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No one told her Benjamin would be shoveling snow from the cellar steps on the west side of the house. Seeing him caused her to draw her breath and come to a standstill by the kitchen door. She threw the blankets over the medicine bag and tucked the bundle tightly under her arm. Before she stepped into the open, she eyed him and then looked away. He saw her, and of all the rude things for him to do, he whistled.
“Hey sweetheart,” he called and stuck his shovel upright in the snow.
Adele froze contemplating on what sort of reception to give him. She could keep walking and ignore him hoping he didn’t pursue her, but where would she go with Benjamin following her? No! Better to divert him somehow. She would stand up to him and let him know she’s not afraid of him.
“What do you want Benjamin?” she asked.
“You know what I want,” he laughed as he strolled casually over the path he’d shoveled earlier. He wore his scarf high on his neck and his cap low. His blue eyes a vivid contrast against his rosy cheeks.
“Please, Benjamin, stop this. You know I have nothing for you.”
He touched her hair, and she jerked and pushed his arm away with her free hand.
“Why don’t you leave me alone? I’ve done nothing to you to deserve your offensives. I haven’t even tattled on you for the last time you accosted me.”
He laughed again. “You’re so pretty when you’re mad. Where are you going?”
“I thought I’d sit in the garden and have a picnic,” she answered.
“In the snow?”
“Yes. In the snow.” Adele stepped out of the shade, eyeing one of the many garden benches steaming in the sunshine.
“May I join you?”
“No. You’re not done with your chores.”
“I have a more important chore to do.” He drew far too close to her, his breath warming her neck. Even though Benjamin was tall and lanky, he was strong, and he used his strength to push Adele up against the side of the house. His lips were on hers before she knew what happened. Her heart raced more out of anger than fear. She bit his lip, kneed him in the groin, and dodged under his arm. The blankets trailed her in the snow, but she clenched the bag tightly in her hands.
Aunt Eloise called Benjamin before Adele got to the edge of the garden and when she turned around he was gone, having slipped into the house through the kitchen door.
Adele waited, her heart thumping. She scanned the windows of the manor to see if she were being watched. There was no sign of anyone either upstairs or in the kitchen. Satisfied that she was alone, she backed up to the gate and then hurriedly darted through it.
Once camouflaged from view by the honeysuckle vines on the other side of the fence, she dropped the bag, the blankets, and her scarf, and leaned against the vines to catch her breath.
“He’s a lover of yours?”
Grai stood a few feet from her. He looked healthier today, or perhaps because the sun shone on his curls, and his hazel eyes sparkled in the light.
“No! I wish he would leave me alone. He’s a cousin. A rude one.”
Grai frowned and looked past her toward her uncle’s property.
“That’s not right. He shouldn’t be treating you in such an ill manner.”
“It’s very wrong but I don’t know how to escape him.”
“Does he live there?”
“No. He lives with his sister. But he spends time helping his parents do repairs on the house. I can’t avoid him.”
She did not mean to upset Grai by complaining about Benjamin so when he grimaced and continued eyeing her uncle’s garden, she held out her gifts to him.
“I brought you some blankets so you don’t have to freeze at night. And I have medicine for your wound. Please let me dress it. I went through a lot to get these items to you.”
“You didn’t tell anyone about me, did you?”
“Heavens no!”
He glanced past her toward her uncle’s house again and then nodded. Without another word, he led her to the courtyard. His spirit shimmered in and out of him and then peeked over his shoulder at her, smiled, and winked. She couldn’t help but smile back. The spirit’s influence seemed to make Grai more accepting of her and had a way of putting her at ease. Her shoulders relaxed and her gait slowed.
The pools of the fountain had been cleaned of leaves and ice and now a cascade of sparkling water splashed out of the statue’s jug and swirled about in ripples that reflected the blue of the sky.
“It’s beautiful!” she exclaimed. Grai turned and stopped as she admired the fountain and his spirit slipped away from him.
“You fixed it! It’s working! It’s so pretty!”
“All for you my fair lady!” Grai’s spirit said. They both looked at Grai. He walked away from them.
