“I’m sure you can. Humor us all,” Matt told her.
Looking up at him, her shirt ripped, covered in sawdust, she was still stunning. Hair wild and eyes large, body stiff with indignity, she was more appealing to him than ever.
The girl is strange, he tried to remind himself.
She was ethical, dignified, beautiful, and often remote, as well. There was something about her manner that cried out to him in a way that he had never known. Lust, sure. She was supple, sinuous, elegant, and entirely sensual in her every little movement. Somewhere under it all, she was also wounded.
He could only hurt her worse, he thought. And still…
He doubted that could keep him away.
“I’ll be back to Melody House as soon as I can,” he said.
She set her jaw out stubbornly, looked as if she’d protest again, then accepted Smith’s arm, thanking him for his care and concern.
Penny waited anxiously at the door, having received a call from Mrs. O’Hara at the library. She raced out the moment she saw Smith’s rescue vehicle pull up by the front door.
“You poor, poor dear!” she told Darcy, slipping an arm around her shoulders before she had quite managed to exit the car door. “Come right in. We’ll get you going in a nice hot bath. That will ease your muscles. Then I’ll make you some tea with whiskey—the Irish swear that it’s a cure-all. Thank God you weren’t hurt worse! It’s a miracle. You might have broken your neck. Or every bone in your body. My God! How could we have let such a thing happen in Stoneyville?”
Darcy smiled at her. “Penny, I keep telling everyone that I’m absolutely fine, and no one wants to believe me.”
Harry Smith had come around the front of the emergency vehicle and stood in silence, watching the exchange. “Would you like some coffee or tea?” Penny asked him. “You’re on duty, so I can’t lace yours, of course,” she said, disturbed that she sounded so prim. She had always liked him. Such an incredibly kind man, always so calm and capable. Her heart had simply bled for him last year when his wife, just fifty-two, had succumbed to cancer.
“Thanks, Penny, I’m going on back. I left my partner at the library to take a quick look at Matt. I’ve got to get him and get back to work.”
“Matt is hurt?” Penny said anxiously.
“Not a bit. We just wanted to make sure.”
“Thank you,” Penny said, still standing there, her arm around Darcy.
“Well, see you both later,” Harry said. “Miss Tremayne, you get a headache, anything out of the ordinary—”
“I never hit my head on anything, honestly,” Darcy said.
He nodded, waved, walked around and got into the emergency van. Penny and Darcy watched him leave, then Penny collected herself. “Poor thing! Up, up. Clara Issy even went into the Lee Room to get your bath going. In fact,” Penny added, looking at Darcy wryly, “she was up there yelling at the ghost.”
“Yelling at the ghost?” Darcy said.
Penny hesitated, then said, “Yes, dear. We were both thinking that…well, we’re thinking that the ghost should just be left alone. We know that the ghost has violent urges, and we’re afraid, that for some reason, the ghost is now out to get you.”
Darcy shook her head. “The ghost is trying to tell us something, Penny. Not hurt me.”
“Come in, let’s get you out of all that dirt and sawdust,” Penny said. She looked Darcy over. Mussed, yes, daunted, no.
“Honestly,” she said softly, leading Darcy into the house. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but…I think you should leave.”
“Penny!”
“Seriously.”
“The ghost is supposed to be in the house, not the library!” Darcy said.
“But maybe this ghost is so disturbed by you that it followed you.”
“And maybe the floorboards are just really old, and they gave.”
“Well, go on up. Everything will certainly be more logical once we’ve all thought about it a bit,” Penny said.
Darcy stopped at the foot of the stairs and stared at her. “Penny, weren’t you the one who wanted someone to come here—to prove to Matt that there were ghosts, I believe.”
“Yes, I was. But that was then, and this is now.” Penny was exasperated. Darcy didn’t seem to understand that she could really be in danger.
“Penny, honestly, I do believe there is a presence in the Lee Room trying very hard to make itself known, and understood. I don’t believe it followed me to the library. What happened to me was frightening, but I’m fine, and it might have happened to anyone. It could have been a child, and Matt might not have been there in time.”
“Yes, that’s strange, isn’t it?” Penny mused. How had Matt managed to be there at just the right time?
