The Ghosts of Summerleigh Collection

by M. L. Bullock

  “I’m sorry, Harper. I didn’t know Lenny would jump out. He’s never done that before. He’s a good frog. Honest he is.” I collapsed on the pallet and covered my face with my hands. My broken heart weighed heavy in my chest like a ton of lead. Even though she was the baby of the family, Loxley held me as I cried. After a few minutes of stroking my hair, she said, “I’m sorry, Harper. Really, I am. Did she hurt you real bad?” Her eyes were fearful and full of tears.

  For her sake, I lied, “Not too bad.” I sat up now and did what older sisters were supposed to do. I comforted Loxley, and we held one another a few minutes. “Loxley, tell me the truth. Do you ever see Jeopardy? I have to know. Is Jeopardy here…is she a ghost?”

  Loxley slowly shook her head. “I never see Jeopardy, but I look for her, Harper. Honest, I have tried. Daddy comes sometimes, but he doesn’t talk to me. I can see his mouth moving, but I can’t hear him. He looks sad now. And he doesn’t smile anymore.”

  “Is he…does he look like he always did?” He’s not bloody, is he? Tell me he doesn’t look like a bloody fiend.

  “Yes, he looks the same.” She wrinkled her neat blond brows and said, “But he’s not the only one here.”

  “The lady ghost? Do you see her?”

  “Not much, but the other night I heard tapping on my window.” She tapped at the air. “It was real soft, like how Jeopardy used to tap on your window when she wanted to come inside. But when I got up to look for Jeopardy, it was just the boy, the mean one who comes around sometimes. He used to stay upstairs, but now he goes all over the place, even outside. He has black eyes, Harper, and he scares me. He scratches me sometimes.”

  I didn’t have any sisterly advice, so I just nodded thoughtfully, and suddenly her eyes brimmed with tears again. “He…he made me cut up your dress, Harper. I’m so sorry. He said I had to do it or something horrible would happen to you. He gave me the scissors.”

  Stunned at her confession, I held her and said nothing else. All this time, I had believed that Jeopardy had destroyed the dress Momma had let me borrow for the Harvest Dance. I believed that Jeopardy wanted to hurt me, and she’d been innocent the whole time. Loxley and I both gasped as the attic door creaked open, but it was only Addison who stepped inside. I waved at her to join us on the pallet.

  She didn’t say, “I’m sorry.” Addison rarely apologized, but just her being here was proof of her repentance. I held her too, and the three of us sobbed together until we were all cried out. I opened the window to cool the room, and soon my sisters and I fell asleep. No one came to look for us. Not like the day Aunt Dot came to tell us that Daddy had died. I shuddered to think of him bleeding out pinned inside his old truck. Momma didn’t like coming up here, not since that ghost pushed her down the stairs. And I knew it was a ghost because I’d seen her with my own two eyes. The door hung open for a while and didn’t move again. But just as I closed my eyes, I saw the door open wider.

  “Jeopardy?” I asked as sleep took me under. It was then that I saw him. I hovered between sleep and wakefulness, and I was unable to move or speak. I couldn’t cry out or warn my sisters. It was as if I were paralyzed. At first, I saw a black form—blacker than a crow’s wing, blacker than the darkness that enveloped the attic. But then the blackness became something else. It was a gray mist and had a shape, a boy’s shape. And now, by some strange magic, I could see him clear as day.

  He stared at me with perfect hatred, and then a black smile crossed his face.

  Chapter One—Jerica Poole

  Present Day

  Sawdust floated in the sunlight that shone through the new parlor windows. The roof repairs were finally finished, but I was a long way from completing Summerleigh’s restoration. The combined scents of fresh paint and new wood thrilled my soul, and I pretended that the progress made the Belle home feel lighter. Happier. But I knew I was only fooling myself. Despite the activity, the constant stream of people coming in and out of the old plantation, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we weren’t alone here…and we weren’t wanted. I couldn’t understand it. Jeopardy and John Jeffrey Belle were together now. Together and free from the sins of the past. Why would they linger at Summerleigh?

