Dreams of Fire (Maple Hill Chronicles Book 1) (11 page)

Oh, damn, she thought. Kelly said I was brave. Time to be brave.

“Hello?” Her voice sounded tremulous in her own ears, so she cleared her throat and tried again. “Hello? I don’t know who you are, but you’re scaring me and I really wish you wouldn’t.” She got off her knees on the kitchen floor and went through the dining room door. She had the powerful feeling that someone was standing in the living room. Catching sight of Oscar in the dining room, she picked him up unceremoniously. His warm, soft weight was comforting as she carried him with her back through the kitchen and little canning room-pantry and past the basement door. As she passed the door there was a particularly strong gust of wind and something crashed outside. She jumped a mile and clutched Oscar to her. He meowed loudly in protest, and she eased up, apologizing and stroking his fur more to soothe herself. She felt like the basement door was radiating something like static or electricity that raised the hairs on her skin as she passed. She made sure it was locked.
 

Marianne paused in the doorway to the living room, standing between the foot of the stairs and a small closet. Oscar squirmed in her grip, but she didn’t want to put him down. Instead she murmured to him and kissed the top of his head. The longer she stood there, the more she felt like someone was standing just out of sight around the corner by the fireplace, and if she stepped forward and turned her head to the left, she’d see them. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she felt a cold dread.

Be brave, Marianne, she told herself. The air felt heavy with the gravity of a person standing on the floor out of sight only a few feet away. The room felt cold as a freezer. She had to know or her heart would explode from fear, so she stepped forward and looked. As she did, she squeaked in a small voice, “Please stop scaring me.” She stepped into the living room with Oscar as a shield in her arms and made her head turn left. Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw a shadowy apparition by the fireplace, but when she looked full on, there was nothing there. “Please stop scaring me,” she said again more firmly and felt an easing of the pressure of anxiety. The room gradually warmed up.

She took a deep breath and felt her heart slow down from its furious pounding. There was nothing there now, and as the moments passed, she felt more relieved and sure that she was alone again. “Thank you,” she whispered to the empty room as she put the squirming Oscar down. He paused long enough to shake himself before dashing off down the hall.

The storm petered out and the air coming in the front windows felt fresher and less humid than it had earlier. She steadied herself as she opened all the windows again and aired the house out. The clouds passed and shafts of sunlight turned into full afternoon sun shining on a sparkling world outside.
 

She went outside and got wet all over again from the waist down as she walked through her storm-tossed yard. Her fear was gone, but she felt drained from the experience. Kelly had confirmed that she had a haunted house. Marianne didn’t think she could live day after day being afraid of her own house. She could understand why the previous tenant had fled, but, tempting as it might be, she couldn’t leave. There was nowhere else for her to go. If she returned to the city, eventually Geoffrey would find her again. And he would laugh himself sick if he heard she’d left her new house because it was haunted. That alone made her determined to stay and deal somehow.

She explored the garage and found some old gardening tools, a rake with a loose handle and some stiff shears, and decided to make a start on putting the flowerbeds in order. Michael’s mowing job was rough but had begun to outline the yard. The garden borders were a mess. She went inside and filled a mason jar with water, so that when she found flowers she could put them immediately in water. The sun was hot on her back, but because the air was now cool, it was no longer a punishment to be outside. As the afternoon progressed, the post rainstorm colors only got richer and more beautiful outside and turned into the perfect late summer afternoon.
 

By 5:00, she was pleasantly sweaty and tired, and the walkway between the house and the drive and most of the patio out back had been cleared of weeds. It was looking much better already. Of course, now there was a huge pile of weeds and sticks. Maybe there was curbside yard waste? Hunger drove her inside for an early dinner.

Arranging the flowers she’d found while working, she put them in the middle of the dining room table on a woven straw mat. Even the weedy flowers were beautiful today, a mix of dandelions, fuzzy, caterpillar-shaped grass seed heads, and yarrow. She could see other colors peeking through the overgrown flowerbeds, and she planned to put a big bunch in each room. She ate the last of the co-op food from the deli and wrote out a list of groceries to get tomorrow. She didn’t feel a trace of anxiety any more and felt empowered by speaking out earlier. Maybe that would be enough.
 

