Page 80 of From the Darkness

The whole plot was spelled out. The Sterlings had walked into the trap. They had been down on their luck, and they’d been grateful when Troy had allowed them to stay. Then he’d disappeared, and Mrs. Martindale had taken charge, telling them that if they wanted to stay, they had to make everybody think they were running the estate.

Helen London was one more complication Bree didn’t want to deal with. She was still too shocked and saddened by the elaborate and murderous scheme her supposed friend had cooked up. She’d thought she knew Troy’s sister, or at least she’d ignored what she didn’t want to know about her. That had been a mistake, and she’d almost paid with her life.

With the proof of Helen’s scheme in hand, the authorities were waiting for her, and she was taken into custody as soon as she got off a plane in Portland.

***

Bree had given her official statement to the police. But alone in bed at night, she went over and over the events of her week at Ravencrest—and the events of the more distant past, trying to figure out what she could or should have done differently.

One decision she made was not to tell anybody about the grave in the grove of trees. She didn’t want them to dig it up and find a body buried there. Against all reason, she wanted to cling to the belief that Troy was still alive, although she had no idea where he was.

Several times, she told Zane that she needed to go out for some air and slipped away. Really, while she made contingency plans to take Dinah back to Beltsville, she was searching everywhere for Troy. She knew she was being irrational, but now that she had the run of the estate, she explored the secret tunnels. She went through every room in the house. And she even went out to the grove, praying she would meet up with him there as she had before. But he was in none of the places she looked. And each time she searched and didn’t find him, she felt a new sense of loss weighting her down as though she were slogging through heavy sleet.

As one day stretched into two and then three, a great sadness settled over her, so that it was often difficult to hold back her tears.

She’d loved Troy London all of her adult life. And she’d finally gotten together with him again—and found to her joy that he’d never forgotten her, either. But it had already been too late. Against her will, she had to accept what he had told her before the storm. Graves and Martindale had killed him, and the man she’d held and kissed had only been a ghost—who had been made more real and alive by his tie to her.

At least she had that knowledge. For a little while, she’d been able to hold on to him through the strength of her feelings. Now it was finally time to cut the last tie with him.

Well, not the last. She had Dinah, his child, and she would raise her with all the love she had to give. Not just because she was Troy’s daughter, but because Bree had already come to love her for herself.

An hour before they were leaving for the airport, she made sure once again that everything Dinah needed was packed. Then she asked Zane to watch the little girl while she went outside for a while.

Zane gave her one of his long looks. She knew he was aware of her despair and her restlessness. She knew he had talked to Frank about what had really happened at Ravencrest. But she hadn’t spelled it out to him in so many words, because talking about what she’d lost was simply too painful.

One last time, she slipped out the back door and hurried through the garden to the headlands.

What a glorious location, she thought. Troy had loved this patch of seacoast. And she had come to appreciate the wild beauty of the setting.

Still, her shoulders sagged as she made her way through the tall grass and low bushes, feeling the wind tearing at her clothing and her hair. She had found him here and lost him here. Now she was finally coming to say good-bye. Finally. Because there was nothing left for her at Ravencrest. Still, her heart was pounding as she stepped into the shade of the grove, and the power of the place caught and held her as it had on her first visit.

A bone-deep sadness shimmered through her.

“Troy,” she murmured, unable to banish the tears from her voice. “If your spirit is here, I want you to know that I’ll take care of Dinah for you. I love her. She’s a wonderful child, and I think she’ll be happy with me in Beltsville. When she’s a little older, I’ll let her make the choice of where she wants to live—here or back there.”

She brushed away the moisture leaking from her eyes and took a deep breath, then began to speak again. “Troy, I love you. God gave us a little time together, and I’m so grateful. I just want you to know that.”

There was no answer. She had given up expecting one. As she stood in the twilight grove, her tears flowed out of control. It was time to leave, time to abandon hope. Rationally, she knew that as she swiped at her cheeks with the back of her hand, then fumbled for a tissue in her pocket. The last thing she want was for Zane to come out and find her like this.

Still, something held her in this place.

As she stood there, a voice seemed to speak in her head, and she realized it was Frank Decorah. She looked around, but she didn’t see him.

Don’t give up, he said.Your love had the power to make a difference for Troy. It still does.

Was this a cruel joke? Was that really Frank, or were her own emotions tricking her into imagining that he was coming to her across hundreds of miles?

His voice continued in her mind.

Tell him how much you love him. Tell him how much you want him to be here. One last time, call him to you with your love.

Could she? Was that possible? Emotions almost choked her, but she managed to call out, “Troy, I love you. So much. Don’t abandon me now. Come back to me. Please. I need you to come back for real.”

For an eternity nothing happened, and she wanted to curse Frank Decorah for giving her false hope. But finally, she realized she felt the way she had that first night—when Troy had come to her bed. Now the sense of anticipation clogged her throat—made it difficult to draw in a full breath. When she felt a slight tremor of the ground below her feet, her heart stopped, then started up again in double time.

From deep within the earth, came a subtle vibration, a humming that she remembered so well from other times she had ventured here. The air around her seemed to dim and thicken, and the humming of the earth swelled.

She felt suspended in time, suspended in a world that was not her own, where the laws of nature were different from ordinary expectations.

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