Daughters of the Lake

by Wendy Webb

  Inside the restaurant, Kate excused herself to use the ladies’ room and splashed cold water on her face.

  “Get a grip,” she said to her reflection. She dug some moisturizer out of her purse, dabbed some concealer under her eyes, and ran a brush through her hair. Not ideal, but it would have to do.

  When they had settled into a booth and ordered, Kate fished the copies of her newspaper articles out of her folder and handed them to Nick. She nibbled on french fries while she watched him read. Midway through, he looked up at her.

  “This is wild,” he said. “I’ve got to tell you—I’ve seen a lot of strange things in my years on the force, but nothing like this.”

  “Are you going to close the case?”

  He grinned. “And put what in the case file? Victim murdered by husband. In 1910.”

  “I guess not,” she said.

  “You know, though,” he said. “All of this is a start, but it really doesn’t tell us what happened.”

  “How so?”

  “Our lady—Addie—ended up in the water,” he said. “With the baby. The last time anyone that we know of saw her—who was it? The maid on the day she went missing? She was pregnant and alive. How did she and the baby get in the lake?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Later, when Nick was on his way to the precinct and Kate was back at Harrison’s House, she and Simon sat together in the parlor as she filled him in on the events of the day.

  As soon as she mentioned the possibility of a mistress to Simon, she felt tears stinging at the backs of her eyelids.

  “It really makes you wonder,” Kate said, dabbing at her eyes with a napkin. “That a man would commit murder, kill his own wife and child, for the chance of a life with a mistress. I just can’t believe it. What a waste.”

  “Oh, honey, that’s the oldest story on earth,” Simon said. “It happens all the time. I don’t suppose our dear great-granddaddy would’ve taken too kindly to one of his employees running around on a very pregnant wife. That likely would’ve gotten Jess Stewart fired, at the very least.”

  Kate rubbed her temples. Her head was beginning to pound.

  “If Jess wanted to keep his life, his employer, his house, and his standing in the community and all of that, but just with a different wife—or without any wife, for that matter—he had one option,” Simon said. “Make himself look like the grieving widower.

  “It’s really the perfect plan,” he continued, studying one of the articles. “Coming back into town a day earlier than scheduled. Oh, but this witness testified that he was on the Sunday train.”

  “I just can’t believe he cheated on her,” Kate said, her voice wavering. “I know what I saw in the dream, but why would he do that? They were so much in love! He loved her his whole life. They were children together! I read it in the testimony of the trial. All their lives! Why would he do something so heinous and stupid?” A flood of tears overcame her, and she covered her face with a napkin.

  “Katie, look at me,” Simon said. “You’ve got to pull yourself together. I don’t want to sound unsympathetic here, but you need to realize that this thing happened almost a century ago. To people you don’t even know.”

  “But I do know her,” Kate insisted. “I am her. I can’t explain it. This is personal. It’s me. I know that I need to put this thing in perspective, but I—” She stopped short, unable to continue.

  “I think I know what this is about,” Simon said. “It’s Kevin, isn’t it?”

  Kate looked up from her tear-soaked napkin. “Kevin?”

  “You’re internalizing this whole thing because the husband cheated on Addie, just like Kevin cheated on you,” Simon said. “Those tears you’re crying, they’re for your own marriage, your own dreams he shattered to bits.”

  Kate considered this and blew her nose. “I guess I’m lucky I didn’t end up like Addie,” she mused.

  “Damn straight,” Simon concluded, shuddering. “Listen, this is only natural. You’re grieving. And you’re exhausted. It seems to me that you need a long, hot bath. How would that be? I’ll take Miss Alaska for a walk, and you just settle into a nice, hot tub.”

  Truth be told, Kate thought, a hot bath sounded like heaven.

  “I’ll do that,” she said, pushing her chair back from the table.

  Steam from the hot water filled up the chilly bathroom, and Kate leaned over the tub and breathed the vapor into her lungs. A slow breath in, a slow breath out. Calm down. Relax. Simon was right. It was all in the past. Almost a century in the past. It wasn’t happening now. It wasn’t happening to her. All this emotion was related to her own breakup. She slipped into the water and submerged herself.

