I should be in Greece, she thinks, finishing her drink and placing the glass on the bedside table. But I'm in Talon's Point, and tomorrow I must go to Deacon House again. I have to pretend to be someone I'm not. I have to be cordial to the Deacons, until I can expose them for what they are. If Rob is right...
“And what are they, Melody?” she whispers to herself. “Tyrants? Rebecca's concerned uncles? Or what about... Murderers...”
She stops talking abruptly, worried that the walls have ears.
Chapter 3
“Okay, Rebecca, I think we can stop there,” Melody says, closing her own notebook and smiling at her student.
Rebecca puts her pencil down with glee and then stands up from her desk in the study, surrounded by oak paneling and leather bound books. The fireplace is lit, casting dim yellow and red shafts of light across the room, a small reprieve from the ghastly weather outside. The clouds above are swirling, threatening rain, and the wind is tolerable yet growing. The study is very much a temporary barrier against that tempestuousness.
“Can we?” Rebecca asks, smiling from ear to ear, her bright blue dress a reminder that it should be summer outside.
“Well, I don't know...” Melody looks out of the window across the sprawling lawn to the treeline at the foot of the mountains. The evergreen trees sway in the Atlantic wind and the clouds above roll by at an ominous speed. And yet the weather is, to Melody at least, not unbearable. Indeed, in Boston, Melody remembers the fun of exploring and playing in many overcast days. But there is something about the weather on the island, something primal about it. She can't quite understand how much of a character of Scotland it truly is.
“Please, Miss Winter. You promised.” Rebecca looks to her teacher with pleading eyes.
Melody turns from the window to her student.
“It's not exactly a sunny day outside, Rebecca. It looks like it might rain, and I wouldn't want you catching a cold. I'm not sure your uncles would approve of you running around outside in the current weather.”
“They aren't here. They're out on the estate doing business or something or other. They're never here to play. But you are, Miss. I really enjoy it. Please...” Rebecca runs to the window. “It doesn't look too bad. Maybe just a little bit before the rain comes?”
It is now two weeks since Melody took on the job, and with each passing day she grows closer to little Rebecca. Melody aches for her innocence, knowing that the rooms and halls of Deacon House contain mysteries and tragedy in abundance. More than that, Melody is worried that Rebecca's world will come crashing down if her only living relatives have been complicit in that tragedy.
While Melody has continued her detective work around the estate and island, she wants nothing more than to ease Rebecca's burdens; to make her time an enjoyable one. And, if possible, to help enrich her with an education that will hold her in good stead for many years to come.
“Pleeeeaasssee!” Rebecca says enthusiastically, this time running over to Melody and wrapping her arms around her. Squeezing and giving her teacher an affectionate hug.
Melody's heart melts, as anyone's would in the circumstance. Taking one more glance at the overcast weather outside, and deciding that it would be acceptable for Rebecca to play for a while, Melody says: “Okay, just for a few minutes. And if the weather changes, you must come out and we'll go indoors. We could play snakes and ladders if you like?”
“Hide and seek!” Rebecca shouts with enthusiasm.
Melody smiles lovingly, patting Rebecca on the head. “Okay, hide and seek it is. You know the drill!”
“Oh, goodie!” Rebecca rushes out of the room, stopping beyond the doorway and looking over her shoulder. “No peeking through the window, Miss Winter!”
“No peeking. I promise.” Melody puts one hand behind her back and crosses her fingers. She then puts her other hand over her eyes and starts counting down from 100.
Rebecca's little feet move off along the hallways and then down the stairs, pattering with glee. Then, unsurprisingly to Melody, the rear door to the house can be distantly heard opening and closing. She always goes to the same place, Melody thinks to herself.
The woods at the back of Deacon House are special to Rebecca. She used to play in them with her father until he passed away a year ago. He called them the “enchanted forest”. And to Rebecca, that magic remains. Melody's heart aches for the little girl. Rebecca clearly wants to be near her father, and that is why, when playing hide and seek, she invariably heads straight for the place where a piece of her father's memory still walks.
Melody, not holding to her promise out of care, peeks over the windowsill and watches. Below as the clouds swell above her like an oil painting, thick and gray, Rebecca rushes across the lawn wearing a red raincoat over her blue dress. She moves fast over the pristine grass, passing by an old white marble fountain on the way, the faces of the cherubs spouting water as they always do. Then, Rebecca finally reaches the trees. Above is a
