Seth pulled his hand away finally and acted like I had been the one clutching him. By the way he rubbed his hand, you’d think I had crushed his fingers.

Isabel took control. “We have an early workshop tomorrow. I hope to get through the instructions for the decreases and bind off of our projects. I had planned to end around two, but if we’re stuck here due to the weather, I can give some of you individual instruction on any trouble spots.” She made a show of looking at her watch and Mavis backed her up by yawning. It only took about two minutes for the lounge to clear out.

Amy, Tina, and Heather left first, heading for the stairs as quickly as possible. Mavis conferred with Isabel and followed the first group out the door. Jessica and René stood off to the side, in deep conversation. Emmett, grinning and congratulating Vi on a “great show,” helped Wally move the tables back to the dining room.

Mac walked me upstairs to my room. I felt a bit like a teenager being dropped off in time for curfew.

“Thanks for coming to the séance,” I said.

He pulled me into his arms. “It wasn’t that bad. I’m glad you were with me though—that kind of thing gives me the willies.”

I chuckled. “The willies?”

He leaned back to look at me. “It’s a well-known phrase indicating a sense of the heebie-jeebies.”

I laughed. “I know what it means. It’s just funny to hear you say it.”

He kissed me then and I forgot all about séances, murders, and black-market intrigue.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” he said.

I shut the door quietly, and got into bed with a grin on my face. I was asleep before Vi returned to the room.

31

I am in a room that is so cold I am shivering. It is plain and white and there is nothing there but a wooden door. I walk to the door and feel the rough texture under my fingertips. There is a cool metal handle and I reach out to pull the door open. A strange scene greets me. Tables adorned with white tablecloths and white plates languish in the grass. The cloths billow gently in the wind and the trees rustle softly. It looks like a summer garden party.

As I take a step forward, Duchess appears and begins to walk next to me. I see Vi sitting at a table. She is wearing a long white gown and her hair is loose around her shoulders. I call to her, but no sound comes out. When I try to approach her, the cat stops me. She blocks my progress and then Vi is gone.

René is there in his white chef’s coat and tall white hat. He is looking out over the garden toward the woods. Again, the cat stops me from approaching. But, René comes toward me. He smiles and holds out a silver tray with a ball of white yarn sitting on it. I reach out to take it, but he passes me and approaches Clarissa, who sits in a tall white wicker chair with a wide curved back. She laughs when she takes the yarn and it turns a deep blood red in her hands.

Linda gasps from behind me and I see that she, Jessica, Tina, Isabel, and Mavis are all here at this strange party. They wear white and carry red knitting needles. The cat jumps onto Clarissa’s lap and watches me with its gold eyes.

A sudden wind blows the tables over and the napkins and tablecloths flap in the wind and fly up over the castle. I watch them drift away and when one floats up to the turret window, I see a white filmy face in the window. It is trying to speak, but I can’t hear it. The wind grows stronger and all I can hear is the howling of the wind as the white table linens form a tornado and pick up all the furniture in its swirling chaos. The tornado heads toward me and just as I think I will be swept up in it, it collapses in front of Duchess, who has placed herself between me and the incoming storm.

My eyes flew open and I was glad for the blue numbers on the electric clock by my bed. The howling wind noise still filled my ears and I realized the blizzard that the weather people had predicted had arrived. I hoped the generator wouldn’t fail again and pulled the covers up over my ears to try to go back to sleep.

It was no use. The dream continued to haunt me and every time I closed my eyes, it started up again as if I had merely paused a DVD. I got out of bed and went to the window. It was such a strange dream. Often, the predictive dreams show me events that will happen, but not in the weird, surreal way of this one. I felt like I had been watching a strange art film with symbols and references I didn’t understand. But, the underlying feeling was that this dream meant something. I was often frustrated by my own lack of ability to understand these messages, but never more so than when I felt that there was true danger lurking.

Looking down, I saw a small patch of light on the ground below me. I could hardly make it out with all the swirling snow, but because everything was so dark, it stood out. Someone else couldn’t sleep and he or she was in the kitchen.

Thinking this was probably a very bad idea, I tossed on my sweatpants and Vi’s sweater over my T-shirt and sleep shorts and quietly slipped out of the room. I was thankful for the electricity once again as the hallway was at least dimly lit by the sconces along the wall. I walked quietly down the stairs trying to decide whether to announce myself or sneak up on the person in the kitchen.

I decided stealth would be best and quietly approached the kitchen door once I reached the main floor. Cracking the door open, I wasn’t surprised to see Linda there in her pale gray robe again, but this time Emmett joined her. They sat at the small table, sipping something out of mugs and talking quietly.

I hesitated. While I was surprised to see them together, they weren’t doing anything wrong and Linda had certainly had a rough enough couple of days. I turned to go back to the staircase and just as I put my foot down, an angry yowl came from the white cat. I threw my hands over my mouth to stifle my reaction. She had snuck up on me and must have been sitting with her tail right where my foot had landed. I bent down to calm her, but she backed away from me with her hair puffed up, hissing and spitting.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to step on you,” I said to the cat. “You’re very sneaky.”

“Yes, she is,” Emmett said from the door. “I can’t keep track of her. She’s always trying to trick her way into the kitchen to steal food. And after the last time, René might lose his mind if he sees her in here again.”

I sucked in air and decided to play through—I hadn’t planned on revealing myself to these two, but sneaky cat had taken care of that.

“Emmett, I’m sorry to interrupt,” I said. “I couldn’t sleep and just came down to find a magazine or something to read in the lounge.”

“Come in,” he said. “Lin—Mrs. Garrett makes the best hot chocolate ever. It will be sure to help you sleep.”

After my bizarre dream, I wasn’t sure I wanted to sit in a dimly lit castle kitchen in the middle of a stormy night. But I couldn’t think of two more unlikely companions for a midnight hot chocolate run and figured I had been handed an opportunity to do some more investigating.

“Who is it, Emmett?” Mrs. Garrett asked.

“It’s Clyde Fortune,” Emmett said. “A fellow insomniac.”

“I can never sleep on a windy night,” Linda said. She got up from the small table, poured cocoa into a mug, and placed it in front of me. “I find the warm milk helps.”

Emmett picked up a bottle of Baileys and waved it in my direction. “I find this helps even more.”

I nodded at the offer and he poured a glug into the cocoa. As he tilted the bottle, I noticed an angry red scratch across the back of his hand. Duchess?