by Mlyn Hurn
“Are you real, old Broderick, or just a figment of my imagination?”
“Well, lass, I object to being referred to as ‘old.’ What are you doing in here, stirring up the dust?”
“Arrgghhhh!”
Kerry screamed, knocked the flashlight over and almost dropped the Bible. The room was now filled with shadows, the only light coming from the smaller light, which had rolled across the floor. Blinking her eyes quickly, she tried to calm her breathing.
“You’re a ghost!”
“Aye, lass, I believe that I am.” The revolutionary war figure moved closer, sitting on top of another closed trunk. “I was baffled at first. Now, what are you doing going through my family’s Bible?”
“I was looking for proof of you, or your existence. I don’t appreciate that you chose me to make your presence known. I have had to look through scads of old books about Williamsburg, trying to find out about you.”
“Ask me your questions, lass. No promises, but I’ll answer what I know.”
Kerry leaned forward and tentatively poked one finger at his shiny black boot. When her finger didn’t disappear, or dissipate the ghost, she frowned. “I thought ghosts were ephemeral things. You know…all fog, mist and stuff.”
Broderick, the ghost, smiled and crossed his arms across his chest. “I am not that familiar with other ghosts, I only know that I can assume solid form for only short periods of time.”
“Why are you haunting this house? Don’t you want it to be used as a bed and breakfast?” Kerry felt compelled to determine this truth for Broderick’s sake.
“You mean they are going to use my home like some kind of roadside inn?” He frowned deeply, raising one eyebrow slowly.
“Ha! Ha! Ha!” Kerry laughed out loud, pointing towards the ghost’s face. “Your great- great- whatever…your namesake and current legal owner does the same thing with his eyebrow. If you and he didn’t already look like mirror images…” Her smug and “pleased with herself” feelings faded away as she started to think. “Stop distracting me! I want to know why you’re here.”
“You look like my Jenny, dear girl. I think it is your presence in the house that brought me home. Do you live here now as well as my relative? The house does appear to be in excellent shape.”
“That’s because Broderick has been working his butt off trying to convert what was a broken down old house into a viable business. And he’s trying to establish his law practice here at the same time.” She paused, remembering the other thing he’d asked her. “And no, I am here as a guest.” Frowning, she went on. “Perhaps that is why young Broderick never saw you before.”
Kerry watched while the ghost shifted on the trunk, leaning back leisurely. Still frowning, Kerry crossed her arms as well. For a ghost, this man was awfully calm. “I thought you…ghosts I mean, stayed somewhere and haunted it until they were sent away, or resolved their earthly issues. Shouldn’t you be raising havoc, rattling chains and so on?”
“Hmm, resolving my earthly issues, you say. I was resting peacefully, I believe, with all the men in my colonial regiment. Have you not enjoyed my ghostly actions so far?”
She couldn’t help it—a heated flush moved across her cheeks. “Hmm.” Kerry leaned forward, her chin propped on her fists, elbows resting on her thighs. “I found documentation that your whole regiment was killed, just shortly after the war began.” She paused to push some stray hairs back off her forehead. “It appeared that there was bad ‘intel’ and your men walked into an ambush. None of you really had a chance.”
The ghostly Broderick nodded slightly. “It became a nightmare. In fact, I don’t even recall being hit and knowing that I was going to die. Strange, you know. What is ‘intel’?”
“That’s like information about the enemy. So something has drawn you from your resting place back to your home. It is probably something—oh, I don’t know—something huge and powerful! Unfinished business you had?” Kerry stopped as she saw the sad look pass over his face. She also noticed that he seemed to be getting paler, and more see-through.
“I am not sure, young miss. I can see I am fading away already. The time is shortening, so perhaps this will end soon.”
Kerry came to her feet suddenly. “Then we have to hurry and find out what we must do to resolve the restlessness of your soul.”
“That is most kind of you, dear girl, but I am sure my descendent will be most grateful for me to disappear permanently, and leave the two of you alone.” As he stood slowly, Kerry could see that he was becoming fainter by the second.
