Always

  “I have a note for you, Miss,” Millie said, holding out a folded paper.

  “It’s from Jack,” Lavender said as she made a lunge for the paper.

  But Millie pulled it back. “It’s for Miss Darci,” she said, then stepped into the room to hand the paper to her. Darci opened it.

  I know everything. Meet me at the usual place.

  Jack

  Usual place? Darci thought. What does that mean? Where is that?

  “It’s from Jack, isn’t it?” Lavender said, again reaching for the note, but Darci handed it back to Millie.

  “Tell him I’ll be there,” she said, then the girl left the room.

  Darci was smaller than Lavender, but she was strong. She put her hands on Lavender’s shoulders, pushed her to sit on a hard little chair, and looked into her eyes. “Listen to me. We’ve been careful not to tell you about this, but someone wants you dead. Do you understand me? Dead. Jack and I’ve been protecting you and trying our best to find out who’s trying to kill you.”

  “That’s ridiculous. Who would want me dead?”

  “The women John Marshall slept with and promised to marry. Two of them were going to have his children but John paid for the abortions. The other five…The truth is that we don’t know about them, but Jack’s trying to find out. Now it looks like he’s found out something and I have to go to him to hear what it is. You are to stay here in this room. Do you understand me?”

  “You talk about John and Jack as though they’re two different people.”

  “They are. Sort of. Lavey, did you listen to anything I said?”

  “Yes, and I’ve heard it all before, but I don’t believe a word of any of it. I did, but I don’t now. John has changed into Jack, and no matter what he calls himself, he is extremely attractive to women. Darci, dearest, you always were so dramatic.”

  “You never met me before yesterday,” she said, frustrated, but Lavender just laughed at her.

  Straightening, Darci looked down at Lavender and knew that she’d not stay in the room. She was a woman in love and nothing was going to hold her. Darci tried to be understanding. If she’d been told that Adam was outside, could she have voluntarily stayed a prisoner in a room?

  Opening the door, Darci looked in the hallway and saw her maid. “Would you do something for me, Millie?” she asked, then told her that she wanted her to stay with Lavender. “If she tries to leave the room, go get the aunts.”

  “Yes, Miss,” Millie said. “You look beautiful.”

  Darci didn’t smile at the compliment. On the back of her head was a bun of real hair—probably bought from some immigrant, she thought in disgust—that had to weigh six pounds. Beside her face were ringlets plastered into place with something that made steel seem soft. Under her corset her ribs itched, and she was having trouble breathing. I should stay here and become the first Coco Chanel, she thought to herself. I could beat her to liberating women from the corset.

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she said to Millie, then Darci did her best to run down the back stairs. She had to stop twice to catch her breath before she could start running again. She had to run through the kitchen and a few people called to her, but they were so busy with the wedding preparations that they could pay no further attention to Darci.

  Where could Jack have meant by “the usual place”? she wondered. Outside, it wasn’t a lot cooler than it had been in the house. Picking up her skirts and knowing she would be causing a scandal by showing her ankles, she began to hurry down the street toward the house of John Marshall.

  When she opened the front door of the empty house, she looked into the barrel of a pistol held by a large, red-haired man. From the look of his slack lower lip with the drop of saliva, and the dull gleam in his eyes, he wasn’t very intelligent.

  “Sis said you’d come here,” he said. “She told me you’d do what she wanted you to.”

  Darci backed up to the door, her hand on the handle.

  “You can’t leave this house,” he said. “Mr. John is going to marry my sister and not that other girl.”

  “And who is your sister?” Darci asked, trying to inch her way around the door so she could make a run for it.

  The man looked at Darci blankly. “You don’t know Millie?” he asked after a while.

  It hit Darci then that this man with his red hair was the brother of Millie, her red-haired maid. Millie hadn’t been on the list that Tula had given them. But then, what did Millie need with love potions? She lived with John Marshall.

