Anne Stuart - Shadows At Sunset

She heard the slam of the door echoing through the vast house. It was odd how certain sounds carried—she always knew when Rachel-Ann came home. She brought a nervous energy with her that spread throughout the place, like the charged air before a thunderstorm.

Jilly held very still, listening vainly for the sounds of voices. Nothing. Rachel-Ann was alone, thank God. Had been alone for the last three months. It was aiding her uncertain temper, but it was a step toward recovery.

A moment later she heard a crash and the sound of running footsteps. By the time Jilly was out in the hall Rachel-Ann was halfway up the stairs, thin and ghostlike, her flame-red hair trailing behind her as she raced up the remaining steps, an expression of pure terror on her pale face.

She went straight into Jilly’s arms with a grateful sob, shivering. She was so slight, so fragile, so small, and Jilly wrapped her strong arms around her, making soothing noises. “What’s wrong, sweetie?” she said. “Did you trip over something? I heard a crash.”

“I don’t know! Something must have broken, but I didn’t see what.” Her voice was soft, panicky, but entirely sober.

“Don’t worry about it,” Jilly said in her calmest voice. There wasn’t much left of value at La Casa to break. “What frightened you?”

Rachel-Ann pulled away, staring at her sister in momentary confusion. Her green eyes were huge, staring, but she didn’t look drugged. Jilly breathed a silent sigh of relief. “I don’t know,” her sister said finally. “They were watching me. I could feel them. They watch me all the time. I know you don’t believe me, but they’re there, I can sense them.”

“Are they?” Jilly had learned from past experience that Rachel-Ann hated to be patronized. “You want to come in and tell me about it?”

“Not in that room,” she said, looking toward the master bedroom with an expression akin to horror. “I don’t know how you can sleep in there, knowing what happened.”

“I don’t believe in ghosts,” Jilly said.

“I do. They were watching me a few minutes ago.” Rachel-Ann’s usually soft voice was high-pitched with strain. She’d lost a lot of weight recently, weight she couldn’t afford to lose, and she looked like a frail, red-haired sparrow, lost and frightened.

“Then we’ll go into your room, and I’ll sit with you until you fall asleep.”

Rachel-Ann’s mouth twisted into a smile that was both bitter and longing. “Always the good sister, Jilly. Don’t you ever get tired of us?”

“Never.”

“You don’t need to worry about me. I’m fine in my room. They never come in there. I’ve seen to that.”

“Rachel-Ann, there are no ghosts—”

“Humor me for once, Jilly! They’re there. The only way I can make them go away is to drink, and I’m not ready to pay that price. Just let me go to bed and I’ll be fine in the morning. They don’t usually bother me in the daylight.” Rachel-Ann grimaced. “Don’t look at me that way. I’m not crazy. This house is haunted.”

“Did you talk to your therapist about the ghosts?” Jilly asked.

“What, and have him think I’m crazy?” Rachel-Ann’s laugh was only slightly hysterical. “The ghosts are in this house, not in my mind. But don’t worry about it. They leave you alone for some reason. Be grateful.”

“Maybe I just don’t have enough imagination.”

“Maybe you’re just too levelheaded,” Rachel-Ann said wearily. She gave Jilly a quick hug, and the tremor in her slender arms was pathetic. “See you in the morning, darling. Not too early.”

“I’ll be glad to sit with you….”

“No need,” she said, suddenly breezy. “I’ll be fine.”

Jilly watched as her sister skirted the hallway, putting as much distance between herself and Jilly’s open bedroom door as possible. A moment later she was in her own suite of rooms, the door shut tightly behind her.

Jilly stayed where she was, wondering whether she should go after her. She hadn’t been inside Rachel-Ann’s rooms since her sister had come back from her most recent hospitalization—it was a matter of honor that she wouldn’t search for empty bottles or pill containers. Rachel-Ann said she had a way of keeping the ghosts out, and Jilly couldn’t even begin to guess what that was. Or whether it would work to keep other, more resourceful demons at bay.

She had no idea what time it was—probably after eleven. It had been a piss-poor day. She’d accomplished nothing and only managed to unnerve herself with her abortive visit to her father’s office.

And she’d met Coltrane. A treat she could have happily done without. She was going to have to find a way to either get rid of him, or get him to help her. And he didn’t look like the kind of man who made an effort to help anyone unless there was something in it for him.

She reached up and pulled the pins out of her thick hair, letting it fall down her back in a heavy mass. She’d figure out what to do about Dean and his problems in the morning. At least for tonight she could rest easy, assured that her sister and brother were safe in their own beds, and that Rachel-Ann’s specious ghosts couldn’t come into hers.

“You scared her,” Brenda said in a cross voice. “Haven’t I told you the girl’s fragile? She always has been, ever since she was a child. She reminds me in many ways of myself when I was that age.”

“Honeybunch, you died before you reached that age,” Ted said with a particular lack of tact. “And you were as fragile as an elephant in labor. The girl’s too easily spooked if you ask me.”

“She can see us.”

“So can a lot of people. They don’t turn into raving drunkards because of it,” Ted said. “Most of them figure it’s a trick of the light or something. That girl’s the only one who’s gone around the bend, and if she wasn’t so busy throwing things at us she’d realize we’re just worried about her. We’re perfectly harmless.”

“Perfectly,” Brenda murmured, leaning over to kiss him. “And besides, she shouldn’t be drinking. If we hadn’t shown up when we did she would have taken that drink instead of throwing it at us.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.” Ted shrugged. “She’s poured them before and then left them. It doesn’t really matter. We terrify the poor girl, and it’s not as if we can sit down and explain it to her. We’ll just have to be a little more circumspect. We don’t need to feel guilty.”

“Guilty,” Brenda said in a hollow voice. “No, we wouldn’t want that. Let’s go for a walk, darling. We can sit on the terrace and watch the stars.”

He tucked her arm in his, smiling down at her fondly. “It sounds heavenly, darling.”

“Heavenly,” Brenda echoed. A place she was never going to see. “Any place with you is heaven,” she said.

And Ted leaned down and kissed her.

By late the next afternoon Jilly was in a thoroughly bad mood. If Wednesday had been bad, Thursday was even worse, and the evening didn’t look like it was going to be any improvement. She’d gotten up early, as always. She’d never needed much sleep, and the ornate, swan-shaped bed was more oppressive than comfortable. For years she’d thought about buying a new mattress and box spring, but the swan bed was custom-made and of no standard size, and she couldn’t justify spending so much money on a mattress when she spent so little time there. And as Dean had callously pointed out, the mattress had to at least date from after 1951. The previous one would have been soaked with blood.

Jilly shivered, rubbing her arms in the warm evening air as she sat on the deserted terrace at La Casa. Would it have been too much to ask, to have a good day for once, just to make the ordeal of this evening easier? But no, her job wasn’t overburdened with good days, and today was one of the worst.