Fire on the Ramparts (Sugar Hill Book 2)

by M. L. Bullock

  I put the plate down on the long wooden table and invited her to sit across from me. I left the chair at the head of the table empty, hoping that would help her feel more comfortable.

  Pepper wore her shoulder-length hair up in a comb today. The hairstyle looked sloppy on some women, but it looked elegant on her. It suddenly occurred to me that she looked very much like Miss Anne. In fact, she could have been a slightly younger version—down to the pearl earrings and the expensive lipstick. Yes, I could see the resemblance now.

  “What can I help you with?”

  “Summer advised me to come see you. She said that I should tell you how I feel, that you would understand. That you were a reasonable woman. Well, here I am.”

  “She’s right. I like to think I’m reasonable. My door is always open to family, and I want to hear how you feel, Pepper. Is there anything wrong? Something specific you want to discuss?” Pretending I didn’t know she wanted me out as matrone was proving more difficult than I could have imagined. My blood was boiling.

  “Yes. There is.” She leaned forward, her hand on the table as if she needed to steady herself—or restrain herself. I couldn’t be sure which. Pepper was a slight woman, but she was what Vertie would call “scrappy.” Despite her fine handbag and gold rings, I had no doubt she’d be ready to rumble if the occasion called for it. I hoped that wasn’t today. I didn’t think I was up for mixing it up with a relative.

  This might be a good time to take the high road. “If this is about the board meeting, Pepper, I’d like to put your mind at ease. I have since learned that I broke with tradition by speaking out like I did. However, as far as I know, I haven’t broken any rules. I’m sure you understand that I’m new to all this.”

  “Oh, I don’t think time is a luxury you have right now. Time is running out. For you, at least.”

  “What do you mean?” I could hardly believe what I was hearing. “Are you threatening me?”

  Pepper leaned even closer and with a bleak smile said, “I am not the threat here. I came to warn you.” The old Avery would have told her off and tossed her out, but I wasn’t that woman anymore. I reminded myself to be calm and remember that Pepper had quite a bit of pull on the board. If I could swing her to my side, make her see reason, perhaps I could build inroads into the more doubtful factions of the family? Why couldn’t they believe I only wanted to help?

  “You can’t expect that Miss Anne and I would do things the same way, but I have nothing but this family’s interests at heart. I hope you believe that. I want to see Dolly Jane and children like her get the treatment they need. Our family can do so much good! Let’s put any differences aside and do some good together. Let’s build that medical clinic in the bayou. I know that means something to you. Let’s fund more scholarships. What can we do to work together, Pepper? I know we can do great things.”

  “Such nice words, but it’s not your agenda that I’m here about.”

  “Oh? Then what may I help you with?”

  “The money, the affluence, that’s always the bait. But it’s not about that. It’s about you, Avery. You are in danger, although you don’t seem to know it. Someone should have told you—they should have given you a choice! It’s wrong to do this to you without warning.”

  “Danger? Warning about what?”

  “You should go back where you came from, Avery. You should hop back in that shiny silver car and go back to Atlanta.” Her voice was hypnotic, smooth, like she wanted to convince me to do just what she said. I supposed she meant to soothe my nerves, but all it did was tick me off. I’d always had a mind of my own.

  My appetite vanished quickly, and I pushed the plate aside. “I see. And is that your opinion, Pepper, or do you all feel this way?”

  “I know you have questions. You’re bound to. You are a smart girl, but smarts aren’t enough to face what’s coming your way. You will have to make a decision. Who will you pick?” With a sad sigh, she opened the palm of her hand. She wore neat gloves, the kind that women in the forties wore. I hadn’t noticed them before, but they were a soft pink, almost her skin color. “Take my hand.”

  I stared at it and then at her. What was this about? “Are you a palm reader? Because I’m not into that.” I glanced at her other hand but saw nothing there. No weapons. No blunt objects.

  “Please, take my hand, Avery. I can provide you with the answers you are looking for.”

  “How? Are you taking me somewhere?”

  “No. We aren’t going anywhere. I’m not going to hurt you. Take my hand, Avery. Take my hand and you’ll see what I see. You’ll know it all. I hope you are truly ready to know the truth.”

