These Haunted Hearts: A Regency Ghost Story Read online

  “I don’t believe in ghosts,” she whispered into the night. “This is all imagination.”

  Beside her, Miles stirred without waking. The eyes above her didn’t waver. The steady scarlet glow was uncomfortable, unwelcome, but still Calista couldn’t look away. Suddenly, in spite of the warmth of Miles’s body, she was deathly cold.

  A whisper came to her ears. Hissing. Caustic. Knowing.

  Accept that you’ll never be enough for him.

  The voice’s cruel assurance sliced through her. Closing her eyes, she insisted again that she didn’t believe in ghosts. She’d never been a fanciful woman. She’d always been hostile to anything she couldn’t measure with her own senses. Scornful of weaker minds that credited influences beyond the here and now.

  She felt neither hostile nor scornful now. She felt scared and alone and defenseless. And helpless to combat the truth of the voice’s poisonous insinuations.

  Let Miles go, Calista. Let him go. He’ll tire of you before long. Perhaps even now he plots how to leave you.

  To escape the taunting voice, she turned her head away, crushing her cheek into the tasseled silk pillow. She desperately wanted to argue, but the voice said everything she’d told herself again and again since she’d fallen in love with Miles. The voice caught her doubts and turned them into excruciating actuality.

  “You’re not real,” she muttered. “You’re not real.”

  The voice didn’t even bother contradicting her agitated denial. Instead Calista heard a laugh replete with such evil that she wanted to run screaming from the room. Except that those glinting red eyes, like living rubies, held her trapped.

  You’ve had your measure of joy. More than you deserve. Give up and leave Miles free to find someone who will make him happy. You want him to be happy, don’t you? He’ll never be happy with you.

  The eyes flickered toward the door without releasing their influence over her. She knew that the voice, the eyes, wanted her to leave the bed now, to leave Miles’s side.

  “No,” she said almost soundlessly, while forces she couldn’t see and didn’t understand tugged at her, compelled compliance. She squeezed her eyes shut, although some preternatural sense knew that the red lights still burned down at her like twin flames of hell.

  You know this happiness won’t last. Don’t let your joy turn to bitterness. Come with me. I’ll give you peace.

  “I’ve found peace.”

  Again, that low, contemptuous laugh. The voice obviously considered her answer completely fatuous. Unfortunately, right now, so did she.

  Still she fought back. When Miles had held her in his arms, she’d felt his love like a living entity. She couldn’t believe he’d been lying when he said he loved her. He’d been so tender, so passionate, so eager to show her pleasure.

  Of course he loved her. He loved her.

  Yes, he loves you now. But for how long?

  “Forever,” she whispered, but both she and the voice knew she lied.

  For long silent minutes, she and whatever malign spirit inhabited this room battled one another. And all the while, doubts scuttled through her mind like cockroaches.

  She resisted until the pull became too strong to withstand.

  Slowly she sat up. Miles’s arm fell away from her. Immediately she felt the absence of his protective embrace.

  Even as what remained of her real self insisted that she still possessed an independent will, she tugged her nightdress over her head. It was almost a relief to give in to the voice’s power. She’d fought her doubts for so long. She found strange but powerful consolation in finally surrendering to them.

  Come. Come with me. You’ll never be sad again. You’ll never have to see love grow old and hopes fade to nothing.

  Now that she cooperated with its demands, the voice was no longer evil. Instead it was sweet. The sweetest sound Calista had ever heard, apart from Miles telling her he loved her.

  Would she ever hear him say those words again?

  Come with me, Calista. Come to a wonderful realm where you’ll never be sad again.

  She could no more ignore the voice’s commands than she could make herself stop loving Miles.

  As she rose from the bed, she heard Miles mutter something, but the ruby eyes prevented her from speaking to him or looking back. Instead she drifted toward the door, already open, although she knew it had been firmly shut when she and Miles lay together.

  The moon floated behind the huge mullioned windows, showing her the way. Brighter than the moon, those two red lights lured her further along the hallway.

  “Calista?” Miles voice behind her was thick with sleep.

