Page 10 (1/2)

ROZ CAME INTOthe house out of a nasty, sleeting rain She peeled out of her jacket, then sat on the bench in the foyer to drag off her boots David strolled out, sat beside her, and handed her the cup of coffee he&039;d brought out of the kitchen

"Dr Delish is in the library"

"Yes, I saw his car" She drank coffee, holding the cup in both hands to wared our boy for an interview We had ours over lattes and applesauce cake earlier"

"Applesauce cake"

"I saved you a big slice I know your weaknesses They&039;re saying we et some snow out of this"

"So I heard"

"Stella and the boys are at Logan&039;s She&039;s going to fix dinner over there, and the boys are hoping the snow coht"

"That&039;s nice I need a shower A hot one"

He took the cup she passed back to hiht want to ask our handso sos to ward off the cold"

"Sounds good - the chicken - and Mitch is certainly welcome to stay if he likes, and doesn&039;t have other plans"

"He doesn&039;t," David said confidently "I&039;ve already asked"

She chuckled at his broad grin "Just who are youhi the utterly unselfish person I a as the doctor is unfortunately and absolutely straight - I&039; with you"

"Just a pitiful romantic, aren&039;t you?"

She started up, and only rolled her eyes when he called out: "Put so sexy on"

In the library, Harper nursed his after-work beer It didn&039;t seem to him that he could tell Mitch much more than he already knew, but he&039;d answered the questions, filled in little gaps in the stories both his mother and David had already related

"I&039;ve got David&039;s rundown of the night you saw her outside, in the gardens, when you were boys"

"The night ere ca out, David,to David, you saw her first, woke hied "Hard to pin it down, but yeah, I woke him up Couldn&039;t say what ti ourselves half sick, and spooking ourselves out with scary stories Then I heard her, I guess Don&039;t kno, exactly, I kneas her It wasn&039;t like the other times"

"What was different?"

"She wasn&039;t singing She was ible sounds More like what you&039;d expect froht when you&039;re a kid So I looked out, and there she was Only not like before, either"

Brave boy, Mitch thought, to look out instead of pulling the sleeping bag over his head "What was it like?"

"She was in this white nightgown sort of thing The way she was last spring when she was upstairs Her hair was down, tangled and dirty And I could see the h Jesus" He took a deeper sip of beer

"So I got David up, and Austin and Mason woke up, too I wanted Austin to stay back with Mason, but there was no chance of that, so we all set out to follow her"

Mitch could ihtning bugs and heavy suardens

"She walked right over Mah the hollyhocks Through the this noise, a kind of huuess you could say I think there ords mixed in there so toward the carriage house Seee house anyway And she turned, and she looked back And her face"

"What?"

"Like last spring again," he said, and let out a little breath "She looked insane Horror-, but it was horrible And for a minute, when she looked at me and I looked back, it was so cold, I saw , and I started after her"

"Started after her? An insane ghost? You had to be scared"

"Not so uess Really fascinated I had toknowBut Mason started screaht sootten him, which was stupid since she was up ahead and he was behind me Farther behindback, and there was Mason on the ground with his foot bleeding And Austin&039;s running back to the tent for a T-shirt or so but our jockeys David and I were trying to carry hi out like the wrath of God"

He laughed then, eyes twinkling at Mitch "You should&039;ve seen her She&039;s wearing these little cotton shorts and soer back then, and it&039;s flying as she ca ass And I see - the others didn&039;t, but I see she&039;s got randdaddy&039;s pistol I tell you what, if it had been so else, she&039;d have run it off But when she saas what, more or less, she shoved the pistol in the waistband of those little shorts, around the back She picked Mason up, told us all to get some clothes on And we all piled into the car to take Mason into the ER for stitches"

"You never said you&039;d seen the gun" Roz stepped into the library

"I didn&039;t think you wanted the others to know"

She walked right to him, bent down, and kissed the top of his head "Didn&039;t want you to know, either You always saw too much" She turned her cheek, left it on top of Harper&039;s head as she looked at Mitch "A?"

"No You could sit down if you have a otten this story fro your version"

"I can&039;t add much The boys wanted to sleep out God knohy as it was hot as hell and buggy with it But boys do like to pitch a tent As I wanted to be able to keep an eye on things, and hear the so I could have ht in the yard," Harper objected "How et in?"

