A Summer Romance (19 page)

“I don’t know why she’s doing any of this. I
don’t know who she is or why she chose me. But I’m grateful and I’m
happy.” Aaron looked pleadingly at Maggie, as if he was begging her
to be happy too. Maggie didn’t know how she felt.

“And now she’s brought me to you,” Maggie
whispered, feeling her chest tighten with anxiety.

“Maggie, it’s not like that.” Aaron took her
hands in his.

“Isn’t it?” she asked. She could feel the
tears building. “Then why am I here?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know why either of us
are here. But does it really matter? Does it have to? Maybe she’s
just some lonely old woman who wants to help people, wants to do
something good before she dies. She has no children, no family.
Maybe she picked us at random, maybe she didn’t. All I really care
about is the fact that I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life.
I don’t care how it came to be, I’m just happy that I met you. I’m
happy that I’m here, I’m happy that you’re here.” Maggie could see
the desperation in his eyes and hear it in his voice.

“I’m happy too,” she assured him as she
leaned against him and let him pull her close. She could feel his
tension melt away as he wrapped his arms around her.

It was true, she was happy but she was also
terrified. The scariest part, Maggie realized, was that everything
that had been given to them could just as easily be ripped
away.

The next day passed in a blur. At work
Maggie finished sorting the items from the trunk. She went about
the task more mechanically this time, not really seeing the
pictures, no longer reading the headlines of the newspaper
clippings. Her mind was consumed with the enigma that was her life
right now.

At the bottom of the trunk she came across a
leather bound journal. Something about it caught her eye, broke
through the haze in her mind. She gently opened it, taking care
with the stiff old pages. She found page after page of hand written
notes which she realized were listings of names and dates.

As she examined the faded pages she began to
see a pattern. Most entries had three names listed, one male, one
female, and the third name varied, but all three names included the
same surname. Beside each listing was a date. Maggie tried to make
sense of the names and dates but her tired mind just couldn’t focus
long enough.

Toward the back of the journal Maggie found
one entry that stood out from the rest. Only one name was listed:
Agnes Devereaux. There were no other names listed along hers, only
the date February 3, 1954.

“Who did this trunk belong to?” Maggie asked
Ms. Brandy as she carried the old journal over to her.

“That came from Mrs. Robbins estate,” Ms.
Brandy explained.

“The doctor’s wife?”

“Yes, she just passed away a few months ago.
Since they had no children her estate went up for auction last
month.”

“Do you think this could have belonged to
Doc Robbins?” Maggie asked, handing her the journal.

“Well, let’s see,” Ms. Brandy said, sliding
on her reading glasses and examining the book. “Sure looks like it.
I’d wager these are probably the birthdates of all the babies he
delivered over the years,” Ms. Brandy said, handing the journal
back to her.

“Birthdates?”

But Agnes Devereaux’s name was listed in the
book and she hadn’t had any children. Had she?

“Honey, you look exhausted. Why don’t you
head on home, get some sleep? Take tomorrow off,” Ms. Brandy
instructed.

“Okay,” Maggie said absentmindedly as she
stumbled out the door.

She didn’t even remember the drive home. She
seemed to be running on autopilot. She felt mentally exhausted from
running circles in her own mind and she was still no closer to
making sense of any of it. She didn’t even realize she’d taken the
journal until she pulled to a stop in the driveway and looked down
to see it in her lap.

Barney met her at the door, walking circles
through her legs and rubbing his head against her feet until she
paused to lean down and scratch his head.

“Did you miss me?” she asked as she pet the
purring cat. He followed her all the way to the base of the stairs
and then meowed irritably when she began to ascend.

“Oh don’t be a scaredy cat. Just come up,”
Maggie encouraged, but he just sat at the foot of the stairs
staring after her.

Maggie shook her head and continued to climb
the steps to her room with the single minded goal of taking a long,
hot bath. As she turned toward her room something in her mind
registered an aberration. Something was different. Maggie stopped
in the hallway and turned slowly to face the East wing. She stared
down the dark corridor but saw nothing unusual. She took a few
steps in that direction, straining to see through the darkness, but
there was nothing but the same bleak emptiness that always emanated
from that abandoned wing.

