Forbidden Secrets (4 page)

“Z
achariah!” Savannah screamed in horror. Then she woke up, her body trembling and coated with sweat. “It was a dream,” she whispered. “I was dreaming.”

The door to her room burst open. Savannah shrieked.

Victoria stood in the doorway, her eyes wide with fear. “I heard you scream,” Victoria said in a quivering voice.

Savannah held out her arms. “Oh, Victoria!”

Victoria rushed across the room and scrambled onto the bed. Savannah wrapped her arms around her sister.

“I had a nightmare,” Savannah told her. She took a deep breath. “I dreamed about Zachariah. He was wounded and he came to tell me something. Something important. He opened his mouth—” She
couldn't go on. She couldn't tell Victoria about the blood.

The nightmare was so real, Savannah thought to herself. I could smell the gunpowder and the blood. See Zachariah so clearly. See that horrible wound in his head. Savannah shuddered.

“What did he say?” Victoria demanded.

Savannah hugged her sister tighter. “He didn't say anything. He just disappeared. It was a silly dream.”

“Maybe we shouldn't eat worms for supper,” Victoria said in a teasing voice.

Savannah giggled, the nightmare fading away. “I think you're right.”

“Can I sleep with you?” Victoria asked.

“Yes,” Savannah replied, glad for the company. She pulled the blankets over them and watched the shadows play across the ceiling.

“Sissy?” Victoria whispered.

Savannah smiled in the darkness. When Savannah was little, Victoria used to call her that. Savannah had forgotten how much she liked the nickname.

“What?” Savannah asked.

“Do you think this war will ever end?” Victoria asked.

“I'm sure it will,” Savannah assured her sister.

“Do you think Zach will come home?”

“Yes,” Savannah whispered. But her voice caught.

“I miss Zach,” Victoria said.

“I miss him too,” Savannah said softly.

“Good night,” Victoria murmured. A few minutes later she heard her sister give a gentle snore.

Savannah turned onto her side. She noticed something
on the floor. Something glistening in the moonlight.

She slipped out of bed and knelt on the floor. Her hand trembled as she touched the shiny, dark drops.

They felt warm.

Savannah raised her hand in front of her. Blood covered her fingertips. Dark red blood.

Warm blood . . . from the spot where Zachariah was standing in her dream.

Chapter

8

S
avannah got out of bed as soon as it was light. She could not go back to sleep after she discovered the blood on her floor.

Every time she thought about the drops of blood, she felt sick. It must be some strange coincidence, she told herself. Maybe I cut my foot or . . .

Savannah heard a galloping horse. She ran out onto the porch. Timmy, a young boy from a neighboring plantation, rode toward her.

Timmy drew his horse to a halt. “I have a letter for you, Miss Savannah.” He handed her an envelope.

Savannah sat down on the porch steps. She stared at the envelope as Timmy rode away. She did not recognize the handwriting.

A shiver ran down her spine. So many letters brought bad news during the war.

Savannah opened the envelope and pulled out the
wrinkled letter. It was spattered with blood. Her heart gave a hard thump when she saw the signature.

Tyler!

Slowly she read the words scrawled across the parchment:

 

July 1863

Dear Savannah,

Zachariah is dead. I am so sorry. We were both fighting in Gettysburg. I saw him fall. Later I learned of his death.

As I watched the soldiers bury your brother, I imagined myself in the grave beside him—dead. Never seeing you again. Never holding you again.

Forgive me, Savannah. All the deaths in this war made me realize people are more important than North or South.

Wait for me. I will come back for you.

I promise.

Tyler

 

Savannah clutched the letter to her chest. Tears stung her eyes. Zachariah was dead. And Tyler—

“Sissy! Sissy! What's wrong?” Victoria rushed out onto the porch.

Savannah stared into Victoria's worried face. Savannah opened her mouth, but she could not utter the horrible words—
Zachariah is dead.

Victoria grabbed the letter. Savannah watched her sister as she read. Victoria gasped and grew pale. Her eyes filled with tears. “No,” she whispered.

Savannah pulled Victoria down next to her. She hugged Victoria as her own tears fell.

“Oh, Sissy,” Victoria said in a quivering voice. “I can't believe Zach is dead.”

“I know. I can't either,” Savannah replied. She began to rock back and forth, rocking Victoria with her. They held each other and thought about Zachariah.

“Why couldn't it have been Tyler that died?” Victoria blurted out.

Savannah jerked away from her. “You don't mean that.”

“Yes, I do,” Victoria insisted. She pushed herself to her feet. “If someone had to die, why couldn't it have been Tyler? Why did it have to be Zach?”

Savannah stood up and snatched the letter away from Victoria. She could not bear the thought of losing Tyler. Her parents were dead. And now her brother. Tyler would not be ripped away from her too.

Suddenly Savannah remembered the blood on Tyler's letter. Was it Tyler's blood? Had he been wounded?

“Can your dark arts tell me if Tyler has been hurt?” Savannah demanded.

Victoria frowned. “You did not believe in the dark arts when I told you the Fiers were cursed.”

“I still don't. Not really. But I'm frightened. What if this is Tyler's blood on the letter? What if he is dying—”

“How can you care about him after he broke off your engagement?” Victoria asked. “He hurt you so much.”

