‘Emma Catherine Bell protected the city,’ Catherine said. ‘And in return, the city protected her.’
The sound of Ashley’s spoon clattering against the table broke the spell and when I turned away from the deathly scene, I was back in the dining room. No flowers coming through the floorboards, no ancestors strolling through the wallpaper. I stared hard at the painting and heard myself gasp. There was a red-headed woman in the corner who I was sure had not been there before.
‘The Bell name still commands a certain respect in Savannah but what she and the rest of our ancestors did for this city has been long forgotten.’ My grandmother shook her head bitterly. I held on to the edge of the wooden dining table with white knuckles, fighting off what felt like a landlocked case of sea-sickness. ‘Still, we remain and continue her work. We don’t make demands, we have no expectations. Emma Catherine Bell gave everything and asked for nothing in return.’
She reached across the table to pull sticky strands of hairaway from my damp forehead and pressed her cool palm on my hot cheek. I didn’t realize I was crying until she wiped away my tears.
‘And now we do the same.’
Chapter Thirteen
It was early when I woke the next morning. Instead of the hot coffee and fresh pastries I’d found the day before, there was only a note waiting for me on the kitchen table. Catherine would be out all day and breakfast was in the refrigerator. My hands were shaking as I opened the fridge to find a glass of orange juice, some Greek yoghurt with honey and a bowl of freshly cut fruit.
Something was wrong with me, I was sure of that now, and it wasn’t the heat, the humidity or the jetlag. I remembered sitting down for dinner and my grandmother telling me the story of how the first Emma Catherine came to Savannah but what my memory insisted happened next didn’t make any sense. I couldn’t even remember how I got to bed, everything after dinner was a blur.
I sipped the juice and grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl, leaving the rest of it behind. My stomach felt as uncertain as I did. There was one theory that kept coming back. Wolves were wild animals, wild animals carried diseases, and no matter how many times Catherine told me it was all OK, I couldn’t stop thinking about all that blood.
The library was cool and calm and completely silent or at least it was until the click and whir of the ancient computer bounced off the bookshelves. It was like a clap of thunder in the peace and quiet and I winced at the endless leatherbound spines in apology. Everyone always told me how smart I was, how capable, but I didn’t feel too smart at the moment, only confused and afraid. I needed answers and I needed them now, there was no time to plough through all of Catherine’s ancient books when I could type my symptoms into a search engine and get results right away. Upstairs, I had my dad’s laptop squirrelled away in my backpack but without Wi-Fi, it was no use. The screen of the desktop computer came to life slowly, one bar of green blinking against a grey progress bar as the dial-up connection screeched its way down the phone line.
‘Come on,’ I muttered, the progress bar flickering for a second then starting all over again.
‘Don’t get too excited, it never connects.’
Ashley stood in the doorway, holding two cups in one hand, a plate of cookies in the other.
‘You scared me,’ I said, my heart pounding with surprise.
‘And I wasn’t even trying,’ she replied.
She sauntered into the library, closing the door behind her and placing the plate of cookies and one of the mugs down on the desk. Great, I was trapped. But at least I was trapped with hot tea and cookies.
‘I had the phone company out to see if we could get fibre optic broadband but they would have had to drill all through the house and run cables down from the street and Catherine wouldn’t allow it.’
‘There’s literally no way to connect a computer to the internet in this entire house? You only have your cell phone?’ I asked, clicking the mouse again and again just in case.
‘I don’t have a cell phone.’ Ashley shrugged off my look of disbelief as she settled on an old leather couch, cradling the other mug of tea. ‘They say the less time people spend online, the happier they are. You should try it.’
‘It’s not like I’m constantly online,’ I replied, still shaken by her revelation. ‘But the internet is useful for a million reasons, phones are useful for a million reasons. What if there’s an emergency or you really need to find the nearest Starbucks?’
She glared at me, unimpressed.
‘Something tells me our definition of an emergency might be very different.’
‘I didn’t say finding Starbucks was an emergency,’ I muttered, even though sometimes it definitely was. ‘There are other important reasons to have a phone, like keeping in touch with people. Like Anwen. I really should let her know I’m OK.’
‘The woman you were staying with in Wales?’ Ashley gave a slight scoff. ‘You don’t need to speak to her. Catherine took care of her.’
It was news to me.
‘She did? When? What did she say?’
‘I don’t know, I don’t take notes on her private conversations. Catherine is not the kind of woman who will run things by you before she does them so don’t waste your time thinking that she might.’
She pointed towards the cup and the plate she’d placed on my desk. ‘And you’re welcome, by the way.’
‘Thank you. Did you make them?’
She nodded as I picked up one of the cookies and broke it in two, half expecting to find a razorblade baked inside, but there was nothing but chocolate chips. Still suspicious, I took a tiny bite. As far as peace offerings went, it was a good one. Crunchy on the outside, soft and warm on the inside, the perfect ratio of chocolate chips, sea salt, cinnamon, andsomething almost herbal I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Even though I was useless in the kitchen, when it came to cookie recipes I was an expert. But I couldn’t quite figure this one out. Just like Ashley.
