Shades of Midnight by Linda Winstead Jones

Author:Linda Winstead Jones
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-08-09T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Intent as he was on his work, sitting cross-legged there on Eve's parlor floor, Lucien was still startled when soft footsteps sounded on the stairs. He could actually hear Eve breathing too hard, gasping as she ran down the stairway. By the time he stood she was rushing into the parlor, her hair mussed, her wrapper held close to her body.

"He's here," she whispered hoarsely.

"Who's..."

"Him!"

He was with Eve in two long strides, and lay his hands on her shoulders to calm her. She trembled deep. Hard. "Who is he?"

"Viola's lover. And if you're right about Viola and Alistair both being murdered, the killer. He's here," she said breathlessly. She shook all over.

"No one is here but me," he said calmly, looking directly into her eyes and doing his best to calm her. "You no doubt had a dream..."

"Of course it was a dream," she snapped. "But it was also real. Ghosts do visit people in their dreams, you know."

"Yes, of course I know."

"And Viola visited me." The trembling subsided, a little. "She said I should leave this place, that I was in danger."

"From Alistair."

She wrinkled her nose. "I'm not sure. I don't think so, though." Her eyes grew bright. "Just before she left, she said that he was here."

"Evie, no one is here, I assure you."

"She sounded so certain."

"Time and place for Viola is not the same as time and place for us. The man she speaks of might have been in the house at any time in the past thirty years, and to her it seems as if that time is now. That he is here now, when in fact it's been thirty years. Remember, Viola doesn't know she's dead. She might have been reliving that final night or any other day of her..."

"Oh, she does know she's dead!" Eve said. "Thanks to you. I'm not sure how, but... you did convince her."

"That's a step in the right direction," Lucien said, relieved that his time here had not been completely wasted.

Gradually, Eve relaxed. Her breathing became more normal, her pale face regained some color. Finally, she closed her eyes. "She was so real," Eve whispered. "I touched her."

"I want to know everything she said," Lucien insisted. "Every word you can remember. Tell me now, before the dream begins to fade."

She tilted her head back and looked him in the eye. With her hair going this way and that, and her ugly wrapper parted to reveal her throat, she was more tempting than she realized. "Viola wanted a child, and that desire drove her to... to make a mistake with another man, just as the Reverend Younger said. It was only one night, a night she immediately regretted, but this man kept coming back and he even threatened to tell Alistair what had happened. Viola thinks he did tell Alistair, and that's why he killed her."

"Who is this man?"

"She wouldn't tell me. She said she was ashamed of what had happened, and then before I could make her change her mind she said he's here and disappeared.

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