“I hurt him too,” Savannah said. She squeezed her sister's hand. “Please, Victoria. Help me find out if he is all right.”

Victoria's eyes hardened. “All right,” she said. “Come to my room at midnight. And bring the letter.”

♦ ♦ ♦

The midnight shadows danced around Savannah as she walked down the hallway holding a tallow candle. She stood outside Victoria's door as the grandfather clock downstairs chimed twelve times. Her heart beat rapidly as she tapped on the door.

Victoria opened the door halfway. “Are you sure you want me to do this?” she asked in a low voice.

“I'm sure,” Savannah replied.

Victoria blew out Savannah's candle. “Come in, then.”

Savannah stepped into Victoria's room and shut the door behind her. The heavy drapes were drawn. A solitary candle burned in the center of the room. Savannah noticed a bowl on the floor and a wooden box resting beside it.

Victoria crossed the room and sat on the floor in front of the candle. Savannah suddenly felt cold. She shivered.

“Sit down,” Victoria ordered.

Savannah sat cross-legged on the floor across from her sister. The candle flickered between them.

“Give me the letter,” Victoria said, her voice low and serious.

Savannah unfolded Tyler's letter and handed it to her sister. Victoria placed it on the floor. The candle flame cast an eerie yellow glow over the scrawled words.

“What will you do?” Savannah whispered.

“Shh!” Victoria picked up the wooden box. It creaked as she opened the lid.

She lifted a pair of chicken feet out of the box. “Kiss them,” Victoria commanded.

Savannah stared at the chicken feet Victoria held in front of her. Her stomach lurched. She shook her head. “I can't.”

“You must if you wish to know the truth about Tyler.”

Savannah quickly touched her lips to the cold chicken feet. She shuddered.

Victoria swept the chicken feet over Tyler's letter. Then she dipped the feet into the bowl and coated them with a dark liquid. She trailed the feet over the floor, making strange markings around Tyler's letter.

“Where did you get so much ink?” Savannah asked.

“It's not ink,” Victoria answered. “It's blood.”

Savannah covered her mouth. “You frighten me, Victoria,” she said hoarsely.

“I frighten you?” she said harshly. She picked up Tyler's letter. “This should frighten you!”

She carefully placed the letter back on the floor. She raised her hands toward the ceiling and dropped her head back. She closed her eyes, swayed from side to side, and began to repeat an incantation.

The room grew frigid. Savannah wrapped her arms around herself. I should never have asked her to do this, Savannah thought. I can feel the evil in this room.

The drapes began to flutter.

Victoria released a shrill cry.

Icy wind rushed into the room. It lifted Tyler's letter and carried it into the flickering candle flame.

“No!” Savannah cried. She reached out to grab the burning letter.

Victoria shoved Savannah away. Savannah watched helplessly as Tyler's letter crumbled into ashes.

“How could you?” Savannah demanded. “How could you let my letter burn?”

“You should be glad,” Victoria said, her voice cold. “In that single moment I saw the truth.”

“The truth? You know nothing about the truth or Tyler. I never should have trusted you with his letter. You still want him for yourself. You're still jealous.”

Victoria grabbed Savannah by the arm. Her dark eyes glittered in the candlelight. “You must believe in the dark arts, Savannah. They reveal the truth. Tyler Fier will destroy you as easily as a single flame destroyed his letter!”

Chapter

9

“T
yler Fier is evil!” Victoria cried. “Evil! Evil! Evil!”

“No!” Savannah yelled. She jerked away from her sister. “I don't believe that. I love Tyler and I am going to marry him.”

“Bad luck follows his family,” Victoria warned her. “His bad luck will follow you too.”

“No!” Savannah cried, covering her ears. “I won't listen a moment longer.” She fled into the darkened hallway.

Victoria doesn't know Tyler as I do, Savannah thought. She stumbled down the stairs and into the foyer. She threw open the front door. Bright moonlight poured into the house.

Savannah rushed outside. She took a deep breath of the night air. Lightning flashed in the distance and the
wind picked up. It blew Savannah's hair around her face.

A storm, she realized. A storm is blowing in.

In the distance she heard a sound. A flapping sound.

Geese! she thought. We can eat geese. She ran around to the side of the house, but she didn't see any geese. Only sheets hanging on the clothesline.

Victoria forgot to bring the wash in, Savannah realized. All I heard were the sheets flapping in the wind.

The wind howled, blowing harder and harder. Savannah suddenly had the feeling that someone was watching her. She stared up at Victoria's window. It was dark and empty.

Savannah heard a loud pop. She froze. “Victoria? Did you follow me out here?”

Silence.

She thought she saw someone moving behind the sheets. She grabbed one and whipped it back.

But no one was there.

Savannah shivered. Victoria's ritual made me edgy, she thought. I never should have asked her to begin practicing her dark arts again.

Snap!
A sheet blew free of the clothesline. It enveloped Savannah. It muffled her scream as it wrapped around her. Tight. So tight. It pinned her arms to her sides.

Savannah fell to the ground.

I can't breathe, she realized in a panic. I can't breathe.

She choked and gagged. The sheet filled her mouth. Blocked her nose. Suffocating her.

Chapter

10