Help him, Annalee. He will come soon…
“Who? Help who, Mother? You mean Dominick?” My heart sank. Even in death, she cared more about my brother than she’d ever cared about me.
He will come soon. Mother stepped back from the gazebo, her eyes holding mine for a moment. Then she vanished like smoke on the wind.
I sat on a nearby bench and clutched my stomach. There was no use in plying Mother with more questions, for she was gone. I could feel the loss of her. Beautiful Mother, gone from me again, but clearly, I had a task to achieve. Dominick faced danger, and the idea of him coming to harm, especially on my behalf, sickened me.
I fled the gazebo and pushed the boat into the water. It wasn’t as easy to move the oars now. It was as if an evil wind blew against me. I paddled to the shore and slid the boat out of the water. I reeked of pond water and sweat. Running toward the house, I lost my sense of direction. Strange, since I could normally make my way to and from the water with my eyes closed. The three of us, Dominick, Champion, and I, had lived on these shores growing up. Now all that had changed. I ran farther, thinking that at any moment I would come to the hedge, but I ended up back at the shore.
With a sob, I tried again, but everything appeared so different. Sugar Hill was clearly ahead of me, but even the house had changed somehow. Something was off.
And suddenly, Ambrose was there in all his cruel, heartbreaking beauty.
Ambrose, the dead. Ambrose with no soul. Ambrose the dark.
Then suddenly he was right before me, only a foot away. I gasped as I fell back on the ground. Ambrose towered over me like a conquering lord, but I didn’t stay down. With all my might, I leaped up and headed back to the shore. I made it only a few feet when he was there again, waiting with cold anger on his face. To my complete shock, he swung his arm at me. The heavy dead limb knocked me backward, and blood filled my mouth. Clutching my mouth with both hands, I smothered a scream.
Then I heard Ophelia call my name. She called me again and again. In a wave of shimmering hate, Ambrose vanished, and I ran desperately toward Sugar Hill. Ophelia screamed, “Annalee! What is it? Somebody! Help!”
Running through the open back door, I slammed into a man’s chest. Immediately, I knew that it wasn’t Dominick. This figure was taller and unbending. Gasping for breath and with a bloody mouth, I faced off with Champion. His sneer let me know that he was unrepentant and that he’d come for me specifically. And now he had me, and Ophelia stood beside me. Where was baby Ida?
“What are you doing here, Champion? You are not welcome at Sugar Hill. Ophelia, find my brother.” She scurried away, her high-heeled shoes tapping on the floor as she left us. “Haven’t you done enough? Why did you come here? To finish the job?”
With some surprise, I watched as Champion’s face softened. No one else would have seen the change, but I knew him. I’d been looking at that face all my life, and loving it and trusting it completely…until that day.
Champion’s dark features were narrow. His eyes were encircled by dark shadows, and his lips were pale and dry. This was not the Champion I knew and feared. This man seemed smaller and broken, a diminished version of the devil I feared. Something had happened to my brother. Something significant, but what?
“This must end, Annalee. Stop torturing me. What is done is done. I cannot take it back. I… Do not return to Thorn Hill, or it will be worse for you, sister. I warned you before, and I warn you one last time. Leave me alone.”
I stepped back and pushed a loose tendril of silky black hair out of my face. “What are you talking about?” I noticed that Champion had been crying and probably not sleeping. His eyes were red, and his normally manicured nails were dirty. The more I looked, the more I realized he was losing his grip on reality. He was a broken man, but that didn’t bring me the pleasure I had expected. Nor did I feel empathy for him. I felt nothing but sadness. “I haven’t been at Thorn Hill, Champion. Not since the day you stole from me.”
Then reality struck me! It had to be Ambrose who tormented him! That evil spirit had promised to bring me revenge. Was this what he meant?
“What did I steal, sister?” he asked with an empty expression.
“Do you think I gave you my virtue? You stole it, brother, and you stole more than that. You stole my love for you, if that matters at all to you, you black-hearted bastard!” Surprising him and myself, I slapped his chest with both hands. He recovered quickly.
