Carolyn sighed. “I wish I could, but nobody changes as quickly as Tracy has. So, no, I don’t believe it at all. I’m absolutely convinced that she’s putting on some kind of performance, but I can’t figure out what it’s all about.”
“Don’t forget,” Phillip replied. “I gave her a choice—she either behaves herself, or she goes away.”
But Carolyn shook her head. “What she’s doing goes beyond that, Phillip, and you know it as well as I do. I keep getting the feeling that she’s up to something, and that she needs to get Beth’s confidence.” Then, at the hurt she saw in Phillip’s eyes, she tried to apologize. “I’m sorry. I suppose I’m not being fair to her. But I just can’t see her changing overnight.”
“She probably hasn’t,” Phillip conceded. “But even if it’s just an act, it’s better than the way things were. And we have to give her a chance, don’t we? You know as well as I do that if she gets to know Beth, she’ll like her.”
I don’t know that at all, Carolyn thought to herself. All I know is that I don’t believe any of this. I feel like I’m living in a play, and I don’t know what it’s about. But despite her private feelings, she made herself smile at her husband. “A couple of months ago that was certainly true enough. But after all that’s happened—”
“It’s all over now,” Phillip declared.
Carolyn wished she thought he was right. “Is it?” she asked. “What about Beth’s friend Amy?”
Phillip’s eyes clouded, and Carolyn had the feeling he was keeping something from her. But he shook his head. “She’ll forget about her. Beth was going through a rough period when she dreamed Amy up, but as things get better, she won’t need Amy anymore.” He looked at his wife pleadingly. “Honey, haven’t we had enough problems this summer? Do we have to start looking for more? And besides,” he added, “Beth hasn’t mentioned Amy even once since she’s been home, has she?”
“Can you blame her?” Carolyn replied more sharply than she’d intended. “Talking about Amy cost her every friend she had. If I’d been her, I’d have stopped talking about Amy long ago. But that wouldn’t mean I’d stopped thinking about her.”
Phillip frowned. “What are you getting at?”
“I don’t know!” Carolyn rose from the table, and moved to the French doors. Beyond the terrace and across the lawn, she could see Beth and Tracy on the tennis. Had it been any two girls but these, the scene would have looked perfectly natural. But knowing all that had happened that summer, and remembering what Tracy had said in the restaurant the night Abigail had had her first heart attack, there was something frightening about watching Tracy show Beth how to hold the tennis racket. The scene looked so innocent, but Carolyn couldn’t rid herself of the feeling that what she was watching was more than a simple tennis lesson. Tracy, she was increasingly certain, was up to something. But what? And then, as her gaze wandered past the tennis court and fell on the massive shape of the mill, it came to her.
Whatever Tracy was up to, it had to do with the mill. She turned back to face her husband. “What about the mill?” she asked. “Have you decided what you’re going to do with it?”
Phillip felt dazed by her words. “What does that have to do with Beth and Tracy?” he asked.
“I’m not sure what it has to do with Tracy,” Carolyn replied. “But it seems to me that it’s obvious what it has to do with Beth. I want you to tear it down.”
“Tear it down?” Phillip echoed. “Carolyn, what are you talking about? There’s no way I can do that—”
Carolyn’s heart beat faster, for even as she had spoken the words, she had known she was right.
“But you have to! Don’t you see? It’s not just Beth! It’s everyone! Sooner or later, that mill destroys everyone in this family. Your brother—your father. Even Abigail and Alan. And I know who will be next! Phillip, if you don’t do something, the mill will destroy Beth and Tracy, too!”
Phillip stared at her. It was like hearing his father again, rambling on about the evils and dangers that the old brick building harbored. But there was nothing to it—no more than superstition. “No! Carolyn, I won’t have you talking like that. There’s nothing in that mill—nothing at all!”
Carolyn heard his words, and desperately wanted to