  And now Ben Hartley was standing in the Great Room, and he wasn’t happy. “Please, Jerica. Please reconsider what you’re doing. You have done enough here. Harper never expected you to do all this. She wanted you to bring Jeopardy home, and you did that. Take what’s left of the money—she wanted you to have it—take it and go home.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I wiped the sweat from my brow and tugged off my gloves, shoving them in my back pocket. “I don’t understand, Ben. I thought you would want this. You love Summerleigh…I know you do.”

  “I loved Harper, Jerica. Not this place. I never loved this place,” he confessed as he cast his eyes around the room and then at the ceiling. Yes, I heard the footsteps too, but it was only Jesse checking out the floors on the second level.

  “Is it the money, Ben? I’m staying on budget, and there’s plenty left to complete the repairs.”

  “It’s not that. You can do what you want with the money, as that was Harper’s wish. But what happens after you finish all this? Do you plan to stay here at Summerleigh? Raise a family? What are your intentions?”

  Before I could respond, Jesse walked through the front door with his new helper, Emanuel, trailing behind him. If Jesse wasn’t upstairs walking around, who was? I gulped as Ben stared back at me, obviously hoping for an answer.

  Get a grip, Jerica Poole. There are people all over the place in here today.

  “I’ll be honest, Ben. I don’t have an end game, but I need to do this.” I waved my hands at the construction happening around us. “I want to honor Harper’s generosity, leave a legacy in her name. And I don’t want the Belle girls to be forgotten, not Harper and not Jeopardy. None of them. They deserve better than that.”

  Ben shook his head sadly and sighed. He clutched his old-fashioned hat in his hand and flinched at the sound of the nail gun going off in the other room.

  “Come in the kitchen. You have to see what we’ve accomplished.” I hoped showing him our progress would appease him or at least make him happier. I hated seeing him upset. Ben had been Harper’s friend, and I cared about him. I didn’t quite understand their relationship and was certainly curious about it, but I wasn’t one to pry. “The original Wedgewood stove couldn’t be saved, but Jesse helped me find this replacement. It’s modern but looks close to the original; it’s gas, but the connectors won’t corrode. I didn’t want a bunch of chrome in here, so I went with the original white enamel for the stove and refrigerator. Pretty neat, huh?”

  I lived in Ben’s old home now, the former caretaker’s cottage, and I knew he loved vintage kitchens. When I moved into the cottage, I’d been amazed at the neat metal cabinets and mid-century modern table and chairs.

  “Yes, it’s all very nice. I should go now. Thank you for your time. If you don’t mind, I’d like to go for a walk in the garden and maybe visit Jeopardy’s new memorial stone before I head back to the hotel. I’m leaving for Jackson in the morning.”

  I didn’t want to cause him more hurt, but I didn’t understand his sadness. “Of course, Ben. You’re always welcome here.”

  He opened the door and paused. “Goodbye, Jerica,” he said. “I wish you the best of luck.”

  Why did that sound so foreboding?

  “Bye, Ben.” Then I had an idea. “Why don’t you stop by the cottage before you leave? It’s almost four o’clock, and we’ll all be knocking off for the weekend in a few minutes. I’ve got to pay everyone, but maybe we could talk after?”

  Without looking back, he said, “We’ll see,” and then he closed the door behind him and left me standing in the newly renovated kitchen by myself. That sounded exactly like something my father would have said—and it always meant no.

  “Okay,” I called to him through the closed door. I was mystified by the entire exchange.


  “Am I interrupting anything?” Jesse’s deep voice surprised me, and I smiled as I spun around to face him. Jesse Clarke was a handsome man, that was for sure. In the three months I’d been here, we’d become close. We were nothing more than good friends, although there was always the temptation for more, at least on my part. Of course, twenty-six-year-old Jerica was much more careful than the Jerica who had gotten married right out of high school.

  Jesse had proven to be a skilled carpenter, and I was glad to have his help with Summerleigh. I’d yet to see his boat—or more precisely, the hull of his boat, as he described it—but he’d asked me to join him for a bite to eat tonight. He wanted to try out some new steakhouse on Highway 98. I tried not to think of the dinner as a date; we’d eaten lunch together a few times, but we’d always talked about some project related to the house, so I’d never considered those dates.