  For a second all that Darci had heard went ’round in her head. Millie had been angry because she wasn’t going to get to go to Lavender’s house to work. She was being left behind. There was the time on the stairs when Darci thought someone was watching her and it had made her hair stand on end. Even without ESP she’d felt the malevolence emanating from Millie.

  She looked at the man, at his slack-jawed face, and she could feel the love he had for his sister. What had Millie told him about Lavender? About Darci?

  “My brother is the lowest snake to ever have lived!” Darci said. “Scum of the earth. Maggots would gag if they fell on his skin.”

  The man opened his eyes wide and the gun lowered. “Millie doesn’t think that. She says that women lead him astray.”

  “Did you know that Lavender knows about Millie and plans to harm her? Lavender wants John all to herself.”

  “Miss Shay wouldn’t hurt anybody,” the man said, raising the gun again. He looked confused. “Millie told me you’d be on Mr. John’s side.”

  “But I’m not. I wish he was going to marry Millie.”

  “How could somebody like Mr. John marry Millie? She’s the maid.”

  Darci wanted to yell, Then what does Millie want? but she couldn’t think how to put it politely. All she knew for sure was that whatever was going to happen would occur within the hour. She had to get to the roof of Lavender’s house. With or without this man, she had to get there and stop what was about to happen.

  “You don’t know my brother like I do. Where is he now?”

  “He’s all right. He’s in the stables, all tied up. When he doesn’t go to the wedding, Miss Lavender won’t marry him. He’ll take my sister away then. He’ll live with her like Mr. John’s dad lives with that woman.”

  “Ah, I see,” Darci said. “What a clever plan. Millie is always very clever, isn’t she?”

  “Yes,” the man said proudly.

  “But sometimes bad people can be more clever than good people.”

  “Huh?”

  “I think that Lavender is more bad than your sister can handle. I think Lavender means to get your sister to the roof of her house and throw her off.”

  The man stood there blinking for a few seconds and the pistol lowered. He didn’t seem to know what to do.

  Straightening her shoulders, Darci pulled herself up to her full height—which meant she was about half the size of the man. “I want you to go to the barn and let Mr. John out. He needs to face what he’s done. We’ll turn him over to the sheriff right after we save your sister from death. Meet me at the church. That’s where they’ll be.”

  She saw that she’d completely confused the man, which gave her a few seconds to act. Cursing the giant skirt of the dress, she grabbed handfuls of it, pulled it up, glad for the crinoline underneath, and slipped out the front door. She didn’t know if the man would obey her or shoot her, but she had to brazen it out. As she ran, the skirt now up to her knees—which were hidden by knee-length cotton drawers covered in ruffles—she expected a bullet to enter her back.

  But she heard nothing as she ran. The streets were nearly empty, most of the people in town now at the church awaiting what was to be the event of the season.

  “Please release Jack,” she chanted to herself and wondered if she should have made sure the man untied Jack before she took off. But she’d had no time to lose. It couldn’t be more than forty-five minutes before the wedding.

  She reached t
he back of the house, saw that the kitchen was packed with people, and had no doubt that if she were seen, someone, probably an ancient aunt, would grab Darci and lock her in a room. No one was going to believe that the bride was about to be killed.

  Keeping out of sight, Darci ran behind the stables, her skirt dragging through half a dozen fresh piles of horse manure, as she went to the side of the house and the biggest open window. She had to jump three times before she caught the windowsill, then, fighting skirt, petticoats, and crinoline, she tried to heave her legs up. It took all her strength, but she made it to fall into the bedroom of Lavender’s father. Her skirt plopped down over her head and she wasted several minutes fighting the thing down.

  As quickly as she could, she righted herself and ran to the door. She could hear people talking downstairs and she didn’t know whether to call out to them or not. Would they believe her? If they did, would they help or hinder? If Millie saw a lot of people running toward her, would she panic and push Lavender off the roof?

  Outside the door, Darci ran up the stairs to the second floor, then down the hall, looking for the stairs to the roof. No stairs. No panel in the ceiling that could be pulled down.

