“George, are you here?” Cally stood outside the Rose Room door, looking left and right at the butler’s desks at either end of the hall, but did not see anyone, and did not receive a reply. She closed the door behind her, then went and knocked on the partly open door of the Daffodil Room, again receiving no reply.

She put her head inside the door. Bethany lay fast asleep, and Cally didn’t like her color. She seemed very pale, and her skin seemed waxy in the sunlight. Doctor Boojums sat upright on the bed and did not look pleased, either. He watched Cally closely as she leaned over to look at Bethany’s face. Her breathing seemed shallow and just a little too rapid.

Both pill bottles were still on the night stand. Cally knew when Bethany did wake up, it would be well past time for her next dose. “We need to sort out which one or ones she is supposed to be taking,” Cally said. “I think I’ll try to contact the doctor this morning.

“The human doctor, not you,” she added with a glance at Doctor Boojums. He seemed to be satisfied with this, and lay back down with his forefeet tucked under his chest.

When Cally went down to breakfast, Nell was the only person seated in the dining room, and the expression on her face was sad. “Foster is talking to Dad in his rooms,” she said as Cally sat down across from her. “He and I have to go back to our own house in Raleigh on Saturday.” She stirred her oatmeal absently, making no attempt to eat it.

“Well, I’m glad I got a chance to meet you,” Cally said. “You must enjoy visiting your dad.”

Nell nodded, her customary shy smile returning. “And everyone else. Kat and Ignacio and Bethany and everyone. I grew up here,” she said. “But Foster says a girl has to leave the nest sometime.”

“I suppose he’s right,” Cally assured her. “Though someday this house will be yours, and maybe then you can live here again.”

Nell smiled, but glanced over Cally’s shoulder toward the Hall before saying, very quietly, “No, Foster says dad will have to sell the house before that ever happens. He says Dad is ‘not getting any younger you know!’“ Her voice was a very good imitation of Foster’s. “And Joan, well, she humors dad, but she’s really on Foster’s side. What she really hopes for most is for Dad to be sensible and marry her and go live with her in one of those retirement villages in Charlotte.”

“I don’t think Ian May will ever sell this house,” Cally said quite honestly. She couldn’t picture him without picturing Vale House as well; the day he left it would be the day he died. She didn’t say this out loud to Nell. She did say, “I honestly don’t think he will ever be interested in marrying Joan, either.” She kept an eye on Nell’s face to make sure Joan wasn’t walking up behind her.

“Foster says Dad is too easily manipulated. He thinks Dad might even end up leaving a lot of money to Joan in his will.”

“That’s none of Foster’s business,” Cally snorted. “And in any case I’m sure your dad will always see that you are well taken care of.”

“Foster takes care of me now.” Nell sounded like she was repeating what others often said to her. Then she brightened. “And anyway distance never separates true friends, you know! I still have all my friends I grew up with. Who were you talking to?”

“What?”

“Upstairs, in the hallway, a little while ago. I thought I heard you talking to Georgie.”

“Georgie?” Cally remembered Emerald had always used the affectionate diminutive when referring to George, but was surprised to hear Nell speaking of him the same way.

“Georgie the Friendly Ghost!” Nell laughed nervously. “No, there is no Georgie. That was just a silly book I read as a child. I have to grow up sometime. I’m going down to the pond this morning. Do you want to come?”

“I really should get some work done,” said Cally.

“Okay. Don’t tell Foster where I’m going.” She left her breakfast unfinished and went out into the sunny morning.

J

“Well.” Joan surveyed the desk, spying Cally’s laptop there. “Now, don’t get so caught up in your own work you end up neglecting your duties here! There’s lots of work to be done!”

Cally braced herself to ignore, per Ian’s advice, the impending talking-to about how Joan would not reduce her room rate just because she was helping out. But Joan seemed preoccupied with other concerns that morning. She dangled her empty mug from one hand and gazed up the stairs.

“That woman,” she said. She turned to Cally and looked down at her. “I don’t know what she’s thinking, but whatever it is, it won’t work.”

Cally could only give her a puzzled look. Did she think Bethany had got hurt on purpose, in order to get out of work?

