Yesterday shed been herselfa teacher who loved history and brought that love to costumed interpretation. She loved her life, and she had good friends, a great family. And this morning
She looked straight ahead. She wasnt being selfish. She needed to go home. To speak with her coworkers and friends from the board and Good Lord! She had to call her parents and let them know she was all right.
He drove to her house and stopped the car. Turning to her, he said quietly, Im very sorry about your friend, and truly sorry that you were the one to find him.
She nodded. I just need some time, she said again.
Call me when you feel you want to get back into it.
Of course.
He was watching her so intently she wondered if she had food on her face.
Youll need my number, he reminded her.
Oh. Yes. She gave a deep sigh. I do want to help the kids. I do want to help you, even though it did look like a horrible accident. Allison took out her cell phone as she spoke.
The trashing of the attic wasnt an accident. He removed his phone from his pocket. Ill dial you, he said.
He already had her number. Of course. He was an FBI agent.
She clicked on the call and added his number to her phone. Then she realized shed asked to be taken home and theyd arrived, but she was still sitting in his car.
Im not sure what I can do for you, she told him. Youre here, Mr. Harrison is here, the police have been through it all. I dont know what I could contribute.
I doubt that anyone is as familiar with the house or its history as you are. She caught herself studying the color of his eyes. They were a mixture of blue and green, a kind of aqua shed never seen before. He was a very striking man.
She blinked, suddenly aware that she was staring and that she needed to reply.
There have been some tragic and terrible incidents at the house, but I dont think something that happened years ago could have any bearing on what happened yesterday.
He shrugged, smiling wryly. Thats what well find out. He exited the car and walked around to open her door.
She remembered that she was supposed to get out.
Thanks, she mumbled.
Are you sure youll be right alone?
Yes, thanks. Well, um, be in touch.
Thank you, he said with a nod.
Awkwardly, she started up her front walk. She knew he was watching her, and when she fit her key into the door, she turned around to wave. He waved back, then got into his car and eased out onto the street.
Inside the house, she closed the door and leaned against it for a moment. Shed wanted to be alone.
Now she didnt.
But she walked in and dug out her phone before tossing her purse on the sofa and sitting down next to it. She had to start returning calls.
But even as she decided that she had to call her mother first and then the board and her coworkers, the silence in the house seemed to weigh down on her. She got up and turned on the television. A news station was playing, with a reporter standing in front of the hospital. Mr. Dixons strange fall into a coma was being added to the tragic news about musician and tour guide Julian Mitchell.
She changed the channel. The speculation on the evil within the house on news stations struck her as overkill.
With a comedy repeat keeping her company, she looked at all the calls shed ignored while she was with Tyler Montague. She called her parents, whod gone to their home in Arizona for a few weeks, and made a point of being calm and sad and completely in control. As much as she adored her mom and dad, she didnt want them coming back here because they were worried about her.
Theyd met Julian a few times and offered their condolences, but when they questioned her safety, she made it sound as if the media were going wildwhich they wereand described what had happened as a tragic accident. She assured her mother that as a Revolution-era woman or even as Lucy Tarleton, she didnt carry a musket with a bayonet.
Next she spoke to Nathan Pierson. She told him she was fine, and he promised hed be there for anything she needed with the police or the house. Hed talk to the rest of the board, too. She didnt have to call anyone else, he said; she should just relax.
Nathan was the easiest member of board to deal with. He was a good-looking man who had never married. She wasnt close enough to ask him if there was a long-lost love for whom he pined, but if so, it didnt seem to affect his dating life. At various functions, shed seen him with different women, all of them beautiful and elegant. He was unfailingly polite and courteous to her. Sometimes he teased her, claiming that he was waiting for her to notice him and ignore the age discrepancy; he teased a lot of people, though, and he had a way of making his words sound like a compliment rather than licentious.
He was the solid rock of the board, in Allisons opinion. Ethan Oxford was like a distant grandfather, Sarah was like the family old-maid aunteven though shed been married. She was high-strung. And Cherry wasCherry. She always considered herself a cut above the rest of the world.
