The Haunted (18 page)

“It wasn’t creepy.
You
were there.”

“That’s why it was creepy. Because of me.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “It wasn’t you. Don’t say that. Besides, you’re going to ruin my happy memories of shadow puppets.”

“I
am
pretty great at shadow puppetry. Maybe I should start my own business.” He grinned, and I felt warmth spreading through me.

I looked up at the brightening sky. “I really
do
have to go.” I dug my shoe into the ground. “But if I, maybe, came back later today… would you be here?”

Caspian nodded, then turned and started to walk away, pausing long enough to say, “You know where to find me.”

I stood there watching his retreating figure, then shook my head. We’d pretty much just spent the night together, and he was able to act that casual about it? Boys were so hard to figure out sometimes.

Movement on the path to my left caught my eye, and I turned and saw a person. A person with a little wire brush and a trash bag sticking out of his back pocket. A person with gray hair, a faded blue shirt, and patched overalls.
Nikolas.

He spotted me, too, and paused. I walked toward him and threw my arms open for a hug when I reached him. Nikolas patted my shoulder in that rusty way of his, and hesitantly hugged me back.

I squeezed him tight, suddenly realizing how much I’d missed him. It was like seeing my long-lost grandfather.

“I’m kind of mad at you,” I told him, drawing back. “But I really missed you, Nikolas.”

I could see his eyes were misty, and he scrubbed a rough hand over his face. “Forgive an old man whose eyes leak,” he told me. “I missed you too, Abbey. We thought you had decided to abandon this place.”

A sliver of guilt and shame wormed its way into my heart. I
had
intended to leave them all behind. “I had a lot to work through, Nikolas. I’m still working through some of it, I think.
But I couldn’t stay away. In fact I was going to come see you again. How is Katy?”

“My lady is well. Her garden has been blooming these past few weeks, and she is happy to be in her element of picking flowers.”

I laughed. “I bet she is. Does she still have them covering every surface of the house?”

Nikolas nodded. “I cannot take a step or make my seat without fear of crushing some fragile bloom.” A gentle look came over his face. “But that is what pleases her, and so I tread carefully.”

A warm feeling settled over my heart. It was nice to hear that they were still so happy together. The sky lightened to a shade of pink with faint fingers of yellow. Daylight was racing toward us, and I needed to get home.

“Is it okay if I come over later today?” I asked him. “I have a lot of questions for you.”

He followed my gaze toward the sun. “Why don’t you come with me now? Katy is at home, and I’m sure she will be happy to make us some tea. We have peppermint.” His look was hopeful, and I hated to turn him down, but I could get
seriously
grounded if Mom or Dad found out that I snuck out of the house.

I tried to think fast. I could always tell Mom that I went
for a walk early this morning. Technically, it
was
early morning when I went to see Caspian, and I
had
walked to get there. I turned my attention back to Nikolas. “I guess I could come for a short visit.”

“Good! Let us go now.”

He turned, and I followed him to the far side of the cemetery. We reached the woods and set off down the overgrown path that would lead us to their cottage. An angry chipmunk scolded us when we trampled dangerously close to the tree he called home, and I smiled at the absurdity of his chattering. Chipmunks had it easy. Gather a couple of nuts, make your home in a tree, wave your tail at the giant humans invading your space…

The path widened, and a little bridge came into view. Beyond that was Nikolas and Katy’s home. I held my breath. Would it still look like the enchanted little storybook cottage that I’d visited before? Or would it look different to me in any way?

But the thatched roof was still the same, and the giant round stones that made up the exterior were still there. Even the wisteria growing on the stone chimney looked colorful and vibrant. I exhaled in relief.

Nikolas led me around back, where Katy was kneeling in a garden among daisies and bluebonnets. She had on a wide straw
hat and an old-fashioned, yellowish summer dress. I stopped for a second and mentally kicked myself for not seeing it before. She was the picture of someone straight out of Washington Irving’s tale, right down to the bouffant hair she had rolled up under her hat in a loose bun.

I felt shy all of a sudden. But as soon as she heard Nikolas call out, Katy looked up, and a large smile broke out on her face.

