House on the Forgotten Coast

by Ruth Coe Chambers

  Ty drove through town, tapped the horn twice when they passed Peyton’s Shoe Store, and then made a left turn onto Highway 98. “Your mom made a big mistake letting me drive their car. I could get to like this.”

  Elise laughed. “I’m sure you could.”

  The Jaguar glided down the highway, sleek and easy as the animal whose name it bore. It was sunrise, and the morning light skipped over the bay, highlighting the simplicity of a quiet town. Elise turned and looked back as Apalach faded from sight. She swallowed hard, but refused to let go of the tears welling in her eyes.

  By the time they arrived in Tallahassee, her furniture had been delivered and the power turned on. When they unlocked the door to her apartment, Ty asked, “Want me to carry you over the threshold?”

  She gave him a look of pure fear and he laughed. “I was only joking.”

  “It isn’t that. I was thinking of the first time I walked into the riverboat house and how I felt like a bride. Lord, that was so long ago.”

  When the car was unloaded and things were fairly settled, Ty said, “Now, I’m taking you to dinner at the Silver Slipper—if it’s still there—so we can celebrate. And I have news, something to tell you.”

  “That’s so sweet, Ty, but would you mind if we had something delivered and ate here? I’d like to share my first meal in my own place with you.”

  He put his hands on her shoulders and smiled. “How could I turn down an offer like that? Sure we can eat here, if that’s what you want. I’ll have to get on the road before it gets too late though. Better get this car back before they start looking for me.”

  “Don’t forget they have your truck. They might have a couple of hounds by now, but I know you’re tired and it’s getting late.”

  When the pizza was delivered, and they were settled at the table, Elise said, “Now what’s this news you want to tell me?”

  Ty put a piece of pizza on his plate and wiped his hands before answering. “I guess there’s no way to do this but just say it. I don’t want to bring up bad memories for you or anything, but I bought the Myers’ place.”

  She swallowed hard. “You what!”

  “Yep. I have the deed and everything. I’m doing some work for the county in exchange. I want to restore it. I know you loved that house and that somehow the Myers seemed like family to you. You were happy there. I want you to tell me everything about it, and I’ll restore the house any way you want it.”

  “You’d do that for me?” Tears slid down her cheeks.

  “That’s what I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to make you sad.”

  “Oh, Ty, I’m not sad. I’m overcome.”

  “There’s more.”

  “More?”

  “I want it to be our home. I want to marry you and take you there to live. If that’s what you want.” He pushed his chair back and dropped to one knee. “Like a true gentleman,” he said. He took the diamond engagement ring from his pocket and held it poised to place on her finger.

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “You’re supposed to say yes.”

  “Oh, yes! Yes! Yes!” She dropped to her knees beside him and he took her in his arms. They fell over and started laughing until he began to kiss her.

  Much later she walked him to the door. “You are a good person.”

  “Good-intentioned,” he countered.

  “You remembered I said that.”

  “I never forget anything you say.”

  “Then remember this. I have a four letter ‘l’ word for you, and it isn’t like.”

  He kissed her again. “I thought so a long time ago, but I decided not to push my luck.”

  They were walking to the car when she stopped him. “Ty, that’s it.”

  “What?”

  “The name of your company. Wood Intentions.”

  “Wood Intentions? See, I knew you could do it. It’s perfect. Like classical music. Wood Intentions.”

  PEYTON LOOKED UP FROM THE cash register and saw Dallas.

  “I know Elise left this morning so I thought I’d come cheer you up.”

  “Where you taking me today, darlin’?”

  “Our place.”

  “Gladys’s?”

  “Now aren’t you the smartest thing? See how fast you catch on?”

  When they passed A Touch of Class, Peyton said, “Wait here a minute. I want to yell at Margaret.”

  She was in the back room bringing out some new stationery. She looked startled but not unhappy to see him.

  “Elise came by yesterday to say goodbye. I want to compliment you on raising a fine girl. She’s always touched my heart but never so much as yesterday.” He started out of the shop, and she called to him.