  She struggled to answer, but her trance-like state robbed her of speech. She faced toward the door, toward the freedom the voice offered her if only she obeyed.

  “Calista, where are you going?” Through her daze, she registered that he sounded worried, loving. She heard the bed creak as he shifted.

  He doesn’t really love you. You know that.

  The voice no longer taunted. The words only pierced so deeply because they were true. Miles might believe that he loved her now. After what they’d just shared, even she believed that he loved her now.

  But she was too awkward, too plain, too adoring, too clever. Too…Calista Aston for him to love her forever.

  That’s right. That’s right. Better to save yourself a lifetime of pain. You know it’s what you want.

  The voice promised tranquility, an end to the spiteful chatter that tormented her mind. She thought she’d found rest in Miles’s arms, but she’d been deceived. Only the ruby eyes could give her rest. She turned toward the twin red lights almost in relief, ignoring Miles calling after her. His voice seemed to come from far away, although he was mere feet behind her in the bed.

  Purpose gripped her as she headed for the staircase. Her mind kept enough hold on reality to recognize that it was still dark, the middle of the night. But as she followed the dancing lights in front of her, she could see as clearly as at midday.

  Down one flight of stairs. A turn. Across the broad landing with its blue and red Turkey carpet.

  Ahead loomed the polished oak of the grand staircase, winding steeply to the black and white tiles in the hall below.

  The same black and white tiles where seventy years ago they’d found Isabella Verney with her neck broken. A woman betrayed by her lover. That lover had paid with a humiliating execution and an unmarked grave.

  Miles will betray you, too. You know that.

  “He hasn’t betrayed me yet,” she whispered, taking another reluctant step closer to the top of the stairs. Even that much resistance required all her strength. Her feet felt weighted with bricks, but still she couldn’t cease her forward momentum.

  He will. He will.

  “Calista? Calista, what is it? Did I hurt you?”

  As if through a mist, she heard the slap of running feet down the stairs from the upper floor, then rushing toward the landing where she stood. Miles grabbed her arm. After what they’d just done, his touch was heartbreakingly familiar. Something stirred inside her, something beyond the reach of the voice’s allure.

  “Calista, speak to me.” Miles’s bewildered concern penetrated her daze. “Are you sleepwalking?”

  Feeling the Chinese mandarin’s displeasure, she faced Miles, blinking slowly. It was odd. A strong light shone on him, although she couldn’t discern its source. It was a thousand times brighter than the moonlight.

  He looked handsome, ruffled, worried. He’d tugged his breeches on before he chased after her. Her wondering gaze traced his body, as though she saw him for the first time. The powerful, lean torso; the long legs; the elegant bare feet planted on the polished boards of the floor. Even his feet were beautiful.

  All of him was beautiful. Too beautiful for her.

  Yes, too beautiful for you. You’ve always known that, haven’t you?

  Her rational mind shrieked at her that she must question what was happening, assert her will against the forces that ensnared her. But it was easier, almost pleasant to accept the voice’s dictates.

  Without responding to Miles’s questions, she faced the stairs, venturing nearer to the void. The eyes hovered ahead of her now. Chips of burning red, glowing hotter and hotter.

  “Calista!” She heard the genuine panic in Miles’s voice. What on earth had him so worked up? “You’re too close to the edge. Be careful, darling, it’s dangerous.” His hand tightened on her arm and he wrenched her back.

  “No…” she moaned, straining toward the stairs. The one word shattered whatever spell held her mute. She turned to stare at him and said what she’d always believed but never been brave enough to say aloud. “You will stop loving me.”

  Astonishment made him drop his hand and falter back toward the wall. “What bloody nonsense is this?”

  “It’s true.” She spoke almost indifferently. With every inch closer to the stairs, the pain of endless longing receded.

  “After what just happened between us, how dare you say that?” Temper darkened his eyes. “Don’t tell me it’s because you don’t love me. The woman who lay in my arms tonight was aflame with love.”

