Chapter 5
Driving away from Hasting's House, Emily felt a sense of relief. She had only been there two days, and though she had hoped for an improvement in her mood, it had not happened yet. With more time, it would.
As she drove along the winding country road, she noticed a pretty store at the side of the highwayâGordan's Country Marketâso Emily pulled into its overflowing parking lot and went inside.
A tantalizing aroma of freshly cut flowers surrounded her as soon as she stepped through the open doors. There were buckets full of colorful blossoms resting on the windowsills. Taking a basket in hand, Emily chose some red carnations and white and yellow daisies to brighten up her room decor, even though Hastings House had its own garden that she had yet to explore.
Flowers always cheered Emily up, and these would be no different.
Emily entered the bustling store that looked like it had been there since the 1930s or 1940s. The building was charming, covered in white aluminum siding and large windows with bright red shutters. A couple of older adults , sitting on the benches outside, sent her a warm smile when she passed them. She recognized their faces â they reminded her of her grandparents, whom she had not seen for an extended period.
Soft country music played from the speakers at the front. Emily noticed a sign above the blue Formica counter reading,
Fresh fudge and cookies ready to devour!
She followed her nose toward the candy section.
Sample cups of blond fudge and chocolate chip cookies, lined up in rows, were calling out her name.
Emily could not resist taking a bite out of one. The sweet butter and cocoa melted in her mouth, making her eyes roll in pleasure.
"Pretty good, huh?" a female voice behind her said.
Emily turned and saw a pretty young woman with the reddest hair she had ever seen and tons of freckles all over her face and arms. She was lovely, and her green eyes flashed with warmth and kindness. She was Merida from the Disney Movie Brave brought to life!Emily smiled back
"Yes, it is perfect!" Emily replied.
The young woman stepped out from behind a stack of boxes filled with chips and other snacks in the center of the store. She had the most genuine smile and held a box cutter in one hand and a box cut down in the other.
"We are running a special buy one, get one for free deal!" she said enthusiastically. Emily smiled.
"Well then, I will take advantage of that deal."
Clarrisa walked over to her and patted her on the right shoulder.
"Hang right there."
She said in a sweet southern accent and put down the box and cutter. She went behind the counter and grabbed two boxes.
Clarrisa stood before a glass cabinet displaying the sweets and slid the door back to access the cookies and fudge.
"What is your pleasure?! We have blond fudge, Maple walnut fudge, and my personal favorite, California Walnut fudge. For cookies, we have Chocolate chips, sugar, and." She leaned back in the cabinet and pulled out a tray. "And my mom's famous Peanut Butter cookies."
It all sounded so good to Emily, but she chose a box of blond Fudge and Peanut Butter Cookies.
"I'll wrap these up for you." Clarrisa offered.
Emily stood and watched her work. Clarrisa carefully placed the fudge and cookies in boxes and then sealed them with some tape. She looked up and handed the boxes to Emily. She wiped her hands on a red gingham apron tied around her slender waist, and Emily noticed her bright red tennis shoes. Red must be her favorite color, she ascertained.
Clarrisa stepped back around the counter.
"Is there anything else that I can help you with?"
Emily felt her friendliness radiating from her, and so she responded with.
"I know this is probably impossible... but do you have a coffee pot?"
Clarrisa chuckled.
"Aren't the ones in the hotels pathetic ... so tiny, and they do not even have a good selection of coffee?" She finished. Emily smiled.
"I am not staying at a hotel. I need one for the place I am currently staying at," she said."I am staying at the Hastings House." She volunteered.
Clarrisa's eyes widened with shock.
"No way! Seriously?" She could not have been more than nineteen or twenty. She had not had a hard life. At least not yet.
Stop it, Emily. Don't think that about that young woman. Just because your life is crap, doesn't mean that hers is.
Emily thought silently.
"Yes. I moved in just yesterday."
Clarrisa grabbed her softly around the elbow and linked her right arm with her left arm.
"You come with me."
She looked at Emily as if wanting to know her name, and Emily recognized that, so she told her name.
