“She didn’t know you might be late?” Rebecca asked.
“I explained to her this morning I might pick her up late. I just hope she won’t worry when I’m not there.”
†
On the drive back to Sedgefield, they were both deep in thought.
Kayleigh broke the silence. “Martin is still alive, so the man in the mirror might be Joshua Botha. Why is he lingering searching for Catherine if she just bought the house from him? I don’t know what to make of it all. This just doesn’t make any sense.”
“We need to find Martin Norton. He should be able to give us some answers. Maybe he was Catherine’s husband or son. For all we know, Catherine could still be alive.”
Kayleigh couldn’t stop herself from admiring Rebecca’s beautiful hands while she drove. The eyes that wandered over Rebecca’s body didn’t go unnoticed.
Rebecca looked sideways at her and winked. “You’re gawking at me.” She reached over, took Kayleigh’s hand and placed it on her leg.
A current went up Kayleigh’s arm and sent shivers of excitement right down her spine. Rebecca’s leg felt warm and muscular. Ever so slowly she glided her hand up until it reached the top of Rebecca’s thigh. Kayleigh’s breathing was uneven as she closed her eyes, absorbing the moment.
Rebecca groaned. “I’m trying to drive here.”
Kayleigh ignored her and curved her fingers and directed her hand toward the inside of Rebecca’s thigh. Rebecca instinctively opened her legs a little, giving more space for Kayleigh’s hand.
Kayleigh could feel the heat radiating from between Rebecca’s thighs. She didn’t push her hand upward to start pleasuring her but merely teased her a little with her fingers before she moved her hand away again.
“You really are trying to drive me as insane, aren’t you,” Rebecca whispered.
“I want to kiss you,” Kayleigh said through trembling lips.
The car swerved as Rebecca pulled off the road and stopped in the emergency lane. She switched off the engine, leaned to the side and grabbed Kayleigh behind the neck. Their lips met with a hunger that Kayleigh had never felt before. Rebecca shifted over the gear lever, as close as she could and Kayleigh pushed herself into Rebecca’s arms. They devoured one another with their lips, moving at the same rhythm. Rebecca slipped her hands in under Kayleigh’s top and explored her warm, soft skin upward toward her breast. As fingers lingered at the side of her breast, Kayleigh groaned in anticipation. Rebecca’s fingers slipped around her left breast and inside of her bra cup. Her fingers immediately found Kayleigh’s hardened nipple. She gently rolled it between two of her fingers teasing it mercilessly. Kayleigh cried out with longing for more.
Kayleigh moved her left hand all the way up Rebecca’s thigh until her thumb had reached the inside of her crotch. Separated only by a layer of jeans and panties, Kayleigh could still feel the hot moisture. She massaged with her thumb in circular movements, and Rebecca shifted her hips forward a little.
Rebecca pulled her hand away from Kayleigh’s breast and ended the kiss. She lowered her hand onto Kayleigh’s hand that was still moving against Rebecca’s swollen flesh and stilled it. “God, I want you so badly that it hurts I’ll be damned if our first time together is going to be on the highway, in my car, and in broad daylight.” Rebecca moved Kayleigh’s hand and took several deep calming breaths before she started the engine of the Mini Cooper and swerved back onto the highway.
“Oh, so you’re a romantic.” It was more of a statement than a question.
“Of course I am. I’m the inventor of romance.”
“Good. Do you give lessons for free?”
“I charge very little.”
“I pay in kind.”
Rebecca grinned. “That’s what I like to hear.”
When they reached Sedgefield, Rebecca parked in front of her store and saw a group of students waiting for her outside the door.
Kayleigh pointed to the kids and laughed. “See. The people love you already.”
Rebecca squeezed Kayleigh’s hand before getting out and going to the shop to open the door.
Kayleigh grinned and immediately hopped in her Jeep to fetch Sarah from school.
