by Gayla Twist
After straightening out the brute, I immediately walked across the country club lawn and left the dance. I couldn’t be around people any longer. Staying would have been a mistake. I took the flask out of my pocket and finished off its contents in a matter of seconds. Then, once I was clear from the crowd, I took to the air. I had meant to go home, but I was still worried about Colette. I found myself following the brute’s car as Colette and the rest of her party headed for home. Lilly’s escort saw her to the door, but Lettie’s escort was afraid to leave the car. I felt a pang of guilt. I may have frightened him just a little too much. I’d meant to make him a good person, not turn him into a sniveling coward.
After the boys left, I followed their car once again, waiting for my chance to catch the brute alone. I had to lessen my influence. I’d put so much fear into him, I doubted his ability to survive. I had to take pity on him and provide at least some relief, however reluctant I was to do so.
The next day was Sunday and I knew Colette would not be working at the castle. Even still, I could find no rest in my bed. I couldn’t help but wonder what she would do on her day off. Did she go to church? Did she have any hobbies? What did she eat for breakfast? I wanted to know every little detail of her life. I was already hopelessly in love with her.
But I knew it was wrong to love her. When a vampire fell in love with a mortal, it put the mortal at a horrible risk. Even though I would have rather faced the sun than harm one hair on Colette Gibson’s head, loving her still meant I was exposing her to danger. I knew I had to find a way to keep myself from her. Earlier in the evening I had thought that maybe she was about to confess to having feelings for me and I desperately wanted to hear the words that she’d never had a chance to say. But knowing that she cared would probably only make things worse; it would make parting from her all the more painful. No, there was what my heart desired and there was what was right. I had to end things with Colette before they even had a chance to begin.
By Monday afternoon, I knew I had to see Colette again. Not to profess my love or anything like that, but just to make sure that she was okay. Her date had tried to brutalize her and that weighed heavily on my mind. I knew she was a brave girl or she wouldn’t have fought her date, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t upset, or still in fear of him. I just wanted reassurance that she was unscathed.
I promised myself one last look at the girl and then I would leave her alone forever. I would confess my dilemma to my mother and explain that I needed to move away for a couple of decades. I could always return in twenty years when Colette Gibson was in her thirties, married and raising her children. Children I could never give her. With the safety of a wedding band on her finger, I knew I would find her much easier to resist.
With that resolve in mind, I set out to seek Miss Gibson. I didn’t intend to speak to her. I would just gaze upon her one last time to commit her beautiful visage to memory. I could live off of that for a few decades until my feelings of love for her began to fade.
A small amount of discrete searching allowed me to find Colette dusting books in the library. It was a task that Mrs. Denkler usually assigned to her every Monday, whether the books needed it or not. By a stroke of good fortune, she was alone. Her sister had been called away to assist one of the other maids.
The library door glided silently open on well-oiled hinges. Poking my head in, but not fully stepping into the room, I could not see her. The room smelled of her sweetness, so I placed one foot cautiously over the threshold. Where was she? A second later, I caught a glimpse of her, high on top of a ladder, dusting the books on the shelf closest to the ceiling. She was humming softly to herself, thoroughly engaged in her task. I could see that she was happy and not at all traumatized by the events of Saturday evening.
I meant to turn and leave as quietly as I’d entered. But then I just stood there, mesmerized by Colette’s beauty. Everything about her called me to her. I reminded myself that I had to be brave and wrench myself away. I couldn’t give her mortal love. That opportunity was gone for me. I could only deny myself the pleasure of seeing her so that she could have a happy life. It took all of my strength, but I turned to leave the library. That’s when a floorboard creaked beneath my shifting weight.
Colette’s eyes immediately met mine. Her lips parted and she exclaimed, “Jessie?” She tried to descend the ladder, but the heel of her shoe got caught on the hem of her dress. Suddenly her legs were out from under her and she was tumbling head first toward the hardwood floor.
