Early Tuesday morning Danielle turned off the baby monitor and put it in her top dresser drawer. She wondered what people would think if they found it in her room. She smiled at the thought. She and Walt hadn’t been married long when they realized the attic bedroom suited them best. The attic suite was larger than her room, and its modern bathroom and larger shower was much nicer than hers on the second floor.
However, there was one problem. If they had guests and one needed her in the middle of the night, there would be no one in her room to hear the knocks. It didn’t take her long to find a solution—a baby monitor. Each night she would set it on the table by her locked bedroom door and turn it on. Upstairs by their bed was the receiver, and if anyone knocked or called her name outside her door on the second floor, she would hear them.
Danielle felt a little guilty knowing that when Joanne stripped her bed each week, she was removing clean sheets—washing clean sheets—and then remaking a bed that didn’t need to be made. She was tempted to tell Joanne that she would be doing her own sheets, but she was reluctant to do that, since the housekeeper was sometimes a bit territorial over her household duties.
After dressing for the day, Danielle headed downstairs. She found Walt in the kitchen, standing by the sink. He had already made coffee and picked up the newspaper from the front porch.
“Good morning,” Danielle said as she breezed into the room.
“Hmmm…didn’t I just see someone who looked a lot like you…but she was wearing a sexy little nightshirt and her hair was all messy, rather adorable.”
Danielle shushed Walt and glanced back to the door leading to the hallway, yet she was unable to suppress her grin. “Shhh, someone might hear you!”
“We’re the only ones downstairs. Your guests are still in bed.”
Danielle gave Walt a quick kiss before filling her cup. “Thanks for making the coffee.”
“My pleasure.” He gave Danielle a little salute with his cup and then turned and walked to the kitchen table, where he sat down with the newspaper and his cup of coffee.
Still standing by the counter, about to take a sip from her cup after adding cream, Danielle looked down into her coffee and to her annoyance found red and green glitter floating with the cream, with more falling from the ceiling into the cup.
“Eva! Please not in the coffee!” Danielle begged.
The next moment Eva fully materialized. “Sorry, Danielle.”
Danielle looked down into her coffee cup and found the glitter gone. “Thank you.” She walked to the table and sat down with Walt, who had just looked up from the paper at Eva’s arrival.
“I’m in the Christmas spirit!” Eva said with a flair as she threw her arms in the air, tossing more green and red glitter. Fortunately, this time none landed in the coffee.
Dressed in a formfitting, full-length green velvet dress, with a wide skirt and white fur collar and hat, Eva Thorndike—the onetime silent screen star who bore a striking resemblance to the Gibson Girl, and who was now a ghost—twirled round and round merrily in the center of the kitchen while Walt and Danielle watched.
The next moment Marie appeared. “Are you done with the glitter yet?”
Eva stopped twirling and frowned at the three, none of whom seemed to appreciate her festive entrance. “You are all such party poopers.”
“Sorry, dear,” Marie said. “But ghostly glitter is not much better than real glitter—and real glitter should be outlawed.”
Eva was about to respond to Marie’s commentary when Noah walked into the kitchen.
“Good morning,” he said brightly.
Marie turned to the man and eyed him up and down. “So this is one of your new guests?”
“I’m more curious to see what Chris’s uncles look like,” Eva said.
“Good morning,” Danielle called from the table. “Help yourself to some coffee. Everything’s right there.” She pointed to where the coffee pot sat on the counter. Several clean mugs and spoons and a creamer and sugar bowl sat nearby, along with several flavored creamer options.
“Thank you.” Noah poured himself a cup.
“Is your wife up?” Walt asked.
“No. She’s still sleeping.” Coffee cup in hand, Noah headed to the table and walked through Marie, who failed to get out of his way soon enough.
“I hate when that happens,” Marie grumbled.
“I was just about to start breakfast, but I can wait until she wakes up,” Danielle offered.
“You do the cooking?” Noah asked.
“Sometimes. My only employee is Joanne, who does house cleaning and some of the cooking. But she’s not going to be here this week. She left yesterday to go visit her family for Christmas,” Danielle explained.
“I know you don’t mind the cooking—which I would hate…” Marie shivered at the thought. “But, dear, are you going to be doing the housekeeping this week too?”
Noah, who had been looking at Danielle, failed to notice Walt tilting his head slightly at Marie to get her attention. Once Walt caught the ghost’s notice, he nodded toward the broom sitting in the corner of the kitchen, behind Noah.
