Dark Secrets: A Paranormal Romance Anthology
Page 244
“Rosie?” he yelled. “Rose, where are you?”
They reached the top of the steps, into the dark and eerie attic with its shadows and crevices. There was a ton of old junk up here, left by previous tenants and owners, stuff that had accumulated over the years. Boxes littered the area, a dark and dusty expanse that stretched the entire length of the house.
Cord charged into the attic, looking around frantically for Rose. Kyle and Sean and Cole were right with him, looking behind boxes and moving things aside to see if she was hiding anywhere. They were all frantic with worry. Alix, however, had turned to the right while everyone else went to the left. She spied her daughter over near one of the small windows that faced the south side of the house.
“Rose!” she cried.
She ran to her daughter and dropped to her knees as Cord and the boys thundered up behind her. Rose had been sitting on the floor when Alix picked her up, clinging fearfully to her mother.
“Rosie!” Alix gasped. “Are you okay?”
Rose threw her arms around her mother’s neck and refused to let go. Alix couldn’t even pry her away to get a look at her and when Cord tried, she screamed, so he let her alone. Alix held her daughter tightly, sitting on the floor of the attic. At least her child was in her arms now, and safe, so Alix took a lot of comfort in that. But not for long; she was frantic to know what had happened.
“Rosie,” she said gently. “Please tell me what happened. Did you accidentally get locked up in here?”
Rose shook her head. “No.”
“Then what happened?”
She pulled her head out of the crook of Alix’s neck, snot and tears all over her face. “The sad girl told me to come up here because we would play a game,” she said. “When I wanted to leave, she wouldn’t let me.”
Alix swallowed hard, feeling a great deal of fear creep over her. “The… the sad girl kept you up here?”
“Yes.”
Alix didn’t ask anything more, at least not at the moment. The truth was that she wasn’t quite sure what more to say. As she comforted her daughter, Cord was standing over the pair, protectively, feeling very frustrated and, if he were to admit it, a little frightened. He knew what he had seen in that darkened closet; it was the image of Rose, just as he had seen on Halloween night. When he’d brought the lamp base down, he swore he had killed Rose and to see the image disappear… well, he was having a difficult time reconciling it. He didn’t believe in ghosts but he’d seen one – twice. He’d even talked to his parents about it. Maybe there was something more to this than he was willing to admit. Still, he was having a tough time accepting everything. He just couldn’t seem to wrap his mind around it.
“Come on, honey,” he said gently, putting his hands on Alix’s arms to help her stand up. “Let’s get her downstairs. It’s cold and dusty up here.”
Alix nodded, trying to stand up with Rose in her arms but she couldn’t quite manage it. Sean had to come to her rescue and took Rose because she wouldn’t go to anyone else, including Cord. When Sean took Rose and Cord helped Alix stand, they both noticed something on the floor beneath them. Alix had been sitting on it, blocking it. Curious, they peered at it.
“What in the hell is this?” Cord asked.
Alix shook her head, looking at the floor board partially pulled away. Cord got down on one knee and pulled at it. He ended up popping it out completely, as it wasn’t secured in the least. A hidden compartment lay beneath and Cord pulled out what appeared to be a series of documents bound together. They were extremely old, brittle and yellowed, with a texture like dead fall leaves. Cord peered at them curiously before handing them over to Alix.
“More mysteries from this house,” he muttered, watching Alix carefully inspect the brittle documents. “Can you make out anything?”
Alix squinted at whatever was written on the paper. “No,” she said, shaking her head after a moment. “I can’t see in this light.”
Cord stood up. “Let’s get out of here,” he said, gently ushering everyone back towards the stairs. “We’ll take this all downstairs and have a look.”
The Trevor boys pounded down the attic stairs followed by Sean carrying Rose, and finally Alix and Cord. Cord shut the closet door leading up into the attic and pointed at the children.
“Nobody goes up there again,” he said quietly, firmly. “All right? Agreed?”
