Tucker’s Grove (17 page)

Her eyes darted along the nea
tly written words on the first several pages. “
Listen to this
—
the Bailey family home burned down when she was seventeen. Nels came to help put out the fire and rescued Audrey from the burning house. Later, when the Methodist church took the family under i
t
s wing, Nels asked Mr. Bailey for his daughter
’
s hand in marriage, in gratitude for re
s
cuing her.”

Peter D. snorted. “
As if she
owed
it to him!”

Kathy could not take her eyes from the pages. “
Well, it makes a lot of sense, given the time. Audrey was old en
ough to be ma
r
ried, and Nels Waltercroft could certainly support her. Reme
m
ber, her family had lost everything in the fire, and Audrey was one more mouth to feed. Nels offered to take her away from all that, so her parents consented. Good deal for everyone
.”

“
If you say so.”

Kathy bent closer to the faded handwriting. “
I
’
m reading from Audrey
’
s diary now:
‘
Nels is a good husband, in his own way. He provides for me, but he doesn
’
t love me, or at least he never shows it. I want the man that I marry to love me
with all his heart
—
like Will does. I have always loved Will. He
’
s such a kind and loving person. Even the animals love him! Will is going to be a horse doctor. He finds hurt animals and tends them. We were going to get married, but we
’
d decided not to te
l
l our pa
r
ents until he saved up some money. That was before the business with Nels.

“
 
‘
Will and I still see each other every Wednesday, when Nels goes to Bartonville to pick up supplies. It
’
s our only chance to be together, but better that than nothing.

“
 
‘
I know that what Will and I are doing is wrong
—
but what Nels did to me was wrong too. I don
’
t have to feel guilty! I love Will, and that
’
s all the reason I need.
’
 
”
Kathy frowned, turned several pages, then closed the book. “
The entry just stops there…
an
d it
’
s the last one.”

“
A little anticlimactic,”
Peter D. said. “
But it sure explains the frostbite I got when Audrey and Nels were talking.”

In the hallway, Audrey
’
s voice came from the mirror. “
What are you doing here? It
’
s Saturday!”

Will laughed. “
Nels
is in town, so I figured he wouldn
’
t be here.”

“
But he could be back any minute
—”

In the mirror, the young man had a definite swagger. “
Nope. He
’
s getting the horses shod at the blacksmith
’
s, and he
’
s having a wheel fixed on the wagon. He
’
ll be gone all af
ternoon
—
and
I
’
ll
be right here. Come on, it
’
s a beautiful day. Let
’
s go for a walk down the lane.”

After they went out through the front door, Peter D. saw that Audrey had left her diary open on the table.

When Nels returned home later that afternoon, Aud
rey did not come to greet him, merely acknowledged him from the kitchen. As the man strode into the parlor, his pale blue eyes were drawn to the open diary on the table like iron filings to a magnet. He moved silently over to pick up the book, his forehea
d
furrowed with curiosity. He began reading the latest entry.

“
Uh-oh,”
Peter D. called from his chair by the mirror. “
Nels just found the diary.”

Kathy hurried over. “
Everything
’
s
in there.”

Nels
’
s eyes went wide as he continued to read. First his e
x
pressio
n registered shock, disbelief, then horror. His big hands trembled and clenched as if he were trying to rip the book in half, then he squeezed his eyelids shut so tightly that he squeezed out tears. But he kept silent all the while. Nels stood rigid for a
full minute until he managed to compose himself. He closed the book with an awkward gentleness and placed it under some papers at the bottom drawer of his writing desk. With calm deliberation, he locked the drawer.

“
I guess everybody can
’
t be the perfect c
ouple, like we are,”
Peter D. said.

Nels gripped the back of a chair as if he needed support, then cleared his throat. When he spoke his voice was surprisingly firm, loud enough for Audrey to hear him in the kitchen. “
I saw Mrs. Litch in town today.”

Sil
ence hung in the air for a moment before Audrey
’
s reply came from the other room. “
Oh? What did she have to say?”

A long pause, and Peter D. waited for the man to throw his accusations, to expose his young wife
’
s lies. Nels took several long breaths and sa
id instead, “
She said she looks forward to seeing your quilt square completed.”

Suddenly, the pieces fit together in Peter D.
’
s mind. “
Hey, Kath
—
you said the last entry in Audrey
’
s diary was on a Satu
r
day, right? And it was an interrupted one? In the mirro
r,
this
is Saturday. And Will interrupted her this afternoon while she was writing…
and now Nels has locked the diary away. I get the fee
l
ing Audrey isn
’
t going to be writing in it again.”