  I shrugged at the crazy lady sitting across from me. Fine. I’ll take her hand and then she’ll be gone. If it gets rid of her, what’s the harm? I’m tired, and I have a ton more research to do.

  Without a smile or even a remotely kind expression, I put my hand in hers. Instantly I experienced a strange detachment. It reminded me of getting nitrous oxide at the dentist. Afterwards my mind had felt cloudy, and I hadn’t enjoyed the experience. I hated feeling out of control.

  And at this moment I had no doubt—nothing that was about to happen to me was within my control.

  Chapter Twenty – Avery

  “Now repeat after me, Avery. I am the bell, and you are the song. I am the heart, but you are the blood…”

  My lips trembled as I whispered the words.

  “No, louder, Avery. Say them louder. He has to hear you say the words or he can’t come.”

  My stomach did a flip, and I glanced up at the older girl with some puzzlement. I didn’t know why I resisted speaking the words, maybe because she wanted me to so badly. “I don’t want to make the spell. You do it. Why don’t you say them? You do it and I’ll watch.” Even that seemed repulsive, but I was ready to compromise at this point.

  “Because. It doesn’t work that way. Are you going to say them or not?”

  “Not. I’m going home.” I picked up my book bag and slung it over my shoulders.

  Quick as lightning, Rita Faye was on her feet and standing between me and the door. The girl was a full foot taller than me, and it bothered me that she knew how much it intimidated me. I didn’t back down. “Get out of the way, Rita, or I’ll punch you in the gut.” I showed her my fist and shoved out my chin.

  “Just try it. Say the damn words, Avery Dufresne.”

  Rita Faye thought swearing would intimidate me even more. She didn’t know me too well. I could swear way better than she could, I’d been living on this Navy base a lot longer than her. I’d picked up all sorts of interesting words, and I wasn’t afraid to use any of them.

  “Go on and admit it. You are scared! Scared of the Skelly Man! Ha ha! I told you you believed in the Skelly Man!” Rita Faye mocked me with a twisted expression. Her ugly brown hair sprung out from her ponytail unevenly; she looked like she hadn’t brushed it in a month of Sundays. But then her hair always looked bad after a day at school. I’d wanted to be her friend because she didn’t have any. I knew why now. She was mean and pushy and liked to boss people around. I was done trying to be her friend. I would much rather be alone.

  “Get out of the way or I’ll scream. If you think the Skelly Man is mean, just wait until you meet my grandmother!” I was ready to cry now, but not because I was afraid of any stupid ghost. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be allowed to go home; that I would be away from Vertie forever. That frightened me. Rita Faye slapped herself against the closed door.

  “You aren’t going anywhere, Avery Dufresne. You say the words, and then you can go. If you don’t say the words you aren’t my friend and you’ll be stuck in here forever.”

  “No, I won’t!” I screamed, unafraid that her grumpy father would hear me.

  “Nobody can hear you. They are all drinking in the garage and listening to music, stupid. Now say it!” She pinched me, and I screamed in pain as I stepped back. I eyed the window, but it was closed tight and there was no way I could b
reak free. Besides, I didn’t think I could handle falling from the second floor. It was too high up.

  Then I felt heat rising within me. It started in my gut and then began to flare out to my fingers and toes. I thought maybe I’d cry, maybe I’d throw up. Something was building, and it was strong and dangerous. I’d never experienced this before. “Get. Out. Of. The. Way,” I warned her as I struggled to breathe. My backpack felt like a hundred pounds on my back. My head felt heavy—even my skin felt heavy. Something bad was about to happen. Real bad.

  “Get. Out. Of. The. Way…” she mocked me, and then suddenly she slammed back against the wood and flattened against the door. Her legs twisted, her feet tapped one another and I watched her urinate on herself. She made a horrible gurgling sound, and her head twisted in a weird position as her body lifted from the ground. Her feet weren’t even touching the floor! She couldn’t move—she couldn’t speak!

  “Rita?” My mind asked the question, but I couldn’t speak either. Suddenly the door swung open and I ran from the room like a coward, leaving her plastered across the door.

