Free Ever After by Odessa Gillespie Black

pencil. The rest on the left side of that hall showed the progression of her age until 1999.On the other side of the wall staring across at her were countless paintings of people wearing clothing from the 1800s until now. All their faces were emotionless, so there wasn’t much I could learn there.
    The golden double doors of the ballroom were closed. The day before, Thomas had shown them to me but hadn’t opened them. The only activity they’d had in years was the apparent party the family had thrown that night.
    The hardwood floors shined, and the brass chandelier sparkled, but the musty heaviness in the air might never go away. Fastened to the wall between floor-length mirrors, candelabra’s of the same brass hung unlit.
    I opened the grand piano and let my fingers trail over the keys. How long ago had stringed instruments played against a backdrop of gay laughter? I closed the piano with a nostalgic sigh. Oh, to have lived in those times.
    Pulling the door shut, I went to search out Cole. Even in the summer heat, I shivered as I walked the long picture-filled hallway. Welcoming the warm summer heat and the noise of the worker’s activity outside, I hurried from the patio. Past the rose maze. Toward the barns. A worker carrying a box passed me.
    “Excuse me. Do you happen to know where I might find Cole Kinsley?” I said.
    Without a word or smile, the worker pointed toward the field and hurried on.
    They hated me too.
    In the distance, a tractor headed toward a waiting group of cows. On its front, two prongs stabbed into a round bale of hay. The crowd of cows followed the tractor like ducks. When the tractor dropped the hay, the cows huddled around it.
    I gave Cole a half-hearted wave.
    He returned a snarl of acknowledgement.
    Cole parked the tractor and rounded the corner of the barn in long, swift strides. He wiped his hands on a white towel and slung it over the rung of a ladder propped against the barn wall.
    I took a deep breath, preparing myself for his foul attitude.
    “The electrical is out in the catacombs, so we’ll walk around the immediate landmarks. Probably best to start at the nature trails.” Cole walked ahead of me. His pace kept me in an almost run as we made our way past the barn toward the woods.
    “Maybe I want to start with the catacombs.” I smiled sweetly.
    “Figures.”
    “You should really lighten up. You’re gonna stroke out. So, seriously, I’ve never seen an underground tunnel. Can’t we use flashlights?” I asked in a syrupy voice.
    “I wouldn’t have said anything last night if I’d known you’d actually want to go down there, but if you insist.” We turned around, and he increased his pace. “I mean, they are just dark holes burrowed into the earth, with God only knows what crawling around in it.”
    Funny. It hadn’t taken much for him to give in to me.
    He walked toward the newly wood-sealed doors of the barn. He probably sealed them before they ever saw their first sign of weathering. Everything in the barn was in pristine condition, organized by shape, size, and type.
    “I’ll show you the entrance as long as you promise me something.” Cole turned, and he settled a serious and infuriatingly sexy gaze on me.
    What had he just said?
    “Uncloud your ditzy head and listen to me. Repeating myself is about as enjoyable as having you under my feet at every step. Now, don’t go into the tunnels without me. They can be confusing, and if you get lost, it could take a day or more to find you. I don’t feel like trekking through them for hours because you won’t follow sane advice.” Cole turned back to a stack of drawers near the door and grabbed out only one long, silver flashlight and dropped it in a loop in his jeans. When he turned back, he slammed into me.
    “You’re worse than a puppy.” He held my arms to steady me. For a second, we stayed. His hands on my arms, my gaze and his tethered. Cole dropped my arms and walked around me.
    One flashlight.