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Love's Ghost

By: Heart Dragon

   I have added the Death Keyword to the story as there is a character that dies at some point however I would like to say that this death is integral to the story and does not occur during Yiff scenes. I would like to thank you for your interest in this story. I will warn you before you begin that this is a book in its entirety and therefore may take more than a few minutes to read through. If you would like to print a copy out to make it easier to read you have my express permission. You may also send this story to friends as long as all text remains intact including the author credit.

    Please excuse the errors you may find throughout this work as I have given up on attempting to complete the edit and have posted it as is so that those who can forgive me can enjoy it for what it is. Otherwise it would remain hidden on my hard drive forever and I think that would have been a shame.

Enjoy.

A note to the reader:

Those readers who actually are from or have visited Ireland may notice that while I have used names of towns as listed on maps the scenery and even some towns that really exist are not there in this story. I wanted to be relatively accurate with my distances and respective geography but having nothing more to work with than maps and no first hand experience forgive me if I turn the occasional marsh into beautiful fields and groves of elm trees. I hope you'll pardon my playing god just for the length of my story.

-Heart Dragon

Chapter One

   They lay in the afterglow holding each other so tight they might have been trying to pull their two bodies into one whole. Timothy, a young, lanky horse only a couple of years out of his awkward coltish phase, was white furred with a few black spots on his forelocks and a single circle around his right eye which were large and brown, embraced Samantha as his penis began to wilt within her body and she sobbed softly pressing her face into his mane. She was a spotted squirrel, a few months younger than Tim, with brown and white fur and small gentle blue eyes.

   Timothy worried that she was crying because he'd hurt her. He was inexperienced and their lovemaking had been so sudden and emotionally charged he hadn't even thought about how much smaller than him she really was.

   "Are you alright?" he asked in a whisper. "I didn't hurt you?"

   She shook her head, rubbing tears into his mane, then nuzzled closer into his neck with her muzzle.

   "No, it's not you." She replied lightly but in a husky sort of voice that was the result of her crying. "I'm glad this happened though, just in case. I wanted my first to be with someone special and you're definitely special to me." She kissed his muzzle and squeezed him in her embrace.

   She pulled away just enough to look into his eyes. "Whatever happens later, we'll always have this night."

   "You know how cheesy that sounds?" he asked playfully.

   She couldn't help but smile and a small laugh escaped her.

   "You'll write me all the time right?" She asked seriously.

   He nodded solemnly and crossed his heart with a finger on her back. "I swear. Besides you might actually get to come this summer like our mom's said."

   Neither of them really believed that, and that was what had brought them together tonight so unexpectedly. It was being parted, probably forever, that had brought two good friends, who had never considered each other as more than best friends, to end up lying here his penis half flaccid within her body clutching each other so tightly.

   He couldn't really blame his mother for leaving, not after everything his father had put them both through over the last five years. After abusing his wife and son for fourteen years (the wife for a few years before that too) he had decided it was time to hunt up a younger bitch. He had left a little over a year ago and taken up living with a young vixen not much older than Timothy himself.

   His mother had come lucky in the lottery of life and a letter received by registered post from an English law firm had informed her of the passing of her great uncle Bolgus, who had been the last living member of her family still residing in Ireland. The letter further informed her that as the sole known heir of her great uncle she was to inherit a modest sum of money (to them a large fortune) and a house and estate that rambled over eight hundred acres of Irish countryside.

   With her husband gone and now a windfall like this after a year of scraping by on her tips from the diner and what little her ex-husband sent her of the child support he was supposed to be paying his mother had decided that they should move to Ireland. Timothy didn't have the heart to disagree. They were a lot better off without his father around but that was cold comfort as bills piled up and he knew how much strain it put on her. He wasn't willing to take away this chance for her to make a new life so far away from here that she would truly have a fresh slate.

   Despite all that he was loathed to leave mostly because of the girl lying next to him. Since her own father had died in a car accident four years before her mother and her had been just as poor as his family had been since his father left. They had learned to manage things over time and at least the life insurance had paid off the house and car, but that wasn't worrying him as how Samantha was going to get by without him and how he was going to get by without her. They had been best friends since earliest childhood playing in the back yard together and eating most of their meals together. They had stayed inside when Sam had fallen from the tree in her back yard and broken her arm and played monopoly for days and days.

   That kind of friendship had the tendency to grow into more in later life but now it looked like their later lives would be separated now. He would be going with his mother to Ireland and she would be staying here, ostensibly until the end of the school year when she and her mother would come to visit them in Ireland, paid for out of their new fortune of course. Neither of them could really believe that might happen though and in their minds this was their last night together.

   Timothy kissed Sam's forehead and pulled away gently. For a moment he wasn't sure she was ready as her embrace tightened but then she released him and they finally broke apart. He looked down at her and his eyes widened with horror as he saw blood mixed in with the other fluids that stained the sheets on her bed.

   "Oh no, I did hurt you!" he said as she looked down to what had drawn his attention.

   She shook her head and smiled shyly. She blushed too but he couldn't see it beneath her fur. "I'm not hurt Tim I swear." She said. "It's my first time blood I think. Mom said something about it when we had our talk about sex." She blushed again glad this time that he couldn't see it.

   "Oh." He said obviously embarrassed by his lack of knowledge. His father had talked with him only once about sex but that had been more of a jib at his son for his lack of sexual prowess and a rant about all the women he had "conquered" by the time he was Tim's age.

   "Mom will be home soon. We should get cleaned up and I'll have to get rid of these sheets fast. The blood stain is never going to come out." Sam said as she rose from the bed and looked over them both. Her thighs were soaked in fluid, both hers and his, and he wasn't much better. They giggled together for a moment like the children they were growing out of then he climbed off the bed as well.

   "We can put the sheets in my backpack and I'll throw it in our trash bin on my way home. That way you're mom won't chance finding it when she notices it's missing from the laundry." Tim said as he helped her strip both the sheets from the mattress.

   He folded them and stuffed them into his otherwise empty backpack since he had turned in his books before leaving school for the last time this afternoon. When he was done he helped her put new sheets on the bed over the wet spot that was still left on the mattress. When they had finished she walked into him again and put her arms around him unexpectedly.

   "Mom will be home soon, but I think we have time to have a shower if we go in together." She said in a suggestive whisper.

   He didn't reply with words but instead picked her up and carried her into the adjoining bathroom closing the door behind them.

   Chapter Two

   While Sam and Tim were having sex in Sam's bedroom that afternoon their mother's were together supposedly shopping with some of the advance money the English law firm had sent along with the tickets and vast amounts of other paperwork Elizabeth had needed to fill out and forward to the law firm before her arrival to sign the final inheritance papers. Since she had known almost nothing of legal matters, especially English legal matters, she had been sent money both for travel expenses and to hire a lawyer to review the papers and explain them to her. Even after the fees there was plenty left for them to play around with.

   Shopping wasn't on either woman's mind that afternoon though as they lay together in an expensive hotel suite downtown. Elizabeth's fur was inundated with scented oils and slicked down to her skin while Lily massaged her thighs and buttock with gentle but firm paws. They had been together like this many times before since long before Elizabeth's husband had finally taken off. Their relationship had started with their children as a friendship but when Lily's husband had died and the abuse of Elizabeth's husband had been at one of its high points they had been pulled together and in their mutual comforting had formed a strong emotional relationship, which had quickly blossomed into a physical one as well.

   Lily's strong fingers stroked around the pink blossom of the mare's vagina, where black skin became soft pink flesh, and probed around the nub of flesh at it's base with a gently circling thumb.

   She sucked in a breath and her back arched as little bolts of pleasure shot up her spine into her belly kindling a heat there she had rarely had with her ex-husband. The sensations continued to build and her hips began to thrust slightly forward into the pushing, circling pleasure between her legs. Her eyes closed as fingers slipped inside her and stroked the walls of her sex gently in and out while the thumb slid back and forth over the nub of flesh that was quickly becoming her center.

   She reached down and pushed the hand away for a moment and sat up to kiss Lily passionately. They embraced and Elizabeth forced Lily gently down onto the pillows behind her then turned around to present a lifted tail and began working on Lily's own silk rose, a slightly brighter red than Elizabeth's but just as soft and giving.

   Elizabeth stroked the flower open and pressed a long finger deep inside. She wasn't as subtle as her lover, but they complemented each other well. She felt the nub of nerves inside her lover and gently stroked it with her fingertip feeling muscles tighten along the length of her finger as she was in turn entered softly and a gentle probing tongue sought that center of pleasure the thumb had found and exploited moments before. They rocked together each searching and probing pausing when pleasure built too high for one or the other to continue. Sweat soaked the bed along with the flow of their sex fluids as they clutched each other and probed with finger and tongue until both were thrusting against each other to climax at the same time.

   Both of their muzzles were soaked, as they turned to lye face to face and cleaned the remains of their lovemaking from each other's fur. They didn't speak, their relationship wasn't built on the act of sex alone but sex was a symbol of what they felt for each other. They lay together for a long time just looking into each other's eyes as they glowed with delight in one another.

   It had been difficult at first between them. Hiding and sneaking around, more worried what they should think of themselves even than what others would think of them should they be found out. They had both been raised in conservative families and same sex relationships were strictly taboo even if they were accepted in principal they weren't for their kind of people. Or at least that was what they had been taught. It wasn't that they didn't like men, quite the contrary. It was simply that they loved each other despite that.

   "I'm worried." Lily said softly. "You're not going to get out there and meet some hunky stallion or one of those slick English foxes and forget all about me are you?"

   Elizabeth kissed Lily's forehead and smiled reassuringly. "If I meet someone we'll just have to figure out how to share him once you get there." She winked coyly.

   Lily laughed, her eyes, much like her daughter's, glinting in merriment. "Okay I get the point, but you know how Sam and Tim feel right now. Even though we've told them that we are going to be coming in the summer, I don't think they really believe it. I don't really blame them since they don't have any clue about us." She blushed for a moment then continued. "They've been moping around for two weeks now like a pair of scolded puppies."

   "Not to mention how close they have always been." Elizabeth added thoughtfully then shook her head. "I just don't think they're ready to accept this." She made an all-encompassing motion. "They weren't inundated with the sort of conservative propaganda we both faced but I'm just afraid to tell them."

   "We're going to have to tell them eventually Liz." Lily said gently. "They have a right to know especially now. The least we could tell them is that we're planning to move in permanently this summer. That would at least give them a greater hope that we're not just talking about a short trip to make them happy later."

   Liz shook her head. "That would be just like saying we're getting married and that would make them uncomfortable. The whole reason I wanted to wait until the move was final was to give them time to adjust to us being together over the summer. Then we can give them the news that you've decided to stay once they have settled in."

   "You're still trying to keep them in the dark about our relationship though." Lily pointed out as gently as she could, knowing that this conversation had a high probability of blowing up in her face. "I won't go against your wishes Liz but I think we're doing this the wrong way."

   Elizabeth looked at the clock on the dresser and sighed. The kids would have been home for a couple of hours by now and were probably wondering why they weren't home yet. "I'm sorry if I'm frightened about people finding out Lily but I've got more reason to want to hide something like this than you do. Kevin would have a field day about this especially if he decided to press a custody battle at this point, which he just might do if he had this sort of thing as leverage."

   Lily sighed in resignation. "I know Liz. I'm sorry for bringing it up again and this is the last time anyway now that you're leaving in the morning." She got out of bed and stretched luxuriously. "We'd better get showered and head back before the kids get worried. Maybe you should call on your cell and let them know we're on the way before we get in the shower."

   Liz nodded and reached for her purse on the bedside table. "Alright I'll call and let them know we're going to be a little late. I'll tell them were bringing pizza home as a surprise going away present." She shifted things around in the purse until she found the small flip-style cell phone. When she looked up Lily was already in the bathroom getting the shower ready. She dialed home and waited until the answering machine picked up. The kids must be over at Sam's house, she decided, and canceled the call. She dialed Tim's cell number and waited through four rings before he answered.

   That explains it, she thought as she heard a shower running in the background. "Sorry to interrupt your shower Tim but we're running a little late." She smiled thinking of the shower Lily was running in the other room that would be inaudible on the other end of the phone while the bathroom door was closed.

   There was a fairly long pause. She could imagine him sopping up water from his mane with a towel and trying to keep the phone dry at the same time. After a moment his voice came through and he was almost half laughing. "That's alright mom. I was just finishing anyway."

   He stood in the center of Sam's bedroom dripping water as he held the phone to his ear and looked at a thoroughly irritated Sam standing in the door of the bathroom also dripping wet. The still hard penis sticking from between his legs attested to the reason for her irritation at the interruption.

   "I need to get dried off mom, when are you going to be home?" He asked trying to keep the giggles from his voice.

   "We were looking at dresses in the mall for Sam, you know she doesn't get a lot of new clothes, and we lost track of time." She explained, which was sort of true. They had gotten Sam a few new dresses and some slacks and blouses as well while they were out. "We're going to stop and pick up pizza and ice cream on the way home so we can have a little going away party. We'll probably be another hour getting home. You and Sam should be able to find something to do for that long shouldn't you?" She asked.

   Timothy had a difficult time keeping the laughter out of his voice as he replied but he somehow managed it. "Sure mom. I think we can find a way to keep ourselves occupied." He replied and grinned at Sam whose face was showing incredulity mixed with a sort of amusement at his own expression. "We'll be at Sam's since there wasn't even a chair left in the house when I got home."

   "Alright Tim. We'll be staying over with Lily and Sam tonight anyway and catch a plane early in the morning so make sure you pack up before you head over and we'll just stay there tonight." She said in her best motherly voice. "See you soon. Love you." She finished.

   "Love you too mom." He replied as they both ended the call.

   Liz replaced the phone in her purse then stood and chuckling went to join Lily in the shower. At least now they would have time to get cleaned up and get home without worrying their children.

   She knocked on the shower door and smiled as Lily drew back the glass and made a come hither gesture from beneath the spray of the showerhead. She stepped into the steam and slid the door closed behind her.

   Tim smiled and tossed the phone on the bed. "Well they are running late." His smile turned into a devilish grin. "Mom says we should find something to do until they get home."

   Sam grinned and moved towards him. "Oh I think we can figure something out." She said as she took his now softening manhood in one hand and gave it a firm squeeze. "In fact. I'm sure we can." She said as she pulled him gently towards the bathroom once more.

   Chapter Three

   Timothy was hard pressed to get his stuff together and brought over before their parents pulled into the driveway. They had spent most of the hour his mother had given him almost atomically joined at the pelvis and had both been loathed to give up even the few minutes together, having sex or not, that he had to spend getting his things packed up and ferried to Sam's living room even with Sam's help.

   They were both still sopping wet, not having had the time to dry off properly with their thick coats, when they dropped the last of the bags next to the closet and heard the car pull into the driveway beside the house. They looked at each other and wondered how long it would take either of their parents to make the connection with both of them soaking wet.

   "Let's get dried off quick." Sam said, her mind obviously following the same apparent path his had been on. "If our mom's see us like this they'll know something is up since you told your mom an hour ago that you'd finished showering."

   Tim growled. "Damn should have thought of that." He started towards the stairs then stopped. "I have a better idea." He said quickly turning towards the kitchen and the back door. "We'll have spent the hour playing in the hose. That'll explain why were still wet."

   Sam nodded. "Good idea. She said." I'll grab some towels from the downstairs bathroom and you get the hose going." They jogged off in different directions.

   By the time their mothers had gathered the things they wanted to bring in, mostly the clothes they had bought for Sam and a few odds and ends they had picked up for Lily, the kids were safely in the backyard whooping and laughing as they sprayed each other with the water hose.

   Elizabeth smiled and glanced at Lily. "Just like Tim to take a shower, then go play in the water. I bet he didn't even think to unpack another set of clothes to change into once they'd finished."

   Lily laughed lightly. "Let them have their fun. It's the last time they're going to see each other for months."

   Just then the two noticed their parents watching them through the sliding glass doors off the kitchen and waved enthusiastically both smiling and happy just to be together.

   Elizabeth slid one of the doors open. "Been having fun you two?" She asked glancing at their clothes. "Why didn't you change into swim suits before you decided to have a water fight?" She finished still half amused.

   Tim looked down at himself and grinned. "Sorry mom, we didn't plan on having a hose fight it just sort of turned into one about twenty minutes ago."

   Liz shook her head. "Alright but you're going to have to half unpack to find something decent to wear." She walked out and turned off the hose spout, which was just to the right of the door. "You two should come on in and get dried off and changed quick before the pizza gets stone cold."

   "Yes Ma'am," they both said simultaneously making Liz laugh as they picked up a pair of towels that had been set out on the patio.

   "Guess you thought you'd get at least a little wet." She said still smiling as they walked past her into the kitchen drying themselves vigorously with the towels.

   "Huh?" Tim asked confused.

   "You at least decided to bring towels out with you." She said pointing towards the towels they were currently using. "So at least one of you thought of the possibility."

   "That was Sam. You know she's always better prepared than I am." Tim said smiling. "Of course that's cause she's always got a plan I'm not aware of too." He said with a grin in Sam's direction.

   She gave him a little punch on the shoulder and grinned back. "I just don't tell him cause he'd spoil it by coming up with something sinister." She said in reply.

   "Alright, Alright. Why don't you two stop dripping on my floor and go get changed for supper." Lily said from behind them. "I've got enough to do without adding more housework to the list."

   They went obediently both inwardly relieved that their mothers had apparently suspected nothing. Tim went to his small pile of bags and picked up a gym bag he had packed with a change of clothes just in case he needed them during or after the flight when he wouldn't be able to get to his other bags then went into the small downstairs bath to change while Sam went up to her room. He spent five minutes day dreaming about his afternoon with Sam, and two minutes getting into his spare clothes.

   He would have a lot to remember from this day, he thought as he opened the door and went to join the others at the table.

   Chapter Four

   The next morning they woke before the sun rose and started packing their things in the car. There was a lot of stuff since most of the rest of their things had already been airmailed to the new address, though there had been surprisingly little to send once they had sold the furniture here. The new house was already completely furnished and anything they didn't fancy could be replaced with mail order or even local goods since they now had the money to consider such luxuries.

   The drive was short, the small local airport was basically just a shuttle service that would fly them to the nearest large airport where they could catch a connecting flight into one of the international terminals like New York or Dallas. According to the tickets it was Dallas first then a layover in New York of about four hours then a red-eye strait to London where they would stay in a hotel for a couple of days while Liz met with the attorneys handling the estate then they would board a flight into Dublin's International airport. From there another hour drive would take them to their new home nestled in the Irish countryside at lease twenty minutes from anything that could reasonably be considered even a small town.

   By the time they had unloaded all of their baggage and gotten it into the hands of the airport personnel they were all ready for some breakfast and had at least another hour before their flight was scheduled to leave. They adjourned to a booth in the small diner adjoining the terminal.

   Sam sat beside Tim on one side of the table holding hands with him between them unseen by their mother's who sat opposite chatting amiably about the likely weather in Ireland during the spring season. They sat their eating and smiling but not talking much and said nothing about goodbyes. The hour passed quickly, the last hour they would spend together for at least the next six months with school having just started back at the beginning of September. It would be the first Christmas they had spent without Sam and her mother for years. Tim became even more depressed when he thought of missing Sam in her traditional Christmas outfit of pajamas with little fairies on them but the thought at least kept him smiling.

   The final goodbyes were said at the security station as Liz and Tim stood in a lengthy line to get through the metal detectors. Both pairs hugged stiffly but without tears as they waved goodbye and Lily assured Liz and Tim that they would watch the take off from the lounge before they headed back home. Then they were gone, walking briskly together hugging each other for support as they hurried back to the waiting area where they could see the small plane waiting on the tarmac for passengers to board and luggage to be loaded.

   After all the hassles of security they finally made their way to the stairs leading up into the passenger section of the plane. They were the last two of only a dozen passengers on the flight to Dallas to board and as Tim reached the top of the steps he couldn't keep himself from turning around for just a moment to try and find the face of Sam and her mother watching from the windows in the waiting area. He was disappointed to find that the glass reflecting the sunlight made that impossible. He waved anyway hoping they would see him then turned and resolutely followed his mother, who had stopped in the entryway to watch him, into the plane.

   Once they were aboard the door slid closed and a sort of sucking sound announced that the plane was sealed. It was too late now to start complaining about the move, and he really didn't want too. He cared about Sam a lot and he cared about his mother too, but he could find Sam again once he was older but his mother might never get this chance again. So instead of bitching and moaning he smiled and gave her a little hug with one arm from his seat beside her.

   She looked surprised but returned the hug affectionately. "What was that for?" She asked curiously.

   "Nothing." He replied. "Just... Nothing really." He finished lamely having no desire to really explain his feelings just at that moment surrounded by strangers in an airplane taking them to a strange place to live. He thought back on the closing of the door and wondered if that sucking sound would always remind him of what could be lost each time he heard it.

   Chapter Five

   The flights were interminable and the layover in London was even more boring than Tim had expected. His mother spent most of three days closeted in meetings with financial advisors who were either currently holding or attempting to liquidate investments that had been her great uncles. She'd come back to their hotel room each night so tired and bleary eyed that he wasn't sure if she understood even half of what those jargon spewing lawyers and investment bankers had told her. The gist was plain however, they were currently sitting on an estate totaling somewhere around twenty-seven million euros including projected capital gains and investment payouts over the next year.

   While a good portion of that total was still remaining in interest bearing investments many of the companies her great uncle had invested in had opted to buy out his shares of the business upon his death. This produced something in the area of six million dollars in liquid funds for his mother to either reinvest or simply stick in savings accounts. She'd been a little over her head but the executor of the will had helped her every step of the way and most of the funds had been reinvested in Swiss and American securities that would provide a steady income in interest well above anything she could have earned on a yearly basis at a regular job and would include enough earnings to pay the taxes on the land and house she had inherited.

   The legal and financial side of the estate had been turned over to her great uncles old financial advisor and executor of his will. He had contracted a hansom percentage of any profits he earned for them but Liz had decided it would be worth it as long as her and her son never had to worry about money again, which the old but kind executor, an old gray hound named Mr. Wildon, had promised wouldn't be a problem even for her grandchildren.

   Tim was just glad to be done with London. The place had its attractions but it rained most of the time keeping him from any of the really interesting tours of the historical outdoor sights. He had been to at least three art galleries and none of them had really been interesting enough to hold his attention for more than a couple of hours. Most of his time had been spent in front of the television watching shows featuring people with strange accents talking about places he didn't recognize. Luckily the place had satellite T.V. and he was able to get at least a couple of American stations like comedy central and the sci-fi channel.

   The rain pattered on the windows of the plane as they made their approach to the Dublin international airport where they would again have to go through customs, have their bags checked to the fullest extent possible, and then hand over the new immigration papers that had replaced the standard passports they had used when entering London. He wasn't looking forward to another three hours in an airport security lounge.

   The ordeal took even longer than he expected but eventually they made it through all of the screening processes and his mother was issued a temporary driver's license until she could test in the nearest local town. Once the process was over they seemed to virtually fly through the process of renting a car in a mere hour and a half then were finally on their way south using a roadmap with the route from the airport to the house drawn in bright red sharpie along a series of back roads. The nearest two towns, Carlow and Graiguenmanagh were circled in red. Carlow was only moderately closer than Graiguenmanagh but not only was Carlow closer, they also felt confident that they could pronounce the town's name without embarrassing themselves. Twenty miles south of the circle around Carlow was a big red X marking where their new home should stand.

   It was raining and nearly dark by the time they packed their bags into the trunk of the rental and were on their way. There were a lot of cars on the roads in Dublin but his mother managed to keep on the left side, most of the time, and avoid getting them killed in a head-on collision. Once they got out of the city things became easier and they made better time. Liz leaned over occasionally to glance at the map Tim was keeping open on his lap for her folded back to reveal only the section that showed the route they should take.

   "I think this is it." She said after looking back at the road sign in their rearview mirror as if she could read it from the back. "This should be the turn-off to get to Naas and then we'll be completely out of the city."

   Tim knew she was talking more to herself than to him so he just nodded and looked down at the map himself. The exit they were taking was for route N9. Their new house was actually a good way off the route and they would follow it only as far as Carlow then they would leave it for a series of roads shown only by small number markers and not an overall route at all until it came to their little piece of land nestled in the foothills of the Blackstair mountains.

   The drive was beautiful even in the rain. Green rolling fields dotted with small cottages and occasionally larger manor houses spanned away in all directions only minutes from the edge of the cities. There were few trees except in well-tended orchards and occasionally a bit of forest. He was simply stunned into silence by the scenery as they drove into Naas and turned down route N9. Once they were out of Naas there were small towns along the way, too small to be marked on the map they had been given at least, but even these seemed to settle into the countryside rather than standing out from it as even small towns did in the US. He was starting to understand why it was called the Emerald Isle.

   The silence carried them through Carlow onto one of the smaller, almost one lane in fact, roads going south. Once they were out of Carlow though the route became more difficult to follow as they turned off even secondary roads onto even smaller lanes marked with only numbered signs like 72, 45 and 82B. Their destination seemed to be at the terminus of lane 82B since it simply ended at the red "X" the lawyer had marked on the map.

   "Mom," Tim said as they came up to the turn-off with 82B marked on a small metal sign at the roads entrance. There was a large stone mailbox that stood right next to the sign at the side of the road. He pointed out the sign. "I think that's it. Looks like it's more of a private driveway than a road though." He said noting that there was only a single mailbox standing at the end of the lane.

   "Looks that way. How long do you think it is?" She asked pointing to the map. "I'm not sure it's going to be much fun having to drive down to get the mail every morning and if the house is close I can't see it." She waved around at the hills rising on every side.

   Tim studied the map for a second, measuring by the graph at the top with his fingernail. "I don't think it can be more than a mile or so from the look of the map." He shrugged. "That's assuming the house is set at the very end of where the map shows the road going too."

   Liz nodded as they turned onto the road. She stopped next to the sign and mailbox.

   Tim looked at her questioningly. "Something wrong?" he asked

   Liz shook her head. "No, but Sam promised to write as soon as you'd left so there might be a letter for you. We can check later if you want but I figured you might as well give it a shot before we drive up to the house and get started unpacking."

   Tim smiled. He had forgotten that Sam had promised to write as soon as he'd left so that there would probably be a letter there to greet him when he arrived since their stopover in London would delay them longer than the post. He threw open the door, perhaps a little too hard, and jogged to the mailbox. Inside were three envelops. Two addressed to his mother from the London Lawyers and the other addressed in green ink to him. He grinned as he raced back to the car and climbed in.

   "So?" She asked as he handed her the two envelopes addressed to her. The question was pointless since she could see the letter he'd kept for himself but she wanted to hear at least a little happiness in his voice.

   "Yeah." He smiled. "It's definitely from Sam, nobody else I know would write in green ink but she loves it ever since her mom gave her that silly troll pen that writes in nothing but."

   She smiled back, put the car in gear, and started up the very old cobbled road between the rolling emerald hills on either side, which rose in the distance ahead into the majestic rise of the Blackstair Mountains visible against the night sky.

