Momma denied everything, but six months later she was ordered to undergo treatment at Searcy Mental Hospital and I never saw her again. Aunt Dot agreed to move back into Summerleigh with us. The state made her our legal guardian, and for the next ten years, we lived happily together there. Then each one of us slowly drifted apart as we all made our own lives. Aunt Dot died not long after Loxley married and moved away. Loxley had been the baby Aunt Dot had never had. She loved us all, but we knew she loved Loxley a little bit more. And we were okay with that.
There was plenty of love in this house now. Plenty of peace. Plenty of everything.
Chapter Twenty—Jerica
Mommy, wake up. And I did. I shot right up in bed and immediately knew I was not alone in my bedroom. That’s when I saw the dark figure sitting in the painted wooden chair near my door. He looked like a statue just sitting there watching me. Yes, it was true—Ben Hartley was sitting in my room. It wasn’t quite morning yet, but I heard roosters crowing in the distance and the air had that strange kind of strawberry-colored glow that let you know the sun was about to appear.
How long had he been here? All night? I glanced at my nightstand and was relieved to see that there were no scissors lying there, but that didn’t make me feel more comfortable.
“What are you doing in here, Ben? How did you get in?” That was kind of a stupid question since he lived here before I did. He must have still had a key.
He didn’t answer me, not at first. “I tried to explain to you; I wanted you to know how important it was. You needed to leave, but you didn’t listen to me. I told you to let sleeping dogs lie. It’s not that I’m afraid of going to jail. I don’t think I’ll live another year, so what’s to fear? It’s just that I don’t remember any of it. What I told Harper was the truth. One minute I was walking into Mr. Daughdrill’s house, and then the next thing I know, I have blood on my hands. Not just his blood but mine too. I cut him so savagely that I cut myself in the process.”
“Ben, you shouldn’t be telling me this. Why are you here?”
Ben looked off into the distance, and I quickly grabbed my phone off the nightstand. He didn’t seem to notice. I carefully pulled up Jesse’s number and tapped on the screen.
“Everyone knew what he was doing to those girls. The whole town knew. And nobody did anything about it. I couldn’t prove that he killed Jeopardy, but I saw him pulling up in that big black car of his and dropping Harper off at school. He wanted to do what he always did, but she fought back. I saw her do that and knew she was the one for me. She wasn’t going to die, not like the other one. And I wasn’t going to let it happen.”
I could hear Jesse calling my name on the phone, and I surreptitiously turned down the volume. I said loudly so that Jesse could hear me, “Ben Hartley, you cannot be in my bedroom.”
Ben got up out of his chair and walked over to me. He knelt down in front of me and took my hand. “I don’t want to hurt you, Harper. I never wanted that. It’s this place. Ever since I came here, I haven’t been the same. When I used to live here, I would wake up sometimes and find myself walking the halls of Summerleigh. And I wouldn’t even know how I got there. It’s like it cursed me or something. It has control over me, and I don’t want it anymore. I can’t live with it anymore. I did the wrong thing, and I’m not even sure how I did it. I swear to you, Harper. I loved you then, and I love you now. Please forgive me for what I’m about to do.”
I leaped off the opposite side of the bed and plastered myself against the wall. “No, Ben.” I reminded myself to remain calm. “Don’t do anything you’re going to regret. Please, go home. Or go to the hospital, and I will meet you there. I’m a nurse, remember? You need help, and I can help you. Please, let me help you.”
He smiled at me and shook his head. “There’s no time for that now. I’m sorry, Harper. I will always love you.” And then he left my room and I heard his footsteps going down the stairs. From my window, I watched Ben walk to Summerleigh, and he had something in his hand. What was it?
Oh God! It was a gas can! What was Ben planning to do?
I picked up the phone, surprised to hear Jesse still there. “Jesse! Ben has some gas, and I think he’s going to burn down Summerleigh! I have to call the police!” I hung up the phone and immediately dialed 911.
“911. What is your emergency?”
“My house! Ben! He’s trying to burn down my house!”
