didn’t move. With the tip of one finger, I tried to push the large hand forward. It would not move, so I eased it counterclockwise till the clock read a few minutes after five. I thought I had set things right, then I noticed the small second-hand dial in the clock’s face. Its wand flicked backward over each lash of a second. Ever so slowly the clock’s minute hand moved in reverse. Time was turning in the wrong direction.
I stepped back, afraid, and teetered on the edge of the landing. Strong hands gripped my arms and pulled me back to safety.
“It’s only a clock,” he said.
“Thomas!”
We were standing close, close enough to kiss, but I couldn’t step away from him. If his hands hadn’t held me, his dark eyes would have.
“I hate that clock,” I said. “It is always telling us what to do when.”
Thomas laughed. “And you certainly don’t want to do what is expected of you.”
“Do you?” I asked.
“I used to.” His gaze dropped to my mouth. He looked so long, so steadily, my cheeks burned and my heart pounded.
I felt his eyes making my lips soft. I felt as if they were kissing me.
“April,” he whispered, “I can’t stop thinking of you.”
I didn’t say a word-l knew the pain we could cause. But every time he looked at me, every time he spoke his special name for me, I wanted him more.
He laid his hand against my cheek, then touched my mouth with one finger, running it over my lip. just once, I thought, gazing up at him. One kiss wouldn’t be so terribly wrong.
He bent his head and our mouths moved closer. His lips brushed my cheek, the lightest touch of him making me shiver. Then his arms tightened around me, and I felt the warmth and tenderness of his lips against mine.
“Thomas!”
We both pulled back. My sister stood at the top of the stairs glaring down at us.
Thomas let go of me. “Helen, 1-”
“Don’t try to explain,” she told him angrily. “Don’t make it any worse for me. Leave, Thomas.”
“But I need to explain,” he said. “I’ve let things go too long.”
“Leave!” she shouted. “Now!”
He looked at me and I nodded.
“I–I’m very sorry,” he told her.
My sister waited till Thomas was gone, then started toward me, her eyes burning with anger. “Is there nothing of mine you don’t want, Avril?” she asked. “Is there nothing of mine you won’t take for yourself?”
I bit my lip.
“Mama and Papa already give you whatever you ask for.”
I closed my eyes, knowing what was coming next.
“The servants will do anything for you. Your friends cover for you. All the boys in this town wait on you.”
“Helen, it’s not my fault that-” I broke off.
“That you’re everyone’s favorite?” she finished for me.
Her face was so pale, her skin so tight, I could see the bones moving beneath it. “Say it, Avril, it’s the truth.”
I looked away.
“You have everything. Did you have to take Thomas, too?”
“I can’t help the way I feel about him,” I said. “He can’t help the way he feels about me.”
“And what about good old Helen?” she asked. “Does it matter at all what I feel?”
Her eyes were bloodshot. I knew she was trying not to cry.
My heart felt cut in two. I ached for her, but I ached for us as well.
“Do you think because I keep my emotions in check that I feel nothing?”
I was desperate to prove myself right. “If two people feel the same way about each other,” I reasoned, “then that must matter more than what one person feels.”
“I can’t believe you’d do this to me!” she cried, her voice quivering with anger. “One day you’re going to pay, Avril.”
She took a step toward me, then another. Something in Helen had shattered, the lock she kept on her fierce passion had been broken. I could see the fury in her eyes, in the curl of her fingers.
“Mark my words,” she said, coming toward me. “You’re going to pay.”
I stepped back quickly and missed my footing. I reached out, but couldn’t stop the fall. My head snapped back and I tumbled downward, the edge of each tread banging against my spine. I heard Helen scream-scream as she did when we were children, “I didn’t mean it! I didn’t mean it!”
Then everything went black.
“Megan! Are you all right?”
My back hurt and my arm, jammed against the stairway banister, buzzed with pain. Matt knelt next to me, halfway down the flight of steps.
“Just a little bruised,” I answered shakily.
He helped me sit up. “What happened?”
“I’m not sure.” I struggled to put together the jumbled images in my mind. “I must have been sleepwalking. I did it a few nights ago. You didn’t see me fall?”
“I was in the library,” he said. “When I heard the noise, I rushed out and found you here.”
“What time is it?”
He glanced over my shoulder. “About ten after five.”
I turned to look at the clock on the landing and suddenly remembered the thirteen chimes and the scene with Avril, Helen, and Thomas. This time I wasn’t dreaming simply of a place, but an event. Had it actually happened? Was I fantasizing, elaborating on the story that Mrs. Riley had told me, or was I truly remembering?
Until Matt touched my cheek, I hadn’t realized I was crying. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Tell me.” He gently took my face in his hands.
I didn’t know how to begin to explain. “It was so real,” I whispered. “But that’s what crazy people always think, that what they imagine is real.”
He put his arms around me and pulled me close. I buried my face between his neck and shoulder.
“You’re not crazy.” He smoothed my hair. “1 promise you, you’re not.”
“I–I’ve had a lot of weird dreams since I’ve come here.”
“Dreams about what?” he asked softly.
“Places, people. Thomas, Avril, and Helen-Grandmother.
Dreams about the past.”
His arms tightened around me. I could hear his heart beating fast.
“Were you dreaming when you fell?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Tell me about it.”
“In the dream Grandmother was young, no older than us.
And she was furious with her sister. She had walked in on Avril and Thomas.”
I felt him swallow hard.
“They were kissing.”
The motion was slight, but I sensed it, the way he pulled back from me.
“Grandmother threatened Avril,” I added, then the tears streamed down my face again.
“Megan, you should leave.”
“Leave?” That’s not what I wanted to hear from him, not now that I was wrapped in his arms. “Why?”
“I think that if you leave, all of this will stop.”
“All of this meaning what?” I asked.
“You know what.”
