CHAPTER FIVE

 

 

Sitting up in bed, Jennifer remained absolutely still as her eyes took in everything in the room. Slowly she breathed a sigh of relief. She was alone.

“How silly, how absolutely silly I am,” she thought. To have allowed herself to get so frightened was new for her. She shook her head in disgust and walked across the room to the windows in the turret. The moonlight on the ocean made it look serene, yet in the quiet of the night she could hear the waves pounding the shore and realized that the calmness of the water was but an illusion. She stood at the windows for some time, watching the sea.

“It is so beautiful here,” she said out loud to nothing in particular. “Instead of enjoying this loveliness I scare myself about it. Such beauty to share with no one. That’s the pity of it. It’s a new life, Jennifer Barrett. Maybe, just maybe, it’ll be a better one.”

She spun around, fingers pressed against her lips. I must be nuts. Not twenty-four hours in a house alone and I’m talking to myself. She laughed aloud as she marched across the room to the dresser where she found her night clothes, changed into them, and got back into bed.

She did decide to leave the lamp on while she slept, however.

The next time she awoke, she was pleasantly surprised to find that it was seven a.m. and the sun was up.

Noticing the lamp still lit in the morning daylight she chuckled to herself about her nervousness of the night before.

By eight-thirty she was dressed in jeans and a fisherman’s knit sweater and downstairs drinking coffee after a breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. How friendly the house seemed today. And much warmer. Last night, the house had seemed so cold and forbidding, she felt almost as if it were now trying to make up for her evening’s fright; to let her know she was welcome.

Great going, Jennifer. Last night you talked out loud to yourself; this morning you’re thinking the house has feelings.

She was quite glad when, in less than an hour, Gresham Innes came driving up the road in his big Caddy.

She went out to the front porch to greet him. It was a lovely porch. She was going to have to get a bench or some rocking chairs to put out on it. “How good of you to come so soon.”

“Are you all right?” he asked somewhat hesitantly. “Everything okay up here last night?”

Jennifer was a little surprised by this question. “Why yes, of course. Why wouldn’t it be? Won’t you come in?”

Innes audibly sighed in relief at seeing her well.

Jennifer served coffee in the living room and Innes again asked about her feelings regarding the house. Pressed, she told him of her imagination in the middle of the night and how frightened she had caused herself to be.

Innes blanched. “It is an imposing old place, nothing more. Ha, ha.” This time, his laugh sounded far more nervous than cheerful, and she wondered what was up with that.

He drove her into town where Jennifer telephoned Sue from the drug store and excitedly told her all about her new home. Sue could hardly wait to come up to see it. Jennifer then contacted her moving company and learned her belongings should reach Brynstol that very afternoon. Jennifer was elated by that news. One of the items was a ten-speed bicycle, a foolish purchase for San Francisco, but it would be useful here, making it easy to ride to and from town so that she wouldn’t feel like such an imposition on Mr. Innes.

Jennifer walked back to Roundmore and Innes’ to tell Innes her belongings would be arriving that afternoon.

“Excellent. And, I have a surprise for you,” he said.

“You do?” Jennifer was surprised already.

He smiled. “You mentioned something about wanting a dog for protection. You were serious, weren’t you?”

“Yes,” Jennifer said. “Don’t tell me you know of a dog for sale?”

“As a matter of fact,” he began, “a friend raises dogs up here. Sells them at a real good price, too. But you can make a deal with her. I already talked to her about you.”

“Wonderful!”

Innes drove to the woman’s home and as the car pulled up a terrific din of barks and low-wailing howls rose up.

No sooner had Jennifer and Innes gotten out of the car when three monstrous beasts that Jennifer was sure were bears, came bounding toward them. She jumped back inside the car.

A stocky, squarely built woman, gray hair flying akimbo with about two-thirds of it pulled straight up into a knot perched on the top of her head, appeared in the doorway of the house and bellowed, “Come back here!”

The three outside dogs and those back in the kennel continued to bark. “Shut up all of you!” she shouted at nothing and everything at once. As she marched toward them, Jennifer cautiously got out of the car. The dogs that were loose stopped barking and stood wagging stumpy little tails. The others soon stopped barking as well.

“Sorry about the commotion,” the woman said in a voice as gravelly as the driveway they stood on. “You must be Jennifer Barrett.” As she grasped Jennifer’s hand in a vice-like handshake that reverberated through Jennifer’s body, Innes introduced Gladys Petris.

“Pleased to meet you,” Jennifer said as calmly as she could.