“I’ll keep working until you can return. I don’t know if you can think while you’re gone, but I would appreciate if you would search your memories, or whatever, to see what needs to be finished.”
Kerry watched as the ghost faded away in front of her eyes. Slowly he disappeared, and it was rather like the Cheshire cat. Soon, what was left was the small area of swirling wisps of smoke. Stepping forward, she plopped down onto the trunk her ghost had just used. Slowly she looked around the attic, which was mostly in darkness. The fact that she had just been talking with a real ghost was still a little mind-boggling. Granted that it technically wasn’t the first, but it was the first time that she knew it was a ghost. Truthfully, everything since she had arrived here was outside the realm of what her usually staid, and rather dull life included.
The wild, unexpected lovemaking with Broderick—the real one, her conscience added quickly—was more than unusual. Closing her eyes, Kerry easily recalled the heated joining here yesterday, followed by the time in the kitchen. And the first time in Broderick’s huge bed—
Abruptly Kerry stopped her distracting and rambling thoughts. Hurrying back over to the other trunk, she grabbed her purse. She quickly began stuffing into it the Bible, two smaller books and the puzzle box. The small flashlight fit into her pocket and she lit her way downstairs with the lantern-style light. Walking back down the narrow stairs, Kerry knew that she was going to have to see what was behind the wallpaper in her room. The main question she now needed to answer was just who this “Jenny” was that the ghostly Broderick spoke of so tenderly.
Entering her guest bedroom, Kerry set her items on the bench at the foot of the bed. She stopped and stood quietly there as she tilted her purse to take out the items she’d brought from the attic. She couldn’t resist trying to open the puzzle box once again. Frustrated after several minutes, she closed her eyes, focusing on letting her senses detect anything unusual that might be going on in this room. She had never been one to believe in her own powers of perception to go beyond the realms of current reality. Still, she couldn’t shake the sense that she could perceive something now, if she only opened herself up to the possibility.
Breathing slowly and deeply, Kerry kept her eyes closed and focused on her breathing the same way she did when she meditated with her weight loss tape. The technique helped her relax and focus on the meditations and she was hopeful it would let her open herself up to…everything. Soon her breathing was steady and deep—hypnotic in its effect on her brain. Feeling unsteady on her feet, Kerry reached her hand out until the hard wood from one of the bed’s posters was beneath her fingers. Curling her fingers around the cool wood, Kerry moved over and sat down on the side of the bed.
She sat quietly and waited for the slight dizziness she had felt a few moments earlier to dissipate. As the lightheadedness faded, Kerry became aware of coolness in the air. She shivered, as the cool feeling seemed to pass through her body, instead of just surrounding her. Without planning it, her lips parted and the next moment she was softly speaking a name.
“Jenny.”
“Yes, I am Jenny.”
Kerry’s eyes flew open as she heard another voice in the room. Her head twisted around toward the bedroom door, but no one was standing there. Quickly swinging back around, she looked from the bathroom over to where she sat on the bed. That left just one more place to look, which was the wall. Slowly Kerry’s head turned to see the wall where she had felt the coldn
ess last night. A scant second later Kerry jumped off the bed. Directly in front of the wall was a white mist, hovering, circling in wisps and spiraling up and down.
“Damn it all!” Kerry said loudly.
“Cursing is against the Lord’s laws.”
Kerry stared at the white foggy mist. There was no denying that the voice was coming from the mist, or behind the wall. She was ninety percent sure it wasn’t coming from inside her head. “I’m sorry. You are Jenny?”
“Yes.”
Kerry shook her head for a moment. First she was talking to a man who fades away and now she was talking to a wall! She was beginning to question her own sanity. Stepping closer to the wall, she reached out with her hand and lightly moved it through the mist. She disturbed it slightly, but not enough to make it disappear or fade away. Clearing her throat, Kerry reached out and placed her hand flat against the wall. The coolness quickly moved up her arm and Kerry shivered in response.
“Where are you, Jenny?”
