keyboard before her. Strands of her blonde hair caught moonlight shining through the gap between the curtains and were rendered white. She was asleep.
Evie, wake up.
Her eyelids trembled, then stilled as her breath sighed out through pale lips. Her head tilted toward one shoulder in an oddly coy gesture as her fingers produced the clicking music of the keyboard.
The air thickened, grew heavy and cold. A scratching sound came from the bookshelves against the wall. Her hands paused above the keys but still she slept.
Evie, wake up.
Eve Stewart opened her eyes. Light flashed from the monitor and she jerked to attention, her breath caught in her throat. She gaped at her hands as they kept typing at a steady pace. Jerking them into her lap, her gaze veered toward the window and then to the door. The hush pressed against her ears as she turned back to the computer. She started to push the chair away from the desk but the jab of pain in her left knee forced a groan and she waited for the sharp ache to subside. She hunched her shoulders against the cold.
"There's no one here." Eve heard the fear in her voice and shuddered. There was never anyone here.
Since the accident she'd been plagued by strange doubts and hazy memories she couldn't bring into focus. But the last three nights had been the worst. Now she was typing in her sleep. She forced herself to look at the screen.
There were words grouped together and sentences separated by periods, but she couldn't recognize a single word. She used the mouse to scroll through the pages, one... two... three...
She saw English and leaned toward the screen.
...and the followers shall be women. Their paths have been separate, but when they are brought together, the reckoning shall...
That was all she could read. She scrolled to the end of the section, unable to decipher anything else.
Eve leaned back in her chair. What was the origin of the passage? How had she come to be typing it? Had someone been sending messages to her? Messages in an unknown language, sent to her while she slept and typed. Not one of her saner theories. She winced at the very idea of a mental problem. She was going through a rough patch, but her mind was sound.
And she was arguing with herself in another internal dialogue. All writers talk to themselves, she told herself for the hundredth time. Not all of them wake up one day uncertain of whose voice is answering, she returned.
Eve slid off the chair, hand reaching for the back of it to brace herself. She stood long enough to allow her knee to adjust to the pain and turned slowly away from the desk. She caught movement from the corner of her eye and inhaled sharply.
"Mrroauw?"
Eve's breath swooshed out in relief. "Danica!" She bent clumsily toward the cat, holding out her hand to her. The animal ignored her, pacing lion-like from beneath the window, leaping onto the desk. The cold light of the moon silvered bits of white fur in her dark coat. She settled beside the keyboard and stared beyond Eve's shoulder, eyes intent.
Eve limped to the futon and sat down hard, grimacing at the throb in her leg. She waited for the pain to ease and tried to work out a plan. As she rubbed her knee she wondered if going to Wisdom Court now would be the best thing. They weren't expecting her for another few weeks, but she hadn't actually set an arrival date. She recalled the kind words of the Director, Rose Hertzberg: Your collection of delightful blog posts captured the fancy of the Wisdom Court Board, and we're all looking forward to your presence here. Several of your short stories have stayed in my
mind, especially the one about the seven roses, and I'll enjoy talking to you about them.
"I could start packing my books tomorrow," she murmured, leaning into the back of the futon. Her eyes closed as she considered her options. She was so tired of being alone.
As if she'd heard the thought the cat meowed.
"I know." Eve murmured, "We're a team." She told herself to go back to bed, but the pain was easing and the futon was comfortable. She lifted both legs onto the seat and settled her head onto the fat pillow beside her. Her breathing deepened and her mind slowed.
Evie, wake up.
She sighed and shifted her position. Danica jumped off the desk and leapt up beside her, pressing against her belly. Eve snuggled against the cat.
He's coming for you.
Chapter 1
The morning sun shone on the thrusting pink slabs of sandstone know as the Flatirons. They guarded over the three houses of Wisdom Court nestled at the base of the Foothills. In the valley below, Boulder was awakening to the blue skies and autumn leaves of a breezy October day.
