Chapter 28 #2
Dinner is delicious and Noah keeps up a lively conversation neatly avoiding the trauma here at the lake, like we’d discussed it earlier and had gotten it out of the way.
I find myself laughing more than I have in a long time.
We finish the first bottle of wine and after dessert, take another back into the front room, where the flames in the fireplace have settled into warmly glowing embers.
I’m as relaxed as I’ve been in months. No thoughts of Ben intruding in my mind and I just feel normal. Noah’s kindness and warmth have drawn me closer to him with every time we’ve been together. He asks me if this is an official date, and I say that it is. With that, Noah leans in and kisses me.
The next morning, I awake with a start. Noah’s room is filled with sunlight.
My stomach is queasy, too much wine and a questionable, impulsive decision.
It had been a lovely evening, but I wonder if sleeping with him will just complicate my life right now.
I swing my legs over the side of the king-sized bed.
I hear Noah in the attached bathroom, water running.
“Good morning,” he says, walking toward me, wiping his hands on a towel. He’s dressed in dark blue sweats, his hair disheveled. “You feel like breakfast?”
“Maybe just some coffee.”
“I can do that.” He glances around the room, his eyes landing on my clothes, which are thrown over a chair. I pull the sheet up to my chin. “I’ll be downstairs,” Noah says.
I dress quickly, wanting a shower, but that can wait until I get next door. I wonder if Sunny has come back to Spencer House overnight. I don’t think so, but I almost wish she had to see me coming home from Noah’s at this early hour.
My mouth feels awful, so I head into the bathroom. The sink area is tidy, and I pull out a drawer, find toothpaste, and squirt a clump onto my finger. I’m leaning over, cupping cold water in my hand, when something catches my eye. I spit in the sink, dry my hands.
In the drawer, in the back, is a bit of fabric. I pull out a checkered scarf, black and white. My heart starts to beat in erratic little thumps. I recognize it. Aubrey’s scarf.
I shove the scarf back where I found it, shut the drawer.
I stumble back against the wall, the towel rack painfully jabbing my back.
This doesn’t mean anything, I tell myself.
Well, it doesn’t mean that Noah had anything to do with Aubrey’s disappearance, but it does indicate something between them.
What was I thinking sleeping with him? Letting myself get close to him?
I hastily finish wiping my hands on a towel and head downstairs.
Noah stands in the kitchen doorway. “Coffee will be ready in a couple minutes. You sure you don’t want some toast or something?”
“No. I’m good. Look, Noah, I really need to get back. I’ll take a rain check on the coffee.”
He walks to my side, puts a hand on my arm. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I lean over, pull on my boots. I try to smile at him. “I just need to get back. Jump in the shower. Get some writing done.”
Noah drops his hand, a crease appears between his eyebrows. “Okay. If you’re sure. Maybe we can head into town later, grab some lunch then?”
“Maybe.” I just want to get out of here.
I head into the chilly morning air and make my way across the yard. I feel Noah’s gaze on my back as I go.
The house is quiet, cold. I head down the hall to the thermostat and turn the heat up. Then I hear a noise, and I freeze. It’s coming from the cellar. The furnace kicking on?
I creep down the back stairs. Icy, musty air greets me. I pull on the string that dangles from the beamed ceiling. I haven’t been down here before and the light bulb overhead throws a dim, wavering light into the depths, leaving most of the cellar in darkness.
There’s clatter from a far corner as if someone knocked over a bunch of tools. I turn to run back up the stairs when a voice emanates behind me.
“Don’t run away.”
I recognize Jeffrey’s voice and turn to face him, but I can’t see him in the dim light. My pulse races. “What are you doing down here?” I inch backward toward the stairs, Noah’s warning about Jeffrey running through my head.
Jeffrey steps closer and I can see him now standing beneath the light. His hair is disheveled, his thick jacket hangs open. “I was looking for something,” he says, “to help Ruth.” That’s when I notice the axe in his hand.
I gulp for breath. “How did you get in here?” I had locked the house before I had gone to Noah’s.
But then I remember seeing Jeffrey slip through Dale’s back door with ease, and I remember hearing that Jeffrey looked after Spencer House when Alex was in Boston, so he probably has keys.
Maybe Jeffrey has keys to every building here at the lake.
He grasps the axe with both hands. His mouth hangs open as if trying to form words. I don’t wait for a reply and run up the stairs.
When I get to the hallway, I make a dash for the front door. Jeffrey catches me before I can turn the knob. His hand nearly crushes my arm, and I scream.
“Don’t do that,” he says, wincing.
I glance down at his other hand and see that it’s empty, no axe.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he says, his gaze on the floor.
“Let me go.”
Jeffrey drops my arm as if I’d burned him, and he steps back away from me.
“Ruth wants me to cut more firewood,” he says.
“Why did you need to come in here? Doesn’t she have her own tools?”
He shakes his head, his lank, dark hair flopping over his brow. “I can’t find the axe in her garage. I don’t know what happened to it. I remembered that there was one here in the cellar.”
I take a deep breath. I don’t know that I believe him. “Don’t come in here again without asking first.”
“I won’t, Emma.”
It’s the first time he’s called me by name, and it makes me shudder.
His eyes meet mine, another first. “Be careful around here.”
“Of what?”
He shrugs. “I need to go check with Ruth about the firewood.” He runs out the front door, axe apparently forgotten.
I walk into the front room, peer out the window at the lake, and try to calm my breathing. When I’ve settled, I call Alex, tell him about finding Jeffrey in the cellar.
Alex seems mildly concerned and says he’ll speak to Ruth about it. He’ll tell her to have a talk with Jeffrey and tell him that he is not to enter Spencer House unless Alex is there. Then he says that he’ll tell Ruth to take the Spencer House key from Jeffrey just to make sure.
After I hang up, I collapse back onto the sofa. Between what I found at Noah’s and my run-in with Jeffrey, I’m a quivering mess. It doesn’t seem like there’s anyone here at Cheshire Lake whom I can trust.