When Cally didn’t reply, Joan went on. “She’s been after Ian for years. Decades! What could she possibly be thinking? She looks so old!” She drew herself up. “Would you believe, she’s actually two years younger than I am? But she does nothing to keep herself up. She doesn’t even bother to do anything with her hair.” She ran a hand over her own brass toned coif, bracelets rattling as she did so. “And those silly, old-fashioned flowered dresses she wears! How could she possibly imagine she could ever compete? I work at my appearance. He’ll never choose her.” She glared at Cally, as if daring her to disagree.

“I had no idea he was planning to make a choice,” Cally replied at length.

“It’s not the money!” Joan said sharply. “Everyone thinks I’m after his money. He doesn’t even have that much left, anymore, I don’t think. But he’s a sweet man.” Her voice softened at this last.

“He is,” Cally agreed. “And very good looking, for his age. I’d hit that, if I were a little older.”

“A little old...” Joan’s mouth dropped open, then snapped shut again as she turned on her heel and clomped out of the Hall toward the kitchen.

When she was gone, Cally covered her face with both hands. “Callaghan McCarthy, your mouth is going to get you into real trouble someday,” she muttered. Then she added, “But it might be worth it.”

A choking noise from the direction of the parlor doorway made her look up, and she saw Katarina emerge with her arms wrapped around her middle as she struggled to keep herself from laughing. “I’d hit that if I were a little older, oh Dios mío!” she spluttered. “I can’t believe you said that! Oh, I can’t breathe!” She finally doubled over laughing out loud; Cally was afraid she would fall on the floor right there in the Hall.

“I can’t believe I said it, either,” Cally said. “I mean, I would. Hit that. Only, if I were younger and more foolhardy, like I used to be. But she makes me so mad. The way she talks about you and Bethany. And everyone. How do you put up with it?”

Katarina wiped tears from the corners of her eyes, trying to master her mirth. “No, we just ignore her.” She gasped and caught her breath. “We are here for Mr. May, not for her. Ignacio says: her attitude is not a reflection on us, it’s a reflection on her.”

“He’s a wise man,” said Cally.

J

Doctor Tanahey was reluctant to speak to Cally about Bethany’s medication, due to patient confidentiality, but Ian came to the rescue when he passed through the hall and overheard her trying desperately to explain the situation over the phone.

“Daniel and I are old friends,” he explained, gently taking the phone from Cally’s hand. “And I am the closest thing to family Ms. Chase has, nowadays.” He put the phone to his ear and explained the confusion about the medication. “Yes,” he said, and “No. Well, no...”

Cally couldn’t make much sense of the only side of the conversation she could hear, and waited patiently until Ian lowered the phone and said, “He says she should be taking just the ones labeled twenty milligrams. He says he’ll come and collect the other ones. And he wants to know if you remember when was the last time she had any, and which dose she took?”

Cally shook her head. “Katarina says she doesn’t even think Bethany has been awake to take any, since yesterday afternoon.”

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Ian passed this information to the doctor on the other end of the phone, and then smiled and gave Cally a thumbs-up to indicate this was fine. Finally he said “Alright, Doc, we’ll see you tomorrow then.” He handed the phone back to Cally and said “If you could bring the bottle with the lower dose downstairs and lock it in the drawer here, he will come and take it away in the morning.”

“Lower dose?” Cally asked. It seemed to her the lower dose was the one Bethany should be taking, since she was sleeping so much. But maybe now that they knew the proper instructions, Bethany would start to show signs of recovery.

She went upstairs to get the superfluous pill bottle, and paused at Bethany’s bedside to straighten her covers and smooth back her hair. Doctor Boojums and Cyndi Lauper were both sitting on the coverlet vigorously grooming themselves, but Bethany was quite deeply asleep in spite of this. It didn’t strike Cally as a peaceful sleep. Bethany seemed to be struggling to breathe, a symptom, Cally guessed, of her injured ribs.

She turned to the night stand to pick up the pill bottles so that she could compare the labels, now that she knew what to look for, but was alarmed to find there was now only one bottle on the night stand. Squinting at the tiny print on the label, she saw it was the one with the lower dosage: fifteen milligrams – not the one the doctor had said Bethany should be taking. She shook her head and put the bottle down sharply, looking around the room. The other bottle did not appear to be anywhere in sight. Maybe Katarina had made a guess and taken the other one away?

In her haste to dash downstairs and ask Katarina about the matter, Cally almost ran right into Foster, who was just coming into the room. After they both spluttered and made mutual apologies, he said, “I’ve just come to check on Ms. Chase. How is she today?”

