Kate’s smile could have lit up a stadium, but Sara didn’t move. No, she wasn’t going.
“You get hours of peace.” Jack looked at Randal. “And you?”
“Dinner with Lea. A friend of mine is making us a special meal. And Reid is going to his grandmother.”
Jack looked at Troy. “Your mom?”
Troy grinned in a way that made him look like a clone of his father. “She’s with Billy and his minions. I told him that if he pushes her, she’ll reenact her every scene in every movie. She loves small, adoring audiences.”
“So you’ve seen her then?” Sara asked.
“Nope.”
The way he said it made them laugh.
“Come on, little brother,” Jack said. “Let’s go eat, drink, and sing.”
“And dance with firemen,” Kate added.
“My wife-to-be,” Jack said to Troy in a fatalistic way.
“I hear you, man,” Troy said.
The three of them left together, all of them smiling broadly.
Ah quiet, Sara thought when they were gone. She closed her eyes and listened to it. Within minutes, she heard voices, mostly women, who were laughing and excited. Then came children and one or two men’s voices. Sara was pretty sure she knew what was happening. Randal probably told Lenny that they were all going out—which meant the dinner the caterers had prepared wouldn’t be needed. It sounded like Lenny had invited Dora and her friends. They’d done so much work in getting the house ready for visitors that they certainly deserved a good dinner. Of course they invited others.
Sara knew she should go say hello and tell them to help themselves to wine. She should play the hostess.
Was there a word more hated by introverts thanshould? Add it tohostessand it was full-blown terror.
There was no way Sara could escape them. To reach the main staircase, she’d have to go through the living room past where they were gathered. Even if she managed to evade them, the stairs could be seen from the dining room.
Hysteria began to rise in her throat.Just great!she thought.A skeleton falls out of a closet and I don’t panic, but a gaggle of giggling women makes me feel like I’m trapped in a burning building.
As the voices got closer, she looked at the window. Ground floor. Not far above the lawn.
She was small and thanks to many years of gym work she was lithe. She tossed her notebook out, then climbed through the window with the speed of a lemur after a banana. As soon as she was on the ground, she circled around to the kitchen. She knew where she wanted to go: the nursery. That room hadn’t brought back the memories she’d hoped for with Rachel, but Sara knew there was something there. Derek Oliver’s ghost? She hoped not, but there was definitely an energy in there.
The kitchen was full of people in white uniforms. For once, Sara was glad for her lack of presence. No one ever paid attention to little old ladies. She didn’t even have to do her slumped-over, crotchety act to get them to ignore her. They were busy serving dinner to half a dozen women and what appeared to be all of their children and grandchildren. Sara smiled. Good for them.
She opened the narrow door that most people didn’t notice and went up the stairs to the top floor. Yet again, she smiled at the lovely silence, then went into the nursery.
As she remembered what Rachel had told her, she looked around. A missing rug. Books out of order. Kate had said the same thing. If Kate saw the disarray, then straightened it, did that mean someone had searched a second time? For the stuffed animal full of jewels? Rachel didn’t seem to know what was inside the toy. But she also wanted to tear the room apart looking for it.
The more Sara thought, the more confusing it all was. They had so many pieces of the story, but no connection between them.
As she twisted to look around, she felt a bit of a stab to her chest. The brooch was still pinned inside her shirt. She took it out and looked at it. She couldn’t help wondering about the value of the green stone. Was it a raw emerald? She’d written enough books set in the Middle Ages to know it was cut the way jewels used to be. Not faceted so it sparkled. Was it thirteenth century? Or earlier?
Why had Reid’s grandmother entrusted something so valuable to a stranger? Was it true that she had Second Sight? Some form of clairvoyance? Did she foresee that Sara would feel, intuit, something from it?
She put her hand to her head. This was too much for her. She’d been going since 2:00 a.m. She’d talked to too many people, heard too much.
The window seat seemed to beckon her. Soft pillows. The fading sunlight of the day. She went to it and stretched out. She was so very sleepy.Please let me dream, she thought as she closed her eyes.Let me add to the story.
With the brooch clutched in her hand, Sara closed her eyes and went to sleep.
When Sara opened her eyes and realized she was in another dream, she nearly cried with thankfulness. As before, she was floating above, invisible to the people.
