Page 28 of Spellbound

“I doubt it. She was probably just an old lady, living all alone. Poor old soul. She had long black hair and long fingernails, even as an old lady, though, in a time and a place where women didn’t have those.

They couldn’t bury her right away, so they put her in a coffin upstairs in the loft of my grandfather’s shed.

I think they must have been neighbors or some kin.

“But downstairs in that shed was where the family had the meat hanging up to cure. My mother said they sent her and one of her sisters out to the shed to cut off some to use for supper. The sister was older so she was going to cut off the meat and my mother was supposed to hold the lantern for her. As they were standing there, cutting the meat, they started hearing noises from upstairs. Somebody walking around and moaning. Once a voice called out and started to cry. There was a sound like somebody scratching on wood too. They stood it as long as they could and then my mother screamed and dropped the lantern, and they ran all the way back to the house. They got a whipping for it, but they both refused to go back. So, their papa went out to the shed to see. My mother was scared, and she told her papa that it must be Old Aunt Jenny scratching on her coffin lid. But papa said it was just their imagination. He said he’d be just a minute, but it was a long time before he came back.

He didn’t want to talk about it when he came back.

But they buried Jenny a few days later. My mother always claimed it had been her ghost they heard in that shed. ”

Asher gave a shudder, and I saw his eyes widen as they roamed around the dark yard.

She laughed. “You asked for stories. Now don’t be so scared.

There have always been ghosts in these mountains, honey.

Like I said, they’re so old that people have forgotten how old they really are, and how many people have lived here before us and died here.

Some went peaceful, but some didn’t. Some didn’t want to leave.

They just weren’t ready. I read in school that Buddhist people call them hungry ghosts.

I think that might be a good name for them because they have unquenched desires.

Just think how many people like that must be buried here all around us.

They must be in a place like this—a haunted place in the woods.

People who died when they were young and just starting out.

They wanted more life. Young mothers with new babies, like poor Annie, who grieved for her husband and never being able to see her child grow up.

And young men with their whole lives in front of them in the wars too, and young lovers who just got started making a home together.

“Even older folks like me who just weren’t ready to go yet.

Who wanted to hold on tight to their lives and never turn loose.

I think maybe the sadness and frustration of that just lodges inside them.

And day after day, year after year, as life goes on without them, they just pile up the loneliness and the longing and the memories until it becomes this monstrous, huge, hunger.

And then they can’t stay peaceful in their graves any longer.

They have to walk and roam and try to get back what they used to have, only they don’t know how.

“And then there are the ones whose lives were taken away from them deliberately… killed by soldiers or the first people who lived here and who didn’t want to move on.

Or even by some animal or even a murderer.

.. just think of how they must feel. They must be so vengeful and filled with hate for the ones who stole their lives from them.

Those ghosts might be the really dangerous ones.

The ones who call your name in the woods and whistle to see if you’ll whistle back.

Then if you do, you might find them standing over your bed in the middle of the night. ”

Roslyn got up abruptly and put her glass on the floor.

“I think I’ll go to bed now before all this fool talk of ghosts gives me nightmares.

I have better things to do then sit around telling stories.

I’m too old for all that. Y’all stay and talk as long as you want to, but I think I’ll go lie down.

” She left then, with nothing more than a little nod to her sister.

I stared after her before turning to Janet. “Has she been like this all day?”

“No.” She sighed. “Just as the evening started coming on. She’s tired, I think. Maybe sundowning and a little out of sorts because of it. And like all of us, she hates being ill.”

“I understand. I wish there was something I could do. Maybe I’ll schedule an appointment for her with her doctors to see if they can do something to adjust her medicine.”

We all just sat quietly for a moment, lost in our own thoughts. Trying to end the evening on a lighter note, and bring back Asher’s smiles again, I said, “Thanks for the stories about your grandfather, though. Nice to know some of that DNA continues on in your grandson.”

“Wait—what?” Asher said, pretending to be outraged.

“Another bad boy who breaks the law.”

“I beg your pardon.”