   They drove the three quarters of a mile in quiet reflection on the beauty about them as they moved through lands that belonged to them, a fact that had yet to completely sink in yet, and wondered at how ancient the land felt. This land had been inhabited for hundreds, possibly thousands of years longer than America and yet somehow on an island barely the size of Texas they had kept not only centuries of history but kept their connection with the land as well. Those from the US recognized this and many left their sterile homeland of concrete and glass towers to visit this place where nature was nourished as a gift to the people who lived in it and not just on it.

   The house appeared from behind a hill as they rounded a short bend in the road and entered a dip between other hills that surrounded the place. The fields had been cleared of trees around the house but from their vantage point above the down-sloping land ahead they could see acres and miles of forest stretching out in a semi-circle around the house and then out into other parts of the property hidden by sloping land.

How many treasures of wonder were hidden among these rolling hills? Liz wondered not knowing that he thoughts were almost a perfect mirror of her sons except that while she simply wondered, he craved the search for those treasures.

The house was large and old. It wasn't as old as some of the estates out this way since a fire had destroyed the oldest manor a little over a hundred and seventy-five years ago, but much of the old history of the family had survived the fire and rather than rebuilding the gutted building they had built this new manor. She had been told that the old house still stood though it had long since been overgrown in the woodlands somewhere in the south eastern corner of the property.

It was made mostly of well laid stone with an earth toned shingled roof and elaborately carved balconies on most of the second and third story windows. The house itself was smaller than the original house but it still had three separate wings, one where the staff would sleep and eat and another for guests, when there had still been the need for hundreds of rooms during social occasions, and the third mostly filled with room after room of expensive furniture, art, carpets, and other odds and ends a wealthy family seemed to collect over several generations. The executor of the estate had explained all this to Elizabeth but she wasn't really prepared for the reality of the thing. It looked to her more like a hotel than a house and the number of staff she had been told the place required was looking less and less like exaggerations now that she saw the place.

"My god mom," Tim said as he recovered enough to say anything. "What is that some sort of resort? Did we take a wrong turn or something?" He looked down at the map studying the route and looking around as if a sign of some missed turn would pop out at him from one of the hillsides.

"No," she said a little uneasily. "This is definitely the place. They showed me a photo at the Lawyers office but to tell the truth, I didn't really grasp the immensity of the thing until just now."

"You've got to be joking?" He said incredulously. "This house is bigger than my high school! It'll take half a day to get from a bedroom to the breakfast table!"

She chuckled a little at that. "I doubt it'll be quite that bad, besides we'll be the only two here except the staff, the groundskeeper, and the tutor the lawyer arranged when I told him that we'd be home schooling you once we moved out here. We'll pretty much have our choice of rooms and we can certainly find something closer to the center of things than a half-day walk." She chuckled again.

"How many rooms are there?" Tim asked curiously scanning the semi-circular wings of the house as his mother started forward again on the down slope towards the house.

"I'm not really sure. I just didn't think to ask the lawyer. It's got to be nearly a hundred though and most of them probably haven't seen a person in decades except the occasional maid." She pointed out dark figures scurrying around near the steps leading up to the big double front doors of the mansion. "Look, a greeting party just like in the movies when those rich people come to their new house for the first time."

Tim shook his head. "Not those rich people mom," he smiled a little not really amused but feeling it was more appropriate than the scowl he felt like giving, "us rich people."

She looked at him strangely for a moment then shrugged. "I suppose you're right but I'm not sure I like to think of myself that way and I hope you don't either."

Tim shook his head vehemently. "Never."

Liz smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Good, cause we are about to become close personal friends with about twenty-five members of our house staff." She said as they rolled up to the edge of the now prepared procession of maids, butlers, cooks, and groundskeepers.

A middle-aged tabby cat in a very fine but terribly uncomfortable looking tuxedo stepped towards the car just in time to look a bit confused and slightly upset when they both opened their own doors and stepped out onto the cobbled drive. His professionalism wouldn't be stopped however and he bowed slightly to Elizabeth then inclined his head to Timothy in recognition.

"Ma'am and Sir, you're things have been moved into the second parlor until you decide where you would like them to be taken. The butler," he waved to a stout looking ferret in a much more casual suit than his apparent superior and he stepped forward quickly. "Mathew will help you get them sorted out and distributed to your liking whenever it would be your pleasure." He waved the ferret back to his place then turned back to them.

The tabby spoke in a charming British accent that seemed to fit his stature and demeanor perfectly Timothy thought as he continued. "I am Peter, your major domo here in the main house. We can get you acquainted with the rest of the staff as is needed so it's not a necessity to do it tonight. In fact I believe dinner can be served at your leisure?" He turned the statement into a sort of question as he looked towards a rotund female field mouse in cook's whites and received a very slight nod in return.

The pause for confirmation was almost flawless as he continued. "So you can adjourn to dinner anytime, though perhaps you would like time to bathe away your travels first?" This question was obviously directed at his mother.

"Uh..." Liz stumbled for a moment over her own thoughts trying to order everything the major domo had said. "What is a major domo anyway?" kept running through her mind. Finally she collected her thoughts and replied. "I think we're a little worn out from plane rides, customs, and driving. I think we should just get out things inside then have a bathe before we settle down to eat, if that's ok?" She turned the entire statement into a question and looked curiously at Peter for confirmation of her decision.

"That is fine Ma'am. I will have your bags brought in momentarily if you would like to go with Mrs. Pickle, she's the head housekeeper," he motioned towards a plump female rabbit in a black and white uniform that Tim recognized as a maids. "She will show you to the rooms we have prepared for you until you have the chance to look over the house and choose a room more to your liking."

Mrs. Pickle bowed and relieved them both of the carry-on bags they hadn't loaded into the trunk of the car. It was a strange affair for them both so they relinquished the bags without much further thought as the energetic head housekeeper led them up the stairs where the butler who had been pointed out to them earlier by Peter opened the door graciously for them as they passed through in a sort of stupor of acceptance. Liz thanked him as she passed and Tim smiled at him as well before the door swung softly shut behind them.

Mrs. Pickle became very talkative the moment Peter was locked away safely outside monitoring the removal and handling of their other baggage. "Oh deary me," she said. "I'm so forgetful. It's a pleasure to meet you both by the way. My Mr. is one of the groundskeepers ya know and were so happy to have ya here. It's been bedlam since old Master Allen died. The last of his line of the family, the last of the Allen men to have survived, but he was childless ya kin. Had the mumps back before there was much that could be done. Left him sterile as a rock."

Liz chuckled at that causing Mrs. Pickle to blush beneath her fur. "I'm a chatterbox don't I know it. I shouldn't ‘ave been telling ya that. Ya know it's not polite to speak ill of the dead and I'm sorry for it, I truly am. I know he was your kin even if you didina know him."

"Don't worry about it," Liz said kindly. "To tell you the truth I'm not sure how we're going to take all this bowing and scraping for long. We're just not that kind of people. Up until a few months ago we were poor as dirt to tell the truth." She shrugged.

"Aye I understand." Mrs. Pickle said sincerely. "Just call me Agatha if you want. All these Mr. and Mrs. such and so aren't much for me or my Mr. either. His name is Alfred by the way, he's a squirrel and the head groundskeeper." She said this last as if squirrel was the main consideration and head groundskeeper was an afterthought. Timothy decided he liked her.

"Oh deary me," she said stopping abruptly. "Wasn't I just saying how I was terrible forgetful. Here's your rooms right here." She said pointing to two doorways set just a little back from the stairs on the right side of the second floor. "There are adjoining baths to both rooms that normally share to the rooms on the other side as well but those rooms are right empty and you'll have the space all to yourselves."

She rummaged in the pocket of her apron and came out with two brass door keys, which she passed too them. "These are skeleton keys. They'll open pretty much any room in the house cept the library, the atrium, the door to the garden, the attic, and the basement. Those are all a different key but that still only makes two keys for anything in the house."

Liz nodded. "These seem very old." She said as she turned the worn key over in her palm.

Agatha nodded. "Aye that they are. Those are two of the original keys that were made with the locks somethin like a hundred and seventy years ago. They're two of only five remaining keys from that time but they work better on most of the doors than the new copies that have been made since."

Liz looked down at Tim and nodded at the key in his hand. "You think you can keep up with that or should we get you a key that's less likely to work properly but better to be lost?"

Tim looked thoughtful, seriously considering the question. He had to take it seriously when the key was older than him by a factor of ten. "It's got a good loop on the end of it. I can certainly keep up with it for a few days then I should be able to get hold of something to make a necklace out of it. Unless you would just rather I get one of the newer keys so you don't have to worry."

Liz shook her head. "If you are sure you can keep track of it I won't say different until you prove otherwise."

Just then there was a bustling on the stairway as four more people came up carrying the baggage. Two maids carried Tim's things and a pair of butlers lugged his mother's larger suitcases between them grunting a bit with the effort.

Liz looked a bit downcast. "Maybe I shouldn't have done so much shopping after we packed up the other things." She looked a bit chagrinned at the two puffing and blowing as they plopped the suitcases down between them waiting for her to open the door and admit them. "I'm really sorry." She said sincerely and quickly turned to unlock the door with the key still held in her hand.

Timothy laughed as the two maids smiled at him. His two small suitcases held little more than a few clothes he'd wanted to have while they were in London and the backpack was empty since his books had been returned to the school before he left. He turned away and unlocked his own door then stepped aside holding it open graciously for the two maids who nodded politely and smiled at him. One was a slender young badger probably in her early twenties with big black eyes that were friendly but detached and professional. The other was a slightly younger vixen probably just old enough to have started working, seventeen or eighteen. She had roving eyes of a glorious green that would probably put every boy she ever set them against right back on his heels. She smiled openly at him and her nod was friendly, her eyes curious.

As they entered Agatha bent towards him and whispered to him. "Ware that one dear, she's new and they say her family aren't the sort who marry for love if you get my meaning."

Tim did get her meaning. He nodded and smiled in thanks for the warning then followed the maids into the room leaving the door conspicuously open behind him. Inside the maids were both already beginning to open his bags and put away his clothes though the backpack had been placed on the bed and ignored for the time being.

"Uh..." he started. The maids both looked at him making him feel a bit uncomfortable. "You don't have to do that, really." He said in a low unsure voice.

"As you wish." The young badger said very professionally and without any sign that his desire to unpack his own clothes bothered her in the slightest. The vixen looked a tiny bit downcast though he couldn't figure why. "If you need anything just let Mrs. Pickle know and she'll send someone around." She finished as she shuffled the vixen towards the door.

"Wait." He said quickly before she could shut the door behind them. "If were going to be sharing the house I would like to know your names. It's going to be difficult enough without calling everyone "hey you" all the time."

This got a very small and kind smile from the young badger. "I'm Briana and she's," she motioned towards the vixen just behind her, "Kelly. We'll be doing a lot of the cleaning around so if you have a schedule of when you'd like to have your quarters tidied please let Agatha know and she'll pass it along."

"Why would I care when my room gets cleaned up? I've been trained all my life to keep up after myself, though I suppose in a place this big someone else will be better equipped to know where the sheets are kept. Otherwise I don't see much reason to worry about when it gets cleaned if anyone else will be doing the cleaning."

Briana smiled a bit shyly at him and he could tell she was just a little uncomfortable talking about this. "It's not something most boys have to consider that girls might see some of the things they do, or keep in their rooms. If you give us a good idea of a schedule you should be able to put away anything... uh... embarrassing before someone goes in there." She blushed so deeply that Tim was sure he could almost see it right through her fur. He could almost have contested against her though since he felt a similar heat rise in his cheeks.

"Oh. Ok. Thanks for the warning. I'll make sure to let Agatha know if there is a schedule that needs to be set." He said, about as uncomfortable now with a stranger as he'd ever been in his life.

"Good evening then." She said still a bit embarrassed. "There are fresh towels in the bath if you'd like to freshen up before dinner." She finished then pulled the door shut behind her. He listened to their footsteps recede down the hall then shucked off his jeans and t-shirt and went to have a quick shower before he changed clothes and put at least what he had packed away in the drawers.

Once he was out of the shower he had a little time to look over the room. It was roughly the size of the living room in their old house with a giant four-poster bed with filmy hangings draped on every side. The paintings on the walls were mostly scenic views of mountains and fields, not very well done and capturing little of the beauty he had seen from the real thing on their drive in under moonlight. The walls were cream colored with carved wood trim and a tiled ceiling. The floors up here on the second floor were hardwood of course polished, at least in this room, to a mirror sheen in which he could see his reflection where it wasn't covered by the thick brown rug that matched the color of the wooden furniture almost exactly.

The room held two chests of drawers and a wardrobe as well as a closet with sliding doors. He was starting to feel a little overwhelmed. Even all the clothes he had would barely fill one of the chests much less both of them, and the closet was actually filled with clothes left long ago by someone who must have lived here sealed in modern zippered plastic bags that smelled heavily of mothballs. Apparently the staff threw out the old bags occasionally when they replaced the mothballs. There was no telling how old the outfits in this closet might actually be.

He shut the closet door and got dressed then sat down on his bed and drew the envelope with the address in green ink from the pocket of his jeans. He ran his fingers across the letters of the address imagining her sitting at her little desk writing with that old troll pen of hers that she loved so much. He gently peeled back the flap on the envelope and drew out a sheaf of notebook paper. He smiled. Sam was always one for long talks he wasn't surprised her letter writing was just as long.

Dear Tim,

It's nice to know you'll be able to read this as soon as you arrive. I know you probably didn't think to write while you were in London, but that's alright I know you'll remember to drop me a line as soon as you get this letter. I'll be waiting for your return letter too but I'll probably write you again before I receive it so don't be surprised if my next letter sounds strange given any news you might send between now and then.

I've missed you already since we got home. Mom's been over at your house all day today talking with the realtors. I know your mom is paying her a good commission to get the house sold but according to the realtors it's barely livable much less sellable. I know that's mostly just waffle and they're trying to make mom sell it cheap but she's not budging from the price your mom gave her. Anyway all I'm really saying is that it's already lonely without you here.

School is a bore as always and now that you're gone I don't even have anyone to eat lunch with. The other girls are as crude and nasty as always but now they get to tease me about driving you completely out of the country.

Here there was a smudged line where it appeared Sam had been crying a little and tears ruined a few lines of writing before she continued again.

I'm sorry for burdening you with those petty problems and I know I shouldn't let them get to me anyway. That's all beside the point. I hope you will write me soon and tell me how your new house is. Is it big? Mom said your mom didn't really grasp the size of the place but she said it was really, really big. I can't wait to see it when we come to visit.

I've gotten a chance to wear those new dresses your mom bought me before she left. They are wonderful. Please tell her thanks for me. I will enclose a picture or two with my next letter so you and your mom can see how good they look. I heard that you were going to have a lot of servants. That must be really strange for you. Let me know about them. I'd like to know who you're meeting over there in Ireland.

We'll, it's time for me to go to bed now so I'll wrap it up. I'm also including some doodles you might like that I did today in class.

Sincerely and with Love,

   Samantha

P.S. I realized after you left that since you never made it back to your house later you never had the chance to get rid of something from your backpack. You may have already noticed but if not you might want to check and think about what to do with them.

   Tim finished reading the letter and thumped himself on the forehead as the post-script sank in. The sheets were still in his backpack. It was lucky nobody had actually searched the bag at any of the security stations along the way.

He grabbed the backpack and scooted it beneath the bed for the moment. It would be impossible to do anything with the sheets tonight and until he was sure of a time he could take them out without being noticed he would have to keep them hidden right where they were.

    He shuffled the page with the writing on it to the back of the stack and looked over the pages of doodles Sam had sent with her letter. There was a couple of her in a shiny new dress smiling and several in which she was beating the stuffing out of several girl shaped figures in front of a sign that read "Leafberry High School."

   He was just finishing scanning the pages when a soft knock came at his door. He chuckled at the pictures then folded the whole stack and put them back into the envelope and slid it beneath one of the pillows.

   "Coming." He said loud enough to be heard through the door as he got up and went over. He opened it and saw his mother standing there in a basic outfit of jeans and t-shirt.

"Hey mom. Time to eat?" He asked smiling.

Chapter Six

   Timothy was restless. He'd roamed from room to room in the huge house for five days and each was about the same. His only nice find had been the library, which spanned all three floors of the house and had a huge bay window on each floor looking out on the forest and mountains. There were thousands of books lining the walls and the room was dotted with comfortable looking chairs and couches that could accommodate an army of scholars.

   Tucked away in a corner on the third floor was a single computer set unobtrusively out of the way on a small glass desk. Once he'd had it running he discovered that it must have been the libraries single concession to the progress of modern science. It ran an old version of Screens 98 with little more than a reference catalogue program installed.

   After going through the reference program for a while he'd determined that most of the books were either collectibles that he shouldn't touch or reference books he would never want to read without a very good reason. The only exception to this was a single shelf of popular British paperbacks from sometime in the nineteen fifties that he didn't fancy trying as their titles were things like "Love of Roses" and "Satin Sheets".

   Once all of the fascinations of the library had worn off and he'd wandered through a bit of the rest of the house, he found a room he liked on the third floor with a view over the forest and hills on the west side of the house. If he stepped out on the balcony he could see almost half of the windows on the west wing of the house but luckily it didn't obscure the view much as it was built to slant away from the and sides of the house. It was actually a fairly long walk to get back to the main hall from this room but it would assure him at least a bit of privacy.

   His mother had chosen a room a fair way down the hall. She claimed she just liked the room and the view but Tim wasn't anymore fooled than she or the staff. She was close enough to feel like they were living in the same house at least and far enough away that he could feel isolated when he wanted. He appreciated the gesture. It wasn't necessary for him to be isolated while he slept anyway. There was so much space in the house anytime he wanted to be alone all he had to do was find an out of the way room in the unused guest wing and he could be alone for hours even if someone was searching for him.

   They had been in residence for a little more than a week when his mother dropped bad news in his lap during breakfast. "The tutor is due to arrive on Wednesday. He'll probably take the rest of the week to settle in but by Monday of next week I expect you'll be having classes in the library."

   Timothy frowned but nodded in understanding. "Though now that you mention the library, it made me think of something I wanted to ask you."

   She cocked an eyebrow inquisitively. "Oh? What's that?"

   "Well, you know Sam and me..." he started.

   "Sam and I dear. You'll have to do better than that when the tutor comes." She interrupted.

   "Yes Ma'am." He said blushing. "Sam and I are trying to keep in touch through the mail but it takes weeks to get anything back and forth like that. I have called twice but there's no cell reception out here with my old phone and we can't tie up her mom's phone for very long." He paused to gauge his mother's reaction. She looked very sympathetic as he hoped she would.

   "So what is it you want? Go ahead and spit it out. I'm about as sympathetic as I'm likely to get." She said smiling a little in amusement. She wondered if all young people really believed their parents didn't know all the tricks.

   Timothy grinned and shrugged. "Well, I was thinking, maybe, I could get a computer. We could get a satellite connection even way out here. Then Sam and I could send email and get it the same day. It would still be an improvement over the post." He finished looking hopeful.

   "I think you forgot something." His mother said kindly.

   "I did?" He asked, a little awkwardly.

   She nodded. "Sam doesn't have a computer. Or a connection to the internet for that matter." She said sorrowfully.

   "Oh. I didn't think of that." He said looking downcast.

   His mother scooted her chair nearer to him. "I'm sorry..." she started then something almost physical clicked in her face and a dawning realization came over it suddenly.

   Tim saw it and sat up curiously. He'd never seen this kind of look from her before, but that was because his mother was a woman who knew what she was and had never been one for self-illusions. Now however she'd been thrust into a new role where what she was had changed so radically that she wasn't yet able to realize all of her new roles implications. Another one had just occurred to her and that was the look Tim had never seen before.

   "Well." She started and pursed her lips. "I do like the idea of the computer cause it would be more useful than just a pair of phones that would work or something."

   Tim was beginning to feel a bit hopeful at her tone. "What then?" He asked as if just wondering about an idea she'd had all on her own.

   She smiled at him and laughed. "All your little tricks and you don't even have to try this time." She shook her head in mock sadness. "What a waste."

   "Alright, Alright. You got me." He giggled. "So?"

   "So what?" She asked impishly knowing very well what he meant.

   "So what are you thinking?" he asked in mock exasperation.

   She smiled. "Well, a few minutes ago I was thinking about what might be for supper and if the cook will take requests. Is that what you wanted to know?"

    He clenched his jaw against another laugh and tried to glare at her as menacingly as he could manage. It wasn't much of a job but he was at least able to keep from breaking into a grin that would have completely ruined the game.

   "Oh! What a nasty look to give your loving mother." She said happily. "Ok, Ok, I give. I thought, since your birthday's coming up in October I could get a computer for both you and Sam, and we could probably arrange something with Lily for you to pay for Sam's Internet out of your allowance."

   Tim looked a little confused. "I don't get an allowance. Do I?" he asked as if he might have just missed her giving it to him.

   She chuckled. "Well I've never had enough money to give you much of an allowance really. I'll send Lily enough money to get Sam a very nice laptop computer and get her connected to the Internet as your birthday present this year. Consider it making up for all the birthdays when your father came up short." She looked a bit hurt as she mentioned his father but Tim knew it wasn't because she missed him or cared about him at all, she cared only about how badly he had treated Tim.

   She shook off the memories and smiled a little less brightly than before. "You'll have to earn it though. I expect you to do better in your classes with this new tutor than you ever did back home. No more C and D grades." Now she looked stern and serious.

   Tim just threw his arms around her and hugged her. "Thanks mom. I promise I'll work extra hard."

   She kissed his forehead. "Good. I'm glad that's settled."

   He sat back. "Would it be ok if I had Harry drive me into Dublin to look at computers?" He asked quickly. "I might not get time later once the tutor arrives."

   Liz sighed. "You don't even want to eat breakfast with your poor mother! Oh woe is me," she said, but the smile playing at the corners of her mouth said she was less than completely disappointed. "Alright then. Go on with you. I know you've managed to get all your things put away already but I haven't even had a chance to start on the boxes we had mailed over."

   Tim hugged her once more before getting up and nearly jogging out of the room in search of Harry the chuffer. She watched him go feeling glad she'd been able to make him happy. She wasn't sure he even noticed how down in the dumps he'd been just wandering through the house for the last several days asking every few hours if the mail had come and if there was a letter from Sam. It wasn't that he was bored. She didn't think that, there was too much to explore and to see for a young stallion. He was lonely though. Despite the large staff in residence they weren't often seen and made a point to be unobtrusive. She gathered that was part of their job description from a short discussion with Peter the major domo, or head butler, a few days before. This made her all the more receptive to his plea for a better method of communication. Besides, what good was money if she couldn't use it to make her son happy?

   Chapter Seven

   Harry was an old hare, which were very different from rabbits, as he would be more than willing to explain if you intimated otherwise, who had lost his right ear in about five different heroic ways if you believed all the stories he liked to tell. He'd been the only member of the staff so far to really take a shine to Tim other than Agatha Pickle, who was always so busy managing the other housekeeping staff she rarely had time to talk unless you wanted to follow her around as she dashed from one part of the house to the other.

   Harry didn't do much driving these days since Tim didn't have many places he wanted to be and his mother often insisted on driving herself and her son wherever they might want to go more often than not. She hadn't even thought about having him retired or fired since his record said he'd been part of the house staff for over forty years. He was barely able to drive anymore anyway but even if he retired he wouldn't want to go anywhere else. His wife had died years before and even though her great uncle had apparently left him a very large sum when he died the old hare didn't want to leave what he thought of as his home, just to die somewhere new.

   Despite his age Harry was still quite healthy and keen of eye. Even though he hadn't been needed as a driver since his former employer got sick and moved out of the house for a hospital room four years before he died and Elizabeth inherited the house, he'd insisted that he keep his credentials up, which included an eye test every six months at his age. He didn't even need glasses and his vision was still better than 20/20.

   Tim looked for Harry in the garage and in the atrium, where he had first met the old fellow during one of his wanderings, but couldn't find him anywhere. After searching all the places he could think of that he'd seen the old hare he went back to the kitchens to ask Ms. Pennycoat the head cook if she might know where to find him. Ms. Pennycoat was a plump and stern fieldmouse who didn't much like intruders in the kitchen but she was very respectful to both Liz and him anytime hey entered her domain as long as they didn't look like trying to raid the fridge themselves.

   "I've seen the old scallywag sure enough. He came in here looking for a bit of breakfast awhile ago but on a day like this I believe he's been known to take to the orchard to nap in the sun while it's not raining." She said waving a baking spoon coated with some sort of batter towards the kitchen door leading out towards the rows of trees on the east side of the house.

   Tim thanked her and hurried out the door into the yard beyond. He wondered how far Harry might have gone. It couldn't have been far, and the trees were so widely spaced that it would be easy to see him even if he were a few rows over from where Tim was walking. He nodded to himself then started down the aisle of trees strait out from the door.

   He walked for perhaps twenty minutes scanning left and right among the trees before he wondered how far he'd gone and turned around. The house had been lost behind the hill he had just come down, but he was sure if he went back to the top he would still be able to see it easily. Instead of climbing back up he decided to move a few rows over before heading back so he could cover more of the orchard before giving up.

   To his left was another hill climbing up to meet the one he had climbed already. On his right the land sloped slowly down to the edge of the woods where the orchard ended and he could see sunlight glittering off something that might be a brook curving along the edge of the woods. He decided to make for the brook figuring that if Harry was out here that might be just the kind of place a person might go to relax.

   He turned right and headed down the slope at a trot. The brook turned out to be little bigger than he'd thought but it was still little more than a stream. It ran along on a bed of smooth round stones and the water was so clear he thought he could almost count the pebbles lining it's bottom if only he would take the time. He stood staring at the water for a bit forgetting what had brought him out here in the first place.

Suddenly an apple hit the ground right beside his feet making him jump. Startled, he cried out and took a step back. He chuckled at himself as he looked down and saw what had startled him on the ground. He bent to pick it up but when he did he caught sight of the reflection in the water of the brook and cried out again, this time in fright. He stumbled back from the water trying to backpedal while he was still bent over trying to pick up the apple. He fell on his rump with a thump and a shout of indignation as he scrambled to get back to his feet.

"Tim?" The voice was familiar. "Whatcha doin out here young-un?" Harry asked coming up behind him and helping him to his feet.

Tim ignored Harry for a moment now that he'd had chance to get himself back on balance he was looking back down at the edge of the brook where the apple lay. There was no reflection in the water now save that of the trees on the other side.

"Is there something wrong? I heard you yell. Woke me up from my nap over yonder by the willows." He pointed to where a small clump of willow trees grew on either shore of the brook the boughs hiding the spaces beneath from sight. "You ok?"

Tim nodded. "I was just looking for you actually," He said brushing some loose grass from the back of his jeans. "But then that apple dropped..." he motioned to where the apple still lay bright red on the ground beside the brook and realized the problem with his assumption as he looked around for the offending tree and cut off mid-sentence. The orchard stopped a good distance from the edge of the brook and no limbs from any of the trees overhung anywhere near where he had been standing. In fact, the trees that were close to the edge weren't apple trees at all. They were pear trees.

