House of Shadows Read online

  House of Shadows

  The House of Bannerman, book 2

  written by Melissa R. L. Simonin

  © 2014

  House of Shadows

  The House of Bannerman, book 2

  Written by Melissa R. L. Simonin

  Copyright © 2014 by Melissa R. L. Simonin

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in whole or in part in any manner or in any form without the written permission of the author.

  Dedicated to…

  Mom, for her continued support and encouragement, and the many hours she spends proof-reading and giving input. Also dedicated to my sister and proof-reader Becky Clements, and to my good friends and proof-readers Paula Pavletich and Melissa Schumer.

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  “Anika!”

  I heard Jenny calling, and looked around. She was on the other side of Cedar Oak’s Main Street, waving, sunlight glinting off her beautiful red curls. Her blue eyes were filled with curiosity. I didn’t have to ask, to know why.

  I needed to tell her about Miles sometime, I thought, as I smiled and waved back with the hand that wasn’t holding his. That time might as well be now. It would be good practice, anyway, since tomorrow we planned to drive to Glen Haven, so he could meet my parents. My heart fluttered at the thought.

  “That’s my friend Jenny. I want to introduce you,” I told Miles.

  “Let’s go then,” he replied, his smile lighting his hazel eyes. I smiled back.

  As we crossed the road, I admired the colorful spring flowers that overflowed the planters lining the rustic board sidewalks of historically accurate Main Street.

  “Hi Jenny,” I said, as she hugged me. “This is Miles. Miles, this is my friend Jenny.”

  “It’s great to meet you,” he smiled.

  “Hi, Miles,” said Jenny. “You probably don’t remember me, it’s been so long ago, but we went to school together.”

  Miles looked as though he was concentrating hard, as he ran a hand through his dark blond hair.

  “I’m sorry, Jenny. Ever since the accident, there’s a lot I can’t recall. It’s just—not there.”

  It’s not there, because he never had those memories to begin with.

  “Oh, don’t worry about it,” said Jenny. “We didn’t really know each other very well, anyway.”

  Miles’ cell phone rang, and he looked at the screen.

  “I’m sorry ladies, I need to answer this. It’s my accountant.”

  “No problem, we’ll be over here talking,” I said, as Jenny and I moved a short distance away, so our conversation wouldn’t interfere with his.

  Jenny grabbed me by the arm.

  “When exactly did you start dating Miles Bannerman?” she exclaimed.

  I thought quick. I would have to get used to that, editing parts of our relationship and cutting and pasting in others, to create answers that fit what people around us thought was true.

  “The minute he woke up, Polly started trying to fix us up. Miles saw the news program I was on, and since I solved the family mystery and found the missing heirloom jewels, he wanted to meet me, too.”

  “I remember you telling me that before,” said Jenny. “But the last time we talked, you really did not want to meet him.”

  Yeah, because I didn’t know he was my Miles. I thought he was someone else.

  “Polly nearly drove me distracted with her persistence, but once I met Miles, we just clicked. I never expected that to happen. I feel like I’ve known him forever. It’s sudden, but we’re dating now, and it feels very right.”

  “Wow.” Jenny had to process all of that. “When you called me last month, I thought the best friend you lost was a boyfriend, or close to it. I thought he died, you were so depressed.”

  Miles wasn’t my boyfriend then, but I did think he was dead, and I was most definitely depressed.

  “It took a miracle to recover from that loss, but everything’s good now.”

  “Good, I’m glad,” Jenny said. “I was more worried about you, every time I saw you. You were getting so thin, and it was as if the light had gone out of your eyes.”

  “It had,” I said honestly. “I was so depressed. I appreciate what a good friend you’ve been, checking on me often, and making me get out of the house. If it wasn’t for you, I might not have bothered to eat at all.”

  “You’d do the same for me, I know,” said Jenny sympathetically. “But look at you now, you look great! You look happy. Still awfully thin, but you don’t look starved, like last time I saw you.”

  “Thanks, I feel great, and I’m very happy.”

  “Maybe you haven’t known him long, but it’s easy to see that Miles is good for you,” said Jenny.

  “He wants to meet my Mom and Dad tomorrow,” I grinned.

  “Oh my,” Jenny said, her blue eyes widening. They widened even more as I brushed the side swept bangs away from my face, and behind my left ear.

  “Oh, my,” she said again.

  I felt of my ears, and glanced at my reflection in the shop window behind Jenny.

  My brown eyes shone with happiness, and my diamond earrings shimmered with rainbows of light on each side of my heart shaped face. I brushed aside my shoulder length hair, as I looked back at her.

  “Miles gave them to me this morning. Wasn’t that sweet of him?” I smiled.

  “I’ll say it was!” Jenny exclaimed. “Those are amazing. He wants to meet your parents, and he’s giving you diamonds… it sounds serious!”

  “It’s serious, alright. Very,” I smiled, happier than I’d ever been in my life, at the thought.

