Love's Darkest House

by Ginny Lynn

  “There’s no one there,” he stated before putting his hand on the knob.

  He slipped it open slowly and what lay on the threshold was a plastic green pot that resembled the ones from the greenhouse. How the hell had it gotten there?

  Frowning, he picked up the debris-covered pot and held it in his hand as if it had popped there from sheer magic.

  Finally, he spoke, “I guess I left the door open to the greenhouse because I have no clue as to why this would be here. Did you grab one for something earlier?”

  After I shook my head, he carried the empty pot into the kitchen before he came back with the yellow raincoat I had glimpsed in the laundry area.

  “I’m going to check on the door and will be right back, okay?”

  He didn’t even wait for an answer as he swooped into the wind that had picked up speed outside the thick walls. Picking up the glass, I went to rinse it out in the sink, but what happened was a bit more out of the normal for such a thing. Hearing a moan and a thump from outside the kitchen window, I was alarmed that maybe Kenrick had fallen down. Standing on tiptoe, I peered out the window to see if I could get a clear view but the rain poured too hard. I saw something but it was an outline. It didn’t move as I stood there so I had to see if it was him and something had happened. Not having a raincoat for myself, I had to go out in the harsh weather unprotected.

  Running at a speed of haste, I tried to make each step true on the slippery ground. I was soaked by the time I made it five yards from the front door. What I saw wasn’t Kenrick but a woman. She stared at me from the middle of the yard. She was wearing a white sundress with a shawl over it. This specter had to be her but she was dead. Was I having another vision? Lightning struck in the trees above us and she pointed a long white arm to the greenhouse and then to the cemetery. What the fuck? I shook my head at her, more from disbelief than of misunderstanding. She repeated her gesture but her face became stern and furious. My gaze stayed locked on her as I tried to see what she wanted of me.

  “I don’t understand,” I whispered more to myself in the midst of the thunder shaking the ground under me.

  Her figure shook with rage and she flung her ghostly thin arms up to the sky before barreling at me on invisible legs. I ducked in defense as the frigid air of her spirit went through me and the light across the sky blinded me for a split second. I felt ill, like she’d yanked out my stomach when she’d traveled through my body. Wanting to heave, I took in great gulps of air before I slowly turned to see if she stood behind me like in some macabre nightmare. She wasn’t. Kenrick was and his aura blazed for the piece of a second I had before another strike was thrown from the sky.

  Blinking until my vision cleared again, Kenrick was in my face and yelling at me over the chaotic noise of the sky.

  “What?” I couldn’t make his words out but his stomping in the mud confirmed him being mad as hell at me. Had he seen her? Did he know what she wanted?

  He struck out and grabbed my arm in a grip bordering on bruising in its strength. His tug almost had my knees in the wet ground, but his hold on me kept me up as well as racing back to the house with him.

  Once he slammed the front door with his muddy boot, I turned my fury on him. “What the fuck is your problem?”

  “Why were you out there? Are you insane?” he raged.

  “You wanna question my sanity when you were out there before me?”

  “I was out there trying to check on the property, not to babysit you in a raging storm while you play tag with beacons of destruction.”

  “Why not say that I’m a witch praising the gods?”

  His face stilled to chiseled marble. “Excuse me? What brought witches into this?”

  I began to shake but it was more than the weather battling my emotions. It was as if our inner turmoil had become part of the storm itself.

  He took a step closer, seeming to grow in size as he menacingly loomed over my trembling form. “Answer me!”

  Slipping back a step, my wet socks had no purchase on the foyer floor. I yelped as I began to fall but yipped in surprise as his arms caught me before I hit the slick floor.

  “Do you have to keep touching me?” I asked with too much irritation as he was only trying to help me.

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do,” was his unexpected response. I blinked at him as I fought for the proper words or retort.

  “If you insist on needing me, then I will insist on taking care of you.” The flash in the sky was mirrored in the eyes that were entirely too close to mine. Was he going to kiss me for real and would it compare to the heated ones from my dreams? Just as he moved in and my lips parted of their own will, the front door flew open and smacked him in the back, making him almost dropping me in the process. Getting the much-needed interruption, I scooted away and started taking off the wet wool that had me in this situation. He slammed the door shut and latched it as I balled up the wet socks in my hands.

  “You’d best get into something warmer as I won’t be the cause of you leaving with pneumonia.” He gave one last look at the door and walked back toward the laundry room, leaving me to speculate as to what he meant.

  After a moment, I shivered again and shrugged before I forced myself to trek back up to my room and the clothes which had been left for me from the enigma which had me blushing. Not wanting to appear anymore enamored of him, I threw on the sweat suit I had and it would douse any flames he thought I was harboring as it was a faded forest green that was thin in a few places and extremely baggy in others. I had to use the less thick socks and was grumpy at the moisture in the air keeping my shoes from being dry. I would just feel better if I went down there in a complete outfit this time.

