Though Emily had followed her in here, the girl Julia was not in the sitting room, but Margot was. She sat on the overly large, uncomfortable-looking sofa, dressed in something similar to the outfit she’d been in before. Like Julia, she was older than she’d been before upstairs—her late teens now. Her skin was clear and her hairstyle less severe than it had been, and she’d grown into her strong facial features more fully. Emily could recognize her now more easily than she had upstairs, her face almost matching the handsome woman she would become in the next few years, the one Emily had seen in photographs from the 1920s and ’30s. This Margot seemed expectant, excited even, and the cause was revealed a moment later when Nathan walked into the sitting room.
He had filled out significantly in the time between now and when Emily had last seen him, his body no longer slim and boyish. His mustache was luxuriant and thick, matching his hair exactly in color and body. His clothes were smart and dandyish, almost absurdly colorful, if formal. His eyes swept the room with something like disdain before he nodded briefly at his sister. He stood inside the double doorway to the room, looking around with a frown.
“I don’t know why you’ve kept all these paintings,” he said to her, his tone harsh and superior. He gestured at the walls. “I’m far beyond this derivative junk now.”
“I like them,” Margot said, likewise haughty. “They remind me of better times.”
Nathan colored slightly and then turned, his eyes sweeping the room until he saw the bar stand, located in the same corner it stood in today. He walked over quickly and poured himself a tall glass of clear liquor.
“Father and his parents loved that Romantic garbage,” he said, his back still toward her.
Margot leapt to her feet, her face contorted, her hands clenched. If Nathan heard her get up, he didn’t let on, and Emily watched as Margot forced herself to calm down again, her expression gradually becoming disinterested and placid once more.
“You used to like that garbage yourself, Nathan,” she said lightly. “But you can replace it all, if it no longer suits you. You certainly have the money, now, to buy new things.” Emily wasn’t sure, but she thought she detected some bitterness in this last remark.
Nathan turned toward her, smiling for the first time since entering the room. “I do, don’t I?”
The indifference melted from Margot’s face, and she rushed toward him. They clasped hands, their faces excited and happy.
“It’s all yours now, Nathan. Every penny. We—I mean, you can do whatever you want with it. Europe, Asia, it’s all open to you now.”
He laughed, the sound boyish and loud, reminding Emily of the younger version of him she’d seen upstairs. Margot seemed to see this too, and her face transformed with joy. She released one of his hands to touch his jawline. For a moment, he let her run her fingers along it, and then he jerked away, his smile replaced with a disgusted sneer.
“I told you last night we wouldn’t do that anymore,” he said, stepping away from her.
“Why?” She sounded heartbroken, forlorn, her eyes pleading.
“Because it’s disgusting. You know it as well as I do. We knew it before I left. If anyone ever found out—”
“They already know!” Margot said. “You should hear the awful things they say about us in the village. Once that bitch Mary told everyone what she saw, and then that gardener, what’s his name—”
“Who cares what they say in the village? I meant elsewhere, in the real world. Boston, New York—real places. If it ever got out, I’d be ruined, and so would you.”
“Is that the only thing stopping you?” Margot took a step toward him. “We could be careful, we could—”
This time, Nathan slapped her, hard. The sound was like a gunshot, and Emily jumped. Margot’s hand went to her face, her eyes wide with horror and pain. Nathan grabbed Margot’s wrist, squeezing it hard enough to make her wince and crumple toward him. He dragged her close enough to whisper into her ear.
“It’s over, Margot. And if you ever come into my bedroom again like you did last night, I’ll kill you.” He flung her arm away from him and went back to the bar for his drink. His back still to her, he said, “You’ll have to find someone else to fuck, sister of mine. You’re all out of brothers.”
Margot’s expression was murderous. For a moment, Emily was certain she would attack him, here and now. Then something curious happened. A chill seemed to sweep through her. She shivered and then straightened up, and her face drained of expression. Except for the angry red handprint on her face, the whole incident might not have happened.
