Sometime Yesterday (9 page)

“What if it doesn’t work?” asked Natalie.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

*

Natalie stood in the hallway. She could hear voices that appeared to be having a conversation, but she couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. She strained her ears to decipher the direction she should go.

The turret room.

She approached the door then watched her hand reach for the knob in slow motion. Natalie turned it quietly. What? Did she think she was going to sneak up on them in the dark? She felt as if she were swimming in ice water and her pulse beat loudly in her ears.

Natalie grabbed the banister for support. When she reached the top landing she hit the light switch. The room was empty, but the voices grew in volume, spinning around her, almost tangible like a speeding train. It was making her dizzy. Natalie put her hands over her ears and slid down the wall to sit on the floor with her knees drawn up to her chest.

The room stopped turning and Natalie lowered her hands.

“Stop fidgeting. You’re ruining my lines.”

Natalie’s eyes snapped open and she saw Sarah standing by the window.

“It’s too hot in here, Beth.” Sarah fanned a hand in front of her face. “Can’t we finish this later?”

“I’m almost done. Please, just a few more minutes? Go back to where you were. I want this to be perfect. Like you.”

Natalie was puzzled by the additional voice. Who was Beth? She tried to see over the top of the easel but couldn’t from her position on the floor. She felt frozen in place.

“You think I’m perfect?” Sarah’s cheeks turned pink.

“Yes. Now please, get back into position.”

Natalie was amused at Beth’s tone of voice. She herself had used it on many occasions when painting a live model.

Sarah turned toward the window and placed one hand on the frame, the other along the back of the armchair beside her.

The second Natalie saw her flip her long hair behind her she immediately recognized the pose in the oil painting downstairs. A low electrical charge seemed to buzz along her skin. She was more curious than afraid but gasped anyway when Beth moved out from behind the easel. She looked like Natalie’s twin, right down to the mole she had to the left of her upper lip. She was a much younger version and her hair was longer, but the resemblance was so strong it was spooky. Suddenly, the dreams of making love with Sarah made more sense. It wasn’t Natalie that Sarah saw. It was this look-alike, Beth. Natalie was completely enthralled with the scene in front of her.

Sarah jumped when Beth approached from behind and lightly grazed the tips of her breasts through the thin material.

“You’re nipples were hard when we started,” Beth said then kissed the side of Sarah’s long neck. “Now don’t move. Hold it just like that.”

Beth crossed back to the easel and hours seemed to pass in seconds while Natalie watched her mix paint and the brushes fly to the canvas. In her mind’s eye, she painted along with her.

“Are you finished yet?”

“Yes.”

“Can I see?”

Beth put down her brushes. A blue smear crossed her cheek and her hands were covered in paint splatter. Sarah crossed to her; the diaphanous gown moved like water around her. Natalie heard the small sigh of appreciation.

“Oh, Beth, it’s beautiful. I love how you painted the full moon. Do I really look like that?”

“Better.” Beth put her arm around Sarah. “Do you truly like it?”

“I love it.” Sarah cupped Beth’s face in her hands. “I love you.”

Natalie saw the sweet expression on Beth’s face and it tugged at her heart. When Sarah tipped her head to kiss her, she nearly sighed out loud. They were so obviously in love.

Sarah continued to kiss Beth while she steered her to the maroon chaise against the wall. The back of Beth’s knees hit the edge and she sat. Sarah knelt on the floor in front of her and unbuttoned the painter’s smock. Beth held still until she was finished then slipped it off her shoulders, revealing the lack of undergarments.

Sarah chuckled. “You’re naked, love.”

Beth’s cheeks flushed. “You told me to be.”

“So I did,” Sarah answered. She kissed a freckled shoulder before lowering her head to draw a pink nipple into her mouth.

Natalie’s sharp intake of breath matched Beth’s. She had a perfect view of the pair now. She could feel her own nipples harden in response to the scene in front of her and a wave of desire swept over her. She closed her eyes and felt a small twinge of voyeuristic guilt for witnessing what was a very private moment.

Beth’s soft sigh from across the room had Natalie looking back again. Sarah trailed tiny kisses along Beth’s stomach before spreading her thighs. Sarah’s nightgown pooled on the floor beneath her.

Natalie didn’t think she’d ever seen anything so erotic in her life. It was like watching a beautifully choreographed dance. Sarah kissed the softness in front of her and Natalie sighed in tandem with Beth again. She put a hand to her mouth to hush herself. When Sarah’s tongue slid along Beth’s swollen flesh, she raised her own hips.

Natalie slipped her hand under the waistband of her shorts, surprised to find herself soaking wet. She heard unmistakable sucking sounds and Beth’s little whimpers. She found her own clit swollen and engorged, and when she ran her fingers over it, her stomach clenched.

Beth’s hips rocked against Sarah’s face, her hands twined her long hair. She threw her head back and exposed her long neck before her body stiffened and she fell backward, still panting. Sarah laid her head on her quivering stomach. Her nightgown was pulled up and her hands cupped her sex.

Natalie watched two of her fingers disappear into the wet folds and mirrored her movements.

Beth wrapped Sarah’s hair into a tail to pull her face up then sucked her tongue in the rhythm Sarah was dancing between her thighs.

The sight was so unbelievably sensual; Natalie increased her own pressure and tempo until she was gasping for breath. She cried out loud when the orgasm overtook her. Her eyes closed for a moment.

Natalie woke to the sound of heavy footsteps in the hall.
Damn it.
She could also still hear the echo of Sarah and Beth making love. The dream was so real. The noise in the hall stopped and Natalie held her breath, waiting for the door to open. She let it out slowly when nothing happened. She wondered briefly if she should ask her mother if she heard the footsteps and run to her bedroom as she did when she was a child. The silence was almost as unnerving as the footsteps.

