20
My breath was knocked from my lungs and I sat up in a hurry. My first thought was Jessica had fallen from the sofa onto my person, but reaching out and touching something hard and not human told me otherwise. Books? Why are there books on me? I turned and found the sofa void of Jessica. I threw the blanket and books off of me. “Jessica?”
There was no response. I stood and checked the room. “Jessica!”
I rushed to the door and stopped. A ghost—a real live—well, dead, ghost—hovered above the first step leading to the second floor. Her dress and hair looked old and large. With both hands she beckoned me. Fear radiated through her eyes.
I hadn’t any idea whether or not she could understand me, but I had to try. “Where’s Jessica?”
She pointed up the stairs and urgently waved me to follow her.
I did, running to keep up. I continued to call out Jessica’s name, but it only echoed against the stone walls. Up and around, we hurried to the top of the south tower. At the top, a bookshelf stood askew from the wall, as if it had been pulled away. A closed door behind the shelf seemed to urge me onward. The ghost pointed at the top of the door. I had to run my hand along the place where she indicated in order to know what she pointed at because of the darkness. My finger jabbed against a lock. I slid the lock out of the wall, freeing the door to open. The wind in my face caught me off guard. I choked on Jessica’s name. The ghost pointed behind me.
“You want me to go back in?”
She pointed to the side of the tower.
“Somebody! Anybody! Help!” Jessica’s call froze my lungs.
My legs propelled me forward. “Jessica!” I heaved myself up onto the wall and clung to the tower to keep from falling off the side as I hurried around. Before me, with his back to me and feet straddling the peak of the roof, stood Ron. His laughter cut through the night air. Beyond him was the image that froze my blood. Her eyes met with mine.
“Danny.” Jessica’s perfect lips spoke my name seconds before a dark mass flew from Ron and hit Jessica in the chest. Her arms flew back and her eyes bugged with fright. She screamed and fell. The sound of her hitting the gravel below tore at my heart.
“Noooooo!” I sob broke from my lungs.
The dark blob returned to Ron. He turned to stare blankly at me for several moments. “You stuttering fool. You took her from me.”
I pressed the tears from my eyes. “Ron?”
“No. Not Ron,” he laughed. “Would you like your friend back, fool?”
Jessica. Oh, my Jess. You’re gone. Don’t break down now,
Dan. I couldn’t let my long-time friend down. He needed saving, too. “Leave him be!”
“If you’d like…” The blob drifted from Ron’s body and gathered nearby as if watching what would happen next.
Ron swayed and his knees buckled, then he slid down the left side of the roof. I leapt out, sliding beside him down the tile shingles. I caught Ron before he plummeted over the side. My feet hit a stone lip the end of the roof and I was able to keep Ron’s body from flying off the edge. He had flopped about, completely unconscious. A minute went by of me trying to pull him with me back up the stone tiles. To my dismay, Ron slipped off the side. Half his body hung as I clung to him with my one foot anchored against a weak stone.
My muscles grew weak with grief and all I could think of was Jessica’s broken body, lying alone on the sodden ground. “Jessica! Oh, my Jessy!”
“Yeah?”
My lungs stopped. Did I hear what I thought I heard?
My voice squeaked, “Jessica?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
I laughed like a crazy man. My heart bounced around like a racket ball in a tiny court. “Where are you?”
“Uh, down here. Where are you?”
“I’m keeping Ron from falling to his death. Are you hurt?” I grunted and pulled, moving him an inch higher.
“Uh, not much more than a few bruises, scratches, and pain in my ankle.”
“Can you walk around to this side? Maybe you can find something to break his fall.”
“Uh, I don’t think that’s possible,” she said with a laugh. “I’m sort of naked.”
“What?”
She laughed again. “I’m sorry, I’m just so happy to be alive that I find this hilarious. My nightgown got caught on a flagpole thingy sticking out of the side of the castle, and it ... it saved me! It tore all the buttons off and zip! Off it came! But it made a good rope! Sorry! I’m just totally shocked I’m alive.”
“May I see?”
“No!”