Maggie turned back to her room, telling
herself that her mind was playing tricks on her, but a small part
of her was almost certain that a light had been on in the East wing
when she’d first reached the top of the steps.

Once inside her room she placed the journal
on her nightstand, promising herself that she’d return it tomorrow.
Right now all she wanted to do was sink into a warm bath and forget
about everything else. Maggie slipped off her shoes and removed her
jewelry placing it on the dresser. She immediately realized that
the old photograph of Ms. Devereaux which she had left on the
dresser was missing. She couldn’t remember if she’d seen it there
this morning, but she was absolutely certain that she’d placed the
picture on the dresser last night and she had not been the one to
move it.

Maggie pulled her phone from her purse and
called Aaron.

~∞~

“You’re sure you left it here?” Aaron asked
a little while later as he stood with Maggie in her bedroom.

“I’m certain,” she insisted. “The picture
was sitting right here on top of the dresser and now it’s gone.
Plus when I got home tonight I thought I may have seen a light on
in the East wing.”

“I didn’t see any light when I came up,”
Aaron said reasonably.

“I know. It wasn’t on for long. Maybe it
wasn’t on at all. I don’t know.” Maggie began rubbing her temples
to alleviate the headache that was coming on.

“You look exhausted,” Aaron said. “Come on.
Let’s get you in the tub.”

Maggie didn’t protest as Aaron steered her
toward the bathroom. He turned the water on in the bath then turned
back to Maggie and began to unbutton her blouse. Her skin pricked
with awareness as he slid the shirt down her arms and his
fingertips brushed against her skin. He placed a soft kiss on the
top of her shoulder as her blouse fell to the floor.

Aaron turned away to check the temperature
of the water as Maggie finished undressing. When Aaron turned back
she saw the desire flash in his eyes as he saw her standing before
him naked.

He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling
her tightly against him as he placed a kiss on her lips, then he
released her.

“How about I go fix up some dinner while you
take a bath?” Aaron asked as he stepped toward the door.

“Sure,” Maggie agreed. She was a little
disappointed that he wouldn’t be joining her in the bath, but she
could also feel the fatigue all the way to her bones and just
didn’t have the energy to argue.

“Promise to check on me to make sure I don’t
fall asleep in the tub?” Maggie asked as she stepped into the bath
and sunk into the warm water.

“Promise.” Aaron winked back at her just
before he left the room.

Maggie hadn’t been joking. As her body
absorbed the heat from the bath she struggled to keep her eyes
open. Finally she leaned her head back and allowed her eyelids to
win the battle. She let her arms and legs float in the water,
feeling the warmth of the water penetrating through her tired
muscles.

Maggie began to drift off into that hazy
limbo between dreams and reality. She was semi-aware of the sounds
around her but her mind was drifting slowly to sleep. She heard the
bedroom door and knew that Aaron was coming to check on her. She
waited with her eyes closed expecting to hear him enter the
bathroom, but he never came.

Finally she fought off the heaviness of
sleep and opened her eyes, looking around the bathroom expecting to
find Aaron watching her. But she was alone.

“Aaron?” she called into the bedroom, but no
response came.

Maggie pulled herself from the tub, drying
off and wrapping herself in a big bath robe. She walked into the
bedroom, again expecting to find Aaron waiting for her, but the
room was vacant. Maggie wondered if she’d dreamt the sound of
someone coming into the room.

She walked over and sat on the bed. All she
wanted to do was curl up and fall asleep, but she knew Aaron was
downstairs cooking her dinner. She tried to summon the energy to
get off the bed and go downstairs. She glanced over to the
nightstand and stared a moment, feeling like something was missing.
The journal! It was gone. She jumped from the bed and hurried
downstairs. She found Aaron in the kitchen stirring something on
the stove.

“Did you take a journal off my nightstand?”
she demanded. He turned to her, his face a mask of confusion.

