Beautiful Whispers (Ausmor Plantation Book 1 - Romance/Suspense) (5 page)

As I worked on the third floor, I kept a watch out for Eva. I had to be ready. I had to be prepared. She caught me off guard last time. I’d stick to the plan.

Fixing
the banister to the grand staircase, I heard footsteps coming and smiled. “Here to tempt me again, Miss Austen?” I made sure my accent oozed for her.

Silence.
It wasn’t her. I acted nonchalant as if I hadn’t said anything - cleared my throat, placed tools here and there. Then I looked up as if I had no idea someone stood there watching me.

Byron stood there with his usual smug expression and expensive suit. He didn’t bother to smile. He knew that wouldn’t work on me.

“What do you want?”

“Always had the manners, didn’t you?” He touched the banister and just as quickly lunged away as if touching something I’d recently touched was beneath him.

“You react that way around Eva?”

“Excuse me?”

“I mean if you don’t want to touch something I just touched...”

Byron’s beady eyes focused on me. He wouldn’t try anything. He knew what I could do to him. “It’s Miss Austen. You watch your mouth.”

“That’s what she always does. Guess Eva likes my smile.”

He stepped closer to me, but I didn’t step back. After everything he’d done, I wasn’t about to back down.

“You have any idea what I could do to you?”

I laughed. “Thought you only attacked teenage girls.”

Byron grabbed me or he tried. I caught him first and pushed him back to the railing. “This time, I’m not leaving.”

Byron glanced behind him at the three story drop. “That’s what you always say, but she’ll choose me again. She always chooses me.”

I tightened my grip just to see Byron grimace in pain as the railing pushed into his spine. I wanted him in pain. After what he’d done, he deserved hourly pain. I could have intensified, but Tour Guide Taylor and his tour group bounced up the stairs.

“Oh my.” Taylor gasped. “And what are we doing here? Mr. Bashley are you alright?”

Some of the tourists clapped. “Is this that live performance thing we heard about?”

“Is it over a girl?” another tourist asked.

Byron straightened his suit and stared at me. “You’ve made a very expensive mistake.”

“Doubt it. And Eva’s not yours.”

A couple tourists nodded and looked at each other for validation. ‘A girl,’ one mouthed as if that explained everything.

“We’ll see,” Byron said. “When
Jane
finds out what you did...”

I grabbed him. I didn’t realize how much force I used until Taylor pried me off him.

Taylor kept his distance from me while still managing to cling to Byron. “You could have killed him. Mr. Bashley, tell me you’re okay.”

Byron’s color came back, and his glare held mine. He didn’t say anything, but I’d seen that look in his eyes before. I knew he’d try something
else.

I sat straight up in bed. I didn’t know what time it was or what day. I checked the clock: 9:00 am.

I jumped out of bed, threw open the armoire and found a Regency style dress that Mrs. Kiness’ minion had placed there earlier at Karenda’s insistence. I studied the empire waist – hides chocolaty sins better. “Turkey red. Are you impressed, Fanny, that I know that?”

Fanny Dingo chewed on a toy. One ear had already ripped away, and the cat looked up, yawned and returned to torture.

After twenty minutes in the bathroom, I made my Regency debut. Fanny Dingo - less than impressed.

I opened my laptop and went to work on Ausmor’s home page. After several hours with Evan yesterday, and more studying on my own, I created a page that wasn’t yet ‘live’ but had the makings of something that wasn’t hideously gut wrenching.

“Home page. Contact page. Twitter thingie update stream on the side. Blog page.” Opening the blog page, I stared at the blank screen. My fingers poised over the keys as my mind wandered to chocolate and Alexander and Alexander dipped in chocolate. I slumped my shoulders and sighed. “Just jump into Jane.”
It is a truth univ
... “No, I can’t use Jane’s most quotable quote. What would Jane Austen write if she visited Ausmor?”

Hey! S’up peeps!
Jane here. Whilst visiting my good friends at Ausmor, I did happeth to cometh upon...

I cringed but kept writing.

... a nefarious creature named Bitty who produced quite the stink eye, but my eyes did wander to a delicious man by the name of Alexander who—

“Alexander?” A man said.

I jumped back from the desk as slithery Johnston Stonston hovered over my laptop. “Scared the bejesus outta me.” I couldn’t catch my breath. I looked around, but my bedroom door was still closed. “Where did you come from?”

