Discernment, p.11
Discernment, page 11
“Then come sit on my lap and whisper sweet nothings in my ear, Spunner.”
Alvin playfully slugged Chuck on the shoulder. “Don’t be obtuse, Brady.”
Eliza’s form flickered closer. Seeing my eyes move to the space between our seat and the chess game, Sean dropped his voice.
“What is she doing?”
“Making a lewd gesture, if you must know.”
Sean stifled a chuckle, then whispered. “Althea told me about your experience at Barton. That’s very promising. If I can get rid of Chuck, will you help Eliza tonight?”
I closed my eyes, refusing to look at Sean’s pleading gaze or the shadow of his fiancée.
“Checkmate!” Alvin roared.
“What? We barely started,” Chuck said with incredulousness. “I demand a redo.”
As they reset the board, Sean took my hand. “Please, Deborah.”
He’s mine!
I nodded.
“Have you finished the book?”
“Not yet. It’s a lot to digest, and I don’t read when Alvin is home. I like to be able to talk to him.”
“Having a spouse with you in the evenings must be a great comfort.”
“It’s the best feeling in the world.” I looked into his golden eyes. “I want to help you clear your life so you can have that too.”
Sean’s return gaze was intense.
If you weren’t married, he’d have a hand under your skirt while tonguing your décolletage by now. He does love a good pair and yours are set off wonderfully tonight.
My hand went to my chest, and I felt the color drain from my face.
“What is it?” Sean rested a hand on my knee, but I jerked to my feet.
Chuck raised his head from the game. “Did Spunner get fresh with you?”
“He knows better than to try something with Deborah,” Alvin said without looking up while moving one of his pieces. “It’s your turn.”
The young man made his move, then Alvin closed the game on his turn.
Chuck groaned. “I’m not one to go in for a third beating.” Turning to our host who now stood beside me, he questioned. “Will there be dancing tonight?”
Sean glanced at my stiff posture. “I’ll not put Deborah through the challenge of three men on her lone dance card.”
“Then I’ll be off. Next time make the numbers even, Spunner.”
“I’ll try, Chuck. Thank you for joining us.”
We said our goodbyes and found ourselves in the front hall after the door closed.
Alvin’s hand was wrapped around mine, and I leaned my shoulder against his firm arm. Looking down at me, he smiled before kissing me.
If you want him to take you, Sean and I would happily watch.
I flinched as though stung by the vulgar words.
“What—” Alvin started but I turned on Sean.
“How could you love someone like that? She’s crude and the most ill-mannered soul, alive or dead, I’ve ever met!”
Sean gave a sheepish grin. “She was full of excitement.”
“What is going on?” Alvin took me by the shoulders. “Who are you talking about?”
“Eliza Melling, Sean’s dead fiancée.” I broke from the grip and went for the stairs where she waited. “Do you hear that, Eliza? You’re dead. Dead and you should be gone! Why don’t you leave?”
“Deborah, did you drink too much?” Alvin’s touch was gentle as he turned me to him.
“I wish I had.”
“That could be arranged,” Sean offered.
Alvin tucked me to his side and turned to our host. “Thank you for supper, but I think I should bring Deborah home.”
“Not yet,” Sean said with conviction. “There’s something Deborah needs to tell you.”
Alvin’s eyes widened with confusion. “What is he talking about, Deb?”
Sighing, I expelled the words. “I see and hear spirits.”
He leaned away from me as though repulsed. “What spirits?”
“I don’t know them all by name or even see all the ones I hear.” I pointed to the bottom of the stairs. “But Eliza is right there, taunting me. She probably wants us to go back to Sean’s room so we can look upon her nakedness.”
“Deborah, I think you’re a bit hysterical right now. It might be best if you don’t say anything.”
“I’m not hysterical, Alvin. I’m blazing mad!”
“You won’t be able to do anything with your emotions flared,” Sean warned. “Come relax for a few minutes.”
