“You already do,” he said softly.
“What?”
“Nothing. Talking to myself.”
They sat facing each other in antique rockers. For a long time Peyton didn’t say anything, trying to calm himself and collect his thoughts. “Maggie, I don’t know how to put this. It sounds crazy, but Elise has developed an unwholesome interest in people around here, people who’ve been dead for years.”
“But what . . .?”
“Hear me out. This is hard enough. I’m not in the habit of betraying a confidence, and I don’t want anything Elise may have confided in me to leave this room. Still, for her sake I have to talk to you. It’s crucial that she stay away from the Lovetts. Aunt Jenny has taken out a restraining order.”
“She’s what! I don’t understand. What do the Lovetts have to do with Elise?”
Peyton sighed and rubbed his hand across his hair. “Remember when Dallas took Elise to see the Lovett’s?”
Margaret nodded.
“Well, Elise asked to see the ballroom where Annelise was dancing on her wedding night. Dallas said they unlocked the doors, and Elise glided into the room and danced like an angel.”
Margaret stifled a laugh. “Elise doesn’t dance. I could never even get her to take lessons. She was too much of a tomboy.”
“Well, she did dance and claimed she danced to music. No one heard music but Elise. Believe me, everyone was shook, especially Elise.”
“I wish you’d told me. It’s all so so . . .”
“I know. I wish I had too, but Elise confided in me, and I tried to honor that confidence. And now she’s been back to the Lovetts’. After she went there again this morning, trying to get them to let her inside, Jenny took out a restraining order. Told her sister she’ll have her committed if Elise shows up there again.”
“Have Elise committed?”
“No, she’ll have Aunt Lacey committed because she’s taken
Elise’s part in all this. Poor old thing’s terrified. None of us, especially not Elise, should have that on their conscience.”
Margaret walked to the window, wringing her hands. “What’s wrong with her? What am I going to do? How can I tell Edwin?”
“Maggie, stop! Listen to me.” Peyton got up and stood behind her, unable to resist the temptation to grip her shoulders. “We’ll handle this somehow, but I’m begging you, please don’t betray the confidence Elise has placed in me.”
Not since Edwin’s illness had Margaret felt so numb with disbelief. She didn’t want to move, to have Peyton take his hands from her shoulders. She leaned her head back slightly and her hair brushed his face. Unable to prolong the moment any longer, she turned and stood before him, closer than was comfortable, struggling to take a deep breath.
“You okay?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
“Not really,” she whispered before returning to her chair. “All these people, dead and alive, seem woven into some gruesome tapestry.”
Peyton stood, looking down on her for a moment and went back to his rocker. “I never thought of it like that, but in a way, I guess they are. Aunt Jenny might not follow through with her threat, but she could stir up a peck of trouble for Elise. For all its influx of foreigners, Apalach is still a small town. It could get real unpleasant.”
“Surely this Aunt Jenny isn’t serious! She wouldn’t have her own sister committed any more than she’d bother with Elise. And anyway, who in this day and age would believe this garbage about a girl who’s been dead for over a hundred years?”
Peyton leaned forward and rested his head in his hands.
“Oh, Peyton, you don’t believe it, do you?”
“What I believe isn’t important. The issue here is that Elise believes it. I don’t know, Maggie,” he passed his hand across his mouth, “it’s almost like Annelise waited all these years for the right person to come along . . .”
“Now stop! You’re sounding crazy too.” She reached forward and touched his knee. Not until he covered her hand with his did she realize what she’d done. It was such a natural gesture.
“Yeah, I guess I do, but don’t ever underestimate the power of the mind or its byproduct, the imagination. It’s a force that can make us believe things that aren’t true, the same as it can help us understand things that are true.” He squeezed her hand and leaned back in his chair.
She appeared thoughtful for a moment. “I can see Elise being captive to her imagination in this setting. But back to this Aunt Lacey. Did she ask you to tell me all this?”
“No, Dallas did.”
