It's About Time

by Charlotte Douglas

  It’s About Time

  Charlotte Douglas

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  “How ‘bout a nice cuppa tea, m’dear? You look all done in.”

  Tory Caswell glanced up in surprise. The last of the wedding guests had left an hour ago and she’d believed herself alone in the deserted ballroom, too tired to move, too depressed to face her lonely hotel room.

  Hovering at her elbow, the small, elderly woman in a maid’s uniform seemed to have appeared from nowhere. “Won’t take but a minute to fix it.”

  Tory strained to see the woman’s face in the muted darkness of the cavernous hall, but discerned only the silhouette of her slight figure, backlighted by the faint glow from tiny white lights strung along the ballroom’s cornices and carved columns.

  “No, thanks,” Tory said. “Everything’s taken care of here. I’ll be leaving soon.”

  The maid glanced around the room which was festooned with greenery, cream-colored streamers, blush roses and pink-tinged lilies.

  Jill’s wedding colors—the colors of St. Valentine’s Day.

  As the older woman shifted position, the soft light illuminated rosy cheeks, brilliant lavender eyes and a luminous coronet of white hair above the serviceable gray and white of her uniform. “Must have been a lovely wedding,” she mused.

  “Yes.” A sigh heavy with sadness escaped before Tory could suppress it. “My sister’s.”

  “You look like a bride yourself, m’dear. Rose satin and creamy lace. What do you call that style?” The woman reached out a tentative hand and touched Tory’s mutton sleeve.

  “Victorian. My sister’s crazy for it. That’s why she chose this old hotel for her wedding.” A tear slipped from Tory’s eye and slid down her cheek.

  “Here, now.” The little woman withdrew a linen handkerchief from her apron pocket and pressed it into Tory’s hand. “Weddings are supposed to be happy events.”

  “This one was—” Tory sniffed “—but my sister and her husband are going to live in his home in Australia. They left right after the reception. I’m really going to miss her.”

  “Of course, you will, but life has a way of bringing surprises to fill those empty spaces.” The maid’s kind, lilting voice with its British accent and warm tones eased Tory’s pain. “Let me bring you that cup of tea. I’ll have one myself, and you can tell me all about the wedding.”

  “Please, don’t trouble—”

  “No trouble at all, Miss Caswell. By the way, me name’s Emma, and I’ll be back with the tea before you can blink.”

  The tiny woman skittered away on silent, sensible shoes and disappeared through the swinging door that led to the kitchen.

  How did Emma know her name? A strange shiver of apprehension tingled along Tory’s spine, until she reminded herself that the maid must have heard her being introduced along with the rest of the wedding party at the start of the elaborate reception.

  The planning and preparation of the grand event were all behind her now. Two weeks of glorious, hard-earned vacation in the Florida sun stretched before her. She hadn’t taken time off in years, but the advertising firm she’d worked so hard to build could rock along without her while she recharged her batteries and readied herself for the corporate fray once again. The morning’s weather report had forecast sleet and ice for Atlanta, but the brief early February cold spell holding Florida in its chilly grip would be history by tomorrow afternoon, the cheerful TV weatherman had promised.

  She’d spend Sunday basking on the beach, reading the bestseller she’d packed with her swimsuit and bridesmaid’s gown. With luck, she’d meet an attractive, unattached male ready for a brief romance. Nothing permanent. She couldn’t divert the time from her work. Just a few days of sand, sea and sunshine in the arms of a handsome distraction.

  She stood, shook out her long skirt and crossed the wide floor of gleaming oak. Dimly lighted panels of Tiffany stained glass arched high over linen-draped tables, which were topped with miniature topiaries of roses and baby’s breath and ringed the dance floor in perfect formation.

  The dusty pink of the decorations had been her mother’s favorite color. Tory’s throat clenched with grief. Her parents hadn’t lived to see Jill married.

  She leaned stiff and unyielding against the tall windows and gazed out over landscaped grounds that dipped to the Gulf of Mexico. A full moon hung above the calm water, trailing a silver swath from horizon to the shore.

