Kelly McClymer-Must Love Black (14 page)

David lifted an eyebrow. “Easy, Philippa. We’re just having fun.”

“Let’s have less spooky fun.”

“But—”

“How about you give me a break?”

“Okay.” David took his hands from the Ouija board. “Let’s try telling ghost stories. You go first.”

“Very funny.” He was so not cute to me now.

But I did go first. I told them what had happened to me the first night I arrived. The ghost at my window. The spooky command to “hellllp themmmm.” Laurie looked unimpressed, but I could tell David and Geoff were wrapped up in the story, even though they didn’t take it seriously. And Triste and Rienne sat spellbound and silent, staring at me with open mouths.

When I was done, Laurie took over and told a pretty lame story that I’d heard once before, about a ghost and a hitchhiker and a dark and stormy night. Then David told a funny one that even almost made Triste and Rienne smile, and I mostly forgave him for pushing the Ouija joke too far before. Soon it was Geoff’s turn and I held my breath, waiting for him to start, when suddenly the overhead light flickered on.

“Power! Hooray!” Laurie jumped up in an instant and was pulling David out of our domain before my eyes even adjusted to the sudden brightness.

Geoff hung back, slowly gathering up the flashlights. “Hey, I know you’re looking for something . . . useful . . . for the girls to do.” He’d seen my warning look and had substituted a better word for “fun” since the girls were watching and listening.

“Always.”

“I could take you guys sailing, if you’d like.”

“That sounds like . . . it would be interesting.” I tried to remember that he was only inviting me because of the twins. “But would it be safe?”

“I’m certified. I can even teach, if you want to learn.”

“Where would you get a sailboat?” I started thinking about
the logistics to erase from my mind the images of Geoff and me in a sailboat under a brilliant blue sky. Sarah would so have busted me by now. She’d be packing the romantic picnic lunch and giving me tips about how to kiss a guy while wearing a hat and sunscreen.

He grinned. “This is Chrysalis Cliff.”

“Oh. Right.”

I looked at the twins. “What do you think, girls? Want to go sailing with Geoff ?”

Triste said, “No, thank you.” Rienne jabbed her with an elbow before I could say anything. The twins shared a calculating look and then Triste changed her tune. “Wait. On second thought, we do want to go sailing with you, Geoff. Don’t you think he’ll be a great instructor, Pippa? You could take private lessons if you like it.”

I sighed and gave them the evil eye for their blatant matchmaking efforts, especially inappropriate since the suitor they’d chosen for me was already taken. But, sailing. With Geoff. I turned to him and tried to pretend I was agreeing for the girls’ sakes. “You heard them. They’re willing to put their lives in your hands, so I guess I am too.”

“Great.” He grinned and pressed the elevator button. “I’ll have Laurie set it up and tell you when.”

“Great.” At the mention of Laurie, I had less enthusiasm. She hadn’t really acted like a girlfriend at all during our ghost-story session. Maybe it was because the twins and her brother were around. Or maybe things weren’t as definite as she had implied. Maybe it was time to ask? Too bad Geoff had already left.

The girls weren’t going to let me think about Geoff. They wanted to interrogate me about ghosts. “Why didn’t you tell us you saw a ghost the first night?” Rienne demanded.

Wishing I’d kept my big mouth shut, I answered with a shrug. “I thought I saw a ghost, but it was probably just the fog. Why should I have said anything?”

“It could be our mom’s ghost.”

Whoa. That wasn’t something I had expected to hear. Although it made perfect sense once it was said out loud. They were only ten. And we all knew what it felt like to miss your mom so much you’d be happy to have her back, even as a patch of white fog that moaned at your window or floated into the woods and almost led you off a cliff. Which made me realize that I probably ought to disabuse them of the notion very quickly. “It wasn’t your mom. It was probably that other ghost, the sea captain’s wife.”

“How do you know?”

I couldn’t answer that one. They didn’t know about my encounter with the second ghost, the one that almost got me killed. But I was pretty sure that nobody’s mom would have done that. Luckily, they let the subject drop.