"Emily Buchanan." She spoke.
Clarissa smiled brightly."Well, it is nice to meet you, Emily Buchanan. I think we can find something in the retail section. Mama has everything like the big box stores."
She led her down aisles of canned goods, meats, produce, fruits, and vegetables. And then they turned down another corridor and came to a set of double doors that opened electronically.
This part of the store had a boutique atmosphere. Down the aisles, an array of decorations, appliances, and jewelry was on display. Clothes hung attractively from racks. A worker had toys, bedding, and colorful pillows piled up on a daybed in the corner to catch a customer's attention.
"Right back here, Emily," Clarrisa said, and Emily followed her.The aisle was tight and confined, but Emily could see a coffee pot for sale at the end of the rowâa Mr. Coffee machine. Clarrisa lifted on her tiptoes and pulled the box down. She handed it to Emily, and Emily deposited it in her cart."Thank you, Clarrisa."
She nodded.
"Of course!"
Clarrisa walked with her back down the aisle. They walked down the aisle single file because there was little room.
"So, how do you like that house?' Clarrisa asked softly.
Emily thought for a moment about how to answer that."
"It is huge. Creepy. But lovely, just creepy."
Clarrisa looked up as if she heard something that she was not supposed to.
"Creepy, how?"
Emily thought about revealing the truth, but she discounted it. She did not want any pity. Emily just wanted to do her job and possibly make a new life.
"Oh, you know. It is old, empty, and big. It just makes me feel." Emily paused. "Unnerved at times. I have been there for only two days, and already I feel uneasy with how large it is, like I could get lost and never find my way back."
Clarrisa nodded. She seemed to understand. They rounded the corner to the checkout lane.
"Be careful there."
For some strange reason, Clarrisa said that as if she knew something she was not telling. Emily smiled.
"Of course. I always am. I bought some flowers to spruce up the mantles, and now that I have a coffee pot, I can make it."
Clarrisa gasped.
"Oh...do you like blueberries?" She exclaimed.
Emily liked this woman.
"I do," she stated.
"Well....do I have the coffee for you then!"
She led her to the coffee aisle, located a bag of Blueberry coffee, and threw it in the cart."Annie's Blueberry coffee is cheaper than some other brands, but the flavor is incredible!" she gushed."I see the lines are getting longer, and Mama will be on the intercom calling me a few, and I hate that," she said, rolling her green eyes dramatically.
Once they arrived back at the front of the store, Emily and Clarrisa went their separate ways, but first, Clarrisa grabbed her hand.
"Hastings has a fascinating history. You should read up on it."
Emily tucked the information away in her brain and kept shopping, eventually deciding on a steak, a potato, two jugs of sweet tea, canned vegetables, red apples and navel oranges, bread, slices of ham and turkey, some mayonnaise, tomatoes, and coffee filters.
Content with her haul, she made her way to the checkout line.The lines were long, and Emily picked up a US Weekly magazine from the rack beside her and flipped through it while she waited. Finally, it was her turn.
"Well, Hello again!"
It was Clarrisa.
She started swiping the items as Emily loaded them onto the belt."So, you have heard that Hastings is haunted, right?" she asked as she keyed in the code on the apples.
Emily looked at her as she dug into the back pocket of her fitted jeans and pulled her small brown wallet out to get her debit card.
"I have heard that for years, but I don't believe in all that,"
Clarrisa told her about the total amount for her groceries, and Emily paid.
"When I was in high school, we had to do a book report on our town, and I chose the Hastings House because we used to go out there and do-little rituals and rites of passage stuff as young teens on Halloween night."
Clarissa winked at her teasingly and stuck the tip of her tongue out.
Emily was sure there was some mischief with that abundance of red hair. Emily laughed and watched Clarrisa bag her groceries.
"I just thought you should know. Many people swear that the house and grounds are haunted, and it was super creepy at night when I was there. That night was super-duper creepy because Mrs. Hastings had just passed."
Clarrisa winked as she handed Emily the two bags of groceries.
"It was nice to meet you, Clarrisa."