  “Sorry, darlin’, Dallas is waiting.” And there she was, sweet and patient, just where he’d left her. “I wanted to tell Margaret what a fine girl she’d raised.”

  “You don’t owe me any explanations, Peyton.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  There were several other couples in the coffee shop. “Gladys is building up her business,” Dallas commented. She looked down at the blue checked tablecloths. “We’re coming up in the world. Graduated from oilcloth to cotton. What next?”

  Peyton blew on his coffee and looked at her over the rim of his cup. She rubbed her hand across the squares as though to remove a crumb.

  “Penny for your thoughts.”

  “I was just thinking about the simplicity of this place,” she said, “the comfort it brings me.”

  “You sure it’s not just me.”

  “You?” she laughed. “That brings you the comfort. After all, I’m keeping you in Coca-Cola and peanuts.”

  “You would think that. Just like a man. Seriously though, I am comfortable here with you, Peyton.”

  “Dallas, could I ask a favor of you, a big favor?”

  “You can ask anything you like. I won’t promise to deliver though.”

  “I know Margaret feels indebted to you for your leasing her that property and then all you’ve done to help out while Elise was sick. Ask her to sell you that cheval Sarah left. I’ll give you whatever price she asks.”

  “Good lord, Peyton, why would I want it?”

  “I don’t know. Make up some story about longing for it since you were a little girl.”

  “You want it?”

  “Yep, I sure do.”

  “Why?”

  “Maybe I’ll find me a pretty woman in that mirror.”

  “Be serious.”

  “Because it reminds me of Elise.”

  “Elise and not Sarah?”

  “Elise. I hadn’t even thought of Sarah.”

  “Peyton, I want to tell you here and now that I felt bad about Sarah. I never told you, but I thought she made a big mistake not marrying you.”

  He clasped Dallas’s hand across the table. “I appreciate your saying that. Yeah, I was crazy about her all right. I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t always feel something for her, but it doesn’t hurt any more. Hasn’t in years.”

  “I’m glad to know that. Here I’ve been wasting all this sympathy on you thinking you were heartsick.”

  “Horny maybe. Not heartsick.”

  “Heartsick I can handle.”

  “You can handle . . .”

  “Stop, Peyton. I don’t want to hear it.”

  “Oh, Dallas, I’m just an old man trying to have some fun.”

  “You didn’t act like an old man when you came to my house that morning and woke me up. Quite the opposite.”

  “I didn’t think you noticed.”

  “Oh, I noticed. Have to admit I was a bit flattered.” She laughed. “Why, Peyton Roberts, I do believe you’re blushing.”

  “You’re a wanton woman.”

  “You wish.”

  “Will you do it?”

  It was Dallas’s turn to blush. “Do it?”

  Peyton gave her a wicked smile. “Get the cheval.”

  “Oh! The cheval. Yes, I’ll try to g
et it for you.”

  “I didn’t want to ask you until Elise left. I didn’t want her to know.”

  “She’ll find out sooner or later.”

  “Yeah, but later is always better. You know, for years she had a thing about mirrors. Could never look in one. She’d been frightened by something in a mirror when she was a child. That was the first thing I noticed about her. She came in the store one day to buy sunglasses and never even looked at herself in the mirror. I’d never seen a girl buy glasses and not look at herself. I like to think she looked at herself in that cheval once, that her image is there someplace.”

  “Why, Peyton. All these years I’ve been telling people what an educated, sensitive man you are, and now I guess I’ll have to believe it myself.”

  Peyton held her gaze. “You’re one sweet woman, you know that? Best day’s work Tom Anderson ever did was the day he married you.”

  “As hard as my Tom worked, I’ll take that as a real compliment, Peyton.”

  “Well, it’s the God’s truth. Did you ever know I was sweet on you at one time, Dallas?”

  “Oh, go on. You weren’t!”

