Haunting Refrain

by Mary Marvella

  “I know, Sarah, I know. I’ll learn.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  “If you don’t help me back to my own room and my own bed, my parents will surely be over here soon.”

  “You mean we’ll have to keep sneaking around?”

  “No,” She kissed William. “My folks know I was injured and I’m a little bit dopey. Daddy the doctor would want me close by and I need to be aware when we discuss our past and our future.”

  “Hey, kids.” Her dad’s voice sounded close. “You gonna stay here all night? William, do you need help with Sarah?”

  Sarah laughed. “I told William you and Mama would worry about me.”

  “I should have parked in your drive.” William turned toward the doctor, then back to Sarah. “Put your arms around my neck.”

  Sarah wound her arms around William. “In from of my dad?” She giggled.

  He unhooked the seatbelt. His hard arms were warm when he slid one under her knees and the other behind her back.

  “All the better to carry you, Princess.” He lifted her and carried her across the two yards.

  When he carried her to her room and eased her onto her bed she wished they were in his house and on his bed, with lots of privacy. Then she turned and felt the jolting pain in her leg. She jerked back and pain shot through her shoulder. Maybe she’d better wait a day or two to get closer to her professor.

  William’s lips were gentle on her forehead, then her cheek. “Want me to leave you to your folks’ care for the night?”

  With her good arm she pulled him to within inches of her mouth. Against his lips she murmured. “Yep. But I’ll see you when I’m in better shape.” She kissed him. “I’m angry at you but I still love you. We have plans to make, together.”

  ##

  William hadn’t wanted to leave Sarah to sleep alone. Actually he hadn’t wanted to sleep alone. If he had a choice he would never let her out of his sight.

  Now that he was alone his thoughts ran rampant. He’d been too busy to think about the strangest parts of what had happened tonight. He had seen and spoken with a ghost, one from another life. Cousin Mattie had come to him because Sarah needed him. Would Mattie appear to him again because of who he was?

  What would happen if he published his experiences? The world would label him a kook. He and Sarah would need to be prepared for skepticism and groupies alike. They’d be famous.

  Maybe he’d moved too quickly when he’d bought the house. The place was packed with memories. Maybe too many for either of them to live there.

  He wandered back into his mother’s room. Despair seemed to linger in the air. He pulled a journal. A snapshot fell from the pages. The photo showed a small child and two adults who looked a lot like his parents would have. His mother looked pregnant. Very pregnant. He turned the picture over and found his name and age, two and one half. His little family looked carefree.

  There had been another child? Why had he never remembered having a sibling?

  The first entries were filed with love and plans. Halfway through he found felt the tragedy before he read about it. Pages were smudged as though from tears.

  Our daughter is dead and it’s my fault.

  Oh, God. He didn’t remember having a sister. The next line explained why.

  How can a mother not awaken when her baby needs her? How could a father fail to hear a child cry? How could God let a child less than three years old find his newborn baby sister dead when his parents didn’t think to check on her?

  William’s gut wrenched, what did she mean? He read on.

  The only person who heard the baby cry was too young to help her. I knew Jamie was a sound sleeper, especially after working double shifts. I could have fought the migraine instead of taking pills. Poor little William had to wake his parents. By the time we understood him, it was too late.

  Jamie blames himself, but I should have been more alert. My husband feels responsible for everything that ever goes wrong. Is God punishing me as he did when my daddy died? I wanted too much, then and I want it all now. I don’t believe there will be another child. I don’t deserve to have a child and a wonderful, caring husband. I don’t deserve happiness.

  His mother felt she didn’t deserve happiness? His few memories of her were of a gentle creature. How could two adults let the accidental death of one child rob the child who lived of love? Tears streamed down his cheeks. If they had only known more about SIDS. Why hadn’t they gone into therapy to deal with their grief? Such waste.

  He turned the pages faster and faster but words of pain and guilt leaped from the pages. He threw the book against a wall and wept. Had his baby sister robbed him with her death?

  Couldn’t he have been enough to make his parents happy?