Clarrisa waved as Emily walked past her.
"Same here! Have a wonderful day, and come again!" she yelled after her.
Emily smiled as she exited the store with her groceries and her little garden of flowers. Clarrisa had heard stories about the house, but Emily did not want to hear about it. She was going to investigate its history at some point. Emily just was not sure when. She had to live there for now, so Emily would blank out anything she heard from others.
After she had collected all her groceries, Emily loaded them into her Camaro and drove home. Then it hit herâshe had forgotten the milk! Cookies without milk were no fun, so she pulled over in a mart and got a gallon of the stuff before continuing to the house.
As she pulled up to the driveway at around eleven o'clock, something caught her eyeâa foreign car she did not recognize parked under the weeping willow tree that lined the circular drive. Her heart raced as she noticed it was an old black Honda; why was someone here? She did not know anyone who drove a car like that.
With careful precision, Emily guided her car up the long driveway and parked it next to the other vehicle. She stepped out of her car and lifted the two bags of groceries from the back seat. Emily placed them on the hood of her car and pulled out her purse and keys; then, she walked up the steps to the porch.
Emily unlocked the front door and walked into the quiet mansion. She entered the kitchen and placed her bags of groceries on the counter. Emily walked over to the kitchen sink, looked out the large bay window framed with red curtains, and saw a young woman and a small girl walking in the flower garden. They did not appear to be causing any harm, so she went ahead and did a few things.
Emily unpacked her groceries in the stately kitchen and set up her new coffee pot on the counter by the stove. She made a pot of Blueberry coffee that smelled fantastic and had a peanut butter cookie with it, and then Emily placed her flowers in some vases that she found under the kitchen cabinet beneath the sink and filled them with water. Emily would put them in her bedroom later. She washed her hands and sighed. It was time to meet her visitors.
Emily's curiosity was piqued.
When Emily opened the back door that led outside, she was greeted by an abrupt rush of humid air. It was so oppressive and damp in the low country, making Emily feel like she needed to jump back inside for another shower. She shuffled across the thick grass to the garden. The woman was texting on her phone, and the small girl was bending down, picking roses, and playing with a little golden puppy by swatting a bright red rose back and forth across the pup's face and making it sneeze.Their backs were to Emily. Emily unlatched a white wooden gate with a trestle of red and hot pink climbing roses above her head and softly approached them. Her footsteps were silent.
"Hello." Emily said softly.
The woman jumped, as did the girl, and dropped her cell phone into the flower bed of daffodils.
"Oh Shit! the woman exclaimed. "You scared the hell out of me," she said, laughing nervously and holding her hand to her stomach. Emily held her hand up in a truce position.
"I'm sorry. I did not mean to scare you. I just wanted to come and introduce myself. I am Emily Buchanan. I'm the housekeeper here."
The woman was pretty with short, deep brown hair cut in a pixie, warm brown eyes framed by long dark lashes, and she was close to six feet. She looked in her mid-thirties and had an olive complexion showing off her high model-like cheekbones. She was slender and wore lavender nurse scrubs with a baby elephant print in cheerful yellow. She wore white tennis shoes with canary yellow shoestrings, a lanyard around her neck, and a name badge that said Cypress General. Emily would guess that she worked in the Neonatal unit.
The woman held her hand to her forehead and had an embarrassed look on her face.
"Oh, I am so sorry. I heard someone had accepted the job, but I wasn't clear on who or when the new caretaker would arrive!" She gushed in a low country accent.She smiled apologetically."I am Lainie Griffin, and this is my niece, Bella. " Lainie said, pointing to the pretty girl playing with the adorable puppy. "We live just down the road, a piece to your left. We have the horse farm ,Griffin Farms." She told Emily.
Emily gasped."Oh wait! I saw your farm on the way to the store this morning. It was a white fence with beautiful horses in the pasture?"
Lainie nodded enthusiastically."Yep! That is the one! Emily sighed.
"I love horses."
"So does my brother Davis. He raises and breeds Arabians."
Emily found that so fascinating. She smiled. Lainie shook her head in apology.
