A Summer Romance (18 page)

“So that’s it? She’s just lived alone in
that big house all these years?” Maggie asked.

Ms. Brandy nodded. “She never hires anyone
local for work that needs to be done around the house and keeps a
very tight circle of servants who are sworn to secrecy. No one
knows anyone who has stepped foot in that house in the last seventy
years, until you.”

The chime of the front door made Maggie jump
as Ms. Brandy’s final statement sunk in. She stood from the floor
brushing the dust from her knees as she went to greet the arriving
customer. Maggie recognized the man as Aaron’s friend whom she’d
met in town a few weeks earlier.

“Good afternoon,” she greeted him. “Mr.
Branson, right?” Maggie asked, remembering the name that Aaron had
given her when he’d told her about his meetings in Savannah.

The man seemed to hesitate for the slightest
second. “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage,” he replied, “as
I don’t know your name.”

“Maggie Overton. I’m Aaron’s friend,” she
reminded him.

“Oh yes, Aaron mentioned you,” the man
answered smoothly. Maggie smiled at that news, flattered that Aaron
would mention her to a business associate.

“You’re staying at the Devereaux plantation
as well?” he asked.

“For the summer,” Maggie confirmed.

“Aaron is quite the lucky man,” he said,
making Maggie blush.

“Are you looking at some property in the
area?” she asked, trying to change the subject.

“I have some family land nearby.” he
replied.

“Is there anything in particular that you
are looking for today?” she asked, gesturing around the shop.

“Just browsing,” he replied, but his eyes
were riveted on her. Maggie felt a bit uncomfortable under his
penetrating stare.

“Please let me know if there is anything I
can help you with.” she said, excusing herself.

She returned to the trunk and began
organizing the articles that were strewn about the floor. She
picked up the old photograph once again. She’d spent a great deal
of time contemplating who Ms. Devereaux was, but to hold an actual
picture in her hand, to hear her heartbreaking story, it finally
made her real.

“It’s getting close to closing time,” Ms.
Brandy said, walking back over toward Maggie. “We can finish going
through the rest of the trunk tomorrow.”

“May I keep this?” Maggie asked, holding up
the old photograph.

“Sure. It seems fitting somehow that you
should have it,” Ms. Brandy told her. “Why don’t you go ahead and
head home. I’ll close up.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow,” Maggie said. She
retrieved her purse from behind the counter and headed out the
front door.

As Maggie drove home she was lost in
thought. She tried to sort through everything she’d learned about
Agnes Devereaux. She was struck with the image of this poor, broken
hearted girl, left to live out her life alone. She tried to figure
out what would motivate her to bring random strangers into her home
so many years later. Maggie couldn’t ignore the haunting
similarities between her current situation and Agnes Devereaux’s
tragic story. Had she brought them here to recreate her own
catastrophic romance? Had she picked them each for this reason?

She glanced in the rearview mirror and
realized there was a black car following behind her on the lonely
dirt road. Maggie had never seen another car on this road, aside
from Aaron’s. She felt a little nervous as she kept glancing back
at the car. It was too far back to see the face of the driver. She
continued to watch the car as she slowed down to turn into the
driveway of Devereaux Manor. The car slowed as well, maintaining
its distance.

Once Maggie had made the turn, the car drove
past and she let out the breath she’d been holding. Her anxiety was
obviously an overreaction to her growing suspicion that perhaps her
arrival here hadn’t been random at all. But how had she been
chosen? And why?

Once inside she headed straight for the
shower, hoping that she could wash away the eerie feeling that was
hanging over her. She placed the picture of Agnes and Marge on her
dresser, again feeling a pang of sadness when she gazed at the
desperate expression on Agnes Devereaux’s young face. It was as if
the girl knew that one way or another her happiness would be
destroyed on that night.

Maggie stood under the warm water of the
shower allowing it to wash over her, willing it to take with it her
apprehension. Regardless of how she came to be here the happiness
she’d found here was very real and she wouldn’t let that be sullied
by the strange circumstances that surrounded it.

