Page 5

“How dare you threaten me?”

Julian's voice snaps me out of my memory. I blink and look around, disoriented. I'm no longer standing in the doorway of my room. I'm sitting on the edge of my bed. I'm showered and wearing my nightgown. I've somehow managed to prepare for bed without any conscious realization that I'm doing so.

Well, that’s good. I’ve dissociated in the past and ended up getting myself into very compromising positions. Perhaps my subconscious is choosing to be kind and keep me out of trouble.

“Should we talk about you ? You have secrets too. Let’s talk about those. Oh, you don’t want to get into that?”

I hear Julian’s footsteps as he walks past my doorway. A moment later, I hear him on the staircase as he walks to the first floor. I don’t follow him, but I have a feeling I know where he’s going.

My room has a balcony, like most upper-floor rooms in houses like this. Rather than follow him downstairs. I pull on my sweater and walk quietly onto my balcony.

The moon is bright, and the night is clear. It’s a beautiful, soothing night, but the vines below me glow like ghostly fingers in the moonlight.

No, not like fingers. Like a giant, sprawling web.

As I suspect, the back door opens a moment later. I see the light from Julian’s cell phone move beneath the vines as he walks deeper into the vineyard. “Threaten me again. Go on, I dare you. Oh, come on, you’ve been swinging your dick around like you’re King Kong. Let’s see it. Let’s see how low your balls hang.”

I blush a little at the locker room talk, but behind Julian’s bravado, I detect fear. What threats could the person on the other end be making? What secrets could he know that would unnerve Julian Bellamy this much?

“Bullshit. By the time I’m finished with you, you’d be begging to change your name and leave the damned country.”

I don’t hear the rest of his argument. He’s too far away now.

I remain on the balcony. The moonlit sky really is soothing, and though the grapevines still appear sinister, they are below me, and I am safe behind the wrought-iron grating of my balcony, so I would rather enjoy the cool air while I try to make sense of what I’ve heard.

Really, there’s not much to decipher. Someone is threatening the Bellamys, or at least Julian Bellamy. This threat involves exposing a secret that the stranger—and, I suspect, Julian—believes could ruin Julian. Julian is responding by threatening to expose the caller’s own secrets.

But I don’t know what those secrets are or why the stranger made those threats. Was he—or she, I suppose—trying to get something from Julian? Was the caller simply angry with him? Did they feel hurt, somehow, and they’re trying to get restitution?

And what could those secrets be?

I think back to the diary. Marianne Bellamy cheated on her husband and possibly fathered a child with another man. It is a tale as old as time for a woman to bear another man’s child and pretend it’s her husband’s baby, but a wise man once said that a tale that’s boring to one person is the spice of life to another person.

Or perhaps I’m misremembering that quote. In any case, the children definitely don’t look like their father or grandmother. I assumed when I met them that they took after their mother, and Victoria herself said they looked like her, but Julian reacted strangely to that. I put his reaction to simple grief at the time, but could there be an element of shame as well?

I hear footsteps and look back down at the vineyard to see Julian stomping back. I can only see his silhouette in the dim light, but that is enough to see that he’s furious. He mutters under his breath, every third word a curse word.

I return to my room and hear him continuing to curse as he marches up the stairs and passes me on his way back to his room. I manage to deduce that he considers someone—presumably the caller—a “Goddamned son of a bitch,” but no more helpful piece of information drops from his lips.

His door slams, and the house falls silent. I sit on my bed and begin my mystery, but the book holds no interest for me now that I find myself in the middle of an actual mystery. I struggle through the first two chapters before giving up, then set the book down.

I feel a growing sense of irritation at myself. I can’t do this. I can’t keep meddling in other people’s affairs. It’s not my place to snoop in this family’s secrets. I can’t pretend that the children are in danger. Sure, it’s not ideal that Julian and his mother squabble, but there’s been no murder here.

But then, what secrets could Julian's enemy expose? Those secrets could endanger the children. They could be anything from an embarrassing but harmless scandal all the way up to criminal action. Even murder.

I have to know. I have to at least determine this secret for myself. If it’s harmless, I’ll never speak of it. I’ll lock it away and carry it with me to my grave. I’ll leave Julian and Victoria alone and focus on my job teaching the children.

But if it’s not harmless, if the skeletons in the Bellamys’ closet are alive and hunting the living, then I’ll have no choice but to do what I’ve done before and drag that secret kicking and screaming into the light of day.