  Frustrated, she made fists and hit her huge purple skirt. Where? she thought. Where could the stairs be? How did she get to the roof? Help me please, she prayed.

  Suddenly, she knew. Again, she felt as though someone was helping her. Turning, she ran back down the hall and opened a door she’d opened before. It led into a small bedroom that was probably for a servant. Behind the door was another door and when Darci opened it, she saw the very narrow stairs that led up to the roof.

  She had to lift her skirt so high that it was nearly in her mouth, and she could barely see over it.

  She opened the door that led onto the widow’s walk that surrounded the top of the tall house, and there Darci saw what she had hoped not to see. Millie was standing in the shadows of the stair housing, a gun aimed at Lavender, who was pressed up against the short railing around the edge of the roof.

  “She took what was mine,” Millie said matter-of-factly, seeming not to be surprised that Darci had arrived. “Now I’ll take what she wants.”

  “Millie, my love,” came a smooth voice from behind Darci. It was Jack and he must have been just a few feet behind Darci.

  “Jack?” Lavender said, her face beginning to glow. In spite of the situation, all she seemed to think of was Jack.

  Jack kept his eyes on Millie, not daring to look at Lavender. “She’s not worth it,” Jack said, charm oozing from him. “Don’t you know the truth about why I’m marrying her?” He was walking toward Millie, past Darci. She could see the raw places on his wrists where he’d been tied, and his knuckles were bloody, so she guessed that he’d fought Millie’s brother.

  “Don’t you know that I have to marry her?” Jack said, his eyes on Millie’s. “Old Man Shay is blackmailing me. He’s going to pay off my debts if I marry his daughter.”

  Jack was walking slowly but steadily toward Millie, and Darci almost smiled. He’d get the gun from her and everything would be all right.

  But a sound from Lavender made Darci look at her. Lavender, tears of pain in her eyes, had her fist to her mouth. She was believing Jack!

  Darci tried to get Lavender’s attention to tell her that what Jack was saying wasn’t true, but her movement made Millie glance at her.

  “Is this true?” Millie asked.

  Darci wanted to tell Millie the biggest lie she could think of, but she knew she had to reassure Lavender, too. “I’m afraid of heights,” Darci said aggressively.

  “Make her get away from that edge.”

  The bravado had worked with her brother, but it didn’t work with Millie. She stepped farther back from Jack, waving the gun. “You stay there,” she said to Lavender, then pointed the gun at Darci. “Why was he marrying her?”

  “Because he had to,” Darci said. “Because our dreadful father has run up bills and they have to be paid off. If they aren’t we’ll lose the house and everything else. Mr. Shay wants John to work for him, but my brother doesn’t want to, so Mr. Shay said he’d pay John if he married his daughter.”

  As soon as she finished this speech of lies, Darci looked at Lavender and saw that she was believing every word—and she was devastated.

  “I saw you last night,” Millie said. “I was outside that man’s house in Drayton Falls. I saw all of you in there laughing and having a good time. You didn’t look like you were being made to marry her.”

  “I’m a good actor,” Jack said, smiling at Millie.

  “Didn’t I keep you in my house so I can visit you whenever I can? As soon as I get this over today I was going to go to you. You know that I love you and always have.”

  Hearing the man she loved say he loved another was more than Lavender could bear. With her eyes full of tears, her heart full of agony, she turned sharply away from Jack. When her leg hit the little rail around the roof, the wood broke.

  For a moment, Lavender floundered, clutching at the air as she tried to get her balance.

  Heedless of the gun aimed at him, Jack leaped to save her, but Lavender pushed him away. Throwing his arms wide, he grabbed her as she fell.

  Lavender and Jack went over the roof together, side by side, holding each other.

  In shock, Millie dropped the gun to the roof and froze in place.

  Darci knew she had no time to hesitate. She ran through the door to the stairs, then went down them as fast as she could. By the time she reached the outside, there were many people running, and a circle had formed around the two people on the ground.

  She pushed her way through them to see Jack and Lavender lying on the ground, their young, beautiful bodies broken and bleeding—and intertwined.

