Rest Thy Head (19 page)

Patrick went behind the desk and looked at his computer. His apprehensive expression told Peyton there was a problem before he even spoke. “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but I don’t see a reservation for you.”

“Impossible!” The imperious voice rang throughout the lobby. “Look again.”

Patrick did, but… “I’m sorry, but I still don’t see it. Do you have a confirmation number?”

Mrs. Haynes looked more upset by the minute. Her face now reminded Peyton of a ripe tomato. “Of course I do!” She fished in her purse, scattering lip balm, coins, and tissue everywhere and practically threw the paper at Patrick.

He studied the computer and the number, and Peyton held her breath as she waited for the explosion. “Mrs. Haynes, I’m afraid that I forgot to enter your reservation in the computer. I can’t think how I could have been so careless, but the fact is we don’t have a single thing open. Naturally, I’ll call around and find another place for you to stay tonight. I hope you’ll accept my apology for this carelessness.”

Mrs. Haynes slapped the counter and made Peyton, Ashley, and Patrick jump. “I certainly will not accept your apology! I drove for five hours to get here! Five hours! Do you hear me? Five hours! I’m tired, my eyes burn, I have a headache, and now you want me to go somewhere else? This is totally unacceptable!”

“Ma’am…”

“I’m sick and tired of incompetence,” she raged. “Everywhere I go I find fools like you who can’t do a simple thing like enter a reservation in a computer. You find me a room, and you find it now, or I’ll write a letter to the editor and send it to every paper I can think of. I’ll use you and Rest Thy Head as a prime example of incompetence.”

Patrick’s face tightened, but somehow he kept his temper. “Mrs. Haynes, every room we have is occupied.”

“That is not my problem. Find me a room.”

Peyton impulsively joined the conversation. “How long did you plan to stay?”

“Three days.” Mrs. Haynes waved her hand to cool her face which was beaded with sweat. “Foolishly, I came here to watch the pageant.”

“She can have my room,” Peyton offered. “I can bunk with Ashley for three days.”

Patrick looked grateful, but he said, “It’s silly for you to move all of your clothes and things for three days.”

“I don’t have much with me.” She turned to Mrs. Haynes. “Would you mind if I left my things in the room? You’d still have plenty of space.”

“I don’t like it, but I suppose I could put up with it,” the witch ungraciously answered as she looked Peyton up and down and obviously found her wanting.

“I’ll just run up and clean the room,” Ashley offered.

Patrick’s voice throbbed with sincerity. “Thank you both.”

While he registered Mrs. Haynes, Peyton and Ashley readied the room, and Peyton collected the things she’d need that night and the next morning. She giggled as they were making the bed. “I wonder if the ghost’ll get her?”

“Oh, I doubt it.” Ashley gave a pillow a final thump. “Why would a ghost like her any better than we do?”

Both girls giggled and finished the room in a hurry. Neither of them wanted to be present when Mrs. Haynes arrived.

Chapter Thirteen

Peyton tapped gently on the door to her room, but Mrs. Haynes didn’t answer. Good. Maybe the old witch had gone somewhere, preferably back home where she belonged. For two days now she had carped and griped about every single thing at Rest Thy Head.

The food didn’t suit her; she liked plain, home cooking. She had carried on so bad about it that, in self defense, Jake had started to prepare her food separately. The gardens and the pool didn’t please her either. The pool had a leaf in it, one leaf, and the gardens needed a landscaper to sort them out. She especially didn’t like her room. “It’s way too small,” she whined to anyone who’d listen. “And of course it was built for the maid, not a paying guest.”

Just that morning Peyton had watched as she cornered Patrick and Jake and read them the riot act about it. Jake had politely listened to her tirade even though she had seen his face twitch more than once. When she wound down, he had his say. “Mrs. Haynes, I hesitate to ask you this in light of the way you’ve cooperated with us about your room, but you haven’t seen anything odd in there, have you?”

She scrunched up her eyes. “What do you mean, odd?”

“You’re staying in the haunted room.”

“Oh, fiddlesticks! Nobody with a brain in their head believes in ghosts.”

Unable to resist, Peyton had joined in too. “Haven’t you noticed that the wardrobe door opens and shuts by itself? I’m a light sleeper, and it’s happened twice that I know of. It scared me, but not as bad as the shape in the window.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Jake had agreed. “Tell her about it, Peyton. You’re not afraid now, are you?”

