They all dispersed to their rooms so they could clean up after their trip. Huldah wheeled Diana into a room on the first floor. Carolyn headed up the stairs to her own room.
“Carolyn, wait,” Douglas said behind her.
She paused. Her heart was racing. She turned and looked at him.
They were alone in the foyer. He approached her.
“I just wanted to say…” His voice faltered. “That I missed you.”
“Oh, Douglas,” she said in a small voice.
Before she knew it, they were kissing. They came together without consideration for who might see them and embraced each other tightly. His lips tasted sweet. It took some effort to break away.
“Not here,” Carolyn said.
Douglas took her hand and led her to the study. He closed the doors behind them. Once again they fell into each other’s arms with a hunger that surprised Carolyn.
“I wanted to do this so much before you left,” Douglas said, moving his lips off hers just long enough to speak.
She smiled. “Oh, Douglas, I’m so glad to be back here. Even with all of the terrors here…to be with you…”
He stroked her hair. “What is it, Carolyn? What’s happened?”
She told him about seeing David Cooke outside her window.
“Christ,” Douglas said, gripping her by the shoulders. “I wish I had gone with you to New York! Do you think he could have followed you here?”
“No, there’s no way he could have known where I was going.” She smiled wryly. “Even David can’t follow an airplane.”
She let herself take comfort in Douglas’s embrace, resting her head against his chest. Once again, the irony of feeling safe in a place that held only danger for Douglas struck her.
“I think Diana can help us,” she said, looking up at Douglas.
His reply was to kiss her again.
“All I want,” he said, moving his lips to her ear, “is to spend my life with you. Even if that life just lasts another week…”
“Don’t say that,” Carolyn said.
“But it may be the case,” Douglas said.
Their eyes held each other.
Without saying another word, they turned and left the study. They walked silently up the stairs to Carolyn’s room. Once inside, the door locked behind them, Carolyn unbuttoned Douglas’s shirt, She ran her hands over his chiseled chest. The light blond hairs there seemed to electrify at her touch. He kissed her neck, her ears, her throat. He unbuttoned her blouse, letting it drop to the floor. He kissed her shoulders. He reached around and unsnapped her bra, letting it, too, fall away. Cupping her breasts in each hand, he kissed them tenderly. Then they lay gently down upon the bed.
When they had finished making love, Carolyn sat up, cradling Douglas’s head in her lap. It had felt good. Very good. Douglas was a kind, considerate lover. He had made sure she was satisfied before thinking about any kind of satisfaction for himself. Now, in that dreamy state after sex, Carolyn realized she’d never had such an experience. She had thought David had been a good lover. He had been exciting. But she realized now she could never have called him considerate.
She reached down and kissed the top of Douglas’s head. He made a sound of contentment.
Once again, Carolyn’s thoughts turned to that room in the basement. She hoped fervently that Diana could help her find a way to put an end to the cycle of death.
And failing that…
She knew it wasn’t right.
But if the lottery went on as scheduled, she hoped it wouldn’t be Douglas who was chosen. Let it be any of the others.
Just not Douglas.
Chapter Nineteen
Douglas couldn’t take his eyes off Carolyn. If he had been looking for sparks, he had found them. Now he understood what Dad had meant when he described falling in love with Mom. Finally Douglas knew what it felt like to be in love. He found himself in the bizarre situation of feeling giddy and joyful-even as he might be facing the most terrible death in just a week’s time.
“You’ll be all right carrying her?” Carolyn asked.
He beamed. He would do anything she wanted him to. He nodded.
“I don’t weigh very much,” Diana said, her blue eyes looking up at Douglas.
He smiled down at her. “I’m sure I can manage,” he assured her.
With ease, he lifted the small woman in his arms. She couldn’t be more than fifty pounds. He held her carefully, like a baby.
“Huldah used to carry me around,” Diana said. “But she’s got a bad back these days.”
The German woman just grunted.
Then they all fell silent, one by one filing out of the parlor and across the foyer to the door to the basement.
Uncle Howie went first, moving slowly down the stairs. Ryan followed, insisting he would be there in case the old man stumbled. Then came Uncle Philip, with a skittish Chelsea close behind. Carolyn went next, followed by Douglas and Diana. Huldah took up the rear, keeping her eyes on the precious cargo Douglas carried in his arms.
The basement was dark and damp. But there was nothing at first glance that gave evidence of the dangers that lurked down there. Douglas looked around at the boxes and cobwebs, the open doors to the various storerooms that had once been servants’ bedrooms. But then his eyes fell on the one door that was closed. Uncle Howie was nearing that door now. The keys jingled in his trembling hand.
Off to his right Douglas saw an old sink, and beyond that, an archway that had been sealed over with cement. At one time, Douglas realized, that had been the servants’ entrance. And the sink was where Harry Noons had stood, where he had watched as Beatrice and Clem had argued, right in front of that room. Then Noons had left, and Clem had taken Beatrice inside the room and impaled her to the wall with his pitchfork.
Instinctively, Douglas shuddered.
Diana felt it.
“You have reason to be afraid,” the woman in his arms told him. “The closer we come to that door, the stronger I feel the force.”
“Is it Beatrice?” he asked.
“I cannot tell.”
Uncle Howard had managed to unlock the door. With a creak, it swung inward.
The one small window high on the wall gave the room its only light. A shaft of sunshine pierced the dark shadows.
“Place me on the couch there,” Diana instructed.
“What is it that you intend to do here?” Philip asked, the impatience obvious in his voice. Douglas knew that his uncle was not used to taking direction-especially not from some strange armless and legless woman who lived in a crumbling tenement on the Lower East Side. But for now Diana was calling the shots. Douglas placed her carefully on the dusty, moldy couch, where, with her remarkable shoulders, she propped herself up against a pillow. Huldah was quickly on hand to make the necessary adjustments.
“I am here to get a reading on the energy in this room,” Diana said, her eyes moving all around the place.
“Then why were we all required to come along?” Philip asked.
Douglas looked at the older man. He was clearly uncomfortable being in the room where so many of his family had died.
“You needn’t fear, Philip,” Uncle Howie said. “No harm has ever come to any of us in this place except on the night of the lottery.”
“Then why did you never let us into the basement as children?” Chelsea asked, near tears, hugging herself.
Her uncle looked over at her. “Because I did not want you to see anything that may frighten you.” He moved his eyes to the far wall. “Like that.”
Douglas gasped. On the wall two words were written in fresh, shiny blood.
ABANDON HOPE.
Chelsea screamed.
“Dear God,” Philip uttered.
The blood dripped down the wall.
“It’s what I saw the first time I came in here,” Carolyn said.
Douglas moved closer to her.
“Who is doing it?” Ryan asked. “Beatrice?”
“No,” Diana said, her eyes closed. “It’s not Beatrice. She’s not here. Kip Hobart was successful in walking her out of this room. She’s no longer here.”