  Kate laid her head on the back of the massive tub, closed her eyes, and floated. Soon, she could feel her body rocking back and forth on the waves, undulating up and down, to and fro, taken with the whims of the wind and the tides. She was a seashell, a piece of driftwood, a loon floating lazily on the surface of the Great Lake. Nothing can hurt you here. You are with me now. I will keep you safe, here, with me, my daughter of the lake, until it is time. Kate was enveloped in loving arms and held close, wrapped in a watery blanket, falling down, down, down. Sleep, my daughter, sleep, until it is time.

  Kate felt the water entering her lungs, but instead of stinging like a thousand knives, stealing her breath and suffocating the life from her, she felt as though she were a baby, prebirth, floating in the watery embrace of her mother’s womb, remembering the comfort and warmth of breathing in the liquid that, once long ago, had surrounded and sustained her when she was a fetus awaiting the moment of birth. She opened her eyes, somewhere, in some other place, and saw, through the darkness, a billowing white gown. A baby cradled in her arms. A school of tiny fish swimming around and through the strands of her hair. She heard a heartbeat, a soft thudding in the distance.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Kate awoke to Simon shrieking as he pulled her up from under the water. Kate coughed and sputtered until the water cleared from her lungs. Simon sat down, hard, on the floor next to the tub. “Jesus H. Christ,” he said, shaking his head. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

  “What happened?” Kate coughed some more.

  “I poked my head in here to check on you—thank God—and you were submerged,” Simon said. “Did you fall asleep or what? Kate, you could have died. If I hadn’t come in here—”

  Kate sat up and drew her arms around herself. “I don’t know what happened, exactly,” she said. The sensation she had felt was so peaceful, so wonderful. Not like drowning, not like death at all.

  “You are the most troublesome houseguest I have ever had,” Simon said. “Now, get out of there. I’ll wait in the bedroom.”

  When Kate was dried off and in her pajamas, she found Simon sitting in one of the two armchairs by the fireplace in her bedroom. She slipped into the other one, and they both put their feet on the ottoman between them.

  “You know what?” she said finally. “Something’s wrong here. I don’t think this is over.”

  “What’s not over?”

  “This whole thing,” she said. “I thought once I found out who Addie was and what happened to her, all of these weird things would stop happening to me. The dreams, the strange sensations.”

  “Like your chill the other night.”

  “Right, and like just now. Simon, I closed my eyes, and it felt like I was drowning. But—and this is going to sound bizarre—not in a bad way. It felt really peaceful. It seems like I experienced what Addie experienced, at the end.”

  “I don’t like this game anymore,” Simon said. “Can we stop?”

  “Yesterday we were wondering why I was having these dreams, why she washed up on my beach, why, why, why. Remember?”

  “That’s right,” Simon said, slowly.

  “It can’t be for me to just find out about this trial,” Kate said. “What would be the point? Lots of people probably know about this trial. It’s local history, as you
said. I’m sure Addie’s relatives, if any of them are still living, know about it. There’s no reason for all of this other stuff to be happening if the only conclusion to all of these dreams is for me to find out that Addie’s husband killed her.”

  “Correction,” Simon interjected. “That Addie’s cheating husband killed her.”

  “And?” Kate didn’t understand.

  “Not to be indelicate, but you have a cheating husband, too.”

  Kate pondered what he was saying.

  “You think Addie is coming to me in my dreams to warn me about what might have happened, or what still could happen, with Kevin?” Kate asked finally.

  “It makes as much sense as anything else.”

  “I don’t know,” Kate mused. “Kevin’s a lot of things, but he’s no killer.”

  Simon leaned in toward her and lowered his voice. “And you’ve got a pre-nup that says he gets half of your money if you die. I’m sorry to say so, Kate, but I’m really glad you’ve got a hunky policeman and a steely-eyed cousin looking after you right now.”

  Kate looked unconvinced, but Simon made a mental note to tell Nick Stone all about Kate’s pre-nup and his suspicions.

