This will make more sense if you read the earlier parts. Don't worry, they're fun, action packed, and build the tension. Read them first! Also, all characters in sexual situations are 18 years or older. Enjoy.
"I'm thinking of going to the library this weekend to see what else we can learn about this new house of ours." George looked around the table with a twinkle in his eye. He still had some dust in his messy blond hair even though they were sitting down to dinner. "Who's with me?"
"Sounds interesting, Dad." Brittney chewed her
Kung Pao
chicken takeout thoughtfully. "What do you want to find?"
Both Julie and Daniel kept their eyes on their respective plates of food. They'd been uncharacteristically quiet that evening.
George frowned at them. "Everything alright with you, Jules? Danny?"
They both looked up at him and quickly nodded.
"Yeah, I think the move --" Julie stopped talking when Daniel accidently cut her off.
"... lots of tests at school, so ..." Daniel looked over at his mother, his cheeks flushed, and he looked back down at his plate. He pushed a cashew around with his fork.
"Well, you two sure are acting strange." George shook his head and looked at his daughter. "To answer your question, I'd like to know what happened to Frederick and Eloise in 1896. And maybe we could get a plan for the house, see what that locked room is all about. I haven't found any keys that might fit that lock. Has anybody else?"
Julie and Daniel shook their heads and looked off in different directions.
"No, Dad." Brittney chipped in.
"Okay, then." George scratched at his graying beard and thought about what mysteries lay in the Mansion's past. "Well, I'm going to the library on Saturday. Who else wants to do some digging with me?"
"I will." Brittney raised her hand.
"Maybe I'll use that time for a nap," Julie said. "I haven't been sleeping well."
"Homework." Daniel glanced at his father quickly.
"Well, it's just you and me then, Britt." George sighed.
Brittney happily nodded.
~~
"You inspire me, Mrs. Julie Anderson." Eloise looked up from a felt-upholstered wingback chair near the hearth in the main living room. Somewhere in the house a clock chimed two o'clock in the morning. The pale woman read by firelight, placing her finger in the leather-bound book to mark her place as she greeted her visitor. "I hadn't read
First Love
in a long time. Very inspirational." The pretty woman had her red hair up in a bun, and wore a white, frilly nightgown that went all the way to her ankles. The loose fabric almost concealed her pregnant belly. "And you brought the book back into my house. Well done."
"How?" Julie looked around the room. She knew that the chimney needed a major cleaning before it would work again, but there was a roaring fire in the fireplace. On the walls, the glassy-eyed heads of a boar, a deer, and a moose stared blankly. The furniture was all wrong, too. The room was filled with ornate and shiny pieces with delicately turned edges. "How did I get here?" Julie suddenly perceived her nakedness. She found herself dressed only in a pair of white panties. She covered her breasts with both hands.
"You must have walked downstairs, silly." Eloise scrunched up her nose in light-hearted mockery. "Please don't cover yourself on my account, darling. I think your ruby-tipped globes are quite divine and I could alight my gaze upon them all night." Eloise waited for Julie to drop her hands. When Julie persisted in her modesty, Eloise smiled, shrugged, and opened the book again. "Suit yourself." She flipped a few pages and stopped. "You really are perfect for this house, sweet Julie. You brought me back to this book. I wouldn't say
First Love
started it all, but it did give me ideas about men."
"What are you talking about?" Julie shivered and walked past Eloise to stand by the fire. She felt no added warmth.
"Let me read you a passage." Eloise's green eyes fell to the pages in her lap. "Ah, here we are. This is from the teenage boy's perspective. Remember, darling, he's in love with an older lady." Eloise read:
One day, I was sitting thus on the wall, gazing off into the distance and listening to the chiming of the bells ... when suddenly something ran over me—not a breeze exactly, not a shiver, but something resembling a breath, the consciousness of some one's proximity... I dropped my eyes. Below me, in a light grey gown, with a pink parasol on her shoulder, Zinaída was walking hastily along the road. She saw me, halted, and, pushing up the brim of her straw hat, raised her velvety eyes to mine.
"What are you doing there, on such a height?"—she asked me, with a strange sort of smile.—"There now,"—she went on,—"you are always declaring that you love me—jump down to me here on the road if you really do love me."
Before the words were well out of Zinaída's mouth I had flown down, exactly as though some one had given me a push from behind. The wall was about two fathoms high. I landed on the ground with my feet, but the shock was so violent that I could not retain my balance; I fell, and lost consciousness for a moment. When I came to myself I felt, without opening my eyes, that Zinaída was by my side.—"My dear boy,"—she was saying, as she bent over me—and tender anxiety was audible in her voice—"how couldst thou do that, how couldst thou obey?... I love thee ... rise."
Her breast was heaving beside me, her hands were touching my head, and suddenly—what were my sensations then!—her soft, fresh lips began to cover my whole face with kisses ... they touched my lips... But at this point Zinaída probably divined from the expression of my face that I had already recovered consciousness, although I still did not open my eyes—and swiftly rising to her feet, she said:—"Come, get up, you rogue, you foolish fellow! Why do you lie there in the dust?"—I got up."
Eloise stopped reading and looked up. "There now, do you see?"
"No." Julie shook her head and took a step closer to the seated woman. It seemed the chill in the room emanated off Eloise's pale, freckled skin.