Chapter 33
Colette
I scanned the country club crowd for Jessie Vanderlind as we were leaving the dance, but he was nowhere to be found. Lev was a complete mess. He acted terrified by every trumpet of laughter and every shadow in the trees.
“Did something happen after I left you?” I couldn’t help but ask him.
“What?” he said, giving me a startled look. “No, nothing. Why do you ask?”
“I’m sorry,” I told him. “You just seem very…” I wanted to say altered, but that probably wasn’t very nice. “You seem a little unsettled and I was wondering if anything happened while you were on the lawn by yourself.”
“No.” He shook his head rapidly back and forth. “I was alone, by myself, and nothing happened. Nothing at all.” The three of us were standing by the side entrance, waiting for Walter to bring the car. Lev scanned the area with wild eyes, as if he expected the grim reaper to lunge out of the shadows.
I clearly remembered Jessie Vanderlind brushing down his tux as he left the general area where Lev had decided to assault me. And I found it very unlikely that Jessie would stand idly by while someone was being attacked. Did he have anything to do with Lev’s current fragile state? “And you spoke to no one?” I asked again.
“No,” Lev insisted, shaking his head. “I’ve already told you that. Now please stop asking me.” His eyes started welling with tears again so I decided to just keep my mouth shut.
When we arrived home, Walter saw Lilly to the door, but Lev stayed in the car. We could hear him locking the doors as soon as we’d pushed them shut. “I’m so sorry about all of this,” Walter said as he escorted Lilly up the front porch steps.
“I am so sorry,” Lilly whispered to me as we entered the front door. “You told me you didn’t want to go with Lev and I wouldn’t listen. I just feel so horrible.”
“That’s okay,” I told her in a low voice. “Oh, here comes Mama.”
“Hello, girls,” our mother said, beaming at us. She was already in her nightgown and robe. “I wasn’t expecting you home so early.” And then she caught sight of the giant tear in my dress. “Goodness. Lettie, what happened?”
“I... was sitting down and didn’t realize the woman next to me was standing on my hem,” I told her. “So when I got up, it all tore.”
“Goodness,” Mama said again, bending to examine the damage. “I don’t think I can mend this without it showing.” She scratched her chin and straightened up, still eyeing the hole. “I guess we could add a wide sash and that would hide it well enough. I might have just the right fabric in my scrap box.”
“I knew you would think of something to save it,” I said, giving our mother a squeeze. “I felt like such a fool when it happened.”
“I hope it didn’t spoil the dance for you,” Mama said.
“Oh, no,” I assured her. “We had a lovely time. I think Walter and Lilly danced to every song.”
“And what about you?” she asked. “Have you changed your mind about Lev Wilson?”
I didn’t think it was worth upsetting my parents with Lev’s behavior, so I sighed and then said, “I’m afraid I just don’t like Lev in that way. We’ve decided to just be friends.”
I set out for work extra early Monday morning. The weather was quite warm and I wanted to gather a large bouquet of wildflowers for Arthur. Mrs. Denkler never said if he enjoyed the flowers or not, but I figured he must have at least enjoyed them a little or she would have told me to sto
p. Lilly caught up with me on her bicycle and we rode the rest of the way to the castle together.
“Thank you so much for not saying anything to Mama and Papa,” she said as we rolled along. “I don’t think they’d ever let me see Walter again if they knew about Lev’s behavior.”
“I don’t know why,” I called back to her as we both pedaled single file. “It’s not like Walter did anything. As a matter of fact, I think he behaved quite gallantly during the whole incident. Don’t you?”
“He did. Didn’t he?” Lilly said. I didn’t have to look back at my sister to know she was smiling. “But I still think Papa would try to stop me from seeing him. You know how protective he can get and he might find Walter guilty just through association.”
