Mirror of Shadows (8 page)

“Are you sure about this? I don’t want you to find out the hard way that you were wrong about him.”

“I am sure and your concern is duly noted,” she said with a smile and a tinge of stubbornness.

“I almost forgot,” he said, pulling out a white envelope from his jacket pocket. “These are for you. They were Rose’s personal items,” he said sadly.

Ella poured the contents into her hand. A slender band of platinum, a matching engagement ring, and a silver locket with a long chain attached. These items were familiar to Ella. She’d never seen her grandmother without them.

A tear rolled down Ella’s cheek and landed in her hand on the locket. Her grandmother had told a small Ella many times what these tokens of her life meant to her. The engagement ring and wedding band were from the only man she would ever love. The locket held a picture of Ella on one side and Ella’s father on the other, to keep her family close to her heart—always. The locket had been a gift from her grandfather. It was adorned with an engraved lily. Like a coat of arms, the lily had been associated with the Grey family for many years, her grandmother had told her.

She slipped the rings onto her bare hands and slipped the locket pendant over her head and round her neck. Her tear-stained face was red as Marlin reached out and pulled her to him in a big bear hug. There were no words, just silence for a well-loved woman they both cared deeply for.

Boo broke up the gloomy mood as she walked back and forth on the chaise, rubbing her face on both of them until they pulled away and gave her some attention.

Ella said her goodbyes to Marlin and waved as he drove away in the gray, drizzling weather. She stood at the door until she could no longer see Marlin’s car, holding the locket in one hand and Boo in the other. The finality of her grandmother’s death sank in and consumed her while she wept in bed the rest of that day and night with Boo at her side.

*****

The next few days Ella had no stamina for life. Crippled by the weight of the depression that had hit her hard, she spent those days in three modes of crying, sleeping, and somewhere in between, each of which melded into one another. Boo only left her side to eat and do her business, but quickly returned to cuddle in under her chin against her chest or in the crook of one of her arms.

Jeremy was wonderful during this sad time and though she did not eat much of what he brought up to her, his kindness did not go unnoticed. He didn’t pester her to get out of bed and on with her life; he didn’t insist on her talking about what she was feeling or tell her what she should be feeling; he just let her grieve in her own way. It was as if he knew what she needed and let her heal. He was there if she needed him but otherwise, he let her be.

With each day she grew a little more interested in what was going on outside her room and finally she started to venture out back into the world. Her first outing away from the house was to town just after the sun had gone down. She had lost a coin toss with Jeremy and was to pick up Chinese food at Chopsticks on Main Street. Main Street was blocked off for some parade the following morning so she had to park quite a ways away.

As with any small town, things get pretty quiet at night and Ella felt as if she were the only one out and about this evening, until a strange feeling came over her and made her shiver. She heard footsteps behind her in the distance. She turned onto another side street, seeing the street light of Main just ahead, when the footsteps behind her sounded much closer. Were they gaining on her? She wasn’t sure. She picked up her pace as she turned the corner onto Main. She thought she would feel safer on Main with all the lighting from the storefronts, but she quickly realized that the town was practically shut down. The store owners knew the street would be shut down for the parade and most opted to close up early that evening, leaving the windows dark. Little alcoves, indentions in the buildings for doors, and dark alleyways made for a barrage of terrifying possibilities and her imagination wreaked havoc on her. Noises bounced around the street and in some places were intensified by the features of the buildings.

She couldn’t tell anymore if the footsteps were two paces or two blocks behind. Her heart was pounding loudly in her ears when she finally spied the neon chopsticks blinking ahead not more than half a block away. A sigh of relief turned into a half-scream of terror when a hand pushed her hard into one of the doorways of a nearby store. She turned to face her pursuer, finding herself gasping again for air when a rather scary looking old man turned out to be the culprit.

He smelled of cigarettes and his teeth were stained yellow from them. What hair he had was silver gray and wisps of it were strewn across his shiny, oddly-shaped head in a poor attempt to make it seem he had more hair than he really had. He was tall and bony, rather like a walking corpse in a designer suit of some indistinguishable color. He seemed to be catching his breath hoarsely when he exclaimed, “Ms. McKaye, I’ve been hoping to run into you.”

“Who are you? You scared me,” she said finally catching her breath.

“I did? So sorry. I’m Harold Morton,” he said, not sounding all that sorry to Ella.

“Do I know you?”

“No, but I knew your grandmother.”

“Oh. I hope you didn’t stalk her on dark streets too,” she said sharply.

“No, not to my knowledge. I just happened to see you and I hoped I might speak with you a moment.”

“Um, well, I’m supposed to be picking up dinner so I really only have a moment,” she said before she could really think.

“I’ll make it short then. I was hoping I might persuade you to sell Grey Manor and its surrounding property to me. After all, the house and its structures are in ill repair and attempts at repairing it will be quite costly. I’m willing to offer you its fair market value plus some. I don’t think you will get a better offer than that from anyone else for such a dilapidated old house. You could take that money and buy yourself a lovely home nearer to town or build yourself a dream house. What do you think; shall I draw up the papers and bring them to you to sign?”

“Mr…Morton, was it? You’re the man who’s been trying to buy the house from my grandmother for years, aren’t you?”

“Uhhh, yes. I am. Your grandmother was a most unreasonable woman. She just let the property sit there unused, unoccupied for years and years. She just refused to see any sense. I almost had her husband persuaded, then he up and died on me, but I’m sure you are a much smarter woman than your grandmother ever was.”