"I would have never just shown up like this if I knew someone had been living here. It's been vacant for so long. At least two years since Mrs. Hastings passed away. I feel like I am trespassing!" She laughed nervously.Emily shook her head.
"No, you are fine." She assured her.
Lainie visibly relaxed in her face and her body.Emily looked around her at the garden and surrounding property.
"You are familiar with this place?" Emily questioned softly.
Lainie laughed dryly.
"I should say so." She spoke. "We may not be Hastings, but we are close enough with all of the relatives that have worked here through the years for the family!" she chuckled. "We have been heavily invested."Lainie strolled to a spot away from the little girl who was still plucking flowers, and Emily trailed her.
Emily could tell that Lainie had something to share, but she wanted to be sure they weren't close enough for the child to hear them. Once they had stepped away, but she could keep an eye on the girl, Lainie spoke.
"My family has worked for the Hastings family for many years. My grandmother, mother, and sister were all housekeepers here."Lainie smiled."I broke the chain and became a nurse." She spoke. "Thus, the kid scrubs!" She pointed to the elephant fabric and then continued."She is my niece, as I said. I am her sole guardian since her mom passed away a few years ago." Lainie shared it with Emily.
Emily looked over at the child. Her hair was the lightest shade of cotton blond and rolled down her back in gentle waves. Her skin was porcelain-white, giving her a delicate, otherworldly air. She had thought the child was shy due to their quietness, but now she could sense something else.
"Bella has selective mutism. She used to talk as much as any child, but she stopped when my sister died."
Emily's heart went out to the little girl. Lainie walked over to a stone bench in the middle of the garden path and sat down with a heavy sigh.
"I bring Bella here when she gets agitated, which calms her. She will only communicate by writing. She has not spoken one word. It helps her to be where Tristan is and makes her feel calm and close to her."
Emily's blue eyes widened.
"Close to her? Here?" She questioned.
Lanie nodded in response."Yes, Tristan served as Mrs. Hastings' housekeeper, her loyal companion, and whatever else you might call it. She had been with Marjorie for five years, and they had a good relationship. One morning, my sister was vacuuming the stairs to the second floor when she fell backward."
Emily felt pure horror run through her body. Lainie looked at her and nodded to affirm what Emily was thinking.
"Bella saw it all."
"Oh, my.... God!" Emily gasped.
Lainie's eyes watered up.
"Yes. It has been tough on us. Bella was already giving her mom a tough time when she came to work with her that summer. She had such an attachment to this place, and Mrs. Hastings liked her being here, but Tristan got tired of the tantrums, and they moved back in with my brother and me shortly before she died. Bella threw an ungodly fit, and Tristan would not even let her come back to work with her for a while, but then she eventually did, with Mrs. Hastings urging. It was going a lot better until the fall happened."
Emily had experienced heartache and loss, so she could relate to Lainie's situation.
Bella rose from her seat and searched for her aunt. As soon as she spotted her, the little girl ran over with the pup scampering behind her. Emily looked into the palest blue eyes, without hardly any color at all, that seemed to peer right into her soul. Bella did not return a smile. She simply stared.
Lainie pulled Bella to her side, and her voice was light.
"Bella, this is Emily, the new housekeeper here. Isn't that cool?"
No response. Just the continued stare made Emily extremely uncomfortable under her scrutiny.
Bella pulled hard on Lainie's hand, and Emily saw her reach into the back pocket of her scrub pants and pull out a small notebook and pencil. She handed it to Bella. Bella grabbed it and began to write on the pad. She showed Lainie what she had written and then looked back at Emily with a look of hope in her eyes. Lainie looked at Emily and turned the pad around to show her what Bella had written in big, bold letters, it read.
Have you seen my mommy?
She looked intently at Emily, and Emily shook her head in the negative. She did not know what to say. Emily looked to Lainie, and then she looked back at Bella.
Emily knelt on the grass before her, and her voice was kind.
"I have not seen her yet, but I have only been here a few days," she said. "I know her name now, though, and if I see your mom, I will tell her now that you miss her."