“He may even have been a little worse. What was his name again?”

“Joe was what they called him,” Janet said.

“Joe was arrested by the revenuers and was on the chain gang. The authorities might have done something similar to you for ignoring all those posted signs and climbing up that waterfall.”

“Oh, I think the chain gang is a stretch.”

“Maybe nowadays. Maybe not so much back then. After all, making a little shine for your own consumption doesn’t seem all that bad. And at least we know he must have had some magic in him too.”

“How do you figure that?”

I began numbering them off on my fingers. “He saw spirits. He did healing. He managed to hide his son in the woods with the agents all around them. And he faced down that demon in the shed.”

“Demon? That’s a bit of an exaggeration, don’t you think?”

“Is it? It called your great grandmother’s name and walked around up in the loft crying. It was trying to lure the girls up there with it, and there were those long fingernails…sounds like it could have been a demon to me.”

Asher stood up. “Okay, that’s it, I’m done. I know I started this, but I didn’t think it through. Turns out I don’t like ghost stories after all.”

I reached for his hand to kiss his knuckles. “I’ll protect you.”

I saw his grandmother’s eyes widen a bit and she gave me an interested look. “But as much as I hate to eat and run, Asher and I do have some things to talk about, so I think we’ll go back to my place for a while.” I stood up and held out a hand to him. “Ash,” I said, “Are you ready?”

He bent down and kissed his gran on the cheek and said goodnight. We waited until she went in and locked the door behind her, and then I took his hand to walk him out to my truck.

“Maybe I should stay at the cottage tonight. I need to do a little work on my paper, and it’ll be quiet tonight.”

“Well, you could. If you’re not scared from those ghost stories.”

“On second thought…”

“Good. You’re going with me. Like I told your grandmother, I have a few things to talk to you about. In fact, I’ll go in and grab your laptop. We need to talk about that.”

“About my laptop? What does that have to do with anything?”

We’d reached the truck by then, so I opened the passenger door and picked him up to put him inside because he still couldn’t manage it with that leg.

He blushed like he always did, and I leaned over to make sure his seat belt was buckled.

And that’s when he angled his chin up, closed his eyes and puckered his lips, asking me to kiss him again.

Of course, I did. I gave him a hot, eager kiss that succeeded in making me hard as a rock by the time I was done.

Was this ever going to end? I wasn’t under any kind of spell, so this was all me.

I’d meant to distract him from his question, but it had backfired a little.

I stepped back and took a deep breath, as if that would do any good.

Then I walked around to the front of the truck and got in.

As I turned on the ignition, the lights came on, and I saw a white mist rise up right in front of the truck.

It looked like fog or smoke, but it clung together like a single entity, and as soon as the lights hit it, it began drifting toward the woods, out to the trees where it joined the mists that were rising there like burial clothes.

Then it moved away so fast I wondered for a moment if I’d imagined it.

Rosalyn would say it was only fog or a light mist coming off the creek. And maybe it was.

I said a quick protection spell anyway before I put the truck in gear and pulled back around to the cottage.

“Stay here and I’ll go get your bag,” I told him, and he nodded.

As an afterthought, I said, “Lock the doors.” I left him looking puzzled and went inside to grab his bag and a change of clothes for him.

Too bad he’d unpacked here, because I had a feeling that had been a big waste of time.

Or it would be if I had anything to say about it.

Once we got settled back at my place with the fire going, and a glass of wine on the table in front of us, I had him turn on his laptop.

He gave me a puzzled look and said, “Okay, now what?”

“When you were sleeping, after we talked earlier…”

“Yeah?”

“I looked through your bag to see your notes.”

His lips tightened. “Why?”

“To see if you were telling me the truth.”

He gave me an irritated glance. “Of course, I was. Why would I lie about my paper?”

“I was investigating you, Ash. I had to take a look.”

He folded his arms and tightened his lips. “Was? Does that mean you’re done?”

“I think I am, yes.”

“And? What did you find on my laptop?”

“Notes on the Home Guard, like you said.”

“Well then!”