  Warmth spread through him from the touch of a feminine hand on his shoulder. “William, it will be all right.” Cousin Mattie’s voice soothed his raw nerves.

  He looked up at the shimmering form of a woman. The form looked so real he could swear felt her hands on him.

  “Cousin Mattie? You’re really here?“

  “Yes, it seems I am here for both you and Sarah.”

  “My mother’s journals are so sad. She and my dad wasted so much time when they could have taught me about love. What if I can’t be the man Sarah needs?”

  “Forgive your parents their shortcomings and move on. Walter’s parents taught him to love. What he knew, you know. You and Sarah have the chance to be happy. Go to her tomorrow and propose, proper like. Ask her, don’t tell her.”

  “Thanks.” He stood and felt his cousin’s love and support as if she were real.

  “Did you really come to me this afternoon to send me to Sarah? Did I imagine that?”

  “You know I did.”

  “But I didn’t think ghosts could leave the place they haunt.“

  “I didn’t know I could until I needed to.”

  “You should leave this room for now and get some rest.”

  She glided away, fading as she left him.

  “See you tomorrow?” he called.

  He could no longer see her but he heard her laughing at him. “Maybe.”

  When William left the room he felt a weight lift from his chest. His heart still ached but he could begin to heal since he understood the two people who should have found joy in him and given joy. He’d read more later, with Sarah to help him deal with things. Once he understood the sadness in this house it would go away. Maybe he could give his parents a sense of peace by finding happiness for himself.

  ##

  Sarah awoke with a start. Two o’clock? God, she hurt all over. Her mouth felt like swallowed cotton. She had been dreaming about William in pain but out of reach. She had felt his despair, then a strange peace. Must be the drugs for pain.

  Mattie appeared in her dark doorway, then floated in. “William is fine now.”

  “What?”

  “Do not make him wait too long. He needs you.”

  “I don’t understand. My mind’s fuzzy.”

  Mattie laughed and Eloise appeared.

  Eloise propped her hands at her hips. “She went next door to see her cousin. She’s just showing off.”

  “See you in the morning.” Mattie faded into the dark.

  “Thank you for being there for me tonight,” Sarah called.

  “You’re welcome.” Eloise said, then followed her companion into the dark.

  She had a feeling William would appear bright and early in the morning. She saw the clock number change from two-o-four to two-o-five.

  The next thing she knew light streamed in through her windows and the clock read ten o’clock. William sat on the edge of her bed, holding a coffee cup. “Morning Princess. You look like hell.”

  “Such pretty words from a scholar. You might just turn my head. You could give me time to clean up, brush my teeth, wash the sleep from my eyes, girl stuff.”

  He handed her the cup, then kissed her cheek. “Have a sip, then I’ll carry you to the sho
wer.”

  “I can walk.” She sipped the coffee, then handed it back. Yanking the cover of she groaned. Maybe she could get to the shower on her own steam. She tied to scoot to the edge of the bed. Ouch! Or maybe not.

  “Let me help you.” He lifted her as though she weighed less than a doll, holding her against his chest like a treasure.

  “You smell yummy this morning.” She nibbled his jaw.

  “Yummy? What a wuss word. How about manly?”

  “You smell good enough to eat, yummy.”

  “Yummy’s okay.” His voice sounded as hoarse and aroused as she felt. At the bathroom door he let her stand, with his support. “Need anything before I leave you?”

  “You gonna leave me?”

  “Your parents are in the kitchen.”

  “Guess I’ll make this a bath for one, then.”

  She could struggle into the tub and soak.

  “You get ten minutes, then I send in the rescue squad.”

  “Thanks, Professor.”

  When Sarah entered the kitchen she felt close to human. The soak had worked wonders for her stiffness. William sat at the table. There weren’t even extra coffee cups for the ghosts.

  William rose and looked Sarah with such love she felt humbled. He placed his square hands at her waist and lifted her to sit on the counter. Standing between her knees she pulled her close enough to kiss her nose. She held her breath when he skimmed a finger across her lips. With the backs of his fingers he caressed her cheeks.

  “You are the most beautiful creature.” His soft voice made her insides quiver. “You are my dreams and my reality.”

