“I wish I knew if Blondie was Charlotte.” Slowly her eyes adjusted to the dark winter night. “But she was wearing a mask and trying to disguise her voice. Not to mention it’s been six years since Charlotte crashed through here like a tornado.”
“I’m not sure I’m clear on what happened between you and her back then,” Benjamin said.
Fair enough. For that matter neither was she.
“I did most of my college by correspondence, so I could be here to help my uncle and aunt. When I was twenty, I did one semester in Ottawa to finish up my degree. Charlotte had a two-bedroom apartment and had listed a room for rent online. I’d hoped we’d become friends, but we really weren’t. She was the kind of person who kept to herself and never made eye contact. Her life revolved around her history degree and her boyfriend, Alpha. Sometimes I’d catch bruises on her arms and I wondered if he was hurting her. But she wouldn’t talk to me. I was always planning on moving out at Christmas and coming home. So, I was really surprised when she asked if she could come here for the holidays.”
She glanced at the dark sky above. A flurry of falling ice filled her eyes. “She was on her phone with Alpha the whole car ride here. Sounded like he was yelling at her. We arrived and went to a church party with my old youth group. I barely saw her over the next couple of days. She kept slipping out and going places. I’d wake up in the night and her bed would be empty. Uncle Des just told me that he caught her kissing someone in the woods and chased the guy off. Described him as young, tall and broad-shouldered. I assume it was Alpha. I guess Alpha’s in his late twenties now. While there are a whole lot of things about this whole Charlotte-Alpha-Kodiak-Blondie situation that I don’t know, I am convinced that Blondie knows Alpha. You should have seen her panicked reaction when I mentioned his name. She’s terrified of him.”
Which could mean Blondie was Charlotte and the man with the bear tattoo was Alpha. Except that Blondie didn’t react at all when Piper had asked her about a man with a bear tattoo. She closed her eyes for a moment and listened to the storm pushing through the trees. Just when she thought the terrifying picture of what had happened these past few hours was swimming into some kind of focus, everything stopped making sense again.
Their footsteps crunched through the snow. Benjamin’s arm tightened around her shoulder. “You said she robbed you?”
“She did, Christmas Eve.” Piper opened her eyes. “While we were all down in the barn, singing carols and eating potluck, she snuck through the woods to The Downs and trashed the place.”
“When you say trashed the place—”
“She went through every room and all the guests’ things looking for stuff to steal. She ripped open presents. She knocked our Christmas tree through the front window and even smashed the nativity my aunt had on the fireplace mantel.”
They stepped out from under the shelter of the tree canopy into the storm, which seemed to have intensified. Benjamin pulled the cloak over their heads as they jogged to a small shed behind the garage. The shed was windowless, smelled like gasoline and was every bit as cold as the outside air. Harry slipped in ahead of them and curled up by the wall. Piper slipped out from under the cloak and let its full weight fall on Benjamin.
“We never had a lot of money.” She set down the hockey stick and reached for a small battery-powered lamp hanging just inside the door. “So almost all the decorations she destroyed were homemade, mostly by me, including the nativity she broke into bits. A lot of the handmade garlands she ripped into pieces I’d made when I was five or six. The star on the top of the tree was something I’d made out of vintage newspaper when I was about eight, and I couldn’t even find it in the wreckage. It was all too mean and petty for words.”
She ran her hand over her face. And I’m not even telling you the part about how she, or an accomplice, hit me over the head, knocked me out and locked me in the kindling box. Because even the memory of that makes me feel too pathetic and vulnerable for words.
Holding out the lantern, she made her way over to the generator that sat in the corner, silent and cold. She bent down beside it, pushed the button and held it. It didn’t start.
“I’m sorry. It must have been pretty hard to forgive her for all that.” Benjamin’s voice floated behind her in the darkness.
Was it even possible to forgive someone who’d never come back to ask for forgiveness?
She looked back up at Benjamin. “The generator’s not working. Any suggestions?”
