Free The Heart Remembers by Peggy Gaddis

Miss Selena. If Jason had wanted to go visitin’ last night, he’da took one of the mules. They ain’t workin’ in the fields yet and nobody would have minded his usin’ one of the mules and they’re gentle enough to be rode. No, I reckon it wasn’t Jason.”
    Shelley saw the futility of arguing with Aunt Hettie, and hid her amusement, affectionate and gentle as it was, at the knowledge that Aunt Hettie was not too sure that some visitor from another world had not been abroad on Blue Belle the night before.
    â€œWell, for a quiet place like Harbour Pines, apparently there was rather a lot going on last night,” she said lightly. “I had a—well, I scarcely know how to describe it. But under the influence of the devil riding Blue Belle, maybe I can just say ‘a ghostly visitant.’ ”
    â€œLand of Goshen, child, what are you talking about?”
    Aunt Hettie was startled, and there was a wary look in her kind, twinkling eyes as she listened to Shelley’s spirited account of her experience of the previous night. And Shelley was startled to see that some of Aunt Hettie’s fresh, vigorous color had faded by the time she had finished.
    â€œMy saints above!” whispered Aunt Hettie. “Then the yarns folks have been tellin’ about this place bein’ ha’nted are so!”
    â€œOh, now, Aunt Hettie, that’s nonsense and you know it!” Shelley scolded her lightly. “Either my imagination tricked me, or somebody, perhaps a youngster, is playing a practical joke on me. You and I don’t believe in ghosts!”
    â€œWell, I dunno. I’ve seen a sight of funny things in my time. O’ course I couldn’t just rightly say they was ghosts. But I couldn’t rightly say they
wasn’t
, neither! All I could
rightly
say is—I dunno what they was!”
    She was silent for a moment while Shelley stared at her. And then she nodded wisely.
    â€œWell, I reckon if there was any place in the world that has a right to be ha’nted, this could be it. I reckon maybe Callie Newton was happier here than anywhere in the world and I reckon she was more miserable here than ’most any place, later on. Likely
she
walks o’ nights.”
    Before she could check the words Shelley cried out hotly, “It wasn’t Callie Newton. Don’t you think I’d have known?”
    There was a tiny tense silence, while the color left Shelley’s face and she could not quite meet Aunt Hettie’s kind eyes.
    â€œYou knew ’em, didn’t you, Shelley? The Newtons?” she asked at last very quietly.
    Shelley sat very still for a moment and then she lifted her chin defiantly, her eyes cold and wary.
    â€œYes,” she admitted curtly.
    Aunt Hettie nodded, satisfied.
    â€œWell, I reckon that explains a lot I ain’t had no business to think about but that’s been worryin’ me,” she said mildly. “Why you come here and bought the paper. Or more likely you ‘hired’ it from the Newtons?”
    Shelley turned her face away and made an effort to steady her voice.
    â€œNo. Mrs. Newton mortgaged the plant and the house and everything to hire lawyers. I bought the plant and the house from the bank that held the mortgage,” she explained briefly.
    Aunt Hettie sat very still, studying the pale, averted face, the shining soft hair, and then she nodded to herself with a satisfaction that was gentle and inoffensive.
    â€œI reckon I’m so plumb stupid that I never seen the ‘favor’ before,” she observed. “You take a lot after your paw, more than you do after your maw.She was a mighty pretty woman and your paw was a fine-looking man. You wasn’t much more’n a baby last time I saw you, after it all happened. But I can see now you got a heap o’ the Newtons about you.”
    Shelley had sat rigid as Aunt Hettie’s gentle old voice went on, and when at last