The Wells Brothers: Luke (6 page)

The second room was similar to the
first, only the wallpaper in this one was curling off the wall, hanging in
strips to the floor, big pieces missing from the walls.

“Kind of like skin peeled back in
strips,” Elspeth whispered in her ear.

“Thank you very much for that
visual.”  Mikki ran the beam over the room.  “Man, this room is more
dilapidated than the rest of the house.  You sure people have lived here
since?  Because I’m telling you, it looks like no one has lived here for
years.”

“Early on, dear, when the owner
first passed away.  They never stayed long, so it’s been deserted for about twenty
years.”

“Some of this place looks like it
was never touched since the 1800s.”

“You’re right.”  Elspeth played
the light over the walls.  “Maybe the renters didn’t get around to changing
things.”

“Why not?  You rent something like
this, you’re going to change things, get rid of the rot and such, not leave it
up here.”

“It does look like a lot of this
stuff is from the original owner’s time.”  Elspeth rubbed her chin
thoughtfully.  “Maybe the people who rented liked it.”

“Enough to leave it to rot?”

“Or maybe they didn’t have permission
to move things.  Or maybe they just didn’t care enough.”

“You rent, you want to live
decently.”

“It is a little odd, but then
maybe the furniture wasn’t so bad back then.”

“Huh.”

Placing her hand on the bed head,
Elspeth gave it a small shake.  “Sturdy as.  I bet some of this furniture can
be rejuvenated for use for the guests.”

Mikki pulled a face.  “Sleep in a dead
person’s bed?”

“Sweetie, we don’t know that
anyone died in this house.”

“The old man did.”

“I mean in this bed.”

“Women died all the time in
childbirth.”

“This is a single room, Mik.  Look
around.”  Elspeth gestured with the torch, the light flickering over the
walls.  “Single women didn’t have kids back then, only married ones, or loose
women or those poor souls who got up the duff and were then left stranded.  I
would think that those generally weren’t in a fine house like this.  The lady of
the house gave birth in her double bed.”

“And the loose women?  Or shamed
ones?”

“I don’t think there was any
scandal like that attached to this mansion.”

“Ah, but we don’t know for sure,
right?”  Anticipation crawled through Mikki.  “There could be a hidden diary
here somewhere, or notations in the library.  This place could reek of shame
and scandal that remains hidden to this day.”

Elspeth flashed a grin.  “The
Victorian times hid a lot of scandal.”

“Man, it’d be great if we could
dig up some juicy gossip.”  Mikki braced one hand on her hip as she looked at
the bed.  “If we could find out stories about the servants, the people who
lived here, pair them with photos and put them up on the wall as informative
history on the house for the guests to read and see, they’d be good
conversation pieces, don’t you think?”

Elspeth tapped her chin
thoughtfully.  “You know, I think you’re onto something.”  She pointed a finger
at Mikki.  “Tomorrow while I talk to the antique restorer and dealer, I want
you to go to the local library and find out what times they’re open, as well as
what kind of history they have on this place.  Also, we need to see if there is
a local museum in town, they might have more history.”

“Be even better if we could track
down long-lost relatives.  They might have some photos they’d part with,” Mikki
suggested.

“Mik, you are on a roll.”  Elspeth
patted her shoulder.  “Tomorrow is going to be busy.”

“The whole week’s going to be
busy.”

Elspeth beamed.  “I know.  Isn’t
it great?”  Whirling away, she added, “But tomorrow’s another day, tonight the
night is ours.”

Mikki had to smother a laugh at
the way Elspeth dropped her tone to a menacing growl.  “I thought that line was
more for romance than horror?”

“The night’s for
hunting
.”

Mikki gave a fake, over-the-top
shiver.  “Ooohhhh, Aunty!”

Elspeth disappeared out the door.

Mikki looked around the room one
last time.  She could imagine how grand it must have been, but really, she’d
much prefer her little duplex.  It was warm and cosy, whereas this place was
grand and proper, and face it, the furniture did not look comfortable.  The old
dilapidated sofa in the big room downstairs was hard to sit on and definitely
didn’t invite a person to slouch on it.  She could just imagine the women in
their long gowns, sitting on the sofa, backs straight and hands clasped in
their laps, ever inch the ladies.

She looked down at her jeans,
shirt and sneakers with a grin.  Definitely not a Mikki era.