“If it’s a motor problem I might be able to fix it. I’ve tinkered around with a lot of boat motors and vehicle engines.” He moved passed her and knelt by her feet. He reached up, took her hand and moved the light over the generator. “Just hold that there, please, and don’t move.”
Thick snow dotted his hair and beard. His eyes were gray-blue in the lamplight. Oddly, she hadn’t noticed the gray in them last summer. When he’d been standing outside waiting for her that last night on the dock by the pavilion, his eyes had seemed as dark and fathomless as the water spreading out behind him.
“Don’t ever marry a sweetheart until you’ve both summered and wintered your romance...” Something Aunt Cass had said flickered in the back of her mind. It had been her aunt’s way of trying to explain in the gentlest way possible why Piper’s mother’s whirlwind marriages never seemed to work.
But why was she remembering that now? She had no future with Benjamin. He wasn’t her sweetheart and this wasn’t a romance. He was just a friend and would be leaving as soon as his truck was repaired.
Benjamin muttered something under his breath. He stood.
“I’m sorry, Piper.” His hands brushed her shoulders. “But it looks like someone sabotaged your generator.”
SIX
“Sabotage?” Piper’s body was shaking. She couldn’t tell if it was from cold, anger or shock.
In an instant, Benjamin had wrapped the cloak back around her shoulders.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Looks like somebody cut the fuel line. Probably why it smells like gas in here.”
Her mouth opened but no words came out.
“And I think somebody stole your gasoline,” he added. “It’s hard to see in the dark, but the tank looks nearly empty. Thankfully, the police are already on their way and we can pick up a new generator tomorrow.”
He was right. There was hardly anything she could do about the situation in the middle of the night. But right now, it just felt like one problem more than she was able to manage. She hung the lantern back on the hook by the door but she didn’t switch it off. Light glowed in the tiny wooden room, sending shadows shifting back and forth across the floor and up the walls. Snow flew in the doorway toward them in a wild frenzy. She knew she should head back to the house, but her legs felt too tired to move.
“Piper?” Benjamin’s voice dropped. “It’s going to be okay. I promise. Before I leave tomorrow, I’m going to help you. My truck won’t be fixed until lunchtime at least. Until then, I’m all yours, whatever you need.”
I’m all yours. It was a common enough turn of phrase she’d heard dozens of times from people who’d offered to lend a spare pair of hands. “You need a baker? You need furniture moved? You just tell me what you need. I’m all yours.” But somehow, hearing it from Benjamin’s mouth right now turned her jaw tighter, like when the dentist used to tighten her childhood braces. Benjamin was there for her, for a brief, limited time, as the kind of friend who chased off intruders and helped with small engine repair. Nothing more.
His arms opened as he stepped toward her and she could practically feel the warmth of his chest, just inches away from hers. Did he think she didn’t notice the support he was offering? Did he have any idea how hard she was fighting the urge to just fall into his arms? He was being a supportive friend and a friend was what she needed. But if she let herself hug him tonight, the simple touch
of his hand could once again set her foolish heart up for failure.
“We might have a portable backup generator,” she said. “I’ll have to ask my uncle where he put it. We only got a permanent one installed a few years ago, after Charlotte—” Sudden tears rushed to her eyes—tears of frustration, exasperation, exhaustion. She blinked hard but still they flooded her voice. “After Charlotte robbed us. The lights on the path wouldn’t light up that night. But Aunt Cass rallied. She called everyone and asked them to bring flashlights and lanterns, and we paraded through the trees to the barn in one long, glorious, beautiful line.”
Piper should have stayed with them in the warm barn, drinking hot apple cider and singing songs about how God touched the earth on Christmas. But instead, when she’d realized Charlotte was missing, she’d grabbed a flashlight and slipped out. The lights had been off at the house. There’d been a swift, hard, painful blow to the head—and she’d woken up alone, terrified and locked in the kindling box beside the woodpile.