Kerry could feel the coldness moving back down her arm, through her hand, into the wall. Looking down, she saw all the mist moving through the wall. Moving quickly, Kerry pressed against it with both hands, her cheek resting against the wallpaper. “Jenny? Are you still here?”
“You must follow me.”
Kerry heard the reply but each word became harder to hear, as if the speaker were moving farther away. The wall was warm now and Kerry knew Jenny had gone. She was going to have to find out what was behind this wall! Stepping back, she turned towards the bench where her purse rested. There was nothing on the bench she could use. Checking her bag again, all she could find to use was her nail clippers in a zippered pocket, which she tossed back down into her purse. She bit her lower lip while she scanned the room for a tool—
“Ah ha!” Kerry spotted the letter opener a moment later. Grabbing it from the perfectly matched desk set, she ran back to the wall. Her fingers quickly found the slight depression beneath the paper. Without much forethought, or concern about consequences, Kerry stabbed the letter opener into the wallpaper. With all of her strength, she began dragging the opener through the paper, moving it down the wall.
It didn’t take long at all before Kerry had two ragged, parallel lines running down the wall. They extended up as high as Kerry could reach, but not across the top. She hesitated to stand on one of the antique chairs so she could find the line across the top. She had peeled back the edges on the right side and found a hole in what she was now positive was a door. Kerry guessed that at one time there would have been a doorknob to enable a person to open this small door.
Kerry had considered putting her fingers into the hole and just pulling. She wasn’t sure how much this was going to damage the paper. Of course, stepping back now, and looking at the outline and what she had torn away already, Kerry admitted she was going to have to pay a small fortune to replace this paper. “Damn,” she muttered as she slapped the flat edge of the opener against her thigh.
“I was going to choose something a little stronger, Kerry.”
Kerry spun around and saw Broderick standing in the doorway. He was grinning. She rushed into an explanation and hoped he would sense that she was sincere. “I’m sorry. Before I really thought it through, I was looking for a door. I should have waited and talked to you first.”
Broderick crossed the room to stand beside her, his arms folded across his T-shirt clad chest. Kerry felt a little shiver of desire chase through her body as she looked at the way his shirt outlined his muscular chest and arms. This man really was the stuff that dreams are made of, she thought, fully capable of taking her breath away!
Broderick reached out and took the letter opener from Kerry’s hand. He stepped forward and without another word found the indentation that followed across the top of the two parallel lines. He quickly sliced through the paper across the top, and then down to meet Kerry’s two lines. Tucking the opener into his back pocket, he slipped his fingers into the small hole Kerry had discovered. With a firm pull on the outlined panel, Broderick jerked the door open. Immediately beyond the door, they saw a short hallway, which appeared to descend into a staircase.
Kerry shivered suddenly as she stood in front of Broderick while they leaned through the doorway and peered down the small hallway. A moment later she felt Broderick’s warm hands gently close on her upper arms. As his hands rubbed up and down her arms, Kerry felt the goose bumps relax and fade away. She turned her head slowly, looking over her shoulder at the handsome man.
“I am going to pay for the wallpaper.”
Kerry didn’t resist as the strong hands turned her around until they faced one another. The smile that curved Broderick’s lips upward sent butterflies fluttering madly against the walls of her stomach. His deep voice sent the shivers up her spine again, but for a totally different reason this time.
“I can’t say that I wouldn’t have done the same damned thing. Something about ghosts, or maybe it is just this particular ghost hunter that has my adrenaline surging.” His head lowered toward her parted lips. “Just one question remains,” Broderick whispered less than an inch away from what was promising to be a very heated kiss.
Kerry’s hands were already inching around his waist as she forced herself to respond to his comment. “What is that?”
“Do I ravish you like my ghostly relative might do upon finding such a lusty wench destroying his property before we go down those stairs or after?”
Kerry sighed softly as his mouth covered hers finally. Any thought of really answering was lost as his tongue delved into the warm, moist seduction of her mouth. Leaning into his chest, Kerry finished encircling his waist and pulled him closer to her body. Perched on her toes, returning his kiss and following his tongue eagerly, she leaned into his strong chest. When his hands slid down and cupped her ass cheeks, Kerry yelped in surprise.
