Ever After Read online

  “Yes, that does sound good.” My eyelids were heavy.

  “A set of service stairs at the rear of the house allows access to each floor,” he said.

  A long hallway stretched toward a door with a glass window.

  He pressed a button, his eyes flitting back to the window where I had seen the woman. Despite the summer heat, he shivered. Thomas relaxed as the elevator lowered, closing off the view to the dank fourth floor.

  We stepped out of the metal box.

  “After you’re rested, we’ll venture out to the grounds. It’s actually well-lit in the evening and quite beautiful.” Thomas escorted me to a set of white French doors with glass panes overlooking the vestibule and grand entrance.

  “The entrance to the house.” I might not get lost if I stayed on the first and second floors.

  “Here are your rooms. First door on the left at the top of the stairs. Not hard to find.” Looking pleased with himself, Thomas stepped back and clasped his hands at the hem of his suit jacket.

  I turned and stopped cold. I dropped my arm from his and held onto the doorframe for support.

  We’d stopped in front of a Queen’s quarters.

  I’d walked through bedrooms of grandly furnished houses on tours in school, but the thought of resting my head on a pillow in one of them…no way.

  “This was Ava’s favorite place in the house. Under her express instructions, you are to stay here. She said you’d grow to love the room.” Thomas adjusted his collar and looked both ways down the hall.

  “This is too much.” Just one night spent here would be a dream come true. I was afraid if I stepped in, the whole scene would fall away, and I’d wake up.

  The feminine curtains and bedcovering contrasted the dark, masculine furniture. Beautiful, yet melancholy.

  “Ava prided herself in being a great judge of character, God rest her soul.” Thomas bowed his head.

  Beautiful images of trees were carved into the four posters of the bed, and the satin bed covers were softer than the one silk scarf my mama owned.

  Four windows filled the opposing wall, spanning from floor to ceiling. Silver sashes scooped back white satin drapes, giving a commanding view of the property.

  Ten-inch crown molding bordered silver and white papered walls. A huge, darkly masculine four-poster bed covered in matching white satin blankets and pillows spanned the north wall.

  The bathroom was almost the same size as the bedroom with a walk-in closet overwhelmed with clothes. One of the black wrought iron wall decorations probably cost more than every piece of furniture in my apartment.

  “This room held special sentiment to the original owners. No one has slept here for over one hundred years.” Staying just outside the threshold, Thomas’s eyes were glued on the carpet.

  “She could have chosen any other room for me.” I turned to Thomas.

  He looked through the windows behind me. “What Ava wants, Ava gets.”

  Weird. She was dead, and they were still scared of her.

  The living quarters, other than modernized bathroom fixtures, were perfectly preserved in their original elegance.

  The mattress was so soft it had to be full of real feathers. “Whose room was it originally?”

  “The honeymoon suite of a young couple in 1879.” His smile fell, and his jaw went slack with a look of dismay. His pocket watch stole his attention. He huffed.

  A strikingly pretty female in a ridiculous black and white maid uniform rushed Thomas from the staircase. She pressed a tendril of pale blond hair behind a perfectly shaped ear and clasped her hands behind her back. Giving me a quick curtsy, she avoided eye contact with Thomas. “First of all, don’t freak out. I told Cole, and that’s the first thing he did, freak out. Of course, you know he’s going to freak out. That’s his reaction to everything.”

  “Kaitlyn, Allie Knowles. Miss Knowles, Kaitlyn, one of the housekeepers.” He regarded Kaitlyn with dark eyes. “What seems to be the problem, my dear?”

  “It seems we’ve…” The girl’s face pinched up, and she looked to the floor. “I cannot believe I’m saying this.”

  “What did you do?” Thomas leaned closer.

  “Not everything that goes wrong around here is my doing. Either way, it appears…” She paused. “We’ve lost the casket.”

  “Lost the—” Thomas’s face reddened, but he composed himself. “How do you lose a casket?”