  “I sure as hell was. When you married Tom I realized what a fool I’d been to have ever wasted time on Sarah. And back then I’d never even seen you in that yellow robe.”

  She batted her eyes at him in a seductive manner. “I was desirable, you know.”

  “You still are, darlin’, you still are.”

  ELISE’S THREE YEARS OF SCHOOLING passed quickly and slowly. Quickly, in terms of getting to know herself. She accepted her years of unhappiness as karma and knew these things could happen to old souls. Still, the time passed slowly until she could be with Ty.

  Dear Ty, who always understood. He voiced no objections when she asked that their wedding date be the same as Annelise’s had been, the ceremony in the same church. “Still trying to make it up to her, huh?”

  “Yes, in a way.”

  What worried Ty was Elise’s insistence that Edwin not give her away in marriage. It wasn’t a pleasant discussion, more on her mother’s part than Edwin’s, but Elise was adamant. She tried to be as kind as possible and made up something about her real father and so on, but she knew it’d always be a sore spot.

  “I didn’t ask Peyton to give me away because he’s become the successful author, Ty. I did it because I love him.”

  “I know you do, and he loves you. I never knew Peyt wanted to write though. Never thought he could do it. All the times I went to his office and saw him working on that book, I didn’t think he could pull it off. He said you were his inspiration, you and a letter. I thought I was the only man in your life, and there you were writing to Peyton.”

  “No. I gave him the letter before I left for school, and it wasn’t from me. It was from Annelise.”

  “Now, Elise . . .”

  “Peyton would tell you the same thing,” she interrupted. “It was a love letter she had to share before she could go to her rest.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I say so.”

  21

  My darling Annelise,

  I write this letter in the bedroom that was to be your bridal chamber. I thought I would be coming for you tonight to take you away with me. Instead I can only write a letter to tell you what’s in my heart, what I would have told you had you lived to be mine. I am a murderer but not for the crime of which I am accused. Coulton did that. That’s why I had to get you away from him even before I had a chance to clear my name.

  Coulton was clever, deceitful. He let me finish building this house before he told your father he just remembered where he’d known me. He said I was wanted for murder in Alabama, that I had killed a young woman there. I knew who he was the first time I saw him here. I’d have known that white suit anywhere. I kept my mouth shut because I didn’t want to leave you. But murder? I didn’t know what he was talking about.

  When I left without a goodbye, it was to go back to Alabama and find out what he meant. That’s where I first knew him, in Alabama where I had rented a small cottage from an elderly man, Mr. Morgan. He had a young invalid daughter I befriended. She was born with deformed legs and never walked. Carrie had a little pug dog she adored. I did a charcoal likeness of him for her. She was grateful, and we became friends.

  Later, when Mr. Morgan fell ill, Carrie told me he had sent for their only relation, a distant cousin named Coulton. She’d only seen him once. She’d been a small child then. He was slick. I saw that right off. All soft voiced and manners. Never saw him in anything but a white suit.

  I did odd jobs for the barrister Mr. Morgan hired to handle his estate. I was repairing a desk for him and saw the papers there in plain sight. In exchange for looking after Carrie, in case of Mr. Morgan’s death, Mr. Morgan agreed to make Coulton beneficiary of half his estate. Carrie’s condition shortened her lifespan. She wasn’t expected to live past twenty-five. When she died, Coulton would inherit her half of the estate as well. It would be an impressive inheritance.

  It wasn’t long before I came home one night to find the house locked, my belongings in the yard, and Coulton sitting on the porch like he owned the place. He accused me of making improper advances on Carrie. Said she told him she was afraid of me. I knew it was all a lie and started to the big house to see what was going on. Coulton called after me, said he’d tell Mr. Morgan if I attempted to see Carrie, that no one would believe me. Mr. Morgan wouldn’t take a stranger’s word over a relative’s. Mr. Morgan was a fine man, had been good to me, and he was sick.