“I’m kidding!” I said then lowered my voice, “Mostly.” Another grunt and I had Ron higher up the side of the roof. My arms and legs burned with exertion and scrapes from the shingles. “Uh, can you find something to cover up with? I can’t stay up here forever and I need help.”
“Right. I’m coming. Is the side door unlocked?”
“Should be.”
Several silent agonizing minutes ticked by. Blood trickled down my arms. “Ron, you’re fired,” I joked to him, knowing he couldn’t hear me. While I waited, I thought back on what I’d seen. It was obvious from the moment the dark mass propelled itself out of Ron that he had been possessed. Does Ron know what he’s done? What kind of control did he have of himself? His actions couldn’t have been his own. This is not like him. In fact, all his odd behavior before made sense. All the off and on kindness or lack thereof. Lightning flashed within the distant darkness. Oh, hurry, Jessy.
“Hey, you still there?” Jessica’s voice sounded closer but still below me.
Oh, my sweet Jessy! “Yes. Is there something to break his fall?”
“Well, if you hang him a little lower, I can grab hold of him and pull him to safety.”
“Where are you?”
“There’s a balcony just below you.”
I breathed out heavily. “Oh, thank you.” She must be in the orange room. “Can you handle his weight on your own?”
“Sure. Just easy now and I’ll get him.”
I lowered inch by inch. My tired muscles strained, and I fought to not topple over. “I’m going to fall if I lower him anymore.”
“Okay. Hold on.”
Hold on! Oh, I’m going to die!
Sounds of shuffling and grunting proceeded her grumbles coming from inside the room. “Okay. Drop him.”
“Drop him!”
“Yeah. I dragged the mattress out here.” I let go, trusting in Jessica’s intuition.
She shrieked. “Oh, no you don’t!”
I leaned forward with my head, keeping my shoulders against the roof. “Got him?”
“Yep. He’s fine. Can you lower yourself down?”
“Yeah. I think so.”
“Just stay close to the edge. And Danny…”
“Yes, darling?”
“If this doesn’t work, I love you. I’m not just saying that because I’m under duress! I’ve kinda loved you at first sight! Is that weird? I know it’s weird, but I just can’t help it!”
My heart burst and ceased at the same time. If this doesn’t work! What do you mean if this doesn’t work? I grinned, even though worry froze my lungs. She loves me! If I hadn’t been hanging at the edge of death, I would have done a jig in celebration. My little rambling lady loves me!
On my belly, I lowered my legs down. I nearly yelped in surprise when I felt her fingers grasp my ankle.
“A little further, honeycakes. Okay, now drop.” Her grip on my clothes is what saved me from falling off the edge. My body landed on something soft, then I slid down the mattress hill onto the floor beside Ron.
“Wow! It worked!” Jessica clapped and knelt by my side.
“You’re brilliant, you know that?” I slipped my arm around her middle and pulled her in for a well-deserved kiss that didn’t last long enough. She sighed and tried to catch her breath once I let her go. “Jessy, I need to call someone.”
“Well, duh. The police will—”
“N—n—not the police. I want to call the priest, vicar, the justice of the peace—I don’t care. I want to marry you—I love you ... please, Jessica Grayson,” I kissed her hand, “will you marry this stuttering old bachelor? Save me from the mad house because I can’t live without you.”
Jessica
Holy cow! Holy cow! Holy cow! He loves me! He wants me!I covered my mouth with both hands to keep from screaming. Tears blurred my vision and I leaned away enough to gaze at him. Stupid tears! I can’t see his wonderful face! I blinked hard and schooled my face into something unruffled.
“And you expect me to marry you just like that, huh?” My lips threatened to turn up.
“Y—yeah. Just like that.”
“Oh, well.” I shrugged. “If someone must I guess I will.”
His brows furrowed. “I hope that was a yes.”
I nodded vigorously and laughed. “Don’t look so worried. You’ve got me wrapped around your finger from the moment we met.”
His smile grew so wide it might crack his lips. “That right?”
“Yep. I’m whipped.”
“I know the feeling.” He leaned in. “Now give your fiancé a proper snog.”
“Yes, my lord.” Every press of his mouth on mine had my heart soaring to the moon, but I didn’t mind. I could die a happy woman.