Gracefully rising to her feet, she hurried over to me, arms outstretched. Seconds later I was smothered in a hug that smelled like peppermint and honeysuckle. “How wonderful to see you, Abbey!” she said. “What a pleasant surprise. It has been so long.”

“I was gone for a while. I’ll tell you all about it inside. Can we go talk?”

She nodded. “I’ll make some tea.”

I stepped back, and Nikolas came around to her other side, offering his arm. She leaned on it, and they started toward the front of the house.

Entering the kitchen, I crossed the room and went to the large slate table by the fireplace. I pulled out a glossy cherry-colored chair and sat down. Nikolas sat too, and Katy went to the cupboard.

I stopped her before she made the tea. “Can that wait for a minute? I’d like to talk first.”

She sat at the table and bent to pick up yarn and needles from a basket on the floor. Within seconds her fingers were flying.

I decided to start from the beginning. “I left Sleepy Hollow to go see a specialist. A doctor who helps people who… see and hear… things that don’t exist.” I wasn’t sure how much to tell them, how much to admit to, but I didn’t want to hold anything back. “See, I thought I was crazy. You guys told me that you’re Katrina Van Tassel and the Headless Horseman from ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,’ and the father of the boy I’d been spending time with told me that his son was dead. I couldn’t cope with any of that.”

Katy paused from her knitting and put one hand on mine. “I know how you feel, Abbey. I, too, was once in the same position. When Nikolas and I first met and I learned he was dead, I didn’t handle it very well. I ignored him for a month.”

“After she tossed an entire Sunday dinner through my head,” Nikolas muttered.

“So wait,” I said, “you
did
have a head?”

“I could see him in his true form. How he was before,” Katy said.

“Will you tell me, then? About your story?”

Katy looked to Nikolas. “Do you want to start?”

He nodded. “The tale is true that I
was
a Hessian soldier. During the Revolutionary War, I made my living as a mercenary. A soldier for hire. Alas, I had an unfortunate meeting with a cannonball. It took my head, and my horse dropped over with it. They buried me in this cemetery, because I saved a child once… but that is a story for another day.

“When I found Stagmont nuzzling at the cemetery grass, I realized he had followed me over. My story spread, became the stuff of legend, if you will, and that is how I became the Galloping Hessian of the Hollow.”

“So you keep a horse here too?” I said. “Where is he? Can I see him?”

“Sometimes we go on midnight rides through the cemetery, but I do not keep him here. It isn’t fair to him. He prefers to wander.”

Katy spoke up. “As for me, everything changed when Ichabod Crane came to town. He gave me singing lessons and seemed very interested in me. I tried to remain kind in my refusals of his attention, though.”

“Bah. That proud peacock knew you were no more going to choose him than that bag of bones Brom,” Nikolas said.

I leaned forward, looking back and forth between the two. “Wait. I thought Brom Bones was the sturdy one and Ichabod
Crane was the skinny one. That’s what the legend says.”

“Yes,” Katy said. “That’s how it was written, but as we told you before, the legend was changed from reality. Most notably the ending, to protect Nikolas and me, but other aspects were changed as well.”

“Then one day I saw her and fell instantly in love,” Nikolas replied.

“I was
not
very pleased by that,” Katy said. “I thought I was having fits or a case of the vapors, seeing things that no one else could see. Thank goodness I never told anyone. They would have sent me to a convent.” A faraway look came into her eyes. “Although I did often think about telling Father. I always thought that he might be the one person to understand.”

She shook her head as if to clear her thoughts. “Imagine having a lovesick ghost as your constant companion. I threw my needlepoint at him, my books at him, even my slippers at him! But he followed me everywhere. Then Brom pulled that silly stunt, dressing up like a headless horseman, and chased Ichabod over the bridge.”

“What happened next?” I asked.

“Ichabod left town, and Brom married someone else. Eventually I was able to woo the fair Katrina, and she said she loved me,” said Nikolas.

“So you never married Brom?” I asked Katy.

She shook her head no. Pushing her needles to the side, she stood up. “I think I will make the tea now, if that is agreeable with you?”

I nodded.