  “It was in the parlor near the living room. You know, where the wake was being held.” She made eye contact with Thomas, wincing, waiting.

  “And?” His face went from red to purple.

  “And now it’s not?”

  Kaitlyn bit her bottom lip, staring at an interesting place on the carpet.

  “With all due respect, in the future, please speak with me about these matters in private. It’s terribly inappropriate to burden Miss Knowles with such morbid occurrences.” Thomas shook his head disdainfully. “Please excuse me. These tyrants need to put a leash on their kids. One of them must have rolled it—her—out of the parlor.”

  “Because that’s a good explanation. It doesn’t explain why the chairs weren’t moved to make way for it to be rolled through.” She followed behind Thomas who waddled down the hall.

  I leaned against the wrought iron banister.

  Down stairs, Kaitlyn and Thomas headed into a room Thomas hadn’t taken me into. Probably where the body was supposed to be.

  A few children ran through the vestibule, giggling and throwing dirt clods at one another. Any one of them could have rolled the casket into another room and moved the chairs back as a prank.

  Resolving to take a shower, and possibly get in a quick nap, I turned back to my ridiculously huge set of rooms. A happy couple in an embrace standing on freshly polished hardwood floors beside the large four-poster bed faded before my eyes.

  True love.

  It either existed in dreams or lived in times before I was born.

  Forgetting the story, I stepped into the bathroom. Mirrors formed the walls reflecting my flushed olive-toned cheeks. Despite the flowerbed ordeal, ghostly visions, and the lost dead body, my eyes sparkled. A week ago, I would have thrown my head back and horse-laughed if someone had told me I’d board a plane or ever spend the night in a house like this.

  Hot, steamy water in the huge clawfoot tub soaked away the day’s exhaustion.

  * * * *

  Scrubbed up and refreshed, I wrapped a blanket-sized white towel around me and rifled through my scant luggage. My spirits drooped. I had the wardrobe of a bum compared to my elegant jewel-ensconced surroundings. A pair of khaki capris and a creamy yellow sleeveless shirt were the best casual I had, so they had to do. I tossed them out of the suitcase and dried off.

  I called Mama.

  “Tell me everything. What’s it like? Is the house big? Are the people being nice to you? Did you make it through the plane ride okay? I mean, that was your first plane ride. I should have warned you that they can be bumpy.” Before Mama stopped talking, I’d forgotten her first question.

  “I’m fine, Mama. It was a short plane ride. And the head groundskeeper, Thomas Warren, has been wonderful. I did just get here, though.”

  “Well, good. I was worried you’d be all by yourself. So, have you found out why they asked you there?”

  “Not enough to matter. So far, I’ve been on a tour of a ridiculously huge old house. It’s like a museum. Slightly smaller than the Biltmore Estate, but not much.”

  “Oh, honey. You love houses like that.” Mama sighed happily. “At least if it is a mistake, it will be a nice vacation. You earned it.”

  “Yeah.” I paused. “Well, let me call you back after I find out more. Thomas expects me downstairs soon for an outside tour.”

  “Don’t forget to call. Love you, sweetie.”

  “I won’t. Love you, Mama.”

  * * * *

  I woke from a dreamless nap.

&n
bsp; When I pulled the door to my room shut, two male voices filtered from the first floor.

  “…and you knew how it would make me feel. Do you have to adhere to every one of that old bat’s ridiculous wishes?” The masculine voice echoed through the halls.

  “This is no time to start showing your insubordination,” Thomas said. “You know just as well as I that if her lawyer finds one thing out of line, it could mean the end of our stay here.”

  “I’m sure if you’d explained to her that the room was permanently unusable or something, she would have agreed to any one of the other rooms. She is used to the accommodation level of a trailer park. You could have put her in the broom closet, and she’d have probably been ecstatic.”

  Trailer park. Oh, this guy and I were so not going to get along.

  “I understand the sort of toll this must be taking on you, but at some point, you have to let go of this obsession.” That was Thomas.

