SECRET WHISPERS

by VC. ANDREWS®

“Maybe you can start after the wedding. They’ll be off on their honeymoon, and it will be pretty lonely and quiet around here.”

  “Yes, that sounds like a possibility,” I told him.

  “Mission accomplished, then,” he said, clapping his hands.

  “What mission? So, that’s why you wanted to have lunch with me, isn’t it?” I asked, teasing him with narrow, suspicious eyes.

  “Hey, I’m still a little bit of a Heaven-stone, shrewd and conniving. But for good things.”

  I laughed. No matter what, I would always have Uncle Perry there for me whenever I got too low or simply needed a shot of energy and hope. There weren’t many occasions when he wasn’t a bright light. Sometimes, I thought, even Cassie had to admit it to herself, if not to me.

  He looked at his watch. “I’ve got to get back,” he said, rising. “There are still a few things I want to do today. Tell Mrs. Dobson she outdid herself again.”

  I rose and took his arm. He never wanted to walk with me without me doing so. How that used to annoy Cassie, I thought. “It’s the blind leading the blind,” she would tell me. “That’s what the two of you look like.”

  Only to you, I thought. Only to you.

  “I hear you’re really involved in this wedding planning now,” Uncle Perry said as he opened the front door.

  “I’m not really that involved. Lucille wanted me to go along with her to review the dresses and choose some things at the wedding planner’s, but I think she pretty much had everything already chosen. She says she wants me to help arrange for the flowers, the altar, chairs, food kiosks, be with her every moment, not that I know anything about it. I mean, I’ll do whatever she wants, but I know she just wants to give me the feeling I’m involved.”

  “See?” he said. “You’re pretty sharp and never to be underestimated. You know exactly what’s going on around you. Everything’s going to be fine, Sam. You take it easy and start planning on coming to work with me. I’m surrounded by too many old biddies.”

  He kissed me and held me a moment, which was something he always had done. Most relatives kiss each other the way they would pat each other on the hand and move on, but Uncle Perry always gave me the feeling that he wanted me to believe he loved me. It was as important to him as it was to me.

  “See you soon,” he said, then went to his car, pausing to appreciate mine. “It’s truly a magnificent-looking driving machine.”

  “I’m scared to drive it!” I shouted.

  “Nonsense. You have to break in this baby, Sam. No car can be a virgin in the Heaven-stone collection.”

  I laughed and watched him drive away. I stood on the portico until he was gone, and then I felt a chill and embraced myself. I needed to be in the sunlight and decided to go for a walk. I strolled slowly, lost in my own thoughts for more than an hour, but when I was on the pathway and almost at the end of our garden, something made me turn. It was as if someone had tapped me on the shoulder, and I looked back at the house.

  I saw her up in the attic window, looking down at me. She won’t retreat to her grave, I thought.

  “Leave me alone!” I screamed.

  She smiled and backed away. My heart began thumping. She knew if there was one place in our mansion where I would never go, it was the attic. It was up there in the old dresser that I had found the emptied sleeping-pill capsules and realized what she had done to Mother. It had been our struggle over that evidence at the top of the attic stairway that had resulted in her fall and death. Even though I didn’t need anyone to tell me, I had once overheard Mrs. Dobson tell Doris that the dead haunt the place where they died. They retreat to it like vampires retreating to their coffins, only to rise again and again.

  It all gave me the chills, and I started back. I was in such deep thought about it that I didn’t hear the limousine come up the drive and stop right behind me.

  “Semantha?” Lucille called as she stepped out.

  “Oh, hi,” I said. I felt the wide smile sit on my face, thinking how Mother had never looked this fashionable during the day and had never really been a designer-clothes person. She had been far more conservative, which both Cassie and I had thought fit the image for a Heaven-stone wife, especially Daddy’s wife.

  But here was Lucille in a salmon silk shantung suit. A tie cinched the waist of her button-front jacket with short bubble sleeves. It had a narrow pencil skirt. With the luminous silk scarf topping her wide-brimmed hat, she truly looked as if she had just come from modeling at some high-fashion show. And with her height and figure, there was no way she wouldn’t stand out anywhere she went.