Peyton hesitated. “Well, not too much, but I think it’s only fair to warn you, Mrs. Haynes. I mean, you came here in good faith. You didn’t expect to share your room with a ghost.”

“If you saw a figure in the window, young lady, it was a dream or else an intruder.” Mrs. Haynes bobbed her head to emphasize her point.

“Oh, no.” Peyton shivered for good effect. “At first all I saw was this darkish shadow that seemed to dim the moonlight. As I watched, it tried to take on human form. It shot upwards like it wanted arms and downward like it wanted legs.” Peyton shivered again. “I slept with my sister that night.”

“You have a weak mind,” Mrs. Haynes had pronounced, but her wide eyes and flushed face had told Peyton they had rattled her.

The minute the old heifer left the room she, Jake, and Patrick had howled with laughter. She smiled now just thinking about it.

She pushed the door open and hurried to her wardrobe in her room. She needed her sneakers badly. The hard-bottomed sandals she’d tried to work in weren’t safe. She grabbed the shoes, and when she turned around she came face to face with Mrs. Haynes.

“May I inquire why you are in my room?” Acid dripped from her voice.

Peyton held up the sneakers. “I needed these.”

“As long as I occupy this room I will expect you to stay out of here unless you knock and ask permission to enter.”

Peyton bit back a scathing retort and answered, “Yes, ma’am.” She dashed upstairs and wished with all of her heart Mrs. Haynes would check out a day early.

***

That night they performed the pageant for the first time. Peeping through a slit in the curtain, Peyton saw the place was packed. “I didn’t expect such a big crowd.”

“We spend a good bit on advertising,” Jake explained. “Lots of people like Mrs. Haynes come to Waterbury especially for the program. We tweak it and change it a little bit every year and try to get different people to act so it’ll seem new to everyone.”

“I’m nervous.” Ashley snapped a lace fan open and fanned herself and made Jake laugh

“You did that just the way Sally Waters would have. You’re a good actress.”

Peyton let the curtain close. “I’m not nervous exactly, but I do have a few butterflies.”

“You’ll both do fine,” Jake comforted.

As it turned out he was right. The pageant went smoothly with absolutely nothing to mar it. In fact, the cast received a standing ovation.

“It’s the best play we ever had,” Patrick enthused. He grabbed Ashley and swung her around. “Here’s to the best Sally Waters ever!”

Ashley’s cheeks turned pink as her eyes sparkled, but when she saw Jake watching with interest she pulled away from Patrick.

In fact, that hug had greatly interested Jake. Unless he had totally misread the look on Ashley’s face, she had fallen in love with Patrick, and he thought that just maybe Patrick returned her feelings. Now where did that leave Peyton? Did she know that her sister had fallen in love with her boyfriend? She’d had a lot of disappointments in the boyfriend department, so he hated to see her hurt again.

Of course, if Patrick acted on his feelings for Ashley, it did open up an intriguing opportunity; if Patrick broke up with Peyton it left the way open for another man, a man like him, for example.

Cold reality washed over him. Wait a minute. What was he thinking? Peyton could have any man she wanted. Why would she settle for a freak like him? He needed to get his head on straight before he did something stupid and made a fool out of himself. He broke into a cold sweat at the thought of it.

Patrick had arranged some refreshments for the cast, so everyone trooped into the dining room, still congratulating themselves on a job well done.

“Jake did the cooking. He used Civil War era recipes for everything,” Patrick said, “but he only picked food he thought we’d like. No jellied tongue or cucumber sandwiches.”

Peyton was busy inspecting the array of dishes on the table. “That is so cool! Who knew they had food like this in the nineteenth century? Those little petit fours are gorgeous.”

She served a plate for herself, while Jake poured her a cup of punch from a beautiful cut glass bowl. “We bought the bowl at an auction a couple of years ago,” he said. “It dates back to 1855.”

Peyton looked at her glass with alarm on her face. “Please tell me this cup isn’t that old. If so, I don’t want it; I might break it.”

Jake just laughed. “No, the cups are all new.” He poured a second cup of punch for himself. “Ah…may I join you?”

“Sure.”

Secretly, he couldn’t help hoping maybe the two of them would sit apart from everyone else, but of course he knew better. Peyton didn’t have feelings for him, so why would she want to be alone with him? They joined Andy and Sandra, who had played the part of Sally’s maid.