Movement caught Emily’s eye, and she turned toward the doorway. Julia stood there, a wooden box in her arms. She seemed uncertain, afraid even, but she straightened her shoulders as if determined to go through with whatever she’d planned. She walked into the room, and both of her siblings turned toward her.
“Wait, now,” Nathan said, grinning. “Is this little Julia?”
Julia nodded, her face coloring.
He laughed, throwing his head back. “My God! I barely recognize you. You’ve grown up so much.”
“You might recognize her if you’d ever visited. Three years is a long time.” Margot turned her back to them and sat down on the couch.
Nathan gave Margot a nasty sneer and then turned back to Julia. “You’ve grown into a real lady! You got the looks in the family.”
Margot’s face colored slightly, but she said nothing, and neither did Julia. Julia was indeed quite striking. Unlike her brother and sister, her hair was dark, almost black. She was pale, but not sickly like her sister. She had the same crystalline blue eyes as her brother, and her face was pretty with delicate, sharp features. She was tall and slim.
“What have you got there?” Nathan said, pointing at the box.
“She can’t talk, you imbecile,” Margot said, “or had you forgotten?”
Nathan opened his mouth as if to reply and then shook his head, sighing. He gave Julia a gentle smile. “Is that a homecoming present? For me?”
Julia bobbed her head up and down, smiling widely, then held the box out in front of her, not stepping any closer. Nathan grinned and set his drink down, then walked closer to take the box. “How lovely, Julia. It was so nice of you to do this.”
“You don’t even know what it is,” Margot said.
“Quiet!” Nathan snapped, his cool finally breaking. Margot grinned, clearly satisfied she’d finally riled him. Nathan turned and sneered at her before looking back down at the box in his hands. He took it over to one of the heavy tables and set it down. He had to fiddle with it for a moment before he found the clasp holding it closed, and when he opened it, his eyebrows knitted, his expression puzzled. He looked up at Julia. “What is this?”
Julia blushed slightly, her face falling. Nathan took out a lead soldier, holding it up. He peered at it closely for a moment, still puzzled, and then suddenly his face cleared, and the ghost of a smile rose to his lips.
“Wait a minute!” he said. “I remember these. I played with them as a boy. But they’re different, somehow.” He examined the toy he held a while longer and then beamed at her. “You repainted them, didn’t you?”
Julia was smiling happily now, and she finally moved closer to him. She started taking the soldiers out, pointing at the ones she was most proud of, Nathan laughing and delighted with each of them. Margot watched them, her face rigid with hatred. A moment later, Emily saw why.
As Julia continued to pull out toys to display them, Nathan’s attention gradually shifted from the soldiers to the girl next to him. Something distasteful suddenly glinted in his eyes as he watched her. As if unable to stop himself, he reached out and set his hand on the back of Julia’s neck. If she noticed, she didn’t let on, as she seemed focused on the gift. Nathan’s face was soft and slightly red, his eyes fixed on the side of Julia’s face as if willing her to turn his way.
As if suddenly sensing something strange, Julia stopped gesturing at the toys and looked
up at him. Emily saw the moment Julia recognized what was happening, and then the girl cringed before stepping a short distance away. She was staring at him in horror and dread, and her pale face twisted with grief.
Margot had seen this entire exchange, and she laughed, once, bitterly. “What a love triangle we are, the three of us.”
“Shut up,” Nathan said, but Margot only laughed again.
Julia looked back and forth between them, her eyes filling with tears, and then she dashed from the room.
The two remaining Lewises bickered for a while longer, but Emily already knew what to expect. She watched the door Julia had gone through until she reappeared, poking her head around one corner. Again, she seemed slightly older than the girl that had dashed out the door a few moments before, but the change was subtler this time—a few months or a year, perhaps, divided this Julia from the last. She met Emily’s eyes and gestured once again, and Emily followed her immediately.
