Dreamscape (22 page)

“I don’t understand. Her presence was a secret?”

“She said there were people living here in her dream, but even though she could walk around the place, it was like she was invisible to them.” Lexie looked at him then. Jason Bowen had a translucent quality about him, but she could clearly make out his features as though she were looking at him through a thin fog. The man was exceptionally good-looking, exactly like his picture and portrait. It was a little disconcerting that she could see the banister and the wall through his body, as was the faint edge of blue aura that lit him like he had a black light behind him.

“I’m curious. Did she say who these people were?”

Lexie shook her head. “Only that they lived here and so did she. Her dreams changed over the years. There was a point when we were in college where I was beginning to worry about them.”

“Why was that?”

“Because she was giving me details of the 1880s and there was no conceivable way she’d know them.” Lexie didn’t mention her own career came about because of Lanie’s fascinating descriptions of Victorian life.

Hoping the more she said the more she’d recall, Jason pressed, “She never mentioned the people…”

She thought a moment. “There were servants, a cook, a housekeeper, a boy who looked after the horses. I think she called him Patrick.”

“Anything else?”

“It was a long time ago. She used to tell me more when we were younger.”

He gave her a look that clearly said it was important. “What did she tell you when she was younger?”

She gazed at the ceiling as if the answer could be found up there. “Okay, well, there was a parakeet named August.”

Yes, Mrs. Boatwright had a bird named for her husband killed in the war. “Anyone else?” he asked a little too impatiently.

“Look, I’m
trying
. It was a long time ago.”

Jason smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry. I feel this information is important. It may hold the key to my haunting the place.”

Good God, am I really having this conversation?
Lexie rubbed her temple, this whole thing was
nuts
. “There was a boy who was a little older than Lanie. His name was…” She closed her eyes, trying to recall the long ago time when Lanie talked about the people in this house. “His name was Jacy.” She looked at him then. “
Jason.
It was
you?
You’re Jacy?”

“Apparently so.”

“I don’t understand this.” Lexie shook her head again.

“And then what did she tell you?” he pressed.

“The dreams inside the house stopped.”

“Stopped? For how long?”

“For years. When we turned eighteen, Lanie started to dream again, but things had changed. They took a different turn from that point. Some people were missing from her earlier dreams.” “Go on.” At her frustrated look, he smiled gently. “Please, you said people were missing…”

“Look, I’m sure she didn’t confide
everything
to me.”

Though Lexie said the words, having been privy to enough conversations between the pair, Jason was sure that wasn’t the case. He raised a brow at her.

Lexie grew uncomfortable under his unmistakable doubting gaze. Thinking a moment, she added, “There was a man here then. Remember no one else ever saw her. To them she was still invisible. But this man…she fell in love with him.” She met his lovely eyes and was suddenly sure. “It was you then.”

Jason swallowed, recalling the pain that came on the heels of her saying that she loved him. He answered the only way he could. “I believe so.”

Lexie looked at him, he appeared pained over something. It was exactly how Lanie looked when she came to her house and cried into her margarita glass that she and Jason had become lovers in her dream. An outrageous possibility seized her. She demanded, “And it
is
you now. Now tell
me,
Mr. Bowen. Are you messing with her dreams somehow?”

Sidestepping, he said, “I have no idea why she’s having these dreams.”

“You’re evading the question.”

He most certainly was, and it was by no means polite conversation. Then he remembered, he was talking with a woman of
this
era. Nothing shocked them. “Yes, I believe I can influence her dreams.”

“How the
hell
can you do that?”

Lexie’s voice rose slightly, and for a moment he didn’t know if she asked about the mechanics of entering Lanie’s dreams or questioned his right to do so. He chose the former and not the latter. “I believe it has to do with electricity.”

She leveled a look at him. “That makes sense on some level. The brain has electrical impulses, and you’re essentially energy right? My question
is—
why
would
you?”

She nailed him.

“It happened by accident. I was near her when she slept and got pulled along. I was completely surprised to find myself meeting her for the first time in my own era.”

“And you seduced her in her dreams?” Lexie felt so odd even having this conversation and discussing this inconceivable possibility, with a ghost no less. Seeing the truth in his eyes, he didn’t need to answer. She snapped, “That’s not quite fair, is it?”

He shook his head. His voice sincere, he said quietly, “I can only love her in her dreams, Lexie. I’m a dead man in this waking world.”

“Well she loves you asleep
and
awake. That’s the painful realization she’s having right now. That’s the reason she slammed that booze and ended up too drunk to drive home. She knows there’s no future in loving you.”

He put his head in his hands. His voice cracked when he replied, “So help me, God, I know.”

He looked so miserable, she laid her hand upon his shoulder. There was a tingly substance to him for all his transparency. It reminded her of holding her palm out to catch the air while riding in a moving car. The air was there pressing your hand, but you couldn’t hold it.

They sat on the stair side by side in silence for a while, each deep in their own thoughts.

Coming to a decision, Jason told her, “I need your help, Lexie. The only way I can leave her life is to know the instance of my death.”

“You don’t know how you died?”

He shook his head. “I know my wife and her lover killed me somehow. Other than that, I have no idea.”

“I knew it!”

He smiled at her. “Yes, I was there when you showed Lanie your discoveries.”

“So what do I do?”

“Keep looking. There must be some record, something that explains this.”

She nodded. “I have stacks of documents and newspaper clippings. I’ll see what else I can find.”