Jake kept his eye out for Patrick and Ashley. It didn’t surprise him when the two of them sat side by side at the very end of the table. Uh oh. Peyton really did have trouble.

Sandra had just told them how her shoe came off and almost tripped her the first time she went on the stage when they heard someone shrieking upstairs. “What in the world!” Jake cried, springing from his chair.

A moment later Mrs. Haynes appeared in the doorway of the dining room. Her eyes wildly searched the room. When she saw Peyton, she pointed at her and yelled, “You! You’re the one! Where did you put my jewelry?”

Peyton looked over her shoulder. “Are you talking to me?”

Mrs. Haynes strode into the room to tower over Peyton. “Of course I’m talking to you, you little thief.”

Peyton jumped from her chair. “I have no idea what you’re screeching about, but I’ll tell you this; you’d better be careful how you throw accusations around. I’m no thief.”

Mrs. Haynes’ face was beet red. Her eyes bulged, and her upper lip was beaded with sweat. “I saw you in my room. I saw you going through my wardrobe. Was that when you stole my jewelry, or did you come back later to get it?”

Peyton lost her temper with a suddenness that surprised Jake. “I only came to your room to get my shoes,” she yelled. “If you remember I did leave my personal things in the room. I’ve never taken a thing that didn’t belong to me, and frankly, if I did want to steal some jewelry, I’d find something a little nicer than those flashy, vulgar, ostentatious things you wear!”

Talk about fire to gunpowder! The entire room exploded with sound as everyone got involved.

“Don’t you dare call my sister a thief!” Ashley yelled.

It took Patrick almost ten minutes to quiet everyone down.

“Look, I think it would be better if we went into the study to talk about this. All of you finish your food if you can. Peyton, Jake, will you come with me and Mrs. Haynes?”

Peyton swept ahead of them with her nose high in the air, her expression haughty.
Good for you
, Jake thought.
Don’t let that witch
talk to you like you’re dirt under her feet
.

When they reached the study, Patrick closed the door and asked everyone to be seated. He sat down behind the desk to conduct the interview, but Jake sat beside Peyton on the loveseat. “Mrs. Haynes, what jewelry are you missing?” Patrick began.

“A very nice brooch made of various gem stones and a string of pearls.”

“Are they real or costume?”

“Real, of course.” She sniffed. “I never wear fake jewelry.”

Patrick took a deep breath. “Okay, why do you think Peyton took them?”

“Because I found her in my room!” Mrs. Haynes’ hands waved wildly in the air.

“She explained that,” Jake broke in, trying to keep his voice at a reasonable level.

Mrs. Haynes frowned. “Yes, she certainly did, but I don’t believe her. She looked sneaky to me from the first time I saw her.”

Jake leaned forward. “As I recall, the first time you saw her she gave up her own room for you.”

“She probably planned the theft from the moment she saw me. In spite of the fact that she insulted my taste in jewelry, I’m sure she knew it was valuable and offered me her room in the hopes of getting her hands on it.”

“Were you wearing jewelry the night you checked in?” Jake asked. “I didn’t notice.”

Mrs. Haynes pursed her lips. “Perhaps when your face got burned, it damaged your eyes. I was wearing my gemstone brooch the night I checked in.”

Jake took several deep breaths to calm himself. “Nothing’s wrong with my eyes.” His voice dripped with icicles. “I think
you’ve
misplaced your jewelry. Go and look for it instead of caterwauling and blaming other people for your own mistake.”

Mrs. Haynes’ eyes blazed. “I have looked for it, you fool! It isn’t there I tell you!”

“We’ll hunt for your jewelry,” Jake said, “but you will never be welcome at Rest Thy Head again. I’ve had enough of your accusations, complaints, and abuse.”

“Perhaps you’re in this with her.” Mrs. Haynes nodded her head. “Yes, that must be it. Well, the two of you are a pretty pair I must say. How can you live with yourselves after victimizing an old woman?”

“No one victimized you.” Jake’s hands curled into fists, and he made himself step away from the old bat.

Mrs. Haynes turned to Patrick. “Search her room. You’ll find my jewelry; I know you will.”

“Search it if you like,” Peyton cried. “I didn’t take anyone’s jewelry.”

“No. That’s totally unacceptable,” Jake insisted.