This time, on the threshold of the door, Emily closed her eyes before she stepped through, and the disorienting sensation she’d experienced before was less severe. Her ears popped, but she didn’t experience that same whirling dizziness like last time. She kept her eyes closed, and a smell suddenly assaulted her nose: dank, fetid water. Finally, she opened them, unsurprised to find herself in the pool house.
The water was a little murky, and the furniture that the pool house held in Emily’s time was almost completely absent. A few heavy, uncomfortable-looking chairs were set up around the edges of the pool, and the entire place had yet to be tiled. From the smell, Emily thought that the pool must have been installed before the use of chlorine, as the odor reminded her of a lake or pond. Almost instinctually, she glanced in the direction of the steam room, but nothing was there, not even a door. It must have been installed later.
Margot Lewis was swimming laps in the pool, her hair under a rubber cap. She was just recognizable from this distance, and Emily hesitated before walking over to the edge of the pool to watch her more closely. Emily was standing in the exact spot she’d been in yesterday, when she’d seen Harry’s body floating in the water, and she looked that way, afraid of what she’d see. He wasn’t there. She started watching Margot swim again, wondering what to expect.
A moment later Nathan opened the pool-house door. He was dressed in old-fashioned swimwear, covered from neck to thigh, but it was nevertheless obvious that he had a nice, athletic physique under his red and black suit. His face, however, was a little more lined than it had been in the sitting room, a little tired and mottled, possibly from drink. Judging from the Julia she’d seen in this timeframe, only a year, perhaps, had passed from the scene in the sitting room, but he seemed much older than before. He paused for a moment upon seeing Margot, clearly surprised, and then he seemed to marshal his face into indifference. He walked over to one of the chairs, set his towel on it, and removed his light boat shoes before standing at the edge of the pool, hands on his hips.
Margot finally seemed to notice him, and she stopped her laps, swimming over to the edge of the pool farthest from him. She slid her bathing cap up to free her ears and put her elbows up on the edge of the pool, kicking lightly in the water.
“What do you think of the place?” she asked, her voice echoing strangely in the large room.
He looked around and then shrugged. “I said you can spend your money however you like, but I don’t understand why you would waste it like this. I thought you’d take a trip somewhere.”
“The money was a gift, to spend however I chose. I chose to spend it on a pool.”
“I suppose it’s better than those stupid gardens Julia planted,” Nathan said, grinning.
“Or that bizarre Celtic crap she’s so obsessed with,” Margot added. “Father liked that stuff too, though I can’t imagine why.”
“She was out there this morning in the gardens watching the sun rise, if you can believe it,” Nathan said, laughing and shaking his head.
They smiled at each other, the tension between them seemingly forgotten in their shared disdain. Nathan crouched and then eased into the pool. He swam a lap or two and then stopped a few feet from Margot. He mimicked her posture, his elbows up on the edge of the pool, and they both stayed there, kicking their feet slightly.
“It is nice,” Nathan said, “the pool, I mean. I went to a public pool in New York, but this is much better. Private.” He grinned at her. “It’s just the thing, too. Very modern of you, Margot. Even the Rockefellers don’t have a pool this grand.”
Her face brightened, but her smile died almost at once. She turned away from him and stared at the water. He frowned, still watching her for a moment before speaking again.
“I wish you’d get over it, Margot. It’s not as if you’ve been innocent yourself. I hear all sorts of things about you from the boys in town, and I’m fairly certain most of it is true.”
She snorted. “No—I wouldn’t say I’m innocent. But I also wasn’t stupid like you were. I’m always careful to avoid…accidents of that kind.”
He frowned more deeply. “Yes, it was stupid. But what would you have me do? She insisted on keeping it. I couldn’t force her to get rid of it.”
Margot looked at him sharply. “Couldn’t you?”