“Hey, Innes!” Mrs. Petris slapped Innes’ back by way of greeting, nearly sending him flying.

She led the way to the kitchen to sit and talk, dogs included. It was obvious from the way the house was kept and its worn and fur-covered furniture that the dogs spent a good part of their time making themselves comfortable in that home.

“Do you know anything about these dogs?” Mrs. Petris asked Jennifer, pointing to her bearish three.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that breed before,” she said.

“Probably not.” Mrs. Petris explained in her gruff way, as if it were too much of a bother to talk to anyone in complete sentences, “Called bouviers des Flandres—bouvs for short. Good watchdogs. Loyal. Devoted to the family, not one-man dogs like dobes and shepherds. Don’t need much exercise, either. Won’t run away. Affectionate to their family but no one else. Real powerful beasts. Have the most powerful jaws of any dog in the world—fifteen-hundred pounds of pressure in one bite. Can take a man’s leg off. Great dogs.”

“That’s a bit overwhelming,” Jennifer murmured.

“Don’t worry. They’re not fighters, not aggressive at all, but they’re brave. Defend only if and when they have to, and have the ability to defend if they need to.”

“Well, that sounds like what I need living alone,” Jennifer studied the odd beasts. They were big, large-boned dogs, as tall as German Shepherds, but dark gray, with thick, bristly hair that stood out over an inch from their bodies. Their ears were small flaps and their tails were two-inch puffs of fur.

Soon, the dogs were standing beside Jennifer and she was feeding them cookies and petting them. “They have beautiful brown eyes under that fur,” Jennifer said.

“They’re beauties all right,” Mrs. Petris said proudly. “Mr. Innes told me about you being up there alone, and you saying you wanted a dog and all, and I thought maybe we could help each other out. I run a breeding kennel here. I raise these dogs—real beauties in the breed—and sell them all over the country. I keep some good dogs here as my breeding stock.

“I’ve got a couple of males that I don’t want to sell because they’ve got qualities I want to breed for. But they’re just kennel dogs here. By that I mean they rarely come in the house and they spend most of their time out with the other dogs.”

She looked Jennifer straight in the eye as she got to the point. “Now if you’d like, you can borrow them, so to speak. They can live with you. All I ask is that when I want to use one for breeding that you’ll bring him here for a couple of days. Other than that, as long as you live in Brynstol, they can be your dogs. That’ll make them happier than being in a kennel. Bouvs are people dogs. They were bred to work for people, cow-herding, police work, guide dogs for the blind, you name it, and they’re not really happy unless they’ve got a person to work for.”

“Wow,” Jennifer said, a little taken back by all this. “That’s a great offer—but two dogs?”

“You’ll need all the protection you can get up there,” exclaimed Mrs. Petris. Then, realizing what she said she tried to back off a bit. “I mean, not that it’s dangerous as such or anything. Just lonely. A girl alone, like you—that’s all I meant. Anyway,” she cleared her throat, “it’s these two.” She introduced Beau, sixteen months old, and Jock, only eight months. Beau weighed ninety pounds, and Jock seventy. For the first time an almost motherly expression flashed across Mrs. Petris’ hard-boiled, weather-beaten face. “They’re young, so they’ll soon think of your house as their house.”

Jennifer and Mr. Innes just looked at each other. Jennifer’s eyebrows rose in amazement and Innes looked uncomfortable.

Mrs. Petris gave Jennifer leashes, collars and enough food for a few weeks and sent her on her way with 160 pounds of canine in tow. Jennifer thanked heaven that the dogs were basically obedient had because if they decided not to be, she had no idea how she could handle them.

They filled the back seat of Innes’ car and were terrifically excited about going for a ride. Despite being unable to see out of the rear-view mirror, Innes arrived safely back at his office.

“There’s a little yard behind my office,” Innes suggested. “What say we deposit them there this afternoon? I’ll drive them to your place after the movers have gone.”

Jennifer thanked him for everything. The afternoon was passing rapidly and Jennifer was beginning to worry about her belongings. At this rate she feared it would be dark before the trunk arrived. She walked up and down Main Street, checking out the shops. The Brynstol General Store was the heart of the community, and there was also a gas station, bank, feed store and doctor’s office, not to mention Roundmore and Innes where everything legal, quasi-legal or paralegal needed in the community was handled.

Only a couple of women with small children were on the street. Both said hello to her, while studying her with unmasked curiosity. Everyone, except Gresham Innes and a couple of others, seemed to drive either an SUV or a pick-up truck. The busiest place seemed to be the gas station, just off the highway.