  “Vertie! Vertie!” I whispered to my brain as I ran. The strange heaviness lifted from me, and I kept running across the scraggly, dirty carpet, down the stairs and out the dingy white front door. By the time I made it to the corner of the street, Rita Faye was screaming; I could hear her in her room. I kept running.

  Tears filled my eyes, and I felt Pepper’s hand squeeze mine. I thought she would let go, but she didn’t. I’d actually forgotten she was there, that I was here. I think she said something else to me, but I couldn’t hear what it was. The room we sat in became cloudy again.

  And I wasn’t me anymore. I was no longer Avery.

  I was Anne.

  “Now, say the words, Annie. Be a good girl and say the words.”

  “I don’t believe in magic, Grandmother. I don’t want to say them.”

  “Fine, then I’ll ask Vertie to do it.”

  I was reluctant—I wasn’t jealous of Vertie or worried that I’d lose my status as the favorite grandchild. I wanted to protect Vertie from the bad thing, although my little sister did not believe in it. How could I show her?

  “All right, Grandmother. If it makes you happy.” I twisted my fingers behind my back. Crossed fingers meant you could break a promise. Even to a grandmother. “I am the bell, and you are the song. I am the heart, but you are the blood. Together, we two. Always. We are one soul.”

  “That’s good, Annie. Now say it again. Say it louder, dear.”

  As she spoke, my skin began to crawl and my vision became blurry. I was only twelve, but I knew this was wrong. I knew my priest would disapprove of this. I didn’t understand why, but I knew.

  “No more, Grandmother. No more, okay?” Grandmother Margaret grabbed my hands now and then held me by the wrists as she pulled me close. No. She wasn’t going to let me go. I sighed under the sudden feeling of weightiness, as if someone had put a heavy robe on me, a robe I couldn’t see and hadn’t been expecting to wear. And didn’t want to wear. The robe made me feel sad, kind of sick. “Please.” I began to cry softly.

  “Almost done, girl. Almost there.” I could smell Grandmother Margaret’s stale coffee breath, and I continued to cry. She said the words, and I repeated them. My fingers were no longer crossed because she held my wrists tight now. She whispered the rest of the words in my ear. My mouth worked, but I didn’t want to say the words. I didn’t want to! I couldn’t! Now I knew what the priest had said was true. Mortal sins were real!

  “Now! Say it again! Stop struggling, my dear.”

  “Grandmother! What are you doing to Anne?” Vertie stormed into the room and pushed her way between us. She was so small, so petite, but no one had a stronger will than Vertie Lee Dufresne.

  “Mind your own business, Vertie. Go outside and play with your brother.”

  Vertie’s plain face darkened with anger. She scowled at Grandmother Margaret and wagged her finger at her, as if she were the grown-up and Grandmother Margaret the child. “No! You leave her alone. Look! You’ve made her cry, and she has bruises on her wrists. Come on, let’s go, Anne.”

  Vertie snatched me away, and we left the stuffy upstairs room behind. I breathed a sigh of relief as I practically fell behind her. Our grandmother’s companion and housemaid, Antoinette, stepped out into the hallway and peered at us disapprovingly but didn’t try to stop us. Where had she come from? The Mirror Room? I walked down the stairs with Vertie, but I knew it was too late. I’d said the words, I’d spoken enough of the spell. I wore the heavy, invisible coat now forever.

  And I would see the Lovely Man.

  I was his now.

  ***

  I laid my head on the table and cried. Pepper released my hand and shuffled through her purse for some tissue. Shoving it in my hand she said, “Now you know. You know what they don’t want you to know.”

  I didn’t think. I cried. I cried until I couldn’t cry anymore. “I’d forgotten about Rita Faye. I thought I dreamed that whole thing. Who was she?”

  “Oh, I think you know.”

  “I don’t know if I understand this. How could you know what happened to me? And why did I see Anne? I didn’t say the words.”

  “You don’t have to say the words, Avery. The spirit always comes for the matrone. It was just a coincidence that day with Rita Faye. But you saw what happened to Anne. She had no choice. And as cruel as it was, she left you with no choice either. Her daughters died, and she rejected Asner’s child, for whatever reason. She put the ring on your finger knowing that he’d come for you.”