  “No. Just talking to myself. Ben just left, and he didn’t seem happy with my decision to stay at Summerleigh.”

  “He told you not to stay?”

  “He thinks I should leave. I get the feeling that he thinks I’m doomed if I stay,” I replied with another nervous laugh. “Am I missing something?”

  Jesse leaned over the shiny new farmhouse sink and stared out the window. “I’ll talk to him. Which way did he go?”

  “He said he was going to visit Jeopardy’s memorial, take a walk in the garden. He’s acting pretty strange.”

  “Huh, he must have been moving pretty fast because I don’t see him now. Well, that’s Ben for you, Jerica. Don’t take any of what he says to heart. He’s probably like a lot of people; he thinks the place is…unlucky.”

  “You started to say cursed, didn’t you?” I shuffled my feet and shoved my hands in my blue jean pockets. “Is Summerleigh cursed?” Again I felt the sensation that someone was standing behind me, but I didn’t turn around.

  “No. I don’t believe in curses, and neither should you.”

  “I know you believe in ghosts. We didn’t dream that up.”

  “No, we didn’t. Ree-Ree is my cousin, remember? So of course I believe in the supernatural. But like I said, I wouldn’t put much stock in anything Ben said. He’s an unhappy old man. Summerleigh is just a place, a dot on a map. Like any old house, it has seen its share of tragedy. What you’re doing here is a good thing, Jerica. I’m happy to be a part of it. It’s been a dream come true for me. I’ve always loved this place, and working in here, seeing it come back to life…I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to be a part of it.”

  I smiled at hearing his words, but his confession also worried me. What if Jesse’s affection for me wasn’t really for me? What if it was because he loved this house so much? God, what are you doing, Jerica? Stop overthinking it. He was right. I was letting Ben’s moodiness affect me, and I really shouldn’t. Things had been going so well. I got word that my ex-husband was right where he needed to be, in jail, and my friend Anita was planning to drive down and visit me for Christmas.

  “What do you know about Ben and Harper? I mean, what’s their connection? I get the feeling that for Ben, she was the one that got away. Am I right?”

  He smiled slyly. “I’ll tell you all about it tonight. Pick you up at seven?”

  “Sure, you can pick me up, but wouldn’t you rather I just meet you there? I would hate for you to come all this way when you live so close to the restaurant,” I said as I locked the back door.

  “I’m not sure how the dating scene is in Virginia, Jerica Poole, but here in Mississippi it is customary for a gentleman to pick up a lady,” he replied with a playful wink.

  “Oh, it’s a date-date,” I said softly as my stomach flip-flopped from either nerves or excitement.

  Jesse leaned back against the sink and crossed his arms. That was his move when he was unsure about something like my choice of stain or my idea for the new spindles on the staircase. “If you think it’s better that we don’t call it a date, I’ll understand. Or if you want to cancel, I’ll understand that too.”

  By the tone of his voice, I knew neither was true at all. And I didn’t want to cancel. “I’m not canceling anything, Jesse Clarke. I’ll be ready at seven o’clock, but I’d better go pay the guys. Will you make sure nobody is left upstairs? I thought I heard someone stomping around up there earlier.”

  “Sure, I’ll do a walk-through, pack up the equipment and lock up the place.”

  “Great,” I said with an awkward smile. “I’ll see you later.”

  I tried not to skip out of the kitchen like a silly teenager.

  Chapter Two—Jerica

  Ben never arrived at the cottage; I hadn’t really expected him to, but I worried about him nonetheless. I didn’t see any extra cars in my driveway, but Summerleigh was a big place. At least there were a lot of woods around here to hide a vehicle. I walked to Jeopardy’s monument between Summerleigh and the cottage but didn’t see Ben anywhere. Not on the bench under the oak tree and not strolling the graveled walkways. I’d replaced the previous obscure marker with something more appropriate. The new monument read, “Jeopardy Belle, Beloved Daughter of John Jeffrey Belle. Together Always.” Rumor had it that Ann Belle had placed the former stone there in memory of her lost daughter, but I couldn’t be sure. I believed the ghost of Jeopardy Belle visited here from time to time, though her body now rested next to her sisters. Once in a while, I thought I heard her young, raspy voice, a voice I would know almost as well as my own or Marisol’s. But I never saw her.