We rode the rest of the way to the castle in silence. Lilly was probably thinking of Walter’s gallantry and I was thinking of Jessie. I desperately wanted to see him. But seeing one of the Vanderlinds was always strictly by chance. Even so, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I couldn’t stop wondering what he would have said to me if we’d been allowed to dance just a little longer. And I couldn’t help but wonder what I would have said to him. I knew I was being foolish because we barely even knew each other, but if I was being honest, I already felt like I was in love with Jessie Vanderlind.
Lilly and I were assigned to dust the library again. It was becoming a regular Monday ritual. It seemed impossible to believe that any dust had gathered since we’d wiped down all the books a week earlier, but Mrs. Denkler was in charge. It was our job to just do as she instructed.
We worked side-by-side for about an hour, both of us lost in our own thoughts. I heard the door open and my heart jumped into my throat with the hope that it was Jessie. Whipping my head around, I saw it was just Millie. “Mrs. Denkler sent me to get one of you,” she said.
Lilly and I exchanged looks. “You go,” I told her. “I’ll stay with the books.” I thought there might be a better chance of seeing Jessie if I stayed in the library, rather than going to a new task.
After Lilly left, I began humming to myself. I loved climbing up the ladder to the highest shelf. There were giant volumes up there that appeared to be hundreds of years old. I wondered if any of them were as old as the castle. The creak of a floorboard caught my attention. I turned my head just in time to see Jessie Vanderlind trying to duck out of the door. “Jessie,” I exclaimed, immediately trying to climb down from my perch to speak with him. I needed to know what had happened at the dance. But the heel of my shoes got caught in the hem of my dress and before I knew what was happening, I was plummeting toward the ground head first.
It all happened so quickly that I didn’t even have time to shriek. I just shut my eyes and had the fleeting thought that hitting the floor was really going to hurt. And then I let out an “Oof.” It was as if I flopped very hard on a bed and all the air was knocked out of me. I hadn’t hit the ground. In fact, I felt like I was a few feet above it. I opened my eyes to see that I was in Jessie’s arms.
“Are you alright,” Jessie asked, holding me like a groom holds a bride when they cross the threshold of their new home as husband and wife.
“Yes,” I said with a little gasp. He acted as if I was as light as a ragdoll. “My heel got caught and the next thing I knew...” It was so wonderful being in his arms that more words escaped me.
“Here, let me untangle you,” he said, gently setting me down. “Hold onto me and I’ll unhook your hem.”
I wobbled a bit and had to steady myself against his broad shoulders.
“There,” he said, freeing my shoe. “All better.” He straightened up, but kept a steadying hand against my side. “Are you dizzy at all? Are you hurt in any way?”
“I’m fine,” I assured him. “Just a little embarrassed. I saw you standing in the doorway and...” I looked across the room to the door. It had to have been a distance of at least twenty feet. “How did you manage to catch me?” I asked. “When I saw you, you were right by the door.”
“No, no,” he said with a chuckle. “You’re remembering it wrong because of the fall. I was walking toward you. I was practically under the ladder.”
“But...” I shook my head, trying to clear it. His arms were still around me and that was making it hard for me to think. “I could have sworn you were by the door.”
“Then how could I have crossed the room so quickly? It’s not like I can fly,” he pointed out.
“I suppose,” I said, shaking my head some more. I still felt so discombobulated. “I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to you at the dance. I saw you on the lawn and I was wondering if you’d spoken to my date when you were out there.”
“On the lawn?” he repeated. “No, I only spoke to him when he came over while we were dancing.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “It seemed like you were coming from the same direction where he...” I stopped short when I saw the thunder in Jessie’s eyes. They told me everything I needed to know. Jessie had confronted Lev. That much was obvious. “Did you need me for something?” I asked, taking half a step backward, but I was reluctant to relinquish his touch. “Or were you just wanting a book?”
Jessie half turned away from me for a moment and then looked back into my eyes. “I guess I’ve come to tell you goodbye.”
“Goodbye?” I asked.
“Yes.” He looked down. “I’m leaving Tiburon. I’m afraid I won’t be back for quite some time. Possibly years.”
