Not long after Lily and Ian left Marlow House, and while Chris and Heather were still there, Lily and Ian sat together on their living room sofa, with Lily leaning against Ian’s shoulder, her stockinged feet propped up on the coffee table. Connor sat in a nearby highchair Ian had dragged into the living room from the dining room, where the toddler sat eating goldfish crackers and slices of banana. Sadie lay on the floor by the highchair, prepared to clean up any food Connor might drop off the tray.
“We never discussed staying at Marlow House when we were over there,” Lily said.
Ian glanced down at his wife’s face. “Not sure I want to now.”
“No kidding. I hope they figure this thing out.”
“What I need to figure out, what I’m going to say to Kelly.” Ian absently fiddled with strands of Lily’s hair.
Lily considered his question a moment, let out a deep sigh and said, “Maybe you should tell her the truth. Not all of it. But tell her you don’t know what’s going on over at Marlow House, just that Walt had nothing to do with it.”
“Yes, but Joe has a point. We didn’t really react. If we’d shown some surprise or fear, then I could convince her. The truth of the matter, I assumed Walt was responsible.”
“Everyone reacts different to fear. You could tell her we were in shock. We didn’t know what was going on.” Lily patted one of Ian’s knees.
“You just said everyone reacts different to fear. But you and I, Walt and Heather, we all reacted the same by not reacting.”
“Ian, you know what’s kind of funny about all this?”
“What?”
“All along, you’ve refused to tell your sister about—about any of it. Because you love her, and you’ve been trying to protect her. You didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize her relationship with Joe because she seems happy with him. And Joe, being Joe, could never wrap his head around any of it.”
“I’m not seeing the funny part yet,” Ian grumbled.
“Kelly’s relationship with you is also important. I’ll admit, sometimes your sister drives me nuts, but I understand how close you two are, and I understand how much you love each other.”
“Still waiting for the funny part.”
“When I said funny, I meant ironic.”
“Go on.”
“While you’ve been keeping secrets from Kelly to protect her marriage, Joe comes along and basically blows up your relationship with her.”
Ian’s cellphone rang. Instead of responding to his wife’s observation, Ian reached over to the side table and picked up his cellphone. He looked at it and said, “It’s my mother.” He accepted the call. Lily silently listened to Ian’s side of the conversation, and soon it became obvious her mother-in-law was upset over something, considering Ian’s one-word responses. He kept starting sentences, only to be cut off before he could finish. After a few minutes, the call ended.
“What was that about?” Lily asked as Ian tossed his cellphone back onto the side table.
“Kelly called my mother after she left Marlow House. Mom’s pretty upset and not thrilled with our friends for pulling such a trick on her.”
Lily groaned.
“She feels Walt and Danielle owe them both an apology, and she says I need to make it right with my sister, or I’m going to destroy my relationship with her. She reminded me family comes first, and I’ve allowed my friends in Frederickport to come between me and Kelly.”
“This is so unfair. It’s hardly Walt and Danielle’s fault.”
“I realize that. I couldn’t even get two words in to tell Mom the truth.”
“You were going to?”
“I have to tell her something. But first, I need to see my sister. Joe’s at work by now. Mom said Kelly’s at home alone, crying.”
* * *
Kelly saw her brother’s car pull up in the driveway from her kitchen window. No one was in the car with him. She suspected their mother had called him, and she wanted to close her blinds and not answer the door. But she didn’t because she was curious to hear what he had to say.
She opened the front door before he rang the doorbell, and instead of giving him a greeting, she left the door wide open, turned, and walked to her living room and sat down on the sofa.
Ian walked into the house, closed the door behind him, and followed his sister into the living room. Instead of sitting on one chair in the living room, he took a seat on the sofa next to her.
“Mom called you. Didn’t she? That’s why you’re here,” Kelly asked dully while staring ahead, refusing to look at Ian.
“Yes, and no.”
Arms folded across her chest, Kelly turned to Ian and frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Mom called, but that’s not why I’m here.”
“Then why are you here?”
“You stormed out of Marlow House this afternoon without giving me a chance to say anything.”
“What was there to say? That it was just a joke? I should lighten up?”
Ian shook his head. “No. Because it wasn’t a joke.”
“What do you mean?”
When Ian had walked into Kelly’s house several minutes earlier, he had been carrying his cellphone. When he sat on the sofa with her, he hadn’t slipped it in his pocket or set it on a table. He held it in his hands, absently fidgeting with it, moving it from his right hand to his left and back to his right again, and so on.
“Kelly, I’d like to have a conversation and keep it between you and me for now. I’d rather you not say anything to Joe.”
“Ian, I don’t keep secrets from my husband. Do you keep secrets from Lily?”
Ian took a deep breath. “Remember when we worked together on the Eva Thorndike story? And I couldn’t tell Lily about it?”
“Yeah, but you weren’t married back then. You weren’t even really dating yet.”
“If we had been dating, if we had been married, would you have felt comfortable with me sharing information with Lily early on?”
