Free Hallow House - Part Two by Jane Toombs Page B

other day," Samara told him. "Doesn't she like it here?"
     
    "She likes Mr. Gregory," Sal said. "And Irma and the others she works with."
     
    "Who doesn't she like?" Samara asked, hoping he wasn't about to tell her something about Mark that she didn't want to hear.
     
    "Rosita thinks there's something strange going on at the house and she doesn't want to get mixed up in it. She needs the job, she's saving money to go to nursing school."
     
    "Something strange?" Samara echoed.
     
    "Apparently she was cleaning up on the third floor--you know where the towers are--and she saw Mark Schroeder coming out of a room she says he shouldn't have been in. I wasn't sure exactly what she meant. And then he gave her money not to tell anyone. Now she's upset that she took the money."
     
    Samara grew tenser with each word he said.
     
    "Rosita didn't realize your Uncle Vincent had seen her take the money," Sal went on. "He approached her and wanted to know what Mark was paying her to do. She lied and said 'extra laundry' but then your uncle told her he'd pay her to keep an eye on Mark and she doesn't want to do that. She's been dying to unload all this on somebody not connected to Hallow House and when she recognized me, it all came pouring out. What do you make of it?"
     
    Samara shook her head, not daring to answer. If Rosita had seen Mark coming out of the room behind the black door that meant he really had been in there, as she'd suspected last night. What was he doing in there? Combined with his interest in Skull Cave, it was frightening to her. She had to get to him before it was to late and convince him the room brought only tragedy.
     
    She got up, saying, "I have to go back."
     
    Sal took her arm. "You've fallen for that guy, haven't you?"
     
    "I wish people would quit asking me that," she cried.
     
    "That means you have," Sal said. "Be careful. Love makes a poor judge."
     
    She didn't reply, heading for the horses. Anna K. had once again gotten loose but was grazing a few yards away. Sal collected her and they rode back to the stables.
     
    When she reached the house she found Mark in the old classroom where Mr. Grosbeck had taught her. A mirror had been installed in the room and he and Johanna were engrossed in watching her image as she tried to form her lips and tongue into the correct positions for each sound.
     
    Mark waved at Samara and pointed upward. Interpreting this as a request to wait in the south tower, Samara withdrew and slipped away before Johanna saw her and got distracted. The sun was shining outside, there was no reason for her to be reluctant to climb to the third floor, but she was. As she hesitated in the corridor, Vera came up the stairs from the first floor and saw her.
     
    "Samara, you didn't eat breakfast," she said. "Are you feeling all right?"
     
    "I had an orange."
     
    "You've been riding, I see."
     
    "Yes, with Sal."
     
    "Sal? Oh, you mean the young man who used to work here and your father just rehired. I remember him, but I haven't had a chance to get to know him."
     
    "He's like an old friend. When I was younger he was kind to me."
     
    Vera smiled. "Then I'm prejudiced in his favor. I thought maybe you'd been riding with Mark again."
     
    Something in her stepmother's voice told her Vera wasn't in favor of that. For a moment Samara wondered if she'd hypnotized herself into believing Mark was something he wasn't. Then the remembrance of his warm lips and his words of love spilled into her mind, banishing all doubt. She loved Mark, she'd convince everyone of his true worth.
     
    "You do look tired," Vera said. "And it's not good to go skip meals. How about a glass of milk and some of Irma's oatmeal cookies?"
     
    When Vera began worrying about anyone's health, it was impossible to argue with her. Samara let herself be swept off to the kitchen and persuaded to have a snack. Then Vera asked her to come to the library. Samara cringed at what she knew would be a heart-to-heart