The shed door blew shut, cutting off the morbid memory. The lamp fell from the hook, casting shadows at their feet. Her lip quivered. It wasn’t fair how the memories came back to disturb her every Christmas no matter how hard she worked to undo the damage she’d done in trusting Charlotte. Now Charlotte might be back and whatever she’d gotten herself into this time, she was bringing even more chaos, not to mention danger, to The Downs.
“Hey.” Benjamin’s hands touched her shoulders. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.” She’d said the words under her breath, but still he’d managed to hear them.
“Yeah, it is.” He looked into her eyes with that same soulful look he’d given her so many times back on the island. It was a look that said she could trust him. It was a look she’d been so certain meant he was every bit as drawn to her as she was to him. “Or at least, it’s going to be. You’re strong, Piper, and you’re going to get through this. But even the strongest person alive is allowed to fall apart sometimes. So, if you want a comforting hug, or a shoulder to cry on, or even a sparring partner to box a couple of rounds with until the world feels saner, I’m here for you, okay?”
He stepped closer, never breaking eye contact. His hand brushed lightly along her hair, as if he was almost afraid of touching her. Back on the island last summer, they’d jostled and play-fought like pals. Now, though, they both seemed uncertain about touching each other. Slowly, tentatively, his hands slid down her back until they reached her waist. Something pricked deep inside her chest, like a lure slipping inside her rib cage and pulling her toward him.
His breath brushed against her face. “If my flight wasn’t nonrefundable and if I didn’t have that charity sailing voyage, I’d stay a bit longer, as long as you needed me around to get things back on track.”
How long would that have been, exactly? Until Charlotte and whoever was after her were caught? Until the renovations were done and her uncle and aunt moved back in? All the while, he’d be pacing the wooden floors like a mountain lion desperate to run.
The shed door flew open with a bang, a second before the cold wind rushed in. A light flashed across their faces and they leaped apart.
“There you are!” Gavin stood in the doorway, knee-deep in the snow and shivering in a shiny ski jacket that was very stylish but way too thin. He clutched the industrial-sized flashlight she kept hanging beside the stairs for emergencies. “The power is out. The cell towers are out. That ramshackle bed-and-breakfast of yours is so cold my poor Trisha can’t sleep. You do know she’s pregnant?”
Yes, she’d barely seen the heavyset brunette since they’d moved in, but Gavin kept reminding her. Guilt filled her heart. Her guests had actually come tramping out in the snow looking for her—and found her in a shed, a breath away from falling into Benjamin’s arms.
“Young lady, the police are here.” Tobias appeared in the doorway behind Gavin, a long plaid scarf wound several times around his face. “They say they wish to speak to you regarding the incidents tonight. I trust that you’re taking all this seriously.”
“Yes, I’m taking it very seriously.” She wrapped the cloak around herself picked up the hockey stick she’d brought for protection and started for the house, the two guests, Benjamin and the dog following behind her. She felt guilty for leaving Benjamin without the shelter of the cloak. But somehow she felt uncomfortable about the idea of sharing it with him now, too, and knew there was no way Benjamin would take it all for himself. Fortunately the house was only twenty feet away and Benjamin was able to run it in fifteen paces. She probably should have just grabbed two coats to begin with and not brought the hockey stick, but it was the quickest makeshift weapon she’d been able to find. But this wasn’t a game. Charlotte’s own unique brand of chaos was back. Only this time, Piper wasn’t a frightened, trapped girl waiting to be rescued.
She stepped into The Downs’s garage. Warmth filled her body and steam covered her glasses. She slid her glasses up onto the top of her head and stomped the snow off her boots. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize the police had arrived. I didn’t see a car.”
“They’re in the living room with Trisha,” Gavin said through chattering teeth. “They skied here, because the roads are bad and the salters aren’t out yet. What kind of town is it where the cops can’t keep their own roads open?”