  Ever since the family had vacationed there when she and Jill were children, her sister had dreamed of a romantic Florida wedding in the century-old Bellevue Hotel with its gabled roofs and broad verandas with gingerbread trim.

  “Your dreams came true, Jillie.” She spoke aloud, and her words echoed in the immense room. “Maybe mine would, too, if I knew what they were.”

  Suddenly an icy current of air invaded the room, and the hair rose on the back of Tory’s neck. Feeling uneasy, she returned to her table for her handbag, ready to forgo tea with the sprightly Emma and call it a night.

  She stopped short at the sight of a woman silhouetted against the double doors at the far end of the room.

  “May I help you?” Tory called, thinking one of the wedding guests had returned to retrieve a forgotten purse or wrap.

  Silently, the woman advanced. She hadn’t been a guest. Tory had never seen her before. The strikingly beautiful creature with chalk white skin and luxurious black hair cascading in ringlets wore a costume similar to Tory’s bridesmaid’s dress. Its turquoise silk shimmered with an iridescent brilliance that drew all other illumination from the room, and an eerie light shone from her pale blue eyes as she glided across the polished dance floor, leaving a wake of darkness in her path.

  As she moved nearer, the air turned frigid, and Tory shuddered from the cold—and the look of undisguised misery in the young woman’s eyes. Tory glanced nervously toward the kitchen door, but none of the hotel staff was in sight.

  The young woman lifted a pale, slender hand and stabbed a thin finger at Tory. “Have you seen him?”

  “Seen who?” Tory asked. The newcomer had a high sense of melodrama, but she made little sense. Had the stranger had too much to drink?

  The woman moaned, a thin, pitiful sound. “The man I’m going to marry.”

  “No, and after tonight,” Tory said with a weary sigh, “I want nothing to do with weddings for a long time.”

  The temperature in the room seemed to plummet and Tory’s teeth began to chatter. The hotel must have shut down the heat in the ballroom as soon as the last guest departed.

  “Please help me,” the woman pleaded. “I must find him.”

  “Everyone left over an hour ago. If he was here, he’s long gone.” Tory started toward the door, but the woman blocked her way.

  “He can’t be gone. I need him.” Sobs shook the young woman’s delicate frame and tears tracked her pale cheeks.

  Tory opened her mouth to call for help, planning to place the distraught young woman in the care of the hotel staff, but before she could utter a sound, the blue-clad figure collapsed, weeping, onto the ballroom floor...and evaporated into the frigid air.

  Tory stared at the empty dance floor. People didn’t just disappear into thin air. There had to be a reasonable explanation for the phenomenon she’d witnessed. She sank onto the nearest chair, wondering i
f she’d drunk more champagne than she’d realized. An alcoholic hallucination, that’s what she’d seen. Or maybe she was just suffering from fatigue. Her staff had warned her she’d been working too hard.

  A sharp noise rang out, and she started at the sound of Emma banging through the door from the kitchen with a large tea tray.

  Emma settled the tray on the table with a thump and eyed Tory sharply. “Something’s wrong.”

  “No.” Tory reached for her beaded handbag with trembling hands and rose from her chair. “I’m just tired. I’m going to bed.”

  “You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “I don’t believe in such things!” Tory winced at the sharpness of her reply.

  “So you have seen her. I knew she’d make an appearance tonight.” Emma gripped Tory’s elbow and guided her to her seat, patting her arm with a soft, plump hand. “Drink your tea—it’s my own special brew—and tell me all about it.”

  Tory inhaled deeply to calm her jangled nerves. Warm air, scented with roses and lilies, wafted through the room, a soothing contrast to the surreal cold and darkness that had filled the space only minutes before.

  Then Emma’s meaning struck her. “You knew she’d be here? How?”

  “The ghost—”

  “I don’t believe in ghosts,” Tory repeated, more to herself than Emma. She drank deeply of the fragrant tea, noting its exotic flavor as her tensions slid away.

