Unwept by Laura Hickman Tracy Hickman Read Free Book Online Page B

echoed the word, and her eyes brightened. “Well, if we found a picture, then you’d just be looking at it, right? I mean, I wouldn’t have said anything. I couldn’t be accused of breaking the rules.”
    Rules? Jenny thought. What rules?
    Smiling at each other, they jumped up from the porch swing and arm in arm strolled into the house.

6
    DISTANT THUNDER
    The sound of a low rumble rolling over the ocean woke Ellis. The morning air beyond the snug warmth of her quilt was chill. She struggled to hold on to sleep as a thin slice of morning sunlight slipped through the drapes of the French windows and fell across her face. She opened her eyes and they focused on the tiny framed photograph on the bed stand next to her.
    Jenny had brought it to her last night. It was a picture of two young women. One of the women had long, flaxen hair and bowed lips. Alicia, Ellis supposed, as Jenny had said so. The image certainly looked like the woman Ellis had met hanging on the arm of Merrick the day before. The photo was grainy, however, making it hard to discern whether the features of the second young lady were Ellis’s own. It was obvious that the porch in the background was Summersend. From hairstyles and apparent ages it looked as though the picture may not have been taken too long ago. She ran her fingers across the glass, studying her face and form in the picture. It seemed to be her and somehow more herself than she presently felt.
    She dropped her hand away. It’s because I knew myself then. She breathed in envy for the certainty that she had known in the moment the picture was taken. Ellis was now keenly aware of the gift in conviction of one’s own identity. It was silly, she knew, but she would have been more comforted if the photograph had been of her with Jenny and not Alicia. She knew she should feel lucky that Jenny had bent the doctor’s rules a bit for her sake. It was harmless enough to have the picture and no real help except that she now knew she’d been here before. And that was much more than she could claim yesterday.
    Sliding her feet from beneath the covers, she reluctantly placed them on the dusty wool carpet beneath her feet. When she first entered the room last night, she was struck by the beauty of the vaulted ceiling. A pair of French doors led to a tiny, private balcony with a view of the bay and a narrow stair up to the widow’s walk. The ornate wood-carved canopied bed commanded the room. The down quilt on it was embroidered with soft pink roses like those in the garden below. The scene called to Ellis’s heart. Someone knew what she would like … perhaps even more than she did.
    The room was lovely but on closer inspection not really ready for a guest. The bedding was the only thing in the room that wasn’t covered in dust.
    Her eyes lit on her trunk, next to a large armoire.
    Ellis frowned. How did it get up here?
    Ellis had wanted to ask Jenny about the trunk last night but thought better of it. If Jenny saw Ellis’s dismay she kept it to herself and no explanation was forthcoming about the dusty room or the trunk. These things were just another oddity on a long list in a very odd day. Ellis had shrugged her aching shoulders into the nightgown Jenny produced for her use. In bed she had closed her eyes tightly, pushing away thoughts of the train and the nightmare as a deep weariness stole over her. Jenny had made her feel welcome. The smooth wood of the piano case had felt good beneath her fingers, though it was locked. Sleep had wrapped her in a sweet, dreamless oblivion until the sun found her.
    But the trunk was in her room all the same when she awoke.
    Ellis dressed quickly in the heavy green skirt and cream blouse from the day before. She glanced at the trunk, which she hadn’t touched last night despite Jenny’s urging, and wished that when it was opened she would find something prettier and more fashionable than what she was