Jenna studied them. Angelica didn’t seem so strange anymore, and Simon no longer held that grim, forbidding look that had frightened her at first. She felt herself beginning to relax and enjoy herself. She felt surprised when Hallie set her plate aside and got up.
“We’ve got to go now,” Hallie announced. “My parents will be wondering where we are.”
“They don’t know?” Simon asked.
Hallie’s face turned scarlet. Jenna realized that Hallie was up to her old tricks. “Well …”
“Ah, so you didn’t tell them you were coming to visit the strange, notorious Fears,” Angelica said.
Still blushing, Hallie ducked her head.
“You don’t have to be embarrassed, my dear,” Simon assured her. “We’re used to the things people say about us. We’ve even learned not to pay it any mind. I’m just glad you decided to come despite the rumors.”
He rose. “Still, we can’t have you getting into trouble. So, if it’s time to go, you shall.”
“First,” Angelica murmured as she rose from her seat. “I’d like to show you something.”
She glanced at Simon again, Jenna noticed. As if silently requesting his permission, she felt. He nodded at her and she smiled.
“Come, girls,” Angelica ordered with a wave of her hand. “Follow me.”
The Fears led the girls down the dim hallway to the foyer, then up the curving stairway. At the top of the stairs, they turned down another dim, narrow corridor. Jenna felt an uneasy twinge in her stomach.
Finally, Angelica stopped and flung open a heavy oak door. Heavy curtains covered the windows, like the other rooms, Jenna noticed. But enough light remained for Jenna to see the room clearly. A bedroom, decorated all in blue. Angelica led them inside. Jenna paused at the four-poster, canopied bed, her gaze resting on a beautiful china doll that sat in a nest of frilly lace pillows. A silver comb and brush sat on the dresser. Colorful hair ribbons twined around the handle of the brush.
“Such a pretty room, don’t you think?” Angelica asked.
“Oh, yes!” Hallie replied as her hand gently stroked a fancy dress that hung across the back of a chair.
This had to be one of their daughters’ rooms, Jenna knew. One of their dead daughters. It looked to Jenna as if it had been kept exactly the way the girl had left it.
As if the Fears expected her to return at any minute.
Jenna gazed around curiously. She noticed a glass case full of dolls and moved toward it. Most of them looked like the china doll on the bed. Then Jenna saw a group on a lower shelf, a type of doll she’d never seen before. Made out of bits of rag and straw, the crude bodies looked twisted and distorted. One of them looked different. Long silver pins protruded from its limbs. Jenna gritted her teeth and looked away. Yet, the bizarre sight drew her gaze back again.
She noticed that the pins had large, rounded ends. She looked closer and saw that the ends were actually carved images of tiny skulls. A large red stain marked each place the pins stabbed the doll’s body. Pins had even been stabbed through the eyes.
The sight made Jenna shudder. With a hard knot in her stomach, she quickly turned away.
“Our dear Hannah loved to collect dolls,” Simon confided. “All types of dolls. She even made some herself. She was quite clever with her hands.”
“Yes, very clever,” Angelica repeated proudly.
“Those dolls on the bottom,” Jenna asked in a halting voice. “Did Hannah make those?”
“Why, yes,” Simon replied slowly. “When we lived down in New Orleans. For such a young person, she already knew a great deal about voo—”
“Doll-making,” Angelica cut in abruptly. Jenna noticed her exchange an intense glance with her husband. Then she looked at Jenna and smiled. “It’s quite an art, you know.”
“Hallie, I’d like to show you something,” Angelica called. She strolled over to the dresser, where she opened a drawer and removed a blue velvet box. She snapped open the box and held it out to Hallie. Jenna spotted a heart-shaped gold locket within.
“This belonged to my daughter, Hannah,” Angelica explained as she held the necklace out to Hallie. The gold winked and shimmered in the dim light. “I’d like you to have it.”
“Oh, it’s beautiful,” Hallie exclaimed. She quickly slipped the gold chain over her head. “I love it! Thank you.”
“It looks lovely on you,” Angelica told her. “It should be worn by a young girl, not sitting forgotten in a drawer.”