"Ah." Harry said knowingly as he looked around at the trees and understood why Tim had stopped speaking. "I see what ya mean lad. I think we should have a little talk on our way back up to the house."

Tim looked curiously at Harry who didn't look very surprised and didn't even move towards the apple that now seemed so out of place there next to the brook.

"It's not you lad. I promise. Let's head back up to the house and I'll tell you as much as I know." He looked down at the apple for only a moment crossing him self as he did then turned and started back up the hill.

Tim managed to remain quiet until Harry began to speak again as they crested the hill and came back in sight of the house a good distance off among the trees.

"You're not mad lad." Harry said suddenly.

Tim gave Harry a appraising look. "Of course I'm not. Why would you say such a thing?"

Harry shook his head. "It's a common thought when someone sees something like that. Others try to rationalize it even when there isn't a satisfactory explanation." He pointed to his eyes with emphasis. "I ain't seen nothing like it before myself but I have the keenest eyes for three counties and I know what I saw. Unless you're trying to play tricks on me there weren't no way that apple belonged where it ended up."

Tim was beginning to feel uncomfortable as Harry continued, not waiting for him to say anything.

"I don't think you were running away from a fallen apple when I came out of those willows either. I don't know what you seen, and I'm not sure I'd like to know. Not at my age." He continued shaking his head a little. "All I know is that for as long as anyone living can remember," he put a particular emphasis on the word living that Tim didn't couldn't fail to catch. "There have been rumors of a spirit in the woods here abouts. There have been stories."

Tim nodded his understanding but was looking a bit hesitant. He wasn't sure how much of this he should buy, not knowing how much Harry liked to exaggerate how he'd lost that missing ear of his.

"Oh none of them really frightening, and half of them unbelievable nonsense." Harry continued either unaware or uncaring about his audience's doubts. "Some of them though, some of them are just too believable to be brushed off as a silly girl's fantasy or a drunk man's wild imaginings."

"Are you telling me to beware the spirits of the woods or something?" Tim asked skeptically.

Harry shook his head sadly. "I know I'm prone to the tall tale or three on occasion, and I'm not trying to scare you. Whatever spirit might live around these parts isn't harmful if any stories are true. They are just there. If you happen to chance on a curiosity don't be frightened. That's all I'm sayin."

The sincerity of the old hare's words made Tim rethink his earlier assumption that the old hare might be stretching the truth to impress him. In fact the very vagueness of his warning gave it more merit than if he'd gone on telling ghost stories he'd heard.

"Thanks." Tim said as they approached the edge of the orchard where the door to the kitchen stood open to let out some of the heat from the ovens. "I'll keep my wits about me if I see anything... uh... odd." He finished unsurely.

Harry nodded then smiled, dropping his serious manner completely. "So, what brought you out and about on this fine morning in search of an old hare?" he asked waggling his one good ear in Tim's direction.

Tim chuckled. "Ah. I'd almost forgot. Mom said I get you to drive me into Dublin to look at computers. She's going to get me one for my birthday and I'd like to have a look so I'll know what I should ask for."

"Oh? Is it your birthday? Well then how old will you be then?" Harry asked surprised and pleased both.

"I'll turn fifteen on the third of next month." He said happily.

"Aye?" Harry said not really asking a question just showing a bit of mock surprise. "I wouldn't have taken you for more than twelve myself." The hare waggled his ear good-naturedly. "I was about your age when I lost my ear. Did I ever tell you the story?" He asked as he led Tim around the house towards the garage where the two cars were kept.

Chapter Eight

   Tim gulped. The look his new tutor had given him wasn't all that harsh but Tim was finding it didn't take much from this well mannered, kindly, leopard to make him squirm when he knew he'd done something wrong.

   "I swear I was going to do the homework but I just couldn't find enough information to finish the paper last night." Tim said half truthfully. He'd spent two hours last night chatting animatedly with Samantha on the new computer and realized only after she'd signed off to do her own homework that he'd left his until very late. She'd gotten on just after she got home from school and had signed off at about six o'clock but for Tim it had been midnight when he realized he still needed to write a five page paper on the pivotal battles of world war II that he'd barely started when he'd seen her name pop up in Q-Chat, the text messaging program they had agreed to use.

   Mr. Silvestie wasn't buying it in the least and he let it show. "Alright, but since you must have managed to get nearly done tonight you'll have to finish the other assignment as well as tonight's homework and I'll expect them both to be turned in tomorrow morning."

   "Ah but..." Tim started, but the look the teacher gave him made him shut his mouth with a snap. Tomorrow was Saturday and he normally wouldn't have needed to hand in any homework until Monday morning meaning he could have put both assignments off until Saturday afternoon and had plenty of time to finish them. Instead he'd have to work half the night (which he could afford to do on a Friday) to finish the assignments to hand in tomorrow morning instead. "Yes Sir." He said instead of finishing his previous thought.

   The tutor sighed and nodded. "Alright then, since my lesson today for our last subject was to go over your paper and fill in any blanks I believe we can stop here for today. Your homework is to do the even problems at the end of chapter two in your algebra textbook. You have to show your work too don't just bring me the answers and expect me to let you get away with it."

   Tim nodded morosely. Algebra was his worst subject ever and this was his first year to study it. At least the first few chapters were just basic stuff to bring him up to speed with what he'd already studied in previous math classes. It had just a bit of the new stuff thrown in to give him an idea of how difficult it was going to be. The pace his tutor was setting was actually rather slow considering that he'd missed a good portion of the first month of school. Instead of trying to cram everything in they were going to continue classes for an extra month into the summer vacation to make up for the lost time.

   "Off with you then." The tutor said as he noticed Tim was still sitting there looking downcast. "You can probably save yourself from having to stay up all night if you use the extra time from class to get through with that paper. Then you'll just have the problems to complete after dinner."

   Tim rose and shouldering his backpack left the library at a walk. He broke into a run once he was out of sight down the corridor. He climbed the stairs three at a time up to the third floor then hurried down the hall towards his room. He wanted to check his email for anything Sam might have sent when she woke up this morning. Since the difference was six hour when he rose at eight in the morning to get to class by nine it was still two o'clock so he wouldn't get anything she might have sent before she went to school until he was out of class for the day.

   As he trotted up the well-carpeted hall and turned the corner into the corridor where his room was, he noticed one of the doors along the hall was slightly ajar. This was unusual because nobody but the maids ever came up here unless they were asked too and since it was Friday the maids should all have been somewhere in the west guest wing of the house doing the quarterly cleaning of the rooms there. Even though nobody lived in the west wing the sheets were changed, the rooms aired, and the furniture dusted.

   He could hear muffled voices, one female and one male, coming from the room, as he got closer. He was no longer running and the carpet in the hall muffled his footsteps as he approached. Before he could start making out what the occupants were saying the voices stopped and for just a second nervous that the rooms occupants might come out and find him lurking outside the door he made to look as if he was just passing by.

   He moved to the other side of the door and when nobody appeared he stepped up to it and peered through the crack. Since there was light spilling through out into the hallway he wasn't very concerned that his shadow would show up in the room so he stuck his head almost inside intending just to peek for a second. What met his eyes caused him to stop dead and stare.

   Directly across from the door was a four-poster bed much like the one that had stood in the room he'd stayed in on his first night in the house. The bedspread had been casually tossed on the floor to one side. Leaning over the figure of a white furred ermine that looked only a little older than Timothy was, and who looked rather befuddled to boot, was Kelly the vixen. She had discarded her clothes somewhere out of sight and was leaning over the ermine wearing nothing but the silky smooth red and black fur god had bestowed on her at birth.

   He tail was raised as she bent down near the ermine's throat. Tim couldn't see what she was doing there but since the ermine looked rather more confused than anything Tim decided she wasn't likely attacking him. His attention didn't remain on the ermine, who was still clothed in a casual butlers suit, for long anyway. Kelly was growling low and quietly as one of her hands stroked her own very swollen looking vagina with two fingers as she crawled slowly on hands and knees onto the bed to straddle the ermine.

   "Uh..." the ermine's voice shook a little with anxiety. "Kelly... there's bound to be someone coming soon, are you sure this is a good idea?" he said in a squeaky, nervous, sort of whisper that Tim would have expected more from a mouse than the white ermine.

   Kelly growled menacingly obviously getting tired of the ermines complaining. "Nobody is going to be coming anytime soon. The boy will be in class another hour at least and the other maids and butlers are off in the west wing. As she spoke her voice shifted noticeable from the menacing growl to a softer whine of pleading as she ground her crotch against the growing bulge in the ermine's pants.

   As the ermine relented and began removing his shit and Kelly began unbuttoning his pants and sliding them off Timothy noticed a tangy scent on the air, coppery and mineral in essence. He wondered for a moment where it was coming from but was distracted as he realized his jeans were becoming an uncomfortably tight fit.

The bulge of his member was apparent as it lengthened down the leg of his pants and his eyes opened wide as he remembered the swollen, almost red vulva he had seen Kelly rubbing as she stalked onto the bed. She's in heat, he thought, almost absently, as he turned back to the crack in the door to continue watching. One of his hands, almost without his control, was already unbuttoning his jeans.

The ermine had lain back again on the bed, now fully undressed his large pink sex bounced up and down against his belly leaving a little wet spot on his fur. Kelly was straddling him again, this time with her rump pressing into the ermine's muzzle. She was gasping slightly as the ermine's hands came up to cup the curves of her rump and she lowered her head slowly, eyes half closed, towards his bobbing shaft and took it in her muzzle with a small whine of pleasure.

One of her hands held his penis, stroking the portion not in her muzzle, as her other hand cupped one of her breasts teasing the erect nipples between thumb and forefinger.

Timothy's shaft hung heavy and hard as he watched the two rocking against each other and squeezed his balls in one hand while the other slowly stroked the head of his cock his eyes were half closed as the scent surrounding him caressed the sensuality portions of his brain and nerves which would normally have lain dormant sent little shocks up his spine as his thumb rubbed softly against the opening at the tip of his shaft.

Kelly's hips were thrusting hard against the ermine's muzzle now and her stroking of his shaft had ceased as shivers of pleasure went up her body and her back arched with them. She was panting hard and Timothy could she that her eyes were glazed over with the pleasure not even seeing him though she was looking strait at the door where his face should be plainly visible. She barked sharply and turned on all fours suddenly pulling her rear away from the attentions the ermine had been lavishing on it.

Now that her rear was facing him and her body was no longer in the way Timothy could see fluids coursing down the vixen's thighs and matting the ermine's muzzle all the way down to his jowls.

Timothy shivered with delight as he got another look at the vixen's now slimy, red, and swollen tunnel still open slightly from the ermine's ministrations, revealing a lighter pink depth. He began stroking the entire length of his shaft rhythmically as the vixen crawled on her hands and knees into a better position away from the edges of the bed turning sideways to Timothy's view with her face away from the crack in the door.

The ermine had risen to his knees and his saliva slicked cock dangled in front of him like a pointer to heaven. As the vixen raised her tail the ermine was ready and grasping the tail's base he frantically, with the enthusiasm of the inexperienced, thruster towards her hot silky sex hole.

He missed on the first two thrusts his penis slipping between her legs. On the third he entered her like a battering ram squealing with frantic pleasure as the scent of her heat drove him into a passionate spurt of humping. The vixen, swollen as she was, didn't care of the ermine's inexperience with vaginal intercourse, all her most sensitive places were extra-sensitive now and the ermine was hitting enough of them. She yipped loudly over and over again as the ermine's balls slapped against her rump, splashing slightly in the fluids flowing down her thighs.

Timothy wondered that the yipping of the vixen wasn't going to bring the whole house but then realized that from the third floor where they were it was unlikely anyone would hear the noise much less come to find out who was making it. His own stroking had increased in speed as the pair in the room did. The sensation of pressure building in his lower belly was rising and he slowed the stroking slightly to hold off his orgasm until the pair had also finished.

As he watched the vixen suddenly gasped in ecstasy, eyes closed and body going rigid, as a gush of fluids burst from her hole to run in sticky streams down the ermine's legs and soaking his sack. He grunted in pleasure as he continued thrusting while the vixen's muscles flexed around his shaft driving him to the edge.

Timothy, watching the vixen's juices soak the ermine's fur and the sheets as well, let the tension that was building in him finally release. His eyes closed as his hand squeezed his cock as it stroked up to the flaring head and back again quickly. His other hand cupped in front of him to catch the cum as it shot from his penis filled suddenly with a hot, sticky, white mess as his orgasm crashed around him causing his hips to thrust forward involuntarily. He opened his eyes quickly to watch again at the crack in the door as his cum continued to spurt into his open palms. He wanted to see the ermine cum.

The ermine's breathing intensified and his thrusts lost their smooth rhythm and became erratic muscle spasms as his orgasm overcame him. The vixen, just recovering from her own orgasm, which had been exacerbated by the ermine's continued wild thrusting throughout, suddenly squealed. In surprise rather than ecstasy this time it appeared as she yelled at the ermine and dropped to her stomach suddenly to get him off of her.

"You idiot!" She cried as she dropped to her belly. "Don't cum in me! I'm in heat!" She yelled.

She was too late. Even as she dropped Tim could see a spurt of his cum only half finished within her soak the lips of her vulva as his cock came free. It was a weak spurt and obviously one of the last of his orgasm as only two more small ones followed it landing on the fur of her butt as she lay there still panting in terror, fury, and the afterglow of her orgasm.

Timothy sensed something coming that he would not want to witness as the ermine began speaking in a faltering hesitant voice. He didn't listen only turned and hurried down the hall towards his room and the adjoining bathroom, his half-flaccid penis flopping and his hands full of his own seed.

As he reached his door he heard a shriek of anger from the vixen behind him from within the room. He realized suddenly that with both hands covered in his cum he wasn't going to be able to open the door without leaving a good deal of it on the doorknob, and probably the carpet as well.

He didn't let himself think about it long knowing that if either the vixen or ermine caught him out here like this with his penis hanging out and cum in his hands he would be in trouble. Not the kind of trouble his mother would likely be involved in, but trouble all the same.

Without giving it much thought he raised his cupped hands to his muzzle and began gulping down his own seed. It had a sweet mineral taste to it that was complemented by the smell of the vixen's heat still lingering in his nostrils. He swallowed three mouthfuls before his hands were empty then licked what remained off the fingers of his right hand before reaching for the doorknob and rushing into the room.

He resisted the urge to slam the door shut as fast as he could behind him and pushed it too slowly and quietly watching through the crack until the last second to see if the shadow of either of the other room's occupants would appear in the hall. Then the door clicked shut and he slumped heavily against it breathing heavily with relief.

After a time he went into the bathroom and washed both of his hands then brushed his teeth thoroughly. When he was done he changed into clean boxers and a pair of shorts before sitting down at his computer and checking for any messages. Sam hadn't sent anything but he went ahead and wrote her a short message telling her that he wanted to chat with her later that night about something he'd seen today. Once the message was sent he sat back in his chair and sighed. Perhaps Sam would be turned on by the story and they'd have a little cyber-sex tonight.

He smiled at the thought and hit the send button. He wouldn't get a reply until her named appeared later on his Q-talk screen so he left the computer running and picked up the bag he had deposited near the door when he had re-entered. He'd almost forgotten it was on his back as he watched the couple in the room down the hall.

He settled down to his paper on world war two and began reading the last couple of paragraphs he'd written the previous evening. His mind wasn't in it. He was thinking about that wonderful and terrible night with Sam. He smiled as his mind wandered over the memories and his pencil slid from his hand to roll across the desk and onto the floor, the paper forgotten for the moment.

Chapter Nine

   Timothy rose early the next morning, or it seemed early to him since he'd been up most of the night chatting online with Sam. He'd finished his report and his algebra around eleven and Sam had waited patiently, probably doing homework of her own, when he asked her to wait after she logged on around ten. He told her almost everything about the encounter he'd seen but left out the part about masturbating as he watched. He was a little embarrassed now that it was over and wondered what had made him do it in the first place.

   Sam had been rather turned-on by his descriptions and they'd spent a couple of hours mutually masturbating each other over the chat. When they'd finished it was well past two in the morning for Tim and he'd regretfully signed off only because he had to get up to present his finished work to his tutor in the morning and still needed a shower rather badly after his chat with Sam.

   He'd handed the tutor his paper with bleary eyes and unable to keep himself from yawning heavily. The tutor had taken the papers and nodded then told him to go get some more sleep, which Tim was more than happy to do. Sam wouldn't be awake for another six hours or so and he could sleep in at least until then.

   He stumbled back to his room and fell back into bed and slept another two hours before waking again. When he rose this time he stretched and yawned, more awake now than he'd been when he walked into his tutor's little office. The computer beeped signaling he had an e-mail waiting for him. He wondered why Sam would have sent an email this early. It was still four in the morning where she was and he couldn't think of anything that would have her up at that hour on a Saturday morning.

   There were actually two messages in his queue. The first was marked just a few minutes before. He opened it up and read the three lines written within.

   Tim,

   Mom is taking me to the emergency room. I woke up sick and couldn't stop throwing up. I'll probably be gone most of the day so don't wait up for me.

                        Sam

   Tim was worried. He wondered what could have made Sam so ill. He hoped it was just the flu but that second message was there. Maybe she had started feeling better and decided she didn't need to go after all and written back to let him know. He hurriedly opened the next e-mail. There was no address on it but it was just as short as the one he'd already read though there was no name written at the bottom as Sam's had been.

   Come to the grove of willows down by the stream. I'll be waiting,

   He read the lines three times over wondering at who might have sent them. He didn't know enough about computers and e-mail to know how someone might have gotten this to him without adding their own return address but the message was clear about what the author wanted. Speculation ran through his mind. Perhaps Kelly or the ermine she'd been with had found out about his spying. Or perhaps Harry was trying to play a little joke on him after meeting him near there.

   He closed the e-mail and moved it to the deleted folder. There was no sense in worrying about it. If he didn't show up, whomever it was would know he was on to them and give up or they would try to make a more direct contact. Either way he wasn't going to do what they wanted. He got up and started towards the bathroom to clean up for a late breakfast when the computer beeped again.

   He sighed in relief. This must be the e-mail from Sam explaining that everything was ok. He turned back and sat down only to find that the message was a repeat of the one he'd just deleted. He deleted it again and sat back for a second to consider the now empty mailbox screen. Suddenly the computer gave out a long series of beeps as one after another e-mail popped into his inbox. When it was finished there were over a hundred copies of the deleted email filling his inbox.

   A shiver ran down his spine as an icy spectral wind blew through his room. He knew no breeze could have really come through the room but his brain imagined it so vividly that he really thought he saw the curtains around his bed flutter for a moment as it passed.

   He opened the first e-mail in the list and saw that it was another of the same. He'd expected as much this time but the realization that someone had to be watching him to make this particular point was foremost in his mind at the moment. He looked around, a little frightened, then rose and hurried from the room in a rush not even stopping long enough to shut the door behind him.

   He ran until he was around the corner before slowing down. He wanted to see if anyone else came down the hallway after him now that he was out of the room. If someone had been watching him perhaps he could find out who it was, and maybe how he or she was doing it. He peeked around the corner and watched for a long time waiting patiently. After a few minutes at his lookout, trying not to make a sound or a move that might alert anyone who was hiding nearby to his presence.

   The moments spanned out in silence when suddenly a hand unexpectedly touched his shoulder. He jumped and gave a loud neigh of fright as he turned nearly jumping enough to leave the floor. In his haste and fright he'd neglected to mark the position of the halls other occupant and Peter, the head butler, went flying. He landed on bottom a couple of feet away with a little screech of displeasure.

   "Oh!" Tim said when he saw who it was. "I'm sorry Peter. I thought," he paused unsure of how to finish the sentence. He really didn't want to have to explain any of this to Peter, who after all was little more than a stranger. "Never mind." He said and sighed. "Were you looking for me?" He asked moving to help Peter get back on his feet.

   Peter gave a little dignified sniff and straitened his uncomfortable looking tuxedo by pulling the coat tails and wiping any specs from the shoulders. "Your mother sent me to find you. She wanted to have breakfast with you but found out from your tutor that you'd gone back to bed. I was just coming to wake you up and saw you standing in the hall here." He looked Tim over critically frowning a little at the rumpled clothes in he was wearing. They were rumpled because he hadn't had time to change before bolting out of the room just a moment ago but Peter couldn't know that. "Uh... I apologize for startling you, but your mother would like you to join her for a late breakfast in the dining room. Apparently she has something she would like to speak to you about."

   Tim looked confused. So many things were happening this morning he wasn't sure which of them he should be thinking about first. He nodded to Peter. "Ok," he said off-handedly and motioned for Peter to lead the way.

   Peter looked him over once more then shrugged. If the boy wanted to look like a vagrant it wasn't his business. He nodded then turned and led Tim to the dining room where his mother sat waiting at the table.

   Chapter Ten

   Elizabeth whickered a greeting to her son as he walked in.

   Tim could tell his mother was in a very good mood since she only used those horse sounds when she was especially excited, frightened, or happy. He wondered which it was this morning.

   A large manila envelope sat on the table in front of her with what looked like enough postmarks to have traveled around the world at least twice on its way here. He wondered what it could contain. His mother got up and walked around the over-large table to where he stood, her arms outstretched to embrace.

   He was a little surprised but his instincts took over and he walked into her embrace without thinking about it.

   "I'm so proud of you." She said as she squeezed him tight.

   Tim was more confused than ever. He pushed lightly back to break the embrace then looked up at her in question. "Um. Proud of me for what?" he asked timidly glancing at the envelope on the table.

   "Oh!" She said and laughed a little. "That's right you probably don't even remember."

   She hurried back over to where the envelope lay and picked it up. "This came in the morning post. I knew you'd had it as a school assignment but you never even let me read it before it was sent off."

   Tim's mind was drawing a blank. The thing in the envelope had to do with something he'd done as a school assignment? Had he left a piece of homework without getting a grade and the teacher sent it to him? It didn't seem likely since even good grades had never warranted this sort of reaction from his mother before.

   There was an air of triumph about her as she handed him the envelope then moved out of the light so he could read it. She still hovered just behind him and he could feel here smiling as she looked over his shoulder.

   The envelope had originally been addressed to their old house, but the change of address form had re-routed it and it had eventually ended up here after quite a lot of traveling in between, as the postmarks showed. The return address said the thing had come from The Young Author's Society based in Newland California. When he saw that return address the memory clicked into place in his brain.

   Last year in English for their final assignment they'd been required to write a fiction story, have it edited by the instructor, and send it off to be judged in a contest being conducted by the YAS. It had been so long, over a year now, since the stories went out that he'd forgotten about it long since. He tried to remember what his story had been about but couldn't.

   "Well." He said turning to look at his mother who was still smiling.

   "Go on. Open it and read the letter." She said almost bursting with exuberance.

   He sighed and peered into the envelope. Inside was a single sheet of white paper with typing on it and a magazine. He couldn't make out what the magazine's title was without taking it out of the envelope so he pulled it and the sheet of paper out together and looked at the front cover more closely. It was called Author's Press, and apparently according to a blurb on the cover contained the winning story and the two runners up of the Young Author's Society contest.

   Tim wasn't completely stupid and he was starting to get an idea that he'd done quite a bit better in the contest than he'd expected at the time. He put the magazine on the table and his mother's smile widened noticeably as he began reading the letter that had come with the magazine.

   Dear Mr. Chart,

In regard to your submission of the story "Rain's Hammer" our judges have decided to award you first place in our Young Author's competition. Congratulations. We have included a copy of the magazine in which your winning story was printed. It has been slightly edited for grammar and punctuation but otherwise the actual story is unchanged. Our judges felt that your story, despite some minor flaws in language, was superior to anything else we received this year.

Because of this we would like to invite you to submit a further entry into our Author's of the Future contest which, unlike the previous contest, will pay a grand prize winner twenty-five thousand dollars. The winner of the Author's of the Future contest will also have the story published in book form and will be able to use this award as a fine example for any future works submitted for publication.

This contest is by invitation only and if you choose to accept you would be required to submit a story of no less than one hundred thousand words by June first of 2007. Please note that there is a small entry fee of one hundred dollars that must be submitted with your application for entry.

If you are interested please feel free to fill out the application online at www.futureauthors.com/application. The entry fee can be paid by credit card online or you can send a check or money order to the address on the application page. Please make sure to include the application reference number when making any payment.

Best of Wishes,

Betty Wilmark,

Director of Public Relations

   He finished reading the letter and realized that his mouth was hanging open just a little bit. The story's title had brought back the memory of what his story had been about in the first place. He'd written about a night almost all children have once before they grow up. He'd been out camping in the back yard with Sam in a little tent and it had started to rain around two or three in the morning. He and Sam had been woken by the hammering of the rain on the tent's roof and had huddled together, terrified, until his mother had come out to check on them and found them shivering, frightened, and overjoyed at her appearance. Even though the house had been a couple of steps away, they'd been too scared of the dark and rain to leave the tent.

   He looked up from the letter. "I won first place?" He said not quite able to believe it. "How could I win first place?"

   His mother was beaming at him now. "So, are you going to enter this other contest? This..." She glanced down at the letter in his hands craning her neck so she could read the name. "This Author's of the Future contest?"

   He goggled at her. "It had to be a fluke mom. I've never even thought of being a writer." The truth was he'd never given a lot of serious thought to what he wanted to do after school at all. It just seemed such a long time away at his age.

   His mother's excitement seemed to drain away a little as she frowned down at him disappointedly. "That's not showing a lot of enthusiasm. You just won a really important award for doing something you didn't even know you could do well. I think you should give this some thought before you decide. I'm not going to make the decision for you though, this is one of those life choices you have to make on your own." She flicked her tail and headed back to her seat at the table.

   "I'm sorry mom." He said quickly hating to see her dejected because of his attitude when she'd just been so happy. "I really will think about it. This is just coming as something of a shock." That was an understatement, he thought as he continued. "I haven't even thought about this story since I sent it off and never expected to see anything like this come of it." He said truthfully.

   His mom smiled some of the happy feeling returning to her face. "That's good. It's not good to just dismiss something like this. I know you're young to be thinking of your future so much just yet, but when an opportunity like this drops into your lap sometimes its best to pursue it and see where it takes you." She shrugged her shoulders and her smiled widened once again. "You might just find that you really enjoy it. That would be worth the effort even if you don't end up winning."

   Tim nodded and picked up the magazine then placed it and the letter back in the envelope. "Did you get a chance to read the story?" He asked her.

   She shook her head.

   He smiled and slid the envelope and it's contents across the table to her. "Go ahead and read it. We'll see about filling out the application later if I can at least come up with something to write about."

   "Alright." She said placing the envelope on the corner of the table out of the way. "Hungry?" She asked after a moment of silence.

   "Starving." He said immediately and smiled.

   Chapter Eleven

   He had forgotten almost completely about the rogue e-mails until he returned to his room an hour later and saw the door still standing open. He suddenly remembered what had driven him from his room in such a rush in the first place. He steeled himself and walked purposefully towards the open door.

   The room was just as he'd left it. The laptop computer had reverted to a screensaver and the Screen's logo was bouncing across a black background slowly keeping any prying eyes from whatever he might have left on the screen when he left it running. He frowned.