After dinner she finished wiping down the kitchen, feeling good about having a place for her dishes and pots and pans. She had enough energy to begin unpacking her kitchen stuff and made her way through several boxes. The dishes seemed to have newsprint smudges on them, so she loaded up the ancient dishwasher and turned it on. Instead of beginning the cycle, all she could hear was the sound of the motor. She opened the door and tried to reset it, but nothing happened. She sighed and made a mental note to call Gloria’s Valley Homes and Properties tomorrow and get someone out to fix it.

She spent half an hour washing everything by hand and laying them out on tea towels on the counter to air dry. It was 8:30, and she went into the bedroom to appreciate the new color on the walls again. If she could get the trim done, it might dry over night and be done tomorrow, so she could move in and unpack. She got out her brushes, retrieved the quart of ice white from the side stoop, and got to work.
 

By the time she was done with the trim, her eyes were burning with tiredness. No one had looked in on her the whole time, and Oscar had kept her company without so much as a flickered ear toward the door. Maybe the request to stop scaring her had been heeded. She stood at the door and looked at the room with a big smile. It was really sweet: periwinkle blue-purple with bright white trim around the doors, windows, and at the baseboard. She folded the tarp and removed the painting gear, finishing by tamping the lid on the cans and putting them outside on the stoop. No need to press her luck.

She got ready for bed and lay down on the mattress in the living room hopefully for the last night. Although she was beginning to feel a little foolish for overreacting during the storm, she said aloud, “Please don’t send me bad dreams. I really need to sleep tonight,” just in case.

The wisp hovered anxiously, wanting to press her warning, but the vitality of the storm had passed, and she was exhausted from her earlier attempt. The new woman had been so afraid of her that the wisp couldn’t bear it and had released the binding energy and let herself dissipate. Now, she drifted to the piano and brushed her insubstantial fingers over the keys.

Chapter 10

Marianne slept dreamlessly for the first time since moving in and woke when the early sun peeked through the front windows. In spite of the rest, she felt groggy and wished she could stay asleep. Rolling over, she tried to hide in the shadow of the couch, but Oscar had already determined she was awake and sat staring at her, tickling and sniffing her face from two inches away. He was relentless once he knew she was awake, so she groaned and got up.

She was eating a bowl of cereal when the doorbell chimed. Who was that? She wondered. Maybe Michael was back and eager for more yard work. She opened the door and saw two women on the doorstep. They were an unlikely pair.

Kelly looked tan and fit in a black and lime green athletic tank top and sport skirt that showed her well-muscled legs. Her blonde hair with the lavender streaks was French braided along both sides of her head and into a central braid down her back. Behind her stood a shorter woman with shoulder length, reddish-brown hair, glasses, and a conservative, white flowered button-up shirt with a khaki skirt and navy blue linen jacket. Her face was solemn with a hawkish Roman nose and dark eyes in a squarish face. Kelly was smiling, but her companion did not look so friendly.

“Hi! I hope you don’t mind my stopping by. I tried your phone number but got no answer. I hope this isn’t a bad time?” Kelly’s voice sounded more concerned as she took in Marianne’s wan face and messy hair.

“Uh, no. I think my phone went dead over night,” Marianne replied, smiling hesitantly. “Please come in.” She stood aside to let Kelly and her companion in.
 

“Marianne, this is my friend, Sarah.” The other woman looked at her with an opaque expression and nodded briefly before turning away to look at Marianne’s living room.

Marianne was at a loss. At least, she thought, I have an excuse for the house being a wreck.

Kelly shrugged apologetically at Marianne as if her friend’s behavior was normal and said, “Did you make it home before the rain?”

Marianne shook her head ruefully and said, “Your beautiful work was totally wrecked, sorry.”

Kelly smiled and said, “It happens. I told you I’d make some phone calls when you left yesterday. Well, Sarah knows about houses with…problems…and she agreed to come by with me. I hope that’s okay with you?”

