Refuge on Leebrick (The Hills of Burlington Book 4)

by Jacie Middlemann

  “I can’t tell you that Beth won’t be affected by the emotions in that room. I don’t know that any of us aren’t going to be effected to some degree.” He looked across the table steadily not wavering at all as he held the other man’s eyes with his own. “But I also think Beth in some ways is in a better position to understand what she might feel. I have no idea if that will protect her from the emotional impact that room has, and God only knows those books have, but I believe she more than the rest of us is protected against it to some degree and because of that can probably cope with it better.”

  “Why?” Jake asked. He wasn’t certain whether he believed every bit of this, not like his sister did. But when it came to Beth he was willing to listen.

  “Those first few moments when I walked into that room, when the past…at least I’m assuming that’s what it was…seemed to flash through my mind, it seemed as if it was in a collage of images…pieces out of time filled with people.” He paused, he knew he wasn’t explaining it well but considering what they were talking about he wasn’t certain there was a good way of doing so. He also wondered if he was doing the right thing when it was obvious Jake was already plenty worried about his daughter. He took a deep breath and plunged forward. Ignorance was never bliss regardless of what some believed. And in this instance even less so. “In one of those quick flashes there was a woman who could have been Beth’s double other than her hair and clothing. But even with the huge difference in that regard I saw it right away. What I’m getting to is that she has a strong connection to all this. And maybe even more importantly, the strongest of all the emotions I got from that room was an unbelievably powerful sense of family. Beth has to have felt that as well.”

  Jake tapped his fingers on the side of his hip as he let what Tom had just told him sink in. “Any other similarities to anyone else we know?”

  “Family resemblances. Plenty of that. But none so strong that they could have passed for someone today as if you were looking in a mirror. At least not of those I’ve met so far.” But there had been someone else in that montage of images that had reminded him of someone. Someone he hadn’t thought of in years. Liar, he thought scornfully. You wish you hadn’t thought of in years. But now, he moved his shoulders around as if to loosen the muscles, muscles that had only now tightened at the thought of her. Now he was going to have to do some more research and figure out if she was somehow tied to the rest of them as well. Family? Wouldn’t that be a kicker?

  “Could you date it? The time from when you saw the other woman who looked like Beth?” Jake asked cautiously. He was still trying to decide whether to talk to Beth about it. “From the clothes…hair?”

  “Maybe. Are you going to tell Beth?”

  “I’d rather not but I can think of several scenarios where if I don’t that becomes a dangerous road to travel. So probably yes…I just don’t know when.”

  “She may already know and be worried about telling you.”

  “I’ve thought of that too,” Jake said dryly. “Believe me, fatherhood is a tricky business.”

  “If you say so.”

  “Well, cousin, how do you feel about being related to what some would refer to as an odd and eccentric group?”

  Tom tossed back the rest of his beer. Set it down on the table directly in front of him before catching Jake’s eyes with his own. “Pretty damn good.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Carrie moved easily around the small kitchen that was very much like her cousin’s kitchen next door. She loved the way Mary had redone their grandmother’s home especially the cozy kitchen that was the hub of many of their family meetings. Not for the first time she thought about how it had been so much the same way all those years before when their parents had visited her grandmother. How then it was all of them gathered in the kitchen. But she was decorating this new kitchen of hers a bit differently. While her cousin’s kitchen took them all back to a place and time they’d been more than simply content in she wanted her kitchen filled with flowers. Casey had probably described it best when she’d said it was like being on the grounds of an English Cottage. While it hadn’t been her intent she was pleased with the result and the analogy.

  She suspected Court was still down the street in the house she’d grown up in talking with Jake. Knew too they were in all likelihood talking about what more they’d learned from all the reading they were doing in the small room at the Summer Street house. She also suspected part of the conversation was about how they’d just learned that Tom was related to them. That he was didn’t surprise her nearly as much as her easy acceptance of it. That wasn’t at all like her. But somehow he was connected through their great-grandmother’s side of the family. A family tree that was filled with so many questions. And a whole lot more if they were all brutally honest about it. Ever since the first time she’d walked into the small room that Mary and Addie had discovered tucked behind the linen closet on the second floor of the Summer Street house she’d been plagued with dreams. She sighed and decided she was going to have to be honest with herself even if she wasn’t with anyone else. Plagued wasn’t exactly the right term. But some were bad enough to wake her out of a sound sleep. Memories. They were dreams filled with the memories of lives lived by other women. And she had a strong feeling they were the women whose lives had come before theirs and were documented in the huge volumes that filled the shelves of that little room. She also had a strong feeling that if they talked about it she would find both Mary and Casey were having the same or similar dreams. But none of them were quite ready to bring it out in the open. Not yet. Not when it was still so new. And when so much else seemed to be at their doorsteps. When she heard familiar footsteps coming up to her own front door she let out a breath.