Chapter 20
1899
Joshua dressed quietly into his newly assigned uniform and went back to the patio where Catherine lay sleeping on a mattress in the moonlight. The air was warm and he watched her silently for a few minutes. He couldn’t shake the strong feeling that he would never see her again. The thought suddenly made his whole world crumble around him and he knew there was nothing he could do to change what was about to happen.
He knelt down by his wife, stroked the hair out of her face, and watched as a stray tear dropped onto her soft skin. I can’t say goodbye to her. It will be too painful to see her cry. Without a word, he got up, took his backpack, and walked out quietly, leaving his life behind to fight for something he didn’t believe in.
Chapter 21
Present day
The next two weeks went by with no paranormal events and Kayleigh was relieved. The sage must have worked.
Rebecca, Kayleigh, and Sarah had dinner together four times a week, alternating between the two homes. On Friday nights, they began the tradition of going to the Knysna market. The market was comprised of fifty stalls selling various types of food at reasonable prices. If they were lucky enough they’d find a table to sit at or they ate their meals on the nearby grass. Live music and open fires rounded out the ambiance.
More than two weeks after they’d been to the municipality in George, Kayleigh had a quiet evening at home with Sarah who was focused on her homework. After dinner Sarah had her bath and Kayleigh sent her off to bed. Kayleigh also showered, glad that nothing unusual happened.
After Kayleigh showered, she went upstairs and stopped at the top of the landing where the door that the previous owners must have used for extra safety stood partially open. Kayleigh liked keeping it open so she could listen out for any odd noises coming from downstairs. For a moment she wondered where the key was for the door because it wasn’t part of the bunch Graham had given her—she’d tried them all.
Shrugging Kayleigh went into Sarah’s room, to make sure she was covered and tucked in warmly. Rattex was sound asleep in his basket on the floor beside the bed. After kissing her daughter gently on the forehead, Kayleigh headed for her own bed.
She’d just fallen asleep when the sound of a window breaking downstairs startled her awake. She sat up in bed and listened with her hand on her chest trying to ease the pounding of her heart. Dizziness and nausea overwhelmed her. She jumped out of bed as quietly as she could and without making a sound, she tiptoed to Sarah’s room as fast as she could. Sarah was fast asleep.
Creeping to the top of the stairs she could see flashlights at the bottom of the stairwell and shadows moving about. Perspiration pooled on her brow and started dripping down her face, making her eyes sting. She blinked the sweat away. She remembered seeing one of Sarah’s baseball bats next to her daughter’s bed and crept into Sarah’s room to get the bat.
Just as she entered Sarah’s room, the unused door at the top of the stairs slammed shut. Kayleigh jumped in surprise.
Suddenly, it sounded as if a World War III had started downstairs. She heard crashing and screaming from behind the closed door. There was hard banging as if all the furniture was flying around and crashing to the ground. She pictured splintered shards flying all over the place. The noise was deafening.
Sarah woke up with a start and jumped out of bed. She ran to her mom who was still standing in her doorway. Kayleigh grabbed her daughter and folded her arms around her. “Shh,” she said as quietly as possible. “I think there are burglars in the house.”
“Why are they breaking all of our stuff?” Sarah was in tears and shaking.
“I don’t know, honey…” Kayleigh bent down so she could make eye contact with Sarah. “Sweetie, please listen to Mommy. I want you to go and hide in your closet. I mu
st quickly run to my room and get my phone. Don’t come out until I come and tell you it’s all right.”
“No, Mommy. Please don’t leave me.” Sarah shook with sobs as she flung herself against Kayleigh.
“I’m not leaving you. I promise. I just forgot my cell phone in my room. I’m fetching it and will be back in a flash. But I need you to stay hidden in here until I get back, okay, sweetie?”
“No, Mommy. No.” Sarah held on even tighter.
Kayleigh pushed Sarah into her closet and reassured her through her own anxiety. “I’ll be all right. Promise me that you’ll do this for me.” Before Sarah could refuse again, Kayleigh grabbed Rattex’s basket next to her bed and handed the cat to her. “I need you here to look after Rattex. I’ll be back in a few seconds. I must just go get my cell phone. Don’t come out until I say so, okay? I’m going to call the police.”
