* * *
GRACE WOKE FROM a sound sleep to a blinding flash of lightning that seemed only inches from her window. An earsplitting crash of thunder followed. She shivered and pulled the quilt up to her chin, not that she expected to go back to sleep with a thunderstorm raging.
She reached for her phone to check the time. Ten past three. Lightning struck again and the accompanying thunder was so loud it rattled the windows.
Esther was at the other end of the long hall. The storm had surely woken her, too. Better go check on her, since that was why Grace was there. If nothing else, she could get her a fresh ice pack.
She flicked on the lamp, shoved her feet into her slippers and pulled on her pink fleece robe, glad she’d remembered to grab it when she’d packed so hurriedly.
Grace was already in the hallway when she remembered the horrid wig she’d been wearing when she’d arrived.
If she’d had any idea she’d be staying in someone else’s home even for a night, she would have made another choice. Perhaps a freaky dye job and a short, spiky haircut. She could have gone goth. She still might when she left the Double K Ranch.
Rain began to pelt the windowpanes. Grace grabbed the wig from the top of the antique dresser and pulled it low on her head. She adjusted and readjusted until she was certain none of her own brown locks escaped the wig.
Reminding herself she was Grace Addison, she tiptoed to Esther’s bedroom. Her door was ajar. Esther’s whistling snores overrode the sounds of the torrential rain. Perhaps that was why the storm hadn’t awoken her.
The temperature in the house was several degrees cooler than it had been when Grace had gone to bed and she could feel a chilly draft in the hallway. She’d made certain the front and back doors were closed and locked, but the draft had to be coming in somewhere.
She followed the chill to the family room and turned on the overhead light. It took only a few seconds to discover the problem. A window behind the sofa was open a crack and the wind and rain were blowing in.
Grace closed and locked the window, then went to the bathroom to get a towel to wipe up the water.
Another bolt of lightning hit, this one cutting a path straight downward as if the house itself were the target. Thunder roared. The light blinked twice and then went out.
A suffocating sensation sucked the air from Grace’s lungs as pitch-blackness closed in around her.
It had been storming like this the night this had all started. Almost six years ago. A night of terror that refused to let her go. The memories crawled from beneath the darkest recesses of her mind and she was back there again.
Lying alone in the king-size bed, silk sheets skimming her naked body. Surrounded by opulence. Drowning in suspicions she could no longer deny.
Her dreams died that night and the never-ending nightmare began.
Grace made her way back to the bedroom in the dark and climbed beneath the covers. The storm still raged on outside, but the real upheaval was inside her soul.
* * *
“LAND O’ GOSHEN, you’re just as busy as a buzz saw in a pine knot, Grace. I swear you haven’t stopped working since you woke up.”
“I haven’t actually accomplished that much.”
“Cooked my breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen, ran the vacuum cleaner, washed and dried sheets and towels, straightened my little nest here on the sofa and waited on me like I was the Queen of England. I’d say that’s a powerful lot.”
“I like to stay busy, and I have to earn my keep. After all, you did provide me a port in the storm last night.”
“It was you who did me the favor. I’m not afraid to admit that ankle had me worried. I was afraid something was broken. I sure didn’t need that.”
“I’m glad it’s better this morning, but you shouldn’t overdo it. It would be helpful if you had a walker or at least a cane you could use for support.”
“You know, I think Charlie’s cane might still be in the closet of one of those spare bedrooms. He bought it after he had his right knee replaced a couple of years back.”
“I’ll take a look before I leave and see if I can find it. Right now, it’s time for you to have a fresh ice pack on the ankle again. Are you ready?”
“How long do we have to keep doing that?”
“At least another twenty-four hours. You want to avoid as much swelling as possible.”
“Good thing I like purple,” Esther said. “Looks like I might get about ten shades of it when those bruises burst into full bloom.”
“That you may.”
Grace went for the ice pack and adjusted it on Esther’s ankle.
“I hope you don’t think I’m taking advantage of you,” Esther said.
“I’d never think that. I’m going to check and see if I can find that cane, and then I need to get back on the road. Is there anything else I can do for you before I go?”
“Well, there is one favor that would mean a lot to me. Not exactly a favor, ’cause I’ll pay you what I can.”
“What is it?”
Esther sucked in her bottom lip and put her palms to her cheeks as if she were afraid to say what was on her mind.
“Just ask me,” Grace encouraged. “I don’t promise I can say yes, but I won’t be upset with you for asking.”
“I was thinking maybe I could get you to stay with me a week or so—perhaps through Christmas. This whole holiday thing is about to get me down. Every time I think about it, I start crying.”
Esther’s eyes grew moist and a lone tear escaped and rolled down her right cheek.
Grace’s heart warmed, melting her good sense with it. “Is this your first Christmas without Charlie?”
Esther nodded “He’s been dead three months. I figured I could ignore the holiday, but Charlie loved Christmas. He’d hate to see me doing without a tree and decorations. I can’t really ignore Christmas anyway. People send cards, and every time I turn on the TV or the radio, they’re talking about the holidays.
“Can’t even go to the grocery market in Winding Creek without seeing the garlands and stars hanging from the streetlights. I always loved Christmas, but it won’t be the same without Charlie.”
“Don’t you have any family you could stay with?” Grace asked.
“No, Charlie and I never had kids. We wanted ’em. It just never worked out for us to have them. Closest thing to family we had were the Lawrence boys. They lived with us for ten months a few years back. My, did we love those boys. But they’re all grown up now, scattered around the world and busy with their own lives. Sure would be nice if you could stay through Christmas.”
Grace hated to turn down such a simple request when she had nowhere to go. But staying there meant continuously lying to a woman who trusted her. And there was always a chance it could put Esther in danger.
But if Grace didn’t leave the ranch, how could anyone know she was there? On the surface it seemed a great place to go unnoticed.
“If you can’t do it, I understand,” Esther said. “It was just a thought.”
“Not a bad thought,” Grace admitted.
Not that she was ever in the best of moods at Christmas herself. She usually spent the holiday in pajamas, watching old Christmas movies and crying.
“I can’t promise I can stay through Christmas,” Grace said. She could never make promises.