“Dallas!” Margaret sat up straight, sliding her hand from Peyton’s knee.
“Aunt Lacey went to her with all this.”
“I suppose Dallas didn’t want to embarrass me by telling me herself.”
“I’m not sure what her reasoning was. She knows you and I haven’t exactly hit it off, so it was a big favor for her to ask of me.”
“Yes, I can see it would be. You two have known each other a long time . . .”
“Forever.”
“So she’d feel comfortable going to you for help.”
“I’m flattered to say yes to that. She’s special in so many ways.”
“She is. She really is.” Margaret sat for a time not saying anything, and Peyton tried to lighten the situation.
“I’d say you smell good, but I can’t tell what’s you and what’s soap.”
“It doesn’t really matter, but for your information, Mr. Roberts, I do smell good.”
“I never doubted it for a minute, not a minute.”
“Damn, but I hate to go to Edwin with this. He’s been so short-tempered lately, not just ugly to Elise but to me too.”
“Elise told me he’d been ill a while back.”
“It seems she tells you a lot.”
“She has to talk to somebody . . . Maggie, I really care about Elise. She’s probably the closest thing to a daughter I’ll ever have. I was drawn to her the first time she came in the store. I had this overpowering need to protect her. She seemed so vulnerable . . .”
“I’ve never seen her as vulnerable, just difficult.”
“Maybe you don’t understand her.”
“I’m her mother, for God’s sake.”
“Yes, you are.” Peyton gave Margaret a penetrating look, and she turned away.
“Okay, so I haven’t been the ideal mother, but I’ve tried. Truly I’ve tried.”
“I’m sure you have. Parents aren’t any more perfect than their children.”
“I’m glad she’s able to talk to you. She surely isn’t getting along with Edwin these days. To be honest, they were never close, never had much of a relationship. I suppose she told you he isn’t her biological father.”
Peyton nodded.
“Elise was too young to know what was going on, but my first marriage . . . well, we had some trouble. It was ugly, and all these years neither Edwin nor I have ever really gotten over it. We thought we had, but it came back to haunt us.”
“So you believe in ghosts?”
“No. That was just an expression! I most certainly do not believe in ghosts. I don’t think Elise does either. She’s just confused, you know, moving from her home and all. I do dread going to Edwin with this. Better I tell him, though, than have him talk to that Aunt Jenny. You know, I can’t help but wonder if she’s talked to him already. He’s been so angry.”
“Could be, but she’s pretty reclusive.”
She sighed and closed her eyes briefly. “I have my work cut out for me this evening. I can’t imagine how this is going to affect Edwin.”
“I worry how it’s going to affect Elise. I wish there were some way I could help.”
She made a harsh sound. “I do too. I wish I could let you handle things with Edwin. I so dread facing him. He just isn’t himself, and I don’t know how he might react, but you’ve helped already, Peyton. You know you have.” She leaned forward and cupped his hand in hers, remembering how she’d done the same thing to Gene, the wa
y she’d kissed his palm when she told him she was expecting a baby. She lingered a long moment, turning Peyton’s hand palm up when she heard him clear his throat. “Boy, this soap really gets to you, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was just remembering something.” She released his hand, and Peyton stood up and started for the door. They’d crossed over into a new relationship Peyton was less equipped to handle than the old one. “I’m sorry to have been the bearer of bad news, especially that concerns Elise. If I can help, let me know.”
“You really do mean that, don’t you?”
“Yes, I mean it. Now I’m going to leave before I do something foolish.”
He reached the door before she was out of her chair, before he could hear her say, “Oh, do something foolish, please do something foolish.”
As it turned out, it was Margaret who was foolish. She thought her head would burst if she had to keep all the things Peyton had told her to herself, yet the evening got later and later, and Edwin was still on the phone with a client in Atlanta. By the time they finished dinner it was unusually late, and they were all tired. Still, Margaret was determined to have things out in the open. Elise started to her room when Margaret told her they needed to talk. She pleaded another headache, but Margaret was adamant. She did wonder, though, if Elise really might have a headache. She looked so expressionless. Edwin folded his paper. “Sure this can’t wait until tomorrow, Margaret?”