   He moved to the chair in front of the computer and sat down. He looked around the room from that vantage point looking into corners and checking carefully for anything that might conceal a camera or something else that would let someone spy on him. There were a lot of places a camera could be hidden but there were no obvious ones in the room and all the hiding places would require a ladder to check properly.

   "Who would have known to put camera's in this room specifically anyway?" he asked himself thoughtfully, realizing it would have been difficult for someone to hide something like after he'd moved in unless it was some sort of wireless device. That too would require regular changing of batteries though, which in turn would increase the chances someone doing that changing would be caught in the act, if not by him, by one of the other staff members or... He stopped that line of thinking. It was leading him nowhere, and even if he found the camera or whatever it might be that didn't tell him who had been watching him.

   He turned back to the computer and moved the mouse a little to deactivate the screen saver. The e-mail program popped back up at once, but now instead of a long list of e-mail's with no subject and no address, there was nothing at except the most recent e-mail from Sam. The inbox was otherwise completely empty as was the trash folder where he'd put the first two of the strange messages. A little shiver of fear returned at that and new speculations boomed through his mind as he considered the implications of the missing messages.

   He could be going crazy, but that wasn't likely. Was this one of those strange occurrences that Harry had warned him might happen here? He didn't know if spirits or whatever could write e-mails but he thought it was more likely that someone had waited until they knew he was gone then had come in here and simply removed the messages from the computer completely so there would be no proof if he actually did tell someone about them.

   He wasn't sure which idea he liked less.

   Suddenly, as had happened with the e-mails, the screen for his Q-talk program expanded into a private chat window. There was no user name listed in the right hand column with his username, Timmy15. He waited for the other user's name to appear wondering how whoever it was had gotten a chat opened without the program asking him to accept the chat. It always asked the user to accept the chat unless the sender was in the friends list, and his only listed friend was Sam.

   While he watched four words typed themselves into the chat window as if another user were sending a message. This wasn't normal in any case because the letters appeared one at a time to form the sentence. Q-talk let the user type his or her message then send it as a whole. The first four words finished then began repeating, the typing growing faster and faster as the same words printed over and over down the chat window.

   Go to the Attic.

   Tim was starting to get a little creeped out. He clicked the X button at the upper right corner of the chat window but it opened again just as fast as it had closed and the words continued to print down the screen.

   He typed, "The attic is locked and I don't have a key." into the text box and hit send. The message didn't appear on the screen at all. It was as if he hadn't even sent it. A knot of fear was beginning to rise in his throat. Did he dare to do what the anonymous messenger said to do?

   He thought about it for a long moment as the words continued to print on the screen. Well, I was looking for a story, and if this isn't the stuff of fiction I don't know what is." He thought to himself as he made up his mind and stood. The words immediately stopped their continuous scroll and the chat window closed. If something or someone could do this sort of thing he wasn't going to be able to avoid them forever, he decided.

   He steeled himself for whatever he might find and started for the door.

   The nearest doorway leading to the huge attic was just down the hall from his room. It looked just like any of the other closet doors that lined the halls on the third floor and could just as easily held brooms or clean sheets. They didn't though. He knew which doors led up, but neither his mother nor him had yet ventured to go up. In fact they had yet to even ask for the key.

   As he approached the locked door that would open on the attic stairs he felt another of those phantom breezes move down the hallway. He shivered and continued forward, the door beginning to look more and more to his imagination like the opening to a den of monsters. He pummeled his mind back into submission and forced himself to continue.

The lock clicked and the door opened as he took another step.

   He almost screamed as the door swung slowly open creaking ominously like in a thousand horror movies. He wondered if this was one of those times when the watchers would be yelling at the screen for the main character to get the hell out of there. He managed to keep his feet where they were even though he was tempted to let them sweep him back down the hallway and probably right out of the house.

   After a minute he had calmed enough to force one foot forward again taking a step closer to the dim stairs leading up into the gloom of the attic. He stumbled and almost fell expecting his foot to weight more than it did. It had been such a mental struggle to take that step that he had somehow imagined that it would take a great strength to move it. It hadn't. Once he'd recovered his balance he laughed at himself and found that his feet moved quite easily now that he'd lost some of the indecision he'd been feeling a moment before.

   His tail swished back and forth nervously as he moved slowly up the stairs into the cool dimness of the attic. There were windows along the backside of the house letting light spill into the room and making the floating dust glow like tiny motes on the air. He looked around curiously and still a little frightened.

   The room was large and filled with old furniture, pictures in antique frames of silver and wood. Much of the furniture was draped with cloth covers, probably to keep the dust off, but some of the larger pieces stood out uncovered. There was a door leading into another part of the attic far off at the other end of the long space and one just to his left beyond a stack of old boxes. The door to his left was slightly ajar and a smell like soot was drifting out from it.

   He clambered over the boxes and pulled the door all the way open to have a look inside. The smell of old burned wood sitting long in an enclosed space came to him. It was light with age but it was there. This room was darker than the first since it ran along the side of the house and the fewer windows that were set into the right wall got only light that filtered in from between the west wing and the main house. There were two old candleholders, now long empty and hanging with cobwebs, mounted on the wall beside the door.

   This room was less well kept that the previous one. Dust of years had collected on the floor in what could almost be called drifts. What furniture there was in the room was not covered like in the other part of the attic but set or stacked in what appeared to be a completely random fashion.

   He stepped into the room, leaving footprints in the layer of dust on the floor and sending clouds of it up into the air around him. He coughed then sneezed twice before he realized he wasn't going to be able to move around in here without some sort of protection. The dust was even getting into his eyes, making them sting and water. His vision blurred and for a few seconds he couldn't see anything.

   He turned back into the cloud he'd raised covering his stinging eyes with his hands unable to stop coughing. He stepped on something as he tried to rush back to through the doorway into the safe, clean air of the other attic. He tripped and went sprawling. Thankfully he landed across the threshold of the doorway and not directly into the dusty room. He lay there breathing better now that he was beneath the heaviest part of the dust cloud, which was expanding into the adjoining room.

   He sneezed a few times, clearing the dust from his sinuses and blinked as muddy tears ran down his face clearing the particles from his eyes. He was now covered in gray dust from head to foot making his white coat seem dimmed and faded. He turned his head to see what he'd tripped over. Right on the threshold of the second attic was a small book that looked very old and tattered. It was covered in dust but Tim could see that the pages between the soft leather covers were yellowed with age.

   There was no way he'd have missed that book being there when he went into the room. It was right in the doorway and would have been in the way when he'd swung the door open in the first place. This was too strange. He reached back and grabbed the book from where it lay then scrambled to his feet. Holding his breath and squinting he leapt over the pile of boxes blocking him from the stairs and barreled down them and out into the hallway beyond carrying his own, smaller, cloud of dust with him.

   He coughed for another few minutes bringing up a gob of gray mud that he spit onto the carpet without thinking. He headed back to his room and set the small book on his dresser while he went into the bathroom to clean himself up.

After showering away the filth and brushing out his mane and tail he went back into his room and dropped tiredly into the chair in front of his computer. The screen saver deactivated when he moved the mouse and he noted the time as twelve thirty-five. He checked his messages even though he knew any new message from Sam would have already be showing in his mailbox but still hopeful. There was nothing. He was both glad and worried. Glad that no new, strange messages had appeared and worried about Sam.

He opened the web browser. It came up to boggle.com and he typed in "Irish legends" in the search box. After a couple of seconds it produced a list of two hundred and fifty thousand results. He sighed and added "Ghost" and "Blackstair" to his search criteria then searched again.

This time the results were better. The first led him to a site called Ghost's of Ireland. The link took him directly to a small article entitled. The McKingtry Ghost. The article said that little was known about the spirit except that it haunted property owned by the last living member of the McKingtry family, Bolgus McKingtry, and that the ghost was barely ever heard from except in rumors from staff and locals who passed through the area. There was no information on who or what the ghost might have been. The site's proprietor obviously played up the mystery of this particular ghost and revealed only tantalizing tidbits of a couple of stories told by some of the locals who claimed to have encountered this spirit.

Tim sighed and sat back in his chair berating himself a little. Was he actually starting to believe all this? He smiled to himself and closed the browser feeling a little foolish. It was probably some sort of joke Harry was playing on him after that little encounter down in the orchard. This was just the sort of thing the old hare might find amusing. All the messages and funny things happening with the computer just when they did could have been coincidence, he told himself.

He almost believed it, as his eyes slid inexorably to the little dusty book with its yellowed, aged, pages lying on the top of his dresser.

   A knock came on the door of his room. He looked up from the book he was holding, still closed, and wondered for a moment how long he'd been staring at this little brown book with it's soft leather cover. He glanced at the clock on his computer and noted that it had been only a few minutes.

   "Yes?" he asked whoever was at the door. The door opened a crack and his mother's face peeked in looking around the door at him.

   "Hey sweety," she said smiling. "I was just going to change and invite you to go into town with me for awhile. It's getting awful boring just sitting around here and I heard from Sam's mom. She called just a few minutes ago, and she said Sam is sick and going to be at the doctor's having tests run for most of the day. I figured you might like something to take your mind off of things for a bit." She pushed the door open and stepped into the room. "Lily said Sam is going to be fine. She said she's feeling a lot better now but the doctor wants to make sure it was just a stomach bug and not something more serious."

   Tim nodded in obvious relief. "Thank god." He said and rose. "I really was worried. The only thing I got was an email this morning, which was really early for them, and it just said she was sick. I'm glad to hear she's feeling better."

   "I thought you might be worried. That's why I came to tell you." She looked down at the old looking book in his hands. "Oh. Is that a book from the library?" She asked curiously seeing the ancient looking yellow pages and frowning a little. "It looks really old Tim. You should be really careful not to damage it."

   Tim shook his head a little. "I found it in the attic actually, in one of the back rooms. There was a lot of dust up there and I tripped over this trying to get back out once I got in."

   She held her hand out curiously for the book. "Oh?" She asked in surprise. "I wondered why the attic door was open. I thought the maids might be up there cleaning. How did you get in without a key?"

   Tim shrugged. "It must have been left unlocked the last time someone went up there. It was pretty clean in the main attic area so I'm assuming they do clean it out occasionally. It was the other room that was so dusty. I'm not sure anyone's been in there since the house was built judging by the amount of dust in the place."

   Liz examined the books soft leather cover closely. It had indentations on the front that once might have been words but the book was now so worn that they couldn't be made out. She opened it to the first page and read Journal written in a fine cursive hand just above the name Tabitha Elswestwin.

   "Who was Tabitha Elswestwin?" She asked running her fingers over the rough parchment page.

   Tim shrugged again. "I'm not sure. I haven't even opened it yet. I was just wondering how it got up there in the first place."

   She held it up to her muzzle and sniffed delicately. She'd thought she smelled something odd when she took it and now she knew what it was. "It smells a little like smoke." She said handing the book back to him. "I remember one of the staff telling me that the old manor had burned a long time ago. Maybe you found where whatever had survived the fire was stored. If you did, that would make this journal almost two hundred years old."

   Tim cradled the book more delicately than before. The thought that it was older even than the house was awe-inspiring. He wondered how it had survived so long in the attic without protection.

   "Mom," he said after a minute. "Is it alright if I look through this for awhile? When I'm done I'll take it down and find a place for it in the library, but I think it might give me an idea of something to write for that contest."

   She thought for a second then nodded. "You found it, and it probably wouldn't have lasted much longer up there in the attic anyway. If you're careful with it you might actually have saved it from its fate by finding it." She smiled and touched the cover gently. "I'm sure whoever wrote this would like to have known it wasn't lost forever."

   Tim put the book on his desk beside the keyboard and got up. "Didn't you say something about going into town?" He said wanting to change the subject.

   She nodded. "Yeah. I thought we could take a trip into Dublin for the afternoon and go shopping, then eat dinner somewhere before we head back. I haven't had a chance to look around the city at all since we arrived and I thought it might be nice if we went together. Besides you really deserve something special for getting first place in the contest." She smiled at him realizing just how big her son had grown. He stood almost eye-to-eye with her though for a young stallion he was probably reaching the end of his growth spurt. He would begin to fill out muscle tone rather than height over the next two years and by the time he was eighteen he would likely have grown upward only a couple of inches taller than she was, though he would likely weight something near a quarter again her weight or more.

   Tim smiled. "Cool I'll grab my jacket and we can go. It's been getting rather cold out lately."

   "That's winter in Ireland apparently." She said in agreement. "I hear it's likely to start snowing if we get a cold snap and once it does it probably won't ease off until near mid April or the start of May next year."

   Tim went to the closet, he'd had everything removed from this one and had the wardrobe taken to another room, and put on his jacket then went back to join his mother at the door.

   She chuckled. "Well I suppose we'll have to find somewhere casual to eat. I was going to change but if you're going like that I suppose what I have on is fine."

   Tim looked surprised. "Oh. I didn't know you wanted to dress up. I can change real quick no problem." He said quickly.

   She shook her head. "No, that's alright I think I like casual better anyway. We can't be expected to be acting like snobs yet. We've only been rich for about two months now."

   Tim chuckled as they left the room and he closed the door behind them. By the time the car left the driveway he'd forgotten almost completely about the journal and his trip into the attic.

   Chapter Twelve

   Tim was lonely and confused. There had been no response to the e-mail's he'd sent Sam for the last week. He'd written every day asking for news and how she was feeling but apparently she was either still too Ill to check her messages or she had decided not to answer his messages anymore. He wasn't sure which was the problem but the last few times he'd called, even when they should have been home, he got the answering machine.

   In addition to the silence from Sam his mother had been acting strangely around him for the past week or so as well. Anytime he would enter the room she wouldn't meet his eyes and avoided long conversations with him. He wasn't sure what was going on but there was nothing he could do but go on for the time being.

At least things were interesting right now. His classes were going well and the tutor had turned out to be a better instructor than any of his teachers in public school had been. Mr. Silvestie had a way of making even the dullest lessons seem entertaining. He'd been given time in his English classes to start work on his entry into the Future Authors contest, the last thing his mother had shown any real enthusiasm about in the last week, and he was using it to start an outline on a ghost story he'd come up with. He'd already written out a very good, or he thought so at least, description very similar to his sojourn into the attic and had captured the strange feel of the experience nicely.

He'd spent a lot of his free evenings, after doing his homework, skimming through the journal he'd found in the attic. He was having trouble with the archaism of the language it held, which appeared to be quite a bit older than a couple of hundred years. He'd been slow getting through the first few entries but now he was making progress and had starting reading entries that had a lot to do with a couple of children born not long after the journal's writer had been hired on at the McKingsly house.

The two children were only a few months apart, just like him and Sam. McKingsly was a horse clan and the young boy of that family had been named Argus and had been described in striking detail. Tim had been a little disturbed by the fact that the maid's description of the young Arugus' coloring was almost an exact match for his own. The second child was the daughter of a neighboring lord, a filly by the name of Barbara Allen, daughter of Lord Stephen Allen whose family had originally come from England.

The two children had been betrothed at birth, as was apparently custom at the time. When he asked his tutor about this he'd explained that at that time the chance of randomly meeting a suitable suitor was limited so the marriages were arranged by the fathers of the couples at birth so that they would be assured a politically and socially sound marriage.

After reading entry after entry regarding nothing but the children, some only weeks from the last date and some whole years later he realized that the journal wasn't a real journal at all. It had been copied, probably from other journals kept by the scullery maid, and all of the entries concerning one or both of the children had been put down in this one book for some reason. When he realized this he became even more intrigued.

He'd reached a point in the journal last night where the two children were growing out of childhood and into young adulthood. They were good friends and spent a lot of time together learning to ride and such but as they grew older their parents separated them more and more except for social occasions. The children had taken to sneaking out at night and meeting in the woods between their family's properties just to be together, though their fathers punished them both severely on the occasions when one or the other was caught at it. The last entry he'd read the previous night had told about just such an occasion when the son had been caught sneaking back into the stable at three in the morning soaked to the skin with rain.

He was anxious to get back to the journal and finish it. There were only a few more pages left and he assumed the journal would end when the couple was married and had moved away to live their own lives somewhere in Dublin or perhaps England. They were only thirteen and fourteen in the last entry he'd read, but as his tutor had explained, in those days arranged marriages were often consummated as soon as the male partner turned sixteen.

He sat in class listening and scribbling down notes for the remains of the period. It was almost Halloween, but Tim wasn't looking forward to it much this year. He'd outgrown going out for candy around age twelve and since then he'd usually stayed in with Sam and watched scary movies. This year he probably wouldn't even do that without Sam there to watch with him.

He realized the tutor had stopped talking and looked up.

"You're not really here to day Tim." He said with strange understanding in his voice. "I understand you're here with no friends and missing everything you left behind. It's got to be especially troublesome on holidays but you've got to try to focus if you want to learn." His eyes were understanding but reproachful. "I think we can leave our lesson here for the day since you're obviously not going to be able to concentrate, but before you go, is there anything you'd like to talk about?"

Tim was taken aback. He hadn't expected that at all. He thought Mr. Silvestie was just another teacher, all be it a good one, but only a teacher who in his experience cared little for their students as individuals.

"Uh... Well Mr. Silvestie..." he started but stopped as the tutor shook his head and smiled a little.

"We can do without the Mr. from now on. I think you can call be Brodrick, though I prefer Rick if possible. If I've learned anything about teaching individuals, it's that when you're the only teacher you have to do the job of a whole staff anywhere else. I'm not just your tutor here I'm also your councilor and you can come talk to me if you need to get something off your chest or just feel like you need some company." He shrugged his shoulders. "I warn you that I'm not a licensed psychologist, but I will stick to the rule that anything that is said in confidence will remain in confidence even if I council you to tell someone I won't go behind your back and do it myself."

Tim nodded morosely. "I've had a lot on my mind the last couple of weeks." He said without really needing to consider. Rick was a good guy and Tim desperately wanted someone to talk too. "I haven't heard from my best friend... at least I think she's still my best friend, for two weeks. Mom had been ignoring me, or at least I think that's what she's doing. She certainly isn't going out of her way to talk to me anyway." He sighed and let the pencil he was still holding drop onto his notes. "Add to that that it's almost Halloween and I'm not even going to have Sam around to watch scary movies with or anything."

Rick shifted slightly on the desktop where he had chosen to sit. "I shouldn't wonder with all that going through your head that you're a little less than completely happy right now. I can't really tell you how to make things better and I certainly can't make whatever is going on between you and your friend resolve itself." He shook his head sadly. "Sadly those things have to work themselves out. It's just a face of life that comes along. It will come along over and over again most likely cause that is the nature of our lives."

Tim nodded but still looked dejected. "What about mom though? I know she isn't happy about something but I'm not sure what it is. I decided to do the contest and I thought she'd be thrilled for days if not weeks. Instead she was a little pleased and I think she's avoiding me."

Rick's eyebrows rose. "That's strange. I got the impression that you and your mom were pretty close. If there were a problem there, it would probably be the best thing to just get it out in the open. Confront her about it. Ask her what's the matter. If its you she'll probably tell you because resolving problems is one of the driving forces of intelligent beings." He paused shrugging. "Most of the time anyway."

Tim nodded in understanding. "I guess you're probably right. I think I'll go ask her what's been bothering her. I should have done it a week ago, at least then I'd have had somebody to talk too with Sam not speaking to me anymore."

He wasn't sure what had made him confide in his tutor but he did feel a little better. Well, maybe not better, but at least a bit more hopeful.

Rick smiled at him and shrugged again. "I do it cause you're worthless as a student with your mind elsewhere like this. There's no point in teaching you anything if you aren't going to be able to learn it." He got to his feet and went back to his desk and began gathering his things together. "That will be all then for the day. I suggest you try to center yourself before Monday cause we'll be doing more on the formation of the united nations then and it's rather boring material. If you aren't totally devoted to it I'll be waking you up in the middle of the lecture."

Tim stowed his bag beneath the chair and left the library. He wouldn't need the books this weekend since Rick had been nice enough not to assign any homework and he wouldn't be back in class until the first of November. He should have been excited about the long break but he just couldn't get in the mood.

Instead of heading up to his room to check his e-mail he went looking for his mother. About the time he reached the kitchen door he realized that she didn't need to go in there since they had cooks, and maids meant she wouldn't be anywhere just cleaning the house either. He stopped and thought for a time. He decided to check the kitchen anyway. Perhaps one of the cooks would know where he could find her if she wasn't there.

He pushed into the kitchen and found Mrs. Pennycoat standing beside the oven bent over as she slid a large loaf of fresh bread onto a large wooden paddle to lift it from its depths. Her assistant, a thin and wispy looking gazelle, had her hands buried in dough up to her elbows. His mother stood to the side watching and chatting with the assistant whose head was turned to the side to look at Liz while she worked the dough back and forth, kneading it again and again.

Liz saw him and her smile faltered a little. It would have been barely noticeable to anyone who didn't know her, but Tim saw it the instant it happened. The assistant followed her gaze and smiled as she saw him.

"Well hello." The assistant said as she continued to knead the dough with apparent inattentiveness. "Come for a snack?" She asked kindly.

Tim had noticed that most of the staff seemed to be trained in a sort of detached kindness. They outwardly appeared to be quite friendly but weren't, in most cases, interested in actually getting to know you. This was one of those questions that sounded exceptionally friendly and open but that she really saw as a part of her job. Mrs. Pennycoat wasn't the same way. At least he thought she actually did like him, though she might just be better than some others at hiding her actual feelings.

Liz averted her eyes just enough so that she wouldn't meet his as he looked towards her. "I was looking for mom actually." He said and gave a completely false smile of his own.

Oria, the assistant, frowned a little. "Oh poo. We were just having a nice little chat too." She looked over to where Liz still stood leaning against one of the, currently, uncluttered counters. "I'll write up that recipe and you can help me give it a try tomorrow." She said to Liz smiling more genuinely than she had at Tim.

Tim wondered how much time his mother had been spending with the cooks and their assistants since he'd started classes. She'd always loved cooking and had never had a kitchen like this one to work in before. He suspected she'd started spending a lot of time here once she realized how much free time she really had now. She'd always been a working mom before and even Tim didn't think she could stay still all day without finding something to occupy the hours.

She nodded and smiled back but the smile still didn't make it past her lips. She had tensed up as soon as she'd seen him. He still didn't know why, but he was determined to find out.

   She came over and steered him by the shoulder to the kitchen door. She didn't squeeze too tight but he could feel the tension in her vibrating through that hand like a buzz saw vibrating the log it was cutting.

   "Mom? Can we talk for a minute?" He asked quietly as the door swung shut behind them.

   She looked down and frowned. "I think we'd better." She said in a tone that did not bode well.

   He was extremely confused by her tone. She was obviously of mixed feelings about something, and it obviously had something to do with him, but he had heard as much anger in her voice as concern. What could have elicited this sort of response from the woman he'd always known to be gentle and kind even when she was in a raging temper?

   His father's abusive nature had been part of that. She'd always been the one to offset the red rages of his father with her kindness and comforting. There had been times when he'd wondered how many more beatings it would take before his dad went over the edge and finally maimed or killed him. Then he had disappeared. Vanished into the arms of a young vixen and left them with a chance to be happy.

   His mother's current mood was not one of those red rages like his father's but it was closer than he'd ever seen his mother come before. He didn't think it was all anger either. There was something deeper that the anger was simply covering up, hiding from him the other emotions that threatened from some deep place.

   He had a lot of time to think about it as she led him into the main hall and up the stairs to the third floor then down the hall to her room. It was closer to the stairs than his room was, around the corner so that she could let him have his illusion of privacy. She turned the knob and opened the door.

He'd seen the room before during his roaming search of the house, but she'd almost completely changed it since she had moved in. The generic picture's that had hung on the wall were gone now replaced by photos of him and Sam mostly. There were two of her parents, side by side in a single silver frame, on the dresser next to a photo of her and Lily both cringing beneath a spray of water from off-camera somewhere.

   She shut the door behind them and pointed to a recliner set against the wall opposite the bed. A reading lamp set on a small table stood next to the chair with a well-thumbed paperback she'd been reading on the plane from London sitting next to it. He walked over and sat down as she leaned heavily on the end of the bed almost sitting but not quite. Her tail was swishing back and forth with agitation.

   "How... Could... you be... so... stupid?" She asked in a slow shaky tone of withheld anger.

   He looked back stunned by the question. He'd actually started to assume that she'd found out about him seeing the vixen and ermine having sex in the room down the hall from his. The question didn't seem to fit the crime though. She could be talking about grades he was getting in class, but as far as he was aware Rick had been perfectly happy with his progress thus far.

   His mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water but he couldn't think of a single thing to say. He was still completely unaware of what she was asking about in the first place

   She snorted and whinnied in frustration. "Damn it. You never even thought about it did you? She said, her fury rising. Neither of you thought about it for a single second, never considered the consequences."

   He was starting to get a sinking feeling in his stomach. There hadn't been any "neither" since they had arrived. Either she was talking about something she just suspected between him and someone in the house... or...

   Had someone seen the sheet that he'd decided to keep and told his mother about it? It was stained with blood, but he'd washed it. He'd taken it down and washed it in the middle of the night, then brought it back without ever seeing anyone else awake. Could she have found it herself? Had she gone through his room while he was out or in class one day? If she had found it, what did she think? Did she think it had been one of the staff or did she know it had been Sam?

   All these questions ran through his mind like lightning and he had no answers for any of them. That feeling of his stomach dropping had time to make it all the way into his belly now and weighed there like a score of stones.

   "I..." He started but she waved it away with one curt gesture.

   "I see you have no idea what I'm talking about. Or rather you know but can't figure out how I know." She snorted again with peak but the anger seemed to be fading now, replaced by a grudging sort of acceptance. "Haven't you wondered why Sam hasn't been writing?" She asked pointedly.

   The simple question dropped about half the answers he'd been searching for into place and the realization of their meanings turned the stone's in his stomach to brambles and thorns. It hurt.

She knew about Sam. Knew about their last night together. Lily must have found out and that was why Sam had stopped writing, her mother had forbid her to continue. She would probably never let her speak to him again. He might never hear from Sam again. His best friend, the one he had not truly realized he loved deeply until the moment when he was faced with losing her forever.

Tears leaked from his eyes. He didn't want them to come but tears are revolutionaries, they do not obey the status quo and come of their own accord. He tried to close his eyes against them not wanting his mother to see. His father had always said that tears were the last bastions of weaklings. They were self-pity made material for the entire world to see your weakness. The flood wouldn't be held back but he forced himself not to sob. He sat there motionless with the tears flowing down his cheeks and his bottom lip trembling slightly with the effort it was taking not to move or make a sound.

His mother's eyes filled with pity; what he'd wanted to avoid. He didn't want pity. It was a pale substitute for Sam. It was no substitute for Sam. His own anger rose a little, but it was no match for the despair that had taken up residence, a black pit in him, just below his heart, pressing it as if it could crush that fragile organ.

He feared, as a revelation came to him, that it could be crushed. The pressure of despair could stop a heart. He knew that now. Then his mother was with him; taking away some of the pain that had threatened to break him as if he were some dead limb in a storm. She wrapped her arms around him and seemed, in the magical way that mothers have, to take some of his emotions, siphoning them off like so much water until they were bearable again.