  Careful to not slip down the lacquered steps, I headed to the kitchen to see if Kenrick was still back there. He wasn’t lounging in the front room and I hadn’t heard him go upstairs, so he had to be around here somewhere. Feeling foolish, I poured myself a glass of water as I waited for him to reappear. I downed the first glass and began another one when I felt something behind me. Turning slowly, I saw Kenrick coming through the dim lit door by the pantry. He started when he saw me standing silently by the sink. Shutting the door and avoiding eye contact, he hung the raincoat on the hook in the laundry area and stood by the breakfast table, waiting. So, I did what was expected of me.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you what was down that hallway. It seems creepy and seldom used but I can feel a draft coming from it.”

  It softly stated how I hadn’t been nosey enough to see what lay at the end of the narrow path but I wasn’t going to allow him to ignore where he had popped in from.

  “It’s the emergency exit from the house. It was originally the servant’s entrance but your grandmother was against such prejudices, so it remained as a way to escape in case of a fire or if being robbed. It made Mr. Fenmore feel more secure if she always had a way to safety.”

  “That doesn’t answer what you were doing.”

  “You didn’t ask.”

  Sighing, I fought my quick temper with him since I didn’t want a blooming fight on my hands after so many visions had crippled my emotions.

  “I thought we had a truce?” I asked softly.

  “We do but that doesn’t mean you have a license to be bossy and a busybody.”

  “Excuse me but I thought the reason I was here was to possibly take over the property, so my question is valid. Are you going to cause me problems if I accept my stepgrandfather’s offer and work the property?” I set my glass down and stalked over to the table, keeping its sturdiness between us.

  “You want honesty? You’ve got it. No, I don’t want you here but it wasn’t my decision to make. I’m the one who picked up the pieces when your grandmother passed away and the business slid to practically no income going to fund Mr. Fenmore’s needs. I held his hand as he cried over the loss of the woman he loved while you were in your own little world. He wasn’t even your blood and you act like this place already belongs to you. Ho
w long has it been since you even stepped your dainty little toes onto the property?”

  I bounded around the table and got in his face by the time I registered his eyes going molten. Not letting him back me down, I stepped right into the fight at hand. It was going to be as harsh as the rain pounding at the roof. I had to raise my voice to be heard over the sky yelling back at us.

  “You speak of blood but you aren’t even close enough to claiming this place for your own. You worked it at the permission of a frail man who needed help. You moved yourself into this home and made yourself lord and master as you saw him slowly die. You have no ground to claim in this matter.”

  Inwardly, I winced as my words hit him like a slap across his aristocratically handsome face. His nostrils flared and streaks of anger lit the room from the beating going on outside. The windows creaked at the onslaught against their frail looking exterior. I knew that feeling. I had embraced it my whole life as I had been placed as everyone’s second thought. I had fought for the few things I owned and this stranger was not going to take away a future that may brighten my meager existence.

  “I didn’t ask for this to happen to me and I know the same is of you. We’re both part of the next step. You didn’t ask for some chick to waltz in here thinking she deserved the world on a platter and I didn’t expect an arrogant man to be here to tell me I had lived my life the wrong way. This is no more my fault than my visions of witches and their stupid books of secrets and embellished stories. But I’m no misplaced child so don’t treat me like I need to be raised. I’m here. You’re here. We need to come to an agreement or you need to leave.”

  By this time, I was inches away and seething in my own stew. The cat was out of the bag on my level of abnormality. I needed to say my piece and walk away before I tossed myself into a vision that would have him knowing just how vulnerable I was during high emotions. I’d had it happen a few times and those individuals knew how to work me to the point where I became a mass of nerves and anxiety medications. Not this time. I had a will of my own to back the one that had brought me here.

  “Witch?” was all he asked as I calmed down enough to make out the narrowing of his eyes. He was afraid. The tension left the room like an unwanted guest.

  “I have visions. Okay? I’m aware that I’m a freak of nature and you’ve already been witness to my little episodes, so don’t act surprised.”

  “You let me believe you were a woman prone to fainting? Well, it explains some things but what does a witch and her diary have to do with it?”

  “Who said it was a diary?” Stepping away from him, I caught his mistake.

  “Fuck!” he muttered with a hoarse curse as he knew he’d been busted.

  “What do you know of this woman? Why is she visiting me, and what the hell is so scary about her diary that you don’t want me knowing about it?”

  As if he’d be honest now. Right.

  “Nothing. It’s just an old wives’ tale told to me the first time I came here and didn’t think I’d ever hear about it again.”

  “Tell me the story. I’m curious as to whether it even comes close to the visions I’ve been having.”

  I found it strange how calmly he absorbed the fact I was a type of psychic. Nobody took it very well, not even my grandmother the first time I had gotten one in front of her. After that, and a bunch of research, we took it in stride and looked for the signs of when they would come on. She kept a diary of the days she witnessed me having them and each one of them was a rough day in my preadolescent years. I don’t think I would have survived high school if it hadn’t been for that tidbit.

  “Someone made up a story to spook the natives, so what’s the point in wasting time on it?”

  “Indulge me. If nothing else, it’s worth a laugh. And you were the one to say the evening wasn’t over yet unless you want to end it here?”