“Sleeping too much!” Cally said, nodding toward the bed. Cyndi Lauper hissed and leapt off the coverlet when Foster approached the bedside, running out of the room in a streak of orange and black, but Doctor Boojums remained where he was, eyeing the man closely.

Foster picked up the pill bottle on the night stand and looked quickly at the label. “This seems too high a dose for her,” he said, explaining “I have a lot of experience with pharmaceuticals, what with having to monitor all the medication Nell has to take.”

“Too high? No, Doctor Tanahey said that is the lower dose. Or maybe she’s just taken too many, in her confusion,” Cally suggested. “Maybe we should have Katarina keep the medicine and just bring it to her on the proper schedule?”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Foster said quickly. “And not just because Katarina is not trained as a nurse. You see, it could make her, and Ian as well, liable if anything should go wrong. And you know what I fear might be going wrong.” He put a hand on Cally’s shoulder and bent close to her ear. “Listen, I have to go into Blackthorn in a few minutes. I can stop in at Doc’s office on my way out of town, and ask him what to do about this medicine situation. Meanwhile, I hope I can count on you to keep watch over who comes and goes in this room. Have you seen Nell?”

“She...” Cally remembered Nell had asked her not to tell Foster she had gone down to the pond. “I think she said she was going for a walk.”

“Damnit!” Foster frowned deeply. “You shouldn’t have let her leave the house alone!” The way he looked at Cally, his grip tightening on her shoulder, made her step back in alarm.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t realize.” She refrained from finishing the sentence: “I didn’t realize it was my responsibility to look after a grown woman.” She wasn’t sure whether she was defending herself, or Nell.

Turning away, he set the pill bottle back down and clenched and unclenched his fists, taking several deep breaths. “No, I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s not your fault. You see her as a grown woman. She seems very intelligent, and she is, but she has... issues. It’s really not safe for her to wander around outside alone.” His face melted into a smile as he turned back and stepped closer to Cally. “I love her dearly, but sometimes it wears me down. Taking care of her can be exhausting.”

Cally stepped back instinctively but she said, “I understand. I’m glad she has you. She’s so sweet and unique.”

“Oh, she’s unique, alright,” said Foster. His face grew sad. “Sometimes it’s...” He stepped toward Cally again and laid his hands on her shoulders. “Sometimes it gets very lonely, you know? She can be like a child in so many ways, if you know what I mean, and, well, I have needs, too, and she doesn’t understand. I’m sure you know what it’s like, being all alone, yourself, and...”

Cally wanted to step back again, to get his hands off her shoulders, but the idea of having to take another step back from a man got her back up. She took a step closer to him instead and spoke directly into his face. “I am quite happy with my life as it is,” she said. “I decided that a long time ago. And shouldn’t we be looking for Nell, if she’s in so much danger on her own?” She turned without waiting for his reply, and walked out of the room.

“Yes, of course,” Foster called after her, but she was already halfway down the stairs.

—

Cally did intend to look for Nell, but only in order to warn her that Foster was looking for her. She followed the back hall to the kitchen and went through it, exiting the house through the garden door. From there, she imagined she should be able to round the corner of the house and go down the hill to the pond, and it turned out she was right.

She didn’t see Nell anywhere, though, once the pond came into view. Ian and Ignacio were standing together on the wooden walkway leading to the Pirate Ship. A large, lumpy tool bag lay at Ignacio’s feet, and the two men were engaged deeply in conversation. “We haven’t seen her,” Ignacio said, when Cally ran to them and asked about Nell. “But she likes to walk all the way around.” He waved an arm to indicate the path that followed the banks of the pond in either direction. Then he cupped his hands around his mouth and took a deep breath to call Nell’s name.

“No!” said Cally, putting a hand on his arm. “I’ll go look for her. It looks like a lovely walk anyway. If you see her, please tell her Foster is... getting worried about her.” She gave him a meaningful look, and Ignacio nodded his understanding.

She started at the end of the path on her left, through the willows and birches that cradled the stern of the Pirate Ship. It turned out she didn’t have to go far. Just as she was rounding the bend, where the path dipped down to cross bare mud next to the shore, she saw a pale arm waving at her from the underbrush. Nell’s face smiled out from within the birches, looking like a forest elf or some fey creature. Cally tried to find her way through the slender trunks and undergrowth, but branches caught in her hair and snapped at her face, so Nell had to come and help her. Taking her hand, the young woman led her to a narrow path which twisted its way down to a wide, flat rock jutting from the muddy bank into the water. Here Nell sat down and patted the rock next to her. There was just enough room for both of them.

