“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.
“What?” Yasmin asked, looking between the two.
“Oh, nothing,” Lila explained. “Rachel always gets a little freaked out about ghost stories. We lived in a haunted mansion once and both Belle and Rachel were a total mess.”
“That wasn’t a haunted mansion,” Belle said, desperately latching onto something that had nothing to do with the fact that her and Jack’s story so closely resembled Brenna and Joshua’s. “You’d angered the neighbours, Gram.” Belle twisted around to look at Jack and added, “They were not very nice, by the way, wild parties at all hours and they let their dogs do not good things in our front yard and never cleaned it up. They definitely deserved Gram having a word with them.” Belle looked back to the room and carried on, “She just didn’t stop at a word and painted about twelve of them, none of them nice, on the side of their house.” She turned back to Jack. “After that, they kept playing tricks on us, nasty tricks that made Mom and I think the place was haunted.” Belle twisted back to the room and finished, “We left shortly after that.”
“You painted words on their house?” Yasmin asked Gram, grinning.
“Yep,” Gram answered.
“She not only painted them, she stayed up all night. It was practically a mural,” Mom put in. “It was awesome. Too bad they painted over it.”
“What were they?” Yasmin queried further.
Gram opened her mouth to answer but Belle got there before her and suggested, “Why don’t you share that later?”
Belle’s words said later. Belle’s face said never.
Gram threw Belle a smile and closed her mouth.
“Now that I find sad. A Cavendish mural painted over. Tragic,” Jack stated dryly and everyone burst out laughing.
Except Belle, who turned to him and smiled.
Jack smiled back.
Belle felt his smile in lots of places, the best being her heart.
“Feel better about Myrtle and Lewis, poppet?” he asked softly.
Belle nodded.
“You’ll feel safe in the castle now?” he went on.
Belle nodded again.
He bent his head and brushed his lips against hers before he murmured, “Good.”
Then Jack’s arm wrapped around her back and he pulled her close right before Belle thought of the little ghost girl waving at her from the window.
Then she wondered if she was the one that would help release those children and send them to heaven.
Then she wondered if she’d have the courage to do whatever it was that might be required of her.
Then she decided that she probably wouldn’t even as she vowed to find a way.
Then they heard the first roar of thunder.
* * * * *
It was hours later, when they were all in the dining room, the pudding dishes had been cleared away and everyone but Belle was enjoying coffee, that Belle turned her head to Jack.
“Jack,” she called softly, intending to ask if he would mind if she accompanied him on his nightly after dinner walk with the dogs.
Jack looked at her, his beautiful green eyes gentle with enquiry.
Belle wondered if she’d ever get used to how handsome he was (especially his eyes) and she opened her mouth to speak only to be cut off by her Mom.
“Bellerina, after dinner, can I have a word?”
Belle looked to her mother and saw her face was earnest. A look Belle knew she couldn’t deny no matter how much she wanted to walk with Jack and his dogs and, she was forced to admit, she very, very much wanted to walk with Jack and his dogs.
“Of course,” Belle said to her Mom and turned back to Jack to finish what she’d started but instead asking him to delay his walk a bit but Jack spoke first.
“I enjoy your company when we’re out with the dogs but I don’t want you in that weather, poppet. The path gets slippery in the rain,” Jack told her.
Belle looked to the windows. It was late evening but the day was not done as it stayed light until very late during summers in England. However, it was dark as night outside. The lightning and thunder had ceased but the rain was falling hard, heavy and steady and had been since that afternoon.
Belle’s eyes went back to Jack and she nodded.
“I won’t be long, love,” he finished on a small smile.