  Later, after Kate had gone to bed and was sleeping a dreamless sleep, she was jolted awake by the sound of a siren. No, not a siren. She looked around to find herself standing in a kitchen that was not her own, watching a teakettle whistling on the stove. She felt two arms snake around her waist from behind and heard a soft voice in her ear. “How are the two most precious people in the world feeling on this fine morning?”

  Two people? Kate saw nobody else in the room. Then she turned to the man behind her and saw the enormously handsome face of Jess Stewart. Addie’s husband. The man who killed her. Kate was terrified but felt herself smiling. “I am feeling like taking a walk down to the market after you leave for the office,” she heard herself say. “Your child is feeling like kicking her mother repeatedly.”

  Child. Mother. Kate put her hands on her stomach, gingerly. There was no denying it, Addie was pregnant. Kate closed her eyes and reveled in it. She had longed for this feeling herself for so many years. Tried so many times. She rubbed her hands across her belly—Addie’s belly—and just then felt a small thudding inside. My God. I feel the baby kicking. I can actually feel it moving inside of my body. This is what it feels like to be carrying a baby.

  “He’s getting his morning exercise.” Jess smiled at her. It was one of the warmest smiles Kate had ever seen. His eyes shone with love as he patted her stomach. “Running a race in there, little boy?”

  “Yes, she is,” Kate heard herself teasing. The moment between this husband and wife was so intimate, so loving, Kate felt somewhat embarrassed to be intruding on it. It wasn’t the first time Kate had felt this way while dreaming about Addie’s life.

  “I wonder, darling, whether it will be a boy or a girl,” Jess said as he sat down at the table for breakfast. “What do you think? You women always have a sense about these things.”

  Kate put two plates of scrambled eggs and toast on the table—where did those come from? I must’ve been making them—and sat down across from Jess.

  “I’m truly not sure,” Kate said. “I feel as though I know this baby so well now because it’s a part of me, living and growing inside of me, but I do not have any idea whether it’s a boy or a girl. Do you have a preference?”

  “I know every man hopes for a son to carry on the family name.” Jess chewed thoughtfully. “But I’d be just as happy with a little girl, as beautiful as her mother.”

  Kate felt herself smiling. “Can you imagine how spoiled a little girl would be with you as her doting father?”

  “We’ll need a bigger house for all of the dolls I’m going to buy for her.” Jess smiled. He stood up and dropped his napkin on the plate before him. “I’ll get right on that today. ‘Earn more money. Needed to spoil child.’”

  “Excellent,” Kate said. “You do that, and I’ll keep busy growing the baby.”

  Jess walked toward the door. “Don’t forget, darling, we have dinner at the Connors’ tonight.” At Harrison’s House.

  “I remember,” Kate sighed. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to go. I don’t want to go.”

  Jess turned and looked at her. “Why ever not?”

  “Will it be just the four of us, or will other people be attending as well?” Kate could feel tension begin to build up in the pit of Addie’s stomach.

  “I don’t know,” Jess said offhandedly. “Why do you ask?”

  “I’m uncomfortable around some of the Connors’ friends. One in particular.”

  “Which one?” Jess said casually.

  “You know full well which one.” Kate could feel Addie’s determination to hold her husband’s gaze. She would not be the first to look away. She’s talking about the woman in the ballroom! She suspects something is going on! She’s confronting him! An uncomfortable silence fell between husband and wife. Kate felt it in the air, as tangible as fog.

  “I thought we were finished with those silly doubts of yours, Addie.” Jess smiled at her. He’s too calm. Too collected. His wife is accusing him of infidelity, and he’s cool as ice water. He’s treating her like a child.

  “I thought we were finished with you taking me for a fool,” Kate said, and walked away from him. She looked out the kitchen window toward the water. Kate could feel Addie’s heart racing. Her eyes were quickly blinking back tears.

  “Nothing happened between Sally and me, darling,” Jess said, hurriedly gathering up some papers into his leather briefcase. “She’s just an old friend, that’s all. You’re making much too much of it.”