His eyes lingered on me, and I could tell his tiny mind flipped through various disturbing scenarios. “I can come a
nd go as I please.”

I shook my head at Fanny’s arched back and stalking focus. She planned an ambush. I couldn’t let
Johnston hurt her. I backed towards the window. Maybe a sniper could take Johnston down.

Johnston grinned
a shit kicking smirk that turned my stomach. “And you never remember what I do.”

My blood stopped flowing. Images flashed before me of Johnston and a struggle. Many struggles. “What the hell have you done?”

Mrs. Kiness shook me. “Child, you must wake.”

I came to and noticed I was still in bed. “Was that a dream?” Then, I thought of Johnston. “A nightmare.” I threw the covers off but saw I wore the Turkey red Regency dress. I jumped up. “What time is it?”

Mrs. Kiness grabbed me. “Child, hush. You are giving me a fright. It is slightly of ten o’clock.”

“Thirty minutes? I lost thirty minutes? Where’s Fanny?”

“Miss Dingo is downstairs visiting with Lillia.”

I rushed into the bathroom and slammed the door. My lip swelled. “I think I’m okay.” I flinched when I moved my hand and saw a red rim around my left wrist. “Did he grab me?”

I tried to remember if I’d accidentally eaten one of Bitty’s concoctions. That usually induced an allergic reaction. Was it that? Surely, Johnston wouldn’t. He couldn’t have...

I jolted. “Why is this so familiar?” My stomach lining disintegrated. Panic rose quickly. I put my hand over my heart to calm the pounding. “He didn’t hurt me. He didn’t hurt me.” I wondered what I’d forgotten.

My head started the dull ache I knew from experience would ascend into a full alarm migraine. I yanked open the medicine cabinet and found my pill bottle. As I swallowed the pills, the shiny red bathroom strained at the torn edges of my patience. “Why did Karenda demand red?”

I had to talk with somebody. “I’ve got no proof. I don’t even know if it was real.” I couldn’t let Ausmor slide into more scandal because of me. I had years of unexplained wounds and memory mashes and a mother who slowly went insane.

I tried to convince myself it was all my imagination. It was the things you told yourself about the noise out the bedroom window in the middle of the night. The mind races through feverish scenarios of what could happen, of stories on the news, of movies and TV programs of similar situations, but then logic calms. Logic remembers the odds and provides plausible explanations about wandering cats and angry wind.

My mind raced like I’d had three dozen
expressos. I did a decent job with the convincing, but deep down in the darkest corners of my soul I knew Johnston. I knew what he’d done.

“Jane,” Mrs. Kiness knocked on the door. “Are you alright?”

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and opened the door. “I’m fine, Mrs. Kiness.”

I could tell the way her head jerked back and her eyes narrowed she didn’t believe me.

“Another headache. That’s all.”

“Just remember to start your day.”

I ran out of my room and down the stairs. As I catapulted through the side door, I ran into the gardeners.

“Look out!” one of the gardeners screamed as he lunged out of my way and landed into an open bag of manure.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” I reached for him, but he resisted my help. “Sorry,” I said as one gardener eyed the other one. I thought it best to flee the scene. Hit and run manuring. I’d done it before. So, I followed the original snaky brick path known as the Inner Circle as it looped around to the front of the house.

“Calm down.” I slowed my breathing. “Have to focus on something else.” I couldn’t let my mind panic about Johnston – not until I could sort everything out.
Not until I found Evan. I wouldn’t make a scene. Not until I knew for sure.

I ‘started my day,’ as Mrs. Kiness said by noticing everything around me. My routine. Mrs. Kiness believed it important for the family to notice house and garden details on a daily basis. She disliked beauty being taken for granted, but I didn’t need reminders. I loved Ausmor. Everything about it, and I couldn’t or wouldn’t imagine living anywhere else.

My breathing returned to normal; my pulse slowed. “I can do this.” I paused and looked down at the brick steps that led to the front door. Karenda demanded shiny bricks, so, after tons of consultations and redos, she finally had the just rained look of wet brick as if someone had spilled a ton of lip gloss. I touched the white pillars that stretched to the brick plantation’s third floor. I stood in the open doorway and studied the Grand Entrance Hall stretching to the back door.