As we passed into the parlor, I trembled with anger as my mind raced with the information from the Kardec book. There had to be something I could use to give me time, even if I hadn’t tested it before.
When I figured it out, I turned back and pointed at Eliza. “In the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, you will not enter this room!”
To my delight, she was abruptly stopped in the doorway by an unseen force. Eliza switching from detailed to shadowed form produced the same result.
I had created a barrier between the living and the dead!
Twelve
Laughing as Alvin sat beside me in the parlor, I watched Eliza fade away.
“What is she doing?” Sean asked as he took the chair across from us.
“My words stopped her from following, so she went upstairs.”
“You can do that?” Power gleamed in Sean’s eyes, making me think of Althea’s warning.
“Apparently, but I haven’t needed to make a barrier before.” Hoping to cool his enthusiasm, I spoke more with a sober voice. “She’s a horror, Sean. Eliza is doing nothing good for you by hanging around. Even if you can’t see or hear her, she’s putting out all sorts of energy, and it isn’t remotely pure or helpful.”
He lowered his eyes and nodded.
Alvin squeezed my hand, causing me to look at him. “Please explain what’s going on, Deborah. It sounds like a bunch of nonsense.”
“You told me you didn’t know how I knew your uncle died. Well, when I saw you in the hall that day at the school, the words came to my mind.”
“What words?”
“‘His uncle died. Pray for him.’”
“You heard that?” Alvin asked.
“When I saw you, that impression came to my mind. I can’t always tell if it’s something I hear or words I see in my mind, but the messages come from beyond.”
“Beyond what?”
“Beyond this life. There’s so much more out there, Alvin. More than we’ll ever know. Some people are sensitive to messages from the other side. Apparently, I’m one of them.”
“She’s a medium,” Sean said. “An extremely gifted one.”
Alvin crossed his arms.
“I never told you because I didn’t think you’d understand,” I said. “All my quirks, as you call them, are related to this second sight. I used to think it was something I had no control over, but Sean loaned me a book about it, and I’m learning more.”
Alvin turned on Sean. “If you’re feeding her with this nonsense—”
“No, Alvin, I’ve known since I was four that I heard and saw more than anyone else. The book is only helping me understand that I’m not alone and giving me instruction in how to better use the abilities I have.”
“Who told you about my uncle and asked you to pray for me?”
“I’m not sure beyond it was the soul of someone who loved you.” I paused, knowing I needed to speak now rather than withhold more information. “But I heard Uncle Jerald before we left the house this evening. He’s concerned for your safety. He thinks Catherine will harm you.”
Alvin shook his head. “I can’t believe this.”
“You must!” Sean sat forward. “Deborah couldn’t go into the cathedral because she felt the weight of the dead from the graveyard that used to be there a hundred years ago—something she knew nothing about. She saw the ghost of a soldier in your classroom at Barton Academy and sent him home after nearly fifty years of waiting. And she can see my fiancée’s antics wherever I go because Eliza is haunting me.”
Alvin stood and paced the room. “I could use another drink, Spunner.”
“Of course.” Sean crossed to the decanters.
Alvin avoided eye contact with our host, but thanked him for the glass. They both took tumblers of Sean’s favorite Irish whiskey in hand, and I joined them near the piano.
I gently touched Alvin’s tuxedo sleeve. “I’d like to ask your uncle about why he changed the beneficiary in his insurance policy. You don’t have to say anything right now—just think about it. I won’t go seeking him, but if he communicates with me again like he did today, I want to use that connection.”
“Capitalize on the link,” Sean said. “That’s a brilliant idea.”
“I don’t like the sound of that.” Alvin’s fists tightened.
“There are no benefits to reap, Alvin. The change was already done, it’s just a way to understand why, especially since he’s worried about you—as am I. Don’t answer me now, just think about it. I’ll be busy enough tonight trying to handle Eliza.”
“She was always a handful.” Sean’s smile drifted into memories, and he bit his lower lip.