“No, it can’t wait one more minute.” Keeping her voice as steady as possible, Margaret related the story, implying it had been Dallas who had talked to her.
“NO!” Elise jumped up from her chair. “That mean old woman. She’s just like Annelise!”
“Elise,” Margaret scolded. “You shouldn’t speak of the dead that way.”
“You mean like you shouldn’t call my father a scoundrel?” She heard Margaret’s indrawn breath but went on. “Being dead doesn’t change what Annelise was. I won’t go to the Lovetts’ because I don’t want to hurt Aunt Lacey, but,” she looked at Edwin, “I refuse to stay away from the Myers.”
Edwin stood up. “Margaret, you and Elise sit.” Elise continued to stand, and he towered over her. “I said, sit!”
He was so angry all the color had drained from his face, making him look the way he had when he was cowed by depression.
“Please, Elise,” Margaret implored.
Elise started to leave the room, but Edwin jerked her back by the arm and shoved her into the chair. “Now, if I have your attention. You are not, under any circumstances, to go to the Myers’ place again. Never. Do we understand each other?”
“No! We don’t understand each other. I told you, I won’t stay away.”
“Oh, I think you will. Your father spoiled things for your mother and me long enough. I won’t let you do it here.”
“Edwin!”
“Be still, Margaret. You know it’s true. If Elise goes to the Myers’ again, it won’t be Jenny Lovett she has to worry about. She’ll answer to me. Go there again, Elise, and I’ll have that place condemned, torn down. It won’t be the Myers’ anymore.”
Elise gasped and stared, openmouthed.
“I hate you,” Elise screamed. “I’ve always hated you.” She ran to her room, grabbed the pearls, went back downstairs and flung them hard at Edwin’s feet. He flinched from the sting but kicked them aside and grabbed her before she could walk away. In one swift movement, he pulled her around and slapped her viciously across the face.
Margaret screamed and rushed toward Elise, but Edwin grabbed her, sobbing. “Oh, Margaret, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to. I’m so sorry,” he whimpered. Margaret was still trying to pull away from him when she saw Elise run out the front door.
Elise’s first thought was to go to the Myers’, but she was afraid Edwin would follow her. Fearful that he might make good on his threat, she walked in the opposite direction. She’d run a few blocks and then walk to catch her breath, all the while looking back over her shoulder for car lights. She avoided the main roads and walked in the shadows of trees, unable to bring herself to go home. She wandered without realizing where she was until she saw the lights from the screened porch where she’d watched Monopoly and bridge games. The Montgomery house. The familiarity of it attracted her like a moth. It was late and there were no games tonight, just a couple of guys talking. She stood in a stupor behind the camellia bush, not realizing at first that one of the guys was Ty. He seemed to be arguing with someone she hadn’t seen before.
“You’ve always been strange, Ty. Here you’re home again, and my sister is fairly dying to go out with you—her and a few others I could name. Won’t you take her out just once?”
“I don’t think so, Stan.” Ty shook his head. “It wouldn’t be fair to encourage her.”
Elise kept trying to place the name Stan. Who’d mentioned a Stan? Then she remembered Dallas saying he was Louise Montgomery’s son.
“Who knows, Ty. You just might enjoy yourself.”
“Nah. I don’t think so.”
“Who’s this girl you’re so crazy about?”
“Nobody you know. She’s new here.”
“She live in Sarah’s house?”
“Yeah.”
“What do you see in her?”
“I see someone intelligent, sensitive . . . God. She’s like music to me, a concerto I can’t hear often enough. I can’t believe how much I want to be with her. She draws me like a magnet.”
“Like your music.”
“Yeah. I don’t understand it, but I’m crazy about her. Hell, Stan, it’s not easy to explain. It’s just how I feel.”