“What is your address?”
I gave the dispatcher the address but refused to answer any more questions. I could already see smoke pouring out of the bottom floor of the house. And Ben never came out.
I was in a pair of pajama shorts and a t-shirt, but it didn’t matter. I had to get him out of there. He was out of his head—what if he killed himself trying to set the place on fire? I would never be able to live with myself if I let him die. I ran down the stairs and slid my feet into tennis shoes. I raced to the back door of Summerleigh, but Ben had locked it. I ran to the front door and found it was locked as well. I began to scream, “Ben! Open the door!” I could hear him crying and talking to himself or someone. I pounded and pounded, but he never came to the front door.
Now what do I do?
My eyes fell on a large rock. I picked it up and put it through one of the Great Room windows. Glass shattered everywhere, and I carefully reached inside and undid the latch. I slid the window up and climbed through without cutting myself too much.
“Ben? Please, come out now. Before it’s too late.”
I searched the entire bottom floor and found him nowhere. The kitchen was on fire, and one of the bedrooms—the one that had the mattresses stacked against the wall—was burning. Smoke was beginning to fill up the place, and all the windows had been closed.
I raced up the stairs searching for Ben. Suddenly, he was there in front of me and sloshed gasoline on the front of my shirt. “Jerica! You cannot be in here. You aren’t supposed to be here. I wanted to save you. You must leave now!” And then he took off, running as fast as any man half his age. He ran up the steps of the attic, went into the castle room and slammed the door. I could hear it lock as I raced up the steps and banged on the door. I listened carefully and heard the gasoline sloshing around. If I let him do this, if he succeeded in setting the attic on fire, he would certainly kill himself.
Okay, Jerica. You are a nurse. You can handle this. Talk him down. Be calm and talk rationally.
“Ben, you have to open this door. If you don’t, you are going to hurt yourself, and you’re going to make it really hard for people like me to help you. Please, stop what you’re doing.” No reply.
Okay, forget logical. Forget rational. I was going to have to lie to him just to save his life. “Ben Hartley, Harper’s going to be so mad at you when she finds out you did this. She loves this place, and if you destroy it, she is never going to forgive you.”
Ben came to the door and opened it slightly. As he did, smoke poured out of the room. I had to get him out of there fast.
“Ben, you don’t want to miss a chance to see Harper. She’s waiting for you downstairs. Just come with me, and I will take you to her. No. Leave that gas can here. She wants to talk to you.”
“Really?” His excited face encouraged me. “Yes, take me to her.”
Smoke was beginning to fill the hallway, and I had a strong urge to cough. I put one hand over my mouth and reached out my other hand for Ben’s. He allowed me to take his hand, and we both coughed as we walked down the hall quickly. Or as quickly as he would move with me. “Are you sure she’s not mad at me?” He coughed his question out.
“No, she’s not mad at you. In fact, I know she loves you, Ben. She’s waiting for you.”
“She loves me? She said that? She loves me?” He was smiling from ear to ear.
We were coming down the stairs now. Just a few more steps and I would have him out of the house. I could see that he had left the key in the front door. And that way had less smoke than the back, so it seemed an obvious choice
.
“Where is she, Jerica? You said she’d be here. Where is she?” He became agitated very quickly, another sign of the Alzheimer’s that I suspected he had.
“On the front porch, Ben. She couldn’t wait in here because it was too smoky. Come on, just a few more steps.” I tugged at his hand, but he pulled away. I was losing him. He didn’t believe me, and even in the smoke I could see that the madness was taking him again. The horrible madness, the disease that had taken so many.
He shook his head. “You said Harper was here. I know where she is. I know where she always is. She’s in the kitchen. Right? Is she hiding in the kitchen?” And then he bolted and ran into the fiery furnace he’d created.
I screamed his name, but it did no good. There was so much heat coming from the kitchen that I would not survive entering it. I was still screaming when Jesse ran into the house. He too tried to reach Ben, but the old man didn’t seem to hear us.