  “Your father and I had a most exciting morning and lunch,” she said. “We were both in a panic this morning and had to rush out to get over to Frankfort for lunch with the governor. Your father rented a helicopter. Can you imagine? He’s going to tell you when he gets home for dinner tonight, but I can’t hold it in,” she said, looking as if she would burst with excitement. She was so buoyant I couldn’t help but get excited myself, even though I had no idea why.

  “What is it?”

  “Your father has been chosen as Kentucky Citizen of the Year, and just think, the same year he and I are getting married! I guess we’re really good luck for each other, and,” she quickly added, “I’m sure for you.”

  “That does sound wonderful, Lucille.”

  “The formal ceremony won’t be until we return from our honeymoon. He’ll be in all the newspapers, on television. There’s a grand ballroom dinner with a guest list that would make the queen of England envious. We’ll have to buy you something special to wear.” She paused for a breath. “So, how was your lunch with your uncle?”

  “Very nice.”

  “He’s quite fond of you,” she said as we started into the house. “And worried about you,” she added.

  “I know. He wants me to come work with him.”

  “Yes, I heard him ask you on our way back from New York. I guess he really meant it. Well,” she said pausing at the bottom of the stairway, “there is no reason for you to rush into anything. Why not just enjoy the summer first and wait to see what you want to do? I’d hate to see you buried in some back room with department-store employees and not having the opportunity to meet people your own age. Maybe you should think about a group trip to Europe or reconsider your decision not to attend college. You know we could get you into any school you wanted to attend, especially here in Kentucky. I certainly wouldn’t be in any rush to do anything uninteresting.” She started up the stairway before I could respond.

  “Uncle Perry’s work is interesting,” I called up to her.

  She turned, shrugged, and shook her head. “Whatever, Semantha. All I’m saying is, don’t do what got you into unhappiness before, make impulsive decisions. Let everything ruminate . . . as with any life-changing decision. Nothing is too small when it comes to our happiness.” She laughed and looked out at our property. “Speaking of happiness, isn’t this paradise? Look at where we live and what we have. Aren’t we the luckiest people in the world?” Before I could respond, she added, “I’ve got to change, stop being a wide-eyed teenage girl, and start on some important phone calls.”

  “Well, she made your precious uncle Perry sound like a stick-in-the-mud, offering you a job in a closet. Still think she’s so wonderful?” I heard Cassie whisper. I spun around but didn’t see her.

  Then I started up the stairway to go to my room. I was a little more than halfway up when I heard Lucille scream. It was such a piercing screech my heart did flip-flops, and Mrs. Dobson, who was just coming out of the den where she and Doris had done some furniture polishing, paused as though she had been instantly frozen.

  “What was that?” she asked me.

  I shook my head.

  A moment later, Lucille appeared at the top of the stairway.

  “Who was in our bedroom and at my vanity table?” she demanded.

  Neither Mrs. Dobson nor I spoke. Doris came out and looked up, too.

  “Well?”
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  “Doris made the bed and cleaned the bathroom this morning as usual,” Mrs. Dobson said. “We had no other reason to go into your room. Laundry and dry cleaning don’t get done and put back until tomorrow, as you know, according to the schedule, and . . .”

  “Don’t lecture me about the house! Someone was in my room!” Lucille shouted, her words falling like thunder over us.

  Mrs. Dobson turned to Doris, who, despite her diminutive size, a little more than five foot three, was a tireless worker, unafraid of any chore, no matter what she had to lift or do. She wasn’t easily intimidated.

  “I never touch anything on your vanity table, Mrs. Bennet,” Doris said firmly. “There’s no reason to shout at us.”

  Lucille relaxed her shoulders and quickly seized control of herself to speak in a calmer but still coldly measured tone.

