by Alexie Aaron
“I’m still worried about his pride.”
“What if I asked him? You know how he would do anything for me.”
Mia smiled and moved Renee’s long brown hair away from her face. “No, honey, it should be me.”
Mia walked into the library to see Stephen concentrating on a large tome. She walked over and played with a lock of his graying-chestnut hair. She was confused. Shouldn’t it have been curly?
“Yes, dear?” he asked, cleaning the round, metal-framed glasses he wore.
“Stephen, Renee thinks that we should take on a boarder. The money would come in handy…”
“I can’t have you take on any extra work. As it is, you’re pregnant, and we don’t want to lose this child.”
Mia ran her hand over the small bulge on her abdomen. “Is that why you have kept from my bed?”
“The doctor says we can’t take the chance. We will have plenty of time to love once our son is born.”
“Or daughter,” Mia reminded him.
“I feel certain it will be a boy,” Stephen said. “If you promise to let the maid and cook do all the work for you, then I agree we should take on a boarder. Let me put in a card at my gentleman’s club. We can’t just take someone off the street into our home. It just isn’t done.”
~
“What is taking Mia so long? Mike, go and help her with the packages,” Glenda insisted.
Mike walked into the foyer and saw the dropped bags. “MIA! MURPHY!” he called. “Come on, fun’s over. Mia, get your ass over here. MURPHY! No, no, no…” he said, running back into the kitchen. “They’re gone.”
Audrey ran over and pounded on the door of the butler pantry.
“What’s the emergency?” Burt asked. “Hello, Glenda,” he said, spying Mrs. Dupree.
“Mia’s gone. We think Murphy too,” Audrey told them.
“Where?” Ted asked, panicking.
“The entrance hall. The foyer. They were helping Glenda with her bags.”
Ted ran the camera feed of the front door back to see Glenda’s entrance. Mia went out the door and picked up a few of the bags. Murphy must have been with her because his misty-blue shape moved beside her with another set of packages. They looked up in the direction of the stairs and then disappeared.
Ted shook his head. “They know what’s going on, right? Let’s go up to the attic,” he said.
Audrey slid into the chair Ted vacated. “Come on, Jake, let’s look for Mia and Stephen,” she prodded.
Ted and Cid ran up the stairs. They opened the door to find the attic empty.
“Maybe it’s too soon.”
“Or the scenario has changed,” Ted said. “Tell me everything, Cid. I won’t get mad.”
Cid did so.
“Mia will know when she kisses Murphy,” Cid insisted.
“Mia and Murphy have kissed before,” Ted told him.
“But they haven’t, you know…”
“No. But what if the girl keeps them from each other, then…”
“We have to depend on Murphy figuring it out. Have faith. The only problem I see is that the two of them are so used to each other they are…”
“Like an old married couple,” Ted filled in. “What am I going to tell her parents and Brian? I lost Mia thirty feet from me?” He sunk down to the floor.
“We have to figure out why this is going on,” Cid insisted. “Then we’ll be able to know how to help them.”
Burt puffed his way over to them. He had a tripod with a camera attached. “Let’s put this up here. We will know if the vortex opens.”
“I have the Rem-Pod with the EMF Detector,” Mike said, arriving almost on his heels. “We’ll hear the signal with the slightest change in heat or vibration.”
Ted put his hand to his forehead. “Is this it? Is this all we can do?”
“Remember, the two best ghost hunters are involved. Once they figure this out, they will find a way home or a way to contact us,” Burt said. “Come on, I don’t want to leave the ladies on their own.”
Ted accepted a hand up.
~
Mia put on her wrapper. She couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t sleep alone. Stephen had taken one of the rooms down the hall. He said he couldn’t trust himself. The child she carried was too important to him. But she missed her husband especially at night. She tiptoed past Renee’s room and quietly opened the door to where she knew Stephen was sleeping. She walked over and sat on the edge of the bed and watched him. His eyes opened.