She did feel refreshed when she emerged from
the shower, and desperate to see Aaron again. She promptly dressed
then called him, feeling the last of her tension release the moment
she heard his voice.

Aaron arrived a short while later with a
backpack slung over his shoulder and a charming smile on his
face.

“I missed you,” he told her, lifting her
into his arms and kissing her the way only he could. Maggie sighed
happily as he lowered her feet back to the floor. “I was thinking
we could take a walk. There’s a place I’d like to show you. Maybe
have a little picnic, unless you’d rather go to town for
dinner.”

“No! A picnic sounds perfect,” Maggie said.
All she wanted was to be alone with Aaron away from the town of
Sweetwater, away from everything.

He smiled and took her by the hand as he led
her out the back door.

“Where are we going?” she asked as they
stepped into the woods.

“You’ll see,” he answered cryptically as he
led her along a path through the woods.

They walked hand in hand through the
darkening woods. The sun had just set and the forest around them
was coming alive with the sounds cicadas and tree frogs. The air
was warm and heavy with sweet smelling dew. The rising moon was
full, embedded in a sea of stars, bathing the woods in a bluish
glow. Maggie had never walked through the woods at night before.
She wondered if it always felt this magical.

Aaron led Maggie past the barn down a new
path. Just a short distance into the woods they crested a small
hill and came upon a lake of sheer glass reflecting the moon and
stars above in a nearly perfect mirror image. Maggie gasped at the
sight. A thrill of excitement ran through her as she realized that
this had been the lake she’d found last month, where she had spent
a lazy afternoon swimming under the sun. The realization that it
was so close to the barn she’d been searching for that day, that it
had been so close to Aaron, made the memory even sweeter.

“What do you think?” Aaron asked, looking
toward Maggie.

“Beautiful,” she whispered. There was no
other word. Maggie wondered idly if the world around her had always
held so much beauty or if she was just seeing it through different
eyes now. Aaron led her to the same flat outcropping of rock where
she’d sunbathed and pulled out a large blanket from the backpack
he’d slung over his shoulder. He spread the blanket across the
rocks and gestured for her to sit.

Her nerve endings were zinging with
awareness as he sat beside her. To be with him here now, in the
place where she’d laid beneath the sun dreaming of his hands on her
for the first time, it seemed surreal.

“This is amazing,” Maggie said, looking out
over the glassy water.

“A beauty beyond compare.” Aaron’s words
were heavy with emotion. Maggie turned to him and found his eyes
riveted on her. In the blue moonlight his face was washed of all
color, a pearlescent white, and his hair similarly appeared silver
rather than the rich golden blonde she knew it to be, but his eyes
held their crystalline blue color, practically glowing in the
night. She felt that familiar stirring that only he could incite.
She sucked in a ragged breath, belatedly realizing that she hadn’t
been breathing. He smiled her favorite crooked smile, as he turned
away to rummage through his backpack. He pulled out two sandwiches
wrapped in paper towels.

“I hope you like turkey and cheese,” he said
smiling apologetically as he handed her a sandwich.

“I’ve lived on ramen noodles and pizza for
the last six years,” she told him, smiling. “I’m not picky.” He
chuckled softly as they both ate, looking out over the glassy
surface of the water.

“It’s so beautiful here, it doesn’t seem
real,” Maggie whispered after several moments of silence.

“I live in constant fear of the day I’m
going to wake up and realize this has all been a dream,” Aaron
admitted. “Especially now.”

“It does seem like a dream. Do you ever feel
like this is too good to be true?” Maggie asked, turning to
Aaron.

“I try not to think about it,” he answered
quietly.

“I just don’t understand how any of it is
possible,” Maggie continued. “I lived over a thousand miles away
from this place. How did that ad end up in front of my dorm room?
Was it meant for me?” She knew Aaron didn’t have the answer but it
felt good to finally ask the question out loud, and once she had,
every other question began pouring out.

“Why me? How did she pick me? And how did
she know I would even answer the ad? Any other day I wouldn’t have
even noticed the flyer. I’m not even sure how long it had been
there.

