Page 56 of The Women of Wild Hill
He caught the last of her tears with his thumb and rubbed them away. “What I know is that the two of us were brought together for a reason. You know it’s true, too.”
“I do,” she said.
“We share the same path now. If it takes you to Wild Hill, then I go, too. You and the girls fly out tonight. I’ll close up the house and find someone to care for the animals. Then I’ll join you in a few days. How does that sound?”
Flora put her head on his shoulder. “It sounds wonderful,” she said.
“OKAY, AT WHAT POINT DOESthis guy start being an asshole?” Sibyl asked.
“What are you talking about? He called us territorial,” Phoebe argued.
“I’m starting to wonder if maybe we were the assholes,” Brigid said.
Phoebe wasn’t buying it. “Just wait.”
FLORA LAY ASLEEP IN ONEof the bedrooms in the caretaker’s cottage.
“Wake up, my dear,” said a familiar voice.
Flora opened her eyes to see Ivy in a nearby chair, looking only slightly less solid than she had before she died. Flora quickly sat up in bed. Visits from the ancestors were to be taken very seriously. Their ghosts rarely made themselves known. The living needed to lead their own lives.
“What is it?” Flora asked.
“There’s a man at the gate. He’s here to see you. It looks as though he intends to stay.”
“You don’t approve?”
“My approval is of no consequence,” Ivy told her grandniece. “I assume you know the risk you’re running. Quite a few men have died on Wild Hill, and none have ever been able to live here.”
“My father was on Wild Hill all the time,” Flora reminded her grandaunt.
“Your father never slept here,” Ivy responded. “And Bessie adored him. Levi was an exceptional human being.”
“So is Calum,” Flora argued. Then she didn’t seem quite as certain. “Will Wild Hill change him?”
Ivy shook her head. “No. It never changes people. It reduces them to their essence. It makes everyone who comes here more of who they are.”
Smiling at the thought, Flora climbed out of bed and pulled on a dress. “Then I’m not worried.” She paused and turned back to her grandaunt. “Should I be?”
“I don’t know,” Ivy told her. “But you can be sure of one thing. The truth will out.”
“OMINOUS,” SAID PHOEBE AS THEYwatched Flora sprint out of the house to meet Calum at the gate. “I guess I was right after all.”
“You know, bitter isn’t a good look on you,” Sibyl replied as Flora threw herself into Calum’s arms. They hadn’t been apart more than three days, but apparently it had felt like forever.
“And I always thought it was just a sex thing,” Brigid muttered.
FLORA GUIDED CALUM DOWN THEdrive. He seemed suitably bowled over by the sight of the wild gardens, sweeping lawns, and vine-covered marble mansion.
The tour ended at the four granite rocks that stood at the crest of Wild Hill, looking out over the sound. The one closest to them bore the name Ivy and the dirt that stretched out in front of it was still fresh.
“These are my ancestors’ graves,” she told him. “If they don’t like you, you might get struck by a bolt of lightning.”
Calum glanced up at the cloudless sky. “Then I promise to be on my best behavior.” He turned toward the ocean. “What’s that down there?” he asked, pointing to a strip of land in the distance.
“Oh, that’s Culling Pointe. If you can believe it, someone just shipped an old house all the way from France and reassembled it as a gift for his girlfriend.”
Calum slid an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “Someday I’d like to give you a house from France.”