“My grandmother was the smartest woman I ever knew and I wouldn’t sell you something she refused to sell you if I hadn’t a penny in the world,” Ella said angrily.

“You are making a huge mistake, Ms. McKaye. I can make life in this small town very uncomfortable for you. I’m a powerful man around here and I have plenty of money to get what I want.”

“That may be, Mr. Morton, but you won’t be buying my family’s property if I have anything to say about it,” she retorted.

“Mark my words, Ms. McKaye, you will regret this decision. You can count on it.”

“Is that a threat, Mr. Morton?”

The old man glared at her with such hatred that Ella’s skin crawled. He turned and stomped off into the darkness mumbling something Ella couldn’t hear.

When the man was out of sight, Ella took a deep cleansing breath and continued onto Chopsticks, picked up her order, and then headed home.

Chapter 8

Ella yawned and stretched as she made her way down the hall heading for the stairs. She pulled a scrunchy from her robe pocket and pulled her long blonde hair into a makeshift bun and secured it with the scrunchy. She yawned again as she entered the kitchen to find Jeremy in boxers, socks and a t-shirt bopping, gyrating, and softly singing to himself. Ella saw the wires leading to his ears and realized he was dancing and singing to some song on his MP3 player.

She stood in the doorway for a moment watching him. He was always so stoic and reserved and it tickled her to see him letting loose and actually having fun; of course, when he did some kind of mock Michael Jackson turn, he noticed he was not alone in the kitchen and quickly pulled the ear buds from his ears and went back to his reserved and now embarrassed manner.

“Don’t stop on my account,” Ella said as she went to the cupboard for a cup and some much needed coffee. “I’ve been known to sing and dance to my favorite song on occasion too.”

He smirked at her from behind the beginnings of a beard. “Not very professional.”

“Professional?” she exclaimed, half-laughing while tearing a piece of toast into more manageable bite sizes. “You’re in your underwear, Jeremy. That’s probably more unprofessional than dancing around the kitchen. Lighten up. Roommates are going to see personal sides of one another—nothing wrong with that. Besides, I think it would be nice to see this other side of you. Maybe we should let off some steam and go dancing sometime.”

He looked absolutely mortified as he grabbed a dishtowel and held it in front of him as if to hide the fact he was in his underwear. Of course the boxers could be seen from all edges of the dishtowel, making Ella want to giggle at his sudden realization of his lack of pants.

“I don’t dance and I don’t date my boss,” he said abruptly.

She was surprised by his sharp-toned statement. “You seem to dance all right to me,” she said trying to ignore the tone he had used, thinking it had only been because he had been embarrassed.

He looked at her sternly and repeated his first statement. The reiteration miffed Ella. Why was he being so defensive?

“So you’re saying if we went on a date, you’d have to quit your job?”

“No. I’m saying I wouldn’t date you in the first place.”

“Oh!” she said, hurt by the caustic tone and angered by his stubbornness. Hadn’t they been rather close over the last couple of weeks living in the big old house with one another, sharing their meals, watching movies, and with his sweet doting on her while she grieved? What had that been? Her imagination? She had found herself thinking of him often and wanting to share moments of her day with him. She was so sure that he seemed to be reciprocating the feeling. Had she misinterpreted their time together? The thought made her cringe with embarrassment and she quickly gathered up her shattered dignity and exited the kitchen.

*****

Feeling uncomfortable about what had happened that morning, Ella was in a big hurry to avoid Jeremy and get out of house, so she grabbed a list that Jeremy and she had been adding to of small hardware store items, and thought it a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

She tried to put Jeremy and his declaration out of her mind with little success as she meandered up and down the aisles of the hardware store, gathering this and that from the long list.

Trying to kill time, she lingered reading labels, signs, and watching a video demonstration on how to install a toilet. She never planned on installing a toilet, but she found herself engrossed by every step of the procedure. When she had gone up and down every aisle and even revisited several, she took a thorough tour of the nursery department. When she could no longer find any reason to stay, she headed for the checkout counter. Even there, she offered to let two customers go ahead of her claiming they had fewer items and should go first. Finally checked out and having no other excuse to be there, she went to her car and sat there with her keys in hand for a long while thinking on the conversation and how the morning had started out so carefree and ended so troubled and tense. Why was it bothering her so that he didn’t want to date her? She’d never really even thought about them dating until she’d said the words that morning, but he’d been so…opposed to the topic. Had it been such a horrible thought for him to date her?
Fine
– she thought. He certainly wasn’t the only good looking guy around and he certainly wasn’t the easiest guy to get to know. She was probably better off not getting into a complicated relationship…and yet…he was all she could think about—his kindness, and concern when she had been at her lowest. He’d seemed so sweet and loving.

BAM! The car lurched forward and the sound of metal and glass knocked her out of her thoughts of Jeremy. She looked in the rear view mirror and saw nothing but blackness. She got out of the car and stepped towards the back of the car as a young man came around the black, monster-sized truck.

“Oh, geez! I’m so sorry! Are you all right?” a handsome blonde man said.

“What?” she said confused.

“I didn’t even see your little car back there. I’m so sorry. I dropped my phone and
boom
. You aren’t hurt, are you?”

“Uh! No. I’m fine. Although I can’t say the same for my car,” she said as she tried to determine how much damage had been done.

“Let me pull forward and we’ll see how bad it is.”

“Okay,” she said still in a haze of confusion.