“Since I can block her from a room,” I told him, “I should be able to trap her in an object. Kardec mentioned similar situations in the book. Hopefully that will help you clear her from your mind so you can focus on the future rather than the past. What do you think?”
“It’s worth a try.”
I looked at Alvin. “And you?”
He shrugged. “It all sounds ludicrous to me.”
“Could you make Eliza show herself to Alvin?” Sean asked. “That way he might believe us.”
“I’d rather he had blind faith than knowledge.” I left the words unspoken that Sean had believed me from the beginning.
When I turned away, Alvin reached for my arm. “Deb,” he whispered. “I know you aren’t a liar, but please understand that this all sounds like parlor tricks to me. I don’t know what to think when you spout these foolish ideas.”
A lump welled in my throat. “My life isn’t foolish, Alvin.”
I left the room before tears could streak my face. They fell as I climbed the stairs.
Men are ridiculous. Eliza said from the doorway to Sean’s bedroom.
“Yes, they can be, Eliza.” I followed her into the room and sat on the floor, motioning her shadow to me. “We’re the same age, and I’m sure we have similar thoughts about many things though you appear to enjoy shocking me.”
Some things are easy—and amusing.
“Is that why you’re haunting Sean, because it’s easy and amusing?”
Her shadow shimmered red, then materialized in an opaque splendor of her true shape.
Don’t tell him, but I was unfaithful in life. As penance, I’m trying to be faithful in death. Besides, he needs me.
“What he needs is a woman by his side to hold him at the end of each day.”
He needs it more than once a day. Eliza smiled. Sean was the best lover. And he never made me cry like your husband has to you.
“Alvin doesn’t understand this side of me. He’s all about mathematical formulas, and you can’t explain spirits with an algebraic equation.”
I’ll give him something he can’t deny.
“I want Alvin to believe in me without knowing.”
Men are too dense for that. Sean and the deacon never saw what was right under their noses. You might want to relax, Deborah, because this could hurt.
Eliza was there, physically pushing into me as I defended my body against a threat I’d never known. The mental strain of fighting to keep her out curled my limbs with excruciating pain as I tried to spiritually claw her away. I fell back on the rug as vibrations wracked my frame with my waning effort against her onslaught.
“No, Eliza! Please don’t!” I managed to cry before losing control of my body.
The others thundered up the stairs and knelt beside me. Alvin grasped my hand and Sean held my other arm in an attempt to quiet my trembling body.
Alvin turned an accusing eye on Sean. “What have you done to her?”
“Nothing! You heard her call out Eliza’s name, not mine.”
Althea came to the doorway. “Is she all right?”
“We don’t know,” Sean answered.
My body stopped vibrating and my mouth opened. “I’m here, Sean.”
The strange voice further washed me in panic.
“What?” Alvin brought a hand to my face. “You don’t sound right, Deb.”
The electric bulbs in the room burst, leaving us in a shadowed world of ambient light from the far off hall sconce. Althea shifted in the doorway, further lengthening the shadows.
Eliza turned my head toward Sean. “I would give anything to have one more ride on Flora with you along the Eastern Shore.”
“Eliza, my kitten.” Sean lowered his face to me.
Alvin knocked him onto his backside with a hard shove. “Don’t touch my wife!”
“But it’s Eliza—she’s taken control of Deborah.” He scrambled back to my side.
“Do not touch the vessel!” The voice from me commanded.
“Eliza?” Sean leaned close once more.
“Stay back!” Althea said from her post at the door. “You’ll get that girl killed if you don’t abide by the rules.”
Sean sprang back a few feet, squatting on his haunches. Alvin followed suit on his side, eyes bulging with fear.
My mouth went slack. A continuous stream of greenish vapor curled from my parted lips. It rose to the ceiling as the others watched in horror and awe. The mass began to make the movements of a body of water, rippling as it lowered from the height of the room to float a couple feet above me.
Out of the smoke, a horse galloped around the captive audience.
