Ghosts of Winter (41 page)

“Is this some sort of new kinky game?” I asked, giggling.

“No, but we can try it later if you want. For now, just reach out and open the door. We’re going out and down the steps, and I don’t want you peeking.” I did as she said, and we went out into the warmth of the early summer sunshine. The stone of the steps was warmer than the tiling of the hallway floor beneath my bare feet. Anna guided me down some of the steps, turned me slightly, and then we stopped. “Are you ready?” she asked.

“More than ready,” I replied. She removed her hands from my eyes, and I opened them to come face to face with a statue, in smooth white marble. A woman, with a classically beautiful face and flowing hair, bare breasted, her remaining modesty protected by a cloth she held to her stony body. She appeared to be looking—with a most provocative expression—straight at me. Then I comprehended she wasn’t looking at me, but rather straight through me. At someone behind me. I took a step back and saw how her gaze connected perfectly with Phoebe’s, on her opposite plinth. Phoebe no longer stared wistfully at an empty space, but lovingly at her own carved goddess.

I smiled broadly and threw my arms around Anna, holding her tight to me. “Thank you so much. She’s perfect. And only you would think of it. You found Phoebe a girlfriend!”

“Well, you see,” Anna said quite seriously, “Phoebe and I had a chat, and she told me she looked so sad because she’s never found the right person. She wasn’t much impressed by the fine Greek gentleman she had to stare at for so many years, and she was secretly quite pleased when he, well, fell off his pedestal. I suggested she might prefer some female company, and she was very enthusiastic about it, I must say.”

I considered Phoebe’s expression. “She looks happier, don’t you think? I thought she was missing her true love, but it turns out she’d just not found her yet.”

“Definitely happier. Funny how things turn out, don’t you think?”

“What’s her name?” I asked.

“She’s modelled on Aphrodite.”

“The goddess of love?”

“That’s the one.”

“Lucky Phoebe. I guess we have a lot to live up to.”

“I don’t think it will be a problem.” She grinned seductively.

I took Anna’s hand, and we walked back up the steps into the house, leaving Phoebe to enjoy her new view. “It might not be finished yet,” I said, “but Winter feels complete somehow, don’t you think?” We entered the hallway. “Finding Phoebe a girlfriend is just the icing on the cake.”

“It did feel like there was something missing,” Anna said, “though I wouldn’t have known how to describe it.”

“Just like the place wasn’t quite at rest—but not really alive either—half stuck in the past but existing in the present. Almost like a ghost of a building.”

“You’re right,” Anna said. “It was in limbo. It doesn’t feel like that anymore. You’ve brought it back to life.”

“No,” I said, “we have.” I wrapped my arms around her, pulled her warm body close to mine, and let my lips melt into her kiss. “Do you think we’ll haunt this place one day?”

“If being here’s always this good, I can’t imagine something small like death stopping me from staying,” she replied.

“I love you, Anna,” I said softly. Her kiss was her eloquent reply.

Rebecca S. Buck has lived in Nottingham, England most of her life. Keen on the academic study of both history and literature, since graduating from the University of Nottingham in 2004, she has been contemplating just what she is going to study next. She is fascinated by the relationship between literature and culture and the importance of fiction for representing the human experience. This is partly what inspires her to write. Writing fiction is also her outlet for an overactive imagination and a propensity for spending far too much time absorbed in her own thoughts.

When she’s not writing, Rebecca is usually to be found reading (any book anyone recommends to her) or listening to music (the louder the better). She also loves to travel, especially to the beautiful cities of Europe and has, since 2005, spent much of her time in Slovenia in central Europe, where she worked as a private tutor at the same time as trying to renovate two houses. Now back in the UK full time, Rebecca is working hard on her next novel and several short stories, as well as trying to settle on which career appeals to her most.

Find out more at www.rebeccasbuck.com.

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