“Let’s have a beer and forget it. Debby would be crushed if she found out I talked to you and got nowhere. Didn’t you notice how the girls left so we could be alone?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it.”
“Well, it was all part of the plan. I’ll have to lie and tell her we talked about school and stuff.”
Later, when Ty walked across the street to his truck, he couldn’t help but think that he was being as silly as Debby. Elise Foster had made her feelings about him abundantly clear. He jumped in the truck and turned the music on before he realized he wasn’t alone. “Debby?”
“Guess again.”
“Elise! What are you doing here?”
“Hiding.”
“Is this some kind of game?”
“I wish. I had a big falling out with my . . . with Edwin, and I can’t go home now.”
He started the truck and turned the volume down on the music. “I suppose you’ve eaten already. Would you like something to drink?”
“No. Thanks. I don’t know if Edwin’s looking for me, and I don’t want to risk having him find me. Let’s go to that place you wanted to take me before, where the moon shines on the water.”
“You’re different from any girl I’ve ever known. This is the first time a girl ever asked me to take her to Lookout Bay, and I know your intentions aren’t what I’d like them to be.”
“Thanks for understanding that.”
They drove in silence, and when he parked the truck overlooking the bay, she still didn’t say anything.
“Have you ever noticed how still and quiet this town is?” He didn’t wait for an answer and continued talking. “I do love this place. I’ve always felt so lucky to have grown up here, but then, maybe everybody loves their hometown.” He hesitated, inhaling the silence. “I just wish I could find some way to really say it, to find words that would describe what I feel.”
It pained him to hear her rapid, indrawn breath, the involuntary leftovers from crying. He wanted to hold her hand, do something to comfort her. No, he thought, you dork, you want to hold her in your arms. Tentatively he touched her hand with his forefinger. “Elise, maybe it’d make you feel better to talk about it.” The silence held, and he thought she wasn’t going to answer.
Finally, “I can tell you I won’t be going to the Myers’ any more. Not because I don’t want to.
I’ve been threatened, forbidden.”
“I’m sorry. I really am. I don’t understand, but I know going there is important to you.”
“The most important thing in the world. I know you think I’m weird, but, Ty, I feel absolutely haunted. That old house on the river has nothing on me. I feel Annelise’s presence. I think she gets inside my body, or at least my head. I don’t expect you to understand, but that’s how I feel.”
“I’ve never bought into that ghost stuff. I always felt there was enough mystery right here on earth without looking to the beyond for more.”
“I never bought into it either until I came here. I was always aware that I never fit in. I was never popular or anything like that. I felt out of synch. But I didn’t think of the supernatural, not seriously anyway, until we moved here. I think it began in earnest the first night I slept in Annelise’s house. I’ve been plagued with dreams—nightmares really—ever since. Try to explain that.”
“I wish I could, but you know I can’t. What will you do?”
“I don’t know. My parents will want to pack me off to college right away. That will be their solution, but it isn’t what I want.”
“I remember when I went away to school. How hard it was to leave here. I’d give anything to be able to help you, but I don’t know how.”
“I don’t know either, Ty. But I appreciate your listening, letting me be here with you.”
“You know how much I mind that, don’t you?”
“I think so.”
They sat for a long time staring at the water. Ty was both miserable and happy. Elise sat beside him, numb with grief and pain.
“Elise?”
“Huh?”
“It’s long past midnight. It doesn’t matter to me, but I don’t want you to be in trouble.”
“No chance of that,” she replied hoarsely. “I’m already in trouble.”
It was quiet in the truck, and they could hear the water lapping at the shore. Several hours later Ty woke up with a start. Elise was slumped against his shoulder, and he had a crick in his neck. He turned on the light in the truck. “Sweet Jesus, Elise, it’s five a.m.!” She pulled back from him and rolled her head from side to side. The sharp intake of his breath shocked her awake. “Oh, Elise, what happened? Why didn’t you tell me?” He touched his forefinger gently to her cheek and she winced. “Oh, baby, who did this?”
House on the Forgotten Coast Page 17