Inside, the pralines and cream paneled walls protruded with carved cornices and fluted pilasters around gigantic twelve foot tall portraits of the long dead ancestors. The dangly chandeliers and wall sconces lit the space and highlighted the dark chocolate floors, and the twenty foot centerpiece chandelier bravely splashed light into every dark crevice. Few dared look directly at ‘the old gal’ as Uncle V called it for fear their retinas would explode.

On either side of the hall, four carved archways opened to the old family parlors like outstretched arms. The earliest Austens and Morgans nursed a contentious and sometimes violent relationship: separation proved necessary.

Back in the day, each family used one parlor as their official, public space to greet guests and the other as their private retreat from each other. As I embraced the beauty around me, I heard two gasps. I slowly turned around to Ausmor’s official unofficial greeters. Twin ninety year old volunteers named Madge and Madeleine. The Mad twins.

“Miss Austen, you do look divine,” Mad said.

“Thank you,” I said curtsying. “And how are the
Mads today?”

They giggled and held onto each other. “Oh, we are fine, Miss Austen. And how are you on this fine morning?”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure if I ate one of my aunt’s chocolate covered mushrooms. The website’s kicking my ass. Had a nightmare about Johnston being in my room which gave me a migraine, and I’m hoping the pills take effect before I gotta hurl. You?”

They giggled. “Oh, we are fine
Miss Austen.”

The Mad twins were great listeners, couldn’t hear a damn thing, always smiled and never judged. Priests without bite.

“Excuse me,” a green suited tourist asked the twins. “Is this where I pick up the maps?”

The twins excused themselves, and I continued to study the house. “I’ll be different. I’ll be better. I’ll—”

“Hey, Jane.”

I stopped when I recognized Alexander’s voice.

“You are going by Jane, aren’t you? That’s what your cousin said.”

“I am.” I breathed easier. I could tell him. Something about his eyes made it alright. Those gorgeous green eyes I could spill
anything to. He’d make it alright. He’d make me safe.

He hesitated as if he wanted to ask me why I looked at him like I did. “Nice dress. All regency all the time now?”

“Maybe.”

Someone stepped on my foot. I looked down at my poor shoe and then up at the intrusion to see Tour Guide Anne and her beady bun and lopsided eyes. “Hey, Anne. How’s it going today?”

Anne’s glare made the chandelier blow a couple of bulbs. “What’s it to you? Pathetic little...”

“Excuse me?” Alexander stared at her.

Anne managed to extend her glare to Alexander. She looked him up and down and did some kind of - I guess it could be called a chortle like a wheezing horse. “You must love the punishment? Frankly...” she glared me up and down. “Don’t know the attraction.”

“Show some respect. This is Miss Austen. One of your employers.”

I loved watching Alexander get all bossy and protective.

“Piss off.” She stomped away.

I smiled. Tour Guide Anne and I had a special relationship built on pure hatred. I didn’t know why we hated each other, but she hated the sight of me without requiring any extra effort on my part. Freed up my irritation hours for others.

“What an icy little bitch.” Alexander immediately bowed his head. “Perdóname Madre.”

I shook my head. “What?”

“My mom didn’t like me to disrespect.”

“It’s Tour Guide Anne. Surely your mother wouldn’t have minded?”

Alexander laughed. “She would have. Always said to treat everyone with respect even if they don’t deserve it.”

I nodded and noticed him staring at my lip. I tried to turn my head, but he stepped in front of me.

“Did Byron?”

“What? Byron would never hurt me.”

Alexander made a face like he didn’t believe me.

“He wouldn’t. He’s never.” I put my hand up to my lip to hide it. “Can you tell that much?”

He touched my wrist. “What the hell?” His eyes sought the ground as his mind turned over the suspect list.

“Please, don’t do anything. I need to talk to Evan.” That’s what I said. What I thought? Grab the popcorn and watch Alexander hurl Johnston around like a rag and hang him from the chandelier.

“I’m not going to sit back and let anyone hurt you. You can’t ask me to do that again.”

I didn’t know what he meant, but the ache in my stomach told me it was the truth. “It’ll be different this time. Byron doesn’t own me.” I didn’t know why I said that, and I didn’t even know what it meant.

Alexander nodded. “Prove it.”