He didn’t reply, his expression stubborn and dark. Margot continued to stare at him before she laughed. “I think you actually wanted it. I think you decided not to interfere so you could have a child.” When he didn’t reply, she shook her head, almost imperceptibly, her guess confirmed.
“What was it, by the way?” she asked after a quiet pause. “Boy or girl?”
He glanced at her and then away, color in his cheeks. “A girl. Hilda.”
Margot scoffed, but Emily could tell she was more upset than she let on. She looked, in fact, as if she were on the verge of tears. Nathan seemed to sense her reaction, and he let go of the wall and swam the few feet to her, pulling her into his arms. They kissed, deeply, and when they pulled away, Margot was crying. Nathan shushed her, running his hand over her back and hugging her more tightly. Finally, Margot moved away, snuffling, her tears finally finished. She seemed embarrassed now, but still hurt.
“I’m sorry, Margot. I know when we decided to start this up again, we both agreed we needed to cover our tracks. But I didn’t mean for it to happen, even if I like the child.”
Margot sneered at him and pushed away, out of his arms, swimming back to the edge of the pool. “What’s that supposed to mean? She was born yesterday. How you could know if you like her or not?”
He raised his hands and then ran them through his hair before dropping them back into the water at his sides. “It’s hard to explain. But when they brought her out of the house to show me, I don’t know, something about her made me happy. Looking at her was like seeing into my own heart—the best part of my own heart.” He shook his head. “You wouldn’t understand.”
She snorted again. “You’re right—I wouldn’t. You knock up the mailman’s daughter, and now you’re father of the year. Haven’t you ever heard of paying someone off?”
He seemed angry now, but he took a long breath before speaking. “Look, I wanted to tell you something so you wouldn’t be surprised. My lawyer is coming to the house tomorrow.”
“What? Why?”
Nathan squared his shoulders. “I’ve redrawn my will. I want to make sure that if something happens to me, little Hilda will be taken care of. And now that we’ve talked, I know you would never think of helping her, so I want it official.”
Margot didn’t reply, but bright points of color showed in her wan cheeks. Her eyes blazed as she stared at him. Nathan either didn’t notice her reaction or chose to ignore it. “Anyway, it’s happening. It’s my money, and I’ll do as I like.”
With that, he plunged into the water, swimming back and forth along the length with ease. Margot watched him for a long spell, rage still fixed in her eyes, unmoving, unblinking. Finally, as if snapping out of it, she looked around herself
with a slightly dazed expression. A pitcher of lemonade was perched on a small table near the edge of the pool, and she levered herself out of the water to get it. She emptied the contents onto the ground and then stood watching her brother swim for a few moments longer before she got back in the water.
Nathan continued to do his laps, and Emily thought it likely that he was swimming to avoid an argument. His face remained in the water with most of his strokes, so he never saw it coming. Margot didn’t hesitate. The next time he swam by her, she raised the pitcher high into the air and brought it down onto the back of his head with all her might. The water immediately filled with blood, and he plunged under, his hands going to his head. Margot was viper-quick, flinging the pitcher away and pushing him under when he tried to come up. He must have been at least partially stunned, as she was able to hold him under with what looked like very little effort. He thrashed beneath her, and her expression remained blank and cold the whole time, her mouth a thin line of determination. More blood spread out around her in rippling waves, dyeing the water around her a sickly pink.
It wasn’t long before the thrashing grew weaker, and not long after that it stopped completely. Still, Margot continued to hold him down, her face blank and colorless. She didn’t even react when the door opened and Julia walked inside. Julia took one look at the water and her sister and seemed to know instantly what had happened. Her hands went to her mouth, and she bent double in a silent scream. This movement seemed to finally snap Margot out of her murderous stupor. Life came back into her eyes, and she released her brother’s body. He bobbed up to the surface, and she pushed him away impatiently.
“Get out of here, you creep!” Margot yelled.
Julia turned and ran for the door, almost running into it before flinging it open. She dashed outside and disappeared.
Gnarled Hollow Page 25