  “Well I’m amazed, and I admit confused, but mostly I’m so glad you’re doing well,” Jenny declared. “I leave for Camp on Friday, and I was worried about leaving you alone all summer, as depressed as you’ve been.”

  “You’re a good friend, Jenny,” I said appreciatively. “But you don’t have to worry about me, anymore. Miles is very good to me, and I’ll be just fine. I’m all better.”

  “Sorry about that,” Miles said, as he ended his call and rejoined us.

  “It’s fine,” I smiled, as Miles took my hand.

  “I’ll let you two get on with your day,” Jenny said, with another wide-eyed look at me. “I’m on my way to meet Mom, but wanted to say hi. It was good meeting you, Miles.”

  “It was great meeting you, Jenny,” Miles replied.

  Jenny hugged me again, and whispered “call me!” then Miles and I continued on our walk.

  “So that was Jenny,” I said.

  “I gathered that,” Miles said, catching my hand in his, before I could swat at his arm. “How did she take the news?”

  “Really well. She was the only one who had any idea how much I grieved after you were gone, so I’m sure she wonders how I bounced back so suddenly. But she accepted what I said. You and Mom were both right about her. After you left, we became really good friends.”

  “That’s great,” Miles smiled.

  “It’s going to be more complicated when it comes to family…
they’re going to think we’re moving awfully fast, and be concerned,” I pointed out.

  “We’ll have to do our best to be sensitive to that, and go slowly enough that we don’t worry the people who love us,” Miles said.

  “I do hate having to be dishonest with people.”

  “I agree,” Miles said seriously. “I don’t like it one bit. Especially with Grandma Polly. At first, when I suddenly found myself in the hospital and then right after I woke up from surgery, I was too confused and in too much pain to know much of anything, other than how much I missed and wanted you.”

  That must have been so hard. I put my arm around Miles and squeezed. If only I knew, nothing could have stopped me from going to him.

  “When I was wheeled out of recovery, a detective was waiting to talk to me. He knew I was awake and coherent, because the hospital called and told him. That’s why he was there, hoping I could tell him what happened. I had such a strong memory of Alfred trying to murder Polly’s grandson, so I told the detective what I remembered. Then Grandma Polly was there… she believed I was her grandson, and she was so happy. I didn’t know what else to do, but go along.”

  “What else could you do?” I asked. “Tell them you’re Miles Bannerman, just not the Miles Bannerman they think you are? No one would believe it… I can’t imagine you’d be here now, if you told anyone the truth.”

  “That’s the conclusion I came to. Grandma Polly was so happy, too. I couldn’t stand to let her down. She’d grieve my loss of sanity, if nothing else.”

  “I understand, Miles. I do.”

  “Now and then I think about what you said once… actions are either right or wrong, all on their own. Right and wrong is not determined by the result.”

  “Alright, fine,” I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t the first time he made me regret saying that. “Then look at it this way. The action, is to keep Polly from devastating grief, and to put Alfred Sullivan in prison for attempted murder, and to be with me—which I think is pretty important! The result, is that we don’t correct people in what they believe to be true.”

  Miles thought about that.

  “You’re very creative, you know that? You’ve certainly twisted logic to reach that conclusion.”

  I laughed, and so did he.

  After lunch, we drove to Glen Haven to see a movie.

  Like so many other things, it was a first for Miles. I don’t mean he never saw a movie before, of course he had. We watched a lot of them together, when he was semi-transparent. But not in a theater. It was a new experience for him, as were many other things that the rest of us took for granted. There was so much that he knew about, but never had the opportunity to experience for himself. Until now.

  I watched him as he sat there beside me in the theater, while we waited for the movie to begin. No one would guess he wasn’t born the same year I was. He was completely relaxed, as if he did this hundreds of times before. If he wasn’t so smart, and if he didn’t spend his time keeping up with technology, current events, and the way society changed over the past one-hundred and forty-four years, he would be totally overwhelmed. To say he was amazing, was an understatement.

  We stayed in Glen Haven and had dinner, then headed back to the House of Bannerman estate, Miles’ family home. Built in the 1700’s, it resembled an English castle. It was beautiful in the darkness, the windows lit, and the towers rising above the trees, with the star-filled night sky as their backdrop.

  “Feel like taking a walk in the garden?” Miles asked, as he opened the vehicle door for me, and gave me a hand as I stepped out.

  “Okay, but can you handle it?” I asked, looking at Miles’ knee brace. “We’ve done so much walking today, already.”

  “It’s fine. I’m supposed to use it, that’s part of physical therapy. Standing still for long periods of time is tiring, but a walk is nothing. You should see what they put me through in my PT sessions.”

  “I can imagine,” I said, admiring the most gorgeous guy in the whole world. “You look like you worked out the whole time you were gone.”

  “I just about did,” Miles said. “I wanted to be able to walk again, for one thing, but I also wanted to get back to you. The fastest way to accomplish that was to do everything I was told to, and reach the point that they’d approve releasing me from the hospital.”

  “I’m so glad they finally let you go.”

