The Ghost and Miss Hallam: A Time Travel Romance (Lavender, Texas Series Book 1)

by Barbara Bartholomew

  “Nobody calls him Joe. It’s Joseph.”

  Obviously her sister had never indulged in popular childhood mysteries, though they had been a favorite vice for Lynne, who had hidden the forbidden books under her pillow. In her household one read the classics or cutting edge new fiction, not old mysteries.

  A vice that continued to this day, she thought, thinking of the collection of Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham books she’d brought to reread.

  “We’re going to be married in September,” Loy went on. I’d like you to be my bridesmaid.”

  Wait! This wasn’t how it went these days. “You’re actually getting married in less than two months.”

  “September 18,” Loy added as if such specific information made the upcoming event seem more convincing.

  “Well, uh, what does this Joseph Hardy do?”

  “He has a landscape business.”

  “Not a doctor, lawyer or college teacher with tenure?” Lynne asked in surprise. “What does Mom say?”

  “Mom,” Loy responded coldly. “Does not approve. Neither does Dad. They think this is all happening too quickly.”

  “Oh.” Lynne didn’t know what to say, but then looking at Moss who was watching her with loving amusement, she remembered that a week ago she hadn’t known he had existed. She could just imagine what her parents would say if she told them she was going to marry a newly released convict, even if he had been declared innocent.

  If only such words could be true.

  “I’ll be glad to be your bridesmaid,” she answered simply. Loy had always been so goal oriented, so intent on success, if she had found a man she truly loved, then most certainly Lynne was on her side.

  For the first time in years, she heard Loy actually giggle like a teenager. “Dad says he mows lawns for a living,” she said, and then after a quick goodbye, she ended the call.

  Without a word, Moss drew closer to her, reached out one hand and edged it along her jaw line. She couldn’t feel the touch and was sure he couldn’t either, but somehow the intimacy of the gesture made her shiver.

  She put her hand up, palm toward him, and he placed his own hand against it. No touching, no feeling of the senses, but a connection nevertheless of minds and hearts.

  “Guess Mom and Dad don’t approve of landscape businesses.”

  She smiled. “Only to keep up our yard, not to marry one of their children.”

  “Damn sure they wouldn’t approve of me.”

  She pressed her hand against his and it slid right through. They couldn’t touch. Again she felt a brief flair of jealousy of Maud who could see him as an actual man, not this spirit she saw before her.

  Immediately she took back the thought. What if she were punished for not enjoying what she had instead of regretting what she couldn’t have. This was all so uncertain, so balancing on the head of a pin and it could go away any minute. She wouldn’t waste a second of the time she had with him.

  “Mom and Dad would really prefer if we all married professors, the way they did,” she said lightly. “It’s not that they’re greedy or anything like that. They don’t make a lot of money, of course, they just have a great respect for education. And they come by it honestly, they were the first of their families to get a chance to go to college. They grew up very poor in the hills of West Virginia and fought for every ounce of schooling that they got.”

  He nodded. “Understandable.”

  “The good news is that Loy, the younger of my two sisters, is getting married in September so she won’t have much time to spend harassing me.”

  “September,” he said and she knew he was wondering where they would both be by then.

  She didn’t want to think about it. “Come on,” she said, motioning to him since she could not take his hand. “Let’s sit down and talk and you can tell me all about your latest visit with Maud.”

  He chose to sit across from her rather than next to her on the sofa and she supposed it was because he could see her better from that vantage point.

  “I’d like to ride through the hills with you the way I did today with Maud.”

  This time she willed herself not to be jealous. “I’d probably fall off. I’ve never been on a horse in my life.”

  “Today was my first time, but it felt good.”

  “You must be sore all over,” she started to say, than stopped. No, of course he wasn’t sore from riding. He hadn’t brought his body along to feel anything.

  He began to tell her about Maud and both were so caught up in the account that the caller at the door had to knock loudly a second time to get their attention.

  Lynne straightened in her seat, annoyed at the interruption. “We’ll just ignore it,” she whispered.

  “Lynne,” a strident female voice demanded. “Miss Hallam? It’s Wilda Walsh. Are you all right?”

  She didn’t move and Moss winked at her.

  Then she heard a key in the lock. Honestly! The nerve of the woman.

  She raced to pull the door open before it could be unlocked, leaving Moss to get himself to safety.

  The opened door yanked from her hand, Wilda Walsh stood, her green eyes large and her face annoyed. The key was in her hand and she didn’t look at the least embarrassed that she was invading Lynne’s privacy.

  She pushed past the younger woman and stomped indignantly into the room. “I thought something was wrong when you didn’t answer.”

  Wilda was not an unattractive woman. Her hair was obviously beauty parlor styled in a short cut and probably colored at the same time. Her features were a bit heavy, but her body was toned from exercise and her jeans and plaid shirt looked to have been pressed with a hot iron. She wore cowboy boots.

  “Thought maybe you’d gotten sick or maybe fell and hurt yourself.”

  “I’m fine,” Lynne said, glancing around to see where Moss had gotten himself to. She was startled to see he still was resting comfortably in that same chair, obviously not at all worried about discovery. Once again he winked at her.