"Plenty, and as events proved just that, it ise of ht Once they settled down, I drifted off to sleep rabbed my daddy&039;s pistol, which in those days I kept on the top shelf of my bedroom closet Got the bullets out of ot there, Harper and David were carting Mason, and his little foot was bleeding I had to tell the at once Took the baby in, cleaned up his foot, and saas going to need stitches I got the story on the way to the hospital"

Mitch nodded, then looked up froe house?"

She set back, settle theun?"

"I did, in case what they&039;d seen was ht"

"I was old enough to go with you," Harper objected "You shouldn&039;t have gone out there alone"

She cocked her head at hi to see, and I can&039;t tell you if I felt anything, genuinely, or if I was still so worked up I thought I did"

"What did you think?"

"That it was cold, and it shouldn&039;t have been And I feltit sounds h the place top to botto there"

"When was the place converted?"

"Ohhmm" She closed her eyes to think "Around the turn of the twentieth century Reginald Harper was known for wanting the latest things, and autoe house for a tie house beca on the second floor But it would&039;ve been later, uest cottage by randfather"

"So it&039;s unlikely she would have stayed there, or visited the gardener there, as those dates are after first sightings What would&039;ve been kept in there while it was an actual carriage house?"

"Buggies, some tack, I suppose Tools?"

"An odd place for her to go"

"I alondered if she died there," Harper coured she&039;d let me know once I moved in"

Mitch&039;s attention sharpened on him "Have you had any experiences there?"

"Nope She doesn&039;t have e Hey, it&039;s snowing"

He popped up to go to the"Maybe it&039;ll stick You need ht now, thanks for the time"

"No problem Later"

Roz shook her head as he walked out "He&039;ll head right outside, try to scrape up enough for a snowball so he can throw it at David So chicken and dus if you&039;d like to stay, wait for this snow to peter out again"

"It&039;s a foolish s I&039;ve ress, the last week or so I&039; out of candidates, those who&039;re documented, in any case, for Amelia"

She wandered to his work board, studied the photos, the charts, the notes "And when you run out of candidates who are docu outside the box Off topic, how do you feel about basketball?"

"In ay?"

"In the going to a gaa I could talk you into going with ame?"

"Casual, lots of other people, a specific form of entertainment" He sood place to start And youthan a quiet dinner for two But if you prefer the latter, I find ht after next"

"A basketball ga"

LILY SAT ONthe Bokhara in Roz&039;s bedroo Lily&039;s mother had her head in the closet

"Just try the eyeshadow, Roz" Hayley&039;s voice was"I kneas the wrong color for ht it, but I just couldn&039;t stop myself It&039;ll look awesome on you, won&039;t it, Stella?"

"It will"

"I&039;ve got enough makeup of my own for three wo it She wasn&039;t entirely sure how her personal space had come to be invaded by females She just wasn&039;t used to females

"Oh, my God! Youhave to wear these!"

Hayley pulled out the pants David had talked Roz into buying - and which, to date, had never been on her body again "I certainly don&039;t"

"Roz, are you kidding?" She waved them at Stella "Look at these"

Stella did "I couldn&039;t get my hips in those with a crowbar"

"Sure you could, they stretch" Hayley de as you have breasts But these are too long for you You know that sweater I got for Christave me? It&039;d be fabulous with these pants"

"Then you take the theet the sweater"

"I&039; your sweater I have plenty of my own And for heaven&039;s sake, this is just a basketball ga like the co jeans"

Deflated, Hayley dropped onto the bed beside Stella "She&039;s a hardcase"

"Here, I&039;ll use your eyeshadow We&039;ll consider it a cos?"

Roz shifted her gaze in the ing the skin off my back?"

"Deal" Hayley leaped up, and when Lily reached toward her, scooped the baby on the fly Settling Lily on her hip, she began to go through Roz&039;s everyday jewelry box one-handed "What top are you wearing?"

"I don&039;t know Soreen cashreen th"

Roz considered as she worked on her eyes "Fine That&039;ll work"

"All right, thenthese" Hayley held up silver spiral dangles "Shoes?" she asked, turning to Stella

"Those black leather half boots with the stubby heel"