“It must have been difficult to get it to work!”
“He fixed it this morning. I cautioned him about his wound, but he wanted to have the waterfall working for you before you returned.”
“For me?”
“He said ladies love fountains.”
“Nonsense,” Grai argued and waved the thought away. “I fixed it for the birds that they might have water to drink.”
Grai sat on the bench across from the fountain, removed his wool scarf, his coat, his shirt, and proceeded to unwrap the soiled rag that covered his wound. Adele hurried to his side, removed her coat to work more freely, and threw it on the bench with the blankets.
“It’s very noble of you caring for the birds, but you should be taking better care of this wound so that it doesn’t fester,” she scolded.
A ghastly sight, the cut had obviously been made with a very sharp knife or dagger and it was deep. Rolling up her sleeves so as not to get them wet, Adele dipped the cloth in the fountain, and with the ointment her uncle had used on her, she cleaned his injury by dabbing the dried blood away with a gentle touch.
Grai winced but didn’t back away or cry out. His spirit leaned over her and watched intently as she worked, letting out grunts and groans in sympathy until Grai scowled at him.
Once the wound had been cleansed, Adele opened the bottle of herbs that Aunt Eloise used on her that morning, scooped out a large swab, and applied it generously over the cut. Grai recoiled, flinching when she packed the lesion, but he stayed strong and let her finish. She unrolled the cotton dressing from the medicine bag, unrolled it, and reached around him to wrap his torso with the bandage. She felt his eyes on her as she touched him. She tucked the end neatly onto itself to secure it. When she was done, he took her arm and gently touched the bandage her aunt had applied that morning.
“What happened here?”
“Just a cut.”
“How so?”
“I didn’t know where this medicine bag was and there was only one way to find out without being accused of thievery or having someone follow me.”
His mouth fell open. “You cut yourself on my behalf?”
“It’s just a little scratch.”
“Why? Why would you do something like that for a stranger?”
“I don’t know, I wanted to help.” Heat rushed to her cheeks. She shouldn’t have told him. “It’s wrong for you to be here all by yourself with a terrible wound. Who do you have to help you? No one. I found you here, and so now it is my responsibility to take care of you.” She brushed her hands on her skirt. “There. I’m not sure how well that will stay.”
“It’ll stay,” he said, amazement in his eyes.
“Do you mind if I ask what happened to you?” Carefully rolling the loose gauze, stalling for time for she didn’t want to leave, she packed away her potions.
Grai’s spirit gave Grai an eager nod, prompting a grimace from him.
“I was...assaulted,” Grai said. “I can’t believe you cut yourself on my behalf.”
“Think little of it. Please. It doesn’t hurt.”
He slipped his shirt on over his head and Adele helped him with his coat.
“Thank you.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t hurry back to you last night. I had commitments and things didn’t go the way I had planned, but my thoughts were with you.” In truth she could barely sleep all night, but it might not be wise to tell him that. “I’m concerned about you and want to help you in any way I can. Would it be at all possible for you to tell me who did this to you? I promise I won’t say a word.”
As he buttoned his coat, he shrugged, avoiding her eyes. “I never was a suspicious person and I dislike not trusting people, but when your own family hires someone to—.” He broke off and shook his head. When it appeared he wasn’t going to continue, Adele sighed.
“Tell me what happened. Please,” she whispered.
“Someone tried to kill me. They left me for dead.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know for sure. I have my suspicions, but I have no proof.”
Grai’s spirit made a throat-clearing sound, prompting a frown from Grai.
“If I knew for sure, I wouldn’t need to hide.”
“But why stay here of all places?”
“This is my home. My grandfather left it to me.”
“This is yours?” That was not what Auntie Eloise had told her, but her aunt could have been mistaken.
“My Auntie thought it was owned by a Mr. Bonneville. Is that you?”
“Richard Bonneville is my stepfather. And no. He doesn’t own it.”
Regardless of who owned the estate, one could hardly call these ruins suitable for a home. She looked around, wondering if she had missed seeing a standing structure that he could take shelter in. All she saw was a courtyard of rubble smothered under a thick layer of ice, painted with the browns and blacks of moss and decomposing weeds.