“I thought I told you, no,” he said.
“I’m just looking at you, husband,” Mia said. “I couldn’t sleep.”
Stephen pulled the covers back and scooted over. Mia took off her wrapper and climbed in beside him. She laid down next to the man she loved.
He caught a bit of color on her chest as she arranged her nightclothes. “Darling, what is this?” he asked, unbuttoning the top of her nightgown.
Mia looked down at the tattoo, puzzled. She reached for her husband and opened his shirt. “Something’s wrong,” she said. “You should have one on your shoulder.”
“Mother!” Renee called.
Mia got out of bed and rushed down the hall to Renee’s room. “What’s wrong?” she asked, holding the shaking girl.
“I had another nightmare.”
Stephen came into the room and helped Mia into the warm wrapper. “You must take care, Mia. No more wandering the halls at night,” he said.
“Mother, sleep with me tonight,” Renee begged.
Mia looked over at her husband and sighed. “Yes. I’ll stay.”
Stephen closed the door on his girls. He walked back to his room. He thought about the strange tattoo and his wife’s insistence that he should have one too. He lay down and smelled her perfume on his pillow and smiled. Maybe tonight he would dream of Mia.
It took a while for Mia to fall asleep. She looked around her daughter’s room. She thought it was too grownup for a girl of ten. She had expensive dishes instead of dolls. A very ornate bowl lined with crushed shells, a coffee set fit for a queen, and porcelain cups and saucers were perched on the shelves.
Renee giggled in her sleep. Mia turned over and closed her eyes, hoping to dream of something so happy it would make her giggle too.
~
“So you’re telling me that Mia and Murphy are stuck in this house in another time?” Glenda asked.
“No, not exactly just another time, but a different dimension. We had something similar happen involving a teenage boy…” Burt went on to explain Jerry and the cheerleader. “He did all of this so he could have that date he wanted so much.”
“So you think that if we could figure out what the girl wants then…” Glenda started.
“We can save them,” Mike finished.
“May I interject something?” Cid asked.
“Sure, Cid, go ahead,” Burt said.
“When I was caught up in the haunt, I swear it was another time. The only players weren’t just me, Murphy, Mia, and the girl. The house had servants, and I remembered hearing wagons outside.”
“What did Mia look like?” Ted asked.
The same as she does now except she was in clothes of another period. When I buttoned her top button, I remember seeing the tattoo. Surely that will jog Murphy’s memory.
Ted colored.
“Ted, they are caught up in something outside of their control,” Cid said. “I believed I was a poor teacher. I had to put on glasses to see. Mia was my wife, Ted. I can remember the day I asked her to marry me. I can remember her shy assent and the kisses she let me steal. This is how real it is.”
Mike looked over at Burt, worried. Could Cid and Ted’s friendship survive this?
Ted took a deep breath. “Mia is very observant.”
“I think that the ghost learned something from the first time. She needs to keep Mia and Murphy apart as much as possible,” Audrey interjected. “Stephen will wonder why his wife is tattooed, and Mia will want to know why he
isn’t.”
“Why does she need them? Come on, team, we can figure this out,” Mike said. “Get your head into this, Ted. Put that big brain of yours to work and give Cid a pass.”
Ted nodded.
“Teacher, heiress, daughter, and boarder,” Mike listed. “These are the people involved. Let’s find out what happened.”
“Can I ask you a question, Cid?” Glenda asked.
Cid nodded.
“Why did you refer to her as Mia?”
“Because that’s who she was,” Cid answered. “She called me Cid.”
“But she would have had another name, the woman she is replacing, and you too. You are standing in for other people aren’t you?” Glenda asked.
“At this point, I can only guess,” Cid admitted.
“This ghost is smart. It knew that, inside, you would never be convinced you were anyone else but Cid,” Audrey said.
“I get the feeling this ghost has done this before,” Burt realized. “Audrey, get Jake to look for missing persons in groups of three from around here.”