Moving out of the room, she
followed the progress of Elspeth’s torch, seeing the glow in another room. 
Entering, she discovered what had to be the room of the master and mistress of
the house.  Elspeth was on the far side, riffling through an old wardrobe that
seemed to hold - wonder of wonders - clothing.

Moving further into the room, she
looked around.  There was a double bed complete with four posters, tattered
curtains pulled back at each post and fastened with a fraying, grimy cord.  The
dressing table still stood but the front of one of the drawers had fallen open,
leaving a black gap.  Atop the dressing table were several items, and she
crossed over to study them.

Wow, there was an actual old brush
and hand mirror lying on the surface, along with a perfume bottle of some
kind.  And was that…?  Leaning over, she touched the scrap of material to see a
cameo broach nestled amongst the dusty folds.

“Cripes, Aunt.”  She gestured
without looking.  “Did you see this?”

“In a minute, dear.  Can you
imagine?  There are honest to goodness clothes here from what looks to be the
early nineteenth century!”

Straightening, Mikki moved the
torch beam over the rest of the dressing table.

Then  it happened.

Something brushed her shoulder, a
presence at her back, a deep whisper in her ear.  “What are you doing?”

With a scream she spun around, the
torchlight flashing across a big body right in front of her, an arm reaching
out, a laugh starting - which got choked off as she instinctively swung her leg
upward.

Her knee slammed between two very
solid thighs, there was a muffled squawk and the figure dropped to the floor.

Heart pounding, Mikki leaped back,
her backside slamming into the dressing table which, miracle of miracles,
considering how old it was, didn’t break.  Something to be said for the good
workmanship of the day.

“What on earth…?”  Running up, Elspeth
trained the torchlight on the man writhing at their feet with his hands
clutched between his thighs. 
“Luke?”

“Oh Jesus!”  Horrified, Mikki
dropped to her knees beside him, touching his shoulder.  “Luke?  Are you all
right?”

In answer, he rocked on the floor,
eyes scrunched shut, lips peeled back from his teeth in a grimace of pain.  No,
that’d be agony.  She bit her lip at the expression on his face.  Definitely
agony.

Oh shit, she’d kneed
Luke
in the
nuts
. 

“Oh no.”  Elspeth knelt at his
back, rubbing uselessly in a vain attempt at trying to comfort him.  “Mikki,
what happened?”

“He was just there.  I swear, I
wouldn’t have done it if I’d known it was him.”  Wringing her hands in dismay,
she bit her lip while staring down at his face.  “He looks white.  Does he look
white to you? He looks white to me.  Like really sickly pale. And geez,” she
bent close to peer at his face, “he’s sweating.”

Oh man, that couldn’t be good.

“You hit him in the family jewels,
Mik, what do you expect?”  Elspeth continued rubbing his back.  “Shhh.  Oh sweetie,
it’s okay.  Shhh now.”

Luke just groaned.

“Should we try to get him up?”
Mikki queried helplessly.

“I don’t know.”  Elspeth was
biting her lip as hard as Mikki.  “Maybe we should call an ambulance?”

“Oh my God!  Do you think I
crushed his nuts that bad?”  Involuntarily, her gaze went to his crotch.  “No
blood.  Oh thank God, no blood.”  On the heels of relief, another thought
struck.  “It’s internal, isn’t it?  He could be bleeding internally!  Aunt, go
and ring an ambulance, go and-”

“Stop,” Luke said weakly.

“Maybe get some Aspirin or
something so he doesn’t clot inside and it travels to his heart and -
oh
shit
!  He might stroke out!  He might-”

A big hand slammed down onto her
thigh and squeezed.  “Stop!” Luke barked out.

Relief shot through Mikki, the
same echoed on Elspeth’s face as they both looked down at him.  That irate bark
was promising, but one look at his face showed the same pain reflected.  But
he’d stopped rocking.  One hand, however, was still firmly clamped on his
abused genitals.

She cringed.  Geez, she’d done
that, completely emasculated him.

The grip on her thigh tightened,
long fingers digging in as Luke opened his lids a crack to glare up at her
through pain-filled eyes.  “No ambulance.  No Aspirin.  No anything, you got
it?”

“But, dear,” Elspeth said
soothingly, “you’re hurt and we don’t know how bad.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Maybe we should look and-”

Horror joined the pain on his
face.
“No!”

