by Gayla Twist
Daniel was the very last person I’d want to know about my feelings for Colette. At least not until I had decided what to do. He took the demise of our grandfather as a signal that he should ascend the throne as the head of the Vanderlind family. Mother and I found it quite amusing, but he took himself rather seriously.
“Just be careful,” he told me. “I think Denkie should have known better than to hire a couple of pretty housemaids, but that’s no reason to lose your head. If you’re feeling edgy, you can always go visit Arthur, and then find a brothel. I hear Columbus has a few good ones and it’s not that far.”
“Alright,” I said, just to placate him. I knew continuing to protest my innocence would get me nowhere. And Daniel might even begin to suspect I was lying if I protested too much. “Next time I’ll let the mortal land on her head.”
“Good,” Daniel said, getting to his feet and heading toward the door. “Better a dead girl than having the villagers pounding on the castle door. I hate when they show up with their pitchforks and torches.”
Chapter 35
Colette
“Have you lost your mind?” Lilly said in a loud whisper. Jessie had slipped out the door as she’d entered the room.
“Maybe I have,” I told her, still feeling a bit giddy from Jessie’s kiss.
“What if Mama and Papa find out?” she said in a harsh whisper. Then her eyes grew wider. “What if Mrs. Denkler finds out? She’s scary enough as it is.”
“No one’s going to find out,” I said to her, picking up my feather duster from where it had fallen. “It was just a harmless kiss.”
“But how did it even happen?” Lilly wanted to know.
“I slipped off a ladder and he caught me,” I explained. “He had his arms wrapped around me to steady me, and then it just happened.”
My sister frowned. “He took advantage of you?”
“No,” I exclaimed. “He stopped me from cracking open my skull.”
“But he kissed you,” she said. “Without courting you. Or meeting our parents, or anything.”
“It wasn’t like that,” I tried to assure her. “It just happened. I kissed him just as much as he kissed me.”
Lilly frowned some more while plucking at her feather duster. “I think I have to tell Mama and Papa.”
Whirling around, I stared at her, my mouth slightly open at her contemplated betrayal. “Why?”
“Because that Vanderlind boy is trying to take advantage of you. He shouldn’t have kissed you like that.”
“I told you, it was mutual. And also an accident,” I hastened to add. “And it will probably never happen again, so there’s no reason to get our parents all worried. You want to keep this job. Don’t you?”
Lilly thought it over. “Yes, I really do. But… I don’t want…” She couldn’t even put words to her feelings. “I still think I should tell.”
“Fine,” I said, pinching my lips together. “After all I’ve done so you could see Walter.”
“That’s different,” she insisted.
“If you decide to tell Mama and Papa, then I can’t stop you,” I said. “But I just want you to know that if we are sharing everything with our parents, then I am going to have to tell them that you left me alone with Lev Wilson for over an hour. And during that time, he attacked me and ripped my dress.”
Lilly let out an audible gasp. “You wouldn’t.”
I shrugged. “Why shouldn’t I? It’s the truth.”
“But…” Lilly’s eyes were round with the fear of it. “Then they would never let me see Walter again.”
“I know,” I told her. “And I don’t want that to happen.”
Lilly opened and closed her mouth a few times, reminding me slightly of a goldfish in a bowl. Then she closed her lips firmly and returned to dusting, not speaking to me for the rest of the day.
“What’s wrong with you girls?” Mama asked over dinner. “You’ve barely spoken two words to each other since you got home.”
“Nothing, as far as I know,” I said, glancing over in Lilly’s direction.
My sister refused to look at me. “Nothing,” she said, shaking her head back and forth a few times. “I’m just a little tired.” She looked down to cut her meat. “And besides, we work together all day.” And then, glancing in my direction, she added, “I think we’ve said everything that needs to be said.”
Lilly was still ignoring me when we climbed into bed. That was fine. I could handle her anger, just as long as she kept my secret. And I knew she would. I wasn’t exactly playing fair, but I was keeping secrets for her, so I saw no reason why she shouldn’t keep one for me. And besides, Jessie and I had only kissed. It had been unexpected, but it wasn’t something I regretted. Nor was it something I would ever regret. Jessie Vanderlind had stolen my heart without even trying.
I couldn’t sleep. There were too many thoughts of Jessie running through my head. Once my sister’s breathing turned to the steady rhythm of someone asleep, I crept out of my bed and shrugged into my robe. I needed to contemplate what had passed between Jessie and me in the complete silence that existed in the middle of the night.
On tiptoe, I crossed the room to look out the window. The little creatures of the night were starting to sing to each other and I loved the music they made. Looking down at the ground below our window, I nearly jumped out of my skin when I realized that someone was looking back up at me. It only took a second for me to realize it was Jessie Vanderlind.
“What are you doing out here?” I whispered, as I hurried across our yard to stand next to Jessie. I hoped none of my family had heard me easing out of the back door. The screen usually squeaked.
“I had to see you,” he said, stepping closer to me. “I wanted…” He paused for a moment, running his fingers through his hair. “I wanted to apologize.”
