The Twilight Before Christmas (5 page)

“What exactly did you say, Abbey?” Kate asked.

Abbey looked confused. “Everyone had put in a variety of ideas for acting out the play we do every year and someone asked if they really liked the old script and should we keep it as a tradition or should we modernize it. I think I said, now would be a good time to tell the truth if you want to make any major changes. I meant with the script, not in people’s lives.” She rubbed her temples. “I haven’t made a mistake like that since I was a teenager. I’m so careful to avoid the word
truth.”
She scrubbed her hand over her face a second time, trying to erase the sting of Sylvia’s hand. “You know if I use that word everyone in the immediate vicinity tells the truth about everything.”

“It worries me that we all felt the same disturbance,” Kate said. “Hannah saw a dark shadow in the mosaic. You said something you would never have normally said, and a crack opened up nearly at my feet and ran all the way up the embankment.”

Hannah gasped. “You didn’t tell me that. Kate, it could have been an attack on you. You’re the most… ” She broke off, looking at Abbey.

Kate lifted her chin. “I’m the most what?”

Hannah shrugged. “You’re the best of us. You don’t have a mean bone in your body. You just don’t, Katie. I’m sorry, I know you hate our saying that, but you don’t even know how to dislike someone. You’re just so… ”

“Dont
say perfect,” Kate warned. “I’m not perfect. And I think that’s why Matthew’s brothers always laugh at me. They think I want to be perfect and fall short.”

Hannah and Abbey exchanged a long, worried look. “I think we should call the others,” Hannah said. “Sarah will want to know about this. She must have felt the earthquake too. We can ask her if anything strange happened to her. And we should call Joley, Libby, and Elle. Something’s wrong, Kate, I just feel it. It’s as if the earthquake unleashed a malicious force. I’m afraid it could be directed at you.”

Kate took a long sip of tea. The taste was as soothing as the aroma. “Go ahead, it can’t hurt to see what the others have to say. I’m not going to worry about it. I didn’t feel a direct threat. I’m not calling Sarah though. She and Damon are probably twined around one another. You can feel the heat right through the telephone line.”

“I can go to the captain’s walk and signal her,” Hannah said wickedly. “Their bedroom window faces us, and for some utterly mysterious reason the curtain keeps opening in that particular room.”

“Hannah!” Kate tried not to laugh. “You’re impossible.”

Hannah did laugh. “And you are perfect whether you want to acknowledge it or not. At least to me.”

“And me,” Abigail said.

Kate smiled at them. “I’m not all that perfect. I’d like to give Sylvia Fredrickson a piece of mind. She had no right hitting you, Abbey. Even in high school she was nasty.”

“I’ll take care of Sylvia,” Hannah said. “Don’t worry, Abbey. She’ll spend a long time thinking about how stupid it was to hit you.”

“Hannah!” Kate and Abbey chorused her name in protest.

Hannah burst out laughing. “I get the message, Kate. You’ll talk to Sylvia, but you don’t want me casting in her direction.”

Kate grinned. “I should have known you were baiting me.”

“Who said I didn’t mean it? Sylvia gives women a bad name.”

Kate shook her head. “Hannah Drake, you’re becoming a bloodthirsty little witch. I think Jonas is having a bad influence on you.” She touched Abbey’s cheek gently. “Even for this we can’t use our gifts for anything other than good.”

Hannah made a face. “It’s good for Jonas to have to chase his hat. It keeps him from becoming too arrogant and bossy. And who knows what great lesson Sylvia Fredrickson would learn if I tweaked her just a little bit.” Before either sister could say anything, she laughed softly. “I’m not going to do anything horrible to her, I just love to see you both get that ‘there-goes-Hannah-look’ on your faces.”

Kate nudged Abbey, ignoring Hannah’s mischievous grin. “Guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow? Matthew Granite agreed to look over the mill with me tomorrow. I’m hoping none of his brothers will be around to laugh at me, and maybe he’ll notice I’m a grown woman, not a gawky teenager. You’d think the fact that I’ve traveled all over the world and that I’m a successful author would impress him, but he just looks at me exactly the same way he did when I was in high school.”

Hannah and Abbey exchanged a quick, apprehensive look. “Kate, you’re going to spend the afternoon with him? Do you really want to do that?” Abigail asked.

Kate nodded. “I like to be with him. Don’t ask me why, I just do.”