A week went by with no more mention of ghosts. And though we saw Geoff almost every day while seeing to our goat-tending duties, there was no more mention of a sailing trip, either. I kept hoping Geoff would bring it up, or that the sailing day would magically appear on the twins’ schedule, but when neither happened I gave it up as a lost cause. Probably Geoff had forgotten he even offered, or else he mentioned it to Laurie and she reminded him that since he already had
a girlfriend, he shouldn’t be taking the nanny on a romantic excursion, even with two ten-year-olds in tow.

Triste and Rienne, though, had not forgotten, and they threw me a twist out of nowhere, in stereo, as usual. “We changed our minds about swimming.”

“Changed your minds?” I asked. “I thought swimming was pointless.”

“Triste found an article about a man whose boat foundered and he managed to swim to shore. We should practice our swimming before the sailing trip so we’ll be strong enough to do that too.”

“Oh. So you’d rather save yourselves than bob around in the sea waiting to be rescued when we go sailing with Geoff ?”
If we go sailing with Geoff
, I added silently.

“Exactly!” Triste seemed pleased that I understood their thinking—as if I didn’t know all about it.

“Wise decision, girls.” They’d be proactive, plus I’d be able to bill it as “fun” to their dad. “I think we can work some swim time into our schedule.”

Rienne handed me a copy of the schedule that had “morning reading” neatly crossed out and replaced by “swimming lessons.”

Great. Nothing like starting immediately.

“Okay, we’ll start tomorrow morning, but right now we’re into your computer time.”

They didn’t like anything to interfere with computer time, so I wasn’t surprised when they ran, excited, to the computers. But I was unprepared when they began to pull up instances of ghost sightings at Chrysalis Cliff.

“Do you think our mother could be a ghost too? Or do you think we’re silly to think she’s watching over us?” Triste asked quietly.

That question threw me for a loop. Talk about a loaded question. “I don’t know if I believe in ghosts,” I said. “It was fun to tell the ghost story when the lights went out, but I really think I just saw a patch of fog that night.”

“I don’t know if I believe either,” Rienne concurred. “But we do regularly have guests who sight our ghost.”

“So the brochure says,” I said noncommittally. Mr. Pertweath was paying my salary, so I didn’t want to be openly skeptical about something he’d printed in his brochure—or freak out his daughters by confirming it.

“I sometimes wish I could see it.” Triste said sadly.

“Don’t be silly,” Rienne scolded.

“But if—”

“Only sad ghosts, with unfinished business, haunt the world—like the sea captain’s first wife—if any do.” Rienne was stern. They’d had this conversation before, many times, I could tell.

“But if—”

“Mom didn’t have unfinished business.”

“She fell off a cliff! She must have—”

“It’s time for us to get ready for bed, isn’t it?” Rienne cut her sister off and looked up at me.

I looked at my watch, happy to participate in the desperate attempt to stop the argument. Yep. “We’ll have to table this discussion until tomorrow.” Or never.

Sleep wasn’t going to come for me, I realized, long after
I’d gotten the girls settled in. I opened the curtains at my window. Another summer storm had scrubbed the air fresh, and the gentle rain kept any fog at bay. I stood at my open window and dared any ghosts to show themselves. None did. I didn’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved.

CHAPTER TWELVE

A woman must have confidence that she can trust others, or she will find herself lost in the misty uncertainty of isolation rather than solitude.

—Miss Adelaide Putnam,
Manor of Dark Dreams
, p. 128

Laurie was smiling when she saw me in the pool alone. Not so much when she saw the girls come blasting out from under the waterfall.

Or maybe I was wrong about what she thought, because she came to the edge of the pool and crouched down to offer the unexpected. “I’ve asked Mr. Pertweath if we can have some girl time and go shopping, just us two, this morning, while the twins are at their music lesson.”

“Really?” So we were doing an about-face? I couldn’t help wondering why. Had my possibly seeing a ghost made me friendworthy? Or did she want to tell me to my face that Geoff was never going to take me sailing and I should keep my paws off her man? I was going to have to hope for the
friendworthy angle because I absolutely refused to get into a catfight over a guy. Period. End of story. No guy was worth that, not even Geoff.

