The Lady in Residence - Allison Pittman Page 0,103

for the tiniest blur, the most minuscule orb—anything that might have hinted at other unseen well-wishers. But the spirits of Sallie White and Hedda Krause haunted only her heart. She looked at the ring, the stone fathoms deep in the darkness, forged in a broken past. It hadn’t come back to the Menger. It came home to her hand—a hand that would hold another and spin its own worthy tale.

Author Note

A confession: I love a good ghost story. Do I believe in ghosts? No, at least not in the restless spirit of the dead variety. Ghosts are memories. Stories. When I hear stories about a “haunted” house, I don’t care about the current bumps in the night; I want to know the story of the person behind those bumps and why the story has lived long after the soul.

The story of Sallie White is true, and the details of it as depicted in The Lady in Residence fall in line with the newspaper accounts of the time. If you take the Sisters Grimm Haunted History Walk in San Antonio (which I highly encourage!), you will stand on the sidewalk where she was murdered by her common-law husband. That’s where I first heard her story, and while it might have disappeared into the thousands of other historical tidbits I carry in my brain, instead it haunted me for two reasons. First, the murder of a chambermaid impacted the owners of the Menger Hotel—easily one of the most prestigious hotels in Texas at the time—enough that they paid for Sallie White’s funeral and burial. The entry in their financial ledger is proof of their compassion. Rarely would that kind of attention be given to such an employee. Second, the most often reported haunting of Sallie White is a brisk two-knocks sounding in the middle of the night. Nothing terribly frightening or ghoulish. Something that associated her with the simplicity and mundaneness of her life. (Also, something super easily explainable if you’ve ever spent a night in a hotel.)

Still, I didn’t want to write Sallie’s story, because there’s no happy ending there. But I wanted a story of a haunting. There’s a Russian nesting doll structure to The Lady in Residence. Sallie haunts Hedda. Hedda haunts Dini. I tried to bridge the idea of haunting and obsession: obsession can lead to a certain self-destruction, but a haunting? Think about all those times when you speak out loud to a lost loved one, or the times when a memory is so bittersweet you can’t really tell if you’re crying from joy or loss. Think about the biographies of men and women who inspire you to work for change—either in yourself or in the world. Think about the lessons you learn from knowing the mistakes others have made. All of that is haunting. I tried to bring all of that into the stories of Hedda and Dini. I wanted them to break free of a past that haunted them. I wanted them to look to the stories of the women who preceded and learn. What is the opposite of a woman murdered at the hands of the man she trusted? A woman who could forge a life without needing to trust a man. But then, what is the opposite of choosing to walk away from a lifelong love? Choosing to run right into it.

I can’t tell you enough how beautiful the Menger Hotel is, but there is a heaviness to it too. I would love for everyone who ever reads this book to make a pilgrimage to San Antonio for a stay, but don’t let its reputation for being one of the most haunted hotels in America be the reason for your visit. The place is just historically exquisite. It has been expanded and renovated through the years, but you can still book a room that (with the welcome additions of air-conditioning and Wi-Fi) is exactly how it was at the time of construction in 1859. Creaking floors, tiny rooms, antique furniture. I booked one of these rooms last summer, needing to really make sure the halls would accommodate my Pepper’s Ghost plot point, as well as Hedda’s world. The COVID-19 shutdown delayed my research trip, as the hotel was completely closed, but I was there the first week it reopened. I, along with maybe twelve other guests. I stayed the first night with my husband but opted to stay alone a second night so I could really get some work done. The place was