“Foster is worried about you,” Cally said, sitting down and trying to get comfortable on the hard, uneven surface. “You should get back to the house now.”

“I wanted to show you my secret place,” Nell said. “I’m glad you came!” Nell hugged her knees and smiled, looking out toward the water. “You can see everything from here!”

Cally agreed. Swiveling her head around, she could easily see out through the leaves and slender branches to the pond, the old boat, the hill on which Vale House stood and even, on the far side of the pond across the fields, a few distant houses next to the edge of the forest. “You certainly can,” she said. “And yet nobody can see you, here.”

Nell grinned. “Not if we’re very still,” she said.

Cally looked up toward the house, expecting to see Foster running down the hill calling Nell’s name, but he did not appear, for all his concern, to have left the house at all yet. She turned back to Nell and tried another approach to convince her to go back to the house. “Don’t you ever worry about falling in the water?”

“You mean the mud?” Nell laughed, but quietly. “No, I never worry, here. I always feel safe here. My mother’s grave is right over there.” She nodded toward the field just where it began to run uphill toward Vale House, and Cally saw a short hedge with a white-painted gate in it. “That’s our family cemetery. Of course my mother isn’t actually buried there, but that’s where her headstone is, and Dad and I will be there someday, too.”

“How... nice.” Cally couldn’t quite think how to reply to a statement like that.

“Let me introduce you to some of my friends,” Nell said, completely changing the subject. “It’s OK, I think they like you...” She held out a hand, palm upward, toward the pond as if she were inviting a dragonfly to land on it. After the things Cally had seen lately, though, she more than half expected a water spirit or talking frog to rise up out of the cattails instead.

“It’s just that Foster really is a bit frantic, looking for you,” she pressed. As if to emphasize her words, they at last heard Foster’s voice calling Nell’s name.

Nell frowned. “People always call me Nell. Or Nellie.”

“What would you rather be called?” Cally asked.

“My real name is Helen. That’s what my mother named me.”

“It’s a beautiful name.” Cally smiled at her. “But...” She looked again toward the sound of Foster’s voice, booming from the direction of the house in increasingly strident tones.

“He wants to get away from here and go back to the city. To Blackthorn, today, but he always misses the city,” Nell said. She threw back her thin shoulders and frowned, looking longingly toward the pond.

“You should let him know you’re alright, anyway,” Cally urged, “Before he calls the sheriff to drag the pond looking for you.”

“Oh!” Nell stood up in alarm and looked toward the house. “I can’t let that happen. That would be bad!” She reached a hand down to Cally. “Let’s go this way. So he won’t see where we came from.”

She led them, crouching under the overhanging branches, in the direction away from the boat until they emerged in the fields at the north end of the pond. The little family cemetery basked peacefully in the sunshine here, but Vale House could not be seen at all beyond the willow-oaks at the top of the hill. Nell waved her arm toward the distant forest and the cottages at the far edge of the fields. “This all used to be part of The Vale; it all belonged to Vale House, a long time ago, until Great-Granddad sold off some of the land for people to build houses,” she said.

“Helen, you remind me of your father when you talk like that.”

Nell beamed at her, then led on. They passed around the lower curve of the bank and on into the birches crowding the eastern bank of the pond. Here the path turned uphill once more, and finally emerged into the lawn below Vale House. Nell waved to her father, who was now sitting on the deck of the Pirate Ship with a fishing pole in his hands. Ignacio and his tool bag had gone.

“Nell!” Foster came running down the hill from the house. His face was angry, but when he drew near he got control of himself and embraced his wife. “I was worried about you!” he said. He did not look at Cally.

Ian stood up and ambled slowly over to join them. Foster took Nell’s hand and turned to him. “We would love to stay for dinner,” he said. “But I’ve just got a call from the bank manager in Blackthorn, so we’re going there tonight. You are coming with me,” he said to Nell before she could protest. “I can’t let you out of my sight.” He explained to Ian, “I’m going to buy the bank manager a nice dinner. Nellie will enjoy a fancy night out. And if I play my cards right, that idea we talked about could become reality! “ He pulled Nell by the hand up the hill. “Don’t wait up for us.”