“This is your home? There’s nothing here!”
“There’s enough.”
“You’ll freeze to death. Don’t you have another place you can go to where you can have a doctor look at your wound?”
He glared at her, a surge of emotion radiated from his eyes. Anger, hurt, despondency?
“If the man who facilitated this attack is who I think he is, he knows where I live and then he’ll make certain I die.”
Adele picked up her coat, held it on her lap, and studied him. She’d seen criminals before. She’d seen hard men who were selfish and cruel, men who worked in the oyster beds during the day and wasted their bodies on heavy drink at night. Those were the kind of men that murdered or were murdered. Rude, rough, and nasty men. Men with pitted faces and bad breath, with scars from brawls and with hate and rebellion in their eyes.
Grai had none of those traits. He was young, not much older than her, and his skin was smooth, unscathed. He had bright eyes and a quiet reserve, even in his anger. There would be no reason for anyone to murder him.
“Who would want to kill you? I see no reason.”
He breathed a laugh and pushed his hair off his face.
“Men who want proprietorship of this estate.”
“Then you do own this place?”
He looked at her with an odd sneer. “Is that implausible?”
“No, I was just surprised. My aunt said this property was owned by an incredibly old man who died and now Mr. Bonneville owns it.”
“The old man was my grandfather. Cyrus Madison.” He took a breath to tell her more, and then looked away. “Who’s your aunt?”
“Eloise Barrington. My uncle is Nicholas Barrington. They own the manor on the other side of your fence.”
“I know them.”
“You do? Then you won’t mind coming to stay with us until you can get better.”
Grai looked at his spirit, who nodded and smiled as if to tell him yes.
“No,” Grai said.
“You’ll freeze to death sleeping outside.”
“I don’t sleep outside.” He bowed his head and brushed back his hair.
“Where then?”
“You ask a lot of questions.”
“I want to help.”
Adele looked past him toward two pillars covered with moss, barely distinguishable from the maple trees. Beyond them, a mound of dirt that resembled a mole’s burrow nested into the ground. Some sort of cellar, it seemed to Adele, that had become a living organism like the sprawling roots that twisted around its entrance. This might be his shelter.
“You can help by staying quiet about me being here. Don’t tell your aunt, your uncle, nor that kissing cousin of yours. Everyone is a suspect.”
Grai’s spirit punched him in the arm.
“What?” Grai asked him.
“She’s a lady, Grai. She just finished dressing your wound. Show her some respect.”
Grai glanced at Adele. “Sorry.”
“Oh, think nothing of it,” Adele retorted.
“Just please don’t tell anyone I’m here. I’m not sure why I made myself known to you. It was probably his fault.” He nodded toward the spirit.
Adele tucked her supplies neatly in the bag and snapped it shut. Confused as to whether she should stay and try to find out more, or if she did her part and should go home.
“I brought you some blankets.”
Grai nodded. “Thank you.”
“Don’t you get cold?”
“My body chills, but there’s nothing inside of me that cares. He cares. Not I.”
Adele studied the person Grai referred to. The translucent image who moved in and around Grai—Grai’s likeness, only more colorful, more cheerful, more alive, and friendlier, yet transparent.
She shuddered. The thought of being only half a person with no feelings, and yet having to watch yourself, or someone like yourself experience more of life than you—what a curious predicament.
“Isn’t there any way you two could become—you know—one?”
“Why would I want to? I’d rather he left altogether. I would cut that thread that ties him to me with my pocketknife if I could. Go about my life without him. Or die if that’s what would happen.” Grai turned to her, his hazel eyes vacant, yet something inside of him seemed to cry out for help. “It would be easier, you know if there weren’t someone constantly reminding me of my dearth.”
“How did your spirit get—broken?”
He stared at her for a long time before he answered, searching her eyes. That emotional-less glower made Adele’s spine tingle. Should she even be talking to this person? She liked the spirit who smiled at her from outside of Grai, and how he turned the garden into an oasis in the middle of winter. When he slipped into Grai’s body, the man took on his spirit’s characteristics. But Grai alone with his morbid, undesirable, and somber glare gave her chills.
