Phillip nodded. “She was very positive about it. And you know how positive Mother can be,” he added archly. “Anyway, right after that, she asked me to bring Beth to her.”
Carolyn’s heart sank as she remembered the conversation she’d had with Eileen Russell that very afternoon. Had Eileen spent the rest of the day spreading Peggy’s story all over town? She must have, since apparently Abigail had already heard.
“So that’s why your mother went to the mill today,” she said out loud, then repeated her conversation with Eileen to Phillip. “It must have gotten back to your mother,” she finished, suddenly angry. “So she tied it all together with your father’s nonsense and Jeff Bailey’s accident, and went down there looking for something. But there’s nothing there—only Beth’s imagination, and your father’s craziness!”
“And your family’s stories,” Phillip added. “If you mix it all together, it gets pretty potent, doesn’t it?”
“But it’s just stories,” Carolyn insisted, her eyes imploring her husband. “And besides, Beth never heard them. My family all died before she was even born, and I never told them to her.”
“But Beth’s grown up in Westover,” Phillip observed. “Everyone in town must know those stories, and she’s probably heard them in one version or another all her life.” He left the fireplace, and sank onto a sofa. “Maybe Mother’s right,” he said. “Maybe you’re both right. If everybody in Westover’s heard all those stories, probably no one will come anywhere near the mill. Wouldn’t that be something?” he added wryly. “All that money, and I’ll wind up boarding the place up again.”
“No!” Carolyn suddenly exclaimed. “Phillip, we’re being ridiculous. And I’ve been ridiculous right along. But it’s going to stop right now. I don’t believe in ghosts, and neither do you. There’s nothing in the mill. And as soon as it’s opened, all the old stories will be forgotten!”
Before Phillip could make a reply, they both heard the screams coming from upstairs.
Tracy had appeared at Beth’s door five minutes earlier, letting herself in without knocking. Beth, lying on the bed staring at the ceiling, had not moved, and for a minute Tracy had thought she was asleep. But then she’d seen that Beth’s eyes were open.
“Look at me!” she’d demanded.
Beth, startled, had jumped up, then, when she saw who it was, sat back down on her bed. “What do you want?”
“I want to know what my grandmother said,” Tracy told her. She advanced across the room a few steps, then stopped, still ten feet from the bed.
Beth hesitated. She could see the anger in Tracy’s eyes, and was sure that if she tried to make something up, Tracy would know she was lying.
Maybe she should call her mother. But what good would that do? Tracy would just wait until they were alone, then start in on her again.
“She … she wanted to talk about Amy,” she finally blurted.
Tracy looked at her scornfully. “You’re crazy,” she said. “There’s no such person as Amy.”
“There is, too,” Beth shot back. “She’s my friend, and your grandmother knows all about her.”
“She only knows what I told her.” Tracy sneered. “And I told her everything you were saying to that stupid Peggy Russell.”
“Peggy’s not stupid!”
“Maybe she’s not,” Tracy conceded. “At least she’s not stupid enough to believe all that junk you were telling her. And neither am I, and neither is my grandmother!”
“You don’t know anything,” Beth replied. Tears were welling up in her eyes now, and she was struggling to keep them from overflowing. “You think you’re so smart, but you don’t know anything, Tracy Sturgess!”
“You shut up!”
“I don’t have to!” Beth cried. “I live here too, and I can say what I want to say! And I don’t care if you don’t believe me! I don’t care if anybody believes me. Now, go away and leave me alone!”
Tracy’s eyes glowed with fury. “Make me! Just try to make me, you stupid little bitch!”
“You take that back!”
“I don’t have to, ‘cause it’s true! You’re stupid, and you’re crazy, and when I tell my father, he’ll make you go away. And I’ll be glad when he does!”
Beth’s tears overflowed now, but they were tears of anger, not of pain. “Who wants to live in your stupid house anyway! I never wanted to come here!”
“And nobody ever wanted you to come here!” Tracy screamed. “Don’t you know we all hate you? I hate you, and my grandmother hates you, and my father hates you! I bet your mother even hates you!”