‘In the early days of the cemetery, it was quite common for wealthier families to build their own underground chapel. I believe there are a dozen or so here at Bonaventure. Afterregular services at the church, the preacher would perform a private service for the families. You know, spend a little extra money, get a little extra salvation. It’s quite lovely, not at all what you’re picturing, I’m sure.’
‘You’ve been inside,’ I realized as she drank again. ‘You’ve been down there.’
‘For my grandmother’s funeral. It has everything you might expect: pews, a pulpit, some even had electricity and running water although ours used oil lamps. More reliable.’
‘That is so creepy.’ I forced myself to relax and moved a little closer to the monument. Yes, I was extremely freaked out but also undeniably curious. If I was a cat, I’d be down to my eighth life for sure. ‘I’m glad they filled it in.’
‘It’s not filled in, just sealed,’ Catherine corrected me. ‘The city doesn’t allow them to stay open the way they used to but we can still unseal it to inter a body. Every Emma Catherine Bell who ever lived in Savannah has the honour of spending eternity here. There are still several seats inside.’
An involuntary shudder shook every bone in my body. Seats for every Emma Catherine Bell. Seats for my grandmother and seats for me.
‘I sure wish your daddy could have been buried here. Not in this exact chapel, naturally, but we have another plot across the way for our relatives. He should have been laid to rest where we could be close to him.’
She looked so sad and the reality of it all hit me again. I wasn’t the only one whose life had been turned upside down by the accident. I’d lost my dad but Catherine had lost her son, a son she hadn’t seen in years, and been forced to take in a teenage granddaughter she didn’t even know. I made a silent vow not to make things any more difficult for her. I wouldn’t get mad at her for my dad’s actions and, just for the time being, I wouldn’t tell her about the strange things I’dexperienced at the Powell house or in the square. The further removed they were, the less real they felt. Catherine was probably right when she said the jetlag and Georgia heat were getting to me.
‘Is that where my mom’s ashes were scattered?’ I asked as she replaced the cap of her flask. ‘Dad told me she was cremated.’
Embarrassment and regret coloured her beautiful face as she slid it back into her pocket.
‘I don’t know,’ she confessed. ‘Your father scattered her ashes someplace special to the two of them and refused to tell anyone, even Ashley and me. I guess I should have realized our relationship wasn’t in the best shape back then but it all happened so fast with poor Angelica, I was still reeling with grief.’
‘He said she got sick after I was born and her health went downhill very quickly,’ I told her, trying to remember the story exactly, word for word. It was so long since we’d last spoken about it, the details were fuzzy. If I’d known I was going to lose him, I’d have asked again and again until I had it all memorized. It was a hard lesson learned.
‘All of that is true.’ Catherine rested one hand against the angel’s cold marble foot. ‘But the whole story is a little more complicated. All through her pregnancy, Angelica lit up like she was carrying the sun itself but after you were born, there was a dark shadow over her. She was never quite the same woman. If I’m to be completely truthful, we were all so obsessed with you, none of us noticed how sick she was until it was too late.’
What felt like a rusty nail scraped all the way down my spine, digging into every knot and stabbing at every nerve.
‘She wasn’t sleeping well so your daddy would get up to feed you in the night to let her rest but one time, when he came back to bed, something was wrong. She was awake, hereyes were open, but she simply wasn’t there. I wanted to help her at home but Paul insisted on taking her to the hospital and right away the doctors there moved her to Atlanta for specialist treatment. I never saw her again.’
There it was. A fear I’d always had but never dared say out loud.
‘So it was my fault,’ I replied, my mouth dry as a bone. ‘Something went wrong after she had me. My mom died because of me.’
Catherine took my hands and held them to her heart, her eyes soft and pleading as I stared blankly at my future grave.
‘Don’t you ever think that,’ she admonished gently. ‘Angelica lived because of you. Your mama thought the sun came up just to see you smile. You were everything to her, the very reason she was put on this earth, she was sure of it.’
‘But if she hadn’t had me, she wouldn’t have gotten sick,’ I protested, too many feelings rushing up inside of me at once, feelings I’d been fighting to keep bottled up ever since I set foot in Savannah. ‘She and my dad would’ve stayed here and he wouldn’t have been in Wales so he wouldn’t have had the accident. They would both still be alive.’
‘Emily, no, you can’t torture yourself.’ Catherine pulled me, sobbing, into her arms. ‘We can play the “what if” game until the cows come home. What if I’d paid more attention? What if I’d realized Angelica was sick sooner? What if I’d insisted your father keep her at home instead of taking her to the hospital? Destiny is destiny, fate is fate. We can make anything our fault if we want to but what’s meant to be will be and not one of us has any say in the matter.’
‘There’s so much I don’t know about my own family,’ I mumbled as she wiped my tears away. ‘There’s so much I don’t even know about myself.’
She lifted my chin to look into her green, green eyes.
‘All you need to know is this. You are my granddaughter and you are exactly where you’re meant to be. Here with me.’
The wind whistled a soothing song and high in the sky, the light of the moon shone down on her like a spotlight. Catherine’s expression was so certain, so without doubt, I couldn’t help but believe her. Behind the Bell monument, I watched as a long, delicate tendril of Spanish moss slipped over the branch of a nearby oak tree and caught the breeze, wending its way down towards us almost as if it knew what it was doing. Familiar whispers began to fill the air and I raised my hand to greet it as Catherine’s breath caught in her chest.
‘Emily,’ she said, her soft embrace shifting into a steel vice. ‘Do not move one muscle. Stay exactly where you are and do not turn around.’
Immediately, I turned around.
The strand of moss fell away as I staggered backwards. There was something on the other side of the gate. In the shadowy half-light of the cemetery, I saw the dim outline of an animal, large and grey, saliva dripping from open jaws as it tore up the footpath with sharp, ugly claws, shredding the concrete like it was tissue paper.
It was a wolf.
And its golden eyes were set on me.