The boys nodded and Cord looked specifically at Rose. “No more going up there,” he told her with gently sternness. “It’s dangerous, honey. I don’t want you to get hurt. Okay?”
Rose nodded unsteadily and Cord rewarded her with a kiss on the cheek. “Good girl,” he said. “Now, let’s go back downstairs, finish breakfast, and start getting the driveway cleared. We’ve got a big day ahead of us.”
Everyone started moving. Alix collected Rose from Sean and passed the old documents back to Cord. As the boys headed back downstairs, she went back to her bedroom with Cord on her heels. He set the old documents on his dresser as Alix set Rose down on the mattress and checked her arms and upper torso for injury. She checked the little girl’s head, scalp, legs and feet before she finally eased up. Then, she stood back and put her hands on her hips.
“Now,” she said to her daughter, “tell me everything that happened. You said the sad girl wanted to play. What did she want to play?”
Rose looked pale and tired. She shrugged her little shoulders restlessly and began to crawl off the bed.
“She said she wanted to call her mommy,” she said. “She said I had to help her but I didn’t want to play and then she wouldn’t let me get out. Mommy, I’m hungry.”
Alix watched her daughter climb off the bed, feeling apprehension at her statement. “She said she wanted you to help her call her mommy?” she repeated.
Rose was heading for the door. “Yes.”
“But… who is her mommy?”
“I don’t know.”
“She didn’t say?”
“She said her mommy was waiting for her to call her.”
“Why?”
Rose didn’t know. She just kept walking, heading out of the room and towards the back staircase. Alix let her go, calling down to Sean to let him know she was coming down the stairs. Then, she looked at Cord and expressions of confusion passed between them but in Alix’s case, there was more to it. She was weary, emotional, and hormonal, and Cord watched as her eyes filled with tears.
“What in the hell is happening around here?” she hissed. “You saw that… that girl in the closet. I thought it was Rose and you almost… you….”
She couldn’t finish her sentence and Cord took her in his arms, holding her tightly. He thought back to that moment when he thought he’d killed Rose and it shook him up. In fact, the more he thought on it, the more nauseous he became.
“I know,” he said when she couldn’t go on. “I saw it, too. I thought I’d killed her. I swear that little incident just took twenty years off my life. I’m still shaking.”
“What are we doing to do? Why is this all happening?”
“I don’t know but I intend to find out.”
Alix wiped at her eyes and lifted her head to look at him. “How?”
He sighed heavily. “I’m not sure this is even the day to talk about this,” he said. “We’re getting married in about eight hours. I want to focus on that and not this… this craziness that seems to invade every inch of this house.”
Alix pulled away from him gently and went to the tissue box. “Then you really do think something is going on now.”
“I can’t deny what I’ve seen.”
“You sure didn’t believe me in the beginning.”
“I’ve change my mind. I can’t refute what I’ve seen. But like I said, I really don’t want to focus on that today.”
Alix put the tissue to her nose. “I don’t want to focus on it, either, but we don’t really have a choice.” She blew her nose. “What are we going to do? I don’t want people in the house and suddenly this�
�� this ghost makes an appearance.”
He shrugged. “She seems rather selective when she makes her appearances,” he said quietly. “She doesn’t seem to do it for anyone but us. I’ll see if I can find a medium or a psychic or something to come in here and see what they can figure out. I’ll get help for this, honey; I don’t want you to worry about it.”
Alix blew her nose again. “Of course I’m worried about it,” she said. “This sad girl seems to be fixated on Rose and I’m scared for my daughter. She’s downstairs with the boys eating breakfast now and I don’t even want to let her out of my sight. What happens if the sad girl takes her out on the roof next time and tells her to jump? I’m scared to death.”
Cord sighed again and went to her, kissing her on the forehead. “Let’s just get through today and we’ll worry about the rest of it later,” he said quietly. “Okay? I don’t want anything to spoil this day I’ve waited my whole life for.”