“When?” she asked.
“That’s a good question,” Burt said.
“How about starting with the time the house stood empty,” Glenda suggested.
“One more thing before we separate,” Ted said. He pulled out an indelible marker from his pocket. “I’m going to write a message to myself, Mia and Murphy on my skin. If Mia’s tattoo made it past the ghost’s watchful eyes, then perhaps this will too.”
“Why are you doing this?” Mike asked.
“The ghost has her parents, but she still needs a boarder,” Ted said, handing the marker to Cid, who pulled open Ted’s shirt and started to write on his upper arm. When he was done, he handed it to Burt and then Mike.
When they were finished, Audrey raised her sleeve. “Just in case the boarder is now a woman.”
Glenda nodded and had Audrey copy the message on her arm too.
~
Mia looked across the table at her husband. He was reading the paper. She studied the way he folded and refolded the paper so he could read as he ate. The maid tried to refill Mia’s cup.
“No thank you, Mary, I’ve had my fill. Husband, would you walk with me in the garden before you leave for the club?” she asked.
Stephen smiled indulgently at his wife. He could tell she missed their alone time. He would walk with her in the garden. Perhaps a few kisses would hold her over.
Renee smiled watching her parents. This time she’d found the right pair. She was pleased how easily the woman accepted that she was pregnant. Feeding the information that she could miscarry would keep the woman and the man from becoming too intimate.
Mia held Stephen’s hand. She looked over at him and expected him to be taller. Where had she gotten the idea that he was much taller than her?
Stephen waited until they were behind the lilac bushes before he drew Mia into his arms and kissed her. He tasted the remembered lips and drew her tightly to his body. His body betrayed his resolve, but Mia was wooden in his arms; it seemed that she had strengthened hers.
Mia’s eyes opened, and then clouded with tears. Where was the passion she was used to feeling when her husband kissed her? Stephen’s kisses were nice, and he seemed to be enjoying hers, but the heat was gone. She felt nothing more than obligation to this man. How had she so suddenly fallen out of love?
“Mia, what is wrong? Are you unwell?” he asked.
“I think it’s the baby. My constitution is unbalanced, husband,” she explained.
Stephen moved his hand over her stomach. He knelt and kissed the small bump. “Our son’s welfare must come first.”
Mia looked down at Stephen and was puzzled by the lack of a hat. There should be a hat on his head. She ran her hands through his graying chestnut hair. When she closed her eyes, she imagined it auburn and curly. When she opened them, it seemed right.
“Soon the child will be stable, and I can come back into your bed. You’ll feel better then,” Stephen promised, getting to his feet.
“Yes, husband,” Mia said, doubting his words. Something was wrong with her. Maybe she should see the doctor.
~
Jake found several trios of missing persons throughout the last century. There were a few Roustans who went missing only to appear months later on the grounds dead of starvation. He morphed into the Marvin persona and blew a warning trumpet.
Audrey pulled out the printed copy of the facts. “Ted!” she shouted.
He ran in.
“Remember when I was abducted by Jerry?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“I ate food and drank water, but it didn’t nourish me. The people who had been there longer than me were dying of dehydration and starvation.”
“Yes… Oh no!” he cried as Audrey pointed out the condition of the corpses that had been found.
“Murphy will be fine, but Mia…”
Ted slammed his hand down hard on the table.
Cid walked in. He put a comforting hand on Ted’s shoulder. “We’ll get them out. It’s just going to take a little time.”
“Mia could starve or become dehydrated in the meanwhile,” Ted said. “I’m going to roam around the house alone. Hopefully, the ghost will take me.”
“Young man,” Glenda said from the doorway and continued, “The ghost is looking for a gentleman or a gentleman boarder. In your present getup, you look more like a manic teenager.”
Audrey looked at Ted and nodded.
“Take off that goldurn hat and put on a decent shirt.”