Sarah nodded through her tears as she clung to Rattex. Kayleigh closed the closet door, took the baseball bat as quietly as she could, and walked back to the bedroom door. She stepped into the hall. Glancing at it, she couldn’t help her curiosity about the door that had slammed shut. She reached for the handle with a very shaky hand, still clutching the baseball bat in her other hand. Her palms were sweaty and slippery. She tried the handle, but the door was stuck—it wouldn’t budge. She pushed it harder but it refused to give way. It was stuck tight. The crashing noises from downstairs continued. She pictured her furniture strewn about, everything in pieces. Glass was shattering and she distinctly heard a man’s voice scream.
Kayleigh ran to her room and grabbed her cell phone. On her way back to Sarah’s room she dialed the police. She opened the closet door, and clambered inside. After the third ring, a lady answered. “This is Ruth, what is your emergency?”
“Someone broke into my house and my daughter and I are in an upstairs closet,” she whispered.
“Stay put,” Ruth said. “The police are on their way and will be there in five minutes so don’t try to play hero. I will stay on the line until they arrive.”
These would be the longest five minutes of her life.
Much to Sarah’s hysterical relief, Kayleigh stayed in the closet with her. In one hand she held her phone with the connection she had with the police and in the other she held the bat. The noises downstairs stopped just as suddenly as they started.
“The noise has stopped,” Kayleigh told the dispatcher.
“Stay where you are, they may still be in the house,” Ruth said.
“Okay, we will.”
After some time, “The police are at your house now, ma’am. You may come out of your hiding place,” Ruth said.
“Stay here until I say it’s safe for you to come out,” Kayleigh told Sarah before she crawled out of the closet. She entered the hall and walked to the closed door very slowly. Just before she could try the handle, the door slowly swung open. She gasped and jumped back in alarm—no one was there. “Hello. Is someone there?” Kayleigh asked.
From downstairs a man shouted. “Police!”
Slowly, with bat still in hand, Kayleigh crept down the staircase careful not to step on any broken glass or shards of wood. When she reached the bottom, she gasped at the sight of her house, and its furniture. Everything was shattered and strewn about the place.
Two men in uniform stood in her doorway. “Are you all right, ma’am?” the older of the two officers asked.
“I’m fine,” she said, trying to tamp down her hysteria. “Are they gone? Did you catch anyone?” She leaned against the wall.
“There are two guys lying outside here in your driveway. They are still alive, but barely. Someone beat them into a pulp. Have you had Kung Fu lessons or something? Is your husband around?” The police officer asked suspiciously.
Kayleigh frowned. “Just me and my daughter are here, officer. We were hiding upstairs. I need to go get her.”
Kayleigh went to fetch Sarah from her closet. “It’s okay now, sweetie, you can come out.” Shaken, Sarah took her mother’s hand and followed her downstairs.
Sarah sat on the stairway while the police searched the rest of the house. They called an ambulance for the two burglars.
There was a broken window in the dining room where they must have gained access to the house. Nothing was missing as far as Kayleigh could see, but someone very strong had beaten the men by using her furniture.
“Looks like there was another one who got into a fight with the other two and beat them both up,” the older officer guessed.
Kayleigh knew that was far from the truth. How do I explain to the police that a ghost must have beaten them up? She decided instead to agree with them.
“We will interrogate those two further when they wake up, anyway.
Kayleigh gave a full statement, leaving out the details about any ghost.
The burglars were semi-conscious and both needed to be hospitalized. The police had discovered weapons on the men, which meant that they could have killed Sarah or Kayleigh had they had managed to get to them. After the burglars were loaded into the ambulance, the police and ambulance left.
Kayleigh managed to clean up a bit of the mess, barricading the broken window with cardboard. She made them each a cup of hot chocolate and they went upstairs to Kayleigh’s bedroom. Kayleigh finally got to sleep about four in the morning with Sarah snuggled next to her.