“Finally,” thought Jennifer as she saw an Eagle moving van turn off the highway. As it slowly meandered its way down Main Street, she jumped up and waved to the drivers to stop.

“Hi,” she said as the truck came to a halt beside her. “You are looking for Jennifer Barrett, aren’t you? Number 10 Shore Drive?”

“We sure are, lady. That you?” A big blond fellow leaned out of the truck and smiled. He had on a tee-shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his shoulders, showing off tattoos on enormous biceps.

“That’s right. Can I have a lift up to the house with you?”

“Sure, if you don’t mind sitting on my lap!” The man laughed.

“No problem. I’ll be right with you,” Jennifer said, then burst into the law offices and told Innes the truck had finally arrived. They agreed that he would come up to Squire House around seven o’clock with the dogs.

Jennifer dashed back out to the truck. The blond fellow stood beside it with the passenger door open. He was tall, brawny, and very nice looking.

“Hi again,” he said smiling broadly. “My name’s Oscar. That’s Hans.” He pointed to an equally large fellow sitting at the wheel. Jennifer greeted them both, thinking they must be brothers or cousins considering how much alike they looked.

Oscar jumped in the cab of the truck first and patted his lap.

“I thought you were kidding.” She laughed, but saw there wasn’t enough room between the two men for anyone to sit, so, scrunching up in order not to bump her head, she somehow managed to fit sitting sideways between Oscar and the dashboard, with her arm around his muscular neck for support. They were off.

The two men joked and laughed, putting Jennifer at ease, and before they knew it they reached the front of the house.

o0o

Paul was sitting at an upstairs bedroom window as the truck pulled up. He slapped his forehead in exasperation.

“Good God! My sentiment in not scaring the baggage out of here last night is coming back to haunt me.” Bending at the waist, his nose to the window, he scowled fiercely. “Look at that. An entire moving van, no less. How presumptuous. Has the baggage no sense at all? What if she hated it here? What if she were scared off her first night under my roof?” He paced back and forth in front of the windows, growing more furious with each step. “What nerve. What gall! What perdition! Into my house she’ll bring her mediocre, Sears and Roebuck catalogue specials without so much as a by-your-leave. Has the woman no shame? Has she no common sense, no practicality at all? However did she manage to survive in a big city all those years? It frightens one to think of it.

“Frighten—oh, yes! How I could have frightened her last night if I had so wished. But why exert myself? She did all the work based on her own too active imagination. If all my game had been so easy, I should never have had to work at all to keep this house rid of freeloading relatives.”

Fists on hips, he glared hard at the truck which had backed up to the front porch. “Look at the size of that truck. Once I do get rid of her I’m going to have to wait for movers to pack her rubbish out of here again. How very tiresome.”

The passenger door of the truck opened and in a heap Jennifer and Oscar spilled out of the truck onto the driveway, both laughing so hard they could barely stand up again.

“How despicable!” Paul snarled. “Now, she cavorts with hired help. This is a relative such as I have never been cursed with before.”

Jennifer and Oscar walked up to the front door of the house and Jennifer took out the key. Just as she was about to open the door Oscar took hold of the door knob. “Allow me,” he said with a dazzling smile as he pushed the door open only to be struck by a frigid blast of air.

“Thank you,” Jennifer said.

“My pleasure, Miss Barrett.”

“My pleasure,” Paul mimicked. “Oaf!”

“It’s cold in here,” Oscar said, rubbing his hands together. “Worse than a walk-in freezer.”

“Isn’t it though?” said Jennifer. “It was quite pleasant this morning. How strange.” She wandered off to the living room to see if a window had been left open that allowed the cold sea air to come in. But no open window was found, and besides, it was warm outside.

Hans came in carrying some boxes. “Where do you want these?’ he asked.

“I marked all the boxes.” She checked the label. “Okay, these are for the kitchen. Right back there.” She pointed down the hall.

“Sure is cold in here,” Hans called.

Jennifer stood puzzling over the temperature as Oscar approached the door carrying more boxes. She smiled and started toward him when his feet flew out behind him and rose up so high he practically did a headstand before he came back down to earth, face first. The boxes scattered. Jennifer gasped, then ran to him to see if he was hurt.

“Who tripped me?” he bellowed as he jumped up, fists raised. He spun from side to side like a washing machine agitator as he searched for his attacker. He was unhurt, but livid. Hans stood in the doorway of the kitchen looking confused. Oscar slowly realized that no one else was there. He shook his head.