“Why would I take your journal?” he
asked.

“It wasn’t my journal. I found it at work
today and I accidentally brought it home. I put it on my nightstand
and now it’s gone. I thought I heard you come into the room while I
was in the bath,” Maggie explained. Her hands were trembling.

“Maggie, I’ve been down here the whole
time,” Aaron said calmly. “Maybe you put it somewhere else.”

“No, it was on the nightstand,” Maggie
insisted.

“Are you sure?” Aaron’s calm tone made
Maggie feel ridiculous. Maybe he was right. Perhaps she hadn’t put
it there. Her mind was so foggy with exhaustion. Maggie slumped
against Aaron’s chest and he wrapped his arms around her
comfortingly.

“I feel like I’m losing my mind,” Maggie
said as she snuggled into his arms.

“Maggie, you need to stop looking for ghosts
around every corner,” Aaron said as he stroked her back in a
soothing rhythm. “I know how you feel. When I first got here I kept
waiting for the catch, for the cost of this new life I was being
given. But we’ve been here all summer and nothing bad has
happened.

“I know this whole scenario is bizarre, but
that doesn’t mean that it has to be bad. So some crazy old woman
brought us both to this town. Maybe she had her own reasons, maybe
it was just fate. Frankly it doesn’t matter. All that matters is
that we’re here, that we met. And as soon as the harvest is over we
can leave.”

Maggie’s head snapped up and she looked at
Aaron questioningly. “Leave?” she asked with a catch in her
throat.

“Sure. If that’s what you want. I’ve got
work in Savannah, and you mentioned that you wanted to apply to
school there. We don’t have to stay here. We can leave this place
behind us and it’ll just be a story of the weird way we met,” Aaron
assured her, and for the first time that day Maggie was able to
take a deep breath. Maybe he was right, maybe the why didn’t
matter. Maybe the mystery of Ms. Devereaux didn’t really matter
either. What mattered was that Aaron wanted her to come to Savannah
with him, that they had a future beyond Devereaux Manor.

“So what’d you make me for dinner?” Maggie
asked smiling.

The following morning Maggie woke with a new
sense of clarity. Apparently, while sleeping, her mind had worked
through all the questions that had overwhelmed her the day
before.

The journal she’d found was a record of all
the babies that Doc Robbins had delivered. The listings were the
names of the parents, the child, and the date of birth.

Agnes Devereaux’s name was listed next to a
date that came approximately nine months from the date of the
spring cotillion, the night that she’d been found making love to
the farm boy. There were several reasons that her name could have
been listed alone, but one thing was certain. Agnes Devereaux had
given birth to a child, and the only evidence, the journal, was now
missing.

Someone had taken that journal from Maggie’s
room, probably the same person who had taken the photograph,
perhaps the same person who’d left a light on in the East wing last
night.

Maggie woke with the determination to lay
this mystery to rest. She was ready to leave, to go to Savannah
with Aaron and begin a new life there. But first she needed to know
why Agnes Devereaux had chosen them, why she’d brought them here,
and Maggie believed the answers lay in the East wing.

Aaron had already gone into the orchards to
work with the harvesting crew. Maggie was alone in the house and
had the whole day ahead of her. She quickly dressed and left her
room headed for the stairs, but when she reached the landing she
paused. Rather than head down to the kitchen to start her coffee
she found herself staring down the dark halls of the East wing.

She’d become quite comfortable in this big
house over the last two months. She’d already explored every room
on the first floor and as she found herself taking steps toward the
forbidden East wing she tried to convince herself that this was no
different, just a few more rooms. That didn’t keep her pulse from
racing as she stepped into the shadowy hallway.

The East hall was so dark it seemed to
extend infinitely. She found a switch on the wall and flipped it.
Several wall sconces flickered to life. A few of them remained dark
and one continued to flicker, creating a dim eerie lighting in the
hallway.

Maggie pushed ahead, refusing to let her
fear and anxieties make her turn back. She walked farther into the
hall, checking the handles on the doors as she passed. They were
all locked.