“And now for Jenna,” Simon murmured.
He led them across the hall to another bedroom decorated all in rose. Pink rosebuds splashed across the wallpaper, and the quilted coverlet ranged in shades from palest blush to deep coral. Pottery bowls and vases, in all different shapes and sizes, covered the dresser.
Angelica leaned over and picked up a large, round bowl decorated with birds and flowers. “Julia was so artistic, too,” she explained, running one fingertip around the edge of the bowl. “She made many beautiful things, as you can see.”
“May I see it?” Hallie asked.
“Why, of course,” Angelica replied. She handed Hallie the bowl and began pointing out the details in each little bird and flower. From across the room Jenna heard Hallie’s appreciative sighs.
Jenna glanced around Julia’s room. Would she find another case of hideous dolls? Or something just as awful? In the far corner of the room, on a wooden pedestal, Jenna spotted a tall, domed birdcage. The pretty cage stood empty. Julia must have kept a pet bird, Jenna thought, and her parents felt too sentimental to remove the empty cage.
Jenna’s gaze dropped to the bottom of the cage, where she saw a pile of small white bones.
“Julia was a nature lover,” Jenna heard Angelica murmur from somewhere right behind her.
Jenna turned and looked at her.
“She adored all kinds of creatures,” Angelica added emphatically. “Big or small. Pretty. Or homely. ‘All creatures under the sun have their purpose, Mother’ she used to say. Remember, Simon?” Angelica asked.
“How very true, too,” Simon asserted. “Now, Jenna,” he announced. “We have something for you.”
He turned and opened a painted wooden box on the dresser. Lifting the lid, he slipped out a bracelet of delicate crystal beads. “Here you are, dear,” he said, holding it out. “This was Julia’s favorite piece of jewelry.”
“I know she would be pleased to see it worn by a pretty young girl like you,” Angelica offered.
Jenna’s skin crawled. She didn’t want it. She didn’t want to touch a dead girl’s bracelet, let alone wear it. But she couldn’t think of a way to refuse politely.
Slowly, reluctantly, she extended her hand.
“Thank you,” she muttered.
Simon laid the bracelet in her palm. Jenna started to put it away in her pocket.
“Oh, no, you must wear it,” Simon protested. “Here, let me put it on for you.”
Plucking the bracelet from her hand, he slipped it around her wrist and fastened the gold catch.
“It looks pretty on you, Jenna,” Hallie told her.
Jenna held her wrist up. The crystal beads caught the light, reflecting it in a rainbow glitter. She’d never seen such a pretty bracelet, she thought, turning her arm from side to side. The glass beads felt cool against her skin, but soon picked up the heat from her body.
Then the bracelet got warmer.
That’s impossible, she thought. She glanced at Hallie. The other girl peered into a mirror, admiring her new necklace. Jenna saw nothing but pleasure showing in her face.
The bracelet grew hotter.
The shimmering beads felt like a band of fire, dancing around her wrist. Jenna stared down at them, noticing a pulsing red light deep in the center of each crystal sphere. The color of a burning ember. She rubbed at her skin, expecting to see a red mark. Her skin looked totally normal, but it felt circled by blistering flames.
The fiery sensation lanced up her forearm. The intense h
eat spread across her shoulders and back.
Higher. Fiery fingers choking her neck. Hotter. Shooting into her skull. Jenna gripped the sides of her head and screamed.
Chapter
5
“Jenna! What is it, dear?” Angelica grasped Jenna’s arm and held her upright. “Do you feel faint?”
Jenna lifted her head and managed to focus on the older woman’s face. Angelica’s brow looked creased with concern. An odd expression glittered in her green eyes. Jenna opened her mouth to speak. But she could barely sound a few choked, unintelligible words.
“My dear girl, what on earth is the matter?” Angelica exclaimed. She pressed her cool palm to Jenna’s burning cheek. “Why, she’s dreadfully overheated,” she told Simon.
“She looks quite pale,” Simon observed.
Yet, with Angelica’s hand still pressed to her cheek, Jenna suddenly felt the heat vanish. She let her breath out with a gasp. Her arms and legs felt as though they’d turned to jelly, and she struggled to stand upright.