“Hmm, we’ve gone this far, but I’ll leave it up to you, my sweet.” Broderick stepped back a foot or so.
Kerry met Broderick’s blue-eyed gaze, not completely sure whether he meant their mutual seduction or the ghost hunt. Inhaling deeply, Kerry decided she was going to do what she wanted to do, and if he had a different opinion…well, he had a voice, right?
Kerry reached her right hand across the short distance between their bodies and curled her hand over his hard cock, covered by his jeans zipper. Watching Broderick’s face she saw the surprise in his eyes, which deepened into desire as she added softly, “I say the master of the house has his wicked way with the naughty lass…now!”
Kerry had already taken a few steps toward the bed, but the final steps were covered in a rush as Broderick moved them both onto the bed. Kerry was dimly aware of hearing the wall panel shut and some things landing on the floor, and she had a moment’s trepidation that they wouldn’t survive the fall. But then she remembered the thick carpeting and stopped caring, or thinking about anything but the man in her bed.
She felt Broderick’s large hands easing her shirt upward and then gently pulling her shorts down, past her thighs. She kicked one leg free as her hands moved to his shirt. Her fingers tried to work the three buttons at the top of his shirt, but it seemed as if her fingers had suddenly become all thumbs. Cursing softly, she paused as Broderick’s mouth enclosed her right nipple, lavishing it with wet licks and light suckling. It was such a sweet and intoxicating feeling that she started to let her hands fall away from their task.
In the quiet of the room, the sound of Broderick’s zipper seemed loud. To Kerry it reminded her that she wanted to caress his naked chest and press her breasts to his warm flesh. A moment later, she curled her fingers into the fabric of his shirt and pulled, hard. One button flew off, but the rest held tight. Broderick looked up into her face and he seemed very intent all of a sudden, but not on sex. Kerry stopped pulling as he started to speak.
“Kerry, darling, at this rate I am going to have to buy a lot of new shirts or you will have to learn how to sew on buttons.” He reached down and pu
lled his shirt up over his head and off. Coming back to rest against her nearly naked body, he smiled gently.
Kerry licked her lips, silently thanking God for letting her meet this man. “That will work. Or I’ll make sure they are pullover shirts like this, snip the top two buttons off and make it easier on us both!”
Kerry smiled as he chuckled softly. A second later she felt his hot cock pressing against her wet flesh. Without a word she lifted her thighs and encircled his hips eagerly. As he entered her smooth flesh, Kerry whispered. “Yes! Please! I want you in me…now!”
* * * * *
Broderick pulled back, reaching down to find a foil packet from his pocket. Kerry’s forwardness and her playful attitude had aroused him hard and fast. His fingers didn’t fumble at all and a moment later he was thrusting upward into Kerry’s tight, hot flesh.
He stopped to let their bodies adjust. For a long moment he watched Kerry’s face—her eyes were closed and lips slightly parted. Lowering his head, he kissed her lips, lightly. Before she could deepen the kiss, his mouth was sliding down the side of her neck. For just a moment, he carefully sucked and licked a spot that should be hidden by her clothes. Her skin was sensitive and easily marked, as he’d learned, so he didn’t want to stay too long in one spot.
Soon though, his body began demanding more. Reluctantly rising up, he began slowly thrusting into her body, sliding back from her flesh, which seemed to tighten around him, slowing his movement. Each thrust into her hot, tight sheath was sexy and erotic. But each movement of easing away was even more arousing. If anyone had ever suggested he would be so unprofessional to fall for a guest at his bed and breakfast, or a woman who wasn’t really his “type” at all, he would have scoffed at him or her.
Yet, right now, looking down at Kerry, Broderick admitted he was more than…his brain shuddered for a moment. Thrusting back into her body again, delaying his withdrawal, Broderick acknowledged that this was a lot more than just fooling around. Several times he found himself thinking about next month and next year, and each time Kerry was there.