“Yeah. Would you like something to drink? I just unpacked my glasses and can offer you water.” Marianne glanced at Sarah who was skirting around the piles of boxes looking at things with an appraising air as if she were inspecting for cleanliness. Marianne imagined her visitor with white gloves running a finger over the top of the piano.

Kelly followed her into the kitchen, leaving Sarah behind.

“Don’t mind Sarah,” Kelly said conspiratorially.
 
“She hardly likes anyone. Sometimes I’m not even sure she likes me, and we’ve been friends since elementary school. She just needs to walk around in all your rooms. Basement and attic, too, if you don’t mind.”

“That’s fine.” Marianne filled three glasses from the tap and handed one to Kelly who drank it. “What’s she doing?”

Kelly shrugged again, an elegant rippling of her muscled back. “Getting a feel for the place. See what you’re dealing with. So, how was the storm yesterday?”

Marianne sipped her water and grimaced. “Honestly, kind of freaky. I could have sworn there was someone else in the house besides me and Oscar. But I did what you said and asked them to stop scaring me, and the feeling went away. So I guess it worked.”

Sarah wandered through holding something in her hand that glinted with crystal and silver. “Will you show me the attic and the basement, if you don’t mind?” she said distractedly, clearly paying more attention to something else.
 

Mystified, Marianne led the way to the basement door and, hesitating only a little, she unlocked it and led the way down. She felt much braver with the two other women at her back.
 

The cellar was dim and cool and smelled slightly moist after yesterday’s rain. Patches of sunlight slanted through the southern windows past the washer and dryer and onto the dusty cement floor. Two lightbulbs lit the area on this side of the wooden bin, accentuating the darkness of the missing bulb on the other side. Marianne couldn’t help feeling uneasy, in spite of the company.

Sarah walked around the whole basement even the dark parts without a trace of hesitation. From the other side of the wooden divider, she said matter-of-factly, “Bulb out. You’re going to want to replace that.” She stood, dangling a little crystal over her palm and murmuring something Marianne couldn’t hear.

“Yes. I have it on my list to do,” Marianne replied, watching Sarah’s movements with curiosity.

“Do you have any bulbs? We could do it now,” Kelly inserted smoothly.

Marianne frowned, thinking, and said, “I don’t have any new ones, but I could steal one out of a lamp upstairs and use that.”

They went up the creaky wooden stairs together, once again leaving Sarah behind. Marianne was beginning to wonder if the other woman thought she was just a pathetic, scared little girl who was afraid to be alone in her own house, and there was, in fact, nothing to be worried about.

They pulled a bulb from a side lamp in the living room and went back down stairs in time to meet Sarah coming back up. She saw the bulb and said briskly, “Good plan. Best to make light downstairs as soon as possible. Attic?”

“The stairs up are next to the front door. Go on up. I’ll be right there,” Marianne answered, nonplussed and feeling distinctly behind the times.

She glanced at Kelly who shrugged and said sotto voce, “Don’t mind her. It’s not you. That’s just the way she is. She does know what she’s doing, though. Don’t worry.”

They finished their mission quickly. With the extra light, the basement seemed much less scary. Marianne turned the lights off and shut the door firmly before leading Kelly upstairs. On the way Marianne thought to ask Kelly what the strange wooden bin or closet was, and Kelly explained it was part of the old coal bin. A truck used to drive to each house, open a hatch where the oversized window now was, lower a metal chute, and deliver coal directly to the basement. Then it would be shoveled into the old coal fired furnace. Since the replacement of the ancient heater, the coal bin was no longer needed.

“This is a really nice house,” Kelly finished. “I’m guessing it was built in the ‘teens or ‘twenties, right?”

“I really don’t know much about it. I haven’t done any research on it yet. So I’m not sure…” They turned the corner and stepped onto the sunny upstairs landing. Sarah was standing near the little door to the attic side. She caught the little crystal pendant in her hand and slung the silver chain over her head. “Okay. We can go back down now,” she said with finality.

Marianne and Kelly pivoted and headed back down the stairs with Sarah behind them. Marianne was thoroughly confused. How was this tour helping her?