The sun elongated Brenna Payne's thin body into a stick figure crossing the brick courtyard from the west associate house. She missed the sound of the fountain at the center of the square. It had been damaged the day before and was unusable as a result. She paused to examine the water still oozing from the broken brick wall. She was responsible for that destruction.
Brenna shivered in the air currents tossing her short dark hair about her head. She'd lived through a nightmare yesterday, setting free her grandmother's spirit. Of course, she and Dink had almost been killed when the pickup smashed into the fountain wall. No one had been in the driver's seat. Such things were happening more often now at Wisdom Court. At least they'd found a metal box in the ruins, in it another journal belonging to Caldicott Wyntham, the founder of Wisdom Court. They would read it today.
Brenna realized she was standing near that fountain wall. A breeze flung her hair across her face again and she pushed it out of her eyes. Her hand was shaking, and seeing that, she jammed both hands into the pockets of her jean jacket. She had to swallow back her fear.
"Dammit," she whispered. Now she didn't have Dink to watch her back. She'd gone with him to the Denver airport early this morning after he'd received a call from the manager of the restaurant where he worked.
"I wouldn't go back so fast if he hadn't gone out of his way to get me here in the first place." Dink's arms tightened around her as she'd pushed his curly brown hair to the side of his forehead. "Everybody else flaked out on him and with the rubble from the kitchen fire, he's up the creek. None of us will have jobs if he can't get some help. I can't say no."
Brenna's deep brown eyes softened at the memory of his lingering kiss before he ran to catch the plane to L.A. "I'll come back as soon as I can. I love you. Don't forget that." One more bone-crushing hug, the scent of his balsam aftershave against her cheek, and then he was gone.
Now she was alone again. She thought of the other Wisdom Court associates. Okay, she wasn't alone. They were in this strange, haunted place together, all of them determined to find the source of the supernatural disturbances happening nearly every day. If they were unsuccessful, Wisdom Court might very well come to an end.
"We've come this far," she whispered. "We have to go the distance." Problem was, she couldn't begin to imagine where that distance would lead them. It was hard enough to deal with the messiness of everyday life, let alone the lingering effects of old sins and long-ago crimes. Until they knew the details behind Caldicott Wyntham's tragic love story and what had happened to the stolen money she'd taken with her from England, they were vulnerable to Heaven knows what.
"To Hell knows what," whispered Brenna. "I don't think Heaven has anything to do with it."
* * *
"Rose... Rose?" Aura Lee leaned around the lintel of the backstairs and cocked an ear for any sounds. Silence was her reward.
"By the Goddess, where has she gone now?" Aura Lee turned back to the kitchen just in time to catch an impression of movement near the ceiling rack where shining copper pots hung. On a gasp she patted the purple dragon across the front of her magenta sari. Slowly stepping backward, she eased around the counter and made her way to the door leading to the dining room.
"What are you doing?" whispered a voice from behind her.
Aura Lee shrieked and fell against the wall.
"Holy hell." Brenna grabbed the older woman's shoulder and helped her to the nearest chair.
Aura Lee slumped onto the flowered cushion. "You scared me to death!"
Brenna dropped heavily onto the adjacent chair. "You scared me first, backing in here like you'd just set a bomb or something. I was afraid to say anything out loud."
"I saw something in the kitchen." Aura Lee took a wad of tissue from one roomy pocket and dabbed at the sweat dotting her forehead. A hank of her brassy hair hung over one ear, and her ankh earrings were trembling. "I thought getting out of the room was better than trying to find out what it was. Wait a minute," she added hurriedly as Brenna got to her feet and took a step toward the door. "Let's wait until the others show up. Then we can check it out."
Brenna frowned at her. "By then whatever it is will be gone. We've got to be brave, Aura Lee. You're the housekeeper, for heaven's sake. If you don't have backbone, nobody does."
"Humph." Aura Lee levered herself off the chair and adjusted her flowing sari. "I'll show you backbone."