  “Of course you don’t.” Emma’s amethyst eyes twinkled in the soft light. “But anyone who meets our Angelina soon becomes a believer.”

  “Angelina?”

  “For almost a century, every time there’s a wedding at the Bellevue, Angelina makes an appearance.” Emma, her forehead creased in thought, dumped sugar in her tea. “But usually it’s the bride she confronts.”

  “Thank God that—that—apparition didn’t spoil Jillie’s day! Who—what is she?”

  “Almost one hundred years ago, shortly after the Bellevue first opened, Angelina Fairchild spent the season here. She fell in love with another guest at the hotel, but they quarreled.”

  Tory took another sip of tea and eyed the little woman over the rim of her cup. “How do you know all this?”

  “It’s part of the local lore.” Emma smoothed her spotless apron across her lap. “You can see Angelina for yourself in the historical exhibit in the west hall. She’s in several pictures, one astride a bicycle in front of the west portico.”

  “Most lovers quarrel at some time or another, but they don’t haunt brides for a century after they die.” Tory struggled to stay awake. The demands and excitement of her long day had caught up with her.

  Leaning across the table like a conspirator, Emma dropped her voice to a whisper. “This was no ordinary quarrel. Angelina stormed out of the hotel afterward, down to the waterfront, and set off toward the island alone in a sloop.”

  Tory stifled a yawn with the back of her hand. “Nothing unusual in that. Maybe she wanted to put some distance between her and her lover, clear her head.”

  “The story doesn’t end there. The sloop capsized in a freak wind and Angelina drowned.” Emma poured more tea into Tory’s cup. “The lovers never had a chance to reconcile. Ever since that tragic night Angelina has haunted weddings at the hotel, searching for her lost love, trying, I suppose, to set things right again.”

  Recalling the desperate gleam in Angelina’s pale eyes, Tory shivered in the warm room, then gulped the rest of her tea. “You tell a hell of a bedtime story, Emma. I hope it doesn’t keep me awake.”

  Emma patted her hand and smiled sweetly. “Nonsense, m’dear. You’ll sleep like a baby. I guarantee it.”

  Tory stumbled wearily across the ballroom. At the doors that led into the hall, she turned to survey one last time the scene of her sister’s wedding, happy all had gone well, glad it was over. Emma and her tea tray were nowhere in sight. A chill raced down her spine at the little maid’s instant disappearance, and she fled into the dark, deserted hallway.

  ”Where is he? Where is he?” Whispers surrounded her in the gloom, chanting in her ear. Her skin prickled at the menace in the sound.

  She flattened her back against the wall of the hallway and peered up and down the corridor for the origin of the voices. When she stood still, the murmurs ceased. She pushed away from the wainscot, scurrying down the long, dim corridor to her room as quickly as her lengthy skirts allowed.

  The whispers followed. ”Where is he? Where is he?”

  She fumbled with her room key, locked her door behind her and leaned against it. Again, the voices ceased. When she walked toward her bed, they began again as her voluminous satin skirts swished around her ankles, making a whispering sound, and she laughed at her sudden attack of nerves. The fleet-footed Emma had simply disappeared into the kitchen, and the plaintive voices were no more than the rustling of her own skirts.

  As for Angelina, since she turned up only at weddings, Tory had seen the last of her. Her emotional turmoil stemmed from the strain of Jill’s wedding and subsequent departure—not anything supernatural.

  Sleep, that was what she needed. She reached to unzip her gown but her arms refused to respond to her commands. Her head lolled on her shoulders as if it weighed a ton. Abruptly the room tipped and reeled around her until, still wearing her wedding clothes, she sprawled across the wide poster bed and drifted into oblivion.

  She dreamed of Jill’s wedding. The ceremony and reception unfolded before her like a video recording of the day’s events, until the bridal party stepped onto the hotel veranda to where the limousine waited to take Jill and Rod to the airport. Then reality faded. Instead of late evening darkness, the Florida sun shone high in the heavens.