He was just so breathtaking handsome with his full lips and his ruffled black hair. I took several seconds just to stare at him, drinking him in. “Apologize?” I finally managed to ask.
“Yes.” Jessie nodded. “Just because you’d fallen off a ladder was no reason for…” He paused again. “It’s just… I just feel like I might have taken advantage of you. I mean, just because you’d fallen off the ladder was no reason for me to…” He gestured at me with his hand. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,” I told him, stepping a little closer. “You saved me and then we accidentally kissed. That’s no reason to apologize.”
“But don’t you see?” Jessie asked, his gray eyes like two perfect gray pearls from the islands of Polynesia. “Kissing you by accident would be like accidentally finding a leprechaun's pot of gold.”
I squinted at him, no sure what he meant. “I’m afraid you’ve lost me.”
“I mean,” he said, stretching his hands toward me for a moment and then stuffing them in the pockets of the long, dark coat he was wearing, “I wouldn’t want our kiss to have been something you didn’t want or you weren’t expecting. Kissing you, especially for the first time, should be perfect.”
My heart was hammering so wildly in my chest that I could barely breathe. “Then kiss me now,” I told him. “Kiss me here under this apple tree. Let this be our first kiss.” It was such a brazen thing to say that I couldn’t even believe the words had come out of my mouth, but he didn’t seem put off by my request.
“Are you sure?” Jessie asked, taking a half-step forward. “About the kiss. Because I know if I kiss you again, I would never want to…”
And then we melted into each other’s arms, our lips pressing together with such passion that it felt like tiny fireworks were exploding in my chest.
“Ever let you go,” Jessie whispered, once we paused for breath.
“What’s that?” I asked, my head spinning from being so close to him. His breath smelled slightly of warm pennies.
“I was just worried about kissing you,” he whispered into my hair. “I knew that if we were to kiss, I would never want to let you go.”
“Then don’t,” I told him. “I’m happy to stay here forever.”
He squeezed me tightly for another moment and then I felt him stiffen a little, as if gathering his resolve. “There’s something I have to tell you,” he said in a very controlled voice. “There’s something I have to confess before this goes any further.”
“What is it?” I asked, hesitantly. He suddenly sounded so serious that it made me a little afraid.
Jessie closed his eyes for a moment and released a deep sigh. “It’s about my family.”
“Oh.” I thought of the rumors I’d heard about the Vanderlinds from Mrs. Denkler and the other snatches of gossip. The Vanderlinds all suffered from some type of rare illness. Something hereditary, I had to imagine. Jessie probably felt that he should be honest about his situation before we became too involved. “Don’t tell me,” I said, snuggling deeper into his arms. “I don’t want to know. Not yet.”
“But…” he started to say.
“Jessie, please don’t,” I insisted, cupping his face with my hands and looking into his fathomless gray eyes. “This moment is so perfect. And I feel about you in a way that I never imagined I could feel about anyone. Let’s pretend that the rest of the world doesn’t exist. At least for right now. Let’s just make this moment about the two us.”
And then he kissed me again.
Chapter 36
Jessie
I felt like a foolish Romeo, standing underneath Colette’s window, but there was no place else in the world I wanted to be. I’d always had my suspicions about Romeo. He was, after all, already infatuated with a girl named Rosaline before sneaking into the ball and first seeing Juliet. Who was to say that, if their families hadn’t been sworn enemies and he’d actually been allowed to woo Juliet, that he wouldn’t have grown bored of her in a couple of months and fallen in love with yet another girl?
But I didn’t feel that way about Miss Gibson. I knew I was about the same age as Romeo was in the play, but my love for Colette felt timeless. I knew I could never tire of her, not even in a hundred years.
I sighed, feeling the irony of it. I would live to see a hundred years. And probably a hundred more after that, if I didn’t grow despondent under the weight of my own immortality and find some way to end it. Death by an angry mob was a popular way for the undead to give up on living. Of course I would probably have to travel to Romania to accomplish such a grisly task with any ease. The Romanians were always ready to put some world weary vampire to the stake.
But then I caught a glimpse of Colette in the window of her house and it felt like my dead heart was beating in my chest. Just the sight of her filled me with life. I had to fight the urge to fly up the side of the house and speak to her through the glass.
A few moments later and she was there by my side, her volumes of hair cascading around her shoulders. I had been yearning for her so much that my feelings were almost tangible. And there she was, right in front of me. It was exquisite torture not to sweep her up in my arms.
I had meant to apologize for my behavior in the library. It had been ungentlemanly and I very much wanted Colette Gibson to think well of me. I meant to simply apologize, but somehow we ended up kissing again. It was our first kiss, our first real kiss, and there was a dream-like quality to it. The apple tree shading us from the light of the moon was in full leaf and the small animals and insects that came out in warm weather started to sing.
It was then that I knew I couldn’t give Colette up. Not ever. Her soul fit with mine like two locking puzzle pieces that, once united, could never be pulled apart. But I also wanted to protect her from the curse that was my family. I needed to tell her exactly who I was, and what I was, so that she would understand the gravity of her decision to be with me.