She cradled his head tenderly like she'd always done after a particularly nasty bout of his father's cruelty.

"Timmy. Don't fear sweety." She crooned. "Sam isn't gone forever. It's just a tumultuous time right now."

He took a deep shuddering breath and sniffed a little. "But. Lily isn't letting her write anymore. If she found out..." He hitched in another breath to continue. "She'll never come this summer, and I'll never get to see Sam again." He hugged his mother close before he was able to sob out the words that he needed to admit to someone. "Mom, I loved her. She was everything..." another breath caught in his chest and he couldn't continue. He realized he didn't need too. "She was everything" just about summed up his feelings on the subject.

Liz took hold of his shoulders and held him back for a moment to look into his eyes. "Not anymore Tim." She shook her head slightly her face set now in seriousness. "She can't be everything anymore."

Tim shook his head unwilling to admit that so soon. He couldn't let her memory go already. He might see her again, at least after they'd become adults. They could find each other if they really wanted too. At least there was hope in that.

Liz shook him a little. "Honey. Samantha's pregnant." She said very softly.

   Chapter Thirteen

   "She's what?" Tim said unable to completely comprehend what his mother had said through the sudden change from despair to shock.

   "Pregnant." She said a little more tersely than she'd wanted. "You know, the thing that happens when two young adults have illicit sex without their mother's knowledge and no idea of how to protect against it?" She finished with just a ghost of a smile.

   "At least it's a real smile." Tim thought as he sniffed back the last of his tears.

   She nodded seeing that the message was beginning to sink in. He hadn't made all of the connections of the consequences yet in his mind but those would come too in time.

   "What I want to know." She said, running a hand through his mane where it had been mussed while they embraced. "Is how you could have let this happen? I know you both knew this was possible so why didn't you take precautions?"

   Tim sighed. "It wasn't a planned sort of thing. It just kinda happened. It was the night before we left and we were both on an emotional edge I guess. Wondering if we'd ever see each other again." He had the grace to look sheepish at this. "Truthfully we didn't consider that anything like this could happen."

   "Didn't you notice she was in heat?" Liz asked a bit more directly this time.

   Tim shook his head. "I swear I didn't. Maybe it was because we'd gotten used to it. Remember, we all four stayed at their house the night before we left and you'd have noticed it too." He looked at her questioningly. "Did you notice it?"

   Liz shook her head. "Maybe that was it." She sighed deeply and got to her feet. "You'd never shown that sort of attraction before so Lily and I hadn't even expected anything like this." She made a throwing away gesture as she leaned back again on the end of the bed. "I imagine, between the emotional high and the hormones of Sam's heat, it was bound to happen. At least you love her. That's something even if you are both a little young."

   Tim's eye widened as he came to a realization. "Sam." He almost got to his feet with the sudden thought. "How is Sam taking this?"

   Liz waved a hand dismissively. "Oh Sam is thrilled. After the initial shock wore off anyway. She obviously loves you just as much as you love her. She's been clawing at Liz all week to give back the computer so she can tell you. She didn't want you to find out this way but Lily thought it would be better if I found out first. I've known all week but I haven't been able to bring myself to talk to you until now. I was just so angry at first and then disappointed."

   "And now?" He asked cautiously.

   "Now I'm resigned." She said. "Still a little angry and disappointed I think, but mostly because of the way I found out, and because I expected to be able to be happy when I learned I would be a grandmother. Happy and a little older." She smiled a bit at that before she continued. "Mostly though I guess I'm happy for you and Sam. You might not have planned this, but it's obviously what you would have wanted. Even if you would have waited under other circumstances."

   "Can I talk to Sam?" He asked quickly. "I need to talk to her. She's got to be worried about how I'll react. I never had the chance to tell her how I feel. She'll be terrified."

   Liz laughed but stifled most of it. "You haven't talked to Sam's mom obviously." She said still chuckling a little at Tim's look of indignation. "I told you Sam is thrilled and I wasn't lying. She was worried at first about how you would react but I think it was mostly the manner of delivery she was worried about. She either knows you love her and will be happy or she's so hopeful that you do that she's denied the possibility that anything else is possible."

   "But can I talk too her now? How does her mom feel? Is she going to try to keep us apart at a time like this?" He asked starting to pace around in a little circle in front of the chair his tail swishing back and forth in agitation.

   He really does look like an expectant father pacing like that. Liz thought, then on the heels of that. I think he really does love her.

   "She's waiting for your call. I told Lily last night I would have this discussion with you after class today." She nodded. "She wasn't very happy at first, especially with you. I think she had some idea of you defiling her daughter against her will or something at first. After she got the chance to sit down and talk with Sam she calmed down a lot. At least she's decided that the two of you were stupid but in love and since you've already told me that's basically the case I think it can remain that way."

   Sam went for the door but Liz stepped in front of him. "Hold on a minute. We aren't done yet." She said holding up both hands towards his chest as if to hold him back. He stopped before she had to try.

   "You've got some thing to think about. I know up until the point you've been neglecting to think, but that time is over. You have a son or daughter on the way and that's enough to make you a father. If you're going to be a father it's time you learned to be a man as well." She lowered her arms. "If you haven't thought of it already you should be thinking of how you're going to propose." She looked to see his reaction. "Of course nobody is going to force you..."

   He interrupted. "Of course I want too. I guess I just thought it was a given considering..." He waved his arms in a gathering gesture. "Considering the situation I mean."

   "That's the issue. Think for yourself for once Tim. You really do love her right?" He nodded and she continued. "Then you have to ask yourself how it will feel if you make out like marrying her is the only thing to do. You need to make sure she knows that it's not the reason. That she knows it's what you wanted despite what's happened."

   Tim saw the problem. In truth he hadn't even thought of marrying Sam before finding out. He'd known how much she meant to him but he hadn't thought about marriage at all up to this point.

   "Then I'll have to give it some thought. I..." he swallowed a lump in his throat. "I never thought about it."

He thought for a few minutes as his mother stood and watched him curiously.

"I can't leave her alone right now." He said finally and his mother smiled and nodded for him to continue. "They were supposed to come for the summer but that's too long. She'll need me sooner than that." His eyes got a bit bigger. "She'll have to go to school like that too. The girls were always terrible before. I can just imagine how this will fuel their malice."

He shook his head. "I'll have to go back." He frowned at the thought. "Is Lily willing to let me live there, or would you want to go back with me yourself? We'll never be able to get the house back now. Sam said it was already in escrow. It'll be sold by the time we got back."

Liz shook her head. "You're looking in the wrong direction, but at least you're looking." She said. "We've already arranged for them to come here." She said pointedly. "Sam will be able to join you in classes with the tutor. I already discussed it with him and he's willing to take on the extra work that would involve."

Tim thought back to the conversation he'd had with Rick before he'd come to find his mother. Had the teacher known about the whole situation or just that something was up because his mom had asked about introducing a second student. He thought he'd probably never ask.

"When?" He asked wrinkling his brows in thought.

Liz tilted her head back and looked at the ceiling as if a calendar were printed there with all relevant dates marked in red. "Um... I think Lily was planning to get their house up for sale and wait for the Christmas break before she took Sam out of school to make the move. I don't have an exact date yet but they should be here sometime in late December or early January."

"I hope they can be here for Christmas." Tim said hopefully. "That would be a great Christmas present."

Liz smiled and gave another chuckle. "We'll see. They'll have a lot to do before they can make the move." She said then moved aside. "Alright then, if you're going to keep thinking about things from here on out you can go make your phone call."

He gave her a quick hug and smile then opened the door and jogged down the hallway toward his own room where they'd had a private line installed for his use when the internet was installed. The satellite had to use a phone line so they'd just plugged a phone into it as well.

Liz watched him turn the corner then sighed and closed the door behind her as she stepped into the hall. It was going to be a long month or so coming up. She steeled herself for it.

"You still have no idea what's ahead do you my boy?" she thought to herself a little cheerfully. She hadn't known when she'd had Tim and she wasn't about to spoil it for either of them. She smiled and, turning, headed for the stairs humming a cradlesong under her breathe.

Chapter Fourteen

Tim moved slowly through the house wondering what he should do. It was early for him. He'd woken at six A.M. and hadn't been able to get back to sleep. That was unusual for him on a Saturday, since the revelation that Sam was pregnant usually had hip up until early in the morning talking with her on the computer. Last night had been different though. She'd had an appointment to see the doctor yesterday so they had been forced to end their chat at eleven o'clock his time so she could make a five o'clock appointment.

She'd been telling him all about how she felt and that she was having some mood swings. She'd even dressed down one of the girl's who'd been tormenting her since grade school after an especially nasty bout of baiting the girl had started. That was unusual for the normally temperate nature of the Sam he knew. He'd started reading all sorts of things online about pregnancy and he'd found that the entire process was rather fascinating. He'd talked about some of the first trimester information he'd found and passed it on to Sam a couple of weeks before.

Sam was already looking through name books and had apparently been having cravings for some extremely strange foods recently. His research had told him the food cravings were perfectly natural but he didn't know how the word natural could be used to describe her craving for walnuts and ketchup. Otherwise everything was normal, or as normal as it could get between two lovesick teenagers a couple of thousand miles and six hours apart.

He wished he could have woken up and started talking to Sam again. He sighed and marched downstairs. The cooks would be up by now cooking breakfast. It wouldn't be ready until eight but maybe he could grab a bite then head out into the orchard to think. He supposed he could use the time to think about the story he'd barely started writing. It wasn't due until after Sam was due to deliver, but it would take a long time to write something as long as the contest required.

He stepped into the kitchen and smiled at Mr. Pennycoat. She returned his smile from behind a mixing bowl that appeared to be filled with some sort of batter. The purple stains on her apron told him it must be something with blueberries, probably muffins.

"Good lord." She said without missing a single stir of the wooden spoon. "You're up early for a Saturday."

Tim grinned. "Well I thought I would get an early start on being lazy." He smiled. "Really though, I was going to do some thinking about this story I'm supposed to be working on so I thought maybe a change of scene. I was going to go out into the orchard for a bit and do some thinking."

She frowned and this time she stopped her stirring. "Maybe you ain't been outta the house in awhile but it's freezing out there. Snows at least six inches deep." She removed the spoon from the bowl and tapped it on the edge. "I can't tell you yes, no, or maybe if you want to go out, but you'd better put on a coat and boots before you go traipsing out there."

Tim nodded in understanding. "Actually that's why I wanted to go out. I've always loved the snow. I won't go far, but maybe it will inspire me."

"Alright. I assume you came in here for more than my motherly advice?" She turned the statement in to a question as she scooped the batter into a bread pan.

"Yeah. I was hoping I could get something to hold me over until breakfast actually." He said cheerfully. "I'm starving."

She finished scraping batter into the pan then set aside the pan and dropped the spoon into the sink. "Well now. I haven't got anything baked yet." She motioned towards the pan she'd just filled. "I guess you could have some fruit if you'd like. That should hold you till then."

Tim nodded in thanks as she handed him an apple and a pear from the huge industrial refrigerator. He smiled and thanked her politely before excusing himself and heading for the front doors. He stopped at the closet just off the main hall and rummaged through the stuff until he'd found his favorite bomber jacket and his heavy boots. The jacket was old and worn but the boots had been purchased more recently and were heavy and lined with some sort of fur.

He tugged off his sneakers and left them by the closet then tugged on the boots one at a time. They fit snuggly and comfortably. When he'd donned the boots he stood and slipped into the jacket. He zipped it up almost to his chin then turned up the collar to protect his cheeks at least a little.

When he stepped out and closed the door behind him. There was a light crust of ice on the stairs but otherwise they were clean. It hadn't snowed last night and the groundskeepers kept the snow shoveled off daily if there was a fresh fall. Later in the morning one of them would come sprinkle salt on the newly formed ice. For now though he'd just have to be careful. There were no drifts to the side of the path, so the groundskeepers must haul the snow away and dump it somewhere else. That almost seemed an excessive amount of work to Tim, but he no longer questioned any of the excesses of the staff when it came to their jobs.

He walked around the side of the house glad that his boots came halfway up his calves. He trudged through the snow until he reached the back door into the kitchen then turned into the orchard. He'd wanted to go back down to the brook but that now seemed a very long walk in this deep snow. Instead he labored away until he was just over a rise and out of direct sight of the house. He could still see the roof sticking up over the hill but if he sat with his back against one of the trees he could look out and imagine that he was far from anywhere.

He did this taking the time to clear a spot at the base of the tree of snow that would melt with his body heat. He didn't want to walk back with the seat of his pants frozen to his rump. He sat for a time gazing up at the skeletal branches of the trees that surrounded him and realized how dim the daylight was. He'd been up so early that it was still night outside. It had grown brighter, but after all the snow they'd had for the past couple of days he hadn't noticed.

Against the backdrop of the dim blue sky the limbs of the surrounding trees looked stark and barren. Dead. He wondered at the miracle that would again bring them to life in spring. He touched the side of the tree he was leaning on and closed his eyes for a moment imagining that he could feel its slumbering heartbeat beneath the rough bark. There was majesty in these trees, which had stood here since a time long before he was born. They would stand here for his son or daughter to sit beneath them and would likely see the birth of his grandchildren without showing any sign of losing patience with the world.

He should put something in his story like this, he thought. The scene of the apparently dead orchard struck a ringing chord with the ghostly tale of tragic love and loss that he was working towards.

He stood and paced around the trunk speaking out loud to himself as if narrating, gesturing at the surrounding trees. "A meeting in the dark of night. Cold wind chills the blood of two hearts warmed by the furnace of their love."

He laughed. Corny, he thought, he'd have to come up with something a little better than that if he wanted to win the contest.

"Ok," he continued out loud to himself reveling in the privacy of the cold morning among the trees. "How about. The drifting snow blows through hollow places among the reaching fingers of bare wood as the young Argus dismounts and hurries to Barbara who stands and gives a smile at his approach." That wasn't bad, he thought, now he just had to come up with something leading up too and after the scene. He made a mental note of it though. He'd use it if the time seemed right for a clandestine meeting.

His mental processes froze as someone began clapping. The sound was faint but unmistakable in the quiet, almost windless day. It stopped after just a few repetitions. When he turned in the direction of the sound there was nobody there. He felt the embarrassment at being caught ebb away to be replaced by one of trepidation. He hadn't forgotten the strange events that had led him into the attic to find the journal that had itself led him to begin work on the tragic, partially fictional, story of Barbara Allen and Argus McKingtry.

Those final pages of the journal had surprised him. He wasn't sure why they had since the journal had obviously been made to chronicle their story and his idea that it would end happily with marriage and children had been completely at odds with that in the first place.

Barbara's father Lord Allen had a falling out with Argus' father just a year before the children would have been married. The two had truly grown to love each other, but with their father's bickering (the journal had not said about what) they were both being told that their partnership was no longer possible. Barbara refused to accept this in her heart at first and Argus refused to court anyone else even though he was fast approaching marriageable age.

Barbara being female didn't have the choices that Argus did as a male. Her father had quickly betrothed her to another landowner's son and she was forced to accept his courtship. When she had at first attempted to refuse his request her father had beaten her terribly and forced her to go along however grudgingly.

Argus hearing of the terrible beating and the desperate situation she was in determined to rescue her from her cruel father and run away with her to make a new life in England or the new world of America where so many were going for freedom and a possibility of a new life. Apparently the scullery maid who had kept the journal had been brought in on the side of Argus and had also recruited relatives who had worked in the Allen house to the deed.

It had been planned that Argus would ride to the edge of the woods in the night and wait there while Barbara was smuggled from the house in secret under cover of night to meet him. When she arrived they could both go off together and never return to the houses of their cruel fathers.

It had been a terribly romantic plan, but it had also been doomed to failure. According to the journal nothing had ever been proven for certain but Argus had ridden off that evening to meet his love but when morning came his body had been found mutilated and stripped of possessions on the road not far from his own house.

The journal's writer speculated that all along Barbara's father had been kept informed of the young man's plan to steal away his daughter in the night. When he had discovered they intended to meet he had ordered Barbara under guard then snuck out himself under cover of darkness and murdered the boy while he waited for his love to arrive. The journal's author made this idea sound very convincing as if there had been some evidence to that effect, but she was careful not to make any accusation. He could understand why.

After what little speculation the author had been willing to give was a final entry that was simple and left little room for interpretation. It simply said, "Barbara Allen, Died 21 August year of our lord sixteen forty-two of a broken heart." The date on the entry marking Argus' death was one week before.

Tim couldn't help but think that the whole story was almost too soppy to be real, but the author had been so matter-of-fact with her entries that there was no question as to whether it was real or not.

"Is anyone there?" He asked loudly at first. Silence greeted him. He moved out from the tree and started looking around to spot anyone hiding behind one of the surrounding trees. It was too open for anyone hiding to move without being seen and the clapping had been far too close for him to miss whoever had done it. "Argus, is that you?" he asked in a much lower voice.

The phantom wind had returned but this time it was no phantom at all snow swirled around him in a little tornado of white, flakes drifting into his mane and piling on the shoulders of his jacket. A form materialized among the flying flakes. It was hazy, only an outline in the snow, but he could see a equine shape with a long mane, a woman's mane. After a moment the shape was better defined among the snow and he could make out the face of a young horse only slightly younger than himself.

As the snow figure moved closer Tim found that he was unable to move. His legs were frozen in place more from fascination and curiosity than fear, though there was a bt of that as well.

The snowy face resolved, it could have been the snow-white face of a living being now. It was solid and real. It's muzzle parted as it leaned in close. It whispered in a voice that was no more than the ruffling of snow on the air but yet clear.

"Argus." It said as the lips of the snowy dervish touched his own. The snowy kiss was fiery and warm, not chill and icy as he would have been expecting, had he truly been expecting it at all.

His paralysis broke and he turned and bounded towards the house at a run. His lips burned with the heat of the kiss and his heart thundered in his chest in exhilaration at his discovery. Barbara was the spirit of McKingsly not Argus.

Chapter Fifteen

He was in his room writing down everything that had happened. The snow dervish, the clapping, and the kiss were all still fresh in his mind and he wanted to capture every detail he could remember in words. He was flush, his fur was ruffled, and he hadn't even stopped in the entryway long enough to change out of the snow boots.

His mother had followed him as he bolted past her room as she was just opening the door to head down for breakfast. She noted the footprints in water and melting snow he was leaving on the carpet and made a mental note to have him apologize to Agatha about that later. She stood in his doorway watching him type frantically on the laptop in front of him.

She cleared her throat after a moment. "What's all this about then?" She asked as he turned in his chair to look at her in surprise. "Why in such a hurry? A story idea you couldn't let get away?"

He breathed out a sigh of relief at seeing that it was only his mom. He wondered how much he should tell her about what had just happened and decided he could tell her all of it. She'd either believe him or think he'd fallen asleep in the snow and had a strange dream.

When he'd finished telling her the story she was smiling. "You've been outside kissing ghosts?" She asked in an amused and teasing voice. "What would Sam say?"

Tim shrugged. "I'll find out tonight, I'm planning to tell her all about it the second she logs on. It's all too good to keep to myself."

His mother laughed. "You certainly have a better imagination than I would have guessed before you won that writing contest." She patted him on the head. "Go ahead and finish writing down your idea. I have to admit it's a pretty spooky one the way you described it. Then get out of those boots and take them back to the closet downstairs before you track anymore snow across the house. Agatha is already going to have your head about it."

Tim looked down. He hadn't even realized that he was still wearing the boots until she'd pointed them out to him. He grimaced. "Sorry about that. I wanted to get this written down before I forgot something." He tugged off the boots then got to his feet and headed for the door. "I got most of the important stuff down already. Besides I forgot to eat the fruit I took out with me and I'm still starving. Maybe breakfast is ready."

She followed him from the room and they went down to breakfast together.

After breakfast Tim left to go back up and finish rounding out his thoughts on the experience. When he deactivated the screen saver the page came up and he bent over the keyboard trying to think how to finish. He'd written already about the feel of the kiss and how he'd been sort of frozen in place. He'd told how the face formed slowly out of the snow as it fluttered around him and how the face in it had been female.

He decided that he should put down that he believed that this ghost was Barbara Allen and not Argus McKingsly as he'd been speculating.

He looked up. There, mirrored in the computer screen, was the image of the face from the snowstorm. It was smiling as it looked over his shoulder at what he'd written. The eyes were cobalt blue and her mane looked like a wisp of smoke drifting along her neck. His eyes widened but he didn't turn around.

The reflected face looked confused as his hands stopped halfway to the keyboard and simply hung in midair. The confusion was replaced by surprise an instant later as the ghost saw what he'd seen.

"Oh." The sound of the voice that came from behind him was just like the snowy breeze that had whispered to him in the orchard.

He turned around in his chair knowing that the image had been a reflection of something he wouldn't be able to see otherwise but he was wrong.

He could see right through her. That was the first thing he noticed. The mane that had looked like smoke was no more substantial now than it had been in the reflection. Her eyes were the most solid part of her, shining cobalt blue from a face as white as pure driven snow. She wore a dress... Could it really be called a dress if it didn't have substance? He wondered for a split second. It was of emerald green, in the fashion of things he'd seen worn in plays from Shakespeare, with a high neckline and flowing skirts that went all the way down to drag the floor.

She was looking down at her immaterial body with a little fear. There was strange and then there was this, a ghost materializing and being afraid of it as it was happening to her.

"You're Barbara Allen." He said softly drawing her attention before she could vanish like so much smoke.

She looked up with fear and some new dawning understanding in her eyes. "No, I was Barbara Allen." She looked around the room and her fear seemed to deepen but as she looked she found nowhere to run and hide.

Tim was confused now. "You're a ghost right?" He asked in a voice on the edge of breaking with excitement.

Barbara glared at him. "Well that's obvious. I wouldn't be quite so transparent if I weren't a ghost would I?" She asked in a peevish sort of way.

He shrugged. "Sorry." He was speculating again and he decided to test out one of his ideas. There must be a reason she was so confused.

"Um... You're not supposed to be visible are you?" He asked slowly as she lowered herself onto the edge of his bed still looking dumbfounded.

She looked up but her eyes were only half fixed on the real world. "I don't understand. I didn't exist until just a moment ago. I don't know what's going on. What are you talking about?" Her voice was terrified and plaintive. "I only remember searching for my Argus before. I'd thought you were he. I'd given you all the clues to our past life. I despaired that you..." she paused for a second realizing she'd made a mistake then continued. "That he had forgotten me. But you aren't Argus. There is nothing here that I remember."

She began to weep silvery tears. As substantial as her eyes those tears rolled down her face to spill on his bed. He wondered if there would be little wet places where the tears had landed. He suspected that there would be.

He remained silent feeling that to try and comfort her would be little more than useless. It might even drive her away. She looked up with tears still staining her insubstantial cheeks and sniffled. "You kissed me in the orchard." She said a little hotly. "Why did you do that if you're not Argus?"

Tim goggled at her. "I..." He paused trying to collect his thoughts. "I didn't. I just stood there. If that was you, then you kissed me."

She dashed away the tears and stood stiffly. "You let me though! Are you so desperate for a woman that you'd let any ghost who came around kiss you on the lips?" She said with heat in her voice that was completely against the snowy whispery nature of that voice. It was absurdly strange.

Without waiting for an answer she turned and ran right through the closed door of his room with her hands over her eyes as she began sobbing again.

Tim was taken aback. If it wasn't strange enough that the ghost had appeared in his room, the strange scene he'd just witnessed had to be the strangest thing to happen in recorded history.

He thought about going after her. Considered running to the door and following the sounds of her sobs until he discovered where she had gone to hide. He decided against it. Even if he did chase her it would likely only make matters worse unless she simply vanished as he suspected she might do if pressed. Instead he turned to the computer and started writing it all down as quickly as he could. He wanted every moment on record for later. He stopped after the third sentence and looked back at the bed remembering the tears she'd shed.

He got up and walked over to the end of the bed looking at the five wet-looking drops on the blanket. He stretched out a finger to touch one. It was wet. Just like he'd thought it would be. At least some of her had been material. Her eyes. They had been real. They had been real enough anyway to produce real tears.

He wrote it all down.

When he'd finished typing he sat back in his chair and checked the clock on the computer. It was just a little after one o'clock. Sam would be logging on within the next hour and he couldn't wait to tell her about all this. At first he thought about leaving out the part where he'd kissed the ghost in the orchard but decided it would be better to tell her that too. If he didn't he'd have a hard time making up something to fill the space when she had run away later and as they said, lies followed lies that followed lies.

A knock came on the door; soft like someone really didn't want to disturb him at all but had been forced to come. He turned in his chair and looked at it. After a moment the knock came again but nobody spoke from the other side. He got to his feet and answered it. "Yes?" He said as the door cleared his sightline into the hall.

Barbara, looking ragged, stood there. She was as wispy looking as she'd been before except now instead of angry or frustrated she looked resigned and a bit forlorn.

"Can I come in?" She asked timidly wiping the back of one see through hand over her tearstained cheek.

Tim opened the door wider and motioned her inside without a word.

"Thank you." She said as she walked in brushing past him close enough for him to feel her body heat. "Body heat?" he thought. "How can she have body heat? She's a ghost. Even if she has some material form she shouldn't produce body heat."

He looked up at her dismissing the issue of her warmth for the moment. "I'm not sure how much good it might do, but you can use my bathroom to get cleaned up if you like." He said kindly.

She nodded and thanked him again before disappearing into the bathroom, again passing right through the door without opening it. He wondered what it must feel like to pass through solid objects like that. He made a mental note to ask her about it later if she seemed receptive to that sort of question.

After a few moments she reappeared through the door and went to the edge of the bed and sat down once more. He motioned to the chain as if to ask her permission to sit and received a nod in reply. He lowered himself back into his computer chair and sat back to examine her. She had apparently had no problem getting cleaned up with real water. Her mane was slicked back a little and gleamed just a little with wetness. She'd almost been able to use a towel then, he thought."

"I'm sorry for the way I acted earlier." She said sorrowfully. "I'm just a little confused at the moment. Listen to me I don't even talk the way I remember myself talking before..." she paused and swallowed. "Before I died." She finished.

"Maybe you've been around people, the staff and other residents enough to have picked up new variations in speech." He said by way of hypothesis.

She shrugged. "I don't know. Like I said before; I don't remember actually existing until I appeared in this room. I have vague memories of something, but it isn't something I could begin to describe."

He looked down at his hands, which were fidgeting in his lap of their own accord, and made them stop. He wasn't sure what to say. There were so many questions and from what she intimated there were no answers to be had. He looked up and gave her a tiny smile.

"I certainly can't explain it either. I suppose instead you have to figure out what it means rather than why it happened." He said

She nodded. "I think I know why. It was the kiss. That's why I was so angry about it. It was the first time I felt any real emotion for a very long time. I thought you were Argus. I created a form with which to kiss you." She let the rest simply hang in the air because there was nothing to follow it with. He could speculate as well as her. She'd found new energy in her emotions and with that energy, or emotions, or whatever had been the catalyst, she'd found form and consciousness again.