  “Me too,” Miles said, holding my hand as we walked toward the garden. “It was such a relief to find out you didn’t move on, like I kept telling you to do.”

  “There was no risk of that,” I said, as we followed one of the paths that meandered through the rose garden. “You have my heart. I couldn’t move on without it. Without you, the best I could ever do, is live in my own halfway-existence.”

  Miles tucked my arm in his.

  “Then more than ever, I’m so glad to be here. I want better for you than that. I didn’t want you to know how I felt about you, because I was afraid that would happen.”

  I leaned against his shoulder.

  “My feelings were just as strong before I insisted you say the words, as they were after. And it all worked out.”

  Miles smiled.

  “Thanks to a miracle.”

  A soft breeze rustled the leaves, and crickets chirped nearby. The bubbling of the fountain sounded in the distance.

  “It’s beautiful here at night,” I said, looking up at the softly glowing moon in the velvety, diamond flecked sky above the oak trees and pines encircling the grounds of the estate. The breeze blew more forcefully, raising chill bumps on my arms, and I shivered.

  “Beautiful, and a little cool for walking without a jacket,” Miles said, wrapping his arm around me. “Which reminds me, before we go in for the night and forget, let’s unload the vehicle.”

  In between lunch, watching a movie and dinner, Miles and I both did some shopping at the mall. He practically needed a whole new wardrobe, and I was glad to have a chance to update my own, now that I had a scholarship, and no longer needed to save every penny.

  We unloaded my purchases, and Miles set them inside the door of the guest house for me.

  “Thank you for the best first date ever,” I said, as we stood on the doorstep, the scent of the roses in the garden filling the night air. “And, for the earrings. I love them.”

  “You’re welcome,” Miles smiled. “And thank you for the best first date ever.”

  “If I haven’t mentioned it today, I am so glad you’re here,” I said. “And I’m sorry for sleeping the whole day away, yesterday. I never would have imagined that’s what I’d do if I ever saw you again. I didn’t sleep at all, the night before… or any night that you were gone, really. I’m sure that’s why. You must have been bored to death, though.”

  “I wasn’t. I watched the movie we started right before you fell asleep, read for a while, and told a very frustrated Grandma Polly that I refused to wake you up, even if it was lunch time, because you needed rest as much as anything else. I didn’t mind one bit being your pillow, I was just so glad to be with you. I’ve had more time than you to realize all of this is real, but it still overwhelms me sometimes, how blessed I am to have my life re-start. Then to have you feel the same way toward me, as I do you… it’s worth spending the last one-hundred and forty-four years alone. I’d willingly do it all again, just to be here with you now.”

  “That—is the sweetest thing you could possibly say to me,” I said, deeply touched.

  “I love you,” Miles replied, as I put my arms around his neck, and he hugged me.

  “I love you too,” I sighed happily.

  “What are your plans between now, and when college starts in the fall?” he wondered.

  “Well, hm. I’m not sure. With you and Polly both living here now, I don’t suppose you need an estate manager anymore,” I realized.

  “I do need you, so don’t go anywhere,” Miles said, with one of those intense melting looks he was so good at.

  “Do y
ou have any idea what you do to me when you look at me that way?” I asked, my knees suddenly weak.

  “Is it anything like what you do to me, when I look into your eyes?” asked Miles, gently brushing my bangs away from my face.

  “If it is, we need to sit down before our knees give out,” I said.

  Miles laughed softly, then kissed me, as everything else melted away.

  “I am so glad you’re back,” I said a few moments later, breathing in the scent of his aftershave, as I hugged him hard. “All the way back.”

  “Me too. I’m so thankful to be here with you,” he replied.

  “Don’t ever leave me again,” I said, looking into those melting hazel eyes of his.

  “I won’t,” Miles said softly, as I kissed him.

  I heard a scratching sound, and we both looked down. Trixie, Miles’ faithful golden retriever, sat beside us with her paw on Miles’ knee, giving him a pointed look. Chip, my chocolate Lab, sat beside her.

  There was laughter in Miles’ eyes, as he looked back at me.

  “Trix says it’s time for me to say goodnight,” he informed me. “She says leave now, and see you again tomorrow.”

  “What, are you our chaperone?” I laughed, leaning down to ruffle her fur, which she loved, as Miles gave Chip a belly rub. “I meant I don’t ever want Miles to leave me again, like he did before, when I thought I’d never see him again.”

  Trixie gave me a look, not quite as pointed, but I had no idea what she was saying since I hadn’t lived with her for over a hundred and forty years.

  “What is she saying?” I asked Miles.

  “She said she likes you, and it’s after midnight, and time to say goodnight. I can come back in the morning.”

  I laughed and ruffled her fur some more, then stood.

  “I like you too, Trixie, and you’re right. It is late. You be sure and bring him back in the morning though, okay?”

  Trixie looked at me solemnly and nodded, and I hugged her instead of laughing.

  I kissed Miles goodnight, under Trixie’s watchful eye. Chip and I went inside the guest house, and Miles and Trixie made their way back to the castle.