  She smoothed her fingers along his smooth-shaven chin. She wanted to say something but her throat froze at his next words. “I want to be your lover and your friend, your husband, the father of your children for this lifetime and all others.”

  She tried to push out a sound to say she loved him, too but he touched his finger to her lips.

  There has never been another woman for me, nor will any other woman claim my heart or my body.”

  She had been so mesmerized by his nearness she had no idea where he found the ring box but he opened a small box and removed a ring of such brilliance it hurt her eyes.

  “It’s beautiful.”

  His voice shook. “Will you be my wife, wear my ring, and have my children?”

  “Oh, yes, I will marry you again for as many lifetimes as we get. I am yours forever and beyond.”

  He placed the antique silver ring on her finger, a perfect fit. She wrapped her arms around his neck and claimed his mouth with her own, tasting and feasting. “I love you, William.”

  “And I love you, Sarah.”

  He returned her claim with lips, teeth, and tongue until the need to make love to him overpowered her brain.

  “Make love to me,” she begged as she pulled his shirt from his jeans. She ran her hands over his sculpted chest and lean stomach, hungry for him. Her heart stopped in her throat when he lifted her shirt and cupped her breasts. She would have yanked her shirt over her head so they could fit bare chest to bare breasts, but for the pain in her shoulder.

  “You make me forget my gumption. We are in your parents’ kitchen and they could come back, with or without your ghosts.”

  Forehead to forehead they stilled.

  “Oh,” She sighed. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

  Her mother called from the hall. “Sarah, William, how about some breakfast?”

  They must look guilty as sin with their rumpled clothes and flushed skin. The evidence of their passion had to be obvious, but her mom said not a word about her daughter’s seat on the counter. William lifted Sarah so her feet touched the floor.

  “Hey, Mom,” William called. He hugged his future mother-in-law and danced around the crowded kitchen. “I’m so happy I could dance a gig, if I knew how.” He stopped the dizzying dance. “Sarah, wanna tell her or shall I?”

  “You may tell her.” Sarah laughed.

  “She’s finally makin’ an honest man of me. She said yes! Call doc and tell him, too.”

  The room erupted in happiness and congratulations.

  William thought he heard ghosts laughing. He was certain cousin Mattie touched his face.

  Epilogue

  Sarah waited at the top of the wide staircase, listening for the strains of the love song Walter had written more than a century ago for Sarita. The rich wood gleamed in the sunlight flooding through the tall windows. The Chandelier sparkled, splitting the beams into prisms. Her love for William grew by the hour and soon everyone would know how much. Hers would be the first wedding in this house and it was none too soon.

  Sarah’s dad looked up at her from the bottom of the stairs as she descended one step at the time. What would people think if she hiked her dress and slid down a banister? William and her ghosts would love it. At that thought she grinned, then took the arm her daddy offered.

  Peter had done a wonderful job decorating the house and grounds for this introduction into society as a place for weddings and special occasions. His relatives had pooled their resources to buy Peter’s share in the Overby-Jackson venture.

  Roxie played the harp and sang Walter’s words to Sarita, then Sarah’s love song to William.

  Until this morning Sarah had planned to sing to her beloved, but morning nausea had changed her mind. When she reached the actual aisle where she could see William in his confederate dress uniform her breath caught in her throat. The man defined handsome.

  She knew the moment he caught sight of her in the wedding dress designed to match Sarita’s. Sarah was glad she had shown the wedding portraits to a dressmaker. William’s expression made it worth all the work, yards of fabric, and hoopskirts.

  Holding hands in front of family and friends, Sarah and William vowed their love for eternity and beyond. Nothing could ever keep them apart for more than a life time. They would always find each other.

  Though she didn’t see any ghosts, they were nearby, watching. Sarah could feel them.

  The End, at least for now.

  Dear Reader, I hope you enjoyed Haunting Refrain. I fell in love with this story the minute I learned we had bought a house in Milledgeville, Georgia with two ghosts. During the two-hour drive back to Atlanta, the story formed in my mind.

  Forever Love is also available at http://www.smashwords.com/upload/status/57300