“I was drunk, Annalee. I was drunk and not thinking. I can’t take it back. I cannot undo whatever you think I did.”
“Whatever I think? Whatever I think? You cannot even admit the truth to yourself? Or to me? No, Champion. I will not leave you alone,” I growled at him viciously. “I want you to remember me forever. Remember what you’ve done to me. I want you to suffer as I have suffered.”
He gripped my wrist, but I did not wince or cry out. I tugged it back, and to my surprise, he released me. It was as if he were afraid of me. Truly afraid.
“You made sure of that, didn’t you, Annalee? You come into my home and pretend to haunt me. You dress up like your mother and reach for me through walls and appear before me in closets and dark rooms. You’ve scared my wife nearly to death, and she’s left with my son! She refuses to return to Thorn Hill. She wants me to burn the house down, but I won’t because I am going to beat you, Annalee. I am going to beat you. Go ahead and come back to Thorn Hill soon so I can finish what I started. You have no mercy in your soul, Annalee!”
I dropped my voice and snarled, “You speak to me of mercy? You? Get out of here, Champion Dufresne! Don’t come back! Know that when you return, I will kill you. Not my brother. I, Annalee Dufresne, will kill you.”
Dominick walked in but said nothing to either of us. Champion appeared defeated and unsure of himself. After he silently left us, Dominick and I stared at one another.
My brother stretched his hand toward me as he used to do when I was a child, but I did not take it. “Tell me the truth, Annalee. Have you been to Thorn Hill? Are you tormenting Champion?”
“All I do is take care of your daughter, brother. I go nowhere, except out riding here at Sugar Hill occasionally. Today I went to the gazebo, and I saw Mother. She says you’re in danger.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. “Did she? You see the dead too, then? I thought I was the only one.”
“Oh, Dominick. I’ve seen them all my life.” I hugged him, but my heart was stone. I should have let things go with Champion. I should have let the bitterness go, but the hate I had for him was too deep. So very deep. What would it cost me?
Ophelia watched us, looking puzzled by the whole turn of events. “He’s going to come back, Dominick. He will come back. Please be ready,” she said helplessly as she began to cry. “We can’t stay here. This place…it’s not normal. Please, let us all leave.”
“I will not leave my father’s home. This is our home, and you worry too much, my love. Champion can’t do anything to me. I am not worried about him, but I worry about my sister. I love you, Annalee. You are all I have left. You and Ophelia, and of course, baby Ida.”
As if on cue, we heard her crying as Olive brought her to us. She was our heart. I would protect her no matter what.
Even if it meant laying down my life.
Chapter Thirteen
Summer Dufresne
I decided I needed a day for myself, and since I was already going into town to pick up my ball gown, I might as well make the most of it. It had been a long time since I’d had a day at the spa or even a hair trim or a manicure. Today I would do it all!
Later, I had to host a memorial party for Pepper after the funeral. I wasn’t going to the funeral since the Dufresne family considered it bad luck for the Matrone to attend them, but I did want to look nice at the party. After I got my nails done, I would go dress-shopping. Hey, maybe I would shock them all and cut all my hair off! That would cause talk, I was sure of it. It was tempting, but I couldn’t make up my mind. I made the
quick stop to pick up my ballgown and then headed to the mall to do some more shopping.
The mall was packed, but I liked blending in and feeling anonymous. Without looking where I was walking, I ran right into a man outside the entrance of a department store. “Oh, sorry. I wasn’t looking at where I was going.” He didn’t answer me or smile. Rude bastard, I thought. It irritated me that he hadn’t spoken, but what was really weird was he looked so much like my Jamie! I mean, they could almost have been twins. I even muttered, “Jamie…” but the man walked into the store and left me standing gawking at him. My hands shook, and I got goose pimples all over.
Despite my mini-premonition, I walked into the store. After five minutes of looking for Jamie’s look-alike, I’d given up the search. “Okay, Summer, you came in here for a dress, so get one.”
I walked to the ladies’ dresses section, flipped through the racks, grabbed a couple of dresses, and walked toward the checkout. After paying for them, I left the store without spotting the man again.