Lainie nodded approvingly, and deep appreciation was in her eyes."It looks like it is time to go, sweety," Lainie said, and she tousled Bella's pale locks. "I need to get you and Goldie back home, and I have a shift coming up soon."
With that, the trio began making their way out of the garden and toward the mansion. Emily strolled with her companions, the little pup galloping after her sneakered feet. She stopped and bent down, giving the pup's downy fur a good rubdown as it wagged its tail.
"She is so adorable."
The little puppy squirmed like a wiggle worm, and Emily released her.
"Y'all can come through the house if you like and not have to walk around this huge house." Emily offered.
Lainie looked at her and down at Bella beside her, who was looking up at her with hope in her big blue eyes.
"I would prefer to walk around if you don't mind," she said, tapping her watch face."Steps!" she declared. Emily laughed.
"I hear that!" Emily agreed.
But there was a guarded and haunted expression on Lainie's face that Emily could not miss.
"Well, y'all take care and come back whenever you want."
Emily watched the car pull out of the drive, and it hit her hard in her gut. Bella reminded her of Isla so much. For a child that young to witness a parent's death. It was so unspeakably horrible and tragic. That child would never be the same, having seen that.
Emily was so desperate to hold her daughter in her arms again. Her cheeks were wet with fresh tears as she gazed at the bright blue sky. She imagined being reunited with Luke, Isla, and her unborn son. It felt so cruel that Emily had been left behind. The bitterness in her heart mounted, and she swiped away the tears from her face with a quick, angry motion. She would never heal from this loss.
Emily stepped into the house, into the chilly atmosphere of the entryway, and glanced up at the stairs. She recalled her vision. She had seen a young woman or a girl on that first day perched atop the wood banister who had glared down at her with those obsidian eyes and smiled emotionless before sheaving herself over the railing and plummeting to her demise.
Emily shivered at the thought and quickly moved away from the area. She wanted to be somewhere else as soon as possible. Emily hurried to her bedroom and retrieved a medium-sized red box with a handle, which she brought over to the leather sofa in the sitting area. It was a vintage record player Luke had given her on their second anniversary, which she treasured.
Emily rummaged through her collection of classic albums and grabbed an old Frank Sinatra record out of her closet. Then, she took it and the record player to the kitchen and put them on the center island. Plugging it into the wall outlet, she felt relieved as 'Old Blue Eyes' crooned through the halls and up the stairways and hallways of the grand home.
Emily got so busy putting things away that afternoon that she did not notice the sun beginning to set, the house growing dark, and the shadows creeping in. It was dusk at the old Hastings mansion.
Emily cooked a steak and potatoes for her dinner. Finding two white plates in the cupboard above the sink, she placed her food on it before hastily consuming it while standing at the kitchen island. Emily was so greedy that she did not even sit down to eat. Two glasses of sweet tea quenched her thirst, but she longingly wished for a nice glass of wine or a few beers to go with her meal - only to find there would be no such indulgence tonight.
After Emily finished her meal, she tidied up and stepped outside to see the sunset that painted the sky orange, with royal purple and turquoise aqua as accents.
The sultry night air blew a promise of rain or a thunderstorm later. She returned to the garden and sat on the bench Lainie had occupied earlier. Emily swapped her tennis shoes for some flip-flops, which she removed to let her feet rest in the cool grass. With her head reclined, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment. Emily felt so much better out there than she did in the house. She dreaded shutting down the house again for the night, especially knowing that Bella's mom had died in that house now. Emily prayed that she did not reencounter her or have that vision again because it shook her to the core.
She turned back to gaze at the massive structure, and a breeze stirred her messy bun. Her eyes grazed over the windows on the second floor but did not linger on them long. A shiver ran down her spine, causing her to wrap her arms around herself to shake off the feeling of being watched. Emily stared at the gauzy white curtains on the middle window in front of the staircase. It felt like someone was looking through those curtains at her. But how could that be true? She knew no one else was in the house with her, and she did not believe in ghosts anyway. They were not real; they were fantasies told by people who wanted to scare others.