For a moment she looked stunned to have gained access to the room and to me, then hurried to shut the door behind herself. She looked around, perhaps performing some split-second professional appraisal of the room’s details, or maybe just looking for Press. Satisfied, she grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me toward a chair.
We’d gone only a few feet when I jerked free and stopped.
“Enough.”
We faced each other.
“Jonathan was afraid. Do you know what it means when someone on the other side is afraid?”
“Why are you even here? You didn’t need to be here for the stupid renovation. I know you’re here for Press, whatever that means to the two of you. Have you had your little laugh over fooling the precious bride?”
J.C.’s panicked face tightened further, and I knew I had struck some truth. Before I could continue, she interrupted.
“Jonathan has never abandoned me when I’ve asked him to come. There were too many others here. Too much was disturbed. What do you know, Charlotte? What did you see? I know you saw something.”
“I saw what you—or was it you and Press?—wanted me to see. Everyone saw the girl.”
“I didn’t want to be part of that. I swear I didn’t. You don’t know what he’s like, Charlotte.”
As shocked as I was to hear that I’d been right, I couldn’t let her see it. “What I want to know is why, Julianna. You and Press were trying to—what? Frighten me? Make an ass out of me in front of Jack and Rachel and Hugh? I just want to know why.”
J.C. shook her head violently. “No! Charlotte, you and Michael shouldn’t stay here. Go to your father’s house. Anywhere. There’s nothing good for you here. Whatever you saw . . . whatever that was. That was real. Whatever is happening here is really happening. It’s not part of any game.”
She bit her bare lip as though she’d said too much.
“I don’t believe that bullshit about your brother, either,” I said, surprising myself with the profanity. “I’ve thought you were disgusting ever since Press introduced us. God knows what kind of people you spend your time with, and if you have a shred of decency, you’ll get the hell out of this house so I don’t have to look at you.”
“You’re wrong. I didn’t come here to hurt you.”
“Prove it.”
J.C. dropped back a foot or so, and into the reflection of my vanity mirror. Even in her dressing gown, her edges were so sharply defined that she hardly looked like a woman.
Was she human? Had we all become less than human? I’d never been so cruel before.
“You have to let go of your guilt about Eva.”
I moved toward her, wanting to shake her, to choke her. Anything to shut her up. “My God, you’re unbelievable. You’re not making any sense. You talk about my guilt when you don’t even know me. Get the hell out of this house. I don’t give a damn what Press thinks.”
“It doesn’t matter what you think of me. I’m trying to help you.”
“I don’t know why you hate me so much. If you really wanted to help me, you would start telling me the truth. But you obviously won’t.”
“There’s a difference between wanting badly to do something and knowing that you can’t.”
Furious as I was, I was struck by the change in her demeanor from the previous days. It was almost as though she were a different person. She seemed resigned, if not contrite. Older. Her jowls sagged a bit and her shoulders slumped. We were two women separated by a small, fraught wedge of fear. Almost equals.
Yes, I was struck, but I refused to be moved.
She sighed. “It wasn’t just the séance, Charlotte. He brought me here to get me close to you. This has been planned for a long, long time.”
“What do you mean?”
“I told him you wouldn’t understand. Ask him. I’m sure he’ll be happy to tell you.”
When she left the room, closing the door behind her, I had to work to control my breathing, my rabbiting heart.
She would be gone. I didn’t have to think about her anymore.
I dressed and went downstairs to let Marlene know that it would be just the four of us, including Shelley, for dinner. She accepted the news in her usual calm manner, and when I asked if she could make up a small meal for Jack that I could drop by their house, she said she would have it ready in half an hour.
Grabbing a jacket from the mudroom, I went outside to spend a few minutes with Michael, my only respite.
Chapter 30
Seraphina