At the same time Belle whispered, “Oh my goodness gracious.”
At the same time Lila murmured, “That jackass.”
Joy continued.
“Joshua returned, learned his family was dead and he went mad, as anyone would. He stopped at nothing until he hunted down Caldwell. He brought him back, Caldwell was tried, found guilty and they strung him up,” Joy told them then looked at Belle. “It doesn’t have a happy ending for Brenna, Lewis and Myrtle but Joshua did find love again. He remarried and had three more children. Though,” her eyes moved away from Belle, “they say he was never again as happy as he was with Brenna.”
“You skipped over the part where Joshua found Caleb, played with him a little while, until Caleb was mad as a hatter then Joshua got sick of the game, ended up beating the crap out of Caleb and then brought him back barely alive,” Yasmin informed Joy then she looked at Mom. “That’s one of my favourite parts.”
“I can see why,” Mom muttered.
Belle ignored this exchange and asked Joy, “The children have been haunting the castle ever since?”
Joy gave Belle a small smile. “Yes, my dear, ever since. But, most important for you to know, until they were murdered, they lived here happily. And they live here happily now. They spend their days playing, probably just like they did when they were alive. They’ve never done anything mean or that first thing to harm anyone. They’ve even had some mortal friends along the way who they’ve talked to a little bit.”
“This is where the story gets good,” Yasmin told them happily, apparently unaware that she’d given away the fact that she thought every bit of the story was good.
“They talked to people?” Belle asked.
“Oh yes, not many, but they did it,” Joy answered.
“What did they say?” Lila enquired.
Belle felt Jack’s body still against hers and Joy’s eyes moved to her son.
She bit her lip nervously, Belle did not read this as a good sign and then Joy’s gaze swung to Gram. “They’d just tell stories of the masters and the mistresses of the castle.”
“They’d do more than that,” Yasmin put in. “They explained what had to happen to release them.”
“Really?” Mom asked, leaning forward.
“I think that’s enough,” Jack interrupted, he gave Belle another squeeze and she looked up at him. “As you can see, even if they do exist, they’re nothing to worry about.”
Belle nodded, thinking of those children stuck for hundreds of years in this house without their Mom or Dad and she felt that fact was even sadder than the fact that they’d been murdered.
She looked to Joy and asked, “What will release them?”
Joy’s eyes flashed to Jack before they went to Belle. “Well, they don’t exactly know.”
“But they think that their Mum has to come back,” Yasmin explained. “They think that the master of this house, not any master, but one that’s exactly like their father, has to fall in love with another woman, who’s exactly like their mother. Once that happens, something else has to happen, they aren’t sure what, and their Mum will come back and sweep them away to heaven.”
As Yasmin spoke, the air in the room took a funny turn.
And not, Belle knew, a good funny.
And Belle also knew exactly why.
It was not lost on her that she shared the same initials as Brenna Addison, Jack shared the same initials as Joshua Bennett and Calvin shared the same initials as Caleb Caldwell.
It was also not lost on her that the back story (not including the shipwreck, but instead a divorce, and not including the ball, but instead a birthday party) sounded more than a little bit familiar.
“Holy crap,” Mom breathed, her wide eyes locked on Jack and Belle.
“Rachel,” Gram said with soft warning.
“Holy crap,” Mom repeated.
“Rachel!” Gram snapped and Mom jumped.