  “What does he want?”

  “He wants you. He wants his soul mate. He’s bound to the ring.”

  “The ring I can’t get off my finger. Why would she do this to me, knowing that I would be…haunted by Ambrose?” The very speaking of his name made the air shimmer around me.

  “I don’t know. I can’t imagine why she would give it to anyone. Why not die with it on her finger? Who knows? I think the cancer made her mind weak. Or maybe she didn’t want to give up the money. The legend is that’s the trade-off, your love and your soul for the fortune. And this family, they couldn’t care less about your soul, Avery. If you think that they’re your friends, that they love you, think again.” We both pretended that we didn’t hear footsteps above us. Pacing back and forth, as if he were there and waiting for me.

  “Summer? Reed? Mitchell? They all know?”

  “Everyone knows the legend, but I daresay many don’t believe it. But those three, they believe. They’ve all seen him, with Miss Anne. At Thorn Hill.”

  “So if I reject him, I lose the money and the family loses the fortune? And what else? Will he kill me?”

  “That’s what they say, but no one has ever rejected him. Not as far as I know, anyway. Will he kill you?” She tapped her lip with her finger. “I don’t know. I think he fancies he loves you because when he sees you, he sees Susanna.”

  “Why didn’t Vertie tell me all this?”

  “Oh, I think you know the answer to that. She wanted to protect you. A fool’s errand, but she had to try, didn’t she? I would have. I loved Vertie. She was a good woman, always had been, but she was naïve to believe that simply hiding you away would keep you from the Dufresne curse.”

  A loud crash upstairs had us both on our feet. “I’d better go.” She reached for her handbag and touched my arm. “No matter what happens, you do what is right for you, Avery.”

  “Thank you, Pepper. I’ll do my best. And yes, you’d better go.” Cold entered the room suddenly; it was so cold that I wanted to wrap myself in a blanket. Eager for her to leave, I walked her to the front door and we parted ways without another word. She’d taken a huge risk coming here.

  Now what was I going to do? I heard another noise, this time coming from the dining room. Something crashed; it sounded like the chandelier falling again, only I was in a different house. I walked to the door, but the dining room was so cold now I didn’t
dare go in. The cold took my breath away.

  Come to me now…

  Surely I imagined that! I walked backward away from the dining room—away from the voice. And then I heard the whispers, many voices. They practically swirled around me, threatening to swallow me. Smother me. Take me away.

  “Who’s there?” I called into the dark room in front of me.

  Susanna…

  “I’m not Susanna!”

  I watched in horror as a thick, dark shadow slid out under the door and pooled in front of me. I whimpered as it began to gather in a heap just a few feet from me. The gathering of darkness climbed higher, just a foot, then two, and finally the thing was my height and a slow swirling motion began.

  This is going to be bad. This is going to be so bad. What do I do? My mind couldn’t comprehend what I witnessed. And then I heard Vertie’s voice whispering in my ear.

  “Avery, run! Run now!”

  Her voice didn’t soothe me. It ratcheted my emotions to new, terrifying heights, and I raced toward the front door. In one fell swoop I snatched my keys off the table and with nervous fingers began to punch numbers on my phone.

  I could think of only one person who could help me.

  Chapter Twenty-One – Jessica

  “Stop a minute, Jeffrey!” I grabbed his hand and pulled him down next to me.

  “But there’s a fire!”

  “No, there isn’t. Look. It’s gone.” The burst of flame had disappeared completely. There wasn’t a single spark or ember left behind.

  “What the hell?” He squatted down beside me and asked, “How can that be?”

  “Keep your voice down.” Yeah, that was pretty foolish. I didn’t believe for a second there was anyone out here besides us, but Becker took his role as our unofficial “debunker” seriously. He wanted to investigate, and I needed to record it. To my surprise, as soon as I pulled my phone out of my pocket, it began to ring. I just about jumped out of my skin.

  “Hold on. Wait! This is Avery!” With a cold shiver I answered her call. “Hi, Avery. This is Jessica.”