Searching For Treasure

chapter 7

Dana couldn't get to sleep that night.

The party had broken up about an hour before midnight. Dana and Jack had spent most of the time dancing, which actually amounted to little more than holding each other and swaying to the music. They had walked hand and hand up the stairs. Jack kissed her at the door of her bedroom until even her body vibrated. Then he left her to go to his own room. So now she couldn't sleep, feeling very confused and out-of-sorts.

What had she thought was going to happen? Had she really wanted Jack to stay with her tonight? While her hormones were screaming, "Yes! Yes!" the rest of her wasn't so sure. Sex had always been a major step for her. The notion of sex with Jack simply boggled her mind. For a moment she tried to imagine what it would be like, but quickly gave it up as a bad idea. She didn't want to have to explain to anyone in the morning why she had been taking a cold shower in the middle of the night.

Most of the people they knew had never understood their friendship. Many believed they were already lovers and simply smiled knowingly when she insisted that they were just friends. Looking at their relationship objectively, she could easily see why people thought the way they did. Dana and Jack had shared so much of their lives with each other for so long, the joys and the sorrows, the laughter and the tears, the good times and the bad.

They knew each other so well, that on many occasions their level of communication seemed to border on the psychic. There was an emotional closeness between them that many of their married friends didn't share. And they had a comfortable, albeit non-sexual physical intimacy that seemed to be rare in male-female friendships. So was the prospect of sexual intimacy really that big of a step, after all?

At the soft knocking on the door, Dana practically jumped out of her skin. Jeeper’s creepers! She used one of Jack's favorite expressions. Was it possible he really could read her mind? She opened the door and cautiously peeked out. The powerful sense of disappointment she felt when she saw it was Rose and not Jack, told her all she needed to know. Her hormones and the rest of her were now in perfect accord.

Rose put her finger to lips then gestured for her to follow. Puzzled by her sense of urgency, Dana didn't even bother searching for her robe. Rose was tiptoeing down the hall that led to the upstairs music room. Dana had not had occasion to go into this room yet. Despite the Hollywood stereotype that would have audiences believe that all castles had a grand ballroom where lavish parties were held, Dana had learned that grand ballrooms were rare. However, most did boast a formal music room, where recitals and smaller dances and balls could be held.

Rose was leading her towards just such a room. She could now see that Grace was waiting for them, hovering just outside the door.

"Wait until you get a load of this," Rose whispered in her ear.

Grace's eyes were wide and fearful and her face seemed much paler than it should have been even in the moonlight. She was wringing her hands in agitation. As Dana came closer, she clutched her arm frantically. The strength of her grip and the trembling in her hand surprised her. In a tone that raised goose bumps on her arms, Grace whispered a single word. "Voodoo." She then pointed a shaky finger into the music room.

On the left side of the room was a marble fireplace mounted by a handsomely carved mantel made out of some kind of bone-colored wood. But it wasn't the fireplace that had grabbed their attention, but the figure in front of it glowing in a ghostly light. It was a very large, very purple chicken wearing a top hat and doing some kind of a dance.

Dana couldn't help herself. Peels of laughter filled the hallway, causing doors to open and lights to click on. The apparition at the fireplace flickered and winked out. Jack had once said that full-bodied laughter from Dana was a force of nature that could wake the dead. Or in this case make it disappear.

Grace was clearly terrified. "Oh, don't laugh!" Grace said. Jack came running down the hall with Noah on his heels. "Jack, make her stop."

"What's going on, what happened?" Jack asked.

"It's voodoo," Grace whispered.

Dana wiped tears from her eyes. "I'm sorry,”she began, trying to stop her giggling, "but what makes you say it's voodoo?"

"We learned all about it in New Orleans. At the museum they said that voodoo poltergeists appear as purple roosters in top hats. Or sometimes it could be a snake in a polka-dotted bow tie." Fresh laughter erupted from Dana and she fell against the wall.

"Yeah,”Rose added dryly, who clearly had not taken this whole scenario as seriously as her companion, "they even told us that Dr. John the famous New Orleans voodoo practitioner from the last century comes back from time to time as an alligator dressed in black wearing a ruffled shirt."

Dana leaned up against the wall. "Please stop,”she gasped, her whole body shaking from with mirth. "Stop I can't breathe."

By this time Oscar has joined them, looked very peeved and disgruntled. "What is all this racket? What's going on out here?"

Dana leaning weakly against the wall looked back into the music room. With tears streaming down her face she replied, "I think it was an Irish jig. Or maybe even the Electric Boogaloo." More shouts of glee exploded around them and she began beating her heels against the floor.