Was that what ghosts were? He wondered to himself. Super concentrated emotions? It seemed unlikely that just emotion could create heat, tears, and substance. But did she have substance? Other than a wispy refraction of light that could pass through solid wood; did she have substance?

"Would you mind if I..." He paused and held out a hand. "Um... If I touched you?" He asked cautiously.

She looked a little surprised. "I don't know. I suppose it can't hurt." She said and held out her hand as well.

Apparently he couldn't touch her. Or at least he couldn't make physical contact with her. When his hand reached out he'd felt heat at first as his fingers neared what would be skin in a living person but as he came in contact with it his fingers passed right through. He experienced a sudden burst of cold in his fingertips as they sunk into insubstantial flesh. He jerked them out quickly and examined the fingertips.

There was a long silence broken only by their breathing. Then he said. "Well that was interesting."

"Strange is more like it." She said rubbing the back of the hand he had touched with the other. "It felt like being poked with an icicle."

Tim looked up at her. "You felt cold?" He asked a little amazed. "I mean, I felt cold when my fingers went through you but you're saying you felt cold too?"

She nodded and he sat back on his haunches to think about that for a moment.

"So you do have substance. It's just not the same sort of substance as flesh and bone." He said thoughtfully.

"Why do you think that?" She looked a little confused.

"Well," he started a little hesitantly. "I'm no scientist, and frankly I don't think telling anyone who is a scientist would be a good idea. You'd be studied from every angle if anybody found out you..." He paused. "Well we'll say existed to make things simpler. If anyone found out you existed."

She shook her head again. "What does that have to do with me having substance or whatever?"

He sighed. "Well I think the fact that you felt cold proves you have substance. That means that your physical form that I can see is made up of more than just... well light I guess. If you can feel cold that means even though my fingers passed through your hand, on some level they still interacted." He shrugged. "I mean if you didn't feel anything and I did then it could just be my physical body affecting your non-physical body. Since you felt the cold too though, it had to be two bodies interacting in an unexpected way without actually contacting physically."

That was too scientific even for him. All this speculation was making his head hurt. This would be some new form of physics if anybody ever found out about it besides him and Barbara, and probably Sam when he had a chance to tell her. Which reminded him suddenly that he was expecting her online any minute now. He glanced back at the clock on the computer. It was one fifty-three. Sam was probably taking a morning shower and would be on soon after. He wondered how he'd explain that he was entertaining a ghost in his room at the moment.

Barbara looked questioningly at the computer, following his gaze. "What is that thing?" She asked nodding at it.

He looked back at her as he return to sit in his chair once more. "It's a computer. I thought you'd..." he stopped as he remembered what she'd said about not really being conscious. "This is terribly difficult." He said rubbing his forehead. "It's a computer. A sort of gadget that has a brain I can use to store and process information. I can send information through it to other people all over the world. It's what you would have called magic but we call it technology."

Barbara's eyes opened wide. "Real magic?" She asked in surprise. "If it can do what you say, it must be real magic." She said excitedly. "Could it find Argus? If it can send messages to anyone in the world then..."

She stopped as Tim shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry Barbara. I thought you would understand by now. I don't want to be the one to tell you, but... Argus died. He died even before you did. I thought you must have known. You died so shortly after yourself..."

Her head dropped. "I know Argus is like me though. He's got to be looking for me. Searching for me out there somewhere."

Tim wished he could touch her, give her some physical comfort. "I'm sorry Barbara. Even this magic," he motioned at the computer. "Can't contact the dead." He said. "At least not from my end." He added to himself, remembering the little trick with the e-mail's and Q-talk program.

Was that what she was made of? He wondered as a new revelation came to him while he thought about the computer. Is a ghost just a jumble of digital code made real, electrical charges strong enough to create light and a little heat? Then what about the cold? Was that the spirit, or whatever, that held those electrical charges together in a coherent pattern to produce what he saw before him?

More questions. That was a good explanation though. He might just hold onto it for the time being.

She sighed. "My father killed me."

Tim was stunned at this revelation. "But..." he stammered. "But the journal..."

"The journal said that you'd died of a broken heart." He finished lamely.

She waved a hand. "That's basically what happened. When Argus was found dead that morning I despaired. I was given a few days to grieve even by my father. Soon after though he came to me and ordered that I return to my courtship of the suitor he'd chosen for me. I refused. He beat me. It happened again the next day, and again the next. On the fifth day I told him that I would rather die than marry anyone but Argus." She was crying again, though her face was a stone etching now showing no emotion beyond those pearly drops of moisture. "He grabbed me and tried to beat me again but I fought back. He didn't expect that and in his rage and frustration he thrust me from him. I went through the window and fell to my death." She finished the story and wiped tears away from her cheeks once more. "I don't know how he explained my death to mother and the rest of the family. He probably told them I threw myself out of the window in my despair."

Tim listened to the whole story without even moving and even as she finished he heard a little beep from his computer that meant Sam was now online and had sent him a message. He was torn between turning to the computer and telling Sam everything immediately and comforting the ghost who sat with tears leaking from her eyes before him.

"What was that sound?" She asked looking at the computer.

"It was telling me that someone wants to talk to me on the computer. I have a very good friend who I was expecting to talk too before you... um... arrived?" He couldn't keep the questioning tone from his voice.

She made no sign that there was an answer to the question only got to her feet and turned toward the bathroom. "It looks like I need to clean up again." She smiled just a little. "Talk to your friend. I can always explore the house for awhile if you don't want me looking over your shoulder."

He shook his head. "I don't really mind... It's just that... I'm not sure how much, or what exactly I should tell her about you."

"Her?" Barbara asked a little coyly as she looked him over again. "I suppose you are old enough to be courting now. Is she your betrothed?"

Tim chuckled. "Well we don't really have betrothal's these days, but yeah, I suppose you could say that."

Barbara nodded. "Tell her everything then. You should never keep secrets from the ones you love." She said as she glided through the bathroom door while it was still closed. He'd have to find out if she could stop doing that. He might have to leave the door open or something but it was starting to creep him out.

He turned back to the computer where another message had just appeared in the chat window. "Tim? Are you there?" Just beneath her first message of "Hi Tim ."

"I'm here." He typed quickly. "I was just having a conversation with a ghost. Sorry."

Her response was predictably, "LOL. You must be writing your story."

This would take a lot of explaining. He started typing again, this time explaining from the beginning with what he'd been told by the old hare in the orchard.

Chapter Sixteen

Sam wasn't convinced, but out of love for him she was still listening. He loved her even more for not just thinking he was a lunatic. Barbara had been standing behind him for the past hour reminding him of points and reading over his shoulder as the conversation went on and on. He wanted to just hook up a camera or something and figure out how to send her a video, though he wasn't sure if Barbara would even show up in a video.

He decided to call Sam on the phone and let her talk to Barbara directly. That would at least show that he really wasn't just making up another person.

"I'm going to call you and let you talk to her. Go grab the phone." He typed into the window.

"Ok. I have the phone with me." Sam typed back after a minute of silence.

He grabbed the phone and dialed the number. It only rang once when Sam picked it up.

"Is this some sort of strange joke?" She asked as soon as she picked up the line.

"I swear it's not a joke Sam. It's real. Well as real as I can figure." He said quickly. "Here I'll put Barbara on."

He held the phone out to Barbara's mouth. "Hello?" She said into the mouthpiece.

Tim held his ear so he could hear what Sam said. "Who is this? Why are you playing around with Tim like this? It's not funny. If I find out who you are, I'll damn well have your ass when I get there."

It didn't sound like she was going to buy it even by talking to Barbara on the phone. He was thinking hard when Barbara reached down and touched the screen of his computer then vanished. She didn't disappear with a puff of smoke or a popping sound like they always said in stories and showed on T.V. she was just gone. He didn't even realize it for a moment until he heard Sam's voice on the other end of the phone.

"What the..." He heard her start, the voice going out of pickup range of the mouthpiece of the phone as she turned her head or something on the other end. He heard the phone thump against something hard and almost immediately a scuffling sound that meant Sam was picking it back up. "What the hell is this Tim?" She asked now, her voice shrill with fright or surprise or both.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you." He shook his head. "I wish she'd have told me what she was doing before she did it. I'm sorry if she scared you."

"Scared me? SCARED ME? She said hotly. "I almost crawled under my bed when she just appeared out of nowhere like that."

Tim heard Barbara's voice through the phone from Sam's end. "I'm... Sorry." She paused. "Tell him I really didn't know what would happen. I just got the feeling I should try it."

"Tim, it's talking to me." Sam said in a little frightened voice. He wondered how Barbara was reacting to being called an "it". "Her name is Barbara Sam. Calm down. It's confusing. Believe me I know it is." He said in a soothing voice. "I love you Sam. I would be horribly frightened right now if I thought for even a second that she might be dangerous."

That seemed to calm Sam a bit. "Alright." She took a few deep breaths. "I guess I have no choice but to really believe this is true. I swear I believed what you said, but I really thought there was some other explanation."

"I understand completely." He said reassuringly. "If you're uncomfortable with her being there you could have her come back whenever you want."

"She's got the strangest eyes." Sam said instead of responding to his suggestion.

"Should I let you two talk for awhile then?" Tim said pointedly. "I can stay on the phone if that makes you comfortable. She really is there. I don't understand how, but you can talk to her. Ask her whatever you like." He said meaning that Barbara probably didn't like to be talked about when she could be talked to. "Yes though, her eyes are a bit odd. It's not the color or anything, it's that they are more there than the rest of her." He added in answer to her comment.

He sat back and listened as Sam sat the phone down on the desk and switched it to speakerphone. He almost hit himself in the forehead for not thinking of that himself. He set the handset aside and turned it to speaker as the voices on the other end drifted; only slightly muffled by distance, to him.

They spent a lot of time covering the same ground he and Barbara had already covered before he introduced Sam but he let them talk it out with him only adding little bits of his speculation into the conversation at the right points.

After a few hours Sam had grown more comfortable with Barbara. They were both now trying to explain in turn about technology and had gotten only a little further than "magic" yet. They had just given up and Tim was about to start into talking about something else when Sam spoke up first.

"Barbara. I've really enjoyed talking to you, but if it wouldn't be rude, I would like to talk to Tim alone for a little while." She said gently. "It's not that I'm not thrilled with meeting you but I wanted some alone time with Tim tonight."

Tim smiled as Barbara reappeared suddenly just beside him. He nodded to her as she returned his smile.

"Goodnight both of you. I'll go find someplace to sleep tonight. It's getting late even for a ghost." She said as she walked with a little bounce in her step right through the solid door of his room and into the hallway.

He shuddered a little. "I wish she could stop doing that." He said not thinking about the speakerphone.

"Stop doing what?" Sam asked from the other end.

Tim picked up the phone and switched it back to handset mode then raised it to his ear. "Oh, she keeps walking through solid doors. I'm not sure if she can open them or not but it's sort of disturbing seeing it."

"I'd imagine that would be a bit... ah... strange." Sam said with a little bit of a laugh playing about the edge of her tone. "But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. This is all really strange Tim." She said now absolutely serious. "She's nice and all that, but what in the world are we supposed to do now. I can just see the media circus there would be if we told anybody about this."

Tim grunted. "That's pretty close to what I thought, only when I saw it; I imagined her being poked and prodded by a few thousand scientists."

"That's a rather disturbing though." Sam said. "We don't know all that much about her yet, but she's obviously been lonely for a long time." She was silent for a moment. "I only see two real choices at this point. We have to tell her to go, or we have to accept that she's going to be around, probably for good."

Tim sighed. "I kind of want her to stay. She's heartbroken and lonely. I can understand that feeling. I thought for awhile there that I was going to suffer the same thing."

He could almost hear the blush in her voice. "Tim... I love you too." She said softly.

He smiled. "It's not just that though. I think there's something else going on. There must be a reason she is suddenly materialized and conscious again. It might just be what she says, the emotional turmoil of thinking I was Argus, but I'm not sure that's all of it. If we ask her to leave, she might simply cease to exist again."

Sam was silent for a very long time; almost long enough to make Tim ask if she was still on the line.

"I'm not sure, and that's why I have to agree with you. There could be any number of reasons she could be with me half way across the world and still exist including my connection to you, the computer connection, and even the phone connection. We just don't know what rules actually apply here." She paused for a breath then continued. "I have to pee."

That threw him off for a second. His studies of first trimester pregnancy had told him she would likely have to go to the bathroom often but he'd never talked to her on the phone this long before so he'd never heard her suddenly have to stopped and take care of other business like that. He smiled a little.

After a minute she was back. "What I was going to say," she continued, "was that; if you're right, then I can't bring myself to make her give up what little she has. If staying in proximity to you is what it takes then we can always be friends. That house is big enough for a hundred ghosts."

Tim chuckled.

"What's funny about that?" Sam asked a little defensively.

"Oh it's not that. I agree with you on that. I was just thinking." He grinned to himself. "How can you be shy about peeing and talking on the phone at the same time."

Her laugh coming over the line calmed his nerves. He'd been tense most of the night and her laugher, bubbling across the distance over the phone made him want to curl around the handset and fall asleep listening to it. They spent the rest of the night talking about more mundane things. Eventually as she realized that he was drifting off to sleep she sung to him gently until she heard his breathing change. Suddenly a soft voice came on the line.

It was Barbara. "That was beautiful. He's asleep now. Should I turn off the phone?" She was whispering so low that Sam could barely make out the words.

"Yes, and thank you." She said and smiled as she heard the phone give a click and disconnect.

It was only nine o'clock for her when the call ended but it had been close to 3 A.M. for Tim. They had talked with Barbara and each other for more than nine hours. She wasn't surprised that he'd finally fallen asleep. She cradled the phone close to her chest again and lay there for a while wishing she'd had Barbara leave the line open so she could hear him breathing. She missed his voice after talking for so long today. It made her realize how much she missed him in person.

She broke down then and did what she'd never have let Tim hear her do over the phone. She cried. She didn't sob. She wasn't in that sort of pain. Her eyes simply leaked little streams of tears as she felt her distance from him that phones and computers could only temporarily and incompletely traverse.

Then she slept.

Chapter Seventeen

Barbara could touch things. She couldn't hold things, but she could force a lot more being into a very small area to create physical contact. In other words, she could knock on a door, scoot a pencil across a table, and even touch his hand for a second before her hand became insubstantial again. They'd been sitting in his room practicing since he'd awoken to find her sitting in his computer chair watching the screen saver on his computer. Tim wrote everything down and sent it to Sam in e-mails that she would get to read as soon as she woke.

Barbara was especially enjoying herself as she'd figured out that the same principal could work in reverse and she could disperse whatever held her form together for extended periods of time. The upshot of this was that she became invisible. The whole thing started because Tim had asked he about opening doors before floating through them. She'd been unsure if she could, but Tim had pointed out that she didn't just drop through the floor, and that meant that she had to be reacting to it as a physical object.

The only problem she'd found with becoming invisible was movement. She'd figured out that she floated rather than stood when her visible body was dispersed and while she was in that condition she couldn't move at all, at least at first. She soon discovered that she could propel herself and slow herself by pushing against air lightly with the same sort of force she used to affect physical objects. When she did this it created the same phantom breeze Tim had been feeling since he first met her.

The longer she practiced, the longer she could hold the physical contact. She'd been able to keep contact with him palm to palm for nearly five minutes the last time.

She sat with her legs curled off to the side and her dress pooled around her waist in a circle. It was odd to see the floor right through the material and not be able to see the legs beneath. He knew the legs were there, he could see their outline against the fabric of the dress. He wondered, if she removed the dress, would it simply vanish or would it remain as real as she was until she came back for it? Could she remove it physically at all? He wasn't about to ask her to disrobe so he could find out, but it was an interesting question.

He thought for a minute before the answer came to him. "Shoes." He said as she sat looking at him.

"What do you mean shoes?" She asked querulously.

He shook his head. "Sorry. What I meant was; could you take off your shoes?"

She looked a little surprised. She obviously hadn't considered that he'd been thinking about her clothes. "I'm... well, I'm not wearing any shoes. I didn't have any on when I died. You see?" She drew the edge of her dress back just enough to show her bare feet, delicate and partially transparent, curled together at the ankles. She let the dress fall back to cover them.

"So you're wearing... exactly what you wore when you died?" He asked slowly considering what that meant. "Have you tried to change it? I don't mean put on something new, but maybe..." He stopped since he really didn't know where to go from there. "Uh... maybe just try to think yourself into something you remember wearing before you died?"

"I guess I could try. Why; don't you like my dress?" She asked a bit defensively as she looked down at herself.

He shook his head. "No, no. It's not that. I was just thinking. On me, clothes are separate physical objects that I wear over my physical body. On you though; I suppose they could be... They could be... Well they could just be memory I suppose. Your idea of what you should look like. Or maybe your idea of what it is proper to look like."

She looked down thoughtfully. "It's utterly strange trying to get accustomed to not being a real person anymore." She said frowning.

"Let's not get into that." Tim said and gave a little smile. "It's not much better trying to get accustomed to someone who, by all laws of physics and science, shouldn't exist at all."

Her frown grew heavier. "I don't mean to be sensitive about the subject, but I really don't like it when you say I shouldn't exist. Makes a girl feel a little unwanted."

"Oh no. That's not what I meant..." He gave an apologetic shrug. "Sorry Barb."

"Barb?" She said with a chuckle. "Nobody's ever called me Barb. My parents called me Barbie and the house staff called me My Lady but never Barb."

"Well, if you prefer Barbie I could use that." He said easily to show that it really wasn't a big issue.

"No, if you like Barb then I'll be Barb to you. I'm not fond of my full name anyway. I used to tell all my friends to call me Lady when I was very young because all the house staff called me My Lady. Mom told me it was inappropriate so I stopped." She said with the small smile induced by fond memories.

"Lady it is then." He said with a grin. "You can be called whatever you like around here. We're your friends so whatever makes you feel comfortable is perfectly fine with us."

"I assume you mean Sam and yourself when you say "US"." She said with a smile.

"I'm sure Sam will feel the same way. I'll let her know in my next e-mail." He said solemnly. "Now about those clothes?" He asked politely.

She nodded. "Ever since you said you thought they might be memory or something; I've been remembering some of my favorite outfits. It doesn't appear to work that way. At least they don't change just because I remember something else I wore when I was alive."

Tim shrugged. "It's not all that important. What you're wearing is actually quite becoming on you anyway. It was just a thought for curiosity sake." He turned back to his computer and typed a few things into the next e-mail he was going to send to Sam then turned back to Lady. "I think you've done more than I could expect for me already. You must be getting terribly bored with all this." He motioned around. "Is there anything you'd like to do besides sit here and answer questions?"

"That's just silly." She said waving a hand dismissively. "If I wasn't just as interested in the answers to your questions as you are I'd have wandered off ages ago."

Tim chuckled. "Ok then I'll be honest. I've got too much in my brain right now to keep thinking about it until I've had a chance to process it a little more." He looked back at the computer. "Also, I've been thinking about all the writing I should get done. I'm working on a story based on..." He grinned. "Well, basically, based on you."

She cocked her head in interest. "Oh? A story based on me how?" She asked.

Tim opened the drawer where he kept the journal he'd found, or been given, in the attic. He removed the little book and held it out to her. She wouldn't be able to hold it for long, but she'd progressed far enough that she was able to reach out and take it from him long enough to set it on the floor and flip it open to the first page.

"Yes, I remember vaguely taking you to find this." She said thoughtfully. "It's all the entries from a journal of a scullery maid who was like a mother to Argus. He confided almost everything to her." Her eyes brimmed with tears that didn't fall as memories of her love came back to her. "He never knew she'd written it all down, but when Argus' father went looking for clues to his son's death, which he was never satisfied with, the diaries were found. The father, seeing the entire chronicle of his son's tragic loss at the hands of his own foolish quibble with his neighbor, had this copy made to commemorate the story. What was in the journal was forgotten after a generation or two, but it was kept sealed in a glass case as a family heirloom until the main house burned."

She shook her head a little to regain her mental balance. "Not sure where all that came from." She smiled. "I guess there's stuff I've picked up that I don't really recall without some point of reference."

Tim shook his head. "It's alright. I was just brining it out because it was the basis of my story. It jumps between the lives of the two in the journal, you and Argus, and a young man like myself finding out what happened to them. In the story though Argus' character's death was a bit more of a mystery and your character really did die of a broken heart."

Lady looked up at him. "That's wonderful. And very kind."

Tim shrugged. "I'll finish it the way the story is going, but it won't be very true to the real life story anymore."

"That doesn't matter. It's a wonderful idea, and just that it's based from my story is an honor."

"Well thanks. I'll do my best not to screw it up then." He said.

She closed the book and handed it back to him. He placed it back in the drawer and closed it again then turned back to face her.

"What will you do while I'm writing?" he asked.

"I was thinking of going out and looking around the ruins of the old house. I haven't been back out there and maybe I'll be able to practice touching out of sight of anyone that shouldn't see me."

He nodded just as a knock came at the door. Lady disappeared into a chilly breeze just as the door swung open and his mother stepped in.

She looked around, one hand still on the doorknob. "I thought I heard you talking to someone?"

Chapter Eighteen

Tim stood in the cold windblown snow watching the driveway and stomping his feet to keep the circulation flowing. Lady stood beside him completely invisible, to anyone who might look through the windows, in the howling storm of ice that swirled around them.

Lady reached out and pulled his collar up as far as it would go. She'd gotten so good at sustaining physical contact now that she could do it pretty much indefinitely.

"You're really going to freeze to death standing out here like this." She nearly had to scream for him to hear her.

"I'm a candle in the night." He yelled back. It was a phrase from an old story he'd read in the library recently. It came from when people used to put a candle in the window during a storm to guide home anyone who might get lost in it. He didn't really qualify as a candle, but he couldn't stop worrying and had been able to see even less through the frosted windows than he could from out here.

Lady was worried about him. She'd come to care for him. Even more than she wanted to admit. But she cared just as much for Sam, and she knew Sam wouldn't want him out here in this storm either. She might even be angry at Lady for letting him do it even though there was no way Lady could stop him. He was just too strung out and he might just break if she tried to force him. Instead all she could do was comfort and she did.

"She's going to be fine Tim." She said softly. "They're bound to be late because of the storm. Harry isn't going to drive fast in this weather even if he didn't pull into some roadside hotel until it blows out."

"I know, but..." He grimaced against the cold and brushed a little powder from his muzzle. "You're a ghost. If anyone can believe in magic it should be you. If I can just keep up hope then she'll be all right, she has to be. She just has to be."

The storm had blown in about forty-five minutes ago. It had been a freak storm unlike anything the news had predicted. It came from the south and was blowing north to catch the devil. By the time it had hit Dublin Sam and Lily would have just been getting in the car with Harry after a short phone call to let Tim and his mother know they had arrived and had finally passed through customs.

"I knew we should have gone too." Tim said, his teeth beginning to chatter.

Lady wanted to wrap her arms around him to give him heat but even she couldn't yet sustain that much surface contact for long. Instead she just held her hands to his cheeks and gave him what little warmth they could offer.

"You didn't know when Harry left this morning that..." she nodded back towards the storm. "That this was coming. You and your mom wanted to greet them here, at their new home. To make it a joyous homecoming for Christmas."

Tim blew out a steaming breath and touched one of the hands that were touching his cheek. "That doesn't help much, but thanks."

A set of headlights appeared at the crest of the hill flashing in and out of sight dimly as they approached. Tim shivered in anticipation or with the cold, Lady wasn't sure which it might be.

She dropped her hands from his face and nodded. "I'll go up to your room then. I wish I could be with you both the whole time..." she smiled a little to show that it was alright anyway. "I know that isn't possible though. Just try to come up and see me soon ok?" she said and gave his hand a little squeeze before vanishing.

It was interesting, he thought, that he could still feel the phantom chill of her movement even in this gale. Then she was gone and he was moving out to meet the car as it slowly made it's way to a spot near the steps leading up to the main house.

As the car pulled up; Harry shut off the engine and nearly fell out of the driver's seat, as his door was pulled fully open by the wind. He forced it shut even as Tim shuffled up, being careful on the ice beneath the layer of snow, to meet him as he rounded the front of the car. Harry tried to say something but his words were torn away on the wind and all Tim could hear was a mumble.

Tim shook his head then grabbed the back door and pulled it open. At first it didn't want to give from beneath the layer of ice on the outside of the car but he tugged harder and it gave. He opened it slowly blocking the interior from the wind with his body as he leaned down and stuck his head inside.

Sam looked radiant to him, even the stunned look on her face as she saw him standing there, shivering and with ice actually patching in his coat, looking in at them. He said nothing. He probably couldn't have made himself understood through the chattering of his teeth anyway. He simply picked Sam up, and bundling her close to his chest almost as if trying to get her into his jacket herself, and lifted her from the car.

As he started toward the house with shuffling short steps to avoid slipping on the ice Harry nodded to him. As Lily, bending against the wind now, slid into the seat where Sam had just sat, the old Hare leaned down and offered his hand as he stood to block as much of the storm as his less massive frame would permit. Lily gave a smile, though Harry wasn't sure if it was for him or Tim, and held out a hand. He took it and helped her onto her feet. Then, as she stood, he bent and picked her up as Tim had done for Sam. He kicked the door shut with one swift move of a foot paw then started for the house, being careful to stay in the same tracks Tim had made.

Lily was too stunned even to laugh.

Chapter Nineteen

Tim clutched Sam tight against him as the door opened apparently of it's own accord as he approached. He'd forgotten about having to open the door and now he whispered a little thanks too Lady as he stumbled into the main hall on cold stiffened limbs. The warm air in the house burned on his skin like flames licking up and down him but he bore the pain. His entire being was concentrated on the bundle of warm fur and love cradled in his arms.

He stumbled a few more steps into the room before his legs buckled at the knee and he dropped onto them being careful to fall on his bottom. His knee's made cracking contact with the floor but there wasn't any pain, not any at least beyond the burning in his skin and the ache in his chest.

As Sam was jostled and heard the crack of Tim's knees hitting the unpadded wooden floor of the entrance hall her brain kicked in and she gasped. She pulled back from his embrace with wide eyes.

"Oh my god. Tim!" She ran her hands through his mane, now wet with the melting ice and snow that had accumulated in it. "You're freezing!"

Liz came jogging into the hall from the kitchen. Seeing Tim on his knees there in the center of the room, looking down at Sam who sat within his enfolding arms, she stopped and stared for a moment as Sam's words sunk in.

"What?" She said quickly. "Tim? How long were you out there?" She asked her eyes widening.

Tim's teeth chattered as he answered. "Just long enough."

Liz hurried up, and taking Sam from Tim's enfolding arms, helped her get him back on his feet. He was shivering all over, but there didn't appear to be any permanent damage as he took a couple of wobbly steps without putting much of his weight on them.

"I'm fine. Just a little chilly is all." He said as little streams of water coursed down his jacket wetting both women.

"No you're not fine." Liz said, growing a little angry now. "Lets get him out of these clothes and into some blankets."

   Lily and Harry had closed the door to the hall and were staying out of the way but as Harry heard something he could do he stepped forward.