  “Obsession?” the opposing voice seethed. “How dare you?”

  “You’ve got to stop letting everything that involves her do this to you. Maybe it would be best if you spent some time away from here. I have things to tend to, so we’ll take up where this conversation left off after I give her the grounds tour.”

  I stepped five banister rails down.

  Under the second floor, Thomas became visible in a doorway.

  I didn’t make it a habit to eavesdrop, but I didn’t know how to proceed. If I went back into my room, Thomas might hear the door shut, and I couldn’t just unhear what I’d heard.

  “So, what? You’re firing me now?”

  “No, just offering suggestions to make things easier for you.”

  “There’s only one thing that will make this easier, and she may as well be dead.”

  At the bottom of the staircase, I cleared my throat to announce my arrival.

  Thomas glanced up and jerked the door shut on the other voice. The bones in his knuckles protruded as he gripped the doorknob. “Ah, Miss Knowles. Are you ready to get the grounds tour under way?”

  “We are not done discussing this,” a man behind the door said.

  Thomas smiled. “Ahem. I hope you found everything you needed.”

  “Yes, the amenities were beyond my expectations.” The trailer park statement still ate at me.

  “Good. Then if you will, follow me.” He relaxed.

  “You can call me Allie.” From the trailer park, I wanted to add, but Thomas didn’t deserve my sarcasm. My blood boiled.

  The man behind the door knew nothing about me.

  “Then Allie it is. Right this way.” He reached for the rear door at the end of a long hallway of paintings and held it open for me to pass through.

  I was too mad to care about any of the painted faces.

  A long covered patio spread off the back of the house. It could have held forty people shoulder to shoulder. Surrounding its boundaries was a black wrought iron fence twisted into various flowers and leaves. We zigzagged between tables set a few feet apart.

  Thomas told me about Ava’s love for hosting parties in her early years as I stewed in my anger. When we reached the end of the patio, Thomas hushed as I took in the grand view.

  Staring out at the tranquil scene, I relaxed. A little. The mean guy’s words ate at me.

  The break in the middle of the patio led down three semicircular steps. Straight ahead, a fountain sprayed water as high as the trees. A flowerbed dense with yellow blooms surrounded it. A long green wall of roses speckled with red and pink stretched between the pool area and a gravel walkway leading farther back on the property. Along the rose wall, a singular entrance allowed people into a maze.

  “To pass time, you can read the plaque and study the map. Trust me. If you venture in, it’ll take hours to find your way out.” Thomas chuckled. He wiped his face with a white cloth and took deep breaths as we walked by tall walls of fragrant roses, but his time-crinkled mouth turned up into a smile. “Amazingly enough, one of the original owner’s farmhands designed it. He was quite an intelligent prodigy, they say. It’s one of the property’s most awe-inspiring features. No other maze within miles is as large or complicated. I’d take you inside, but even I don’t have it memorized.”

  Lampposts rose at intervals inside the maze, lighting the twilight sky. Walkways lined with marigolds and pompous grass took us around the backside toward darkened grounds. Floral scented air began to mix with that of animal droppings. A tranquil breeze caressed my face.

  It was the country.

  “These are the barns, stables, and storage sheds.” Thomas pointed at each one, considering me thoughtfully. “What do you think so far?”

  We’d stepped just out of the protection of the lamplight, but the structures were still visible in the distance.

  “I think you are building up my hopes for nothing.” I hadn’t seen the weed eater guy again yet either.

  “Ava poured her time and finances into everything you see around you. And she paid well to maintain it.” The house, the maze, the pool, the large farm had to have been pruned by obsessive-compulsive elves. “She inherited it just before my nephew and I moved here. She almost sold it due to its dilapidated conditions, but after my nephew’s love of the place became more apparent to her, she poured more and more of her time into restoring it to its original grandeur. And I’m sure she wouldn’t have left it to someone unworthy.”

  So Thomas had a nephew. Maybe he’d be nicer than the mean guy in the parlor.

