When I raised my phone to the thermostat, I saw that the temperature had fallen below fifty degrees.
I dropped my head gently against the wall and thunked it lightly a few times. Thankfully I’d dressed warmly before bed, because I had to go outside to get a cell signal.
If this was actually the 1850s, I’d have to walk to a neighbor’s home for help and hope I wasn’t eaten by whatever lurked in the shadows.
I slid my feet into sneakers and crept into the night. The extraordinarily loud crunch of gravel beneath my feet seemed enough to wake the dead, and the reaching limbs of ancient oaks looked unusually ominous and gnarly. I didn’t stop until the streetlights came into view, along with a single bar of service on my cell phone screen.
I dialed Davis from a patch of moonlight on a mosaic of fallen leaves, thankful my cell phone’s battery still had a charge.
He answered on the second ring. “Hello?” His voice sounded low and scratchy with sleep.
I pushed images of him in bed from my mind. “It’s Emma.”
“Emma? Are you okay?” His voice cleared, and I felt instantly horrible for waking him.
“I’m okay,” I said. “But the power’s out. It’s cold, and I hoped you could help.”
“Give me ten minutes.”
I took a seat on the curb and waited in a cone of light from a streetlamp.
His truck turned onto the lane nine minutes later. Violet rode shotgun at his side.
He powered down his window as I stood. “Get in.”
I hurried to the passenger door, a comforter tied around my shoulders like a cape. “Thank you for coming.”
Violet licked my face as I settled, and the truck began to roll once more.
“I wanted to do this earlier,” he said, voice thick with fatigue. “Not at two a.m. What happened?”
“The power’s out.”
He frowned in my direction. “You mentioned that. Anything else you can tell me?”
I shook my head, avoiding eye contact.
I gave myself a swift mental kick for not hiding the space heater before I’d felt my way downstairs to call for help.
The truck rocked to a stop outside the manor, and we all piled out.
I unlocked the door, and he led the way inside. Violet stayed with me, while Davis headed to the basement, presumably in search of the fuse box.
I dashed up the steps, desperate to hide my crime. I was nearly at the top when my toe caught on my blanket and pitched me forward. “Shit!”
“Woof!” Violet lunged, steadying me as I made it to the second floor. The tip of my big toe throbbed as I hopped into the bedroom and tucked the space heater behind the open door. And then we went back downstairs to wait.
A few moments later, the manor came to life.
“Fixed for now,” Davis called, clomping back up from the basement. “I need to spend some time with the breaker box soon, but this should hold you.” He stilled and looked around, eyes squinted against the light. “Do you sleep with all these lights on?”
“I tried all the switches before calling.”
He made a small sound I suspected was laughter.
“I didn’t want to bother you,” I said, crossing my arms and clutching the blanket more tightly around my shoulders. “I hate that you had to rescue me. Again.”
“At least you didn’t fall down this time.”
