Secrets of Hallstead House (19 page)

We walked around outside for a little while; then he went back to the boathouse and I went in to check on Alex. I found her in her office. She was surprised to see me.

“Macy! How are you feeling? I’m so sorry I sent you down to that dock last night for my bracelet. It was all my fault. Thank goodness Will was down there and could help you!” Her words tumbled from her mouth in a rush.

I chuckled. “Alex, I’m fine. I just went for a short walk and I’m feeling much better. And please don’t blame yourself for any of this. I was just sorry that I wasn’t able to bring your bracelet back to you.”

“Of course I want you to take all the time you need to feel better before you start worrying about me,” Alex said.

“By tomorrow my muscles should have recovered enough to be able to work with you on your exercises and take you out for a walk.”

“Just don’t rush yourself,” she cautioned me.

“I’ll be fine,” I assured her. “By the way, has Will been in here this morning? I wanted to thank him again.”

“No. He and Stephan left for New York very early this morning. Our deal is closing tomorrow and they had a lot of work to do in the New York office.”

I thanked her and left. I heard her lock her door behind me. I had wanted to talk to Will this morning to ask him some questions I had about last night. Like how he happened to be out walking exactly when and where I was pushed into the water. And what he and Diana had fought about in the days before she died. Now those questions would have to wait until he and Stephan returned from New York.

I wandered into the large living room and stood before the painting of Forrest that hung above the mantel. I heard a noise behind me and turned to see Vali walk into the room. When she saw me, she turned around quickly to return to the dining room, but I called her back.

“Vali, I want to ask you something. Do you know who pushed me off the dock last night?”

She fixed me with a blank stare for several seconds. “
I
didn’t do it,” she finally growled, and walked back into the dining room.

I sighed. I wasn’t going to get anywhere with Vali. Perhaps Leland would be more willing to talk. I went in search of him, but I wasn’t able to find him in the house or around the grounds. I thought briefly of stopping by the cottage he shared with Vali but decided against it. I didn’t want to be alone with him.

I was walking around the porch to the front of the house when Pete walked out of the woods.

“Feeling better?” he greeted me.

“Much.”

“I have to go over to Heather Island to my mother’s house. I thought you might like to go with me.”

“How far away is it?”

“It’s not that far.” As if reading my mind, he continued, “It’s a quick trip in the boat.”

“Okay, I’ll go along,” I agreed. He had told me a little about Heather Island, and I was interested to see the place where he had grown up. He waited for me on the porch while I went upstairs to get a heavier coat, and we walked together through the trees and down to the dock.

I wasn’t prepared for the fear that swept over me like a tidal wave when I stepped onto the dock. Suddenly the events of the night before were rushing at me again. It was dark, an unseen pursuer had pushed me from behind, and I was fighting to keep my balance on the dock.

I closed my eyes and started to sway, my breath quickening, when Pete put his arm tightly around my shoulders. It steadied me a bit.

“Macy, you’re okay now. Try to think of something else. Come on, I want to introduce you to Heather Island.”

His words helped to focus me, and I walked determinedly down the dock to where the boat sat waiting. After I got in, the first thing I did was to put on a life jacket. My experience the previous night had affirmed my resolve never to be without one on the water.

Before long we were bumping lightly over the waves of the St. Lawrence River toward Heather Island. Much of the scenery that we passed was new to me; I hadn’t been very far on the river in this direction yet. The character of the waterway and its islands changed somewhat as we headed north. The river widened and there were more watery passageways to discover among smaller islands. Pete took us on a detour through one such hidden waterway.

“We’re in what’s known as the Lost Channel right now,” he explained as he slowed the boat a little. “During the French and Indian War, a British ship got lost among these islands, called Ivy Lea, searching for French ships. The British sailors started calling this area of the river the Lost Channel, and the name stuck.” Shadows darkened the water between the islands in the Lost Channel, and the effect was Edenic. Dark evergreens swayed together in the slight breeze, and here and there bright leaves from maple and birch trees loosened their hold and drifted slowly down into the water. There wasn’t another soul in sight. I imagined that the scene had changed little since the time of the French and Indian War. I also imagined that one could very easily get lost among these islands.