“Kate, you haven’t been home in ages. Matthew has a certain reputation,” Abigail said hesitantly. “He’s always been easygoing with you, and he’s very charming, but he’s… ” She trailed off and looked to Hannah for direction.

“What? A ladies’ man? I would presume a man his age has dated.” Kate walked across the room to touch the first of the seven stockings hung in a row along the mantelpiece. It allowed her to keep her expression hidden from her sisters. “I know he’s been in relationships.”

“That’s just it, Kate. He doesn’t have relationships. At best he has one-night stands. Women find him charming and mysterious, and he finds them annoying. Seriously, Kate, don’t
really
fall for him. He looks great on the outside, but he has a caveman attitude. He was in the military so long, doing all the secret Special Forces kind of stuff, and he just expects everyone to fall in line with his orders. It’s probably why he isn’t impressed with your world travels. Please don’t fall for him,” Hannah pleaded. “I couldn’t bear it if he hurt you, Kate.”

“You’re so certain he wouldn’t fall for me? A few minutes ago you were saying you thought he might be sweet on me.” Kate tried to guard her voice, to keep her tone strictly neutral when there was a peculiar ache inside. “I really don’t need the warning. Men like Matthew don’t look at women like me.” She shrugged. “It doesn’t bother me. I need solitude, I always have. And I don’t have a tremendous amount of time to give to a relationship.”

“What do you mean, Matthew wouldn’t look at a woman like you?” Abbey was outraged. “What are you talking about, Kate?”

Kate took another sip of tea and smiled at her sisters over the rim of her teacup. “Don’t worry, I’m not feeling sorry for myself. I know I’m different. I was born the way I am. All of you stand out. Your looks, your personalities, even you, Hannah, with being so painfully shy, you embrace life. You all live it. You don’t let your weaknesses or failings stand in your way. I’m an observer. I read about life. I research life. I find a corner in a room and melt into it. I can become invisible. It’s an art, and I am a wonderful practitioner.”

“You travel all over the world, Kate,” Hannah pointed out.

“Yes, and my agent and my publisher smooth the way for me. I don’t have to ask for a thing, it’s all done for me. Matthew is like all of you. He throws himself into life and lives every moment. He’s a born hero, riding to the rescue, carrying out the wounded on his back. He needs someone willing to do the same. I’m a born observer. Maybe that’s why I was given the ability to see into the shadows at times. A part of me is already there.”

Hannah’s blue eyes filled with tears. “Don’t say that, Kate. Don’t ever say that.” She wrapped her arms around Kate and hugged her close, uncaring that a small amount of tea splashed on her. “I didn’t know you felt that way. How could I not have known?”

Kate hugged her hard. “Honey, don’t be upset for me. You don’t understand. I’m not distressed about it. My world is books. It always has been. I love words. I love living in my imagination. I don’t want to go climb a mountain. I love to study how it’s done. I love to talk to people who do it, but I don’t want the experience of it, the reality of it. My imagination provides a wonderful adventure without the risk or the discomfort.”

“Katie,” Abbey protested.

“It’s the truth. I’ve always been attracted to Matthew Granite, but I’m far too practical to make the mistake of believing anything could ever work between us. He runs wild. I remember him being right in the middle of every rough play in football both in high school and in college. He’s done so many crazy things, from serving as a Ranger to skydiving for the fun of it.” She shuddered. “I don’t even scuba dive. He goes whitewater rafting and rock climbing for relaxation. I read a good book. We aren’t in the least compatible, but I can still think he’s hot.”

“Are you certain you want to spend time with him?” Abbey asked.

Kate shrugged. “What I want to do is to take a look at the mosaic and see if I can make out the shadows in the earth the way Hannah did.”

“Maybe all three of us can figure out what is going on,” Hannah agreed. She followed Kate to the entryway, glancing over her shoulder at Abigail. “Doesn’t Joley sound beautiful? She sent us her Christmas CD. She said she might be able to make it home for Christmas.”

“I hope so,” Abbey said. “Did Elle or Libby call?”

“Libby is in South America,” Hannah said.

“I thought you said she was in the Congo,” Kate interrupted.