  An eerie calm had descended upon her soul. She loved that calm almost as much as she loved Miles. She summoned a regretful smile. Didn’t he understand this was for the best? Eventually he’d be grateful that she’d taken this action, the only possible action.

  “Of course I was. I love you. And I know you believe you love me. But it won’t last.”

  “Like hell it won’t.” He sounded angry and confused. “We’re getting married tomorrow. I’ll swear my life to you.”

  “And you’ll regret it.”

  “Rot.”

  He was so brave and honorable. Her heart overflowed with love, love without the bitter tinge that had so often accompanied her recognition of how vulnerable he made her. In a few moments, she’d never be vulnerable again.

  She stared at him steadily. “Goodbye, Miles. I have loved you so dearly.”

  “Damn it, Calista, answer me. Answer me, for God’s sake. What’s happening?” He dashed forward and his grip closed hard and strong around her arm as if confirming he’d never betray her. “This isn’t you. Whatever this is about, we can solve it. Don’t give up on me. You’re a fighter. It’s one of the things I love about you.”

  He kept insisting he loved her. And she knew he wasn’t a liar. A flash of doubt pierced her certainty that no good could come of their marriage.

  The red eyes ahead of her glittered with anger.

  He’s lying. You know what you have to do.

  Of course Miles was lying. She listened to the voice as though to an old friend. The voice knew she couldn’t survive losing Miles’s love.

  “Let me go, Miles,” she said evenly.

  “Never,” he insisted. “I’ll never let you go.”

  For all his determination, he sounded in such despair. Regret lurked beneath her serenity, but not strongly enough to make her pause. If only he understood that she did this for him. “You have to.”

  With a strength she didn’t know she possessed, she managed to tug free of him. She made no conscious effort to move, but suddenly she was several paces away from him, standing beside the carved post at the far corner of the staircase. In the bright, eerie light, she read the denial, the disbelief, the confusion in Miles’s beautiful eyes.

  “Farewell, my beloved,” she whispered and turned inexorably toward the grand staircase.

  Chapter Six

  JOSIAH LURCHED FORWARD to wrench Calista to safety but his grip slid uselessly away. His dead man’s hands could gain no purchase on living flesh.

  Her eyes were dazed as she stared ahead, listening to voices he couldn’t hear. A fusillade of sparking red lights circled angrily around her like darting ruby swallows.

  Some disturbance in the air had drawn Josiah to the landing above the great hall, as though the encroaching evil demanded that he witnessed its latest triumph. He glanced up in despairing frustration and met Isabella’s anguished gaze. She stood just behind Miles and the furious sorrow in her expression scored Josiah’s heart.

  Miles hadn’t moved since Calista had struggled free and teetered toward the lip of the stair. “Calista, look at me.”

  When something in his commanding tone compelled the girl’s attention, the lights burst into a storm of flying vermillion. Jerkily, as though some force resisted her action, she turned to face him. In her loose white nightgown, she looked like she already hovered on the edge of the spirit world.

  “This is for the best. You know it is.” She didn’t sound nearly as tranquil as she had and Josiah read something in her blank blue eyes that looked like terror.

  Miles was pale and a muscle jerked in his lean cheek, but he didn’t shift toward her. Josiah guessed the man recognized that any reckless move would prompt disaster. “Do you love me, my darling?”

  Her face was ashen with sorrow and regret. Her slender throat moved as she swallowed. “I’m doing this because I love you.”

  The mortal participants in this drama were lit as brightly as if they stood on stage at the Theatre Royal. Calista looked torn and distraught. Miles’s jaw set with a stubbornness that indicated he intended to fight whatever forces threatened his beloved—and prevail. His eyes were dark with torment and his hands opened and closed at his sides as though he struggled against grabbing Calista and defying the powers that possessed her.

  “No, you’re not,” Miles said with absolute certainty.

  The girl cast a longing glance down the stairs but, thank God, didn’t move. “All right, I’m doing this because you don’t love me.”

  “You know that’s not true. You’re doing this because you don’t trust me.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Then you’re doing this because you don’t trust yourself.”