He spoke quietly, though, and still maintained a gentleness, even if it were depressing. She had nothing to fear.
“A broken spirit? Now that you put it that way, it makes sense, doesn’t it? Has it happened to you? Surely something in your life has broken your spirit?”
“Of course, it has,” Adele said without elaborating. “Not quite like you, though.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Oh—.” Adele shook her head and stroked the smooth leather of the medicine bag, avoiding his eyes. If she told him about her parents, he might shun her the way everyone else had.
“Are you ashamed?” His question spurred into the air like a whip lashing across her back. She straightened the pang driving through her body.
Grai’s spirit slugged him in the arm again. Grai relented.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to return your kindness with my bitterness. It seems no matter what I say anymore it comes out offensive. It’s just that I think you should be careful that this doesn’t happen to you.” Grai gestured toward his spirit, who spun away from him, and had they not been joined together like a man and his shadow the spirit would have fled into the woods. As it were, he went no further than a few feet, stopped, and pivoted around, inching back as Grai continued to explain.
“I think it was more than the attack that severed us. My despondency is just as much a cause and my wound. My spirit wants me to live and I have given up. I don’t see a way out of this quandary. I can’t go on living with a ghost trailing after me. They’ll take my land and sell me to a circus, lock me in a cage for curiosity seekers to gawk over. Or worse, my family will commit me to an asylum. They might, if they’re merciful, simply kill me. I assume nothing like this has ever happened to you, that you were never denied an inheritance because a thief pushed their way into your family and stole it? Surely a relative hasn’t tried to kill you.”
“No, those things haven’t happened to me. Quite the opposite, in fact. I spent much of my younger years alone. I certainly don’t have an inheritance. None whatsoever, being a woman. Only pittance that my uncle now has power of attorney over, and that he’ll use for my room and board when he sells it.”
“An injustice,” Grai said. “The world is not unbiased. Someday the gentlefolk will live equally alongside men. Slaves won their freedom, someday women will as well. Your parents have died then?”
Adele shrugged knowing that wasn’t an answer, but she didn’t come here to talk about herself, she came for him.
“Do you really think a relative tried to kill you over an inheritance?” she asked.
“I’m fairly certain the man your aunt claims owns this property hired assailants to do the job. He doesn’t like me.”
“Your stepfather? That doesn’t seem right. Even if this property were worth money, it couldn’t be worth a man’s life.”
“Some people would argue that.”
For a moment Grai’s spirit joined him. A frown from Grai chased him away. “They’re looking for my dead body. Once I die, the deed goes to my mother, who cannot own land, therefore it becomes Richard’s. As long as there’s no corpse at the morgue, the estate is in probate. Otherwise, my stepfather can sell it.”
“Why don’t you challenge your stepfather and show him you’re alive?”
“Like this? Look at me? I’m near death. It wouldn’t take an army to finish me off, and then the rogue would take all that my grandfather worked for. No. I’m staying here incognito. It’s the right thing to do until I heal. Until the two of us are one again, or until I die.” He nodded toward his spirit, and then as he tucked the end of his scarf into his coat, his gaze rolled over the courtyard, the fountain, the graveyard. “Grandfather made this place an oasis. It wasn’t just his house. He took in people who needed a helping hand. Former slaves. People from the tribe who were cheated of their land. He took me in, before the fire. I used to help him with the roses.”
Grai’s spirit had wandered back to the flower beds. With a hand gentler than any Adele had ever seen in a man he touched one of the dying buds. Slowly the bud opened and like magic unfolded into a sunburst of bright pink and yellow petals. Adele’s mouth hung wide, thrilled at the miracle. She looked at Grai, who gazed at his spirit longingly.
“The fool keeps hanging on. Look at him. He thinks the world is a playhouse. Everything he touches turns to gold,” Grai laughed slightly, but a sadness crossed his face. “Miracles that no one can see, that need to be hidden. It’s real, but it isn’t.”