  A siren came over the forgotten radio with a warning from the weather service stating extreme amounts of waterfall and the area would be at flood levels in the next hour as it circled. We were in here for the night and suddenly the stress of it wrapped around me like an unwanted hug. Something had changed and I prayed it was just the electricity in the air ripe with strain.

  My heart beat like a cardiac patient having a stress test. My hand was on my chest and it distracted his glance from the disturbing news spewing from the radio in tandem.

  “Are you all right?”

  Now he asked. I giggled and it grew into a fit of laughter as his face grew sour with my humor in the situation. It wasn’t funny but I couldn’t stop laughing. Actually, if I hadn’t let it go then I would have been in for a worse night than the weatherman could ever predict.

  Choking down some of it, I said, “I’m sorry but I needed that.”

  Blinking at me, he still didn’t get it but I was okay with not being understood. Being who I was, I never believed anyone would ever understand what went on in my head.

  “From what the radio is blaring, we’ll be stuck here listening for further alerts for the next hour. Unless you have something better to do, we have conversations to finish. We’ll start with the ghost story and then go back to what we were discussing before our tromp in the rain.”

  Eyeing him, I dared him to walk away or say there was nothing further to discuss. The ball was in his court to prove to me we could be decent to each other in a normal situation, if anything in my life would ever be considered as normal.

  Kenrick eyed me suspiciously but nodded.

  “Where to?” I was willing to let him even pick the setting.

  “Our library,” he said as he smiled down at me.

  That killed my laughter faster than anything ever had in my life.

  Chapter Eleven

  After I avoided the gold high back from before, I sat in the sleek desk chair. My shrink would have said I had to put myself in the dominant role but I just couldn’t look at Kenrick while sitting in that spot. I was fighting the flush on my cheeks from just recalling the heat of the kiss I had gotten while seated there.

  “You can ask me one question before I stare at you until you spill the beans, mister.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes, and there went your one question,” I teased.

  Glaring at him over the wood of the desk, I waited. Refusing to break eye contact, I didn’t even move. After a moment, he shifted in his seat. I smiled at him while remaining still. The feeling of accomplishment washed over me as I had him in a corner.

  “Fine,” he spat out and I leaned back to get more comfortable.

  Moving the candlestick over, I watched him as he fidgeted with the radio.

  “The secret hallway was settled, right?” he asked as he kept looking away from me.

  “Yes, that’s been explained. You can get back on one of the other topics or I can start my list of questions for you. Your choice.”

  “Starting it off on a better note, I’m not mad about you being here. What I’m concerned about is my life changing. I don’t like change unless I know for certain it’s for the better. You being here will unsettle things and I’m not sure I can accept the upheaval.”

  “So, you’re more concerned about the changes I will make instead of me being the one making them?” I was confused because if I were in his shoes my first issue would be someone kicking me out.

  “Correct. My gut tells me you aren’t mean-tempered enough to fight for me to be booted from the home I’ve had for a few years, especially as I kept it going when Mr. Fenmore became ill and like yourself, I have nowhere else to go.”

  I felt better about his opinion of me but fought the smile that edged my lips.

  “You’re right. I would only do that if I saw no other way for us to co-exist here.”

  “Then I’m glad I was right about something. How do you feel about me being here?’

  “I believe you did what you could to protect the estate and would like to keep it going since you obviously have the experience to see this place prosper.”
/>
  “That’s not what I asked”—he smiled at me—“but I’ll take it for now.”

  Oh boy. I was not about to tell him I found him sexy but creepy in the same respect. Or my mind-blowing imaginary sex with him. I thanked God I hadn’t kept drinking the wine.

  “We settled another topic. Good,” I proclaimed as to push aside my inner thoughts.

  “What expectations do you have here?” he asked me.

  “Great question.” And not of a personal nature. “I want things to be the same as they have been with the deals regarding produce, nuts, and plants. The winery is a contract I will have to learn better, but it’s set in stone for a few more years. As you have the complete knowledge of the minute details, I would ask if you wanted to continue as things were before my step-grandfather passed away. The only difference there is I would be the one you reported to and I would have the final say on any changes for the future. You would be able to remain living here, as long as we could live under the same roof with a comfortable outcome.”

  He chuckled. “I’ve never heard roommates put in such a manner before. It must be from your college experiences.”

  I nodded as I had dealt with clutter laden divas in the dorm rooms, not a sullen lean man I was attracted to.

  “We’ll try to get to know each other and respect each other’s space, right?” he asked and my mind flicked over me sneaking into his bedroom. Had he known I had done that? If not, I wasn’t about to blab now. Instead, I put my hand out and came around the desk to him.

  He stood up and looked down at my offered hand. A moment of contemplation passed by and I looked down to see if there was something on my hand to keep him from shaking it. There wasn’t, of course, so I glanced back up and saw his eyes flicker before he moved quickly to hold mine. A tingle went up my arm and my mouth formed an “O” before I took in him smirking at me. Then he used his grip on my hand to pull me closer. It all happened so fast I barely grabbed onto his shirt before my body hit the front of his.

  “I’m an old Cajun boy. Let me make this official.” He pressed a gentle kiss to my slightly parted lips.