Alix gazed up at him, his handsome face and hopeful expression, and began to soften. “Okay,” she agreed. “While you guys are shoveling snow, I think I’m going to lie back down for a while. This whole incident has me kind of rattled.”
He agreed. “Me, too,” he said. “You and Rose take a nap and let us handle the house.”
They turned for the door but as they did so, the old documents Cord had set on the dresser caught their attention. Cord reached out and collected the documents, thinking about making heads or tails of the situation, but reconsidered. He opened up his top dresser drawer and carefully put them inside with his watches and handkerchiefs.
“I’m going to call Mrs. Mowbray at some point and take those documents over to her,” he said “She seems very interested in this house, so I’m sure this will be a real thrill. Maybe… maybe there’s something in there that will help us figure all of this out.”
“And solve it?”
“I hope so.”
Alix sighed heavily and he kissed her head, giving her a gentle and encouraging squeeze. Together, they headed back downstairs to finish breakfast and move ahead with their day.
They had a wedding to participate in.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
At four o’clock, Dr. Alix Hendry became Dr. Alix Hendry-Trevor. Dressed in a Medieval-looking white brocade wedding gown with an empire waist that disguised her growing belly and a white faux fur cape, she married Cord in the gazebo in the backyard of Evenshade in front of thirty people. It was a very small wedding of mostly Cord’s people because Alix’s were all out in California. Alix’s two cousins managed to make it, however, and two aunts, but her parents had passed away a few years earlier so she had no immediate family present. Being an only child, she was fairly alone in that department.
But no longer; she now had a husband, his three boys, his parents, two sisters-in-law and two brothers-in-law, and four nephews. It was a big and happy family that was thrilled to welcome her. She had never actually met Cord’s brother and sister, Kent Trevor, a very handsome man with Cord’s smile, and his sister, Elizabeth, who was very pretty and very sweet. They were both very gracious and very friendly to her, and Alix took to Elizabeth immediately.
About halfway through the wedding ceremony it began to snow, so they finished their vows with snowflakes on their eyelashes. Rose, who had been the flower girl, grew restless by the time Cord kissed his bride and he soon found himself carrying his new stepdaughter down the aisle. He held Alix’s hand tightly, never more happy or proud of anything in his life, as they headed from the garden straight into the house. The guests, cold and being snowed upon, quickly followed.
The caterer had set up inside the house and a fire burned brightly in every fireplace so it was very warm and festive. The big dining room in the front of the house was set up like a buffet and as the guests began to serve themselves ham, turkey, prime rib and other succulent items, Cord and Alix and the immediately family went back outside to take a few pictures that were quickly hampered by both the weather and the setting sun. After taking several lovely shots, everyone hustled back inside and the reception was full-on.
Evenshade was perfectly laid out for entertaining because, back in the day, it had been the only house for miles around big enough to accommodate more than ten people. It had seen its share of events. Along with the big dining room, it had enormous double parlors that, at some point, someone had removed the pocket doors and turned it into one enormous room. There was a partial wall in the middle of it as a result, but it didn’t impede the flow.
People ate in the big living room or wandered back to the library or den where Cord had recovered from his injuries, warmed by the inviting fires in the fireplaces in each room and enjoying the atmosphere. With the firelight and gentle lighting, one could almost see people in Colonial American attire moving from room to room, or envision how they spent their evenings. At Evenshade, it was easy to see.
As the wedding photographer took Cord and Alix into the library to shoot some portraits of just the two of them, the rest of the family were free to eat. As the Trevor boys and Sean tore into the ham and beef, Mary and Quirt worked around them and managed to fill their plates. While everyone else went to the living room to eat, Mary and Quirt ducked into the kitchen where the caterer was quietly working. Sitting at the lovely kitchen table, they tucked into their food.
“I haven’t been inside this house since I was a boy,” Quirt said, looking around the stylish kitchen. “It’s changed a lot.”