When Grai looked at her again, the smile had faded altogether. “If I die, I don’t want them to find my body. Let them rot not knowing what happened to me. My mother allowed that man to kill me. It tears me to the core.”
“Maybe your mother doesn’t know what happened,” Adele offered in an attempt to negate such a horrible thought.
He shook his head. “How could she not know?”
“Have you spoken to anyone beside...him...since this happened?” she asked, indicating his spirit.
“No. I’ve seen no one. Only you.”
The distance between them closed. Not that she had moved any nearer to him on the bench, but that he had chosen to tell her secrets that no one else knew, and she more than willingly received him. She made a vow to keep those secrets.
“Your spirit seems to hope for something better.” Her words were a breath more than an utterance as she watched another rose come to life.
“Full of optimism. He believes in a world that will let him down. As much as I’d like to be whole again, I don’t think his innocence would help me survive. He knows nothing.”
“I would think he knows all that you know.”
Grai shook his head. “He has no brain, any more than I have feelings, now.” Grai’s eyes rested on her, a kind of gentleness that you would expect from a grandfather. “I don’t like talking about him. Let him do what he wants, leave me to be who I am. If we are ever joined again, things might change.”
“Aren’t you being somewhat hard on yourself? I mean, it’s not your fault someone tried to kill you. And it’s not your spirit’s fault that he wants to believe in goodness. Maybe we can find out who did attack you. You could be wrong. From what my auntie says, everyone in town is anticipating the railroad coming to Port Summerhill. People are looking for investments, and you own a goodly amount of land. You might have been attacked by someone you never met.”
The words of her aunt hovered over her heavy like a storm cloud. She didn’t want to tell him that her uncle wanted this property. She didn’t want Grai to think that Uncle Nicholas might be as suspicious as anyone else in Port Summerhill. But would her uncle murder someone to get his way? Ever since she found out her parents were killers, trusting people had become difficult. Look at her cousin, Benjamin. He had one objective with her, and she had little to no defense other than to avoid the man. Was her entire family plagued with scandalous intentions?
It could be that Grai’s story was a falsehood, too. A stranger hiding out on an abandoned piece of property—with a ghost no less—he could be lying to her. To what end? So that he can stay here and plant heirloom roses, or build a house? It seemed highly unlikely that Grai lied about his situation, and she wondered if spirits could lie?
She regarded the two of them, Grai sitting next to her, his spirit at his side hands folded on his lap. Grai had been studying the pillars that had fallen into the courtyard.
“Those stones will make a good slab for the floor, they just need to be chiseled down some,” he said, speaking to his spirit.
“That’s a lot of work,” his spirit responded.
“A little at a time. I can do it.”
“Mustn’t open that wound.”
Grai nodded.
Adele returned to her thoughts, comforted that she found Grai trustworthy. He’d been a victim of someone in high places—an important person with influence—and had been caught off guard. Wounded, he had no power against the wiles of the wealthy.
“I understand why you don’t want to go out in public. It is—I don’t know—bizarre to see the two of you severed. But there are ways to avoid having the public see you and still investigate.”
“What ways?”
“I could be your legate with the outside world. I could solve this mystery for you.”
Grai shook his head and laughed softly.
“I’d be a fool to let a beautiful young lady embark on such a dangerous venture.”
“It can’t be as dangerous as anything else I’ve been involved in.” She didn’t mean to sound so melancholy, but it was true. Living her entire life in a rough sea village, raised by parents who were going to be hanged for murder. Facing a cousin who thought of her as a fallen woman and an uncle who thought of her as his ‘property’—the bottom didn’t seem to be much lower. What difference did it make if she risked her life? At least if she succeeded she’d have done something worthwhile.
As if the breeze shifted her back into reality, she gasped.
“It’s Saturday, isn’t it?”
“I suppose? Why? What does that mean?”
She looked wide-eyed into his, the shock that had stunned her in the courtroom a few days ago returned to haunt her. “My parents are being hanged today.”
“What?”
