A Sound Among the Trees (22 page)

By ten o’clock that morning, Marielle and Caroline had moved the long table into the family room and brought in Adelaide’s sewing machine and notions baskets. They had also spread out the uniform pieces, all in varying stages of completion. Adelaide said the old drawing room would give them all more room to move about, but Marielle wondered if there was another reason they weren’t going to be sewing in the parlor.

Her ponderings were proven correct the moment Pearl stepped into Holly Oak’s foyer at ten thirty, her arms full of cake, a sewing basket, and past issues of
Southern Living
. “We’re not in the parlor, are we?” she asked as Marielle welcomed her inside. Marielle told her they’d be working in the old drawing room.

“Oh, thank heaven! Lordamercy, I almost didn’t come!” She handed the magazines to Marielle. “These are for Adelaide, sweetie, so she doesn’t go plum crazy with boredom watching us sew. Where’s the injured little darling?”

Pearl swept past Marielle into the family room, where Adelaide and Caroline sat on a leather sofa. Caroline had her legs tucked up underneath her, and Adelaide had a couple of bed pillows under her arm. Marielle followed her inside. Pearl set the cake and the basket on the long table and then dashed over to Adelaide with barely a nod to Caroline. “Oh, my dear. And how are we doing today?”

“We’re doing fine, Pearl.”

“Oh, lovely. I brought my
Southern Living
s for you, dear. I cut out the recipes, of course, but you don’t like entertaining anyway so you won’t miss them.” She turned to Caroline. “Hello there. I am Pearl Sibley, Adelaide’s oldest and dearest—well, not oldest because I’m only seventy-nine, but—”

Pearl clamped her mouth shut. When she opened it again, one word fell out. “Caroline.”

“Hello, Pearl,” Caroline said with a gentle nod of her head.

“Lordamercy. It’s Caroline.” Pearl turned to Marielle, who stood a few feet behind her. “Marielle, it’s Caroline.”

“Yes. We’ve met.” Marielle said.

Pearl turned to face the couch again. “My stars! Caroline!” She rushed forward and pulled Caroline to her feet to embrace her. Then she stepped back with her hands on Caroline’s shoulders. “Look at you! Why, you don’t look a day over fifty. Maybe fifty-five. You know, I saw you at poor Sara’s funeral, and I thought to myself, that girl is finally looking her age. But not today. Why, today you look near radiant. Doesn’t she, Adelaide?”

Adelaide opened her mouth—to agree or disagree, it was impossible for Marielle to tell. Pearl went on before Adelaide could speak.

“Are you here for more than a day? Because if you are here for more than a day, you should come to my jewelry party Friday night. That’s in two days. Marielle, you should come too. You should both come. Adelaide, dear, I’d ask you but I know you’ll just say no.”

“Yes, I’m here for more than a day, but I’m not sure I’m ready for a
jewelry party yet. Thank you for the invitation, though. That’s very kind.” Caroline sat back down on the couch.

“Well, this is just splendid! Will you be sewing with us, Caroline? I think it would be so much fun if you did. I’ve been brushing up the last few days on my Singer. Like getting back on a bike.”

“Yes, I thought I might.”

“Goody. I am sure there is something we can find for you to do, isn’t there, Adelaide?”

“Caroline has actually done quite a bit of sewing, Pearl. I don’t think we will have any trouble finding something for her to do.” Adelaide sat forward on the couch, and Marielle moved to help her stand. “Now then. Let me show you girls what needs to be done. We need to move Pearl’s caramel cake into the kitchen, though.”

Caroline stood as well, and Marielle reached for the cake. As she left for the kitchen, Pearl began to ask Caroline where she had been the last few years and what she had been doing. She was still pumping Caroline for details when Marielle returned a few minutes later.

“So you became a nun?” Pearl was saying. “Because I didn’t know you could do that after living like, well, like you have lived. Because, I mean you’ve slept with so many men and had a child and all.”

“Good Lord, Pearl—,” Adelaide said.

“No, I didn’t become a nun,” Caroline replied, lifting a uniform coat off the table. “I spent some time with some. At a convent. Turned out to be just what I needed. But I didn’t become a nun.”

