Ghost Writer - Pandora Pine Page 0,72

Her eyes remained on Jude.

Christ, they really weren’t going to get anywhere if Geneva kept giving them half answers.

“You’re here to protect the others, aren’t you? People like Brooks. Other people like you.” Cope closed the distance between himself and Jude. He slipped his hand into his husband’s and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Jude and I aren’t just partners in the office, we’re married. We have a son we’re raising together.”

Geneva opened and closed her mouth several times, seeming to change her mind several times before she simply smiled. “I never imagined such a day would come.” Pulling a dainty handkerchief from her pocket she dabbed delicately at each eye.

“The rumor of the day was that you preferred the company of women,” Jude said gently. He didn’t want to offend the spirit, but time was of the essence, especially if she was worried about another spirit showing up.

“Just one woman. Mirabella” Geneva smiled. “Her family arrived in Salem when I was seventeen years old. We moved in the same social circles. We became fast friends and after a time, lovers.” All pretense of Geneva being a shy wallflower was gone. Standing before Jude was a woman who knew her own mind.

“How did things end between the two of you?” Cope gave Jude’s hand a squeeze.

“We were caught by my brother. Each of us begged and pleaded with him to keep our secret, but he was a pious man, when he wasn’t fornicating with the town squeeze. I brought that up to him, but he said what he was doing was wrong, but not against God’s natural order.”

“I’m so sorry, Geneva. How did the people around you react?” Jude felt his heart breaking.

“Not well. Mirabella’s family forbade her to see me while they made plans to ship her off to a finishing school in California, but that wasn’t where things ended.” Tears cascaded down her cheeks. Geneva didn’t bother to dab at them.

“What happened?” Cope asked gently.

“My precious Mira was killed in a streetcar accident in San Francisco three months after she was sent away.”

Jude could feel Geneva’s pain as if it were his own. “That was the reason you went up to the widow’s walk that last night?”

“Part of it. I suspect it is the other part of my reasoning that you and your husband are here to speak with me about.”

“Something awful, evil, rather, happened in this room. I can feel it. The malice here has weight. I can’t think of another way to describe it.” Cope gave Jude’s hand a squeeze.

“The evil outweighs the good. Of that, I am certain. I do not know how much time remains before his return, so I will tell the story of this house as quickly as I am able.” Geneva stood taller, looking like a woman ready to unburden herself.

Fear crept over Jude, wrapping itself around him, twisting into his spine. He’d never wanted to leave a place more urgently in his life.

“As it turned out, I was not the only person in town with my particular perversion. It seemed there were quite a few others. Some had been caught like I was. Others were only suspected. It was another witch hunt, of sorts, only on a more private level.” Her tone was clipped, as if she were holding back her anger.

With those words it all became clear to Jude. What happened in this room. Why. It explained the reason Geneva had chosen to stay in this house of horrors rather than cross over and reunite with her beloved. “Someone was trying to brainwash you out of being gay.”

“Yes. That is putting it mildly, but yes.” Geneva turned around, holding her arms wide. “This half of the servants’ quarters was remodeled to serve as a schoolroom and a zoo.”

“Zoo?” Cope’s voice was barely above a whisper.

“Along this wall were the cages in which we were kept if we disobeyed or if we were not making enough progress in our studies.” She cast another glance behind her, when she turned back, her face was marred with worry.

“Who was it, Geneva? Who did this to you and the others?”

“Father Musgrave. I’ve spent the last hundred years trying to stop him. If he breaks free, no one will be able to stop him.”

“He’s the one banging around the house in the middle of the night?” Jude asked. He was having a hard time dealing with what he was hearing, but one thing was certain, Jude was going to do everything in his