†
The next morning Kayleigh hugged Sarah close. “You don’t have to go to school today. With everything that happened this past night I think we both deserve the day off. I’ve called your school and said you won’t be going today and I called Faith to tell her I wouldn’t be in and she said she’d take care of everything,” She smiled at Sarah. “So we have a day just to ourselves. What do you think about that?”
“That sounds nice,” Sarah said quietly.
“We are going to spend the day together, baking biscuits and listening to your CD.”
Sarah smiled finally and hugged her mother.
A little after twelve, Kayleigh heard her phone ringing upstairs and ran to fetch it. It was then that she realized that she had a few missed calls and messages. One message was from a police detective called Bobby, asking her to return his call for an update. Another call was from a seemingly frantic Rebecca trying to find out why she’d never reached work. Kayleigh felt bad for worrying Rebecca by not telling her what had happened.
Since she’d met Rebecca, it had been one mishap after the other. Maybe subconsciously she was blaming Rebecca for all her bad luck. Maybe God was punishing her for being attracted to a woman.
She sent a text message. We’re fine, just had a bad night.
What’s going on? I’m coming over.
A short time later, the Mini Cooper drove up her driveway.
†
It was suddenly hard to face her when Kayleigh saw that Rebecca’s eyes were red and swollen. Rebecca had tried to call her five times during the day and had sent a slew of worried text messages, which Kayleigh only answered to one. It was understandable that Rebecca was worried and upset. Kayleigh stood in her doorway while she watched in silence as Rebecca climbed the three stairs up to her front door.
“If you really don’t want me here, I’ll leave right this instant. But I wanted to see with my own two eyes that you guys are all right,” Rebecca said softly in a voice steeped in concern. Her eyes wandered past Kayleigh, and when she saw the mess inside, she stormed through to the lounge. “What the fuck happened here?”
“Aunt Becka!” Sarah called as she rushed from the kitchen. “I’m so glad you’re here. If I have to bake so much as one more cookie I’m going to puke. We’re already on our fifth bucket of biscuits.” She started crying uncontrollably.
Rebecca hugged her before holding her shoulders to look her in the eyes. “What happened here, my pumpkin pie?”
“Oh, it was so bad,” Sarah said around sobs. “They came…and noises…and Mommy left me…and so much…awful!” Sarah was crying so hard, Kayleigh was s
ure Rebecca couldn’t make out everything she said.
Rebecca picked Sarah up and held her against her before walking to Kayleigh and putting her right arm around Kayleigh. “Whatever happened here? Why is your home wrecked? What’s so bad that you won’t talk to me about it? Are you hurt? Did someone hurt you guys?”
Kayleigh had a hard time keeping up with her questions, but she knew Rebecca deserved an answer. “Burglars,” she said and swallowed hard.
“What?” Rebecca shouted in disbelief. “What happened? Did they hurt you?” she asked again.
“No, nothing like that. I heard a window breaking. Two burglars broke in through the dining room window. Then there was a wild racket going on down here. We hid away in Sarah’s closet. I called the police, but by the time they arrived, two guys were lying outside in my driveway, beaten into a stupor. I don’t really understand what happened, Rebecca. I’m sorry I hadn’t called you. I didn’t want to put this on you too. But now I’m so glad you’re here. So is Sarah. Please don’t go.”
She wrapped her arms around Rebecca and held onto her while she cried softly. ”I was stupid not to call you and let you know. I’m so happy that you’re here now, Rebecca, because you make me feel safe.”
“I would love to stay,” Rebecca said with tears in her eyes. “I’m going to put you down now, Sarah. You’re heavier than you look.” Rebecca walked into the kitchen and observed the biscuits scattered all over the table. “I suggest you guys stop baking now.”
Sarah nodded. “I know. There’s like a gazillion of them.”
Rebecca took a cookie and sampled it. “This is so good.”
“Sarah, do you mind if I take your mom outside for some fresh air? I’d like to talk to her. Are you okay on your own for a minute?”
“Sure, Aunt Becka. You saved me from the cookie torture chamber. I owe you my life.”
The Presence Page 13