  When Lavender, lying in a pool of blood that was rapidly saturating the ground, moved her eyelashes, Darci went to her and took her beautiful head onto her lap. There was no need to not move the patient; no nineteenth-century medicine was going to save these two.

  “He didn’t mean it,” Darci said to Lavender. “Jack loves you and only you.”

  “Yes,” Lavender managed to whisper. “He died for me.” She moved her hand as though she were seeking something.

  Reaching out, Darci picked up Jack’s hand and put it in Lavender’s. She didn’t know if he was dead or alive.

  There was shouting and Darci looked up through the crowd. The people parted a bit and she saw a man holding Millie’s arms behind her back. Darci knew what was ahead for the girl: a trial and a hanging. She well deserved it! Darci thought, but in the next second, she yelled, “No!” The man holding Millie stopped. “You have it wrong,” Darci said loudly. “Millie was trying to save Lavender. The two of them fell. It was an accident.”

  “But the gun?” the man said. “She had a gun.”

  “It was Jack’s—John’s gun. He always carries it. Millie is a heroine. She almost fell with them when she tried to save them.”

  Darci watched Millie’s eyes change from rage to tears. The man dropped his hold on her, then held out his arm for Millie to lean on. The crowd closed back around the people on the ground.

  “The doctor’s coming,” Darci heard someone say, then she heard the noise of many people running and shouting. She knew it was the people who’d been in church waiting for this happy couple to walk down the aisle.

  Darci knew she had no time to lose.

  “What are you doing?” she heard someone ask as Darci pulled the little silver box from inside her skirt pocket and remove the gold chain from around her neck.

  “The doctor’s here, let him through,” someone shouted.

  “Here! Stop that!” someone else said to Darci, but she ignored all of them.

  Lavender and Jack’s hands were clasped on Darci’s lap. Simone had said that all three spirits would need to return together. That mean Jack, Darci, and Millie, who had lied and said she was Lavender. But Darci knew those three spirits were never going to
be together. Life was flowing out of Jack and Darci had no more time. Perhaps Lavender’s love could replace Millie’s hate.

  She put the key in the box, put her hand atop Jack and Lavender’s hands, then turned the key.

  Part Three

  2004

  Chapter Seventeen

  AFTER DARCI STOPPED FALLING THROUGH THE void, it took her a long time before she could open her eyes—and even when she did, all she could see were the bodies of Jack and Lavender, intertwined and bleeding on the ground. Her tears started slowly, rolling down her cheeks in silence, then they began in earnest, shaking her body with her sobs.

  “Hush,” came a familiar voice in her ear, then arms surrounded her, pulling her close. It was Jack and they were on the bed in the blue bedroom in his father’s house, the place they’d been when they’d left. Everything was the same—except that everything had changed.

  Jack held Darci while she cried, and she felt his tears on her neck.

  “She was so sweet,” Darci said between sobs. “So innocent. She loved you—and me—so much. She asked nothing of anyone. She…”

  “Quiet,” Jack said, smoothing Darci’s hair back from her face. “It’s over now. It was over a long time ago.”

  She pulled back to look at his face, seeing the deep circles of grief under his eyes, but he was alive. “You’re home now and safe.” She took a deep breath. “When you fell off the roof, did you die?” she asked softly.

  “No, I was just in such pain that I couldn’t speak or even open my eyes. I think most of the bones in my body were broken, but I knew what was going on. I knew that Lavey…” Closing his eyes, he turned away from her.

  “How are you now?”

  “Fine,” he said, moving away so he was no longer touching her. He lifted his arm and turned his hand around in circles. “See, nothing broken. How about you? How are you?”

  Lifting up on her elbows, she looked about the room, which seemed familiar and strange at the same time. Everything in the room seemed too bright, too garish. She had on trousers and a shirt and they seemed almost indecent. Lavender, Lavender, her mind kept saying. She’d wanted to prevent the young woman’s death, but hadn’t been able to.