The Guidance (26 page)

I will my erratic heartbeat to calm the hell down. "That's good."

Celia's face is buried in her computer screen; the light blue glow highlights her features. "The whole time you were talking to him, the barometric pressure was slowly dropping, as was the room temperature."

"It's freezing in here," a quiet and removed Stephanie whispers.

"Yeah, I feel it too," Jason adds. I can see chill bumps on his bare arms, and I know that Fair isn't far away.

I steady myself for the next wave of information and interaction. "Major? Nathan?"

Nothing.

I stare down at my feet as a swell of roiling emotion coats me in a cloak of unhappiness. I suppress the urge to cry like a baby, tamp down the hot tears that threaten behind my eyes. "You can't stay here, Major. You have to move on."

Through all of this, Courtney sits perfectly still, staring as the events unfold around her. She's quietly bawling too. Red splotches cover her pretty face, and her eyes are absolutely bloodshot. Her breathing is shallow and staggered. Is this her, or is it Fair? I can't tell anymore.

I am sure about one thing, a fact that stands at the forefront of my thoughts, though who put it there, I don't know. What I do know is that Major Nathan Fair is still stuck around the Crawford manor here on Crow Lane because he took his own life.

He has a century and a half of unfinished business that he must understand before he can be at peace. "You can't keep doing this. You can't stay around anymore. This isn't right for the people who live in this house. It's not fair to torture people because your life fell apart and you killed yourself."

"It wasn't like that," he roars.

I don't back down though. "You've got to move on, Major. Leave. Courtney. Alone."

He appears behind her and strokes her hair. "I can't do that. She invited me in. And she reminds me so much of my Ada. So young. So lost. She needs me."

I tell the team, "He says he's staying with Courtney because she reminds him of Ada."

"That explains a lot," Celia notes.

I take a step in Fair's direction. "I really must insist that you leave Courtney alone. She doesn't want you around anymore. She asked for our help."

"No, she didn't. She's just like Ada. She needs punishing. Ada has to pay for not staying loyal to me and our love. I've been waiting for so long for someone to invite me in." His voice isn't growling now; rather, it's quite melancholy, as if he doesn't actually want to hurt Ada at all.

Loreen must hear him again because she says, "The girl isn't Ada and she no longer wants you around."

Miss Evelyn bursts into the room and hands something to Becca. "I couldn't stand watching what y'all were doing so I went up in the attic to see if there was anything else I could find. This was wedged between two old trunks."

"What is it?" Taylor asks.

"It's another one of Ada's journals," Becca explains.

Celia rushes to Becca. "Let's see." She carefully thumbs through the pages. "This one's from the time after Major Fair left."

The major slides away from Courtney and makes his way to the other side of the room. I follow his every motion while Becca and Taylor speed-read the diary.

Taylor gasps at one particular entry and puts her hand to her throat. "Oh, bless her heart. She was told that Major Fair died on the way to Savannah!"

He growls, "What?"

"Give me a minute," Becca says. She's a horrendously fast reader, so we can get to the bottom of this sooner rather than later.

"I need water," I say to Jason.

"I'm on it."

Ten minutes later, Becca lets out a huge sigh. "Okay, so here's the deal. Ada Parry married James Kenney because he said Fair had wanted it that way if anything happened to him. Kenney told Ada that Fair died, and also intercepted every letter that was sent to her. She was completely miserable in her marriage with him after she found out the truth."

I'm somehow relieved to hear this. To know that the special love that Ada and Nathan shared wasn't just a fleeting thing.

Becca continues. Fair is directly behind her, listening keenly. "She was convinced that Nathan was dead, so life meant nothing to her anymore. After she agreed to marry Kenney, for safety's sake more than anything, she heard him bragging to one of his fellow soldiers one night that he had only married her for her family's land and to 'one-up that bastard Fair.'"

"I'll kill him with my bare hands," Fair snarls.

"Um, he's already dead," I say. "Anything else, Becca?"

"Yeah ... and he ain't gonna like this."

From the expression on his face, she's right. "Go ahead."

"Kenney was the one who signed the order for Fair to be sent to Savannah, away from Ada."

