“You want to open it or do you want me to do it?” he asked.
Hallie held the key on her outstretched palm. “What happens if we open the door and two beautiful ghosts are standing there?”
“We’ll say hello.” Jamie took the key and put it in the lock. It turned easily. “Ready?” When she nodded, he turned the knob.
Inside was a room covered in dust and cobwebs, with dried leaves on the dirty floor. But no ghosts.
“See?” Jamie said and she knew he was laughing at her.
“I guess this means I’ve met the love of my life.” She began to walk around. It was a large room and although everything was thickly coated in gray, she could see that under it was beauty. In a corner was a seating area with a little couch and some chairs. Two tables were by the dirty windows. Against one wall was a huge old-fashioned Welsh dresser heavily laden with china. She picked up a plate and wiped her hand through the dirt. “Look. This is the pattern of the dishes we’ve been eating off of.”
“If Edith has a key, based on her actions at the B&B, she probably ‘borrowed’ some.” He was at a door in the corner. “Wonder where this leads?”
Hallie went to him as he opened it. Inside was a big pantry, with floor-to-ceiling shelves—and they were packed with objects. There was a window, but little light could get through the dirt.
“What is all this stuff?” Hallie asked.
Jamie swung past her to a door at the far end and opened it to see into the kitchen. “Now, that’s weird. This door has a lock on this side but not on that one.”
“You don’t think ghosts are strange, but a door that locks on only one side is?”
“So far I haven’t seen any proof of ghosts.” In the kitchen, he got a flashlight out of a drawer, then returned to shine it on the shelves in the pantry. Before them was cooking paraphernalia that seemed to cover the centuries. A rusty cast-iron waffle grill was next to a hand eggbeater from the 1950s. There was a pile of blackened copper molds connected by thick cobwebs. Boxes of products, ranging from elixirs to Swans Down Cake Flour, filled two shelves. Bottles, vials, containers made of marble, pewter, glass, and unidentifiable substances were fit into every space.
“I feel like I’m looking at a sunken ship.” She tried to take a breath but they’d stirred up enough dust that she started coughing.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.” They went into the kitchen and closed the door behind them. “Are you all right?” he asked.
“Sure, but it is a bit depressing, isn’t it? Whether there are ghosts or not, Henry Bell closed off part of his house and didn’t go in it. And all those things in there! Do you think they were given to those poor women who died so long ago? By people who saw the room as clean?” Her head came up. “Did the Tea Ladies put them away? In hope for a future they were never going to have?”
“Let’s go outside and I’ll tell you what Dr. Huntley told me about the garden.”
She knew he was trying to take her mind off the tragic story and she was glad of it. The truth was that she’d been surrounded by so much death in her life that the merest mention of it took her back there. When her father and Ruby died in a car crash, Shelly had fallen apart. She was just a teenager then, so most of the responsibilities had landed on Hallie’s shoulders. Choosing burial clothes and caskets—all of it had been left to Hallie.
Once they were outside, Jamie stopped and looked at her. He didn’t have to be told what was in her mind. He let his crutches fall to the ground, then pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay to grieve,” he said softly. “They all deserve it, but don’t get it mixed up with here and now.”
Hallie held on to him, her cheek against his heart. It was good to feel the comfort. She would have stayed that way if he hadn’t broken them apart.
“Come on,” he said, “let’s go to the gym and work up a sweat. It’ll make you feel better.”
Hallie groaned. “Why did I get stuck with a jock? I’m more of a reader. Why don’t we check the Internet to find out about the Tea Ladies? We could—”
“I’ll fix that,” he said as he picked up his crutches, leaned on them, and began to tap his phone. He was fast and he showed Hallie the message he was sending to his mother: THIS HOUSE IS BELIEVED TO BE HAUNTED BY TWO BEAUTIFUL YOUNG WOMEN. THEY FIND PEOPLE’S TRUE LOVES. CAN YOU TELL US ANYTHING ABOUT THEM? YOUR LOVING SON, JAMES.
“That should do it,” Jamie said. “Mom will call some of her friends and the lot of them will be up all night searching. The minute she has anything, she’ll send us everything there is to know about your ghosts.”
Hallie smiled. “Curious, is she?”
“Insatiable. Now can we work out? My knee is aching.”
A look of alarm ran across Hallie’s face but then stopped. “If I worked on your whole body, you’d be more balanced. You certainly wouldn’t be slumping to one side and causing yourself pain, as you are now.”
“I do not slump!”
“Yes, you do. You move like this.” She did an exaggerated walk with the left side of her six inches lower than the right. “If you’d let me, I could straighten that out.”
Jamie was frowning. “Do it again. I like the view from the back.”
“You!” Hallie said but then laughed. “Come on and I’ll work on your leg.”