He looked at her. “Come with the information as you always do. Lanie need not know I’m listening.”

“You mean to stay invisible?”

He nodded sadly. “It’s for the best if she thinks I’m gone. You and I both know there is no future in loving me. She needs a man of flesh and blood. The sooner we uncover the mystery of my demise the sooner my soul can move on. She knows you saw me tonight. Tell her we talked and I said I’m leaving. She need not know I need more information to accomplish that end.”

“And you’ll stay out of her dreams?”

After a long pause he shook his head. “I can’t.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Your guess was correct. The woman’s body you uncovered in the cellar
was
Addy. She was a dear, dear woman and very important to me. I might be able to save her from a horrible death. For whatever reason, I’ve been given the opportunity to see my life again. I’ve also been made aware of murdering minds. Armed with knowledge, I must follow where it leads.”

“But…”

“I won’t hurt her. You can rest assured.” He looked at her hopefully. “You’ll help me then?”

“I’ll do what I can.”

“Thank you. You won’t see me when you come next, but I’ll be here. Explain your findings to Lanie, and I’ll understand.”

“Okay.”

Standing at the door, Jason held out his hand. “I’d like it if you were to consider me a friend, Lexie.”

Taking it without hesitation this time, Lexie gave it a shake, surprised that she could. Touching him felt exactly like the rush of air you felt when you stuck your hand out a moving car’s window. “I’d like that, too.” With sincerity she added, “I wish you
were
alive, Jason.”

Understanding the broader message in her words, he smiled. Squeezing her fingers gently, he raised her knuckles to his lips, “Thank you for that.”

On the drive home Lexie prayed for her new friend’s restless soul. Raised Orthodox Christian by her Greek adoptive parents, she firmly believed in the power of prayer. Hers had certainly been answered the day
they
walked into her life and gave her a family and a home. Unfortunately, prayer could only go so far. Jason and Lanie needed a miracle.

* * * *

Aching inside, Jason sat a long while watching Lanie sleep knowing for her own sake he needed to keep his distance in her waking world. It would be difficult, but he would. Knowing how he died and where his body lay would take him into the light, he was sure of it. He needed to uncover the deed and get out of Lanie’s life as quickly as possible. He couldn’t be a husband to her, nor could he father the beautiful raven-haired children he knew she’d have. He also knew he couldn’t stay to see another man sharing her life. His eyes welled, and his throat tightened.
Life.
He squeezed his eyes shut. He’d give anything to be that man, but he had no life to share.
I ride her sea of dreams like a miserable husk cast into the water by fate. Haven’t I sacrificed enough by giving up my life? Haven’t I already lost all? Must I lose her as well, this gentle creature I love above all?

Invisible alongside her, he lovingly brushed the hair back from her face. Lanie stirred and mumbled, “Jason…”

There was a moment where he wondered if she’d still dream of him after the light took him away. His gut told him no. Heart aching, he whispered, “Take me there, my love. Take us back where loving you is possible. Let me love you while I can.”

Jason found himself sitting at the breakfast table with Lanie and his murderers.

“Why, Lanie, you’re
all
flushed. Are you feeling well?” Bertha asked. Dabbing her lips with her napkin, she turned to her brother. “Doesn’t she look flushed, Richard?”

Setting his fork down and reaching for his sweet tea Richard appraised the lovely black-haired angel seated across the table from him. Lanie’s cheeks were pink, and her lips appeared swollen as if she’d been overly kissed.
Kissed?
There were only three men in the house, himself, the stable lad, and Jason. He looked at his host. Jason met his gaze with a smile. His eyes went back to Lanie with new interest. “Lanie looks lovely as always, sister.”

Cathy chimed in, “Yes, such pallid skin tone does draw attention to illness. Perhaps Jason might take a look at you, Lanie. It wouldn’t do to have to take sick when you have so much business to see to before you head home.”

The sound halfway between a honking goose and a case of consumption, Bertha chortled. “You know, it just now occurred to me having a doctor under the roof is a marvelous thing.” Touching her fingers to her black eye, she added, “I’ve yet to thank you for your care, Jason, though if Cathy and Richard hadn’t told me of your help last night I’d scarcely know of it.” To Lanie she informed, “Apparently you were asleep when they brought me home in such a state.”

Lanie only nodded, her cheeks warm. She hadn’t been asleep and recalling just what she had been doing brought a twinge between her legs. Seeking more comfortable ground, she sipped her apple juice and asked with a doctor’s concern, “I was just about to ask after your bruise, Bertha. Did you fall?”

“Oh
Lord,
yes. I remember catching the toe of my shoe in my hem and stumbling. The next I knew, I was in my bed upstairs with a
terrible
pain in my head.”

“Don’t hesitate to ask for laudanum, Bertha. There’s no reason for you to spend the day in pain,” Jason told her thinking it would cease her incessant prattle as well.

She gave him a rather disturbing smile. With her naturally haphazard teeth and blackened eye the woman looked like a prize fighter after the bell. She batted her eyes at him. “May I see you for some later, Jason, should the need arise?”

“Of course, but you need not seek me out. Addy knows where the medicine cabinet is. I’ll inform her of the dose.”

“Jason, as long as we are in discussion of my health, I was wondering if I might prevail upon you to take a look at my bunion…”

Cathy’s cup rattled in her saucer. “Bertha dear, I hardly think this is a worthy breakfast conversation.”