Secrets of Hallstead House by Amy M Reade Page A

you.” I smiled at her and left.
    When I got back to my room, the fire was burning brightly and my room was warm, but it smelled terrible and smoke still hung in the air. I now noticed a small handle above the fireplace grate that I hadn’t seen before. That must be the flue handle , I thought ruefully. I sat down in front of the fireplace for quite some time, thinking of nothing in particular, but feeling very sorry for myself. I was exhausted but I didn’t want to get into bed yet. When the fire died down, I crawled into bed, but it was a long time before I was able to fall asleep. When I finally did, in the early hours of the morning, I was tormented by a nightmare I had had so many times in the past six weeks.
    I stood on a hillside watching a horrifying scene unfold before me, but I was powerless to help. My leaden legs prevented me from running to rescue the occupants from the burning wreckage of their car. The only noises my throat could muster were choked, feeble sobs, and my vision was blurred by the tears streaming from my eyes. Suddenly the wailing sirens were piercing my ears, and within moments several state trooper cars had converged on the scene, their lights swirling red and blue around me. Then came the fire trucks and three ambulances. Other motorists had pulled over to watch or to try vainly to help, but there was nothing anyone could do. My parents were dead. I turned to Alan, but he was walking away.
    After waking from the horror, it always took me some time to calm down. This night was no different, but I eventually was able to get back to sleep.
    I woke up early the next morning and was glad that I had a patient to care for, to keep me focused on work instead of on my nightmare or my lingering humiliation and embarrassment. When I went in to see Alex, she said nothing of the “fire,” and for that I was grateful. I didn’t mention it either. I did mention, however, that it might be good for her to start eating with other people in the dining room rather than by herself in her sitting room. She didn’t agree with me, but she didn’t exactly disagree either. I told her how much I personally would like to eat meals with her and she said she would think about it. Then she changed the subject and asked, “Do you think we could postpone our exercises a little today so that I can meet with Stephan and Will?”
    I reluctantly agreed. I wanted her to stick to a schedule to optimize her recovery time, but I realized that she also had a job to do and that I would have to be a little flexible. There was something I needed to do while Alex worked anyway.
    I went in search of Leland, and I soon found him, on the porch around the rear of Summerplace, replacing a broken floorboard. As I approached him, he looked over his shoulder and saw me but turned away and kept working. I stood next to him silently for a while, waiting for him to acknowledge me.
    Finally, he grunted, “What do you want?”
    “I think you know the answer to that, Leland. Yesterday, when you showed me how to build a fire in the fireplace, you deliberately left out the part about the flue,” I accused. “You knew exactly what was going to happen when I built that fire.”
    He swung around to face me. “If you can’t remember a simple thing like using the flue, which I did tell you about, then you’re going to have an even harder time living on this island than I thought you would,” he snarled before stalking off.
    I stood there looking after him, wondering how Alex could have tolerated this man and his wretched wife under the same roof for so many years.
    I continued around to the front door of Summerplace and met Pete as he was leaving. He saw me immediately, so I couldn’t turn around and head in the opposite direction. I would have to face him. He put his hands in his pockets and waited for me to get to the door. “That was some show you put on last night,” he said.
    “Thanks,” I retorted, wincing inwardly.
    “How’d you