  “Why wouldn’t I trust myself?” she asked with a hint of irritation.

  “Because you never have. You don’t think you’re worthy of my love.”

  She licked lips reddened with kisses, or Josiah was no judge of women. “I’m not.”

  “Yes, you are. I’ll spend the rest of my life proving how remarkable you are, if only you’ll give me the chance.” Miles paused and Josiah could see that he frantically scrambled for words to convince Calista to stay with him, to resist the baleful presence that hunted her.

  Miles stared straight at her and his voice rang out. “Come to me, my darling. Break away from whatever holds you and come to me.”

  She faltered toward him before she stopped, trembling. “I…I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can.”

  “I’m not free.”

  “You’ll be free if you trust me.”

  He sounded so sure. Josiah wondered how he could be so sure. For one piercing moment, he envied Miles. Much as he’d adored Isabella, he’d never been so certain of her, even when she’d pledged her life to him.

  After a fraught instant of silence, Miles chanced a step in Calista’s direction.

  He was too eager. She jerked back. For one horrifying moment, she teetered on the top of the stair. She cried out and grabbed the banister, but it was a near thing.

  Josiah released the breath he hadn’t realized he held. Dear God, tonight mustn’t end in tragedy, as his own wedding seventy years ago had ended in tragedy. Yet he could do nothing to prevent calamity. He was cursed to be merely an observer. Frustration was a rusty taste in his mouth. Glancing at Isabella’s stricken expression, he could see that she too chafed under her inability to intervene.

  “Trust yourself. Trust me. Trust our love.” Miles’s voice cracked with emotion. “For God’s sake, Calista, don’t throw away what we have because you’re frightened.”

  “Trust myself—”

  The girl hovered on the step. Josiah poised in sick dread for her to lean a few inches backward and topple to her death. The red lights performed a stately minuet around her, as though celebrating a victory already won.

  “Yes, trust yourself.” Miles’s voice lowered to vibrating intensity and his gaze burned into Calista’s as if sheer force of will could convince her to return to him. “I love you. If you destroy yourself, you destroy me too.”

  For a moment, Josiah thought she hadn’t heard him. He braced for her to fall. Hope and wretchedness warred in her eyes before at last, she ventured one shaky step toward Miles.

  Again she wavered in trembling indecision. The red lights blazed in a frenzy around her.

  Whatever held her was strong, it was malevolent, and it wanted her dead.

  For an endless moment, red fire meshed the girl, threatened to immolate her. Calista moved no closer to Miles and with her surrender to its promptings, the red light grew so bright that it hurt Josiah’s eyes.

  “For God’s sake, Calista, run!” Josiah shouted at her, but she didn’t hear. The glaze in her eyes hinted she couldn’t even see Miles anymore.

  “They can’t hear you,” Isabella said, her voice shaking with grief and horror.

  “Don’t leave me,” Miles whispered, reaching out without touching Calista. Surely it was too late. The red lights’ power seemed too strong for frail flesh and blood to vanquish.

  Still Calista didn’t move. The girl’s eyes were stark with longing and doubt and fear. Her gaze didn’t waver from where Miles stood, but heaven knew what she saw.

  Josiah’s belly knotted with anguish. And how must Isabella feel, witnessing events that so closely mirrored her own death? And yet again on a wedding day.

  Don’t let this lovely girl die.

  Calista didn’t move or speak. For a long moment, Josiah thought that the evil had won. Bleak hopelessness chilled him. Love was strong. But not as strong as the powers of darkness. Hadn’t he already learned that from his own fate?

  Then he watched Calista suck in a deep breath. Purpose, courage, life flooded her features. Slowly she straightened and raised her chin with fresh defiance.

  “I trust you, Miles.” Her voice emerged with steady confidence. “I trust you and I love you and I want to be your wife.”

  The red lights ruptured into a blinding cascade of flame, silhouetting her in scarlet, but this time Calista proved herself immune to their lures. She smiled at Miles with the radiance Josiah had noticed the first time he saw her. She wasn’t beautiful, but when she smiled, she seemed beautiful.