  She wondered what her new husband would think of her news and her decision of when to share it. Rob might be new to their small family but she wasn’t going to leave him out of what was going on around him. She had decided to bring up her news around their dinner table that night. If anyone had a need to feel included it was that boy. She knew Court’s reaction to the day’s news would be quiet thoughtfulness and consideration. She had no doubt he would love to put all of this in a book somehow. It would certainly be a new genre for him. Addie would be thrilled with it and disappointed all over again that she hadn’t felt the “vibes” herself. Carrie wondered what Rob would think. He’d been quiet for the most part since Nick had left. She knew they talked on the phone frequently. Their conversations still seemed measured on Rob’s part but that didn’t surprise her considering the caution he took with their conversations as well.

  Time. She knew he needed time. And vowed to allow him whatever he needed. There was little else she could do to help him at least for the moment. Court was working steadily on the attic room that Rob had chosen. She knew Rob helped out and that within the week they planned to begin moving his furniture up there even if the room wasn’t completely finished. Once that happened Addie would move from the Carriage House, where she’d been staying since she and Court had been married, into the small bedroom Rob now occupied.

  She glanced at Court as he sauntered into the kitchen as if nothing in the world bothered him. She sighed. How could she be so lucky to have found someone just perfect for her? Someone who without a word opened his home and heart not just to her niece but also to her ex-husband’s son. Both of whom needed a place to belong and people who cared. She leaned into him as he slid his arm around her and bent over the stove next to her.

  “Smells good.”

  “You think anything that doesn’t come out of a box smells good,” she said dryly.

  “There is that.”

  They both listened to the spark of laughter from the other room. Not just Addie’s but Rob’s as well. Carrie had seen Addie tease a smile out of her newly found cousin more than once. And more than once she’d been successful in dragging a hint of a chuckle out of him as well. But this was the first time she’d heard him laugh so freely.

 
“She’s good for him,” Court said softly into her hair for only the two of them to hear.

  Carrie nodded slightly. “I think it’s working both ways. Especially since he knows everything she’s been through.” She sighed at the thought of what both teenagers had had to endure in their short lives. “I have a feeling that in some ways knowing what she’s been through helps him to put things in perspective.” She glanced at her new husband, saw he was watching her. He always seemed to know when there was something she wanted to talk about. And like now just waited for her to decide when the time was right for her. “There’s something I want to tell you. I was going to wait until later because I’d like to include both Addie and Rob.” She saw in his eyes the unspoken understanding of the need to include both…especially Rob.

  “I’ll help you get things on the table,” he said quietly and did just that.

  It didn’t take Carrie long to move the conversation where she wanted it to go. The moment she mentioned the Summer Street house both Court and Addie slowed what they were doing to turn their eyes towards her. She saw out of the corner of her eye that Rob took note and was paying attention too without looking like he was paying attention. It was a skill she had no doubt he’d perfected out of necessity over the course of his young life.

  “Mary has decided to rent one of the rooms over at the Summer Street house to an old friend of Jake’s. It seems she’s been thinking about converting it into a boarding house of some sort or another for some time now.” She paused, pleased she had everyone’s attention, however much they wanted it to show. “It seems that when Tom, Jake’s friend, went into the little room up on the second floor,” she glanced around the table under the guise of making sure everyone knew what she was talking about. She knew she was going to have to backtrack some for Rob but that was okay as it had always been in her mind to do so. For the moment all that mattered was that he was paying attention.

  “Go on,” urged Addie. She looked at her cousin, knew he was listening without really knowing what it was about. “We can tell Rob the whole story when you finish telling us what happened.”

  Exactly, Carrie thought to herself. Pleased that for once things were going as she wanted in the conversation with the two teenagers. She shrugged as if all this was normal and not all that different from their usual dinner conversation. Before she could continue she caught Court’s subtle wink and knew he was on to her. She suppressed the urge to wink back knowing both kids would see it. She didn’t care but neither did she want the conversation drifting off elsewhere. “Apparently he got the backlash of whatever still lingers in that room like Jake did the first time he went in there.” She looked at Court bringing him into her scheme knowing he’d be game. All those years of teaching college kids and writing fiction had to be good for something. “Remember how I took you over there that night after we’d found the room? I know you were hoping you’d feel something.”

  “And it was a bust,” Court said with no little bit of disappointment in his voice. Looked over at the young man who was no longer making any effort to hide that he was paying close attention. “Let me tell you,” he began, working his way up to embellishing what needed little to no embellishment. “This room over there at the house has been closed off for upward to a hundred years. I’ve talked with Jake, Carrie’s cousin, you’ve met him.” He waited for Rob’s slight nod of acknowledgement. “He’s no easy sell, I can promise you that. But he told me when he walked into that room it was like a bomb hit him. Said if he hadn’t been so intent on getting to his daughter, Beth, he would have been tossed back a step or two. It was that potent. Beth said the same thing about what she felt when she first came into the room.” He looked at his wife. He never got tired of those two words. His wife. “I think Carrie, Casey, and Mary all felt something but not to the degree Beth did. Me, I was hoping against hope I’d luck out but no dice.”