“Be reasonable,” Mikki pleaded. 
“You might have gone from a packet of whole nuts to crushed nuts.  We’ll just
peek, I swear.”

“You-” releasing her thigh, he
jabbed a finger up towards her face - “have done enough.  No peeking.”  He
turned his head enough to glare up at Elspeth.  “From either of you.”

Consumed with guilt, Mikki
recommenced worrying her bottom lip.  “Luke, I am
so
sorry.”

“Oh, you will be,” he muttered,
his hand again landing heavily on her thigh.

She wasn’t sure she’d heard
right.  “What?”

“Just give me a couple of minutes,
then I’ll get up.”

Over his prone body, Elspeth
looked at Mikki and shrugged.

Blowing out a sigh, Mikki relaxed
back on her heels to gaze down at him.  Lying on his side, knees drawn up, one big
hand clamped on her thigh, the other clutching his abused family jewels, Luke
should have looked vulnerable.  Well, he kind of did, but the strength in his
hand gripping her thigh was a little intense, or maybe that was just the pain
rolling through him.  Man, she felt so bad.

Not knowing what else to do as the
silence dragged on, Mikki shifted her gaze to her aunt.  “So, did you see the
cameo brooch on the dressing table?”

Elspeth’s mouth fell open. 
“What?”

Feeling stupid, Mikki shrugged
helplessly.  “Look, we’re sitting here, he doesn’t want an ambulance, we have
to wait.  I don’t know what to say apart from maybe discuss the stuff on the
dressing table.”

Elspeth stared at her.

“Or maybe the coming court case
when he sues our arses off for assaulting him.”

“No one’s suing anyone,” Luke
ground out.

Immediately Elspeth smoothed his
hair back from his face.  “Shhh, dear.  Just relax, take it easy.”

Mikki studied him.  Surely there
was a little more colour back in his cheeks?  Surely his hand was clutching his
privates a little less rigidly?  Maybe - just maybe - there was a little easing
of the tension in his body?

After another several long
minutes, Luke finally opened his eyes to gaze directly up into hers.

Immediately she leaned close. 
“Luke?” One of her long curls spilled down to brush across his mouth and she
quickly flipped it back over her shoulder.  As he blinked up at her, she patted
his cheek gently.  “Hey, how are you doing?”

“You poor love,” Elspeth murmured.

Luke turned his head, his lips
grazing Mikki’s palm.  The sudden warm, moist breath against her skin made her
stomach dip unexpectedly and she drew her hand away quickly.

He didn’t seem to notice.  “Better.”

All of a sudden he started to push
upright, the movement seeming to make him go a little paler again, though in
the glow of the torches it was a little hard to say, especially as the women had
to leave them on the floor while helping him to his feet.

As soon as he gained his balance,
Mikki moved to his side.  “Here, let me help.”

Luke glared down at her.  “Wanting
to finish the job by pushing me down the stairs?”

“That’s a mean thing to say.”  Not
that she could blame him.  Grabbing his wrist, she pulled his arm across her
shoulders.  “Come on.”

“I’m not an invalid.  Yet.”  He
rested some of his weight on her.  “But I’m sure you’ll fix that.”

Relieved that he was returning to
normal and not writhing on the floor in agony, she steered him towards the
door.  “Geez, you’re going to hold a grudge, aren’t you?  I can tell.”

Luke grunted.

Holding the torches, Elspeth
stepped around them.  “I’ll light the way down to the servants’ quarters where
we can switch the lights on and fix you up.”

“I’m fine.”

“I thought you were going to die
back there,” Mikki muttered.

“I sure as shit felt like it,” he
retorted.

She rolled her eyes.  “I didn’t do
it on purpose.”

“So why did you do it?”

Manoeuvring him through the door,
she couldn’t help but notice how gingerly he was moving.  “I wasn’t expecting
anyone behind me.”

“Do you always react like that? 
Because if so, Red, you’re in danger of getting sacked from your job.”

“What do you mean?”

“You attack all your customers
like that and your shop manager isn’t going to be happy.”

“I expect shoppers to tap me on
the shoulder.  Mind you,” she steered him towards the staircase, “they don’t
usually tap my shoulder, they just talk to me.”

“I was talking to you back there.”