A small town, she silently replied, with only a few hundred people, in a place where the roads got really icy.
“I’m sure they’ll be open by morning.” Piper grabbed a towel off a rack by the door, dried her glasses, then dropped to her knees and quickly ran it over Harry’s snow-caked fur. “These things take time.”
“The former mayor of Toronto experienced much derision for calling out the military to clear the snow one year.” Tobias unwound his scarf. “But there is something to be said for military efficiency. Even the British troops were efficient enough during the eighteen hundreds to prime, load and fire at least three musket rounds in under a minute.”
She would have laughed, if she hadn’t suspected the tactics author wasn’t actually trying to be funny. She stood up and started toward the kitchen door. “That’s interesting.”
A heavy hand landed on her shoulder. She turned. Tobias leaned in toward her, his pale eyes focused intensely on her face. “I do want to assure you that if there’s anything I can do, please don’t hesitate to ask. I know how much the pressure of your college studies must be weighing on you, and I have studied extensively about how ordinary human beings react to extraordinary pressures in times of crisis.”
“That’s kind of you.” She forced a smile. “But thankfully my college days are long behind me.”
Though apparently the shadow they’d cast still lingered.
“There are cops in the living room.” A young woman with short brown hair stood in the kitchen doorway. Trisha’s narrow face was so pale it was almost white. A huge bulky sweatshirt swamped her form. Her arms cradled a very round stomach.
“Trisha!” Gavin ran over to her and threw his arm around her. “What are you doing out here? You should be in bed!”
Her red, puffy eyes glanced around the room. Trisha’s voice was so soft and timid it was barely more than a whisper. “How long until the power comes back on?”
“Yeah.” Gavin’s voice rose. “How much longer will be the power be out? Because if it’s much longer, we will be looking for a new hotel and expecting you to refund our stay.”
Piper wouldn’t blame them if they did. She closed her eyes, then drew in a deep breath and let it out again as she silently prayed. Lord, it’s the middle of the night. I’m exhausted. I’m overwhelmed. But as much as I need money to renovate The Downs, these people came here looking for a safe place to stay.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to close The Downs, at least for the next few days.” She forced herself to say the words first. Then she opened her eyes
.
Trisha’s gaze dropped to the floor, Gavin gasped as if she’d just stolen his air and Tobias started to argue. She held up her hand and kept talking too quickly for them to get a word in. “I’ll still be going ahead with the Christmas Eve event in the barn, and you’ll all be welcome to come for that. But I have no choice but to close the bed-and-breakfast to guests. There’ve been two different armed trespassers on the property in the past few hours, the power is out and the weather is freezing. I will find you new rooms at good hotels in the morning, reimburse your stay and cover any financial difference. Again, I’m sorry.”
“Sorry’s not good enough.” Gavin let go of Trisha and stormed toward her. He stepped in so close she could almost taste the stale smell of liquor on his breath. His finger jabbed toward her face. “Do you have any idea the inconvenience you’ve put us through?”
Did he have any idea what she was dealing with? All he had to do was change hotels.
Tobias took Trisha by the arm and steered her back into the kitchen.
Piper crossed her arms and faced Gavin’s glare. “Again, I apologize. But there’s only so much I can do.”
“Oh, there’s plenty you can and will do to make this right.” Gavin snorted. “You think I didn’t do my homework? You think I don’t know there’s not another decent hotel within half an hour’s drive of here?”
“Hey, man, back off and give her some space, all right?” Benjamin calmly but firmly stepped between them. His hand brushed Gavin’s arm. “She’s doing the best she can.”
And she was also capable of fighting her own battles and of hollering for the cops in the living room if she felt threatened. She wouldn’t hide behind Benjamin now. Gavin was right about the lack of good hotels in the area, especially ones that offered full suites like The Downs. Depending on how long it took her to find her guests vacancies at this time of year, Benjamin might end up hitting the road before they did.
Christmas Blackout Page 5