When we were back on our way to Heather Island, Pete told me a little about his family.

“My mother was originally from Québec. Her family moved to the island while she was still a young girl. My father moved there when they were married. Only about fifteen families live on the island year-round, so it can get pretty isolated in the winter. My sister goes to school in Ontario, but she gets home quite often to see my mother. My father passed away when I was a teenager,” he concluded.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I responded sympathetically.

“Dad was great. He’s the one who taught me how to fix anything. He had a great love of the river. He had met Forrest at a museum in Canada. They shared an interest in Native American history and artifacts, and eventually they became good friends. That’s how I came to work for Alex after my dad died. Forrest and Alex kind of took me under their wing, much like they had done with Will after his parents died.

“That’s also why I’ll do anything I can to help Alex. I owe her a debt for all the help she gave me years ago.”

We were approaching Heather Island. It looked immense to me, rising out of the water.

“My sister is going to meet us at the public dock. She’ll drive us to Mom’s house.”

I wrestled out of my life jacket while Pete secured the boat to the dock. He helped me out of the boat and we walked to a park-like area near the dock. He waved to a younger woman sitting in a parked car nearby and she got out and walked toward us. She was petite, with long red hair. She shared her brother’s lively green eyes. I recognized her as the young woman in one of the photos in Pete’s living room.

Pete walked up to her and kissed her cheek. She stood on tiptoes and put her arms around his neck and squeezed. I stood several feet away.

Pete turned to me and said to his sister, “Colette, this is Macy Stoddard. She’s Alex’s new nurse.”

Colette smiled broadly and shook my hand. “So you’re Macy! Pete has told us about you.” I blushed.

“How do you like Hallstead Island?” she asked.

“It’s beautiful. In fact, this whole area is just breathtaking.”

She nodded. “That’s why we love it, isn’t it, Pete?”

“You bet.”

“Let’s go home,” Colette suggested. “Mom’s anxious to see you.”

We drove for several minutes along a bumpy road until we came to a charming home set back from the road amid a grove of birch trees. The gabled cottage was white with dark green shutters and a dark green front door. A white picket fence surrounded it, and fall flowers grew in profusion in front of the quaint porch. American and Canadian flags flew from two porch posts. The entire scene could have been lifted from the pages of a picture book.

We mounted the front steps and Colette opened the big green door into a small hallway. “Mom, we’re back!” she shouted.

Another petite woman with close-cropped, stylish gray hair came into the hall wiping her hands on a dish towel. She looked chic in slacks and a Fair Isle sweater.

She kissed Pete on the cheek and held out her hands to me. “You must be Macy.” She beamed. “It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Pete’s mother. Call me Hélène.” She spoke and pronounced her name with a slight French accent.

I liked Hélène and Colette immediately. Within just a few minutes I was laughing and talking with them as if we’d been friends for years. After a short time, Pete suggested that we all have a look around Heather Island. Hélène said she had work to finish and dinner to make, and Colette declined too, saying she had to study. So, seated in his mother’s four-by-four, Pete and I set off by ourselves on a tour of the island.

Heather Island, I learned, was one of the largest of the Thousand Islands. It was covered with forests, wetlands, grasslands, working farms, and large and unspoiled wildlife habitats. We passed an old one-room schoolhouse (“that schoolhouse was open as recently as 1985,” Pete told me proudly), an abandoned cheese factory, and an ancient cemetery. But most impressive were the views of the water, both inland and on the river. I could see islands belonging to both Canada and the United States, bays surrounded by trees that were mirrored in the calm, dark water, and endless cattail marshes. It was a delightful tour and I was sorry when it ended.

