She did not reply. I went toward her and gently clasped her shoulder until at last she shook her head and turned to me.
“I thought someone was following me again.”
“Again?”
“It happened twice last week, and two days ago there was someone watching our window.”
“Where?”
“Below, pacing there and looking up. I thought it might be him again, following me.”
“What does this person look like?”
“I don’t know. I thought I caught a glimpse of a man in a blue overcoat, but I couldn’t get a good look at his face. And there have been other things, Betty.”
“What things?”
“Lights in the trees. Hovering there,” she said, her hand brushing the curtain gently.
“It might be fox fire. Mushrooms can glow as bright as jewels in the dark.”
“Hovering, Betty. Up in the trees.”
“An owl, perhaps? With moonlight reflecting on its plumage? Or else it’s a will-o’-the-wisp. I read an explanation about that phenomenon in a book.”
“No. It’s not natural.”
I looked out, in the same direction she was staring, toward the path that cut through Briar’s Commons. Suddenly Ginny gripped the curtain tight with one hand. There was a figure coming down the road. We held our breath.
Two, three more people dashed down the path and toward Joyce House. We quickly saw that these were three fellow students, laughing merrily and carrying their books in their arms. Ginny closed the curtains and sat on her bed, looking weary.
I kept on packing and shortly afterward we turned off the lights and went to sleep. Ginny woke me up early the next morning.
“Betty, come quick,” she said.
Edgar was not supposed to stop by until noon and Mary Ann Mason wouldn’t be driving us to Gloucester until at least one o’clock, so we didn’t have to rise early, but it must have been scarcely past six in the morning when I opened my groggy eyes.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Get dressed, we need to head outside. Quick.”
I stuffed my feet into a pair of boots, found my gray woolen dress, and pulled my coat over my shoulders as fast as I could. Werushed outside Joyce House. Ginny took me by the hand and excitedly pointed to the ground.
“See? Footprints! Someone was standing outside here yesterday and looking at our window.”
I leaned down and looked at the snow. The imprints of shoes had been preserved, but all I could tell by the size of them was that these had probably belonged to a man. It didn’t mean anyone had been looking up or pacing under our window. It could have been one of the other girls’ boyfriends or any number of other people.
“Someone is following me. This is the proof.”
The expression on my face must have revealed my skepticism.
“Betty, it’s proof. See?” she insisted. “Footprints.”
“It’s the outline of someone’s shoe.”
Her eyes shone bright and large and wounded. Ginny stomped back into the house. I followed with a sigh. By the time I reached our room, Ginny had bundled herself under her blankets. I did the same, hoping to catch a couple more hours of sleep.
I did manage to sleep a little more and then went about my morning routine. I showered, dressed, had a quick breakfast. I chanced upon Carolyn and her father in the parlor.