  I came back, tied my things in an old quilt and left. I didn’t need that kind of grief. Neither did Mr. Morgan. I went to Louisiana for awhile and then here. And then Coulton shows up. I figured Mr. Morgan had regained his health. I never went back to find out. I was in love with you by then and had no interest in going back.

  I avoided Coulton every way I could, but he had me again. Told your father he hadn’t been able to place me though I’d looked familiar to him. Once I finished the house, his memory returned. He remembered me then. Said I was wanted in Alabama for murdering a young girl. I had no way of knowing Carrie had been murdered, that I was a hunted man. He killed her with my finishing knife. Buster too. Killed her little dog. The knife was a gift from Carrie after I did the likeness of Buster. My initials were carved on it so there was no mistaking it was mine. I thought I’d lost it when I moved. When Mr. Morgan heard Carrie was dead, he died of a heart attack and made Coulton a rich man.

  I learned all this when I left here and went back to Alabama. I wanted to clear my name, but like I told you, when I found out you were

  marrying Coulton, I had to get back. I couldn’t let him do to you what he’d done to Carrie.

  I don’t care what people think of me. I don’t have any family. I don’t have you. Nothing matters any more. I’ll just keep moving, but Coulton won’t hurt anyone else, not in this lifetime.

  When the candle flame flickered in here I knew someone had opened the front door. I’d just finished putting your picture in the back of the cheval I’d built. I’d made a cover, planning to surprise you. Without the cover, you’d always be visible in the cheval, mirrored, or in the painting.

  I got as far as the hall when Coulton was there at the top of the stairs. We fought. Not an even match. He was soft, and I knew I had him in muscle and anger. I told you I wasn’t a murderer, but I am. I broke Coulton’s neck. His body is at the top of the hidden stairway. It’ll be a long time before they find him, and by then I’ll be miles away. Anyhow, you and Coulton were the only ones who knew I’d come back. Without you, I’m not alive so I don’t care what happens.

  Well, my darling. I’m putting this letter behind your picture. It’s the closest I can come to you. You never looked at the painting so you don’t know that I’m there too. I painted my likeness in the mirror to show you were looking back at me, our eyes meeting for all eternity.

  My own dear love. I miss you unbearably.

  Seth


  Peyton’s book made him an instant celebrity. Even his former love, Sarah, came back to Apalach to watch him personally sign her copy. With a little encouragement, she would have stayed, but she didn’t get it from Peyton.

  Margaret Foster had the book prominently displayed in the front window of her shop. Peyton said he might not have the best-written book, but there wasn’t another one that smelled better. He had a few copies by his cash register but refused to display it more than that. Bookstores on “the island” invited him for signings and were generous with window displays.

  It was a beautiful book to display. The oval cheval on the cover with the faint reflection of a lovely girl. Ornate gold lettering showcased the title:

  HOUSE ON THE FORGOTTEN COAST

  The story of a young woman who returns from the grave to clear her lover’s name

  22

  On a sunny afternoon in early May, Elise and Ty were married in the historic Trinity Episcopal Church. Her grandmother’s pearls hung luminous against the ivory lace of her mother’s wedding dress, a simple but elegant style more becoming to Elise than it had been to Margaret. The church was crowded, but Elise could pick out Miss Nadine sitting in one of the pews reserved for family. And near the front she saw some of the bridge club ladies, Francis, Sue, and Lucille. All these people were a part of her life now.

  Before she marched down the aisle on Peyton’s arm, she drew a deep breath and looked up at the stenciled ceiling, just as Annelise must have done.

  Peyton patted her hand. “You okay, darlin’?”

  “Never better.”

  “You got a mighty handsome groom waiting for you up there, not to mention your matron of honor.”

  “Dallas Roberts. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it, Peyton?”

  “Sure does, hon. Roberts is the name of the game here today.” Music from the antique organ flooded the room, Elise knew, just as it had for Annelise. She swallowed hard, lifted her veil, and kissed Peyton. “I’m so glad we’ll soon be relatives.” He patted her hand, and they began their march down the aisle.