“Strange, perhaps, but lucky,” Darcy said. Penny was startled when Darcy suddenly put her hands on her shoulders, drew her close, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’m fine, Penny, and I’m not afraid of the ghost in the Lee Room. And I’m very determined. I’ll run up and bathe, and be back down. That tea you were talking about sounds great. But don’t go treating me like an invalid. I have a scratch on my arm, nothing more.”
Darcy ran up the stairs and Penny watched her go. She stood in the foyer on the first floor landing for a very long time, still staring long after Darcy had disappeared.
She shook her head.
It would be terrible if something were to happen to Darcy.
Just terrible.
She really needed to talk her into leaving.
Dan Platt was the building inspector called into the library. Naturally, and with Matt’s full agreement and support, they were closing the library until a thorough inspection could be made.
Still, Matt wanted a preliminary report.
Dan, midforties, with iron-gray hair and a muscled physique, stood in his hard hat, hands on his hips. “Right now, it looks like the boards just gave.”
“Why those boards?” Matt demanded.
“Leakage, maybe.”
“There are no leaks. I looked at the roof.”
“Sometimes, leaks can slip down the walls and into floors without being evident. There are other possibilities.”
“Like what?”
“Something spilled there, maybe. Who knows? Maybe kids came in with some kind of acidic drinks, spilled them, and were too chicken to let Mrs. O’Hara know what had happened. A spilled drink that wasn’t wiped up would definitely damage this old wood. I’m not sure, exactly, Matt. But it doesn’t look as if there was any tampering, though why anyone would tamper with the library to begin with is beyond me.”
“I’d still like an analysis done on the boards that gave out.”
“Sure. If that’s what you want.”
“Definitely, it’s what I want.”
Dan looked at Matt as if he was going off the deep end, but he said, “We’ll do a thorough investigation, and see that the rotten pieces are analyzed.”
Matt nodded. “Great.”
Dan started back up the stairs. Matt stood in the now empty ground floor, and waited. When Dan and his workers had finished, Matt headed back up the stairs himself. It wasn’t that he didn’t have complete faith in Dan Platt. Nor did he have the least suspicion that Dan wouldn’t do a thorough job.
Still…
He took an evidence bag from the pocket of his jacket and selected a piece of the rotten floorboard from the area beneath the local history sections.
Downstairs, he chose another.
At last, he exited the library, saw that the building was locked, and that the notice that the facility was closed was obviously displayed on the doors.
When he left, he didn’t head home. He was taking a drive into Washington. On the way, he put a call in to Shirley, letting her know that he’d be out, but to call him on his cell in an emergency.
It wasn’t a long drive. Still, the day would be gone by the time he returned.
“Hey!”
Darcy was sitting in the dining room with Penny, drinking her whiskey-laced tea, when Clint came rushing in. She was touched by the way he came to her instantly, hunched down and gave her a simple, but very warm hug. Then he backed away, his hands still on her arms, his eyes anxious. “Are you really okay?” he asked.
“Perfectly,” she assured him.
“I’ve told her she should leave,” Penny said firmly, lifting her cup for a long swallow of tea.
“Because of the library?” Clint said, straightening at last and staring at Penny with a frown.
“I think the ghost is following her,” Penny said.
“Following her?” Clint repeated incredulously, sliding into one of the chairs at the table. “Penny, that’s insane.”
“Is it?”
Clint let out a long breath. “I’m not convinced there is a ghost.”
“Then you’re an idiot,” Penny said primly.
Clint arched a brow to Darcy, smiling in amusement. “Penny, in the old days, I spent many a night in that room. You know it.”
“How old are you now, Clinton Stone? Over thirty, right?”
“Penny—”
“You should have been married long ago, with a family of your own.”
Clint sat back, his brows raised in surprise. “Penny, some people just aren’t the marrying kind.”
She shook a finger at him. “Some people just aren’t mature and responsible!”
“Right. I should get married—like Matt did.”
Penny looked abashed. “Lavinia seemed right for him at the time.”
Clint sniffed, then grinned at Darcy. “See, there’s always a way out of a tongue-lashing by Penny.”
“Penny? Darcy? Where is everyone?” came a call from the foyer.
Carter. The household was all arriving, so it seemed.
“Dining room!” Darcy called out.
Carter came striding in. Like Clint, he made his way straight to Darcy, bent down on a knee, and took her hand. He looked earnestly into her eyes. “Are you all right?”