  “Me neither,” Addie said dejectedly. Still unaware of the quiet intent of the two adults in the room she turned to Rob. “If you want, we can go over there after dinner. I’ll take you up there. It is so cool. It’s really small but filled with shelves everywhere that are loaded down with these huge old books. Really, really old books. I bet some could be hundreds of years old.” She saw the skepticism in his face before he said a word and turned to her aunt. “Right, Aunt Carrie?”

  “I think it’s very likely some of them are that old.” She looked at Rob, her eyes serious now. “Maybe even older.” Now that they’d gotten the conversation going and she had his attention she wanted to keep it. “We’ve gone through some of them, not nearly as many as what we need to. Most are in other languages so the real task is translating them.”

  “Once we figure out what language each is in,” Addie added.

  “And that hasn’t always been easy,” Carrie said as she nodded at her niece. She then turned back to Rob. “Mary and Addie found the room after we’d finished re-decorating the house. Mary says she had a sense there was something there to be found but that she could never have done so if it hadn’t been for Addie.” She smiled at her niece before turning towards Rob. “My cousins and I, especially Mary and Casey, have always been what I guess you could call intuitive. I don’t know that any of us thought much about it until a couple of months or so ago. We’d found some old family journals in Mary’s attic and in going through them Mary found some references to other women in the family having a sense of…I guess today we would call it a sensitivity or an intuitive nature but in the journal it’s called the knowing. But it’s not in English and that’s the closest translation we could find for it.” She reached for another roll noting to herself that the next time she needed to make more than she had that night especially after both Addie and Rob took another serving after she did. “Anyway, right around the same time, Dave,” she looked at Rob as she clarified who she was talking about. “He’s Mary’s younger brother who lives over on Third Street in that big old house.”

  “He’s the one who works out of the house his house. He’s a lawyer,” Addie said even as she chewed on the roll she’d slathered generously with butter and honey.

  Carrie smiled to herself, Addie was proving to be more helpful than she could have ever hoped for. “Somehow Dave and Mary got into a conversation and it came out that at some point in recent years he’d wondered about his own apparently strong sense of intuition. During that research he came across something that referred to those who were born in the hours between light and dark. How over the centuries it is believed they know more or I guess a better way of explaining it, is that they can have a tendency to be more insightful than others.”

  “It’s really pretty cool,” Addie piped in, her own interest in the history of it obvious in her voice. “I’ve got some really great stuff I printed out about it. And I recently found an awesome book about it and some shorter papers written by some guy who lived in the 1800’s. I’ll show it to you later.”

  Carrie couldn’t have been more pleased. Addie’s excitement was catching and Rob was on the receiving end of it at the moment. She had a feeling even if there wasn’t more to be told about the day’s events Rob would be pushing her for the book and whatever printouts Addie had at that very moment.

  “Yes, well it seems that after Dave learned about that he did some additional research and figured out that just about all of us cousins, our mothers, and even our grandmother were all born during that time. Twilight Time is how some refer to it.” She leaned back. Thought about the research Casey had done more recently. “And not long ago Casey was able to locate church records of our great-grandmother, the woman who lived in the Summer Street house.” And very well may have died there not long after her last entry into the journal found on that little desk in the hidden away room. At least that was what Mary firmly believed. But she wasn’t going to go into that just now. Not until they knew more about it. Knowing Casey as she did she would bet her cousin was already doing whatever research she could to find out if Mary’s suspicions were true. �
��Turns out it was the same with her. She was also born in the hours late in the day, as the light of day gives way to the dark,” she said finishing with how Casey had explained it then turned to Rob. Her eyes, her voice light but very serious. And she knew he could see and more importantly, understand that seriousness. “When Jake’s daughter Beth walked into the room for the first time…” she paused, remembered, and could still vividly see Beth’s face and hear her voice as if it had been only yesterday. “It was the first time I really understood something of what it all meant when I saw how it affected her. Heard her give us an idea of what she felt and sensed about what all those books meant. I’m still not certain what we’re supposed to do with what’s there, what we might learn from it, but I know it’s something we’re meant to.”

  “What did she say?” Rob spoke for the first time. He couldn’t help himself. He’d met Beth a couple of times now. She was quiet and you could tell she didn’t say much without thinking it over first.

  “That the women who had written of their lives in the volumes that filled the room had suffered because of their knowledge. Because of their abilities that came from it. Even when they aided others and sometimes because of that they suffered…some died.” Carrie closed her eyes remembering. Grasped the hand Court slid over the table to take hers. “That even though there had been a tremendous amount of violence in the lives of those who were written about in those books it no longer lingered as did all the other emotions in the room. But you can feel the grief…and regrets.” She looked at Rob, included Addie as well with her eyes that were now filled with sorrow. “I’ve felt that. I did that day but each time I return it’s stronger. I think we are meant to learn from those books. Maybe something very specific. Maybe not. I just don’t know. We need to spend more time reading through them. More than we are now.” She promised herself in that moment just as she had to her cousins that she would make time. Something was owed to all those who had come before them. Time was the least they could give them.