  “Well, someone did. I get this special facial cream from France,” she said, holding up a piece of glass. “It comes from a very special small organic factory. Each four-ounce jar costs seven hundred and fifty dollars! I just found it on the floor, the jar broken, the cream spilled out and useless. I’d never put anything that could have pieces of glass in it on my face. This jar is lost, seven hundred and fifty dollars lost.”

  “I assure you that I didn’t touch anything, Mrs. Bennet,” Doris said.

  “Well, what did it do, jump off the table? I’m very disappointed, Mrs. Dobson. Very disappointed,” she said, and spun on her heels.

  For a moment, no one spoke, and then Mrs. Dobson asked Doris if she might have accidentally brushed against the table or something on it.

  “Absolutely not,” Doris said. “You know I don’t rush my work.”

  “Well, perhaps she knocked it off the table herself just now. She’s always in something of a rush, but far be it from the likes of me to accuse her,” Mrs. Dobson said. She looked up at me and then followed Doris into the kitchen.

  I turned to start up again and saw Cassie smiling at me. A moment later, she was gone, but when I turned into my room, she was there standing by the window, looking down at the entrance to our property.

  “You did that, didn’t you?” I asked.

  She didn’t move and didn’t answer for a long moment. Finally, she turned, a dark, angry smirk on her face, that same look of rage that used to send me off crying for Mother.

  “You don’t have the courage to do anything, Semantha. You never did. I want you to know that although you didn’t see me there, I heard all that garbage Uncle Perry told you, by the way. I’m not surprised, and I’m not surprised that he thinks Daddy is better because of Lucille. She’s killing the Heaven-stone in him. Soon, he and Perry will be indistinguishable, two lapdogs cowering under Lucille’s shadow.”

  I started to shake my head.

  “That is, if I let it happen,” she added, and slipped away in the whispering breeze that came through an open window.

  Maybe it was time I should tell Daddy about Cassie, I thought. Maybe he should know she was still there.

  What I feared, however, was not that he wouldn’t believe me.

  I feared that he would.

  And that he would be happy about it.

  Politics

  LUCILLE COMPLAINED TO Daddy about her skin cream as soon as he returned that afternoon. After he had spoken to both Mrs. Dobson and Doris, he came to my room to speak to me. He was upset and paced because he thought one of them was lying. I couldn’t let him think that.

  “This is all simply a silly mistake, Daddy. I know it is.”

  “What do you mean? How can you be so sure?”

  “After Lucille and you had left and I had my breakfast, I did a little tour of the house. I wanted to see if any real changes had been made since Lucille had come to live here. I didn’t mean to spy on you or anything, but I went into your bedroom. I was thinking about the changes Cassie had made, and I was thinking about Mother.”

  He stared at me a moment and then took a step toward me. “Did you knock that jar off her vanity table? Is that what you’re telling me?” he asked.

  “No,” I said, shaking my head vehemently. “I didn’t touch a thing on her table.”

  “Then what are you saying, Semantha? Why did you say this is silly and you’re so sure?”

  “I didn’t see any broken jar on the floor, and Mrs. Dobson and Doris had already been in there to do whatever had to be done, just as they do every morning. When I was up there, they were already busy with the downstairs.”

  He thought a moment and then shook his head. “I saw the jar. It was broken. I don’t understand what you’re saying, Semantha. Speak directly. Exactly what are you saying?”

  “I think Lucille must have knocked it off herself when she returned and not realized it.”

  At first, when he opened and closed his mouth, I thought he was simply going to get even angrier at me, but he surprised me by smiling.

  “Lucille knocked it over herself? You don’t know how ridiculous that sounds, Semantha. First, if she knocked off a jar like that, she would surely hear it shatter on the floor, and second, if there is one thing we’ll never accuse Lucille of being, it’s flighty and absentminded. It’s just not possible for her to have done something like that and not realize it, not her. I’ve never met anyone who pays attention to detail as much as she does.”

  “I’m just telling you that I didn’t see anything broken, Daddy, and—”

  “Obviously, Doris or Mrs. Dobson returned to the room when you didn’t notice and one of them had the accident. Maybe Doris refilled the tissue box or replaced something.”