Mike, who had overheard his mother, unbuttoned his shirt and handed it to Ted.
Ted buttoned up the shirt and tried to pull a comb through the curls on his head. Audrey stood on the chair and snatched the comb away. She moved her fingers quickly through the curls and found a long lost part. She managed to style Ted’s hair close to the time period in which Cid had claimed he had existed. “There.”
Burt waited in the kitchen. He knew he couldn’t stop Ted from doing this, but he had a hard time accepting that this was the only way out of this problem. He had contacted the care facility that was still home to the remaining Roustan. He was awaiting permission to visit Grace Roustan Anderson from her grand-nephew Dale Anderson. He watched Ted walk out of the kitchen to wander the house hoping to be picked up by the ghost.
Burt didn’t see her until he turned around. There, standing in the corner, was a slight female about ten years in age. She smiled and curtsied. “Hello, I’m Rene Roustan. My mother will be with you in a few moments.”
Chapter Six
“Mother!” Renee called.
Mia, who had been cutting roses in the garden, got to her feet. “Over here by the roses, Renee.”
Mia brushed off her gown. She lifted the hem that had become damp on the dew-laden grass. There was something wrong with her shoes, but she couldn’t figure it out. She looked up and was surprised by the man who accompanied her daughter. Mia dropped her hem, embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t expect a guest.”
Burt, who had a hard time disguising that he had caught a glimpse of a very shapely calf, smiled. “I’m Burt Hicks. I’m here to see about a room.”
Mia looked the man over. He was a stout, prosperous looking man in his thirties. He had a handsome face and kind eyes. “Mia Roustan.” She reached forward and held out her hand.
He took it softly in his and nodded. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Have we met before, Mr. Hicks?” Mia asked.
“You too look familiar. I just recently arrived from New York. Perhaps there?”
Mia took her hand back. “No, I’ve never been there.”
“Mr. Hicks has come about the room,” Renee reminded her mother.
“Yes, sorry, my mind is scattered these days. Let me get these roses in, and I’ll show you to your room.”
“May I?” Burt asked, picking up the basket. Their hands brushed, and Mia was warmed by the connection.
&nb
sp; “Thank you, Mr. Hicks. I’m not supposed to be doing too much lifting these days.”
“My mother is going to have a baby,” Renee blurted out.
Burt and Mia blushed. “Renee, that’s not a subject for mixed company,” Mia scolded.
“Congratulations,” Burt said to ease the tension. “Are there other children?” he asked.
“No, Renee is our only child. I’ve had trouble carrying to term,” Mia admitted sadly.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Burt said.
They climbed the stairs to the second floor. “My husband and I thought that you would appreciate a room over the library. It’s away from the clatter of the kitchen and has a nice view of the garden,” Mia said, opening the door.
Burt looked in at the large room and nodded. He walked over and put his valise on the floor by the bed. He sat down on the bed and nodded again. “I think this will do just fine.”
“Breakfast is served at seven, and dinner is served rather early at six. We like to eat with our daughter, Mr. Hicks. I hope that will be satisfactory?”
“Yes, I’ll be taking my lunches out.”
“I’ll leave you to unpack. I’ll see you at dinner, Mr. Hicks,” Mia said and closed the door.
She looked at the closed door a moment.
“Mother, what is the matter?” Renee asked.
“That man smells familiar, like oily cakes,” Mia said. “I wonder if I can convince cook to make some.”
“Your first craving!” Renee announced with glee.
“Yes,” Mia said, worried that her craving was more for the man who smelled like the pastry than the oily cakes themselves.
~
Ted walked back into the kitchen after checking all the batteries of the cameras. He hadn’t been approached by the ghost, and he started to lose heart.
Mike was on the phone. He held up his hand to get Ted’s attention. “Ted, could you tell Burt that we’re going to send Glenda and Audrey to talk to Mrs. Anderson instead?”
“Sure, where is he?”