With that, every door in the house slams shut and I hear Fair howl to the rafters.

Glass shatters in the front hallway.

"That's my mother's gilded mirror she bought in New Orleans," Miss Evelyn shouts.

More crashing. This time it's plates falling from the kitchen cabinets. I can see it like I'm in the room watching. Drawers fly open and the chairs are tossed backward.

"Stop it!" Stephanie screams. "You're destroying everything!"

Fair is in my face, so much so that I can almost detect his cold breath on my neck, chilling me to the bone. "Kenney did this! I want my revenge on them both!"

Instinctively, I reach out for him, only to meet vast emptiness. "It's past the time for revenge," I beg.

Father Mass takes two steps toward us. "Vengeance doesn't belong to us, old friend. It belongs to the Lord."

Becca shoves the diary into my hand. "Read it to him."

Without hesitation, I glance down at the page Becca picked out and in desperation read:

"'There is no love in my marriage. I never should have married a man I had no feelings for. It seemed the best thing to do at the time. I had to save the farm. I had to save Father. I had to protect myself, and James had seemed so kind to begin with. My heart bleeds for the joy I felt in Nathan's arms. Why, oh why, was he sent away from me?'"

Fair's wrath ebbs momentarily as he's caught up in Ada's words.

"Then there's another entry.

"'Never a day or a moment goes by when I don't think of what life would be like had Nathan Fair lived and returned to me. I cry myself to sleep every night with this strange man beside me. I weep in the mornings for what could have been. I shy away from all I have known, destined to live a life without warmth and true affection.'

"Don't you see, Major. She loved
you."

"But she married
him
. She believed his lies. She didn't trust in our love. She betrayed me!" Again, his voice roars up to the ceiling, punctuated with acidic anger.

Loreen speaks up. "I've sensed the overwhelming sadness ever since the first time I walked into this house, and now we know what it is, Kendall. No one who lives here will ever truly be happy because of the resentment with which Fair oppresses this building."

My hands shake, not from psychic sensitivity, but from nerves. "What can I do? I'm at a loss."

"We have to get him to leave the girl alone."

An image shifts in my mind's eye, and I see Ada, young and beautiful, calling out to Nathan, her hand extended for him to take. Then it hits me!

"That's it!"

"What?" Celia asks.

I lower my voice so only Loreen and Celia can hear. "The onus is on Courtney. I've got to get through to her, piss her off even, just get her to throw the bum out like the squatter he is."

Celia looks at me like I'm crazy. "Can you do that?"

I say, "I have absolutely no freakin' clue, but I'm sure as hell gonna try!"

I walk over to where Courtney is sitting on the floor, her arms wrapped around her knees as she rocks back and forth. Her tear-streaked face is pale, and her eyelashes are clumped together. I smile at her, hoping she sees me for the friend I'm trying to be. Taking her hand, I squeeze tightly. She grips back.

"Courtney, can you hear me?"

She blinks several times.

"I know I'm not your favorite person, but you've got to listen to me. I want you to push him out with all of your might. Muster up all of your feelings and emotions—and hatred and anger at me, if you need to—and tell this ghost that he's no longer welcome. That you want control of your mind, body, and soul. I'm here to help, but you've got to do it."

She nods slightly, enough of an acknowledgment that I know she's going to try.

Father Mass kneels next to her, mumbling Scripture. Surely that can't hurt.

A moment later, Courtney's face turns scarlet red. She struggles and fights, writhing on the floor. "That's it, Courtney. You're strong. You're a cheerleader. You can do this!"

Father Mass tosses holy water and blesses her. "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I beseech you to leave this child of God and be on your way. Pray with me, Courtney."

She mutters the Lord's Prayer under her breath the best she can with tears still gushing out. She collapses onto the floor, kicking her feet. Jason moves to help her and puts her sweat-covered head in his lap.

A tortured shriek escapes from her chest, as if she's cheering for the most important sports event of her life.
"Leaaaaave meeeeee!"

Taylor, Becca, Celia, and Stephanie stand wide-eyed, locked in place. I too don't move and resist the urge to do anything other than pray.

