We left the town proper and the road became bumpier, giving way to country roads and terrain. Charles did his best to follow the time-worn tracks, but the car still jostled horribly. My case was sliding around in the backseat until it finally fell to the floorboards and became wedged under my seat. Seeking shelter, no doubt.
The landscape dipped and rose all around us, carpets of heather clinging to the last remnants of their purple color before the winter could strip it away fully. Some had already turned full green, still lovely in the way they contrasted with the pale-yellow wild grasses. It was nothing like the well-manicured nature I was accustomed to in the city.
“Catherine wanted to come with me, but we all thought it would be best for her to stay home,” Charles said.
“I understand. These roads would be hard on poor little Hazel.”
“Yes, Hazel,” Charles said, as though the baby had been an afterthought. “That, too.”
I frowned. “What other reason would there be? Is Catherine not well enough to manage a short ride into town?”
Charles pressed his lips together like he’d said something he shouldn’t have, his forehead wrinkled in concern. Then, his face smoothed out, and he shook his head. “She is physically well.”
I didn’t like the way he specified which part of her was well. If Catherine truly was fine, he would have said so. But specifying meant some part of my sister was not well at all.
“Charles?” I turned towards him, not bothering to hide my concern. He’d looked so relieved to see me standing along the curb back at the station.
Thank God you’ve arrived, Alice.
Why? What was going on?
“You know my sister sent me a telegram?” I asked.
Charles nodded. “I oversaw it.”
The crease between my brows deepened. “Oversaw it? What does that mean?”
“Catherine has been…confused.” Charles turned from a wide dirt road onto another one that was much narrower. The road was smaller but easier to maneuver down because rather than a multitude of tracks, there were very obvious tire marks in the center of the road. It was their driveway.
I’d been so excited to see my sister for so many weeks that it took me by surprise when my heart leapt in my chest.
Nerves gripped my stomach, twisting it into a knot, and I laid a hand down the front of my blouse to try and settle myself. I should have eaten something on the train, but I wasn’t hungry, and now I realized why. My appetite had been waning over the last few weeks because I was anxious to arrive at my sister’s home and learn the full truth of her troubles. And now, with Charles behaving strangely and evasively, my fear grew.
“Speak plainly, Charles. What is wrong with my sister?”
Charles sat up tall, chin lifted proudly. But the posture only lasted a second before he couldn’t bear it any longer. His back slumped forward, his head hanging between his shoulder blades, heavy and dejected. My brother-in-law shook his head and sighed. “I don’t know, Alice.”
He gripped the steering wheel, flexing his hands against the leather. “I wish I knew. I’ve tried to uncover what is ailing her, but there seems to be no explanation. It all started with the birth, really.”
“The birth?” I gasped. “That was months ago, Charles.”
“Really, it started even before that. While she was still pregnant.”
My hands shook in my lap, and I folded my fingers together to still them. “What started?”
The house came into view on the hill ahead. My previous visits to my sister’s new home had been so brief that I had never paid much attention to my surroundings, but now, as I waited for Charles to choose his words, I noticed the little details before my eyes. It was a long, two-story home with a flat front and square windows. Ivy grew up the front face, but the leaves were sparse, and the vines looked more like grey webs, slowly enveloping the house. I wondered that no groundsman had cut them down but perhaps Charles and Catherine couldn’t afford to employ anyone to tend the outside of the property. The house would certainly look more approachable if the grounds were better kept.
A fine mist obscured the top of the house, and the birch trees in the distance had lost many of their leaves. The white trunks stuck from the ground like bones.
“Hallucinations,” Charles finally answered my question, as he pulled the car to a stop. He released the wheel slowly and turned to me, his face ashen and nearly the same dirty white color as the plaster finish on his home. “Catherine sees things no one else does, and she talks about spirits and ghosts. I don’t know what to do.”
Of all the things I’d imagined could be wrong with my sister, not once had I imagined the trouble would be her mind.
Catherine had always been sharp. She rarely showed it, preferring to earn adoration for her fashion sense and general beauty, but I’d always seen that a lot went on in her mind. When our cousin Rose had first come to stay with us, Catherine had been suspicious. She’d suspected things of Rose that I hadn’t seen—though I’d still been rather young at the time.
Catherine paid close attention to those around her and saw things others didn’t, but to my knowledge, those “things” had never been spirits walking amongst us.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “She has told you she sees ghosts?”
“Yes.” Charles’ voice broke, and he dropped his face into his hands. “I want to believe her. She is my wife, and I’ve always trusted her option, but this? This is beyond rational thought. It is beyond…our world. Catherine begs me to see things her way, but how can I, Alice?”
I laid a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Charles. I wish I’d known sooner.”
“I thought it would go