  “What exactly did she do? I mean, how did she come about her fortune?”

  “Cosmetics. Some herbal type of tincture that reverses the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.” He smiled, his quote obviously a commercial or advertisement. “The orchards used to be just one source of her wealth. Who knew that an apple had some sort of magical ingredient?”

  “Apple orchards?”

  “Yes, but they’re no longer in use. They’re fields of dead grass now.”

  “Who has overseen her business since she passed?”

  “Cole. He will continue to do so till you get the hang of things, of course,” Thomas said with a lift of his brow.

  “Cole? Is that your nephew?”

  “Yes. He keeps to himself. The loner type. Probably why he was Ava’s favorite person. They were just alike.” Thomas clutched his hands primly at the hem of his suit coat. “I guess he was the closest thing she had to a son or grandson, given her age.”

  “In that case, why didn’t she leave everything to him?”

  “He refused.” Thomas pressed his lips together.

  “Oh.” That was crazy.

  “Don’t worry about him. It’s Ava you have to make happy. Despite the fact she’s not exactly with us, believe me she’s left direct orders involving you.” Thomas labored forward.

  “Now you’ve raised the bar. Impress a dead lady.” My insides chilled. “If this whole thing isn’t a mistake, and she truly has chosen me, then I think she’s setting me up to fail miserably.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. All she’s asked is that we keep you here.” His voice waivered on the last three words.

  “So, to make her happy, all I have to do is stay? And what if I don’t want to?”

  “Oh, you wouldn’t be held against your will, but you would forfeit everything she’s left you. Then it’d just go to the next in line.” Thomas gave me a meaningful look as we stopped. The purple haze of twilight had settled on the stone boundary of the grounds.

  “And who might that be?”

  Thomas looked over the countryside. “The state. And with the condition of the government these days, they’ll just piss away the money.”

  “There’s really that much? Her company must still be doing well.”

  “The money has only snowballed. What about you? You’re too young to have finished schooling.”

  Yeah, us trailer park babies couldn’t be expected to carry on business at a corporate level.
/>
  But if this was real, I was in trouble. I’d never signed anything more serious than my college registration.

  Thomas’s stare was quiet scrutiny.

  “I know what you’re thinking. If this is real, how am I going to fill her business shoes with only a bachelor’s degree in psychology?”

  “Psychology. Hmm, maybe you could help me with Cole and his temper tantrums.” Thomas looked to his shoes and cleared his throat. “And I hope you won’t try to fill Ava’s shoes. You can find your place here. In the end, there wasn’t much to it. She hired people to take care of the big stuff. She rarely had to do anything other than sign documents. If you have questions on any of them, I’ll have Cole look them over before you sign. If he’d take the damned bar, he could be the most infuriating lawyer in these parts. He can make quite an argument.”

  So far, I wasn’t exactly impressed.

  Thomas continued to a little gate beside the barn. It led to a quaint little cottage nestled in the trees. Behind it, headstones like rotten teeth protruded from the ground, and eight or ten mausoleums stood off in the distance.

  “That’s the family graveyard. Only Rollinses are buried there.”

  “Not to bring up dreadful things, but I’m curious. Did you find the casket?”

  Thomas almost choked on air. He straightened his starchy bowtie. “Oh, um, that. Yes, we recovered the casket. It was in the sitting room in a corner. I guess some of the kids thought it was an amusement park ride. As mean as Ava was, I’m surprised she didn’t sit up and throttle them. That’d have been a sight to see. Speaking of the casket. Ava assigned me a time block to sit with her at the wake. What Ava wants, she gets. Even in death. And I still have a few calls to make, so if you wouldn’t find it too rude of me, I need to head back in to the land line.”

  “Would it be okay if I took a walk? I need a few minutes to process everything.”

  “Don’t venture too far, and stay on the flagstone walk. There’s always tomorrow morning for the farther boundaries of the property. Dinner is served at seven, which you can take in your room. I expect you to eat and keep up your strength. The next few days will be taxing.”