Suddenly, Jack remembered the first time Belle’s eyes fell on him. He remembered it felt like a sledgehammer had hit him in the gut.
And he remembered being extremely irritated that, when she was introduced to him, she hadn’t offered him her cheek to kiss and this made him so annoyed, he’d forced that on her.
And he remembered, practically the moment he met her, he’d manoeuvred her into his arms and, only moments later, he’d had the irrational desire to kiss her.
And, lastly, he remembered, in the dead of night, only hours after meeting her, when she was standing at his side in his shirt next to his dogs that he already considered her his woman and he remembered he felt a possessiveness unparalleled in his entire history with the opposite sex.
Therefore, bearing in mind that his history with the opposite sex was considerable, he had to admit that all of this was more than odd. He’d never thought about it, never questioned it, it was simply the way it was.
However, now, he was forced to think of it and his eyes narrowed on the Scot.
“I see it’s coming to you, lad,” Angus muttered.
Jack moved back into the room.
He hated doing it but he had no choice but to prompt Angus, “Go on.”
Angus only nodded once then said, “When I say reincarnated, I’m not talking about what people think I’m talking about. What I mean is, Brenna Addison and Joshua Bennett’s souls carried the spirits your and Belle’s souls carry. It isn’t that you’re Joshua and she’s Brenna. You’re you and she’s Belle. But you both carry this spirit, a trace of life on this earth that never dies even when its host does. It lives on with one purpose. It’s always seeking its mate, yearning for it and is only at peace when it finds it.”
The idea was ludicrous.
Jack didn’t share this thought but he knew his face showed it because Angus sighed and suggested, “How about we give that time to sink in?”
Jack wanted to advise him not to hold his breath but Angus wasn’t done.
“The thing with this is, these spirits, these traces, these bits of life, they seem to be anchored to The Point in some way. Not anchored here for good and ever because, if they were, Belle wouldn’t have Brenna’s trace. But the action is anchored here. What needs to happen is anchored here. Cass and I don’t think it’s been that way through eternity. We think something has anchored those traces here, brought you both here. We think they’re here because they have to be for Myrtle and Lewis.”
“So, what you’re saying is, Belle, being at least a trace of their mother come back to The Point, can set them free.”
Angus nodded but said, “Problem is, Myrtle and Lewis have disappeared.”
Jack stared and asked, “Pardon?”
“We’ve done reading after reading. There are no ghosts in this house.”
This, at least, was good news.
Jack crossed his arms on his chest and replied, “So your work is done.”
Angus took in a deep breath then he said, “No’ likely, lad. The children were there when Belle fell down the stairs.”
At this unexpected news, Jack felt his entire frame grow tight.
“What?” he asked on a menacing whisper.
“We all saw them. Yasmin got to Belle first. She said they were hovering over her when she arrived.”
“They hurt Belle?” Jack ground out, knowing his words were insane and not giving a f**k.
“No, they were upset, shouting for help. I wasn’t paying much attention but, looking back, they seemed scared. Or at least the boy did. Problem is, since they’ve disappeared, we can’t ask them what they saw.”
“What the f**k does that mean?”
“It means something happened that night. They saw something, something that frightened them and they’ve disappeared. Probably for their own protection. We can’t find them. But they’re not gone because they can’t go. They can’t leave this place unless they’re released. They just don’t want to be found. It isn’t unusual. What’s unusual is that neither Cass nor I can sense them and none of our readings are finding them and we’re both pretty good at this kind of thing.”
“Now what?” Jack asked.
“We’ve got to talk to them. Cass felt another entity when we first came to this house. That entity has disappeared too. No traces of him, no signs like he wasn’t even here, like he’s never been here. The children, there are traces of them everywhere. I can feel they’ve been in this room as I’m standing here with you right now. The third entity, we’ve got nothing.”
“And, this third entity –” Jack started.
“Is what I think frightened the boy.”
Jack’s chest grew tight as his mouth murmured, “Caleb Caldwell.”
“That’s my guess,” Angus agreed on a nod.
Jack’s chest grew tighter and his voice sounded hoarse when he said, “Belle.”
“That was my guess too,” Angus replied. “It would be strange, him being here. A ghost has to have some connection with the place it haunts. It has to be a place they spent a lot of time in or the place they died in. But it isn’t unheard of for a ghost to find a connection to someplace integral to something that happened in their life. Even so, we did readings on the top of the stairs, the bottom of the stairs and every step besides. We gave it everything we got. There’s nothing there. No ghost leaves no trace. It’s impossible.”
Jack, to his sheer disbelief, found himself stating, “We need the children.”
“Aye, lad, we need the children.” Then Angus shifted uncomfortably and asked, “Has Belle said –”
Jack cut him off, “We haven’t spoken of it. I assumed she tripped.”
Angus nodded again. “Aye, and she might think she did even if Caldwell was present. He’d have to trick her into the fall or, say, appear before her and make her lose her balance, something like that. Ghosts can’t touch humans unless they have a spell to give them powers. We’ve got the diary of a local girl. Cass found it in the library in town. I’ll share that with you later. But, as far as we can tell, Caldwell had no dealings with a witch who could give him that power and, even though this diary mentioned a good deal about him, the local girl doesn’t note that he dabbled in the dark arts. To be able to touch Belle, he’d have to have a spell. To be able to banish all trace of himself, he’d have to be very powerful. Although Cass is sure she felt something else, we’ve yet to discover what that was.” He leaned forward. “But, Jack, something scared that wee ghosty lad. Something that made him disappear when he’s had full run of this house for centuries without any indication he feared anything here. We need to call him out.”