He kept yelling for Harper until his calls became screams, and then we heard nothing else. We knew that Ben Hartley was dead. He had killed himself in the most horrible way, completely out of his mind. Covered in smoke and wrapped in an emergency blanket, I sat in the back of the ambulance and watched as Summerleigh burned. The Volunteer Fire Department of George County did a good job of putting out the fire. They came pretty fast to the scene, but the damage was done.
Summerleigh would never be the same, and it had taken its last victim.
I vowed then and there to do just as Harper had done. I would keep Ben Hartley’s secret for the rest of my life. I would tell no one, not even Jesse. That’s the way Harper wanted it. I knew that.
I didn’t stay at the caretaker’s cottage. I took Jesse up on his offer and spent several weeks at his house thinking of nothing and doing nothing except working on his boat. It was nice to pretend that we were a family.
Jesse and me…and Marisol. She liked this place too.
Epilogue—Jerica
“Are you sure you want to return to Summerleigh? It’s a mess, Jerica. I didn’t want to tell you this, but I went by there the other day, and it is truly a mess.”
I sighed and kissed his cheek. “Yes, but it’s my mess. I can’t keep ignoring this. I have to see how bad it is. I’ve got some decisions to make, and I want you with me.”
He kissed me back. “That’s all you had to say. Let’s load up. Put your work boots on, though. It’s pretty bad in some places. Will you grab my camera? It’s on the dresser in the guest room. Your room.”
“Sure,” I said with a smile. Yeah, I was ready to do this. I couldn’t put it off forever. I’d gotten some emails from the insurance company, and from what I saw, they’d been pretty generous. So it would be possible to rebuild if that’s what I wanted to do. But that was a big if. Jesse’s camera was not on the dresser, so I opened the top drawer. Maybe he meant inside the dresser? Sure enough, it was there, and so was one other thing. I reached in and grabbed the camera and also the packet of letters tied with the pink ribbon. The letters addressed to Dorothy Daughdrill. I had brought them here from the caretaker’s cottage but hadn’t had the nerve to look at them yet. With shaking fingers, I untied the knot and removed one of the letters.
I slid the delicate paper out of the envelope. There was an address on the back, a military address, and I knew immediately that this letter was from John Jeffrey Belle.
Dear Dorothy,
I hope this letter finds you well, for it has brought me much hope to receive yours. To know that you love me no matter what your father says, that you love me above all others…well, it is more than I deserve. Ever since I first met you, I knew you were the one. You are the love of my life, and I will love no other. Not as long as I have breath in my body. I pray this war ends soon so that I can come back to you and all my Belle girls. I know you worry about Ann, you worry about your father, but you shouldn’t. We love each other, and that’s all that matters. If your father hadn’t interfered in the beginning, none of this would’ve happened. Just think, it’s taken us ten years to discover the truth of what happened that night. I believed that you stood me up, that you left me there at the altar. What a fool I was. I’m sorry, Dorothy. I’m sorry I didn’t wait for you, but I’m going to spend the rest of my life making it up to you.
All my love,
John Jeffrey Belle
I stared at the letter and read it again and again. Jesse came in looking for me and found me reading the rest of them. I’d arranged them on the bed and read every single one. After the last one, I leaned back on the pillow, closed my eyes and sighed.
“This is horrible. What Mr. Daughdrill put those girls through, it’s unreal. All this time, John Belle had been in love with Dot. And he believed them—Ann and her father, I mean—when they said that Dorothy had rejected him. And that she didn’t want Jeopardy. Jeopardy was really Dorothy and John Jeffrey Belle’s daughter. That’s why Ann hated her so much. And that’s why she was so willing to allow Mr. Daughdrill…”
Jesse shook his head in disgust. “Yeah, all of that. Talk about star-crossed lovers. They didn’t have a chance.”
I folded up all the letters, put them back in a stack and tied them up with the ribbon. “Let’s put this away and forget about it. And I can tell you what I’m gonna do. I am going to rebuild Summerleigh. It is going to be the most beautiful, happiest bed-and-breakfast that George County has ever seen.”