Hannah laughed. “She
was
in the Congo, but they called her to South America. She phoned right after the quake. Some small tribe in the rain forest has some puzzling disease and they asked Libby to fly there immediately to help and of course she did. She said it will be difficult, but no matter what, she’s coming home for Christmas. I think she needs to be with us. She sounded tired. Really tired. I told her we would get together and see if we could send her some energy, but she said no. She told me to conserve our strength and be very careful,” Hannah reported.

Abbey and Kate stopped walking abruptly. “Are you certain Libby doesn’t need us, Hannah?” Kate asked. “You know what can happen to her. She heals people in the worst of circumstances, and it thoroughly depletes her energy. Traveling those distances on top of it with little sleep won’t help.”

“She said no,” Hannah reiterated. “I heard the weariness in her voice. She obviously needs to come home and regroup and rest, but I didn’t feel as if she was in a dangerous state.” She knelt on the floor at the foot of the mosaic her grandmother and her grandmother’s sisters had worked so hard to make.

Relief swept through Kate. Libby always drove herself too hard, and her health suffered dramatically for it. Libby was too small, too slender, a fragile woman who pushed herself for others. Libby worked for the Center for Disease Control and traveled all over the globe. “We’ll have to watch her,” Kate said softly, musing aloud.

It was one of the best-loved talents of the sisters, to be able to stay in communication with one another no matter how far apart they were physically. They could ‘see’ one another and send energy back and forth when it was needed. Kate knelt beside Hannah in the entryway.

Kate always felt a sense of awe when she looked at the artwork on the floor. The mosaic always seemed to her to be alive with energy. Anyone looking into the mosaic felt as if they were falling into another world. The deep blue of the sea was really the ocean in the sky. Stars burst and flared into life. The moon was a shining ball of silver. Kate bent close to the mosaic to examine the greens, browns, and grays that made up mother earth.

Only Joley’s voice poured into the room, then melted away on the last notes to leave the room entirely silent. The three sisters linked hands. Small bursts of electricity arced from one to the other. In the dimly lit room the energy appeared as a jagged whip of lightning dancing between the three women. Power filled the room, energy enough to move the drapes at the windows so that the material swayed and bowed.

Kate kept her eyes fixed on the darker earth tones. Something moved, down close to the edge of the mosaic, in the deeper rocks. It moved slowly, a blackened shadow, slipping from one dark area to the next. It had a serpentine, cunning way about it, shifting from the edges up toward the surface as if trying to break through. Kate let her breath out slowly, inhaled deeply to fill her lungs, and let her body go. It was the only way to walk in the shadow world that was invisible to most human eyes.

She felt the malevolence immediately, a twisted sneakiness, shrewd and determined, a being honed by rage and fueled by the need for revenge. The turmoil was overwhelming, spinning and boiling with heat and anger. It crept closer to her, awareness of her presence giving it a kind of malicious glee. She held herself still, trying to discern the dark force in the deeper shadows, but it blended too well.

“Kate!” Hannah shook her hard, catching her by the shoulders and rocking her until her head lolled back on her neck.

Abbey yanked Kate away from the mosaic and into her own body. There was a long silence while they clung to one another, breathing heavily, close to tears. The shrill ringing of the phone startled them.

“Sarah,” they said simultaneously, and broke into relieved laughter.

Abbey jumped up to answer the phone. “I’m telling Sarah on you,” she warned Kate, “and you’re going to be in so much trouble!”

Kate gripped Hannah’s hand, trying to smile at Abbey’s dire prediction. “Did you feel it, Hannah?” she whispered. “Did you feel it coming after me?”

“You can’t go into that world again, Kate. Not with that thing there. I couldn’t read what it was, but you have to stay away from it.” Hannah held Kate even tighter. “I know what it’s like to be afraid all the time, Katie. I can’t function in a crowd because the energy of so many people drains me. Their emotions bombard me until I can’t think or breathe. You all protect me, you always have. I wish we’d done the same for you.”

Kate smiled and leaned over to kiss Hannah’s cheek. “I accepted my limitations a long time ago, Hannah, and I’ve never regretted my choice of lifestyles. I control my environment, and it works for me. I didn’t have the need to do all the things you wanted to do with your life. My world is carefully built and has large walls to protect me. You’re far more open to the assault. I’ll be careful, Hannah. I’m not a risk taker. You don’t have to worry that I’ll try to find the answers without the rest of you.”

“Katie!” Abbey called out. “Sarah has a few things she wants to talk to you about.” She held out the phone.