Am I just hallucinating? Am I seeing Jamie everywhere now? Because if I am, that’s going to be a problem.
What was that shrink’s name that Aunt Anne used to visit? Perhaps I’d give him a call since he’d be familiar with all the family “ghosts.” But then again, I was sure Aunt Anne’s brain was a playground compared to mine.
On my way back to Sugar Hill, I decided to give Mike a call. I wasn’t sure I trusted Jessica to do that, and I clearly couldn’t allow her to keep investigating the old place without his assistance. He was really the only guy I knew who was familiar with Jessica’s unique abilities. Unfortunately, I had to call Becker to get Mike’s number, and he wasn’t about to hang up the phone without flirting with me and wanting to revisit the past. I was polite but aloof and got the information as quickly as I could. Becker finally had the brains to ask me why I’d called, and I told him of my concern for Jessica.
“I can’t believe you would invite her back to that house, Summer. That place is like poison for her. Get her out of there, and do yourself a favor and call in a demonologist or someone who can handle what you’ve got up there. I hate that place.”
I rolled my eyes at his suggestion. “Thanks for the advice. Talk to you later.”
I hung up with him and called Mike right away. He was the opposite of Becker, a complete professional and ready to help.
“The soonest I can get there is this weekend, though,” he said. “I’ve got my wife’s birthday party and some other things to take care of, but I’ll be glad to come right down on Friday. You think she’s all right until then?”
“She’s got that dreamy look in her eyes, but Jessica is the girl with the haunted eyes, after all.” That was a reference to a tag line in My Haunted Plantation’s roll-in: She’s the girl with the haunted eyes… “Congratulations, by the way, on your new season of the show. I must admit I never watched it before, but now I’m addicted. You guys rock, Mike!”
“Thanks. That means a lot coming from you. Please, keep me posted, and I will try to call Jessica myself in just a few minutes.”
“Great! I’m headed back to Sugar Hill. She’s probably up and stirring by now.”
Mike paused and asked in a solemn voice, “You left her alone?”
“Yes, I had some errands to run, and she wanted to sleep in.”
“A word of advice, don’t do that again. You can’t leave her alone when she’s in one of these—I don’t know what to call them—trance states? After a few days, she will be okay, but it’s best if you don’t leave her alone when she’s so open to the spiritual world. I know you couldn’t possibly know that, but she’s a bit too open. ”
With a pang of guilt, I nodded at myself in the rearview mirror and said, “Thanks for the advice. Anything else I should know?”
“I can’t think of anything, but if I do, I’ll call you. See you guys in a couple days.”
“Roger that. Thanks again, Mike.”
I pulled into the driveway of Sugar Hill, and Matthew, one of our new staff members, came out to collect all my bags. “Thanks, Matthew. Is Miss Chesterfield inside?”
“As far as I know, ma’am.” Well, he was no help.
“You can just leave those inside. I’ll take them up.” I walked past the young man and went in search of Robin, who knew all things at all times when it came to Sugar Hill. I could have kicked myself for not already promoting her to be my assistant, but things had been so hectic that it just didn’t seem to be the right time.
“Robin?” I called as I walked into the kitchen. “You in here?”
“I’m in the pantry.”
I walked in the pantry to find her juggling cans precariously on the ladder. “Good morning! Has Miss Chesterfield come down for breakfast yet? And should you be doing that? We do have sufficient help here, Robin. Just have one of your staff organize all this.”
“I don’t mind. And as for Miss Chesterfield, not exactly. She grabbed some fruit off the sideboard and headed to the garden.”
“Oh, crap. I should never have left her alone.” Mike’s words came back to haunt me.
I scampered out of the pantry as Robin called after me, “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah! It’s fine!” I called back as I walked outside and headed toward the garden. I didn’t get far. Matthew was searching for me and handed me the house phone. Really, dude? You don’t see me running out the back door? I took it with a sigh of exasperation. “This is Summer.”
“Hey! You sound out of breath.” It was Avery. Why was she calling me? She was supposed to be on her honeymoon.