As she passed by Nikolas, he reached out an arm, and she took his hand, gently kissing the back of it. A twisting sensation filled me, and I looked away.

Sounds filled the kitchen as she started to prepare the tea—the scrape of a bowl being moved, a cabinet door banging open, water filling the kettle. There wasn’t a fire in the hearth this time, since it was summer, but Katy put the metal teapot onto an old stove. When she turned the knob, a fine ring of blue fire lit up under the burner, and she came back to sit at the table.

I still had so many questions. “How was Washington Irving involved in all of this? Besides writing the story.”

Nikolas was the one to answer. “He played in the cemetery as a little boy and had a penchant for telling stories, even as a lad. I was his companion, and we spent hours talking together. He grew up listening to our story. I was honored when he asked me if he could write it down.”

“Washington Irving could
see
you? How?”

“He was one of us. A Shade.”

I looked at Katy. “Could he see you, too? Is he still, um…
here
? Somewhere?”

“Oh yes, he could see me, too. We talked fairly often. But he didn’t stay. His love moved on, and then so did he.”

“Wow.” I said. “So you guys are like
really
old then, huh?”

They both laughed. “Yes,” Katy replied. “I suppose we are rather old.” The teakettle whistled, and she got up to remove it from the stove.

“What about the other stuff ?” I looked down at the table, suddenly unsure of what I was asking. “With Caspian… the boy from the cemetery.” I thought back to the last time I had seen them, right before I left for Aunt Marjorie’s. “You told me that he was a Shade like you—because of the black streak in his hair. What exactly
is
a Shade?”

“A Shade is just a name we’ve given ourselves. We’re like shadows, living within the shade of real life. I think it fits,” Nikolas said.

“Why not just call yourselves ghosts?”

“We are different from ghosts,” said Katy. “It’s hard to explain, but we are.”

Nikolas stood up and went to gather the small silver pots that held sugar and honey. Katy poured the tea into three teacups
and brought two of them over to the table, and Nikolas followed closely behind with the server that held milk.

“How?” I persisted.

“Ghosts,” he said, “are tied to memories, or places they frequented. Most of them are only capable of repeating one action over and over again. There are a small few who can cause minor disruptions, but they are still playing a role. If they are troubled in death, then they were troubled in life, too.”

He sat a teacup in front of me and then reached for his own. “It was different for me, because I wasn’t tied to one place. That didn’t come till… after. Of course, I had my favorite spots, the bridge and the cemetery, but I could go all over this valley. And I followed Katy around quite a bit too.” He winked at her and grinned.

“What about touching? Could you and Katy touch each other from the start?” I stirred some honey into my tea and looked down at the amber liquid as I asked my question.

“No, we couldn’t touch each other,” Katy said.

“You couldn’t? Why not?”

“I don’t know. That’s just the way it was.”

“Did you guys know that Caspian was dead when you first saw him?” I asked.

They exchanged a long look.

“Yes,” Nikolas said slowly. “We can sense those things. And…” Nikolas pointed behind his ear. “What do you see here?”

I peered at him. “You have a black streak too. Like Caspian?”

He nodded. “When I saw it on him, I knew.”

“Do you have one too, Katy?” I turned to her.

“Yes. Although mine is white.”

“But what if someone dyes their hair?” I asked. “I dye mine all the time.”

“It is easy to see through what is natural and what is not,” Nikolas said. “Caspian sensed something about me as well. Since I could see him, he thought I was dangerous. He didn’t know what he was feeling.”

He continued on. “I could sense that
you
were special too. Sometimes small children and those who are especially sensitive can almost tell that I am there, but you could see me right away. And when you were able to hug me, that was a confirmation in itself.”

I sipped my tea slowly, trying to take it all in. “So what happened after you… passed, Katy? You and Nikolas simply found each other again? Just like that?”

She stirred her tea and glanced away from me. “Yes, that’s pretty much the story.”

I got the feeling that there was something else she didn’t want to say.
She doesn’t want to talk about her death. Take a hint, Abbey.

“At least you both got to come live here together,” I said, looking around at the cozy cottage. “A happy ever after.”