On the mare’s back, two figures took shape in remarkable detail despite the gaseous form. A man sat behind a woman, arms around her waist. As his features clarified into Sean’s, his hands roamed the young woman’s curves as their ride continued in an oval track above my still body.
“You were glorious, Eliza,” Sean whispered.
The vapor dispersed then regathered before Sean in the life-sized, naked form of his fiancée. A hand reached out to him and he raised his to meet it.
“No, Sean Francis!” Althea snapped.
“To feel her one more time—”
As soon as his fingertips brushed through those of the figure’s, the vapor swirled with tornadic fury and slammed into my abdomen. My body lurched. I groaned, and then doubled over.
“Deb, my love.” Alvin cradled me in his arms as his eyes filled with unshed tears. “I’m sorry for doubting.”
As my non-responsive state continued, Alvin’s fear turned to anger as he held me. Petrified of the fury rising within Alvin’s tense body, I was too spent to speak though I wanted nothing more than to calm him.
Glaring across the few feet that separated them, he glowered at Sean. “I’ll kill you if she’s damaged!”
Sean shook his head, unable to speak as his own emotions filled his chest. He crossed to the dresser, lighting the hurricane lamp kept there for emergencies.
Adjusting the wick so the oil didn’t burn too bright, Sean carried it to Alvin.
“Would you like to lay her on my bed?”
“You must be daft, Spunner!”
“Perhaps,” Althea said from the hall, “one of the guest rooms would be more appropriate.”
“But I didn’t mean—”
“Sean Francis,” she said quietly but sternly, “why don’t you give the Farleys a bit of space?”
Sean set the oil lamp on the nearby table and sulked while Althea led Alvin as he carried me across the hall to the purple guest room. She turned on a small table lamp.
“Do you wish a doctor called, Mr. Alvin?” Althea asked once he laid me on the soft bed.
“How would I explain what happened? I don’t even know what I witnessed, but would you first help me remove the gown so she can rest more comfortably? That’s okay, isn’t it, Deb?”
His voice was exasperated, but he brushed a kiss on my cheek and gazed into my eyes. I managed to nod.
Heeled slippers and gown removed, Alvin took Althea’s advice of removing the shapewear that was over my ecru chemise. I winced and grunted in a pain a few times, but welcomed the freedom once I was left in my underset.
“She seems tender in her belly, the poor child,” Althea remarked as he lifted me while she turned down the bed.
“That’s where that…that thing crashed into her.”
“Shall I check her, Mr. Alvin?”
He nodded, stepped back a pace, and crossed his arms to hide the tremble in his limbs.
Althea lifted the hem of my camisole and gently pulled down the waistband of my panties, exposing an area of darkening bruises I could feel marring the pale skin around my naval. The housekeeper gasped and Alvin flung open the door.
“You bastard!”
I heard Alvin tackle Sean on the rug in the hall. Managing to barely lift my head, I witnessed Sean go down with his best defensive moves. They wrestled, neither bothering to speak. Althea covered me and went for the men outside the bedroom doorway.
“Sean Francis!” She pulled him by the collar. “That’s no way to handle things at your age. And Mr. Alvin, I’d think you’d better watch over your wife, no matter what you think this man has done.”
“He led Deborah into harm’s way with that devilry!” Alvin said as he staggered to his feet.
“But she wouldn’t want you to hurt him, no matter what happened. I know Miss Deborah well enough to believe that.” Althea shook her head. “Sean Francis, you look a fright. I hope you’re ashamed of yourself.”
“Yeah.” He wiped his bloody nose on the torn sleeve of his tuxedo jacket and pulled off the bowtie that was hanging from its final few inches before he stood. “But I couldn’t let him pound me to a pulp.”
“He’s your guest, and his wife is hurt.”
“She is?” Remorse filled his eyes. “I’m sorry, Alvin. Ectoplasm has the potential for damage when it reenters the body.”
“She’s burned and bruised where that thing struck her. If something you bring on hurts her again, nothing will stop me from thrashing you,” Alvin stated before going for the bathroom to wash.