Courtney's body sags in Jason's arms, and she tries to speak. "I-I-I need a garbage can."

"Quick!" Jason states.

Stephanie grabs a decorative brass pail that sits by the door and hurls it to Jason. Next thing we know, Courtney retches into the bucket, dry heaves that have her sobbing even more. Then, all is quiet.

Loreen holds her hands out. "He's left her."

"You think?"

"Yeah," Courtney whimpers. "He's out of me."

Father Mass dips his thumb into the holy water and makes the sign of the cross on Courtney's forehead while whispering something.

A feeble smile crosses her face. "I'm, like, Southern Baptist. Will that still work on me?"

"God is interdenominational," my priest says.

"Is the soldier gone?" Taylor asks. She looks around the room and then back at her camera. "I don't know if anything will show on the video, but I got every bit of it recorded."

"Good work," Celia and I say in unison.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news. "I don't think he's gone though."

The snicker inside my head that turns to soft weeping confirms that Major Fair is still around. Out of Courtney, but not at peace.

"Nathan? Where are you?"

"Trapped. Destined to be in this purgatory forever."

My heart races in my chest. "Not if you don't want to be. This hell is of your own making because you took your own life."

"The gun backfired."

"But you intended to kill Kenney," I say.

"I'd killed hundreds before. You can't say that's what's keeping me here."

I plead with my eyes to Father Massimo.

"Tell him to pray for God's mercy."

There isn't a need for me to repeat anything because Nathan closes his eyes, and his lips begin to move. Then he falls to his knees with his hands clamped together in front of him.

"God forgive me! Ada, forgive me! I just want to go to heaven and be with her."

My heart surely breaks into millions of tiny pieces over the sincerity in his voice. Will he be rewarded with entry into eternity, where he'll hopefully find Ada?

"Do you see the light?" It's got to be there.

"Not yet..."

But I see a light. Holy crap! What the—

Loreen nudges me. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"That's not what I think it is, is it?" I ask with a tremble in my voice.

"No, it's not
that
light. But it's something loving and ... special."

I can almost hear a host of heavenly angels singing out softly as this light spreads and encompasses Nathan Fair where he's kneeling in prayer. Warmth surrounds me, yet every hair on my body seems as if it's standing on end.

"Taylor, I don't know if you're getting this, but keep that infrared video on that spot right there."

She trains her camera in the right direction and hits Record.

Out of the glowing light, a luminescent figure of a young woman takes shape. She's dressed impeccably in a pale green silk dress with lace and velvet trimming. White gloves adorn her small hands, and a proud hat sits upon a chignon of chestnut brown hair. This woman has her shining eyes on one person only. Major Nathan Fair.

Before I can form any words, Loreen whispers, "It's Ada."

Fair sees her too, and his tears flow even more freely in the face of her beauty.

"But how?" I ask. "She hasn't been haunting this house. She's been at peace."

Loreen's smile is vibrant, and a layer of fresh tears covers her eyes. "There's so much energy here tonight from all of us. Ada was able to break through her higher level to come help her love cross into the light. We've managed to reunite them in death. Now they can be together forever."

"
What
is going on?" Celia begs. "Tell us—this is insane just standing here while y'all can watch everything."

I do my best to narrate, knowing my chosen words will fall short of the miracle before me. It's beyond beautiful. More amazing than anything I've witnessed during my awakening. I watch as Major Fair goes toward Ada. Love radiates from both of them in soft red and pink waves. The two of them have been separated for a lifetime, yet they'll now have peace together forever.

"They're taking each other's hands," I choke out. "It's ... it's ... it's like being at a wedding. The whiteness. The brightness. Ada's so gorgeous. And Fair is smiling so proudly. Like a man in love. Like a man seeing for the first time." My heart's totally going to burst into ten thousand pieces at the emotions clogging my throat and chest.

"There's so much love in this room now," Loreen says. "It was meant to be this way. This ethereal reunion. A forever match."

Fair wraps Ada in his arms and kisses her. They break apart, and he turns to me. He tips his soldier's hat and winks. Ada and Nathan shuffle off into the mist and light, and then disappear.