Together they stood in the doorway and peered around the big kitchen. "What did you see?" Brenna whispered.
"Movement near the ceiling, on the pan rack." Aura Lee brushed by her, squinting up at the wooden fretwork holding copper pans. "It was small, I think. Might've even been a mouse."
She didn't see Brenna's cynical smile. "Oh, sure. You know how many of our little disturbances have been as ordinary as a mouse."
A bit of light sparked momentarily and then winked out. They both smelled the now-familiar odor of ozone.
Noreen gasped. "Did you see that?"
"Yeah." Brenna took a couple of steps closer to the rack. "What do you think it could've been? Is there an electrical outlet up there?"
Aura Lee shrugged, but her hand plucked nervously at her neckline. "Maybe a poltergeist?"
"Really? Just what we need," Brenna muttered.
"What do we need?" Rose asked from the other door. When they both wheeled toward her, her shoulders drooped. Her silver curls had suffered from the breeze, and the black tee shirt she wore over gray yoga pants drained the color from her cheeks. "Something else is going on, isn't it?" She carried in the cloth bag hanging from her other hand and set it onto the table. "Just another normal day at Wisdom Court."
Brenna and Aura Lee exchanged a cautious glance. Rose reached into the bag and pulled out a jug of brandy and set it on the counter. At the silence from the other two, her lips tightened. "If things go on as they have been, I'll be ordering this by the barrel pretty soon."
"Now, Rose," Aura Lee began, "we can't let this get to us." Rose turned to face them. The intrinsic serenity that made her such an effective director had been shaken over the last months, and the combination of anger and edginess replacing it had Brenna feeling sad at the loss. "How did you sleep last night?" Rose asked her abruptly.
Brenna lifted her shoulders in a shrug. "Oh, you know, a stray hour here and there. I kept waking up, thinking someone had come into my room." She shook her head at Rose's appalled expression. "It wasn't anybody—anything. Dink was with me and I knew he was leaving. I was missing him in advance, I guess."
Aura Lee smiled. "I like that young man. It has to be hard being away from him."
Brenna pushed the sadness aside for when she was alone. "I like having him around, can't deny it, but I'll get back into finishing my film and we'll see each other at Halloween, if not before." At Rose's frown she added, "It's our favorite holiday. We always spend it together."
Rose turned back to her shopping bag. "I shudder to t
hink what Halloween will be like here this year."
"We'll be all right," Aura Lee said stoutly. "I'll concoct some protective spells and we'll see what kind of strategies Max can come up with."
"I'm so tired of this," Rose said, her voice grim. "The emanations, the icy cold, the strange sounds and wandering lights. What makes you think you'll get any work done on your film?" she asked Brenna. "Nobody's able to work on her own project with all the spirits and—and—" She waved her hands in a frustrated gesture. "—all the eerie nonsense going on here. Finding Cottie's journals just adds to the sense of disruption. Is discovering what happened to her in England going to change what we're dealing with here? The whole purpose of Wisdom Court has been undermined. If her legacy is destroyed... then what's the point of anything?"
Brenna moved to her and put an arm around her shoulder. "Hey, slow down a minute. I know you've been dealing with this for months and it's obviously getting to you. It's okay to blow off some steam. In fact, it's essential, but you have to remember you're not alone with this. We're all in it together, right?" She could almost feel Rose relaxing. She turned her gently toward the kitchen table across from the cabinets and walked her to the end chair, pulling it out for her. Aura Lee came with them and sat beside Rose.
Brenna faked an encouraging smile. "We still have the new journal to read. Waiting all night for that has made us edgy, but we couldn't start it without Max and Kerry here."
A sudden phone call from Max's office in London had come soon after the discovery of Caldicott's diary in the fountain wall. He hadn't told them what it was about, but his look of suppressed excitement had hinted at its importance. He and Kerry worked through the evening gathering documents and photographs and had left for Denver well after dark. Max's car was parked outside Kerry's associate house this morning, but they hadn't surfaced yet.
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