  Wilda made herself at home by going over and sitting in that same chair, sinking right through what would have been Moss’ lap if he’d been substantial enough to have flesh. She didn’t seem at all aware that anything was out of the normal, but Moss got up and came over to stand at Lynne’s side.

  So she couldn’t see him. Lynne rather liked that idea. It was as though he were her own personal ghost.

  Wilda regarded her with narrowed eyes. “I’ve had a complaint about you.”

  “Really?” Lynne told herself she would not be intimidated by this woman.

  “They said you came in the hospital down at Elk pretending to be a relative of that man that slammed into Robby’s truck. Why on earth would you do a damn fool thing like that?” Before she could reply, Wilda raised her hand. “Don’t try to spin a yarn. It’s perfectly obvious to me that you people don’t have the same morals as we do here. You meant to write about him, didn’t you, and make a little money.”

  “My mother’s the writer, not me. And she writes for academics, books that are used in teaching classes and isn’t at all interested in sensationalism.”

  “Well,” Wilda took that in with a doubtful air. “Then what did you have in mind?”

  “It’s personal,” Lynne said. “And none of your business.” No more being Miss Nice Girl, she thought with a certain feeling of satisfaction, than she observed Moss’ watchful gaze and her face reddened.

  “I will remind you, Miss Hallam, that I represent the Sandford family trust and am responsible for this property. Perhaps I need to ask you to go back where you came from.”

  Lynne got to her feet. She knew well enough just how pleased the members of the trust board and the local community for that matter was to have a woman of her mother’s standing interested in writing about Maud Bailey Sandford. They felt that finally the local writer who was so respected in the southwest would finally be getting the kind of national attention she deserved. And they were even more impressed with the
institution her mother represented than they were with the woman herself.

  “It would be such a shame,” she said calmly, “to have to leave the analysis of Maud Sandford’s work out of my mother’s text.”

  It was a standoff. After a few more minutes of verbal fumbling, Wilda left. Lynne was so glad to see her go.

  To her extreme disappointment, however, she turned back to the room to find it empty. Wilda was not the only one who had departed.

  Chapter Nine

  Days passed and Lynne grew increasingly anxious when Moss didn’t come back. She fell into the habit of spending more time in town just in hope of hearing some news of him. The hospital was guarding his privacy closely, but most of the people working there lived in the community so she overheard gossip about him. Just the same. Probably spend the rest of his life no better than a vegetable. Kinder just to let him go.

  But he was still alive. That was what mattered most to her.

  She went home to work with renewed energy, not on examining Maud’s journals, but in surfing the internet, trying to find his sister. If she could find Cynthia, then at least he would have someone at his side.

  At this point she wouldn’t even consider the possibility that the girl would turn away from her only brother. No telling what she’d been taught, what she’d heard over the years since she’d lost her parents, but Lynne was determined to deal with that when she located Cynthia Caldecott. Moss needed a member of his family near him and this little sister was all that was available.

  She found multitudes of Cynthias on line and a fair number of Caldecotts and a sprinkling of Cynthia Caldecotts, but none of these were the right age to be Moss’ sister.

  However his parents had concealed the identity of their only daughter, they had done a really good job.

  But she wouldn’t give up. Then on a Friday in mid-July when someone knocked at her door, she was irritably certain that it was Wilda again. She was about the only visitor who ever stopped by the ranch and as far as Lynne was concerned she was one too many.

  But when she opened the door, she saw a middle-aged man with dark eyes and graying hair and let out a scream. “Dad!” she yelled and flung herself into his hug. “What are you doing here?”

  He held her away from him to give her a close scrutiny. “Just thought you might be lonely out here and need some company.”

  Zane Hallam’s rounded face was characterized by subdued humor. He was popular with his students but also had a reputation for being tough when it came to grades. Still his classes were always crowded.

  “Just happened to be in the neighborhood?” Lynne countered skeptically, though she couldn’t seem to keep from grinning. It was good to see him. “Everybody ok? Mom and David and the girls?”

  “All fine.” He reached out on the porch to pick up a small bag. She was relieved to see its size. He couldn’t be expecting to stay very long, not with that slight amount of luggage. Instead of coming in, he waited while a young man with a happy face and lanky body joined him.

  “David!” Lynne said the name with a gasp. The last thing she’d expected this morning was to find both her father and her brother on her front porch. She was glad to see them, but dismayed as well. What would they think when she spent half the night sitting in the living room talking to a man they couldn’t see?

  They thought she was alone, but in reality they were breaking in on the privacy of a twosome.

  Hopefully. If Moss ever came back.

  Without being invited, both men came inside and found their way to the two unoccupied bedrooms in back where Dad got first choice and David took the leftover room. Leaving their luggage in their rooms, they headed for the kitchen where David was soon making coffee and Dad seated himself at the table, waiting expectantly for his daughter to join him.

  Lynne sighed. Her family could be so overwhelming. Within ten minutes they’d managed to take over and she was left feeling almost like a visitor.

  “Don’t the two of you have something better to do than coming to bother me?”