Adele shuddered. “At noon.” She breathed deeply and held her hand over her mouth. The gallows, the crowd, her parents standing side-by-side, the images crept into her mind. “I didn’t want to watch but I’m seeing it in my mind, even now!”
Grai moaned as his spirit rushed into him and he put his arm around her.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
“The last time I saw them they were being taken out of the courtroom by men in uniform. I know they committed a crime, but, oh God!” She saw the noose around their necks and tears leaked from her eyes. She closed them as his arms tightened around her. The tenderness comforted her, and she blinked the vision away. His arm around her soothed her, and she lingered in that space for a moment.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “My world has been spinning ever since the trial. I don’t know who I am any longer, nor what place I have in life.”
“I know the feeling,” Grai said, his voice soft and comforting. “And now you must deal with a cousin who treats you ill. What about the rest of your family?”
“My uncle is rough, but he’s not altogether rogue. My auntie is kind. It’s just my cousin Benjamin who is a cad.”
He pulled her closer and rested his chin on her hair, his warm breath tickled her forehead. She felt the tremor of his spirit inside of him.
“The world is a cruel place for the gentlefolk,” he whispered. “It’s as though if you don’t play along with their schemes and hostilities, you get swallowed by them. Somehow we have to rise above it and let them know we’re not going to succumb. I’m afraid I haven’t yet mastered the craft.”
“Nor I,” she said.
“No, I think you have.”
She pulled away from him, seeing double again as his spirit quivered in and out of him.
“Your trust is innocent and remarkable, both. You went out of your way to help a stranger despite what might happen to you. You even hurt yourself to help me. It’s incredible. You don’t know who I am? I could be a murderer for all you know.”
He said it in such a way that, to Adele, he seemed to be scolding her. Heat rushed to her cheeks. Yes, he could have been a criminal. She knew he was hiding, but she would never have thought him dangerous. Especially not by the kindness of his spirit. She looked at the phantom who now stood behind Grai. He tilted his head and had a sympathetic pout on his face.
“And I could have been a murderer as well,” she argued. “Yet you let me dress your wound. How do you know I didn’t rub some sort of poison into you?” She held back a smile until Grai laughed.
“You have me there,” he said.
“I choose to trust you, and I’m sympathetic to your cause. I must tell you, while we’re on the subject of trust, that my uncle has his eye on this property. He wants to purchase it.”
Grai raised his chin and sat upright. The air around them grew suddenly solemn as Grai’s spirit sunk into the shadows behind him. “Who does he plan to purchase it from?”
“I don’t know any more than what I just told you. The news came from my aunt this morning. They’re taking me to a business meeting with bankers from California soon. I might be able to find out there.”
Grai rubbed his wound, and worry darkened his face.
“Your uncle doesn’t know I’m here does he?”
“No. I didn’t even know you were here until yesterday,” her voice tapered as he paled. “Oh, please don’t think I’ve come to hurt you. I was only teasing about the poison. And I’m sure my uncle doesn’t know anything about you and the situation with your grandfather’s estate.”
“Adele, I’m feeling ill and I think you should leave.” He stood and picked up the blankets Adele had given him.
“Thank you for these blankets.” He waited for his spirit who remained in the wisteria arbor creating tiny lavender buds under the frost. When his spirit didn’t respond to him, he walked away and seemed to vanish in the dense undergrowth near the graveyard.
Adele remained on the bench, the medicine bag on her lap, her shoulders slumped, staring vacuously at his receding figure. “What did I do wrong?” she asked.
“Oh, don’t worry about him, he needs to mull over his problems and that will put him to sleep soon. He needs his rest,” Grai’s spirit said, though he didn’t direct his statement to her, but talked to the wisteria blossoms he created. “His troubles will vanish temporarily, but you and I can spend time together, getting to know each other. We’ll be in his dreams.”
He looked at her, his silly transparent body, his bouncy curls, and his smile.
“He’ll like that. He likes dreaming about lovely things and he thinks you’re lovely.”
She gave the spirit her attention and he coaxed a smile from her. If anyone knew Grai, it would be his spirit, wouldn’t it?