A voice in the room whispered. “I will love you forever.”

Natalie smelled bacon frying. She found her mother in the kitchen making breakfast and her laptop open on the table. “You’ve been busy this morning.”

Her mother looked up from the stove. “Good morning, sleepyhead. I’ve been up for hours. Sit. I’ll bring you some coffee.”

“You don’t have to wait on me, Mom.” Natalie sat anyway, knowing it was useless to argue with her. “How did you sleep?”

“Oh,” her mother said nonchalantly, “I slept fine.”

Natalie had a moment of trepidation and hoped like hell her mother didn’t have any sex dreams. Oh. God. Now the image was stuck in her head. “Please tell me you didn’t have any dreams.”

Her mother patted her hand. “No, no funny dreams. Honestly? I felt the dark energy pacing the halls most of the night. How about you?”

Natalie hesitated. “I had dreams that were very vivid. I felt as if I were in the same room with them.”

“Who?”

“Sarah and Beth.”

Her mother’s eyes widened. “Who’s Beth?”

“Apparently, she’s my doppelganger. The first dreams I had, I was looking out of her eyes with my thoughts.” She shivered. “It’s more than a little creepy.”

Natalie told her mother about witnessing Beth paint the portrait of Sarah, currently hanging above the fireplace. She left out a great deal of the details, but told enough to convey the depth of love they held for each other. She finished her story with how she woke up to the footsteps in the hallway.

“Well, that almost validates my theory that I had about them being trapped.” Her mother looked thoughtful and tapped her chin.

“Right before I went back to sleep, I heard one of them say, ‘
I’ll love you forever.
’
Mom, it was so real and Beth looked so much like me, it was uncanny.” Natalie felt hopeful. “It can’t be that simple, right? The connection, I mean.”

“One thing I know about spirits, honey, is that it is almost never simple. We can go to the courthouse and library today to search the old-fashioned way for past owners of record.”

“I think I know an easier way.” Natalie pulled the laptop closer to bring up the online listings for Bayside. She found the number she was looking for and dialed.

“Stan?”

“Yes, this is him.”

“Hello. This is Natalie, the one who bought the Seeley place?”

There was a pause on the line. “Yes, Natalie. What can I help you with?”

“Stan, I was hoping you could tell me the names of the previous owners.”

“I’m sure that Karen—”

Natalie cut him off. “Please, Stan. You told me yourself how the gossip mill grinds.” At this point she was thinking that if Karen hadn’t been forthcoming before she bought the house, Natalie didn’t trust her to be now. “I just need a name. They did such a tremendous amount of renovation here; they must have come into your store a thousand times.”

Another long pause had Natalie wondering if he hung up on her. Then she heard the rustle of papers.

“Okay,” he said. “Beecher, Brad and Tina. That’s Beecher with two e’s.”

“Thank you, Stan. I appreciate it.”

“Yeah, well. Just don’t tell ’em where you got it.” His voice was gruff. “Later, Miss Natalie.”

“Good-bye,” she said to the click.

Her mother checked the listings and found a Beecher, B & T, in a town only thirty miles away. “It’s not a common name,” she said.

Natalie agreed and keyed the address into the GPS on her phone. “Well, it’s a beautiful day for a drive up the coast.”

Her mother smiled. “Isn’t it just?”

*

Natalie turned in her seat to look at her mother. “Should we have called?” It seemed like a good idea at the time to surprise the Beechers, but now that they were sitting in the driveway, she was having second thoughts. “Maybe they both work.” Natalie was always forgetting that not everyone worked from home.

“Brand new subdivision,” her mother said. “Nice house. Not quite as big as the one they left behind, though.”

Natalie was too nervous to look at the details. She wanted to get this over with. “Ready?”

The front door opened before they reached it and a woman in her mid-fifties was looking out of the small gap.

“Can I help you?”

“Mrs. Beecher?”

“Yes.”

“My name is Natalie and this is my mother, Colleen.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to sell me something or make me come to Jesus?”

There was no easy way to do this, so Natalie jumped right in. “I bought your house.” She watched a flicker of fear pass over Mrs. Beecher’s face. “We just want to ask you a few questions.”

“I’ve been almost expecting this.” She looked resigned as she opened the door wider. “The house was on the market for almost three years, so we were surprised when it sold. Come in then. Can I get you anything?”

“No, thank you, Mrs. Beecher.”

“Tina, please. I’m going to need something to drink. Sit down; I’ll be right back.” She led them to a formal living room.

“She’s pale and scared,” Natalie’s mother said in a low voice. “But she seems very pleasant.”

“At least she didn’t shut the door in our face or pretend she didn’t know why we were here.” Natalie was relieved.

Tina returned with three glasses of ice water on a small tray. “You might need it,” she said.

Natalie’s mother took one. “Thank you, dear. Can you tell us about the house?”

“How did you come to buy it?” Tina asked.

Natalie smiled at the memory. “It was the easiest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I had been visiting my friend Mary in Bayside. I was driving back up the coast when I saw the sign. I don’t know why exactly, but I turned and went straight up to the house. The realtor listed sent Karen up to let me in. I fell in love with the charming old house.” She sat back. “And you?”

Tina smiled almost wistfully. “Oh, I did too. Fell in love with it at first sight. My husband was dead set against it. He said it was too much work. But I badgered him until he gave in. I wanted a project, you see. I had empty nest syndrome something awful and thought I needed a project.”

“I can understand that,” Natalie’s mother said.

“The house had been empty for years when we bought it, but the owners before us had replaced all the old plumbing and wiring. Some of the rooms were down to the studs. The kitchen was horrid.” Tina shuddered.

“Did you ever talk with them?” Natalie asked.