be expecting anyone. Come on in, and I’ll go find her.” She held the door wide, and Eileen stepped into the huge entry hall. “Just make yourself at home,” Hannah went on, closing the door and starting the long climb to the second floor.
After what seemed an eternity to Eileen, Carolyn appeared at the curve of the stairs. “Eileen! Come on up. If I’d been thinking, I’d have had Hannah send you right up, but I forgot to tell her.” As Eileen climbed the stairs, Carolyn smiled ruefully. “I’m afraid I can’t get used to the idea of having someone to answer the door for me. It seems so decadent. I’d have answered myself, but I never heard the bell. I was resting and I must have fallen asleep.”
Eileen frowned, studying her old friend. “If you’re not feeling well, I can—”
“I’m fine,” Carolyn broke in. “But unfortunately, I can’t convince either Phillip or Dr. Blanchard that there’s no problem having a baby at my age.”
They were halfway down the corridor now, and Eileen came to an abrupt stop, staring at Carolyn. “A baby?” she repeated.
Carolyn nodded happily.
“Well, for heaven’s sake.” Then a thought occurred to her, and she blurted it out before she had considered it. “Does Alan know?”
Carolyn stared at her for a moment, then burst out laughing. “Of course he knows! Beth told him right off the bat.” Her smile faded slightly. “I’m afraid Beth was a little upset at first, but she’s used to the idea now. In fact, I think she’s looking forward to having a baby brother. Anyway, I hope she is.”
She opened the door to the master bedroom, then stepped back to let the other woman go in ahead of her. Eileen surveyed the room quickly, taking in the rich antique furnishings, the sheer size of the room, then whistled appreciatively. “If this were my bedroom, I’d never leave it. My God, Carolyn, it’s bigger than my living room.”
“I know,” Carolyn sighed. “And if you want to know the truth, sometimes I hate it.” She saw the skepticism in Eileen’s eyes, and shrugged helplessly. “I think you have to be born to this kind of thing. Sometimes I feel so out of place, all I want is to be back on Cherry Street.”
Eileen said nothing, but crossed to the window and looked out. The view took in the entire estate, the village, and the countryside beyond. Indeed, if she looked carefully, she could pick out the roof of her own little house, looking from here like nothing more than a speck in the landscape. “What about Beth?” she asked without turning around. “How’s she handling living up here?”
Carolyn started to make a casual reply, but there was something in Eileen’s voice that stopped her. “What do you mean?” she asked instead. “Eileen, did something happen this morning? With Peggy?”
Now Eileen turned to face Carolyn, her expression serious. “I almost didn’t come up here,” she confessed. “Peggy showed up at the Red Hen about eleven. First she told me nothing was wrong, but I didn’t believe her. You know Peggy — she can’t hide her feelings at all. And she was pretty upset.”
Carolyn sank into one of the twin love seats that faced each other in front of the window. “What happened?”
“Beth didn’t say anything?” Eileen countered.
Carolyn shook her head. “But I haven’t seen her. In fact, I thought Peggy was still with her, and they were out on the grounds somewhere.”
“They went for a hike,” Eileen explained. “Apparently yesterday Beth told Peggy there was something she wanted to show her, and today she showed it to her.”
“What was it?” Carolyn asked.
“That’s the thing,” Eileen went on, perching nervously on the couch opposite Carolyn. “From what Peggy said, it didn’t sound like anything. Just a sort of a depression in a little clearing somewhere down the hill. But Peggy says that Beth insisted that it was a grave, and that it belonged to some little girl who used to work at the mill.”
Carolyn studied Eileen for a moment, trying to decide if her old friend was pulling her leg. But Eileen’s eyes were serious, and her brow was furrowed with worry. “I … I’m not sure I understand,” Carolyn said at last.
“I’m not sure I do, either,” Eileen replied. “At first, it sounded as though Beth was playing a joke on Peggy — telling her a ghost story. You know Peggy — she believes everything anybody tells her. But when she told me what happened up there, she said it wasn’t as if Beth was even talking to her. She said it sounded crazy, that Beth really seemed to believe there was some kind of ghost living in the mill.”
“But that’s ridiculous,” Carolyn said. “Beth knows there’s no such thing as ghosts—”
“We all know that,” Eileen agreed. “And ordinarily I wouldn’t have thought anything about it. But Peggy was so frightened by the whole thing, that I thought I’d better come up here and tell you about it. And I guess I wanted to find out if it really happened.”
“I don’t know,” Carolyn replied. “But — well, I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for whatever happened.” Then, when Eileen said nothing, Carolyn had a sudden feeling that there was something the other woman wasn’t saying. “Eileen? What is it? What’s wrong?”
Eileen looked away, and when she spoke, her eyes were fixed on something outside the window. “Peggy said that the way Beth was talking, it sounded as though Beth was at the mill the night Jeff Bailey died. Peggy got the feeling that maybe Beth had killed him herself.”
“Oh, my God,” Carolyn groaned, suddenly understanding. Quickly she told Eileen about the dream Beth had had that night, and how real it had seemed to her. “That’s all she was doing,” she finished. “She was just telling Peggy about the dream.”
Eileen hesitated, then rose to her feet. “Well,” she said, “I hope you’re right — I hope that’s all it was. But I’m not sure there’ll be any convincing Peggy of that. I’m afraid—” She hesitated, then decided to go ahead. “Well, I’m afraid Peggy doesn’t want to see Beth anymore.”
“Not see her anymore!” Carolyn exclaimed. “But, Eileen, that’s crazy. They’re best friends. They always have been.”
Eileen stood silently for a moment, then shook her head. “They were best friends,” she said quietly. “But not anymore. Everything’s changed now, Carolyn. Things aren’t the way they used to be. I’m sorry.” As she started toward the door, Carolyn rose to her feet, but Eileen waved her back onto the couch. “I’ll let myself out,” she said.
Then she was gone, and Carolyn knew that she would never be back
But it had nothing to do with Beth. Of that, she was absolutely positive.
It had to do with the fact that she herself had married Phillip Sturgess, and Eileen, like all her other old friends, didn’t believe she hadn’t changed, didn’t believe she was the same Carolyn they’d known for years. They were sure that since she had married a Sturgess, she had taken on the airs of a Sturgess, and her daughter had, too.
Peggy’s story was just that — a story.
The real reason Peggy Russell didn’t want to play with Beth anymore, Carolyn insisted to herself, was nothing more than simple resentment of the way Beth lived now.
And there was nothing Carolyn could do about that. It was just a matter of time. In time, Beth would adjust to her new life, and make new friends.
Soon, too, there would be a new baby in the house. That would help. The baby would be a half-brother to both Beth and Tracy, and maybe, at last, the two of them could be friends.
As for the story of the ghost that Peggy was so certain Beth believed in, Carolyn dismissed it from her mind.
Her daughter, she knew, was far too sensible ever to believe in something like a ghost.
Abigail Sturgess stood in the mausoleum, gazing down through the fading afternoon sun at the foreboding silhouette of the mill. Earlier, when she’d first come up to the mausoleum, the newly sandblasted bricks had glowed red in the sunlight, and for a moment it had looked to Abigail as if the building were on fire. But it was, she knew, only an illusion.
Abigail Sturgess didn’t believe in illusions.
Still, somewhere inside the mill there was something that her husband had believed in, and that now she, too, was beginning to believe in.
Coming to a reluctant decision, she turned and began making her laborious way down the steps to the forest path. Abigail moved steadily along until she emerged onto the lawn in front of the house, but instead of going into
