Haunting at Remington House. Laura V. Keegan
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she passed the dresser, Cassie jumped. Her hand flew to her mouth. She stifled her scream. Reflected in the mirror was an old woman. She was crying, her eyes puffy and red. Her lips trembled slightly, then parted as if she was about to sob. She raised a boney hand speckled with brown liver-spots, blue veins protruded across the back. Clutching an embroidered handkerchief edged with blue lace, she brought her gnarled hand to her eyes to dab her tears. In that instant, she and Cassie made eye contact. Cassie detected the faint smell of lilac water—and something slightly rancid. She whirled around to face the woman standing beside her, ready to go to her and offer comfort. Her hand reached out to the woman. The room was empty. She ran to the hallway, there was no one there either.
Chapter 35
“Cassie, what’s wrong? You’re white as a sheet!” Tom ran down the hallway.
“The old woman startled me. Where is she?”
“Who? There’s no up here except you. What woman?” Tom asked, trying not to show his alarm.
“The old woman. I saw her in the mirror. She’d been crying. I was going to help her, but I don’t know where she went. Who is she?”
“Did you actually see her, Cassie?”
“I saw her reflection in the mirror. I just told you that!” Cassie was getting annoyed with Tom. “Where did she go?”
“No clue. Did she talk to you?”
“No! I told you I saw her in the mirror, and when I turned around, she was gone. You didn’t see her?”
“No I didn’t and, unless she went into another room, she would have passed me in the hall. Was it Nellie?”
“No, it was not Nellie! I know Nellie. This woman was really old. Not anyone I’ve seen before. Please, let’s look around. This is crazy. I know what I saw. Come on.” They looked in every upstairs room; their search proved futile. Tom went downstairs to ask Nellie and her nieces, but no one had any idea who it could have been.
Tom went back upstairs to get Cassie. “Michael and Lizzie just got back. I had Michael look around outside, but he didn’t see anyone.”
“This is so strange, Tom. I saw the woman very clearly. Creepy.” Cassie giggled uneasily. “Think you have ghosts in the house?”
“What an imagination you have. Probably just shadows from the tree outside the window or something. Forget about it, Sis. Come on. Lunch is on the table.” Tom gently pulled her toward the stairs. Now what? Cassie couldn’t expect him to believe there was an old woman roaming around here. He wouldn’t put up with her ghost-talk for long. She would upset everyone. She’d always had an over active imagination. He wouldn’t encourage her. And he didn’t want anyone else to either. As he descended the staircase, he took a deep breath. In the dining room he faced the questioning eyes of everyone with a quick shrug saying, “Ghosts! My sister is seeing ghosts. Better watch out, next thing you know, she’ll be talking to them, too.”
Cassie shot him her famous “if looks could kill” glares and stuck her tongue out.
Tom suffered through lunch, skillfully leading the conversation away from the topic of the old woman. “Nellie, thank you,” Tom said as she began gathering up the dishes. “That was a great lunch. We’ll go to the living room now. You too, Mary. We have a few things to talk over. Come on, it won’t take long.”
Cassie looked at Mary and said, “We’ll look at my designs after while then. Tom, don’t keep us too long. Mary and I have plans, and Michael and Lizzie want to go down to the beach before it gets too cold.”
Chapter 36
Everyone filed through the double french doors to gather in the living room. Nellie followed with a tray of coffee, milk, and chocolate cake. “Mr. Gardner, I’ll pick up the dishes in a while, I need to get my nieces started in the attic. You said you wanted them to go through those old trunks in the back room, didn’t you?”
“That would be a good place to start. I think it’s mostly stuff from the previous owners. Blankets and household things. I’ll be up in a while to see if I want to keep any of it. I don’t want to store a lot of junk. Thanks, Nellie.”
To Cassie, Tom said, “I’m thinking about adding another bedroom in the attic so when you and Michael are here, you’ll have your own space. There’s plenty of room to have a master suite up there. But . . . no definite plans yet.”
“We’ll talk about it. I’m happy to stay on the second floor. The room we’re in is lovely. Talk about a view! I love this house!”
“Good, I’m relieved—it’s so different from Jamestown house, I didn’t know what you’d think.” Tom stirred cream into his coffee, then took a sip. “Listen, before everyone gets involved with other things this afternoon, we need to make plans for our Thanksgiving dinner. What do you think? Do you guys want a traditional dinner or something else? We need to decide so Nellie can plan the meal. She said she’d prefer to cook for us and spend the day here instead of being home.”
“You’re kidding. Why?” Cassie asked, taking a bite of cake, after carefully scraping the frosting off first.
“Said her house feels too empty without her husband. And she’s not getting along with her sister at the moment, so she has no plans. So what’s everyone think; what do you want to have for our dinner?”
Michael jumped in. “I vote turkey with all the fixings. Mashed potatoes, gravy—the regular fare. How about you, Lizzie?”
“Yay! And chocolate cake, too. This cake is yummy. Mommy, can we have it for Thanksgiving?”
“Yes on the traditional food. And chocolate cake for the kid!” Cassie said, laughing.
“Easy enough,” Tom said. “I’ll let Nellie know so she can plan the shopping list. Did I tell you Joe’s having dinner with us?”
“Doesn’t he have family he’d rather be with?” Cassie asked.
“No, no family at all. Besides, he’s becoming a good friend. I’m lucky I met him. Good sense of humor to boot! Great guy.”
“Sounds like it. Seems very grounded too. What about the Harrison family? When do we get to meet them?” asked Michael.
“Glad you asked. The Saturday night after Thanksgiving, we’re going to have a party here!” Tom said. “Cassie and Mary are going to plan it. Right?” Tom winked at the two women.
“Gee, Tom. Thanks for the advance notice. Not only do we have Thanksgiving to plan but a dinner party two days later, too?” Cassie got up and punched Tom in the arm. “Tom, what are you thinking?”
“We talked about this on the phone a few weeks ago.” Tom was not smiling. “Sorry, Sis. I thought you were up for it. Maybe we should postpone it.”
“Have you already invited them?”
“I have. But I’m sure they’d understand if we changed the date,” Tom said sullenly. He pictured an angry Vivian, all too eager to use her most condescending tone as she said, “Yes of course. I understand,” then slamming the phone in his ear.
“Not on your life. Mary and I can handle it. Not a problem, right Mary?” Cassie looked pleadingly at Mary.
Mary giggled, “Why not? I’m on school break. It’ll be fun. I have a friend whose mom has a catering business. What would you think of using her? It would make it a lot simpler. She’s really talented and has a great menu. Or she'll prepare almost anything you could want. Simple or fancy.”
“Sounds perfect. We’ll use her then. We better get on it right away. Anything else, Tom?” Cassie asked.
“What was that?” Tom jumped up and ran toward the staircase. “Someone just screamed! Did you guys hear that?” He yelled, “We’re coming,” taking