“Really? Well, isn’t that something? Did you hear that, Marielle? She wanted to become a nun but they wouldn’t let her.” Pearl turned back to the table. “But we’re glad you’re here instead of kneeling in a church for hours on end! So glad. What a nice surprise!”

“How about if we get started?” Adelaide said.

For the next few minutes, Adelaide showed them the hand sewing that needed to be done and the few seams that were left to do and all the
linings that had to be tacked down. Marielle was shown how to attach the buttons, and she settled onto the couch next to Adelaide to begin the task. Adelaide watched her sew the first few and told her she was doing a fine job. Caroline took on the hems and lining, and Pearl sat at the machine and sewed up the remaining open seams. They would work on the gold trim and braid that afternoon.

An hour had passed, with Pearl providing a running commentary on the social scene in Fredericksburg, when the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get that,” Marielle stood and put the jacket she was working on on the cushion next to her.

“Oh! I think I might know who that is,” Pearl said.

“What do you mean?” Adelaide looked up from taking a peek at Marielle’s work.

“I invited someone to lunch.”

All eyes turned to her.

“Who did you invite, Pearl?” Adelaide asked.

“It’s a surprise.”

The doorbell rang again, and Marielle walked quickly to the foyer and opened the door. Standing on the welcome mat was a stout, smiling woman in a powder blue sweat suit trimmed in white.

Eldora Meeks.

delaide heard a woman’s voice, one that she recognized but couldn’t place. She heard the front door close and Marielle saying something. Footsteps sounded on the foyer’s tile floor. Caroline took a step toward the drawing room doors.

“Who is here, Pearl?” Caroline sounded anxious. There were few people in Fredericksburg her daughter wanted to see; Adelaide was fairly certain of that.

But before Pearl could answer, Marielle was showing the guest into the drawing room.

It had been more than a decade since Adelaide had seen Eldora Meeks. But the woman hadn’t changed much in all those years. Adelaide would’ve known the woman anywhere.

“Eldora …,” Adelaide breathed.

Eldora turned to her. “Hello, Adelaide. It’s so nice to see you again.”

“Yes!” Pearl was triumphant. “Eldora is here!” She turned to Caroline. “I don’t think you’ve ever met my cousin, Caroline. This is Eldora Meeks. She’s clairvoyant.”

Eldora, smiling, thrust her hand toward Caroline. “Nice to meet you, Caroline.”

Caroline took it tentatively.

“And Marielle you’ve already met,” Pearl was saying, but Adelaide’s eyes were on Eldora and Caroline. Their hands were still touching, their handshake frozen for a moment as if time had stopped at their hands.

Then Eldora abruptly pulled her hand away, gulping a breath of air as she did so. She smiled at Caroline, a mixture of awe and surprise on her face. “Very nice to meet you,” she said again.

“Likewise,” Caroline said, but she stared at Eldora as if she felt differently.

“I’m having sandwiches delivered from Pandora’s at noonish,” Pearl announced. “So we’ll have some time to chat before we eat. Adelaide, I told Eldora what you told me in the hospital and—”

Adelaide cut her off. “Pearl, could I see you in the kitchen for a moment?” Adelaide didn’t wait for an answer. She turned to the drawing room doors and was halfway across the foyer tiles when Pearl caught up with her.

“What is it, dear?”

Adelaide waited until they were in the kitchen. Then she drew Pearl close to her. “Why didn’t you tell me you had asked Eldora to come today?”

“Adelaide, you seem upset with me. I only did what you asked me to. You told me you wanted to see Eldora again. I invited her over. I thought you’d be grateful.”

Adelaide sighed. “Did you really think I’d want to have Eldora come over with Marielle and Caroline here?”

Pearl lifted her chin. “I had no idea Caroline was at Holly Oak. Seems to me you could’ve told me
that
. And as for Marielle, I don’t see what difference that makes. Marielle and Eldora have already met. If you’re upset, it’s your own fault for not telling me Caroline was here, dear.”

“What on earth do you mean, Marielle and Eldora have already met?”

Pearl brought a hand up to her mouth. “Oh. Oh, never mind. Just never mind about that.” Pearl started to walk away, but Adelaide used her good arm to stop her.