  After walking to the potting shed and down the path a bit, I decided that Ben had most certainly left, and I hurried back to my cottage to get ready for my first official date with Jesse Clarke.

  Me? Dating again? I couldn’t believe it. While my hair dried, I ransacked my closet for something appropriate. Should I stick with blue jeans or wear a dress? I settled on the latter. I’d bought a few dresses from a boutique in Lucedale, and now I had the chance to take one off the hanger. The dress was made of a soft material, mossy green with a scoop neck and cap sleeves. I had strong arms, and after all the work we’d been doing, I was proud of how toned they looked.

  The phone downstairs rang, which was so rare that I had to think about what it was I was hearing. I hurried downstairs to answer it. “Hello?”

  “Hello, Jerica? This is Hannah Ray. Do you remember me?” Of course I remembered Renee’s friend, the psychic who helped us connect with Ann and John Jeffrey Belle. During the process of helping find justice for Jeopardy Belle, I discovered that my daughter was close by. In fact, it was Hannah who let me know that Marisol lingered near me often and listened to me whenever I spoke to her. After setting things right for Harper, contacting Marisol was all I could think about. Talking to my baby again seemed like a dream come true, but the past few months I had dragged my heels about contacting Hannah. Renee had brought her up to me once or twice, but I hesitated. I guessed a part of me was afraid that if I did communicate with Marisol, she would leave me forever. Didn’t I want her to be at peace and happy? Yes, but I had to admit that I was selfish enough to want to keep Marisol close to me. Yes, I could admit that, even if only to myself.

  “Of course, Hannah. Glad to hear from you. I’ve been meaning to call you, but…”

  “Jerica, I have to warn you,” she blurted out. “There’s a shifting occurring at Summerleigh. I can feel it, and I’m hearing disturbing things, to put it bluntly. Very disturbing. Have you been experiencing any activity there?”

  “I haven’t seen any ghosts, if that’s what you’re asking. I think Jeopardy and John Jeffrey Belle are at peace now, Hannah. You said it yourself. I haven’t seen any sign of them.”

  “It’s not about the Belles…” Her voice crackled on the phone.

  “What? I can’t hear you, Hannah. Are you on your cell phone?”

  “It’s really important that you listen to me, Jer… I don’t know what’s causing this disturbance, the renovations or something else, but things are stirred up. Spiritual things. I am c
oncerned that—”

  And then the phone went dead.

  I stared at the receiver of the old-fashioned Princess phone and clicked the button up and down, but there was no sound. Not even a dial tone. I hung the phone up and picked it up again, but still nothing. The knock at the door pulled me away from the strangeness of the moment. It was Jesse. I recognized his knock. He always knocked three times, and it was always a firm, confident knock. Strange that I would know that.

  Opening the door with a forced smile, I said, “Hey, Jesse. Come in. I was just on the phone with Hannah, but the line died. Give me just a second.” I picked up the phone again and this time got a dial tone. Whatever happened, the phone company had apparently corrected it quickly. I flipped through the little phone book next to the phone, searching for Hannah’s number, and dialed her back. She quickly answered.

  “Jerica, thank goodness. I was just about to drive over there. I thought…never mind. Do me a favor, stay out of Summerleigh tonight. Don’t go in until I get there.”

  I turned my back to Jesse to hide my growing apprehension. “I’m not going to be here, Hannah. I have a date with Jesse. Is there something I should know about? What’s going on? Tell me plainly, please.”

  “I will, but I have the feeling that I need to talk to you face-to-face. Are you gonna be home later tonight, or should I come in the morning?”

  “Morning works for me. How about around nine o’clock? Come to my place, the caretaker’s cottage.”

  “Sounds great, but remember what I told you. Please, stay out of the house tonight.”

  “Okay.” She hung up the phone, and I put the receiver down.

  “What’s up?”

  I turned to face him and forced another smile, despite the fact that the hair on my arms stood up a mile high. It was then that I noticed he was carrying a bouquet of wildflowers, which were my absolute favorite. “Hey, are those for me?”