  As she stood alone on the hotel drive, waving until her sister disappeared from view, she glanced toward the barrier islands, strips of green along the western horizon, now strangely empty of hotels and condominiums.

  The sound of hoofbeats drew her attention down the palm-lined avenue that led from the heavy entrance gates to the hotel. A lone rider approached at a canter, moving in slow motion through the shimmering air.

  Sunlight glinted on his light brown hair, shaggy and long against the opening of his collarless shirt. The tanned muscles of his arms, exposed by sleeves rolled to his biceps, tensed as he handled the reins. Even from a distance, eyes like burnished pewter burned into hers with a searching stare, anchoring her feet beneath her.

  Held fast by his gaze, she watched him advance, gauging the width of his broad shoulders and the strength of his jodhpur-clad thighs gripping the saddle. The sun’s heat flared in the pit of her stomach as the rider urged the chestnut stallion into a gallop and bore down toward her. Her feet ignored her command to turn and flee. She opened her mouth to scream but could make no sound.

  The rider drew closer. Iridescent beads of sweat rolled from his wide brow down the sharp angle of his jaw, the stallion’s hot breath seared her face, and still the horseman advanced.

  She heard her own voice assuring her she was only dreaming, and her feet remained fixed against her struggle to flee as the huge beast with its handsome rider crashed into her, knocking her to the ground, where blackness encompassed her.... The trill of a mockingbird in a cypress tree outside her window awakened her. Midmorning light flooded the room. She struggled to rise, but a weight across her body held her firm. Turning her head, she confronted a tanned face against the stark whiteness of her pillow. The man from her dream slept beside her.

  Chapter Two

  Rand Trent moaned as sledgehammers pounded his brain. He didn’t remember drinking much the night before, just wine with dinner and brandy afterward as he’d discussed business with Jason Phiswick in the hotel dining room. He vaguely recalled a hotel servant hovering at his elbow, refilling his glass, and a precarious trip on wobbly legs to his room.

  The glare of Florida sunlight pierced his closed eyelids, increasing the tempo and volume of his head’s incessant hammering. As he turned onto his stomach
, he realized he still wore the clothes he’d donned for dinner the previous evening, shoes and all.

  “Damn and blast.” He groaned and buried his face in his pillow to shut out the light as he clasped a soft bundle of satin blanket closer to his side.

  A startled gasp in his left ear brought him out of the feathered depths with a jerk that sent pain flashing through his temples. On the pillow beside him, eyes the color of the Gulf of Mexico at noon stared at him from a delicate face filled with fright.

  He watched in fascination as the blue green eyes screwed shut, remaining closed for an instant while the woman’s breathing eased. Then one thickly-lashed eyelid opened hesitantly, and she scrutinized him with what appeared to be disbelief. Then both eyes and her soft, full lips opened wide in prelude to a shriek.

  Bloody hell. The woman was about to cause a scene. With a fluent motion and his head screaming in protest, he levered himself over the startled female to the edge of the bed and crushed his lips to her mouth to stifle her cry.

  For a moment her lips yielded to the pressure of his, and her body, scented with magnolias, relaxed beneath him as he savored the taste of her. He was just beginning to enjoy himself when her clenched fists pounded on his shoulders, thrusting him away.

  The force of her blows intensified the pounding in his head and soured his disposition. He drew back far enough to catch the outrage in her expression. She scrubbed her lips with the back of one hand, then opened her mouth again, as if to yell.

  “Oh, no, you don’t.” With a lightning move, he covered her jaw with his hand, intending to oust the beautiful intruder from his room, draw the draperies against the stabbing light and bury his throbbing temples beneath his pillow once more.

  “Who are you and what are you doing in my bed?” he growled at her.

  Flailing her arms and legs, she struggled against his hand across her mouth. He jerked back in pain and surprise as her teeth sank into his flesh.

  “Good God, woman, you should be muzzled!”

  “And you should keep your hands to yourself,” she snapped.