“Or was it just random? Had she put the ad
up all over the country? In every college dorm? How many people
responded? Was it just me?” Maggie could feel the familiar panic
building as she released the floodgate on the questions she’d been
holding back.

“I don’t know, Maggie. I don’t really know
how either of us ended up here, but whether it was random or not
I’m glad that we’re here. I’m glad that I met you. I wouldn’t take
any of it back,” Aaron answered.

“I am too. I’m so happy that I met you, I
just, I need to understand. I found this picture today…” Maggie
relayed the story she’d been told of Ms. Devereaux and the tragic
ending to her love story.

“And now here we are. I’m living in the big
house. You’re living in the barn, the same barn that her lover
lived in. It’s like she’s playing some kind of game with us,
putting us into these roles to watch it play out or something. I
know how strange that sounds, but honestly what part of any of this
doesn’t sound strange?” Maggie felt desperate for someone to
explain this all to her in a way that made sense.

Aaron was quiet for several minutes as he
considered everything she’d told him.

“I mean, haven’t you ever wondered if you
were chosen?” Maggie asked.

“I know that I was chosen,” Aaron responded
quietly.

“What do you mean?” Maggie whispered.

“I was released on my twenty-first
birthday.” Aaron paused and glanced at Maggie for her reaction. She
kept her expression open, to show him that he could feel
comfortable talking about that part of his life with her.

“I’d been struggling with trying to figure
out what I was going to do when I got out. Even though I’d dreamt
of that day, dreamt of freedom, I had no idea where I would go or
what I would do. I had no idea how to live in the real world. I was
terrified.

“Then the warden called me into his office.
He told me that someone had contacted him and offered to take me on
as a work-release. I could serve out my parole time working for her
at her plantation. There was no explanation as to who she was or
why she was interested in me. But I wasn’t really in a position to
question it, and honestly it seemed like an answer to my prayers. I
had no reason not to accept the job.”

“So she just sent for you? And you never
found out why? Never wondered?” Maggie asked in disbelief.

“You have to understand, when I was first
convicted I had the faith of a child. Faith that somebody would
suddenly realize that a mistake had been made and release me. Faith
that someone would wake me up from the nightmare I was living and
tell me it had all been a bad dream. That faith got me through the
first few years.

“Then after that it was a countdown. A
countdown to the day I would be released and could start my life
over. I dreamt of that life; of being able to come and go as I
pleased; of being able to sleep soundly, without fear; of having my
own home, a job.

“And then all of a sudden I had it all. It
was just given to me, by this woman I didn’t even know. A woman I
never saw, who never asked anything from me in return. Maybe I was
too scared to ask why.” Aaron’s eyes were pleading, hopeful that
she would understand. Maggie tried.

“And you’ve never found out why she chose
you?” Maggie asked.

“No,” Aaron answered. “I had no idea what to
expect when I first arrived. My imagination ran wild on the bus
ride down, wondering what this woman wanted from me. All I had was
the instructions to report to the Sheriff’s department when I
arrived. After a long lecture about how he didn’t want any trouble
in his town, Sheriff Rutledge gave me a package that Ms. Devereaux
had apparently left for me. It contained a key to the barn and the
garage, directions to the plantation and a letter detailing my job
duties. That was it. At first I kept waiting for the shoe to drop,
to find out the catch. But it never came.

“I had this great place to live and a job I
was actually good at. I finally had a picture of the future,
something to work towards. When I was in lock-up I had taken some
small engine repair classes so that I had a job skill when I got
out. When I realized that my responsibilities at the plantation
wouldn’t take up all my time I picked up some part time hours at
Sam’s repair shop. He’s been letting me work for parts and use his
tools to fix up some old lawn equipment, that way I’ve got my own
stuff. I just put that ad in the paper to see if I could pick up
some more work, and suddenly Ms. Devereaux is sending out letters
of recommendation. I don’t even know how she knew that I was
looking. I mean, she’s not even around.