Free Lakeside Cottage by Susan Wiggs Page A

Timothy’s victims. “So is this commune…still around?”
    “Nope. This girl named Gemma O’Donnell, like, three years ago, she saved us all.” Callie studied the floor. “Gemma kept trying to tell someone what was going on, and every once in a while, somebody from social services or the school district would come up and take a look around but they never found anything. To an outsider, it looked like utopia—vegetable gardens, a flower farm, our own milk cows, everybody reading William Carlos Williams. Nobody listened to Gemma until she finally found a way to make them listen.” Callie paused, took a gulp of air. “She went to the Big Sur Family Services Agency and threatened to kill herself if they didn’t believe her.” Callie’s voice lowered to a shaky whisper. “She was pregnant by Brother Timothy. They took him away, and I never saw Gemma again. I don’t know what ever happened to her or the baby.”
    Kate put her hand on the girl’s shoulder. The girl flinched and Kate removed it. “I’m sorry. I hope things got better for you after that.”
    “They did for some of us,” she said. “For me, for awhile. But in the last home I was placed in, well, that was bad so I had to leave.”
    “Callie, where’s your mother?”
    Callie dropped her gaze. She picked at her nails. “I haven’t seen her in over a year.”
    “Do you think she might be worried about you?”
    “She should have worried about me when we were all living with that pervert,” Callie snapped. Then she lowered her voice. “You going to call social services?”
    “Not if you’ve been straight with me.”
    “You can check out my story on the Internet,” Callie said. “Millennium Commune, look it up.”
    “I don’t have Internet service here. If I need to go online, I have to drive to the library in Port Angeles.”
    “Whatever. I’ve been straight with you.” She looked out the window as she spoke.
    There were still secrets concealed within Callie, Kate was sure of it. She studied Callie’s profile. The girl was quite pretty, though that wasn’t immediately apparent thanks to the acne and some dark patches on her skin where she’d probably forgotten to wash. Her hair needed a trim, and the shapeless sweatpants and old Big Sur Folk Festival T-shirt didn’t flatter her heavyset figure. Yet when the sunlight from the windows outlined the tender curve of her cheek, Kate saw a different person sitting there, a girl who was still a child no matter what the calendar said.
    The protective instinct rose inside Kate, stronger now, urging her toward a leap of faith. She knew she had to give this girl a chance.
    “Would you like to stay in the guest suite?” she heard herself saying. Back in the early days of the lakeside cottage, the first Livingstons had traveled with a housekeeper and cook, who had occupied the small bedroomand washroom off the main floor. Later generations used it to accommodate visitors, giving them more privacy than the upstairs rooms.
    Callie narrowed her eyes. “What’s the catch?”
    “There’s no catch. You need a place to stay, I have tons of room here, so—”
    “I’d better not.” She stared at the braided rug on the floor.
    “You’re going to run out of options,” Kate pointed out. “In the off-season, plenty of houses are vacant, but now that summer’s here, everything will change.”
    “I’ve got camping gear.”
    “I’ve got a six-bedroom house.”
    “Why?” Callie asked. “There’s got to be a catch.”
    “No catch, like I promised. You said you’ve been straight with me. You’ve had a rough time of it. Why not stay here where you’re safe?”
    She snorted softly, a sound of bitter mirth.
    “Is something funny?” asked Kate.
    Callie shook her head. “I’ll stay tonight. After that, we’ll see.”
    Don’t do me any favors, Kate thought. She reminded herself that if this girl’s story was even partially true, she’d lived a nightmare. She didn’t take Callie’s