Fables & Other Lies - Claire Contreras Page 0,56
my bearings if I was going to stick around two more days. The last thing I needed was to hand my heart over to the Devil over some stupid leaves.
Chapter Twenty-One
River went to the study to take some phone calls, but I couldn’t bring myself to walk anywhere near it even after he told me that ghosts didn’t cling to one specific room. I started heading back to the bedroom, but as I neared the stairs, I spotted Sarah walking out of the hallway.
“Well, hello, dear.” She smiled brightly. “Are you busy?”
“No, I was just going back upstairs.”
“Walk with me.”
“Sure.” I followed her to the back of the house. “I didn’t see you at the party last night.”
“Oh. I heard you had a bit of a scare.” She looked over at me. It was so strange to see her up close like this after a lifetime of seeing faded pictures.
“I saw a ghost.”
“A nice one or a bad one?”
“A familiar one.”
“Those are the worst kind, aren’t they?” Her nose scrunched up. “Sometimes it’s best to do what they ask and let go of the past.”
“Are you speaking from experience?”
“I am.” She pulled open the door that led to the backyard and let me walk through first. The fog was heavier than it was yesterday, swirling all around us like a snake. “I don’t think there will be a party after all tonight,” she mused, looking around. “The conditions aren’t ideal for travel.”
“Do you ever leave this island?”
“Of course, I do.” She smiled. “I’ve spent a lot of time in France. In Spain. In Lisbon. I feel happiest there.”
“Why not move then?”
“My husband needs me.” She smiled softly. “You asked if I speak from experience in regards to the ghosts.” She stopped walking when we reached a tree. The tree. She began cutting leaves and putting them in a small wicker basket that was sitting beneath it. As she cut them, she looked at me. “My ex-husband haunted me in the beginning.”
“In the beginning?” I frowned. “But he wasn’t dead.”
“Not physically, no, and yet, he haunted me just the same.”
“How? Why?”
“I suspect he was clinging on to hope that I’d come back.” She stopped clipping, folded the scissors, and put them away in the basket, sitting down underneath the tree and patting the spot beside her. I walked closer and sat down, folding my legs to the side. The grass was surprisingly dry.
“So he haunted you because he wanted you to go back to him,” I said. “Do you think maybe it was your own guilt for leaving that haunted you?”
“No. Not really. I was horrified when Wilfred chose me. I mean, I was already the talk of the town. I’d been married five years and had no children, and when that night came and Wilfred announced it was me he wanted, I . . . it was shocking to everyone.”
“I bet. Men usually don’t pick married women.”
“Not for lack of wanting them or because of decency.” She shot me a look. “I knew many women having affairs, but they’d never do anything to display it openly.” She glanced back at the wicker basket on her lap. “My marriage was awful. My husband ridiculed me for not being able to get pregnant and we’d just had a huge fight about my worth and how little I was contributing, so when Wilfred called my name, despite reason, despite knowing how awful it would make me look, I was glad.”
“It sounds like he saved you in a way.”
“In many ways.” She smiled. “And I saved him in many ways as well. River was in boarding school at the time. They’d just lost Rosie, River’s birth mother.” She looked at me. “The house shook when I got here. Visibly shook, as if grieving. I know the island is dark and can be a little spooky, but the house isn’t the problem, it’s the curse that looms over it.”
“The curse set on it by my family.”
“I’ve been told you don’t believe in curses, but if you were to see a picture of the house before the curse and after you’d be forced to question that notion.”
“Is there a way to get rid of it?”
She smiled sadly. “Some of the staff thinks that when my husband dies, the curse will lift. They could be right. There’s no telling. You know what they say about the island though.”
“It takes one and gives another back,” I whispered.
Sarah nodded slowly, sadly, and I couldn’t help but wonder if there