“Marielle has already met Eldora?” Adelaide asked. “When?”

Pearl patted her arm. “You know what? This really isn’t any of my
business. I just try to be a good neighbor, that’s all. Marielle asked to speak with Eldora, and I arranged it when she came to have lunch with me. But it’s not really something I would know anything about. That’s probably between you and her. And Eldora. And Carson.”

Pearl was out of the kitchen before Adelaide could stop her again.

“What is she going to
do
here, Pearl?” Adelaide said as they walked, her voice a rasping whisper.

“Take a reading on the house, of course,” Pearl whispered back.

They arrived back in the drawing room. Only Caroline was still there.

“Where’s Eldora?” Adelaide asked.

“Mother, what is that woman doing here?” Caroline’s tone was gentle but urgent.

“Where is she?”

Caroline nodded toward the open doors Adelaide had just come through. “She went off to explore the house. Marielle followed her. What is she doing here? Is this … is this about Susannah?”

Adelaide looked over her shoulder. She could hear low voices now in the parlor. Pearl apparently heard them too.

“Oh my lands, Adelaide. Eldora and Marielle are in the parlor. I think I will just wait here.” Pearl walked over to the sofa and sat down quickly.

“Mother, please tell me what’s going on,” Caroline said.

“I just … Something happened the day I fell, Caroline. I can’t explain it. I—”

“But what is she doing here?”

“Eldora has special sight,” Pearl said, leaning over to speak as softly as she could. “She can talk to the spirit world. Well, sometimes she can. Sometimes she can just see it. Sometimes she can hear it. Sometimes she can see ghosts. That’s why Adelaide wanted her to come. Because of Susannah. Susannah pushed her down the stairs.”

“Pearl!” Adelaide exclaimed.

“Well, that’s what you told me!”

“That is not what I told you! I said it felt like I had been pushed. I didn’t say I had been.”

Caroline looked first to Pearl and then to Adelaide. Her countenance was calm but set. “Is that true, Mother? Did you ask Eldora to come here because you think there’s a ghost in this house?”

“It’s not as simple as that—”

“No, indeed. Ghosts are complex. Eldora told me that.” Pearl sat back on the couch, satisfied.

Caroline ignored Pearl, her gaze still fixed on Adelaide. “Then tell me what you think it is.”

“I don’t know what it is! I thought I did, but now I’m not sure. Eldora had been here once before, ten years ago. She sensed a presence inside Holly Oak. She believes it was my great-grandmother, stuck here in some kind of self-imposed limbo because of what happened here at this house.”

“And you believed her?” Caroline asked, sounding incredulous. Adelaide was struck dumb for just a second. Caroline sounded like the parent. And she, the child.

“No, I didn’t believe her. I thought it was something else. Something else entirely.”

Caroline blinked at her. “Thought
what
was something else? What?”

“But now she thinks it
is
Susannah, don’t you, Adelaide?” Pearl interjected. “Because Susannah pushed her down the stairs because she let Marielle go poking about the studio.”

Caroline stared at her, and Adelaide saw flashes of the young girl who had left Holly Oak at seventeen, hating it, hating her. “What have you told Marielle about this house, Mother?” Caroline said evenly.

“I said nothing about a ghost—”

“That’s true, she didn’t. Eldora told her about the ghost,” Pearl interrupted. “Well, actually first it was me—”

Adelaide turned to her friend. “Pearl, please. I’d like to talk to my daughter alone.”

Pearl frowned but rose from the couch and left reluctantly.

“What did you tell Marielle about this house?” Caroline repeated. “I’d like to know.”

Adelaide’s arm began to throb. “I never said there is a ghost at Holly Oak. Pearl told her that. You remember how Pearl is. I told her it’s like the house doesn’t know how to let go of its past. It wants to but it can’t. I knew Marielle would hear the rumors around town that the house is cursed. Sooner or later she would hear it. I told her that the people who think there’s a curse on this house are wrong.”

Caroline breathed in and out. A breath of resignation. Or maybe indignation. “Are they wrong? Think about it, Mother? Are those people wrong?”