   "Ma'am." He said to Liz. "I'll fetch some blankets and meet you in the living room. There'll be a fire in there and he can sit right close. That should thaw him out good and proper."

   Liz nodded and watched as Harry darted off, spryer than his age might have hinted, towards the stairs, heading for one of the linen closets. She turned, keeping an arm around Tim's waist so he wouldn't fall again, and led the rest of the group past the stairs and into the living room on the right.

   There was a crackling fire in the hearth, started shortly before by one of the butlers in expectation of the imminent arrival of their guests, and they hurried him over to sit in front of it.

   The burning was fading from his skin as his body temperature rose again. As he was helped to sit, the warmth of the fire washed over him and his shivering, which he'd barely noticed, eased greatly.

   Just then Harry bounded into the room carrying a stack of three folded blankets and hurried over. Sam grabbed the top one and wrapped it around him, pulling it up almost to his ears as she climbed into it with him to let her body heat the space beneath the blanket. Liz took the other two and wrapped them around them both making something like a nest a few feet in front of the hearth with Sam and Tim in it's center.

   Sam helped Tim strip off his jacket, boots, and shirt, then tossed them onto the hearth to dry. Then suddenly Tim was flush with a completely different heat as he felt Sam's hands working loose his belt and pants. He looked over to where his mother and Liz stood, both looking a little relieved.

   She didn't pay any attention but continued to work until she'd gotten his belt loose and the jeans unzipped then started pulling them down.

"I'm not being frisky." She said gently knowing he was embarrassed. "You need to get out of these wet clothes. They're still half frozen."

She was right. His jeans were not just wet; they were stiff with ice as he drew them down his thighs and pulled them off one leg at a time. At least he was hidden beneath the blanket, he thought.

Sam stripped off her mittens and jacket then added them to the pile of clothes before dragging the blankets tightly around them once again and wrapping him in her arms and snuggling up to his bare chest. "You dumb horse." She said softly into his coat as she basked in his returning warmth.

Liz and Lily were looking a bit uncomfortable but refrained from saying anything about the two huddled together beneath the blankets. No harm now. She was going to have his baby. There was no reason to ask silly questions about what had possessed him to go out in this storm. All they had to do was look at them to see what could have driven him out into the howling winds and snow. They looked at each other and each gave the other a little smile. They silently and unnoticed turned away and walked out into the hall leaving the two alone with each other.

Harry sat in the hall nursing his back and groaning a little as he slumped in a chair beside the door. As they entered the hall he made to rise but Liz pushed him back down with one hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you." She said kindly. "You've done enough this evening. I saw you carry Lily from the car yourself."

Lily smiled at him then bent to give him a friendly hug of thanks. "You're very sweet." She said as she broke the embrace.

   "Ah..." He said giving a little groan and wince as he rubbed his lower back. "I'm not so young anymore, but the young man sets a fine example for a gentleman." He paused and gave a game little smile that flattened many of his wrinkles and made him look young for just a moment. "If only he'd pick something lighter to carry next time, me old back could be a gentleman too."

   Liz and Lily couldn't help but laugh. They were at least able to keep it under control enough so that they didn't disturb the two in the living room but it was a tough thing. A tear rolled down Lily's cheek as she held her side in silent mirth and glared at Harry, half in approval, half in mock disapproval.

   "Let's...go..." Liz said pausing each time the withheld laughter tried to bubble up behind her words. "Before... we... can't... help... ourselves..."

   Harry got up and, groaning only a little, walked the two women out of the hall towards the kitchen. Their laughing tumbled out and echoed a little through the house as they moved further, their tension being bled away by their mirth.

   Lady watched the trio disappear towards the kitchen and smiled. They were happy, Tim was happy, Sam was happy. Maybe one day she could be happy too. She turned and started up the stairs towards the third floor then stopped for a moment and turned towards the door leading into the living room where Sam and Tim sat cuddled together beneath their warming blankets.

"I love you both." She said sadly.

A single tear streaked down her cheek and dripped onto the step where she stood as she turned back and went on to the third floor, past the door to Tim's room, then vanished from sight.

Sam ran her hand through Tim's mane again and again gently pulling knots out and working tangles loose as it dried. She sat sideways in his lap with one arm snaked beneath his arm holding her against his chest even as he held her there with his own strong arms.

She pulled back just a little and his arms obliged to her urging loosened just enough so she could sit up and turn towards him. Her lips pressed against his as her hand tightened in his mane. Their lips parted and sweetness ensued as their tongues met and breath was exchanged in soft sighs.

Sam's muzzle wrinkled with a smile even as they kissed and she giggled a little, squirming her rear against a rising pressure beneath her. Tim realized with a blush what she'd found amusing and broke the kiss with a small grin of embarrassment.

Her hand went down and adjusted the bulge beneath her to a more comfortable position for them both, then she smiled again as she pulled herself close to him once more, the warm length of him now pressed between their bellies.

"Have you noticed that we're alone?" She whispered softly into his ear as she gently thrust her pelvis upward rubbing her belly against him through his boxers.

His hand ran down her back to the base of her tail and began stroking along it loving the feel of her fluffy, silken fur running through his fingers. She murred lightly in his ear at the attention then pulled away just long enough to strip off her jeans and panties beneath the pile of blankets. When she climbed back into his lap he could feel all of her touching him fur to fur. He loved the feeling.

She wasted no time in her need. She drew his manhood through the slit in his boxers and, straddling him, pushed herself onto it; slowly sinking it's length within her damp velvet tunnel. He drew her body tight against him as her hips worked him deeper inside her.

Her muzzle rested on his shoulder and she whispered softly with passion, need, worry, fear. "Love me Tim... Do you love me?" She said in a voice choked with emotions as her folds engulfed him in his entirety.

He put his hands on her shoulders and drew her back so their eyes could meet; so she could see his own emotions in them. "I do love you." He said as his eyes bored into hers. "Not down here," he said with a wiggle of his hips that brought a little whimper from her, "as much as here." He said pressing his paw against her chest and bringing her paw over his own heart so that each of them could feel the racing thunder that was their tandem heartbeats. A tear leaked from each eye as she smiled in joy. They sat together like that without moving, their eyes closed, feeling the racing patter of their two hearts beating as one, him buried within her, and her buried, in a much deeper way, within him.

After a long time she began to thrust her hips forward sliding herself along his shaft with little jerks of her pelvis. She gasped as the physical pleasure merged into the emotional pleasure and became something smoother and more powerful than either alone had been. Her ministrations drew a small stifled neigh from her lover and she smiled at his horsy sounds.

She inhaled his scent and drew their muzzles together once more wanting all of him within her, breath, love, soul, and body at the same time. Her body was telling her that her climax was coming but it news from a distant country as they both tried to meld themselves together, rocking back and forth in each other's embrace.

They reached orgasm at the same time. The intensity of her climax stiffened her body against him as she whimpered his name, their mouths still crushed together, while his own orgasm filled her with deep warmth inside her belly.

They held onto each other like lost and lonely children as their bodies shivered their way into stillness and the sudden climax faded into an afterglow that was just as nice, in its own way, as the highest moment of physical pleasure had been.

It was full minutes before any thought at all returned to the pair. Tim's shaft, though softening, was still within her when he thought of the baby they'd made that was now growing there as well. His eyes widened a little in fear.

"Sam, the baby." He said trying to pull away.

She wouldn't let him. She cooed softly in his ear to calm him. "The baby is fine love." She said gently. "Doctor said sex is fine even once I start to show. The baby is up here." She slipped a hand between them touching her belly well above where they were joined. "Even you aren't that long, despite what your male bravado might lead you to believe." She giggled a little and wiggled her hips.

He chuckled and gave a little smile. He was becoming stiff within her once again and their last encounter had been so quick... "I'll show you bravado." He said gently as he rolled her onto her back without even drawing himself from her.

Their lovemaking was even sweeter the second time. They had even forgotten that they might be found or seen. They were so deeply within their own little world none of that mattered. They lay together afterwards beneath a mountain of blankets and Tim leaned in close to her ear as she snuggled up to him affectionate and glowing with satisfaction.

"Will you marry me?" He breathed into her ear.

"Aren't we already." She said this as a statement. "A ceremony would be nice though."

Chapter Twenty

    They lay together talking until near midnight when they were disturbed for the first time in hours by the intrusion of Harry. He'd been sent on a mission from their mother's to let them know that a late dinner was preparing in the kitchen. He'd been completely professional and hadn't said anything when he saw them wrapped together beneath the blankets, the clothes now tossed casually aside lying nearby.

   Once he'd left they rose, still wrapped together in the blanket that held the majority of their mess, and gathered up the clothes. Tim held the blanket around them with one hand and Sam hugged him to her with one hand and they were both forced to work with the one remaining hand each had. They giggled as they bumped into each other and generally became tangled while they worked. Sam carried the clothes, finally relinquishing her hold but only with the consolation that he could still wrap an arm around her while he held the blanket in place.

   They made their way up to Tim's room and found Sam's two suitcases sitting beside his bed. There would be no pitched battle about this point after all. The two had already decided they'd be rooming together, but their mothers might have had different ideas. It appeared that it wasn't going to be an issue after all.

Tim looked around feeling that something was missing from the scene. He scanned the bedroom as he pushed the door shut with one foot. He realized suddenly what was missing, or a better description would be, who was missing. Lady was not there, and neither was the phantom breeze that would be a sign of her invisible presence.

   "Lady?" Tim said softly. He thought she'd be waiting for them up here in his room, but he'd forgotten about her in the heat of the moment and he wasn't all that surprised that she'd gone wandering.

   "She's not here?" Sam asked as she scanned the room herself breaking her embrace of his body but taking one of his hands firmly in hers.

   Tim shrugged. "She probably just went out to the old house or something. The weather wouldn't hurt her and there isn't much for a ghost to do around here. She'll probably be back by the time we come up to bed."

   Sam squeezed his hand and bumped into him playfully. "You should teach her to use the computer. She could make some friends on one of the instant messengers or something."

   "I've tried, but she still isn't very comfortable with what she thinks of as a magic device." He said smiling.

   "I'm sure she'll get over it soon. Just give her a little time." Sam said and began tugging him towards the bathroom. "In the meantime, why don't you drop that blanket and join me in the shower. We'll be missed if we don't make an appearance soon."

   Down in the kitchen Liz and Lily stood shoulder to shoulder holding hands as they chatted in the rising aroma of fresh baking loaves of banana bread and apple turnovers. The youngest of the cooks, a raccoon with a naturally unkempt coat and a talent for baking, had volunteered for late night duty tonight when the storm rolled in. She checked the temperature on the oven then gave the two women a little smile.

   "About another half-hour." She said, ruffling the fur between her ears absently with one paw. She leaned against the counter next to the oven and brushed a little flour from her apron. "Thanks for your help. Never had an employer who'd lend a hand before. It's awful nice of you."

   Liz blushed beneath her fur. "It gives me something to do, and besides; if we're going to ask you to stay up until all hours the least we can do is lend a hand."

   The raccoon bowed her head slightly in acknowledgement. "Well then, I can handle the rest myself. Just standing around to do now until it's ready."

   "Alright," Liz said with a smile. "We'll be in the dining room. Just have Harry bring everything in when he gets back." She looked at the clock on the wall above the stove and frowned. "I hope he didn't have too much trouble getting the luggage moved in from the car. The storm seems to have blown out, but there's still a lot of ice out there."

   "Harry will be all right," the cook said knowingly. "He probably decided to go ahead and get the car back into the garage once he'd brought in the luggage. That'll be what's keeping him. Bet on it."

   They nodded to the cook, then left. They headed for the dining room across the entrance hall, but seeing the living room door open they turned and went in. They folded the blankets they found and Liz recovered a pair of white panties with a little pink bow on the front from beneath hers. She pocketed them without a word and finished, then Lily stacked them on one end of the couch.

   After a few moments of looking around and verifying that the room was in a generally tidy state, the two women came together in front of the dead fire and embraced for a long moment. They kissed passionately for a few seconds before breaking away breathing in little gasps that soon slowed back to normal as they straitened themselves back out, ruffling fur back into position and adjusting disarranged clothes. Liz smiled and Lily returned it.

   "Not much better than our kids are we?" Lily said with a grin.

   Liz chuckled. "Well, I'm not sure about that." Lily could see a little twinkle in her eye that she didn't altogether like as she continued. "I'm not saying anything though. They can do what they like now. Young they may be, but they are a lucky young. With all the money I inherited they'll never have to worry about anything. They can have their love and family without worrying about careers." The look on Lily's face was a little scornful. She'd had a husband who she thought would be her support all her life, and he had died leaving her with no real education and barely any means of support. This wasn't the same, but she couldn't help her feelings.

   "I'm not saying I won't encourage them to also pursue careers and finish their educations. All I'm saying is that they have security no matter what they choose to do." Liz pointed out quickly. "So we don't have to worry about them having more children if that's what they want to do. Even if it wouldn't have been right for us at that age; we can now give them all the advantages to fulfill whatever they choose."

   Lily nodded but her frown didn't go away. "I think I'm just a little jealous." She said after a moment. "I'm really very happy for them. I think it would have been different under different circumstances, but with all this..." she waved an arm in an all-encompassing gesture that meant more than just the house and the land around it. "There's no reason to put limits on their desires and dreams, whatever they may be."

   They clasped paws once again. "Lil, I love you." Liz said gently. "Tim loves Sam, I'm confident of that, and I think Sam loves him too." She smiled and brought the paw in her hand up to her lips and kissed it. "We're probably the luckiest two people in the world right now." She said with a smile as they left the room still hand in hand.

   Sam and Tim were coming down the stairs hand in hand just as Lily and Liz started across the entrance hall. Both couples smiled. Liz and Lily stopped at the bottom of the stairs waiting for their children to descend to meet them.

   "Good morning," Liz said with a smile. Both of them were nearly glowing with happiness she noticed with satisfaction. "Dinner, or a very early breakfast, should be arriving in the dining room in the next few minutes. Care to join us?" She asked, nodding to Lily.

   "I'm starved." Sam said rubbing her belly. "I think the baby eats as much as I do, she's certainly growling right now." She said and smiled affectionately at her barely bugling tummy. She was just moving into the second trimester when she would start to show. Tim was glad; he was looking forward to watching her round out as the baby grew inside her.

   "She?" Tim said as he glanced sideways at Sam and his voice was a little disappointed. "Did you already find out if it's a boy or a girl?"

   Sam frowned a little. She wondered for a second if Tim really would prefer a boy to a girl. "No," She said. "I've just been using that synonym because all babies start out as girls. Their sex doesn't start to form until later. Why, did you particularly want a boy?"

   "Oh no! I will love whatever we get. I just thought I'd missed finding out with you." He said quickly his eyes widening in sincerity.

   Sam's frown vanished like so much smoke on a summer breeze. "Of course I didn't silly. We've got an appointment with the doctor a couple of days after Christmas. Maybe we can find out then. I'm due for another ultrasound anyway and you'll definitely want to be there for that."

   Liz and Lily could feel their lips stretching as they watched their children grow up right in front of their eyes. It was amazing how they could still see a little boy and little girl standing there on the steps talking about the baby they were going to have. It was a little frightening, and quite heartwarming.

   "Alright, let's go show them the Christmas room, then we can sit down and have something to eat." Liz said giving Tim a knowing wink.

   Tim smiled remembering the surprise they had stayed at the house to prepare for Sam and Lily when they arrived. The storm and his worry for Sam had completely driven it out of his head.

   "I almost forgot." He said in excitement. "You should come and see. Really, it's amazing." He turned to Sam with a half pleading look.

   Sam nodded. "Alright. If it's as nice as it sounds, it should be worth seeing."

   Tim and Sam took the lead heading past the stairs towards a set of double doors that once led into an office with attaching bathroom, study, and a connecting door to the library. Now though, as Tim threw the doors open wide, Sam and Lily were led into a suite of rooms. The main room contained two sets of everything, bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers, bedside tables, and on one side was a computer desk where Tim could work on his writing and in the same area on the other side of the room was a vanity also equipped for use as a computer table, but with a mirror and more drawers for makeup and other items a lady might want to store.

   The two obviously separated sides of the room had been a compromise with his mother when they'd set the whole thing up. Neither of them were sure how Lily was going to react to the thought of Tim and Sam sleeping together even if they were having a child together, at least not until they were formally married. The beds could always be slid together later.

   Adjoining the main bedroom, through a doorway on Sam's side of the room, was what used to be a secretaries office, but it had been converted into a little sitting room with a couch, an entertainment center, and a playpen for when the baby arrived. This room was also decorated for Christmas with a huge, real tree strung with lights, silvery ornaments, and golden tinsel. The walls were draped with green and red streamers and a large sign hung from the wall just above the fireplace across from the door that read, "Welcome Home Sam and Lily". It was just paper taped together, but when she saw it Sam turned and flung her arms around Tim's neck and kissed him on the cheek.

   "Oh it's wonderful!" She said happily.

   "Its our own little apartment." Tim said as he smiled widely at his mother. She had suggested that they set aside a place where they could make their own little living space just as if they were out on their own. He'd suggested this set of rooms because of its placement on the ground floor, where a young child wouldn't be likely to fall down a flight of stairs if she got away from her parents for a while.

   "This isn't all though. Come over here." He pulled her back out into the main bedroom and pointed to a closed door on his side of the room. "Go see." He said and smiled.

   Sam looked at him suspiciously as he led her across the room to the solid looking wooden door with an old fashioned knob of brass. When she reached out her paw was shaking just a little. She suspected what she would find, but that didn't change how excited she was to see it for the first time.

   The door swung open to reveal an unfinished room. The walls were freshly painted white, and there were pieces of furniture, baby furniture, sitting around under plastic sheets waiting to be placed.

   "We decided just to get it ready for a mother's touch." Tim said from beside her. "Besides, we didn't know whether to paint it blue or pink." He smiled widely as she looked over the room.

   Lily chuckled. "Oh that's brilliant." He heard her whisper to his mother just behind them in the main bedroom.

   Sam turned to him but didn't embrace him as before. She took his hands gently in hers and pulled him into the room to stand in its center among the fresh paint smell and the covered furniture. She placed both of his hands on her belly where a small swelling had started growing. He couldn't see that swell but he could feel it beneath his palms as she drew close to him holding his hands there as she leaned into him.

   "Oh love. You really want our baby?" She said as tears brimmed in her eyes.

   He wasn't all that shocked at the suggestion. "Dear Sam," he wanted to look back, to see the reaction of Lily and Liz, but he knew this was a moment between the two of them and it mattered very little how their parents reacted. It also wouldn't have changed his feelings in the slightest if they'd completely disapproved. "I want our baby. I love you. You and our baby are a part of me I would die without."

   He embraced her this time and he couldn't keep a few tears from spilling from his eyes as well.

   "I was so afraid you'd resent having your life stolen away when you were so young." Sam said as she hugged him tightly.

   "You gave me life just as much as my mother and father gave me life when they brought me into the world." He whispered in her ear.

   When they broke apart a few minutes later Liz and Lily were standing in the doorway watching them each with an arm around the other's waist. The smiles of approval on their faces told their children just how they felt about the match.

   "Alright. Now that we've had our fun revealing our little surprise, how about we go have a bite to eat?" Liz said, gently breaking the emotional moment.

   Sam nodded and they clasped hands again as they turned to follow Liz and Lily from the room and back into the entrance hall.

   By the time they arrived in the dining room the table had been laid with bowls of diced fruit and a platter of chopped vegetables arranged around a huge loaf of Banana bread. Another platter, that held a stack of still steaming pastries with fruit leaking just slightly from the pressed edges, was just being laid out by the tired looking raccoon who'd just taken them out of the oven. Their mouths watered at the smell wafting through the room as they entered.

   "Oh Dear." Liz said, seeing how worn out their volunteer cook was looking. "You must be exhausted." She said trotting over to help her put down the large silver tray of turnovers. "You've done more than enough for tonight. In fact I think you should take the rest of the day off."

   The raccoon cook looked worried rather than relieved at this. "Oh but Ma'am. I couldn't. It's almost Christmas and half the staff is going to be going home already. There'll be nobody to help Mrs. Pennycoat make Christmas dinner if I take off the whole day."

   Liz shook her head. "Beth, you've done your share already. Lily and I will help cook with Christmas dinner. Consider it a Christmas present from me. You'll still be paid for the whole day." She saw the protest rising in Beth's eyes but held up a hand. "Not another word. I'll consider it an insult to my cooking if you insist any further that I can't get a Christmas dinner made without you for one day."

   Beth blushed but nodded silently but she now looked at Liz with a new respect that hadn't been there before. "Yes Ma'am." She said, then turned and left the room.

   "Well, now that that's settled." Lily smiled as she looked over the table. "This looks fabulous. I believe," She said as she looked at Sam pointedly. "That that Banana bread has quite a lot of walnuts in it. Just in case." She grinned. She knew Sam had been craving walnuts for months and had made sure the bread had an extra helping of them.

   Sam smiled hugely. "Walnuts, my favorite, at least that's what the baby seems to think." She said as Tim pulled out a chair for her. "Oh what a gentleman you've become all of a sudden." She said to Tim with a little chuckle of amusement.

   "Only on special occasions dear." He said returning her grin.

   Lily and Liz both laughed. "Oh lord. This is going to be even more fun than I thought." Liz said in an whisper loud enough for everyone to hear.

   "I just hope she doesn't get used too it." Lily said through suppressed laughter as she and Liz took their own seats.

   They ate and chatted companionably until everyone had pushed away plate and bowl. Sam's eyelids were dropping by this time and Lily let out a huge yawn that was accompanied by a small protest that it had escaped her without permission.

   "It really is getting late." Liz said, stifling a yawn of her own. "You two must be worn out with the trip and all this excitement." She said as she pushed back from the table and stretched. "I think it's about time we all went to bed. We can leave the dishes and clean up in the morning."

   They all rose and started for the door with Liz drifting back between Sam and Tim as Lily took the lead for the door. The difference was only a few feet but it was enough to hide the movement Liz made as she removed something from her pocket, balled up in her fist, and passed it silently to Sam with a little nod.

   Tim saw the exchange but took his lead from his mother and only looked over at Sam who was now holding a fistful of something in her hand that quickly disappeared into the pocket of her jeans. Liz increased her pace and caught up with Lily before she could reach the door to the entrance hall and realize everyone else was lagging behind.

   Once they were in the entrance hall Liz stopped next to Lily and waited for Tim and Sam to catch up with them.

   "Lily and I are going to check the kitchen real quick and make sure the stove didn't get left on or something. You two get on to bed." She smiled. "We'll see you when you get up."

   When they were gone Lily and Liz smiled at each other and headed for the kitchen. The stoves were off as they had expected, Beth wasn't the type to forget even the small things like this.

   Liz suddenly lifted Lily and set her on one of the counters. She moved in and taking Lily's face in her hands she kissed her deeply feeling all of the days tensions flowing out of her as they exchanged breath for breath. Their tongues twined together and Lily reached around to grasp the base of Liz's tail and pull her tight in against her, spreading her legs and wrapping them around her love's waist.

   Liz ground her pelvis into Lily's as her hands sought buttons on her shirt and began unfastening them. Lily's free hand worked at the fastenings of Liz's pants with apparent eagerness as their jeans rasped together. When her breasts were free of the binding shirt Liz pulled it open and leaned down to take an erect nipple into her mouth as her hands continued to work their way down to Lily's pants. Her tongue played over the areole and brushing the nipple lightly as Liz suckled gently caressing the breast with her lips, enjoying the feel and taste of her fur.

   Her pants came free and fell down to her knees suddenly but she stepped out of them with one leg and kicked them off with the other letting them slide across the floor into a corner unnoticed. She ran her lips slowly over her lover's chest kissing every few inches around the breast as she moved towards the other nipple while Lily pulled the now unfastened shirt off and dropped it onto the floor. She was panting as Liz's mouth found her other nipple and her own hand slid down between her lover's legs, found the damp spot on her panties that marked her slit, and began to rub her paw over it pressing her panties into her as her fingers slid over the ripe mound.

   Liz's mouth opened and a gasp was forced from her as Lily's rubbing fingers found a particularly sensitive spot and circled slowly in on it, raising the pleasure instant after instant, teasing slowly. In response she thrust her hips forward against the paw between her legs and went to work unfastening Lily's jeans.

   When Lily's jeans were loosened Liz stepped away from the stroking paw with a whimper of regret. She smiled slyly as she caressed the handle of the refrigerator standing behind her. Lily stripped off her pants and panties and tossed them away to join her shirt as Liz opened the door. She bent down, seductively flicking her tail to show Lily the drenched crotch of her panties then brought out a plate she'd made up even before Sam and Lily had arrived. It contained a small pile of strawberries, a few cherries, and a scoop of whipped cream. Lily's eyes twinkled as Liz set the tray beside her on the counter and resumed her place between Lily's legs.

   "Desert?" She asked playfully.

   Liz smiled. "Umm... sweet and tasty." She said sexily as she picked up a strawberry. She licked its tip then closed her lips on it and sucked with her eyes half closed. Lily wiggled her bottom on the counter and whimpered in anticipation as she watched those lips undulate over the skin of the ripe red fruit.

   Liz smiled and bit just the tip off the berry then lowered it and rubbed it over each of Lily's nipples in turn. She lowered her head and slowly licked the juice from each nipple while the hand holding the strawberry moved down and began rubbing the fruit between her own legs, dipping it in her juices before raising it to Lily's lips and rubbing it across them slowly wetting her mouth with two sweet nectars.

   Lily licked her lips as the strawberry finished its pass over them then opened her mouth to receive the dripping fruit. Liz placed it on her tongue and Lily chewed with slow relish sighing in delight as she savored the two sweet tastes together.

   Liz retrieved a second strawberry from the tray and this time dipped it in the whipped cream before lowering it between Lily's legs and rubbing it slowly around and over her dripping, slightly swollen, sex. Lily chattered softly in half protest of the teasing pleasure but her hands were now stroking Liz's ears gently, a sensitive area for a horse. Liz spread her open slightly with the hand not holding the fruit then dipped it into her and began twisting the fruit slowly left then right coating her vulva with sweet white cream before lowering her muzzle and beginning to lick it clean again.

She pressed her tongue inside her lover until all of the cream was gone and sweet juice had wet her muzzle fur dark. Lily's breath was coming is gasps of pleasure by the time Liz rose once more, then fed her lover the fruit that was now covered in her own fluids as well as what little whipped cream remained. Lily took it greedily but sat forward panting as she chewed and swallowed.

She pushed Liz back and slid from the counter to stand before her. "Up." She said grabbing the base of her lover's tail and steering her backwards to the counter. Liz obliged and lifted herself onto the counter spreading her damp thighs to allow her love easy access to the dewy flower between.

It was Lily's turn to deliver a dose of teasing and she went about it with a passion that exceeded even Liz's efforts. She brought some cherries to her mouth and slowly inserted four of them, one at a time. She lowered herself between Lily's legs and began rubbing her muzzle firmly up and down her slit as her tongue pressed a chewed paste of cherries into her slit and over her mound.