She couldn’t believe this. She just couldn’t believe it!
“I was burning,” she whispered, more to herself than to the others. “Skin, blood, bones. Burning.”
“Have you lost your wits?” Hallie demanded, staring at her with wide, surprised eyes. “You weren’t burning. You were just standing there with your eyes popping out of your head.”
Jenna shook her head. It had felt so real, so frightening. Now, she felt normal again. What was happening to her?
“I … don’t understand,” she whispered. She pulled away from Angelica’s hold.
Simon and Angelica exchanged a look. “These rooms are so stuffy. You simply need some fresh air, my dear,” Simon suggested. “Perhaps a glass of water?”
“Yes, that’s it,” Angelica agreed. “We should have thought to open the windows on such a warm day. How careless.”
It is very hot up here, Jenna thought. She only needed some fresh air. Just because the bracelet had once belonged to a dead girl, she’d let her imagination run away with her again.
“Yes, I must have gotten too warm,” she told Angelica and Simon. “That makes sense.”
Hallie laughed. “Jenna likes things to make sense.”
“Ah.” Simon cocked one dark brow. “And you, Hallie? Do you like things to make sense?”
“I like adventure,” she told him. “And I’m always getting poor Jenna in trouble.”
“And why do you let Hallie get you into trouble, Jenna?” Simon asked curiously.
Jenna shrugged. “She’s my best friend,” she explained.
“And she’d never desert me in a pinch,” Hallie added. “Right, Jenna?”
“Right,” Jenna replied with a nod. Again, she noticed Simon and Angelica exchange a meaningful glance. Almost as if they were sending each other a silent message, Jenna felt. But that was impossible. As impossible as the burning bracelet.
“Jenna, are you sure you’re feeling all right?” Angelica asked.
“I’m fine, honest,” Jenna insisted.
Sure or not, she wanted to get out of this house as fast as possible. She shot a glance at Hallie. “We really have to be going now, Hallie.”
Hallie blinked, almost as if she’d been daydreaming. “Oh. Yes. I suppose we do,” she agreed.
“We’ll show you to the door,” Simon offered, leading the way.
Angelica strolled behind him. Jenna followed, pulling Hallie after her. Once again, the walk down the long, shadowy hallway felt endless.
Jenna paused, glancing down at her wrist. Even in the dim corridor, the crystal bracelet sparkled, as if lit from within.
She turned and followed Angelica and Hallie downstairs. Up ahead, she saw Simon opening the heavy front door.
“Thank you for coming to visit,” he said, holding the door as they passed. “I hadn’t realized how lonely we were until I saw your fresh young faces. Such pretty girls.”
Hallie giggled. “Thank you.”
“And you do remind me of sisters,” he added, his cold, dark eyes fixing on Jenna.
“Thank you,” she mumbled as she quickly stepped toward the threshold.
She felt Angelica’s grip on her arm, stopping her dead in her tracks. Angelica’s thin fingers felt very cool, her pointy nails biting into Jenna’s flesh through the fabric of her gown.
“Promise you’ll come again,” Angelica urged. “I don’t think I could bear it if you didn’t.”
“Of course we’ll come again,” Hallie vowed.
Astonished, Jenna stared at her friend. She couldn’t believe Hallie had promised to return!
Hallie didn’t seem to notice Jenna’s stare. She led the way out onto the porch, pausing to wave to their hosts as she neared the steps. Jenna didn’t look back. The moment they were out of sight of the house, she ripped off the bracelet.
“What are you doing?” Hallie demanded.
“I’m not going to wear this,” Jenna replied.
“Why not?”
Jenna shuddered, remembering that terrifying moment when her body felt swallowed up by flames. “It belonged to a dead girl.”
“So what?” Hallie retorted. “So did my locket, and I love it. I’m going to wear it all the time.”
“Well, I can’t.”
Hallie laughed. “You’re a goose, Jenna. It’s such a pretty bracelet. The Fears were very generous to give it to you and you’re making something horrible out of it.”