But when I tried to confess to the abomination that was my family, Colette silenced me. She didn’t want to cloud the skies of our new love with talk of anyone or anything but us. And I was too in love to insist. I should have stood strong and explained the evil that Grandfather had inflicted upon us, but instead we kissed again and everything in the world felt perfect.
As we pulled apart in order for her to breathe, we both caught a glimpse of a shooting star streaking across the sky. “Do people wish on shooting stars here in America?” I asked, unwilling to turn my head to take in the full astronomical display. I preferred gazing into her green eyes.
“Yes,” she said with a small nod, not looking away either. “But I feel like all of my wishes have already come true.”
Chapter 37
Colette
“I have a bit of good news to share,” Papa said, beaming at all of us as we sat around the dinner table the following evening.
“What is it?” Mama asked, taking off her oven mitts after setting down the pot roast.
“Well, the W.P.A. has decided that Tiburon needs a proper town hall. And guess who they’ve hired to run the construction?”
“Oh!” Mama exclaimed, gasping. “That’s wonderful.” She hurried around the table to wrap her arms around Papa.
I was thrilled. All of us were. But it was also a little confusing. “Shouldn’t they focus on rebuilding the school first?” I asked.
Papa shook his head, even though he was still smiling. “I know. It doesn’t make much sense. Does it? But I guess the government already had the plans in place for the town hall before the school burnt down.”
“But when are they rebuilding the school?” Lilly wanted to know.
“It’s in the process of getting funded,” Papa told her. “And hopefully I get that project, too. But for now we should just be grateful that I’m steadily employed again.” He looked at Lilly and me. “There should be enough money for awhile,” he said. “If you girls want to leave your positions at the castle; it wouldn’t be a problem.”
“No,” I exclaimed, the word bursting out of my mouth. I didn’t care if we had all the money in the world; I couldn’t stop working at the castle. I couldn’t forgo the chance of seeing Jessie every day, even if the chance was always slim. Surprised by my exuberance, everyone turned to look at me. “I mean, it would be silly to give up such good paying jobs,” I explained. “We should save the money in case things get lean again.”
Papa reached over and petted my head. “That’s my bright girl.”
The next several weeks drifted past in a pink haze of happiness. In the mornings I would ride out to an obliging field and gather an armload of wildflowers for Arthur. Then Lilly would catch up to me and we would head to the castle together to start our day of dusting and polishing.
If it was a lucky day, then Jessie would find some way to see me. Lilly would be called away to help Millie and I’d be left on my own. Or Emily would come to ask for my help with some small task. Once the girl had led me to some secluded room, she would disappear, leaving her brother in her place. Our meetings in the castle were brief. There was only time for a few stolen kisses. But I knew that Jessie would come to see me at night, after my family had fallen asleep. That was when we had our real time together.
Each night when we met, Jessie would try to tell me of the horrible curse that plagued his family. And each night I would stop him with a kiss. I didn’t want to tarnish the love I felt for him. His family could have been a pack of snarling wolves and I wouldn’t have cared. Jessie was beautiful and wonderful and kind. I didn’t believe in guilt by association and I knew I would love Jessie Vanderlind, no matter the dark secret his family was hiding.
“Why don’t you speak with an accent?” I asked him one evening as we took a turn around the yard.
“Don’t I speak with an American accent?” he said with some surprise.
“You know what I mean,” I said, nudging his arm. “You’re from Hungary. Aren’t you? But you sound like you were born right here, in Tiburon.”
“My grandfather didn’t believe in accents,” he said.
I couldn’t let him get away with telling me so little. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“
It means that my grandfather was very strict. He felt that if you were going to learn a language, then you should be able to speak it flawlessly.”
“How many languages do you speak?” I wanted to know.
He gave a shrug of modesty. “Only three or four.”
“Three or four?” I couldn’t help but exclaim. “You speak English and Hungarian. What other languages do you speak?”
“French,” he told me. “And some German, but I could hardly pass for a native.”
“Say something in Hungarian,” I requested.
He gave me a puzzled look. “Why?”
“Because this all sounds too preposterous and I’m not half sure that I should believe you.”
He turned to look deeply into my eyes. “Szeretlek,” he said in a whisper.
I didn’t understand him, but I had my suspicions because of the way he looked at me. “Okay, now say the same thing in French,” I told him.
“Je t’aime,” was his reply, a small smile flitting across his lips.
I kept going. “And German?”
“Ich liebe dich,” he said, gazing steadily into my eyes.
“And what does it mean in English?” I had to ask.
Jessie pulled me into his arms. “I think you already know,” he said in a husky voice. And then he kissed me, his lips telling me how he felt without any words.
My sister hadn’t spoken of Jessie since she stumbled upon our kiss, and I kept all thoughts of him to myself. Normally we shared all our foolish secrets, like sisters who are close tend to do. But when it came to Jessie, things felt different. First of all, I knew Lilly didn’t approve. After all, the maid falling in love with the tortured heir to the castle falling did sound like something out of a gothic novel. Even I had to admit that. But I didn’t care. I knew what I felt for Jessie was real. And I knew deep in my heart that he felt the same way about me.