“
The plot thickens.”
Kathy snapped her fingers as an idea o
c
curred t
o her, and she shuffled through a pile of papers until she found the one she wanted. “
I should have thought of this before. On August 25, 1877
—
the same date as Audrey
’
s death
—
a Wi
l
liam Jacobsen, age twenty, also died. August 25, by Audrey
’
s diary, was a
We
dnesday
.”

“
They always met on Wednesdays,”
Peter D. said.

Kathy looked at him with wide eyes. “
Aww, no
—
Nels? This Wednesday?”

“
They
’
re going to be murdered in four days. And all we can do is wait, and watch.”

The following day he and Kathy observed as p
oor Audrey searched frantically through the parlor for her diary, but did not find it. Peter D. paced the front hall, angry, sad, and helpless. He tried shouting to the young woman, pounding on the mirror glass, but could not get her attention. Audrey mov
e
d unsuspecting, one day at a time, toward the date of her death.

“
Hey, mirror, mirror, on the wall! How can we stop this from happening?”
Peter D. said. He received no answer, and he got the feeling there would be no fairy-tale ending for Will and Audrey.

He saw Nels
’
s mood steadily darken. The man
’
s eyes were puffy and red, bloodshot, as if he passed his restless nights plo
t
ting instead of sleeping. He and his young wife barely spoke to each other. Audrey must have sensed that something had changed, but sh
e refused to broach the subject.

Now that they knew the exact dates, Kathy found an entry in the Rutherford County court records: “
Nels Waltercroft acquitted of the murder of his wife Audrey and her adulterous lover Wi
l
liam Jacobsen.”
During the brief tria
l, Nels had offered the diary as evidence of their affair, which was all the straight-laced judge needed to see. The book had survived locked away in a court vault until Aunt Lillian resurrected it for their historical project.

On Wednesday morning Peter D
. watched the mirror with growing horror when Nels left, as he always did, supposedly off to distant Bartonville. Not long afterward, Will appeared, taking Audrey in his arms and leading her into the parlor. The young woman needed his comfort and his love
with a level of desper
a
tion she had not showed before. Will dismissed her worries,
but Audrey seemed more fearful than ever. She told him what Nels had said about Mrs. Litch, how he should have caught her in the lie, and how her diary had now gone missing.

But Will erased the fear from her eyes as if she were a bird with a broken wing
that needed mending. He brushed away her tears, stroked her cheeks to calm her. They began to kiss on the sofa, steadily becoming more caught up with each other.

These two reminded him very much of himself and Kathy, a couple meant to be together, and he a
dmired Will
’
s strength and confidence, his ability to show his love. Peter D. would have made wisecracks instead, trying to get Kathy to laugh.

The young couple in the mirror were already doomed. They had been murdered more than a century ago.

And it was
going to happen again in only a few minutes.

Peter D.
’
s stomach churned, and his pores wept tears of sweat. “
I hate feeling so helpless!”
He clutched one of Aunt Lillian
’
s inane knick-knacks
—
a cheerfully painted vase that said “
Gree
t
ings from Puerto Rico.”
He should have taken Kathy off on a sunny vacation somewhere rather than staying here in this house with dreary historical records and old tragedies.

Standing close to him, squeezing his other hand, Kathy stood engrossed in the mirror. She choked back a m
uffled cry as the door opened silently and Nels entered the front hallway, cradling a shotgun in his arms. Tears streamed down his weathered cheeks, and his whole body trembled. His skin had a grayish tinge, as though he were about to be sick.

Peter D. nea
rly crushed the Puerto Rico vase in his sweaty hand.

Nels strode forward like a thunderstorm and loomed in the hallway, staring at the two kissing in the parlor. His face twisted into an anguished expression, and he let out a bestial cry.

Audrey looked up
and screamed. Will tried to turn in his shock.

Nels raised the shotgun and pressed his eyes shut as he squeezed the trigger.

Peter D. hurled the knick-knack at the mirror. “
No!”
It was the only thing he could think to do.

The roar of the gunshot sounded
simultaneously with the crash of breaking silvered glass as the vase struck the mirror.

Another violent jolt went through the Waltercroft house, and a roar of thunder detonated in the air. When the mirror shattered, the whole house writhed on its foundatio
ns. Splintered glass r
e
flected random timelines in different directions, bouncing poss
i
bilities into alternate futures, leaving the future to change the past.

And
Now
changed instead.

***

Lillian hesitated, then decided to hang up the phone, leaving her ne
phew
’
s number undialed. Writing a history of Rutherford County would have given Peter D. a chance to showcase his writing talent, but she was sure he
’
d make some derisive joke about the project. Better if he never even knew of her silly idea.

Here in Ruth
erford County, local historical landmarks were few and far between, now that the subdivision builders had torn down the old Waltercroft house. Even the locals had little interest in forgotten people from an unremarkable past.