“I swear, it felt like someone tripped me,” he repeated, still turning in a slow circle as he rubbed his sore head. “That was the strangest feeling. I guess I just lost my footing.”

“Are you okay?” Jennifer asked. “Do you want to sit?”

“No, no, I’m fine. I hope these boxes are.”

“Of course he’s fine,” Paul said to himself, arms folded as he leaned against the front door frame. “He landed on his head, didn’t he?”

“Let’s see,” Jennifer inspected the boxes. “These are all bedroom and bath linens and such. No harm done. The bedrooms and bathroom are upstairs. Just one bathroom—I guess I should be grateful it’s indoors. It’s a very old house.”

“Let me take that,” Hans interjected. “No stairs for you,” he said to Oscar, “until we’re sure you are all right.”

“Okay. Who am I to say?” Oscar rubbed his forehead as he headed back out to the truck for more items.

The two men soon unloaded Jennifer’s belongings. Dishes, small appliances, clothes, linens, books, CDs—all the things that give a house the individuality of being its owner’s home were brought into the strange, cold abode by the sea. Jennifer had also shipped the furniture from her small three-room apartment, not knowing the house would be furnished. She had the men put the furniture in the second and third bedrooms until she decided what to do with it.

When they had finished unloading the truck, Jennifer asked if they would like to stay for a bite to eat.

Hans replied, “Well, we don’t have much time. We need to head north another eighty miles, but a sandwich wouldn’t damage our schedule.”

The men sat at the kitchen table as she quickly prepared ham and cheese sandwiches. They turned down her offer of wine, but took some coffee. Jennifer, hungry, joined them.

“This is sure a pretty house, Miss Barrett,” Oscar said, his blue-eyed gaze taking in her as well as the house. “Mighty cold, but pretty none the less.”

“Thank you,” said Jennifer. “It wasn’t so cold yesterday, or this morning. I guess I’ll have to keep the fireplace going a lot.”

“Do you mind if sometime when I’m up this way I stop by just to say hello?” Oscar asked.

Jennifer was taken aback, but he seemed to be a nice guy. And definitely eye-candy. “Not at all. I would like that.”

Hans stood up, “Well, since you two took care of that bit of business, we should get going.”

“Give me a minute—the call of nature,” Oscar said.

Oscar went up the steps and Jennifer and Hans talked, waited, and talked some more, quietly wondering what was taking Oscar so long. And still they waited. Finally, they heard banging and Oscar’s calls.

They ran upstairs. Jennifer reached the bathroom door first, paused for a second, then turned the knob and pushed the door open. Oscar stared in disbelief from the open door to Jennifer to the open door again, then his brows crossed in anger. “How did you do that?” he demanded.

“Do what?” Jennifer asked. “Are you all right?”

His face turned five shades of purple, and his tattoos practically glowed in an even deeper shade. “I’m all right. It’s this house that’s not. That door was stuck. I pulled with all my might and I couldn’t get it to open. The knob turned. It unlatched, but it stuck. I even took the hinges off and still couldn’t get it open.” He jutted out his palm with the two hinges on it.

Jennifer gawked at the hinges, then at the door she had just opened. “You mean there are no...” She hadn’t finished her sentence when the door started to slide off the hinge brackets on the door jamb. The three stood fixedly as they watched the door slide away from the wall and head toward the floor, hitting with a resounding “thwack.”

They stood silently a moment looking at the door lying on the floor. Jennifer swallowed hard. “But it opened very easily...”

Oscar and Hans silently picked up the door and put the hinges back on.

Jennifer tried to apologize but Oscar continued to give her harsh looks. As the men took their leave, she was quite certain Oscar dropped all thought of ever coming back here.

She went outdoors and gathered some of the firewood Innes had had delivered. Along with old newspapers from her packing she was able to get a healthy fire going which helped warm the air.

About seven-thirty that evening, Gresham Innes arrived with the two dogs.

Beau and Jock behaved well on their leashes, neither pulling nor straying, but walked with dignity toward the house…until they reached the doorway. They stopped short. The fur on the backs of their necks stood straight up. Innes stepped into the house ahead of them and tried pulling them in, but got nowhere. Beau crouched down and began howling. Jock, the baby of the two, rolled over onto his back and cried. Innes looked ready to cry himself in exasperation at not being able to get the dogs to go into the house.

Jennifer came upon this din while struggling to carry a twenty-five pound sack of dog food into the house. “What in the world?” she asked.