Mary had her fork in her hand and was picking at her food. Mostly, her attention seemed to be on the house. She looked around as her husband spoke.
“I’ve never been in here,” she said. “Wasn’t your Aunt Cecily the last family member to live here?”
Quirt nodded, his mouth full of prime rib. “Yes,” he said. “Then she rented it out, oh, thirty years ago before she went to that retirement community.”
“We haven’t seen her in a few years.”
“I know,” Quirt said, looking guilty. “We really should. She’s the last one of that generation left.”
“We should have brought her to the wedding.”
“She lives in Arizona, Mary, and she’s ninety-seven years old. She’s not going to travel well.”
“Still,” Mary said wistfully, setting her fork down and looking around the room. “Maybe we should have at least called her.”
Quirt shook his head, shoveling in mashed potatoes. “Why?” he asked. “There’s no point.”
Mary let the subject drop. She could hear people in the other rooms, talking and laughing, but she wasn’t in the mood to do either. She seemed very uneasy. Quirt finally noticed that she wasn’t eating.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, gesturing at her plate. “Why aren’t you eating?”
Mary shook her head, her eyes moving up to the ceiling of the room. “I don’t know,” she said. “There’s something….”
“Something what?”
Mary shook her head again. Then, she stood up. “I need to… walk around a bit,” she said. “I need to see the rest of the house.”
Quirt caught on to what she was saying. “Why?” he asked. “What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure.”
This time, Quirt set his fork down because he could tell she was uneasy. “Did you see something?”
“No,” Mary said faintly. “But I feel something.”
“Like what?”
She didn’t reply. All she could do was shake her head because she really wasn’t sure. All she knew was that she was very unsettled. Slowly, and with some trepidation, she began to walk towards the back stairs that led up to the second floor. She peered up the darkened stairwell.
“I don’t think Cord wants you wandering around,” Quirt told her.
Mary didn’t take her eyes off the stairwell. “He’s busy right now,” she said. “Besides, he won’t mind if I want to see the house.”
Quirt looked around, noticing the door to the basement underneath the stairs that led up to the second
floor. His gaze lingered on it. “If we go anywhere, it should be down in the basement to see if we can find remnants of that stone circle,” he said quietly. “Knowing Cord, he hasn’t done a thing. Maybe it’s up to us to take a look.”
Mary was still fixated on the second floor. “After I’ve seen what’s up here, maybe we will,” she said.
She started up the stairs and Quirt sighed heavily, setting his fork down. Dutifully, he followed.
The second floor was quiet and dimly lit as light and noise from the first floor drifted up the stairwells. Mary went to the first door she came to which happened to be Alix’s bedroom. She stuck her head in, looking around the exquisitely decorated room, visually inspecting everything. But she was doing more than that; she was reaching out with her senses, especially that sixth sense that sometimes saw or heard things that no one else could.
Mary had always had the gift, ever since she had been a child and old enough to understand that sometimes she saw people that no one else saw. It was something her daughter had also inherited. The entire Trevor family was gifted one way or another, but some family members didn’t accept those gifts, Cord included. She’d long learned to accept his reluctance even though it still saddened her a bit to think on it.
Mary stood for several long minutes studying Alix’s room before moving on. The next room was Rose’s old room and she quietly opened the door only to be faced with stacks of boxes and a deserted room. The rest of the house was so lovely that this room, and a very big one at that, seemed oddly out of place. Curious, she stepped inside. Quirt was behind her, more interested in the boxes than in the room. As Mary wandered into the middle of the room, she suddenly came to a halt. Quirt was still peering at the boxes, being nosy and lifting lids to see what was inside, when he happened to glance over at his wife and saw her stagger.
“Hey,” he called over to her. “What’s the matter?”
Mary had her hand at her throat, her wide eyes staring up at the ceiling. “There’s something…,” she trailed off and then cocked her head as if listening to something. “Do you hear that?”