  “I just don’t want that woman anywhere near us. Not now. The fact that she keeps coming to Wharton—to visit whom? Why does she keep appearing at dinners and parties thrown by our friends?”

  Jess turned away from Addie and ran a hand through his hair. He took a deep breath and turned back to his wife.

  “Yes, I courted some women, including Sally, before we were married. That I didn’t tell you about it myself—that was a mistake on my part. I know that now. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry for not telling you before, and I’m sorry for the way you found out about it, at that party in the Connors’ ballroom, in front of everyone. She has treated you horribly. But refusing to go to the Connors’—”

  “I’m not refusing to go,” Addie said. “I’ve never refused to go. It’s just that—” Her words dissolved into tears.

  Jess dropped to his knees in front of his wife, putting his head on her stomach. “Addie, I’m so sorry. Let’s not have angry words between us.”

  Addie didn’t respond. She was looking the other way, anywhere but at her husband.

  “Please, Addie. I’d rather die than hurt you. I love you more than you can imagine. You and our baby are my whole world, my whole life. You mean everything to me. And Sally? It’s not even appropriate uttering her name in the same sentence as yours.” His voice had a hint of desperation to it, Kate thought. As though he was trying too hard. “I will let Harrison know, discreetly, that you don’t want to be at any of the same functions as that woman—that we don’t want to be there. Would that make you happy?”

  “And tonight? What about tonight?”

  “Sally is not in Wharton at the moment.” Jess seemed to stumble over his words. “Not that I know of, anyway. She will not be at Harrison and Celeste’s tonight. It will be just the four of us. You like Harrison and Celeste well enough, don’t you?”

  “I do, yes,” Addie admitted.

  “Then, will you consent to go, or should I call it off?”

  Addie sighed and smiled wearily at the man she had loved her whole life. “We can attend,” she said, stroking his hair.

  “Spend the day pampering yourself,” Jess said. “Take a long walk on the lakeshore if you like.”

  “I have the washing to do. I can’t be a lady of leisure today.”

  “No, you don’t, and yes, you can, i
n that order.” Jess smiled. “Starting today, Harrison is sending down one of his girls to help you twice a week until the baby is born, and after that, we’ll talk about engaging her permanently.”

  “A maid?” Kate heard Addie saying. “Oh, Jess, I don’t think—”

  “That’s right, don’t think about it,” Jess interrupted, laughing. “It’s settled.”

  Kate walked Addie’s husband to the door and felt his arms snake around her again. Kate felt herself wrapping her arms around his shoulders. She closed her eyes.

  “Take good care of my baby today,” Jess whispered into Addie’s ear.

  “Take good care of my husband today,” she whispered. He wiped her eyes.

  “I hate it when we fight,” he said softly. “I hear myself sounding just like my father, and I hate it. I don’t want to go anywhere today. I want to stay here with you and make you smile.”

  Kate looked into his eyes.

  He kissed her deeply, murmuring, “I love you so much, Addie.”

  “I love you, too,” she said. “It’s all right. Now, off with you.”

  When the door closed behind Jess, Kate walked into the bedroom—the same white bedroom she had visited in her dreams when this all began—and smoothed out the comforter and pillows. She caught sight of the woman in the mirror, her auburn hair tangled around her shoulders, her belly swelling beneath her dress.

  She has no idea what’s coming. That man is going to kill her.

  Then it occurred to Kate: Maybe I can warn her. Kate began screaming inside of her head: Get away! Leave this place! Your husband is going to kill you and your baby! Kate tried many times to speak the words aloud but could not. Kate was an invisible mute, trapped inside this scene, this body. Nonetheless, she kept trying, silently screaming the words as loudly as she could. Get away! You’re in danger!

  She approached the mirror, picked up the hairbrush, and, as she brushed that long, auburn mane, Kate stared into the eyes of the woman in the mirror. Listen to me! I’m here to help you! You’re in danger! Kate screamed in her mind. But Addie simply brushed her hair. Addie Stewart! Hear me! You are going to die on April 24 if you don’t do something about it! Get away from this man!