“Are you saying you’re working on a new story?”
“In a way. Sort of.”
“What does that mean?”
“Kelly, what happened at Marlow House in the nursery, Walt didn’t do it. He didn’t make the rocker rock. He had nothing to do with stuffed animals flying across the room. He didn’t do any of it.”
Kelly frowned at her brother. “Then who did?”
“We don’t know.”
“Are you saying Marlow House is haunted?”
Ian stopped fidgeting with his phone and instead looked at it, opened his photo app, found an image, and offered it to Kelly. “Have you forgotten the orbs?”
Kelly grabbed the cellphone and looked at the image on its screen. She then used a finger to flip through the other pictures her mother had taken yesterday, and she had airdropped to Ian’s phone, each showing the orbs in a different location in the room behind her while she held up the quilt. After a moment, she shrugged, handed the phone back to Ian. “Joe says lots of things can cause orbs in photos, like dust or moisture.”
“True, but it doesn’t explain the chair rocking on its own or things flying in the room.”
“Joe says—”
“Please, can we leave Joe out of this for the moment? I know he’s your husband, and I don’t want to cause problems with him, and that is one reason I didn’t want to say anything to you about this, because I knew what he’d say. I have no desire to convince you something supernatural was happening at Marlow House, because I knew Joe would say someone was making this up. But unfortunately, I had no control over what happened in the nursery.”
“The way you reacted. You all seemed unfazed.”
“Lily’s and my reaction can be attributed to shock. You see, until we went upstairs, we assumed you had thrown the stuffed animal at Mom the day before.”
“Why would I do that?”
Ian shrugged. “We figured you were just messing around, and when Mom freaked out, you said nothing.”
“What did everyone else think?”
“That you’d thrown the stuffed animal. But last night, some strange things started happening in the nursery, which is why Walt and Danielle were downstairs with the babies, letting them sleep in the portable cribs, instead of upstairs in their bedroom. Lily and I arrived at Marlow House today right before you did, and they didn’t have time to tell us you hadn’t thrown the stuffed animal. Walt and Heather hoped nothing would happen, yet knew it was possible. So their reaction only proves they weren’t surprised, not that Walt made it happen.”
Kelly stared at her brother. “Are you serious?”
* * *
Back at Marlow House, the floating quilt had fallen after a few minutes, landing inside a crib. Danielle headed upstairs to get Eva and Marie, while Walt stayed with the babies. By the time Danielle returned to the living room with the two spirits, she had already told them about the floating quilt.
“Any activity upstairs?” Walt asked when they entered the living room.
“No. But it sounds like whatever it is, is down here now,” Eva said.
“Whoever you are, please show yourself,” Danielle called out.
Marie took a seat on the sofa with Walt and the babies while their mother paced the room in frustration. Absently, Danielle walked over to the cribs, retrieved the quilt, and folded it. She carried it to the fireplace and set it on the hearth. As she turned away to walk back to the others, a figurine sitting on the fireplace mantel fell from its place, landing on the quilt. Danielle swung around and faced the fireplace.
Eva stared at the quilt. “Are you trying to get our attention?”
The figurine floated up from the quilt and returned to its place on the mantel.
“I just did that,” Walt told them.
The next minute, the figurine fell back off the mantel, onto the quilt.
“Did you do that, Walt?” Danielle asked.
“No.”
“Marie?” Danielle asked.
Marie shook her head. “No, dear.”
“If it wants our attention, why doesn’t it just show itself?” Danielle asked.
Eva moved closer to the fireplace and stared down at the figurine and where it had landed. “Danielle, how long have you had this quilt?”
“Lily gave it to me Thursday. Why?”
“Where did Lily get it?” Eva asked.
“From an estate sale. She found it last weekend. Why?”
“Do you think the quilt has something to do with all this?” Marie asked.
Eva turned to the others. “Was this the quilt Ian’s mother wanted pictures of?”
Danielle studied Eva, wondering what she was thinking. “Yes.”
“From what you’ve told me, the first incident occurred when Kelly picked up the quilt so her mother could take pictures of it. You bring the quilt down here to show Millie, and another incident occurs. Initially, you assumed the haunting was isolated to the nursery. But perhaps it’s connected to the quilt. It’s not upstairs or downstairs, it’s wherever the quilt is.”
“Are you suggesting the ghost is haunting the quilt?” Danielle asked.
Pausing a moment, Eva absently tapped her forefinger against her chin as she considered Danielle’s question. Finally, she said, “Perhaps it’s not a ghost at all, but the residual energy of a past trauma attached to the quilt, which would explain why none of us has witnessed an apparition normally attached to a ghost. And if that’s the case, it might be a good idea to learn more about the quilt’s history and whatever incident triggered this paranormal activity.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to just get rid of the quilt?” Danielle asked.
“No. Because it’s entirely possible that energy might attach itself to another object before you get rid of the quilt. Our best plan of action is to find out as much as we can about the quilt’s history.”