Allison was grateful that Nathan was going to speak with the other board members, but she did have to call Jason Lawrence and Annette Fanning.
Jason still seemed stunned by the whole thing. She told him about the attic but said they were keeping that information from the media.
He, too, wanted to make sure she was okay.
After that she called Annette.
Annette was smart and fun and usually logical, so Allison was shocked by the tremor in her friends voice and the view she seemed to be taking of the situation.
Its not surprising, is it? Oh, Allison, I thank God for that root canal, and I never thought Id say that. I wonder what happened. Did Julian freak out? One toke too many? But hes never been out of it at work. Thats just the heavy-metal image he likes to portray. Its the house, Allison. It terrifies me! I can always feel it when Im there, likelike the house itself is breathing. I mean, when youre out on the street, the windows seem like eyes, watching you. Maybe so much evil did happen there and it continues, on and on. Like something malevolent that waits and
Annette! No! The house is a pile of brick and wood and stone. Its a house. Horrible things take place everywhere. We go through life grateful when they dont happen to us, and either sad or broken when they do.
Well, I for one am glad theyre closing it down. No, waitdo we get unemployment or anything? Im out of a job! I dont think theyll be able to pay usthere wont be any money coming into the house without the tours.
Were not out of work, Annette. Theyre closing it temporarily for an investigation. Im sure theyll provide us with some kind of compensation.
The house needs an exorcism!
No, Annette, it doesnt. The house isnt possessed. Or evil. And if the house could feel anything, it would be grateful to us for keeping it alive. Annette
Ohhhhh, Annette broke in. You have another job. I dont. In fact, you have a cool job, a real job. Youre a professor.
Annette, you do have a real job. The house will open again. Itll just be closed for a few weeks. Theyll shore up the alarm system, and well be bombarded when we reopen because people are ghoulish and theyll want to stare at the place where Julian died. Besides, you work at the tavern as a singing waitress sometimes.
No, Annette, it doesnt. The house isnt possessed. Or evil. And if the house could feel anything, it would be grateful to us for keeping it alive. Annette
Ohhhhh, Annette broke in. You have another job. I dont. In fact, you have a cool job, a real job. Youre a professor.
Annette, you do have a real job. The house will open again. Itll just be closed for a few weeks. Theyll shore up the alarm system, and well be bombarded when we reopen because people are ghoulish and theyll want to stare at the place where Julian died. Besides, you work at the tavern as a singing waitress sometimes.
Yeah, thank God! I was there last night. I went for a drink after my root canal and to hang with some of my friends. I can ask for a few more nights.
The house wont be closed that long.
Are you alone? Oh! Youre not still at the police station, are you?
No.
I saw some government guy on the newsnot an interview, just a shot of him talking to the police. The U.S. government is in on this, Allison. Its scary, scary. But, hey, have you met him? My God, hes gorgeous! Whoops, excuse me, Barrie heard that. Barrie, hes not as gorgeous as you, just, um, pretty gorgeous!
Annette, pay attention. Those guys are here because of Adam Harrison. You know, the nice elderly gentleman whos been to a few functions at the house.
I remember him. Maybe there is going to be an exorcism! I heard that his people look into strange stuff. Like paranormal events.
Annette, if Barries there and has the day off, please go and spend some time with him.
What kind of friend do you think I am? Ill be right there
No, no, please! Im fine by myself. Im going to try to get some rest. Okay?
Annette was silent. Im not sure you should be alone.
Annette, Im fine. I promise. Im going to curl up on the couch and try to doze off.
Call if you need me, Ally. I can be there in five minutes.
I will, Allison said. Thanks.
She was able to hang up at last. Setting the phone down, she rose and headed into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. She really hoped she could doze off for a while, and hot tea and an inane comedy on TV should help her quell some of the thoughts and images racing through her mind.
She loved her new pod machine; a cup of English Breakfast tea brewed as swiftly as a cup of coffee. Mug in hand, she left the kitchen and came around the counterand froze.