“To be honest, Zara isn’t much for breakfast, so don’t worry about her,” Noah told Danielle. “I doubt she’ll come down for breakfast while we’re here.”
“Walt, are you saying you’re going to help with the housekeeping chores?” Marie asked.
Walt grinned as the broom rose in the air and did a little dance before setting back down. Noah saw none of it.
“That’s cheating.” Marie laughed. “But I wish I could have done that when I was alive! Heavens, I wish I could do it now that I’m dead!”
“We have one less thing to worry about,” Noah told Zara when he returned to their room after breakfast.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“The housekeeper you told me about, Joanne Johnson, she’s not working this week. That means the only people staying in the house are Walt and Danielle—and, of course, the Glandons.”
“That’s a break. I’ll admit that one was stressing me out. But there’s still her friends across the street,” she reminded him.
“We just have to be diligent.”
“You mean I have to pull off this recluse act.”
Noah glanced at his watch and said, “What time did you say the Glandons will be here?”
“Loyd said they should arrive by four. Maybe sooner, depending on traffic. They’re flying into Portland, and then they’re renting a car.”
“Would you like to do something until then?” he asked.
“I suppose I could give you a tour of Frederickport, show you where Chris has his office.”
“Sounds good.”
Eva Thorndike, still clad in her green velvet gown, stood alone in Marlow House’s living room, looking out the front window. Minutes earlier it had started to rain.
Danielle, who was just checking on the downstairs bedroom to see if everything was in order, peeked into the living room and spied Eva.
“Where did Marie go?” Danielle asked as she walked into the room.
Eva turned from the window to Danielle. “She went off to see what her grandson was up to.”
“I wonder what Adam would think if he knew his grandmother was always keeping an eye on him.”
“I imagine he might be embarrassed.” Eva laughed.
Now standing next to Eva, Danielle said, “I’ve always been told spirits didn’t watch their loved ones in—well, embarrassing situations.”
Eva cocked her brow and looked at Danielle. “Oh really? And didn’t you have to get Walt to agree the bathroom was off-limits because he saw a little too much when you first moved in?”
Danielle frowned. “How did you know that?”
Eva smiled and looked back out the window. “You’d be surprised at what I know.”
“So you’re saying it’s a myth that our deceased loved ones don’t—look in on our wedding night, for example?”
“That—myth, as you call it—is something the living say to make themselves feel better. But I suppose it is generally true. An earthbound spirit—one cognizant of his or her reality—typically doesn’t do something he or she wouldn’t do when alive, such as intrude on a love one’s private moments.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Danielle agreed. “Fortunately, since I can normally see ghosts when they’re lurking around, I have a little more control over what they see.”
“Ahh, but that’s not always the case; remember Walt,” Eva reminded her.
Danielle flashed Eva a smile. “True, but Walt was a clever ghost when it came to harnessing energy. I suspect most spirits can’t conceal themselves from me.”
Eva nodded. “True.”
Looking back out the window, Eva said, “It’s raining pretty hard now. Not safe to drive in this type of weather. I wonder…if Chris’s uncles were to get into a car accident and died on their way here, will their spirits show up?”
“I would prefer not to consider that possibility.”
Eva shrugged and didn’t look apologetic. “From what Chris told me about his uncles, they don’t seem like very nice men. I wish they wouldn’t show up at all.”
“According to Chris, they regret challenging his parents’ will. They explained why they did it. Maybe they are sincere. After all, what do they have to gain now?”
Eva looked to Danielle. “You can’t seriously ask that question. Chris is worth a fortune; he’s extremely vulnerable to exploitation.”
“But his uncles are old men. They have their own money; they don’t need his.”
“Danielle, when was there ever enough money for a greedy person? And age means nothing. For some, getting closer to the end heightens the need—the desire to have more—to get more.”
Later that afternoon Zara stood at the window in her room, looking down at the street below.
“I think they’re here,” she announced.
Noah rushed to the window and looked out. A car had just pulled up and parked behind his. A moment later the passenger and driver doors opened, and two men stepped out of the vehicle, one onto the street and the other onto the sidewalk.
“So that’s them?” he asked.
“Yes. Loyd is the oldest brother, the shorter one; he’s the one who just got out of the passenger side of the car. The other one is Simon, the middle brother.”
“I think I’ll go downstairs, have a proper introduction.”
“You can tell them I’m napping,” she suggested.
“When are you going to see them?”
“I’d rather do it when they’re together.”