“I don’t feel right wearing it,” Jenna insisted. “And I can’t believe you promised to go back there.”
“Why not?” Hallie asked. “Don’t you feel sorry for them? Especially Angelica. I thought she would burst out crying when she told us the story about the scones.”
“I thought so, too,” Jenna replied. Jenna had never seen anyone look quite as mournful as Angelica did each time she spoke about her daughters. And she had felt sorry for her. Yet, sorry or not, some other voice whispered an urgent warning.
“Yes, I feel sorry for them,” she told her friend. “And they were nice to us. But I don’t want to go back.”
“They might give us more pretty things,” Hallie wheedled.
“Hallie, that’s awful!”
The other girl tossed her blond curls. “Oh, you know I don’t mean that. But the other girls are going to be so jealous when they find out we were invited here. And every time we go back, we’ll have something exciting to tell our new friends.”
Jenna pressed her hand against her pocket, feeling the hard shape of the crystal beads. “If that’s the only reason they’d want to be your friends, maybe they’re not worth having as friends.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” Hallie retorted. “You can go back to Brentsville where you know everybody.”
“Hallie—”
With a whirl of skirts and blond hair, Hallie spun around and started running toward the woods.
“Wait!” Jenna shouted after her. “Hallie, what are you doing? Hallie!”
But either Hallie didn’t hear, or didn’t pay attention. She kept running. A moment later, she disappeared among the trees. Jenna let her breath out in a hiss of exasperation.
“Well, suit yourself, Hallie. I’m not about to chase you all the way home,” Jenna said aloud, feeling irritated with her friend. “I’m going to take my time … and you can just wait.”
She set off toward the Sheridans’ home. The sun sat low in the summer sky, illuminating the thick, green woods with slanting beams of red-orange light. Masses of tiny purple flowers carpeted the ground. They seemed to glow against the dark leaves that covered the forest floor.
Jenna felt her foul mood vanish. She knew Hallie. Once her friend ran off her temper, she’d be cheerful and agreeable again.
Jenna walked slowly and gazed around. The light changed from orange to deep red and it seemed as though she’d stepped inside a jewel. She spotted the nodding blooms of some Queen Anne’s lace, and stopped to pick a bouquet.
Raising the flowers
to her nose, she inhaled their scent as she strolled on. She’d give the flowers to Mrs. Sheridan. Hallie’s mother would be pleased, Jenna decided.
Her foot slammed painfully into a tree root and her arms windmilled for a moment as she tried to keep her balance. The flowers flew in all directions as she hit the ground face forward. Hard enough to knock the wind out of her lungs.
Jenna lay gasping, her cheek pressed to the soft, damp floor of the woods. Finally, she took a deep breath and started to push herself up. Her right hand slipped out from under her and she felt something sticky on her palm. Ugh! She sat quickly and stared down at her hand.
“What—” she began.
A dark smear stained her palm.
Mud. Yuck. She rubbed her hand on her dress.
No. Not mud.
A red, wet stain marked the pale-yellow fabric of her dress.
Jenna stared down at the crimson smear. A bitter taste flooded the back of her throat.
Blood.
Chapter
6
Jenna scrambled to her feet. She must have cut herself. Badly, too, to be bleeding so much. She searched her palm, but didn’t find a wound. Strange, her hand didn’t hurt at all, either.
It didn’t make sense. Why didn’t she see a cut? Where did the blood come from?
A chill slithered up her spine. If this wasn’t her blood, then it must be … someone else’s.
Her gaze dropped to the spot on the forest floor where she had fallen.
All around, thick, red splotches coated the green leaves. Jenna had never seen so much blood. She took a step backward. Blood spattered the ground and dripped down the trunk of a white birch tree. With a gasp, she stared in shock at the bloody handprint that stood out with terrible sharpness against the white bark.
Just above the handprint, a thin metal object glinted in the fading sunlight. Like a silver knitting needle jabbed into the tree.
Jenna reached out and yanked the metal object by its rounded, knobby end. She looked down at it. Her lip curled back in horror. A small, carefully carved skull stared up at her from the needle’s rounded end. The other end tapered to a fine, incredibly sharp tip.