“What?” I exclaimed. “No, you can’t.” I blinked rapidly, trying to stop tears from filling my eyes. “I’ve only just met you. And I know I’m just a maid, but...” I wanted to tell him that I thought we were meant to be together, but I couldn’t speak.
“No, you’re not just the maid,” he told me. “You’re everything. I just thought that I should leave because...”
And then we were kissing. I don’t even know how it happened, but suddenly his lips were pressing against mine. And it was the most wonderful feeling in the world. I felt the kiss in every cell of my body. It felt like I had been dunked in soda from a fountain. For those few seconds we were standing still and the world was spinning around us.
“Oh! Excuse me,” I heard Lilly’s voice exclaim. We quickly pulled apart and I turned to see my sister standing in the doorway, her eyes out on stalks.
Chapter 34
Jessie
Colette felt about me the same way I felt about her. It didn’t matter that I could already fly, I felt like I was walking on air. I took the stairs back to my room two at a time. Her kiss had been the one perfect moment in my life. I felt our entire lifetime together in that one embrace. I just couldn’t believe my good fortune. I was the luckiest man alive.
And then I remembered I wasn’t alive. Not by a long shot. I was a vampire, a member of the undead. And she was a mortal. That realization quickly brought my spirits crashing back to earth. How could I take Colette’s heart and give her my own when we could never be together?
I closed the door to my room and then sank into despair. Being so close to Colette, having her in my arms, had made me lose my head for a moment. But what I had done was wrong. Not saving her life — I would have gladly sacrificed my own life to keep her from harm — but kissing her had been a very foolish thing to do.
I cursed my misfortune of having contracted scarlet fever. If I’d only managed to avoid that dreaded disease, then I would have still been a mortal. With Grandfather gone, there was no fear of him turning Emily into a member of the undead. I would have fallen under the same protection. But no, the fates had seen to it that I would forever be seventeen, and the love of my life would keep aging. The cruel injustice of it led me to anger and I took some of my frustration out on an ottoman, completely shattering its frame in the process.
There was a knock on my door and then Daniel walked into my room without waiting for me to reply. “Why are you attacking the furniture?” he asked. “What’s that ottoman ever done to you?”
“I’m
just…” And then I couldn’t think of what to say. “I’m just frustrated that I wasn’t able to save Grandfather.”
“I see.” Daniel raised his eyebrows high on his forehead. “And you think that the ottoman had something to do with it?” Seating himself in a chair at some distance from the ottoman, he crossed his legs and then folded his hands over one knee.
“No, I…” And then I stopped myself again. “What do you want, Daniel?” I asked. “It’s not like you to be up at this hour.” It was the middle of the day and my brother never usually stirred until after six.
“I was having trouble sleeping,” Daniel said with a sniff of vexation, “so I thought I’d get a book from the library. And while I was standing in the doorway, I overheard the most remarkable conversation between two of the maids.”
I felt my body momentarily tense, but I tried to pretend like his words had no effect on me. “Eavesdropping on the staff?” It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. “That’s not like you.” Daniel would have been happy if everyone who worked at the castle was a deaf-mute.
“What’s going on?” Daniel asked, ignoring my barb. “Have you been toying with one of the servants? How very bourgeois.”
“I haven’t been toying with anyone,” I informed him. “They were probably gossiping about the fact that one of the girls took a tumble off a ladder in the library. I was nearby so I managed to catch her.”
Daniel narrowed his eyes. “Nearby or on the other side of the room?”
“I was standing closer to her than you are to me,” I told him, keeping my voice matter-of-fact. “I don’t see what business it is of yours, anyway.”
“It’s my business if you’re exposing the family to danger,” he snapped. “You can’t go dashing across the library just because some little mortal might bust her head. You could expose us all with that kind of behavior.”
“I didn’t expose us to anyone,” I informed him. “She slipped and I caught her. That’s the end of the story.”