She wasnt alone in the house. There was someone sitting in the chair by the sofa.
A dark-haired young man in Colonial dress.
It was Julian Mitchell.
She blinked.
He was still there.
The cup fell from her hand. She heard it shatter on the tile floor.
Then she followed it down. She was vaguely aware that a few body parts hurt but not for long.
Mercifully, the world went black as she passed out cold.
4
Tyler stood in the attic of the Tarleton-Dandridge House looking at the disarray.
Someone had been searchingfor what?
He wanted to straighten up the room; it was far easier to figure out what was missing when everything else was in the right place. Hed need to involve others with that, which he didnt want to do quite yet. Hed had offers from the board to come in and help, but hed turned them down. Hed actually lied to Nathan Pierson, telling him he preferred to wait until he was sure the police were finished with their forensics before bringing anyone else in.
The police were finished. And after speaking with Detective Jenson, he knew they werent expecting to find anything useful, unless by some unlikely chance they were to lift foreign printsthose not associated with the four guides or the board members, whose prints theyd already taken. If they were really lucky, theyd come up with prints belonging to someone with a criminal record.
He wanted to work with Allison Leigh for the obvious reasons. She was the one whod found the body and who knew this house backward and forward, along with the history. Hed gone through the biographies and résumés of the employees and the board, and there was no one better qualified to help him than Allison. She was in denial right now; he assumed that would change.
So far, although he had a sense of being watched in the house, Tyler hadnt seen a single movement, felt a brush of cold air or even heard an old board creak.
The house was waitingor those within it were. Waiting and watching.
He left the attic and walked back down to the second floor, taking a few minutes to go into every room. Hed been glad to hear from Nathan Pierson that there was no plan by the board to give up the house. It was on the national historic register, of course, so there was virtually no threat that it would be bulldozed. Meticulously restored, the Tarleton-Dandridge House was one of the finest examples of early Americana hed ever seen. It would be a shame if it was closed to the public to become the offices of an accounting agency or a bank.
Tyler paused at Lucy Tarletons room. He walked inside to look at the painting of Beast Bradley.
Here, as Tyler had observed before, he was portrayed as a thoughtful man. He appeared to be strong, but almost saddened by the weight of responsibility. Hed been a man with well-arranged features, handsome in youth.
Interesting.
Next he studied the painting of a young and innocent Lucy Tarleton, a woman as yet untouched by death and bloodshed. He noted that there was something about Lucys eyes that made him think of Allison. There was definitely a resemblance, although it was true that many young women, dressed as Lucy, might look like the long-gone heroine.
Tyler stood very still, allowing himself to feel the house.
Again he experienced the sensation of being watched, but there were no sounds from the old place, nor did he see anything or notice any drafts.
He headed down to the study where hed left his briefcase with his computer and the records Adam had arranged for him to receive.
They recorded many instances of normal life and deathmany births had taken place in the house, although sadly two of the mothers had died in childbirth. A number of people had died in their beds of natural causes, one Dandridge at the grand old age of a hundred and five.
During the War of 1812, Sophia Tarleton-Dandridge and her husband had owned the house; theyd taken in a wounded soldier and he had passed away. He was buried with the family in the graveyard behind the stables. A family friend had come to the house after the Battle of Gettysburg. He was also buried in the family graveyard.
Sad and tragic deaths due to warfare, Tyler thought. Not unexpected and not the kind of thing that would produce anything terrible.
But then, Beast Bradley had been the terror that touched the house....
Looking further into the family history, Tyler saw that another death had been that of a young Dandridge girl in 1863. He wondered if shed been in love with the Civil War soldier whod died. Shed taken rat poison and killed herself soon after his death.
He shuddered. Hard way to die, rat poison.
And another hard way to diea bayonet through the chin. He tried to imagine how it had happened. Julian had sat down, his musket held between his legs. Hed leaned forward and set the soft flesh behind his jawbone on the blade of the bayonet. Then hed lowered his head with enough force for the blade to go through that soft flesh and his throat? It seemed almost impossible.