“They won’t go inside.”

“This is too heavy for me to stand here and argue with them. I’ll be right back,” Jennifer said as she stepped over Jock and went off to the pantry with the dog food.

She came back to the doorway in time to witness a tug-of-war between Innes and Beau. Innes was losing and was on the verge of being pulled back outside. This was too much for Jennifer.

“What’s going on with you two?” she demanded of the dogs. Beau and Jock stood still and looked at her. “This is my home and now your home as well. It may be weird and it may be cold, but it’s the only home we have, so you may as well get used to it. Come. Now.”

She took the leashes from Innes, and gave them a tug. The dogs took a couple of steps forward. “That’s good boys. Come on,” Jennifer coaxed. The dogs stepped through the doorway and were in the house.

“Finally,” said Innes, breathing a sigh of relief as he shut the front door behind them. He began mopping his brow with his handkerchief.

As soon as Jennifer took the leashes off the dogs, like a shot they both ran barking into the living room. Jennifer and Innes followed right behind them.

Once in the room, however, the dogs stopped barking and looked around confused. Then, they ran to the large overstuffed leather chair near the fireplace. The chair was angled so that whoever sat in it would have a clear view of the ocean. The dogs sniffed furiously all over the chair, on the seat, back, legs, sides, making little whimpering noises as they did.

“What are they doing?” asked Jennifer. “What scent are they finding on that chair?”

Innes looked pale as a ghost. “Oh, why, um,” he stumbled, “perhaps the people who cleaned here left something on it. Some cleaning fluid, perhaps?”

“I guess that’s it,” Jennifer mused. “Whatever, I’m sure it’ll dissipate soon. Would you like some coffee or tea?”

“Tea sounds fine. Any traditional flavor,” Innes said. As Jennifer went to the kitchen, he sat on the sofa and faced the leather chair.

She started back into the living room, to ask if he liked Earl Gray when she heard Innes say, “You may have met your match this time.” And then he chuckled.

She stopped. Who was he talking to? Then she realized he must have been talking to the dogs, laughing over the way she had coaxed them into the house.

She turned back to the kitchen and made a pot of Earl Gray.

When she returned with the tea to the living room, the dogs were lying down at Innes’ feet.

He helped Jennifer set up her stereo and unpack some CDs. They sat and listened to classical music and talked by the light of the fireplace. Before he left, Innes accompanied her as she walked the dogs on leashes, since she hesitated to turn them loose before she was sure they accepted Squire House as their new home.

Jennifer had enjoyed her first guest in her new home, her first evening as a hostess. She secured the fireplace screen so that she would not have to worry about straying embers.

“Beau and Jock,” she said, and the dogs, which had been cozily asleep by the fire, looked up at her, “I’m going to spoil you two mercilessly, so we may as well start now. Come on. You can sleep in the bedroom. Just not on the bed.”

At that she shut down the first floor of the house, led the dogs upstairs and went to bed. This night held none of the terrors of the previous night for Jennifer. She had a fire going in the bedroom fireplace, the dogs were with her, her radio was turned low to an all-night station. She curled up warmly and comfortably in her bed and slept.

o0o

Paul Squire entered the bedroom and looked at her sleeping so cozily. As a gentleman, he had never taken advantage of his ethereal position to abuse the privacy that any visitor to his home deserved—even if said visitor was an odious relative.

He noted how different the room seemed with her in it. Before bed, she had bathed, and the scents of her bath salts and shampoo permeated the upper floor of the house. A floral perfume lingered now in the bedroom, with the fire and the softly playing classical music. None of his former visitors had been classical music lovers, as he was. To listen to it all through the night seemed magical to him.

He sat in an easy chair she had brought from San Francisco. It was yellow and blue, a French country pattern, and mercilessly feminine, yet it was comfortable and fit perfectly in the room. It would be rather cruel, he decided, to rouse her this evening. She had had a busy day and seemed quite exhausted. He would let her sleep and perhaps tomorrow start his campaign to ride Squire House of the abominable woman’s presence.

She turned over in the bed, and he realized as much as he liked sitting there, it wasn’t the sort of thing for a gentleman to do. For this night at least, it was her bedroom, not his. As he left, he patted Jock and Beau’s broad heads. The dogs, in turn, wagged their stumpy little tails and didn’t seem bothered by him in the least. Paul had always been fond of dogs. A pity, he thought, that the dogs would have to leave when he frightened Jennifer off his property.