More footsteps sound outside my door, but they’re far softer than before. They’re not the footsteps of an angry adult man stomping back to his room. They sound much more like the footsteps of a teenager sneaking out of his or her room.

Or back into it.

This is an instance where it is not only acceptable but right for me to snoop. I leave the room and look down the hallway for the source of the footsteps. When I see it, I call in a soft voice, “Luann? Is everything all right?”

The poor girl jumps nearly out of her skin. She gasps and spins around, staring at me in shock.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” I say. “Are you all right? Did you hear your father on the phone?”

“Shh!” she hisses, looking around anxiously. Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned that I overheard her father.

She rushes to me without warning, gripping my arm so hard that it makes me wince. She pulls me into her room, shuts the door behind her and says, “Swear to me you’ll keep it secret.”

I blink. "That you heard your father on the phone?"

She rolls her eyes. “No . Just… Swear that you’ll keep it secret.”

“Keep what secret?”

“No! You have to swear.”

I give her a frank look. “I can’t make that promise if I don’t know what your secret is. Part of my job is to keep you safe. Young women sneaking out of their rooms at night is hardly safe.”

She flinches at that, then turns away and looks pensively at the wall. I notice a mark on her neck, and the secret becomes a little clearer. “Is this about a boy, Luann?”

She flinches again. Oh yes, this is certainly about a boy.

“You can’t tell anyone,” she begs. “Please.”

Tears are forming in her eyes. I have to stifle a smile. I can’t recall the number of times I caught Annie sneaking out to meet boys. I was always more sensible myself, but I can’t fault a young woman for behaving the way most young women do. “How old is this boy.”

“He’s my age. Okay? He’s sixteen. We didn’t do anything either. We just made out a little bit. But if my Dad finds out, he’ll kill me. Like literally kill me.”

“I’m sure your father won’t actually murder his daughter for sneaking out to meet a boy,” I tell her, “but I won’t tell anyone. However, I can’t allow you to be sneaking out of the house at night. There are worse things than teenage boys lurking in the shadows. You and your paramour will have to find another way to meet.”

“Okay,” she says quickly. “That’s fine. Just please don’t tell anyone .”

No doubt she’s only agreeing with me to shut me up. I’ll have to keep a close eye on her. Still, she isn’t in any danger at the moment.

“All right. As I said, your secret’s safe with me.”

She breathes a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

I grin. “So tell me about this boy.”

“No. Get out.” She sighs. “Sorry, I… It’s personal, okay? I’m sure you’re nice, but I’m not going to talk about my boyfriend with you.”

I lift my hands in surrender. “All right. You’re right, that was too personal of a question. I only hope you’re being safe.”

She shakes her head and waves her hands. “Oh my God, I’m being safe. I told you we’re not doing anything. Can we just not talk about it anymore? Please?”

“Very well,” I say gently. “I won’t talk about it anymore. Good night, Luann.”

“Good night, Mary. Sorry, I just… Well, good night.”

She opens the door for me and just manages not to slam it when I leave. I chuckle as I return to my room. It’s rather fitting that the night of mystery begins with an old scandal of a child born from adultery, progresses to a serious mystery that could possibly threaten the family, then ends on something as harmless as a sixteen-year-old girl sneaking out of the house to make out with her boyfriend. Perhaps this is a sign that I should stop imagining the worst. Not all secrets are damaging. Some are just embarrassing.

Still, the argument Julian was having seemed more than just embarrassing. Whatever scandal he’s hiding is a little more serious than an innocent tryst under the moonlight.

Or perhaps it isn’t. Trysts aren’t always so innocent. Julian has been widowed for a long time. Perhaps he felt the urge to sow some wild oats and planted them in someone else’s garden. If that secret were exposed, it would be both embarrassing and damaging.

But is it really the sort of damage that I need to interfere with? I’ve solved murders and dealt with traumatic histories before this. A sex scandal isn’t usually something so traumatic it needs immediate attention from the nosy governess playing at being a sleuth.

I decide to leave this alone. I’ll keep an eye on Luann and make sure she doesn’t get herself into real trouble. As for Julian? He’s a big boy. He can take care of himself.

I return to my Miss Marple book. With the mysteries in my own life put in their place, I’m able to read three more chapters of her riveting tale before sleepiness finally overcomes me. My eyes closed, and tonight is one of the few nights when I’m not plagued with any nightmares.

Save for one brief dream—more of a fleeting image, really. I am lying on a web of grapevines while a spider with glowing red eyes approaches me.