  David clasped his chest in a dramatic gesture, “Why Lynne, we were willing to give up everything to come and keep you company.”

  Dad managed to put on a hurt look. “We thought you would be pleased to see us.”

  Lynne sank into a chair. “I’m only surprised that Mom, Loy and Lana aren’t with you.”

  “Lana had to work and Loy is all absorbed with her fiancé and, of course, your mother is teaching summer session,” Dad said apologetically. “They would have come if they could,” he paused, then went on, “Except for Loy, who is really caught up in planning her wedding.”

  “She called to tell me about it.” Lynne gratefully accepted a steaming cup of her own coffee from her brother. “I gather you and Mom aren’t all that happy about her choice.”

  Dad’s forehead puckered. “He’s a nice enough guy, I guess.”

  Talking about damning with faint praise. Her family was such a close unit, they had a hard time letting anyone else in. Lana’s husband had been easy enough, they’d known him since he was twelve, but this was definitely a jolt to her parents, Lynne decided.

  “It’s just so sudden. She was living with this other guy and then all of a sudden she’s madly in love and going to marry somebody else. To say we’re concerned is putting it mildly.”

  Lynne noticed that he didn’t call either man by name. Maybe he was right and this was sudden, but Loy was in her thirties and very successful in her career. If she couldn’t make her own choices without parental disapproval, where did that leave her younger and career uncommitted sister?

  What would they say if she presented former prison inmate Moss Caldecott as a prospective mate? If she was so lucky as to have him stay alive long enough for that to happen. Oh, Please, God.

  David, holding his own mug of coffee, joined them at the table. Lynne’s heart gave a jolt when a fourth person slipped into a chair without moving it. He was the only one of them who didn’t have coffee.

  She could feel herself lighting up at the sight of him. He was here and still alive. She wanted so much to greet him, to tell him how happy she was to see him, but she couldn’t say a word.

  It was a long minute before she was aware that her brother was frowning at her. “What?” she asked.

  His face had a puzzled expression. “Suddenly you were just glowing. What were you thinking?”

  She shrugged, trying to ignore Moss’ funny one-sided grin. He looked as though he was particularly enjoying this little family visit. “Just thought of something funny.”

  “You didn’t look like you were thinking funny,” David protested, “more like really, really happy.”

  “Something wrong with me being happy?” she challenged.

  “Now kids,” Dad soothed. “Don’t start in.”

  They could have been ten, she thought disgustedly.

  “How’s the band doing?” she tried to change the subject.

  “Okay. Up and down. You know how it is.”

  “He’s been offered a position with the music faculty,” Dad interjected. “It’s a wonderful opportunity.”

  “I’m just not sure it’s right for me,” David said. “I wouldn’t have as much time with the band.”

  “But David, where your future is involved . . .”

  Lynne let her father’s voice trail away. Where her parents were concerned, Lynne had to constantly remind herself of how they’d grown up in total poverty. They’d known what it was to go to bed hungry night after night. They had not lived in safe, comfortable homes with relatives who could be depended on. Naturally they wanted their children to be safe in a world they saw as dangerous and for them, the way out had been the scholarships they’d won to college. Education had provided one step after another to the things in life they valued. It frightened them for Loy to marry a man who was just starting his own business, for David to live the chancy life of a musician, for Lynne to be directionless.

  Heck, it didn’t just worry them, it sc
ared them to death!

  She spent the day showing her father and brother around the ranch and the nearby countryside while all she wanted was to be at the house keeping company with Moss.

  She had little choice, though, and after supper at a Mexican restaurant in Cheyenne, she was glad to be able to take her visitors back to the place she now thought of as home.

  It seemed they would never go to bed. They watched an old war movie that she absolutely hated, played some poker, read a little, and engaged in phone conversation after phone conversation. She wondered what they would think if they knew a man they’d never met was listening to every word and sometimes looking as though he’d like to join in.

  By the time David, who was the last to say goodnight, had showered in the single bathroom and gone to bed, Lynne was about ready to scream with frustration.

  She was so afraid that Moss would be taken away from her without even a chance to speak a word.

  Having had no sense of time passing, Moss was surprised as he listened to Lynne talk to her family members and came realize to that several weeks had gone by since they’d last seen each other.

  This scared him. He’d passed into sleep and day after day had gone by without his being able to know it. The most shocking thing was that he’d actually awakened again, this time without any awareness of the hospital and its workers. He was simply back here at the ranch once more with Lynne watching with amusement as she reluctantly greeted her dad and brother.

  They were funny guys, good men. In his adult life he had known few like them. If he were able to spend time with them, he wouldn’t always be watching his back, afraid of the unexpected attack. To him it seemed they lived in a gentle, innocent corner of the world, a place where he hadn’t belonged since he was eighteen years old.

  Funny thing. He’d known he was not guilty and that fact had been finally proved, but he still felt grimed with the dirt of it all. He didn’t feel fit to keep company with people like Lynne and her family.

  He almost laughed out loud. Poor Lynne, they really tested her patience. They were what was called these days helicopter parents, always hovering over her. He only wished there was somebody left in the world who cared that much for him.