Red Lily

Lily’s door two strides ahead of her. Quick enough to throw out an arm and block her. “It’s okay, it’s all right. Let’s not wake her up.”
    Lily slept in the crib, curled under her blanket with her stuffed dog. In the rocking chair, Amelia sang. She woreher gray dress, her hair in neat coils, and her face was calm and quiet.
    “It’s so cold.”
    “It’s not bothering the baby. It never bothered me as a kid. I don’t know why.”
    In her chair, Amelia turned her head to look over. There was sorrow on her face, grief, and, Hayley thought, regret. She continued to sing, low and sweet, but her gaze was on Harper now.
    When the song was done, she faded away.
    “She was singing to you,” Hayley told him. “Some part of her remembers, some part of her knows, and she’s sorry. What must it be like, to be insane for a hundred years?”
    Together, they crossed to the crib where Hayley fussed with the blanket.
    “She’s okay, Hayley. Lily’s just fine. Come on.”
    “Sometimes I don’t know if I can take it, this roller-coaster ride through the haunted house.” She pushed at her hair as they walked back to Hayley’s bedroom. “One minute she’s knocking us around, and the next, she’s singing lullabies.”
    “Dead lunatic,” he pointed out. “Still, maybe it’s a way of telling us she might come after you or me, but she won’t hurt Lily.”
    “What if I do? What if she does what she did at the pond, and makes me hurt Lily, or someone else?”
    “You won’t let that happen. Sit down a minute. You want something? Water or something?”
    “No.”
    He eased her down so they sat on the side of the bed. “She never hurt anybody in this house. Maybe she wanted to. Maybe she even tried, but she never did.” He took her hand, and because it still felt chilled, rubbed it between both of his. “That’s one thing that would’ve gotten passeddown. A crazy woman attacking a Harper, or even a servant. It would’ve been reported, and she’d have been taken away, put in jail or an asylum.”
    “Maybe. What about the sickle, and the rope? That says: I’m gonna tie somebody up and slice them to ribbons.”
    “Nobody ever got sliced to ribbons in Harper House.” He rose to move over and close her terrace doors.
    “That you know about.”
    “Okay, that I know about.” He sat again. “We’ll pass this on to Mitch. He can look into police records maybe. It’s an avenue.”
    “You’ve got this calm surface,” she said after a moment. “It’s deceptive, seeing as there are all these little hot pockets under it. Shows me I don’t know you as well as I thought I did.”
    “Back at you.”
    She sighed, looked down at her hands as they sat on the side of her bed together. “I can’t just sleep with you. I thought I could—at first. Then I thought, I can’t go jumping on that. I do and he’s going to get hurt. She’s going to hurt him.” She looked up. “You were right about that.”
    He only smiled. “Duh.”
    She gave his arm a swat. “Think you’re so clever and smart.”
    “Only because I am. You can ask my mama, when she’s in a good mood.”
    “You’re easy to be around, except when you’re not.” She studied him, trying to take in all the new things she was learning. “I like that, I guess, finding all those under-the-surface pockets. And God knows you’re nice to look at.”
    “How big a fall are you building me up for?”
    “It’s not—” She shook her head, rose to wander the room. “I’ve got all these feelings stored up, and all these needs. It’d be so easy to set them loose on you.”

    “I don’t recall putting up a fight.”
    “I didn’t know you looked at me, not that way. Knowing you did, you do, just adds to everything. I’ve never been kissed like that in my life, and I’ve been kissed pretty good now and then. If she hadn’t come in here when she did, it’s likely we’d be in bed right now, going where that kiss was leading.”
    “That’s no way to make me feel fonder of my great-great-grandmother.”
    “I’m not feeling so fond of her myself. But it gave me time to think instead of just want.” Ordering herself to be sensible, for both of them, she sat on the arm of a chair. “I’m not shy about sex, and I think if you and I were somewhere else, in some other sort of situation, we could be lovers without all these extra complications.”
    “Why do people always think being lovers shouldn’t be complicated?”
    She frowned, then