“Well, I decided to go for a run.”
“That’s funny,” Avery said with a chuckle. “Seriously, what are you doing?”
I smiled into the phone. “Not what you’re doing day and night, probably.” Everyone knew I hated exercise, and the idea of me going for a jog just for the heck of it was ridiculous. “The truth is Jessica is here, and she’s acting a bit squirrely. I’m going to look for her.”
“Oh my gosh, Jessica? I had no idea she was coming.”
“She had every intention of being here for the wedding but got stuck in traffic. She’s staying with me for a couple of days before going home. She just got done wrapping up her season.”
“I think it’s great how you came through for her. One of these days, you’re gonna have to tell me what you said to the Paranormal Channel.”
“I’ll never tell my secrets.” I laughed, thinking with pleasure of my conversation with the showrunner. As they say, it helps to have friends in high places. I didn’t have many, not like some Dufresnes, but the ones I did have were pretty powerful. That was thanks in part to my Aunt Anne, who encouraged those relationships when she still considered me a candidate for Matrone.
“But why are you calling me, Miss Newlywed? Don’t tell me you’re pregnant already.” It was meant as a joke, and thankfully, Avery thought it was hilarious. She got my dry humor and appreciated it most of the time.
“No way. I don’t plan on having babies anytime soon. I’m calling because this brilliant girl broke her leg water-skiing. I swear it’s the truth. Who breaks a leg on the water? Anyway, there’s no way I can host the Starlight Ball. I’m gonna need your help, Summer. I know that’s a huge imposition on top of everything else you’re doing for this event, but it would mean the world to me if you…”
As Avery told me about her injury, I spotted something silver on the ground about ten feet ahead of me. I heard voices in the garden too. Jessica must have company this morning, I thought absently.
“What about Reed? Can’t he do it? Goodness knows he has the face for it, and the ladies will love listening to him make a speech,” I said hopefully.
“If you’d rather not do it, then I can ask him. I’m sorry to inconvenience you, Summer. I know I’m asking a lot of you.”
“I won’t lie, Avery. It is a huge inconvenience, mostly because I hate making public speeches. I’d need at least a week to come up with something, a
nd the ball is in two nights. That’s too soon.”
“What if I send you my speech? You could tweak it a little, but I’m sure it would work. Use the stats and stuff. That’s why they’re coming, to hear what good the foundation is doing. You can do this, Summer. I know you can.”
I reached down and picked up the silver item. It was a knife, about six inches long, and it was a dangerous-looking blade. It was old-fashioned, not one of those cheap fold-up blades like you see on late-night infomercials. It looked familiar. I turned it over in my hand.
“Summer? Are you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here. Listen, Avery, I have to go. I’ll do it. Go ahead and send me the speech. Let’s talk later.” I hung up the phone and slid it in my back pocket so I could examine the knife more closely.
I knew this knife. This was part of the set. A set of knives that had belonged to Champion Dufresne, according to family lore.
Chapter Fourteen
Jessica Chesterfield
It was foolish to think I could somehow replicate what happened to me in the garden, but I had to give it a shot. According to my research, Dominick and Champion were fated to fight again, and this time their confrontation would be to the death. But that’s where things got murky. According to some of the historical accounts recorded in the family “histories,” Champion died a miserable young man at Thorn Hill. The cause of his death was never determined, but it was the consensus among those faded histories that Champion became a tortured individual who turned to alcohol to make his miserable life bearable. His son and wife had died in the yellow fever epidemic, and he never remarried, although there were some hints that he had other children. In other accounts, Dominick—my Dominick—had died by Champion’s hands.
How was it that I could fall in love with a man from the past, a man I had known only a few days? Unlike some people my age, I wasn’t obsessed with finding love or being in love. Nope, I was definitely wallflower material and happy to be so, for the most part. Sure, I’d half convinced myself that I loved Becker, but now that I’d experienced the real thing, I knew I hadn’t loved him. Becker was a friend but nothing else. What I felt for Dominick Dufresne? That was real.
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