Sommersgate House (Ghosts and Reincarnation #2)(16)

With effort, he pulled his eyes from her body and his thoughts away from the better ways there were to warm her and said sardonically, “Welcome to Sommersgate.” And to that, he lifted his glass to her in salute.

Her green eyes, which had been staring into her whisky glass, moved to him and in the briefest second, they lit right before she laughed.

He could not recall ever making her laugh before although he’d seen others do it. She’d always had an uninhibited laugh, throaty and rich, which engaged her whole body, rather than just her mouth. He’d always enjoyed hearing and watching her laugh.

He’d forgotten that too.

There was something quite unusually… pleasant about being responsible for that kind of laughter.

What was unpleasant was noticing that she did look exhausted. As her face lit up, the exhaustion was replaced by a light that he was far more familiar with when it came to Julia. And, as soon as the laughter died, the exhaustion settled back on her features. This was not evidenced in haggard lines, in fact, she hid it well. He hadn’t noticed it until she laughed. But she was pale and, once the laughter died away, there was none of the usual brightness to her eyes.

She lifted her glass to return the salute and downed the contents after which she grimaced.

“I’m sorry,” she said when she’d wiped the grimace from her face. “You get home late and have some crazy female running around your house like an idiot. You’re probably wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into. I promise, this is not an indication of the years to come.” And with that, she gave him a small smile that did nothing to transform her face and most certainly did not reach her eyes.

He had no reply and she didn’t seem to expect one. She stood and gathered the glasses.

“I’ll just take these to the kitchen and leave you in peace.” She turned toward the door finishing with, “Goodnight, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Julia,” he stopped her and she turned back. “Just leave the glasses. Veronika will see to them.”

She hesitated, looked at the glasses, at him then put the glasses on the table seeming somewhat confused.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” he finished, done with the episode, done with her.

She hesitated again and he wondered, in a detached way as his mind was already moving forward to when she would be gone, what she planned to do next.

Then she walked up to him, put her hand on his arm, leaned into him and kissed his cheek.

She smelled of tangerines and jasmine.

“Goodnight,” she said softly. “See you tomorrow.”

He stood leaning against his desk, his arms crossed on his chest and he watched her walk out of the study and into the dark hallway until she disappeared out of sight.

Yes, he had a problem and that problem was Julia Fairfax.

Then the phone rang and she went completely out of his mind.

Chapter Four

Ruby’s Friend

The next morning, Julia sat down to her sugarless porridge and stared at it with distaste.

After leaving Douglas last night, she’d tossed and turned in the big, soft bed with its even softer sheets. She couldn’t get her strange behaviour out of her head. Behaviour which, if it ever came down to a nasty custody battle, could and would no doubt be brought up to prove she was a raving lunatic incapable of raising three children.

What had come over her last night?

It was the house, the damned house. It was creepy.

She hadn’t heard any scream or felt any spooky arctic draught.

She was disoriented and over-emotional, exhausted, jetlagged and homesick.

At least that’s what she told herself but the entire night she couldn’t get it out of her head that something, not someone but something, was in the room with her.

She’d managed to drag herself out of bed at an ungodly hour feeling as if she’d only had moments of sleep, which, in reality, was all she had. She was determined to help Mrs. K get the kids ready for school. Mrs. Kilpatrick had taken enough on and it was now time to alleviate her burden.

It was chaos, but quiet and controlled as Douglas was in the house and it was clear the children had long since learned that Douglas was not to be disturbed (although, she soon learned from Mrs. K that Douglas was not in the house but out taking his morning run).

Lizzie and Willie were now bolting down their food, no matter that it tasted like cardboard, or maybe because of it.

Julia had made sure they were up, washed, dressed and their rucksacks were filled. After all this, Julia appeared in the kitchen to help with breakfast but Mrs. K had shooed her out and ordered her to sit in the dining room to await the meal. Julia was surprised they sat in the huge, formal dining room for breakfast. Dinner her first night there as a celebration but breakfast?

She’d made an effort when dressing for the sake of the kids and Mrs. K. She didn’t need anyone worrying about her and she knew she looked terrible. She tried to hide the dark circles under her eyes behind a mask of light makeup. She’d put on a pair of charcoal grey, boot-leg, corduroy trousers, the belt loops threaded with a heavily embossed, wide leather belt that ended in a huge, silver, Western-style buckle. She wore high-heeled black boots and a fitted black t-shirt that had a scooped neck and long sleeves that fit snugly down the arms but flared out slightly from the elbows to hang gracefully passed her wrists. She’d thrown on a necklace made of a strip of black leather from which dangled a hammered disc of matte silver and she’d completed the outfit with big, wide, silver-hooped earrings.