“I thought you weren’t speaking to me,” he said.
She smiled her best smile. “I’m hoping we can start over. I hate conflict. I don’t want it to be this way. I’m thinking we could have a quiet night here in front of the fireplace and just talk like we used to do. I enjoyed that so much. Didn’t you?”
“I did. That’s part of why I fell in love with you. But I didn’t cook for you today.”
“I don’t need a big, fancy meal every day. You spoil me. I’ll have some fruit and cheese and crackers. That’s plenty.”
“I missed Tootsie today. Why did you take her with you?”
“She had an appointment with the veterinarian, so it was easier to bring her to work with me than come all the way home and pick her up in the middle of the day,” she lied.
“Oh, that makes sense.”
Ashley gathered what she needed from the refrigerator after replenishing Tootsie’s water and food dishes, and then she brought her plate out to the living room and set her food on the coffee table. Perry sat beside her. She got up and put a few logs in the hearth and lit the fire. Before long, it was a good blaze, and they admired its beauty.
“My husband, Brody, and I used to have quiet nights at home. He worked from home. He never liked to leave. Home was the place I could go to for comfort and for peace until he cheated on me. That was so hurtful.”
“Priscilla and I spent many nights home alone until Nora was born. We liked the peaceful quiet or listening to the radio or dancing to the Victrola. It was nice. Your husband was a fool to cheat on you. I would never cheat on you.”
“I believe that. I believe you’d be a faithful husband, Perry.”
“Many nights we simply heated the house with this fireplace here and the one in the bedroom where you sleep,” Perry said.
“I’m glad for central heating. Spoiled, I guess, but this would be a lot of work to keep up.”
“That’s true. Some of the modern conveniences are great. Especially the television and the microwave. But I’m not keen on all the changes.”
She laughed. “I know that for sure.” She got up then and poked at the fire for a long time. “Perry, I can’t seem to get this to do what I need it to do, can you build this fire up for me?”
“Sure,” he said, as he got up from the couch and came toward the fireplace. She left the poker in the flames and picked up another log to throw on the pile that was already there. “That should be enough wood. You don’t want to burn the house down,” he told her.
She reached for the poker just as he got to her, and she stabbed him directly in the heart just as her research had suggested she do. His specter dressed in makeup, slacks, and a shirt and shoes crumbled to the floor, but she stabbed his chest over and over again thinking of how Priscilla shot Perry several times after she knew he was already dead, just to be certain.
“You killed your own baby daughter, you bastard; that’s for Nora,” she screamed.
“Killing your daughter made Priscilla crazy, and she died in the crazy house in Concord, you selfish pig,” she yelled as she stabbed his chest again.
“You tripped my friend and made him bleed, and then you knocked him down and broke his leg, you jealous, selfish, weasel,” she shouted as she stabbed him.
“You are a piece of shit, scumbag who is long overdue to rot in hell,” she shrieked.
Tootsie came running then and barked as she picked up the pile of clothes and threw them into the raging flames. They went up in smoke.
She rushed to the carriage house and retrieved a sledge hammer. With it, she broke open the space where she had first found Perry. There were a few human remains left in the wall. She called Sullivan Funeral Home and asked them to come retrieve the remains. They did. After a brief investigation by a coroner and the police, they determined that those were the remains of Perry Lucier, who was killed by his wife in 1920. Perry’s remains were cremated and the ashes buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Nashua. Ashley chose that cemetery because Priscilla and Nora were buried at Edgewood Cemetery, and she didn’t think Priscilla would want him buried anywhere near them. She’d come to admire Priscilla through reading her journal. Ashley and Eddie were there to watch Perry’s ashes be lowered to the ground. After they left his grave, they drove to Priscilla’s and placed flowers on her grave and Nora’s.
“He’s gone to hell now, Priscilla. You can rest in peace with your sweet baby girl,” Ashley said.
“Amen,” Eddie added.
By then, Ashley had been to Eddie’s place on Pawtuckaway and had a great time playing on the water. Tootsie and Edda had splashed in and out of the water on the shoreline all day long, and Ashley learned to waterski. They raced each other on jet skis and had a fun, very active day. Eddie, true to his word, made a great barbequed spare rib dinner while Ashley prepared a salad from fixings he had in his refrigerator. The conversation between them was light and joyful all day long. She felt she had known him forever, and he felt the same.
Because only Eddie knew the true secrets of Perry living in her house, she told him more. When she “killed” Perry, the specter, she confessed her “sin” to Eddie. He offered to stand with her by the graveside to be certain that the ghost was settled properly in a grave. After all, it was Perry who explained that he hadn’t passed on because he hadn’t been found in the walls of his home and hadn’t had a proper burial. Once the funeral home had taken care of that detail, there was no need to worry about him haunting Ashley again.
As they left the gravesite, Ashley joked, “I will miss the great sex, though.”
“Say what?” Eddie asked as he stopped in his tracks.
“Just as I was drifting off to sleep or even after I was sleeping for hours, he would come to me in bed and perform the most fabulous sex acts on me ever. My Brody couldn’t hold a candle to him.”
“Pardon me, but Brody was gay. He wasn’t interested in your fine ass.”
“Bi-sexual, I think.”
“Whatever, still not interested enough to appreciate a fine woman like you.”
“True, but I’ve been with a few others, and no one was like Perry.”
Eddie smiled a big crooked grin that matched his crooked nose, and his beautiful, perfect white teeth shown bright. He took both of her small hands into his giant ones. “How about you give me a try? I’ll show you what ‘fabulous sex’ is. You ain’t had sex ’til you’ve had Eddie Ridgewood lovemaking.”
She smiled back at him. “Eddie Ridgewood, I accept that challenge.”
“Your place or mine?” he asked, taking her hand.
“Mine. It’s not haunted now,” she said and winked.
Blood Bound
Olivia Marie
PROLOGUE
1885 - The first meeting
I’d never seen him before, but when he walked into town that late afternoon, mine wasn’t the only head to turn. He was stunning in his long-tailed coat and top hat. His light golden hair poked out from under the hat, and it was pulled down so low, you could only make out his chin. Gloves covered his hands.
It was late fall and the nip in the air wasn’t what had made my hair stand on end or left me covered in goosebumps. There was something about the stranger that drew me to him. My racing heart pounded in my ears and kept in perfect timing to his walk.