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She wondered, with a sudden bad feeling, if the man that her mother took from this Janet was even her own father. . . . It was all a matter of dates, but the journal was noticeably lacking that information.
When there was no response, Ravinia pulled the book from her back waistband and held it out flat, watching the pages riffle until they broke to a favorite page. “Want me to read it to you?” Ravinia suggested.
Still no change.
Ravinia regarded her helplessly. She wanted to shock her awake. Yes, her aunt drove her out of her mind, but she needed her to come to. They needed her to come to.
She glanced down at the page in front of her.
C., I can take D. from you. Don’t think I can’t. Be smart about him, or I’ll prove my power to you.
Give him up now, before you make me do something I don’t want to. You can’t keep him. I’ll have him, too. J.’s husband and father.
Ravinia glanced up from the book. A cold, eely shiver slid down her spine as she saw Catherine’s blue eyes staring fixedly at her. “Aunt Catherine?” she asked, her voice wavering a bit.
Catherine’s lips moved. “Mary . . . the body . . . Mary . . . the body . . . Mary . . .”
Ravinia stayed still. She kept her gaze on her aunt, wondering if there was sight behind those glassy orbs, or if she was in some other world. After a long minute, she asked, “What body?”
“From the bones . . .”
One hand reached up, clawlike, and grabbed Ravinia’s arm. It was all Ravinia could do to keep from screaming. Creeped out, she gently pulled Catherine’s hand from hers and asked, “Who?”
“Mary . . . the body . . . on Echo . . .”
Ravinia glanced toward the windows, which faced west, but there was only darkness beyond. “There’s a body on Echo Island?” she asked carefully.
“Mary . . .”
“Who’s Janet? Is she the J. Mary refers to?” Ravinia broke eye contact to look at the passage she’d read from the book, her mind racing. She thought about looking into Catherine’s heart. She’d tried and failed before, but her aunt had never been in such a vulnerable position before, either. Concentrating, she tried to see what kind of person Catherine was, but even now the way was blocked.
Maybe it just meant she was neither bad nor good, Ravinia thought suddenly. That was Catherine in a nutshell.
Reading the two passages over again, Ravinia asked her, “Who’s D.? Was he your lover?”
To her shock, Catherine sat straight up, and Ravinia fell back, nearly tripping over her own feet and dropping the journal. As she
juggled the book and pulled it close, Catherine slowly lay back down.
Ravinia took a step forward. She half expected Catherine’s head to spin around or something. Spooky.
“Miss?”
Ravinia let out a short shriek of fear and whipped around. It was a nurse, silhouetted in the doorway. “What?” Ravinia demanded, collecting herself.
“I was checking to see if she’d woken.” She moved into the room, an older woman with a stern look on her face.
Ravinia glanced back at Catherine, who’d closed her eyes, as if she was faking it.
“No, she hasn’t.”
“Have you noticed any change?” the nurse examined the IV they’d put in Catherine’s arm.
“Well, she did sit up, but she wasn’t really awake.”
“She sat up?”
“Uh-huh.”