Yeah, this was happening so fast, but my heart ached with the idea that I would live my life without him. My heart had been woven with his. There was no denying he was for me.
He leaned away in a daze. That was until his eyes lowered and grew wide. “What are you wearing?”
I peered down as well and found the top of the coat had parted ever so slightly. It was too dark for anyone to see anything (I hoped), but still, I pulled it closed again and buttoned the top button that I thought had already been done up. “Oops. I found an old coat in the entry closet,” I said and pulled the bottom of it further down to my knees.
“It suits you.” He chuckled. “I can see us now, sitting around the dinner table with our children, telling them that I proposed to you after you rescued me while wearing only a coat.”
My heart melted. “Children? Oh…” I sighed and kissed him again.
A groan came from beside us. Ron sat up on his elbows and narrowed his eyes in puzzlement. “What—what’s going on?”
“Ron, you should congratulate me. I’m just now engaged,” Danny said.
“Congratulations. Who’s the lucky lass?”
I held out my hand and wondered how much he remembered or knew. “Jessica.”
“You look familiar. Do I know you?”
“Sort of,” I said.
“Why does my body hurt?” Ron lifted each arm closer to the window to see with the moonlight that filtered through a cloud.
Danny gently pushed me up then stood to give Ron a hand. “Let’s get you downstairs and I’ll fill you in on all that’s been going on.”
I felt like I drifted down the stairs. I must be on cloud nine. So, this is how it feels to be in love. On our way down, Danny waited for me near the stairs so I could rummage through his room to see if I could find something more to wear. In the end I found one of his T-shirts and the old lady slacks his grandma or mom had owned. I slipped into them in record time and practically ran back to my ... fiancé. I can’t believe I’m getting married!
Danny related the events over the last few days to Ron, who seemed to take it well, or at least he sat there staring at the fire Danny started in the sitting room fireplace. I played nurse for both Ron and Danny to help them with their scrapes they acquired while sliding down the roof. I repeatedly had to remind myself that all of this mess wasn’t Ron’s fault and it scared me to think the ghost that was responsible was still wandering somewhere close by.
It wasn’t until I finished wrapping the last bandage on Ron that he took my hand and held my gaze. “If what you say is true, then I owe you an apology.”
“You don’t even remember who I am, so why would anyone hold you responsible for what happened?” I squeezed his hand. “You’re not at fault.”
He apologized regardless of my comments and thanked Danny for saving his life. He turned his attention to the fire while I worked on Danny’s wounds as if lost in his thoughts.
The clock chimed twice. Only two o’clock? Seems later. Ron must have agreed as well because he had either passed out or fallen asleep. “Don’t you think we need to call paramedics for Ron? He’s been through a lot.”
Danny glanced over his shoulder at him sprawled out on the armchair. He screwed on the lid to the medicated ointment I’d used on them both and set it on the coffee table. “I think he’s just asleep. Besides, we have no way of calling out and going out in this storm would only get us lost or killed.”
Not ten minutes after leaving the roof did the sky open up. Had it been raining while he was clinging to the shingles, he wouldn’t have survived. “With the freaky ghost out there…”
“He could be inside as well.”
“Thanks for that,” I said in dry tones dripping with sarcasm. “You know how to make a girl feel better.”
“My apologies.”
My mind flashed back to the horrid moment my body toppled off the roof. I bit both my lips and breathed deep to keep from freaking out.
“Hey, you’re going to be all right.” He knelt in front of me on the sofa and rubbed his hands up and down my back. “I’m not going to let anymore happen to you.”
The high I’d felt over the impromptu proposal had worn off enough to let what had happened before sink in. My chin quivered. “I know. I’m sorry. I just ... I almost died.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Thanks to that fantastic nightgown,” I said, wiping my eyes and chuckling.
“Fantastic and sexy.”
My stomach fluttered. “You think I’m sexy or the gown was sexy?”
“You,” he said then kissed me long and lingering.
My heart fluttered and my body yearned to be closer. I pushed him down onto his mat then laid next to him, snuggling in like a grizzly bear ready for hibernation.