It was late in the afternoon when we arrived back at Hélène’s house. She insisted that we stay for dinner, and we were treated to a simple, delicious meal of grilled chicken, couscous, and roasted cauliflower. The lively, noisy dinner with Pete’s family was so different from the staid, formal meals at Summerplace. I enjoyed myself immensely and too soon it was time to return. Hélène and Colette made me promise to come back soon, and it was a promise I made happily.

I was once again clad in my puffy orange life jacket when we shoved off from the public dock and made our way back to Hallstead Island. We took no detours along the way and arrived quickly. It was becoming dusk, and I was getting chilly. My arms and legs were starting to ache again, though they hadn’t bothered me at all during our trip to Heather Island. Pete invited me to come up to his rooms over the boathouse for a little while, but as much as I wanted to accept, I was getting very tired and felt I should get some sleep if I were to be of any use to Alex the next day. Pete understood and walked me back to Summerplace, then kissed me good night. I went indoors and checked on Alex, then went straight to my room, where I fell asleep early after taking a nice, long bath.

That night I had a nightmare again, the one in which I was drowning under the branches of the leaning tree. Again I was thrashing in the water and couldn’t save myself. As was usual when I had a nightmare, I woke up in the middle of the night trembling and drenched in sweat. The dream was even more frightening since I had been in a similar situation the night before, wildly grasping a piling with all of my strength. Thankfully I was able to fall asleep again, although it took a couple of hours.

When I woke up in the morning, my body felt better but my mind was still tired, no doubt from the stress of my experience at the dock but also from the exhaustion I usually felt after one of my nightmares.

After breakfast, which I ate alone in the dining room, I went to see Alex. As usual, she was already up and dressed.

“Would you like to do some early morning exercises today?” I asked her.

“That’s a good idea,” she replied. “I’m expecting Will and Stephan back from New York later this morning, and Stephan and I need to meet to discuss some things.”

Alex and I worked in her sitting room for more than an hour before she went back to work. After she returned to her office, I went to the library to continue with the packing, and soon I heard Stephan and Will arrive. Shortly after their arrival they went into Alex’s office.

My concentration eventually started to wander, and I was becoming tired, so I went into the kitchen to make myself some tea. Sitting in the dining room while I waited for the water to boil, I was staring out the window at nothing in particular when Will walked in. He was startled to see me but smoothly recovered himself.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Much better. Thank you again for helping me the other night.”

“No problem,” he mumbled. He walked to the sideboard and poured himself a cup of coffee.

No time like the present
, I thought. I launched into the conversation I had been waiting to have. “Will, I’m glad you’re here. I wanted to ask you about something.”

He raised one eyebrow and looked at me suspiciously. “About what?”

I hadn’t really thought this through carefully because I hadn’t expected to run into Will yet, so I had to think quickly.

“Oh,” I answered breezily, “nothing much. Alex was telling me about her family, and she mentioned that you were good friends with your cousin, Diana, before her death. She thought that you two had argued before Diana died and she couldn’t remember what you argued about. It’s just stuck in her craw; that’s all,” I finished lamely. I groaned inwardly. I sounded ridiculous. Will looked at me evenly over the rim of his coffee mug.

“Alex can’t remember why Diana and I fought and now she wants
you
to find out?” he asked doubtfully.

“Yeah.” I laughed. “You know how some people are when they get older. It’s just something that she’s wondering about.”

“Well,” Will said slowly, leaning back in the chair he now occupied across from me, “I don’t think that’s any of Alex’s business. Or yours.”

I tried again. “It was so long ago,” I stated. “Can you even remember?”

“Oh, yes. I remember it quite well. Diana could be a real bitch sometimes.”

I was a little surprised by his choice of words. “Alex would like to remember; that’s all. I think it would give her some peace of mind.”

Will set down his coffee cup with a thud, and some of the coffee sloshed over the side. “Let me put it this way, Macy. The argument I had with Diana was between me and Diana. I’m not going to tell Alex, and I’m certainly not going to discuss it with some stranger she’s hired to play nursemaid.” He glared at me, his eyes flashing hatred.