  “Neither of them would hide something like that, Daddy. They would have admitted it immediately.”

  “There’s no other possible explanation, Semantha. I’ve already put them both on notice. They know I’m very upset. I want honesty in this house. To me, this house is a temple, and no deceit or dishonesty is going to be tolerated within it.”

  Where were you when Cassie was alive? I wanted to say, but didn’t dare.

  “For now, we’ll put it aside, but if anything else like this occurs, I will depend on you to step forward and let me know. I want you to think of the three of us as one now. What happens to any of us happens to all of us, understand? Do you?” he asked, punching his words at me sharply.

  “Yes, Daddy.”

  “Okay. I’ve already ordered her a new jar. It should be shipped overnight and be here tomorrow. I don’t want to hear another word about it.”

  “Good,” I said. He nodded and started out. “Daddy.”

  “What?”

  “With all of this excitement, I forgot. Congratulations on being chosen Kentucky Citizen of the Year. Lucille told me.”

  “Oh, she did, did she? Well, thank you, Semantha. It will be a wonderful occasion for us all.” He smiled. “I think Lucille was more excited about it than I was.” He lowered his chin and raised his eyes and whispered, “I think she and her father had a little to do with it. Whatever. It makes for a nice wedding present. We’ll talk more about it at dinner, I’m sure.”

  As soon as he left, Cassie appeared in the doorway. She watched him walk away and then turned to look in at me.

  “He’s such a man fool now. If she had anything to do with his getting the honor, it wasn’t for him; it was for herself. She’ll do anything to climb the social ladder, even stand on his back. And you don’t have the courage to tell him so. He’s acting more like a worshiping servant than a fiancé. You—”

  I stepped forward and closed the door on her.

  Later, when I went downstairs, I saw Lucille sitting on the rear patio by herself. She was sipping a glass of wine and reading a large notebook. I wasn’t going to join her, but she turned sharply as if she could sense that I was standing there looking out at her. Not wanting her to think I was spying on her or anything, I continued out the French doors and joined her. It was a particularly beautiful twilight, with patches of milk-white clouds so still they looked pasted over the darkening velvet sky. Mother u
sed to call these Angel Nights and told Cassie and me that the bright stars that appeared and grew even brighter were their eyes looking down on us all to decide whom they would help.

  “If you look really hard,” she said, “you can see them.”

  Cassie thought it was ridiculous, but I would swear even today that I did see angels.

  Lucille smiled. “I’m glad you came out, Semantha. Please,” she said, indicating the seat across from her.

  When I sat, I saw that the notebook was from the wedding planner. She closed it quickly.

  “I’m sorry you saw me so angry today,” she began. “Believe me, that’s not my usual manner when addressing servants or any employees, for that matter.”

  She took a sip of her wine. I wasn’t sure what she expected me to say, so I remained quiet.

  “I think it’s admirable that you feel you have to defend Mrs. Dobson and Doris. After all, they’ve been with you much longer than they’ve been with me. Loyalty is a good thing when it’s directed to the right places.”

  I realized Daddy must have told her what I had told him. It wasn’t a big betrayal, but it hammered home how serious and determined he was when he had said we would be keeping no secrets from each other. I realized he wanted to show me clearly that it would never be he and I on one side and Lucille on the other.

  “Mrs. Dobson and Doris don’t break things, and if they did, they wouldn’t lie about it,” I said.

  She shook her head and smiled again. “Semantha, Semantha, I envy you your innocence, especially when I consider all you’ve been through already in your young life. I, too, was eager to live in a world full of candy canes and lollipops, a world in which people were honest and true. It’s earth-shattering when you realize how few people you can really trust. Some people can’t deal with it at all and spend their entire lives with their heads buried in the sand. I always imagined them old and tired and alone, unable to rationalize or turn the other cheek any longer. It has to be far more difficult for them than for the rest of us who mature and become realistic early enough in our lives to avoid the pain.”