With a shake of his head, Jack scooped her up off the floor and held her in his arms. She buried her face in his neck and giggled helplessly. Everyone looked at Jack who simply smiled and said nothing. Then they all looked at Noah. He shrugged. "Sometimes things strike her as funny."

Since Dana was clearly unable to and Grace was practically in a panic regarding this insult against the spirit world, Rose explained the past several minutes, eliciting fresh bursts of muffled giggles.

Rose looked at Oscar speculatively. "I know you advertised this castle as being haunted-"

"I did not arrange this." He was outraged at the very suggestion. "I tell stories and let the guests make up their own minds. I do not fake ghosts just so I can advertise my castle as haunted."

"I believe you." Dana seemed to have herself more or less under control although the twinkling in her eyes told them it was near thing. However, she seemed disinclined to give up her place in Jack's arms. He seemed disinclined to let her. "I don't think dancing chickens…”she paused to bite her lip before continuing, "…is exactly your style. Besides, you've never said a word about voodoo."

"And nor would I. Voodoo has a sinister connotation to most people. While some tourists may think it is thrilling to shop at a voodoo supply store, those same people might not want to sleep in a castle that was haunted by voodoo spirits. And to the best of my knowledge, there is no history of voodoo associated with this castle."

"Well, if not you, then who?" Rose demanded. "Somebody must be doing it." She looked around. "Not all of us are here,”she said, noticing that Mark, Henry, Brett, Austin and Josie had not left their rooms. "Don't you think that's suspicious?"

"Well, it is after 1a.m." Dana grinned. "And while I may be loud, I've seen some people sleep through anything."

"Let's not get carried away and start pointing fingers just yet," Oscar warned. "I must admit that it makes more sense that I would be behind this stunt than any of you. I know it's not me, but why should it be any of you? You were all mostly strangers to each other before you arrived here."

"These stunts,”Noah murmured thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if you count what happened to Dana and Josie in the stairwell, this is the second time."

Dana hopped out of Jack's arms. "You mean somebody is deliberately trying to scare us?"

Oscar shook his head. "Perhaps it seems that way, but that makes no sense. Who would be doing it? Why?"

Grace patted out a huge yawn, apparently recovered from her fright. "Well, I still say its real ghosts. If it isn't Oscar and it isn't any of us, then who's left?"

Noah grinned. "Just Cedric?"

Grace brightened. "Exactly." Another yawn. "I'm going back to bed. I need my beauty sleep."

Rose shrugged. "What the hell. Nothing's getting settled this way."

Everyone headed back to his or her own rooms. Once Dana reached her bedroom door, she tugged Jack to a stop. "Jack stick around for a minute. I want to talk to you about something. Go on in, I'll be right back." Fighting back his own yawn, Jack nodded and went into her room to wait. Dana followed Noah to his room, catching him just as he reached his door. "Hey. Um, I just want to tell you…well, don't wait up for Jack. He won't be coming back tonight."

Noah looked at her a moment uncomprehending. Then his eyes widened. "Oh, boy!"

"Shush! Goodnight, Noah." She kissed her brother's cheek, her eyes glowing with excitement and headed back to her room.

Jack was sitting on her bed, leaning sleepily against one of the posts at the foot. Dana closed the door and sat down next to him. They simply looked at each other, neither saying anything. Jack broke the silence first. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Nothing." Walking on her knees, she moved closer to him. She picked up his right hand and, sliding it along her back, wrapped his arm around her waist. Jack, who was wide-awake now, pulled her closer. He watched her in wonder as she explored his face with gentle, questing fingers, across his lips, down his nose, smoothing out the tiny laugh lines around his eyes. Again and again, her fingers traveled his face as if she was trying to memorize it. She leaned forward and whispered against his mouth. "Stay with me tonight.” Then she kissed him.

With a groan Jack pulled her to him even tighter and kissed her with desperate hunger. He buried his hands into her hair. His kissed her eyes, he kissed her lips, and he kissed her throat. Shuddering with need, he took a ragged breath. "Do you know what you're asking? If we do this, there's no going back."

"I don't want to go back,”she whispered, running her tongue along his chin. He sucked in his breath. "I want to go forward. Don't you?"

He wanted to shout with joy. Instead he tumbled her back onto the bed. Smiling down at her, his eyes shone with all the love he had been afraid to reveal for so long. He kissed her with such heart-shattering tenderness she wanted to weep from it. "Finally,”he whispered.