Jesse smiled and said, “I like that idea. I like it a lot.”
“Can’t do it by myself. You on board?”
“Do you really have to ask?”
Fifteen minutes later, we were back at Summerleigh. I was surprised to see that much of the house remained intact despite significant fire and smoke damage. We walked around the building carefully and made a mental punch list of where we needed to start on this new project.
“Forget this. I’m never gonna be able to remember all this. Let me go to the truck and grab a notebook.”
“I thought writers could remember everything,” I joked with him.
He didn’t even turn around when he replied, “No, that’s why we need notebooks. Be right back.”
I heard a sound to my right coming from the bedroom hallway. I walked into the hallway and immediately saw my daughter. Marisol wore a yellow dress with a yellow ribbon in her hair. In life, I’d never seen her wear anything like that. Clearly, someone was helping her dress. And then Jeopardy stepped out of the room and stood behind her. I stared at them both and smiled.
“It’s okay, baby. You can go play with Jeopardy. Mommy is okay.” She took Jeopardy’s hand, and they turned away from me and walked toward the back wall and then right through it. I went to Ann’s old bedroom. It was the only room that didn’t have any fire damage, and the window there was intact. From the window, I could see the two girls running together, hand in hand.
And then they disappeared. And I knew I would never see Marisol again. Not in this lifetime.
And I was okay.
The Lady in White
Book Three
The Ghosts of Summerleigh Series
By M.L. Bullock
Text copyright © 2018 Monica L. Bullock
All rights reserved
Dedication
For Jeopardy Belle.
Oh, lady bright! can it be right—
This window open to the night?
The wanton airs, from the tree-top,
Laughingly through the lattice drop—
The bodiless airs, a wizard rout,
Flit through thy chamber in and out,
And wave the curtain canopy
Excerpt from The Sleeper
Edgar Allan Poe, 1831
Prologue—Harper Belle
Desire, Mississippi
November 1948
“Addison Lee, you look like a princess! A real princess.” Loxley squealed beside me and clapped her hands before she raced to hug our trembling sister. Loxley was right. Addie did look like a princess, a nervous one with a handful o
f shedding buttercups, quivering lips and a worrisomely pale face. It was so like Addison to get a case of the jitters on her wedding day—had I expected anything less? Poor Addie had a lifelong relationship with her distraught nerves, but she never wavered in her determination to marry Frank Harlow. And for that, she had my utmost respect. In fact, if I were to be really honest with myself, I would have to admit that Addison was braver than I. The idea of leaving Summerleigh, of leaving Aunt Dot and the others behind, was too much to bear.
Addison was as beautiful as any of those girls in the magazines that we used to spend hours admiring. My younger sister surprised us with her wedding dress choice, a tea-length, scoop-necked, short-sleeved gown. But as it was an afternoon wedding, it seemed appropriate. Although I was no fan of the coral-colored bridesmaid dresses we’d been asked to wear, I felt stylish and pretty. And for sweet Addison Lee, I would wear chicken wire if I had to.
Just this morning, Aunt Dot surprised Addie with a pearl choker that now shook around her thin neck while Loxley and I gifted her with a pair of glistening hair combs. The four of us had a tearful moment then, but Aunt Dot never mentioned Momma. She didn’t say how proud Momma would be of Addison or how much Momma must wish she could have made the trip, and I was thankful for that. We never talked about poor, crazy Momma locked away in the asylum far from Summerleigh. No. We never talked about her, and I did my best not to think of her. Stop that, Harper. This is a happy day. There were enough shadows here at Summerleigh without adding one more, especially today. After dabbing at her eyes with an embroidered handkerchief, Aunt Dot scurried out of Addison’s bedroom, presumably to direct the caterers and waitstaff and even early guests who had begun to arrive at Summerleigh. The old house would be alive again today, at least for a little while. Aunt Dot had managed to turn the place into a comfortable home for us, but it had its cold spots. Its empty places.
The Ghosts of Summerleigh Collection Page 27