I hesitated a bit longer than she liked, I guess, because she pointed to my black T-shirt and shorts slung across the back of a chair. “Let’s go shopping. Get you out of those freak clothes.”

I thought that was harsh coming from someone under twenty who actually wore neatly tailored business suits. Including pastels. “I don’t—”

She interrupted, apparently uninterested in any answer but yes. “We can just be us girls.”

I studied her expression. She seemed sincere. Girl time with Laurie? Why not? Maybe under the suit was a girl not that different from me. Or maybe I was just desperate after so many weeks without seeing Sarah, because I was surprisingly delighted by the idea. If I’d been a card-carrying goth, I’d have needed to burn my goth card in shame. But since I wasn’t, all I needed to do was shrug and say, “Okay.”

After all, I missed Sarah something awful, and the shopping in no way required me to buy anything that wasn’t black. Maybe I’d even get the scoop on the relationship between Laurie and Geoff—if I could figure out how to ask without letting her know I was asking.

Laurie was trying hard to emulate Lady Buena Verde, and she took her job seriously. I guess I could tell she wanted to impress her boss, even if that meant doing things that might shove her into clothes and behavior that weren’t her first choice. Maybe we could both use a little fun. I mentally
smacked myself. I couldn’t believe how much I’d been saying that word, “fun,” lately. I hoped it wasn’t catching. I liked the comfort of knowing the world was a dark place. Better not to get too happy and then have the worst happen when you aren’t expecting it.

I also wanted to pick Laurie’s brain about the ghost of the sea captain’s wife. She had a lot more knowledge about the history of the house than I did. Geoff had told me that her family had lived in this town so long, her ancestors had attended the funeral of the sea captain’s wife and his second wedding. I wasn’t sure how useful hundred-year-old gossip would be, but I needed some facts to stop spooking myself out.

After I’d sent the girls off with Geoff, Laurie and I took the truck into Bar Harbor.

Laurie parked in a great two-hour spot, just enough time for us to do a little shopping and have lunch before the sleepy tourists came out to play and began to clog the sidewalks and streets. The people out at that time of day were mostly old folks and those with young kids. The kids my age were sleeping if they didn’t have to work. Some of them, probably, even if they did.

Laurie and I maneuvered around the slow-going white-haired folk and the balky kids in need of morning naps, without breaking stride. I noticed she’d changed from the ambitious-assistant outfit into one more in keeping with her age—low-rise jeans and a low-cut tank top. So maybe that was the side of her that attracted Geoff ?

It was nice to have money I’d earned myself and no one to spend it on but me, myself, and I. I felt a twinge of guilt
that I wasn’t going to get the twins a treat, but really, they had everything they wanted and more, at least when it came to stuff. If I could buy them some dad hours, I’d do it in bushels.

I looked around the town with fresh eyes—I could buy things. I could buy that painting of the whale if I wanted it. I didn’t, but I could. I’d promised Dad that I’d put a huge chunk of my summer money away for college. Even putting money away left me with a nice walletful of cash for incidentals. Problem was, I didn’t see anything I wanted. Until we came to a store I’d been in a million times with my mom and dad.

I didn’t think for a second before I said, “I want to check out this place.”

Laurie stopped. “A garden store?” She wrinkled her nose. Definitely not a fan of the garden, I guessed, no matter how much she was into the gardener.

“It was my mom’s favorite.” I’m not sure why I explained that to her. It wasn’t her business that my mom had liked this store. Or that I still did. I was beginning to regret that I’d confessed my secret motivation to Laurie. It was a kitschy-cool store, with garden gnomes and coiled copper butterfly ornaments. And plants of course. But I’d come for the wind chimes. As soon as I had noticed the store, I knew what my room needed: a delicate wind chime hanging just outside my window to chase away the ghosts and the creepy-jeepies. To remind me that music was random and beautiful in the wind. To make the nanny room into Philippa’s room.