When the cherries had been completely distributed Lily proceeded to lick her lover clean once more starting with the mound and lips and moving deeper with each stroke of her agile tongue. Liz whinnied deep in her chest with pleasure as her hips began to thrust into Lily's muzzle of their own accord. Lily finished her cleaning with another stroke of her tongue then rose and kissed her lover on the mouth transferring cherries and juices as her tongue swept into her lover's muzzle.

Liz's eyes opened wide in surprise as the sweet cherry pulp and mouthful of vaginal juices flooded her senses. She reached up and grasped Lily's head and pressed their mouths more firmly together as they both swallowed the contents.

As they continued the kiss Lily climbed onto the counter to lie atop Liz and both sunk fingers deep into each other and stroked slowly where each knew the other was most sensitive. Liz's free hand grasped the base of Lily's tail and Lily's free hand stroked Liz's ears as they thrust and circled, pressed and pinched until both were gasping into each other's open mouths.

Lily climaxed an instant before Liz, Her tail went rigid as her back arched and a moan of pleasure and passion escaped her lips while her muscles tightened and the warm electricity moved out from her belly and sizzled through all the nerves in her body. Liz went a moment later tensing beneath her lover, her tunnel constricting around the Lily's fingers and spraying her paw and forearm with fluids as her hips thrust up against the hand within her a few times as her muscles seized and released.

They collapsed together, arms around each other, as they lay on the cramped kitchen counter, their legs dangling over the edge. Lily rolled over to lay on her back atop Liz's stomach and Liz enfolded her lover with her arms as they both slid off the counter onto the floor.

With Lily sitting in Liz's lap wrapped in her lover's arms and surrounded by the fall of her mane they were both content to simply bask for a while in the glow of their love for each other.

After a while they rose and gathered their clothes then disposed of the extra fruit from the tray and cleaned the counter and floor beneath where they had left puddles in testament to their lovemaking.

Lily smiled as they finished their work and left the kitchen. "I love you Liz." She said simply.

Liz returned her smile and kissed her lightly on the cheek. "I love you too."

They made their way up to the third floor, Liz noting that it was nearly three in the morning as they passed the clock in the hallway. She yawned; unable to stop herself then gave a regretful grin to Lily.

"I think we're going to regret this when we have to get up and help cook in the morning." She said through another yawn.

Lily leaned over and put an arm around her waist and squeezed lightly. "It was worth it." She said sincerely.

They took a shower after arriving in Liz's room then dropped the soiled clothes into the hamper and climbed into bed and fell asleep holding each other close.

In a room down the hall Sam and Tim slept peacefully curled around each other like two cubs huddled together for warmth. They clutched unconsciously as tightly as their parents and when contact was lost even for a moment they reached out to find each other once more.

Chapter Twenty-One

Beside the bed, looking down at them huddled there, Lady wept a little and felt a desperate need to reach out and embrace them both. She knew she shouldn't, but in her was growing a sense of losing touch with both of those she loved. She reached out and touched Tim's shoulder lightly feeling his living warmth against her ghostly paw. She sobbed slightly and felt movement, though it was not Tim who had moved.

Sam's eyes had opened and she was looking groggily at Lady. She smiled sleepily and waved the ghost closer.

"Lady?" She blinked a couple of times trying to clear the sleep haze from her eyes. "We were worried. Where were you?"

Lady put a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture. She stroked Sam's head fluffing back her ears a little and leaned in to whisper.

Sam saw her tears as her face entered a ray of moonlight coming in through the window and she reached out for a moment before realizing that the ghost would not be able to embrace her for comfort. Her movement disturbed Tim and he shifted then woke groggily and yawned but didn't release his hold on Sam as he smiled tiredly up at her, his back still to Lady so that he could not see her.

"What's wrong honey?" Sam asked in a whisper. "You're crying."

Lady wiped the tears from her eyes quickly as Tim's mind slowly seemed to process what Sam had said and turned his head enough to see her. He started to smile but then noticed the look on her face.

Lady tried to speak but only a little sob came out at first. She took a few breaths then tried again. "I..." She paused seeming to consider for a moment. "I love you both so much..." She had to stifle back a sob and paused to get herself under control before she continued. "I'm afraid you'll want me to go..." her voice broke, "want me to go away now that you're together." She finished as fresh tears streaked down her ghostly, transparent cheeks in lines more solid than the rest of her.

"Oh dear Lady." Sam said as she pulled Tim as close to her body as she could. "I love you too Lady."

Tim nodded sleepily but honestly. "We both love you. We're not going to ask you to leave. You're part of our family now. You'll be here to see our children born and grow."

Sam nodded her agreement. "We're your family. The family you didn't get to have while you were alive."

Lady's tears increased as her emotions boiled over. She threw her arms around them both where they lay and used all of her emotional energy to pump her entire body into physical contact for a few moments while the embrace lasted. When she broke away Sam and Tim released her only reluctantly as they felt their arms begin to slip through her as she lost her solidity.

"Sam, Tim," She looked at each of them solemnly as she said their names. "Would you bond with me?"

"Bond with you?" Sam asked curiously almost fully awake now but still groggy from even the hour or so of sleep she'd gotten.

Lady nodded. "It's a sharing of the body. I read about it one night on Tim's computer while he was sleeping."

Tim blinked and shook his head in confusion. "Like possession?" He asked, unable to get his brain to kick into gear properly he was barely able to bring up the thought.

She shook her head. "No... It's voluntary entry. I would enter one of your bodies, or both if proximity allowed, and share your emotions and physical pleasure..." She seemed to become a little flustered as her voice lowered and she continued in an embarrassed little whisper. "While... While you're making love."

Sam didn't need to think, she wanted to give Lady whatever comfort and love she could offer. She only thought for a moment about the baby. Lady was a spirit, incorporeal, so she could see no physical risks. She looked down at Tim who was watching her expectantly. She gave him a little nod and his returning smile told her his answer.

"Yes," she said to Lady and opened her arms, reaching out towards her. "Come to us?" She said questioningly.

Lady, filled with pleasure and happiness, scooted forward and placed her hands in front of Sam's palm to palm but didn't create physical contact. "There will be a sensation of cold." She said softly as Tim sat up beside Sam and watched the two women. Sam nodded and continued to hold her paws out.

Lady pushed her paws forward into Sam's and was suddenly pouring herself into her like a glass of water.

Sam felt a biting cold, strange but not painful, on her palms as Lady's paws passed into hers. Instead of her hands appearing from the other side of Sam's as they passed through Lady's form seemed to break apart and slide into her palms from the place where they met. She felt a warmth flowing up her arms and begin to expand in her chest. Her eyes opened wide as the last of Lady's form vanished and the sensation of chill on her palms dissipated to be replaced by the same glow she was feeling everywhere.

For Lady, sensations she'd forgotten could be felt, the air moving across skin, and feel of fur stirring minutely with the slightest movement, warm breath of her love and Sam's gusting gently across her back as he watched her intently, flooded her as she flowed and expanded into all the corners of Sam's body. The heart, not the organ but the spiritual heart, enfolded her eagerly. As they merged more fully and intimately in that moment than any sex would ever allow Sam gave a little sob as she was filled with two pulsing loves and understood their depth and meaning. She felt her love for Tim mingle with Lady's and burst into a flame that threatened to consume both her and the spirit.

Sam choked back a second sob and flung herself into Tim's arms kissing every inch of him that she could reach. It hadn't been her, Sam realized, it had been both of them. Her hands were going places she wasn't telling them too, but she was in control, she knew, she could stop those hands if she wanted too. She didn't.

For both women every touch was aflame and contact skin-to-skin with Tim was like hugging a burning log of pleasure. Sam-Lady realized that they could actually feel his love radiating from his skin. Sam-Lady pushed him down onto his back and their paws went down to caress his sheath with gentle, almost maidenly touches. Sam felt the wonder in Tim's body fill her, coming from Lady, and realized in an instant that, for all her age and her tragic story of love, she was a virgin.

"I'll help you." She thought to the other inside her. "Be gentle, but don't be timid."

The hand began stroking along the sheath feeling the fur slip beneath their paw tickling the palm as it passed down to cup his testicles. Sam lowered their face down to him and ran their tongue over them then up his sheath from the base until it reached the head of his penis just beginning to peak out from within. As their tongue reached the head it licked softly around the hole then dipped lightly into it.

Suddenly his penis was aflame with sensation as warmth flowed through it from the place Sam-Lady's tongue had touched. It ran up into his belly and expanded outwards into every depth of him. Suddenly he was feeling more than touches and caresses, he was sharing everything, as he knew Sam and Lady were sharing everything. For a moment, before Sam realized what was happening he felt like a peeping tom as he heard her giving small instructions to Lady on how to pleasure him.

The sensations were so strange for each of them. Lady-Sam-Tim felt all three as one, unable to differentiate between multiple bodies and minds and emotions suddenly combined into a single spiritual entity. Three senses felt each touch, three spirits inhabited two bodies and three loves clashed, merged, burned, and braided together into a rope so strong that no force, neither life nor death, would tear it asunder.

Tim could feel the baby within him; a warm glow of three emotions was wrapped about it somewhere in his middle. Three shields held with three embracing minds and nourished by three wellsprings of love protected it surrounded the child that grew unseen within his-her womb.

Their bodies were moving together now controlled by all three but no part by one single. Tim's manhood slid into Sam's sex and all three could feel the surge of fulfillment and filling. They felt their shaft engulfed in silken, damp, warmth. Both body's nerves sent little shocks of electric pleasure boiling along nervous systems to brains, which were slow compared to their current connection.

Tim felt himself penetrated, penetrating, and clung mind-to-mind to Sam and Lady somewhere in the depth of a storm of pleasure, emotion, and sensation that was sweeping through, and around, all of them. The physical act was over quickly as their bodies quivered and shuddered in a pair of orgasms more violent and fulfilling than anything they had yet experienced. Sam could feel herself spasm in pleasure as her cock filled her belly with warmth. She felt her muscles contract around her shaft and squeeze it, desiring all her seed inside her body. Their mouths were kissing their hands still seeking, rubbing, caressing.

They collapsed both mentally and physically into a heap of bodies and spirits. Cum dripped from their body as their penis continued to spasm occasionally in aftershocks of the orgasm. They cuddled together; all three still within each other, and slept. There would be morning soon enough to figure out how to separate into their own bodies again, but until then they were wrapped in the warmth of each other and that was more than anyone who had never experienced it could imagine.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Morning came and went as they slept huddled together on the bed curled around each other in a tangle of arms and legs. Light spilled into the room, the dusky frosted light that came after a big snow, and brightened, as the day worn on to noon before Tim finally opened is eyes a crack. He reached out instinctively, eyes still half shut, and stroked her mane softly and smiling at it's fine, silky texture between his fingers.

"A mane? Sam doesn't have..." he thought, a little perplexed. His eyes popped open to their fullest as memory flooded back and thoughts of returning to the wrong body suddenly filled him. He looked down at himself and let out a breath of relief. He was himself. He was in his own body. It was then, as his movements caused the pair of forms who shared the bed with him to shift in sleep, that he realized he and Sam were not alone in the bed anymore. He saw the nude buttock of a dappled chestnut filly with her vulva just peaking out from beneath her tail as she shifted it and adjusted her embrace. Sam, who lay on the mare's other side, woke and yawned trying not to move much so she wouldn't disturb her sleeping partner.

She shifted only a little to free her face from the fall of the long chestnut mane that was blocking her view. Then she saw Tim lying on the filly's other side and her eyes filled with confusion. Tim's mouth hung open a little in his own shock but that didn't change the fact that, by the feel, she should be embracing him right now. She looked back down at her sleeping partner, not yet awake enough to realize she wasn't just dreaming. Wrapped in her arms was a chestnut horse whose arms were holding her close as they lay together.

"Chestnut..." her mind kept coming back to that point but wouldn't click any connection into place for it only continued spinning its wheels uselessly. "Chestnut... Tim isn't a chestnut." Her mind finally provided as the haze of sleep finally swept away and her brain began to work again.

She looked back up and met Tim's eyes. "Oh Tim. What's going on?" She asked in a frightened little voice. She put her hand on her forehead and pressed hard as if trying to put whatever figment of her imagination this was back in it's place.

Tim's mouth closed with a little click of teeth. "Uh... I... I don't know." He said lamely. "Maybe we should wake her up?"

Sam looked aghast for a second but then her face cleared and he could see that she was working her mind through whatever panicky thoughts it had started with. After a few moments she nodded and shook the still sleeping form of the filly gently. A smile spread across the filly's muzzle as she began to awaken. Her eyes didn't open at once but she whispered a sleepy "Good morning," as she finally let her grip on Sam slacken.

Tim drew himself out of the tangle and sat up. "Lady?" He said unable to think of any other possible reason for this filly to have appeared in their bed after last night.

Sam threw him a strange look of mixed confusion and sudden understanding. "Lady? But how could that be?" She asked.

Lady's mind clicked into place before she'd even opened her eyes. She could feel Sam's fur beneath her palms; she could feel air on her skin. "Skin?"

Hey eyes flew open and she raised a paw in shock to look at it. The sudden movement tumbled the pair from the edge of the bed onto the floor. Tim tried to grab them before they went over but managed only to slide off as well and land hard on his elbows.

Pain erupted in Lady's rump as it hit the floor and the rest of her body followed with lesser pains pricking her as arms and legs came in contact with the hard wood. Sam was mostly cushioned when she fell on Lady's torso and rolled off to hit the floor much more gently. Lady's breath whooped out in a gust as Sam's weight hit her and a neigh of displeasure was forced from her lips.

Tim rushed over to help them both to their feet. His elbows and forearms felt as if they'd been pulverized by the rock crusher he'd seen at a gravel plant on an eleventh grade field trip, but he ignored it and grasped one of Lady's hands in his right and one of Sam's in his left. He hauled them upright and looked them both over carefully. All of them were nude, but none seemed to care either.

"Are you two ok?" He asked quickly.

"Of course we are." Sam said kindly but sternly. "It was only a foot or so. Not like we fell off the roof or something."

Tim rubbed his elbows with a grimace. "Didn't feel so little to me." He said only slightly defensively. "Sorry. Just a little confused at the moment."

Lady was clutching herself everywhere, rubbing her hands down her arms and through her mane. "It hurt!" She said ecstatically but with an undertone of wonder.

"So you are Lady then?" Sam asked cautiously.

Lady nodded but continued to rub herself as if she couldn't quite believe what she was feeling.

Tim shook his head. "But..." he paused unable to think of how to phrase what he wanted to say without sounding disappointed.

Lady looked up at him. "I'm alive. I'm real." She held out her hands to him. "It's a miracle."

Tim couldn't speak. The need for physical contact in Lady's eyes removed all questions of how this had happened from his mind. He walked into her embrace then held out one of his own arms to bring Sam into the fold as well. They embraced, all three together, for a long time as Lady wept joyful tears.

Sam and Tim waited until Lady broke the hug then stepped back and smiled broadly. "Its amazing, sure, and wonderful." Sam said sincerely. "But... how?"

Lady shook her head and shrugged. "I'm not sure. Something must have happened during the bonding. It's the only explanation."

Tim suddenly frowned. "Oh... no... This isn't good." He paused and gave a little grin of apology. "Sorry; what I mean is it's good, but it raises some problems that aren't good. Not good at all."

Sam nodded. "Yes I was thinking of that. When you were a spirit you could become invisible and people could pass right through you and you could simply fly through a wall to hide, but now..." she left the sentence hanging.

"Now the question is," Tim continued for her. "How we're going to explain you to our parents and how were going to convince them to let you stay."

"Oh." She said with a little surprise. "I... I didn't think of that."

Sam put her hand to her forehead and rubbed a little squinting her eyes. "Stop it Tim." She said suddenly. "You're thinking too much, it's driving me nuts."

Tim's eyes opened in surprise as his brain ground to a halt. He'd been running through ideas that might work but Sam's sudden outburst had stopped that. His mind continued to ramble through ideas, but they were no longer his ideas. They were Sam's.

"Oh Christ... What is this?" Tim asked going over to Sam and taking her by the shoulders.

"What are you talking about?" Tim said just as Sam opened her mouth to speak the words. "How are you doing that?" he said this again just before she could.

"Were reading each others minds." Sam said suddenly as the thought popped into her head before Tim could actually say it.

"Oh damn, we've got to stop this or we'll forget whose supposed to be saying what thoughts." Tim said with a bit of chagrin as Sam thought it. "Sorry Sam." He said a moment later.

Sam glared at him for just an instant. "Uh... can you hear Lady's thoughts?" She asked, but Tim was already shaking his head.

   "Not at all. Apparently she got something other than a mental link from the bonding." He waved unnecessarily at Lady's very real body.

   "That's apparent." She said.

   Tim shook his head. "I didn't hear that one." He said, obviously meaning her thought.

   Sam nodded. "It's fading out now that we're conscious of it. I wonder why?" She said as Tim's roaring thoughts faded into stillness, at least in her own head.

   Lady was watching them with interest as they talked. She wasn't all that surprised at the revelation that they were reading each others thoughts, not when she had suddenly found she had a body. The reading of thoughts was just a parlor trick in comparison.

   "Well I can't think of anything." Sam said after a few more moments. "Any ideas, either of you?"

   Lady shook her head.

   Tim shrugged. "So far the only viable solution I've come up with is to convince them of the truth." He held up a hand as he saw Sam start to speak forestalling it. "It will probably be impossible to do that now that Lady is... um... no longer consigned to a ghostly shell, shall we say."

   Sam snapped her fingers. "I've just thought of something." She said running up in excitement and shaking Tim's whole arm by the hand. "I think it might even work."

   Tim looked at her in surprise. "What... what is it?" he asked just a little taken aback at Sam's sudden excitement.

   She visibly composed herself but didn't apologize.

It was at this point that Tim suddenly realized in the front of his mind how strange this would look if someone else were watching. All three of them were wearing only their fur, standing close now with foreheads almost touching while Sam gathered her thoughts. He and Sam were stained with dried fluids and while Lady had apparently escaped the dousing they'd received she'd picked some up either from touching them or from the sheets where they had slept together.

   He broke in quickly before Sam could begin her explanation. "Um... perhaps we should go in the bathroom before we continue this conversation." He said quickly.

   Sam was thrown right off track and she looked at him in puzzlement. Lady's look wasn't much better, but it was one more of interest than of just confusion. That was probably because she hadn't just been thinking along a completely different track intending to explain something.

   "Uh... What?" Sam asked.

   "I think we should discuss this in the bathroom, while we take a shower or something." He said earnestly. "Nobody will come into the bathroom if we're in there, but someone could come to wake us any moment. It's got to be nearly noon by now. How much longer do you imagine they'll wait?"

   Her mouth snapped shut and she nodded in understanding. She took both of their hands and pulled them towards the bathroom door. They obliged willingly and Tim broke away only long enough to close and lock the door leading into his room as they passed through. Sam went to check the lock on the adjoining room while Lady turned on the hot water in the shower to cover their conversation as much as to actually shower.

   The bathroom was large, as was the shower. They fit easily into the room together though and Lady sat in the shower letting the water play over her body for the first time every. Even when she'd lived before, water had been hand carried to a tub on bucket at a time. This plumbing was a luxury almost as akin to magic as the computer had been. She luxuriated in the feel of the water as she listened to Sam and Tim.

   "You told me, the first time you mentioned Barbara, or Lady as the case may be, that the Harry, the old driver, told you about the ghost the first time you encountered something strange; isn't that right?"

   Tim nodded and Sam continued.

   "Then Harry just might, not certainly, but might be the answer were looking for."

   "I don't see how Harry could be the solution to our problem if we still have to explain where Lady came from." He said in confusion. "A few ghost stories from him aren't going to be convincing enough for anyone."

   Sam shook her head. "No, no. I'm not thinking of telling mom and Liz the whole truth, but telling Harry everything instead. From what I have gathered he's the most likely to believe such a far fetched story if we stick to our guns, and even if he doesn't completely believe he might do what we ask just to help us. You did say he was your friend didn't you?"

   Tim nodded. "Yes, he's friendly, but he might just be better at friendly than some of the rest of the staff. I'm not sure exactly how much of a real friend he is though. This is something big. It's monumental in fact. I'm not sure we can tell him everything and count on his help; or even his complete silence for that matter."

   "So we put it to him as a what if sort of question at first, test the water and see how likely he is to want to believe it. If he's receptive we can spring my idea on him fully and see what he thinks. In the end, even if he tells our mothers; it can't end up any worse than if we told them ourselves."

   Tim nodded slowly. "What exactly do you want to ask him to do? Assuming that we can convince him that Lady was a ghost just a few hours ago of course."

   Sam laid out her plan with Lady and Tim nodding in surprised approval. It was a good plan as long as the key element was met. Harry must be brought into the fold; and soon.

   Chapter Twenty-Three

   Tim went down to find Harry alone a half hour later. He was washed, dried, combed, and dressed in a fresh pair of jeans and a white and black button-up dress shirt of denim that matched the color of his mane and tail perfectly. Oh his feet were a pair of heavy hiking boots and thick wool socks that would keep his feet from freezing if he had to go outside in search of his quarry. He didn't he'd to need too though, as he turned towards the solarium.

   Sam and Lady had left his room just after he had and went down the hall to the door that connected the main wing of the house to the west wing where guest quarters remained empty, except for the occasional visit by a maid, for most of the year. They went all the way to the furthest rooms and found one that Lady could stay in until Harry could be found and convinced to help them. They left the door slightly ajar and sat in a pair of overstuffed and rather dusty armchairs chatting while they waited. The door would let Tim know which room they had chosen as soon he saw it since he knew roughly where to search at least.

   Tim found Harry asleep in the solarium napping in the center of a little patch of garden he'd obviously been tending that morning. Beside him was a small skin of wine and a nibbled bit of cheese and bread that had been forgotten in the warm noon sunshine spilling in through the multi-colored glass roof. Tim smiled in affection at the image of the tired old hare that lay among the daisies. He knew now that this was more an act than anything. The old hare just liked to relax and take his ease. That didn't mean he was too old, or unfit, as he'd demonstrated only the night before by carrying Sam's mother from the car to the house across a sheet of ice in a blizzard.

   Tim left him there, knowing he'd still be there later when he wanted to find him again, and headed for the kitchens in search of his mother and Lily.

   The hall leading into the kitchen was alive with echoing noises of staff bustling, calling out instructions, and generally laughing and having a good time. He heard the voices of his mother and Lily both mixed in that throng, but was unable to make out their words in the general hubbub.

When he pushed through into the kitchen he was greeted with the sight of no less than seven people rushing around and banging into each other. Even in this large kitchen seven was pushing capacity, but everyone seemed in a jolly spirit and laughed more than scowled when small accidental bumps or steps happened. When he opened the door he almost caused one of these little accidents himself. The assistant, carrying a huge mixing bowl, filled to the brim with something that looked like pudding, was just able to pull up short and keep a hold on the bowl as the door blocked her forward progress.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Tim said as he quickly stepped inside and shut the door.

The assistant, a middle-aged mouse with gray fur and long delicate whiskers, smiled and nodded pleasantly as she squeezed past him and continued towards a counter where three pie tins were waiting to be filled.

"Ho! Tim!" Mrs. Pennycoat shouted over the din as she saw him. "Better watch yerself in here. You looking for Liz?"

Tim smiled and nodded at the plump field mouse head cook as she waved her wooden spoon at him from across the room. "Yeah I was." He said cheerfully. The atmosphere of the kitchen was infectious and he seemed unable to keep himself from smiling while all the happy work was going on around him.

"Oy! Liz." The head cook shouted over her shoulder.

Liz poked her head out of a cupboard, where she'd been selecting good sweet potatoes to make candied yams with, and let her gaze follow the cook's pointing finger until it fell upon Tim standing in the doorway. She waved, a potato still clutched in her hand. She turned to someone still in the pantry and said something that Tim couldn't hear then emerged brushing a bit of dust from her apron as she dodged her way across the kitchen to him.

"Tim." She said with a smile. "Good morning. Have a good sleep?"

Tim nodded. "Great. Actually better; I haven't slept so well since we left..." he was going to say "left home," but realized that they were home and ended the sentence with a feel of incompleteness.

Liz looked around and brushed her forehead lightly with the back of one hand then nodded. "Come on, let's get out of here for a minute so we can talk instead of shout."

He nodded and they walked out and down the hall a little way, until the sounds from the kitchen, now even louder as someone within started the entire staff into a rousing chorus of winter wonderland, dimmed enough so they could hear themselves think.

"It's a madhouse in there. Fun though." Liz said and patted his shoulder affectionately. "Beth went ahead and came in an hour or so ago anyway so it's even more crowded than it was this morning; of course nobodies going to turn down the help at this point. You'd be amazed at just how much food they're planning. Even with twenty-five staff to feed there will be leftovers until next Halloween.

Tim grinned. "Well then Sam and I will try to stay out of the way. We're both useless in the kitchen anyway. I'm sure we'll learn sometime, but now doesn't sound like the right one." He chuckled at her look of horror at the very idea. "We're going to do some exploring of the west wing instead and we're both a bit hungry. We thought we'd have Harry come along since he's most familiar with that part of the house and we could all have a little picnic in one of those big old ballrooms he's been telling us about. We might even find the right one to have the wedding in."

At the idea of a wedding Liz smiled again, even wider than before. "That sounds like a great idea. It'll help Sam get comfortable with the house and at least one of the staff." She looked back at the kitchen doors. "You better let me go get your picnic together though. One more person in there and I think the kitchen just might explode in protest."

Tim chuckled but nodded as Liz bustled back down and took a steadying breath before making the plunge through the door into the festive atmosphere of the kitchen where the staff had apparently now moved on to "Oh Ye Merry Gentlemen", strains of which came down the hall to him through the open door as she entered.

A few moments later Liz came back out looking a bit flustered but glowing with happiness and amusement as a new Christmas song he'd never heard before rolled out around her and down the hall to him. It was fast and happy sounding, but so steeped in Irish brogue that he was unable to make any sense of the words.

"What is that they're singing?" Tim asked Liz as she held out the old fashioned square basket to him. It even had a little checkered red and white cloth sticking out of one edge of it like in all those old stories of picnic baskets carried by storybook characters over the centuries.

"I'm not sure actually. I can barely make it out at all, but it's apparently a very old Irish Christmas song. It's a favorite around here though, they've sung it at least five times already and it hasn't gotten any easier to understand yet."

Tim laughed and took the basket from her grasp. It was actually quite heavy and he wondered for a moment what she could have packed in there. He looked down and wondered if she'd be mad if he peeked.

Liz laughed. "Old fashioned basket isn't it. Apparently it's been around here for ages and ages and every time one wears out they just replace it with the same thing." She said looking down at the finely woven reed basket. "It's got cheese, bread, fruit, and a bottle of tea. If you're wondering what's in there." She said when he looked questioningly at her.

He smiled. "Sounds delicious." He said jovially. "I feel like I might have to skip my way back to meet Sam carrying this thing though. It might be old fashioned, but it certainly adds the right atmosphere to a free hearted picnic with friends."

Liz smiled at his imagery and patted him lovingly on the shoulder. "Alright, off with you then. Sam's probably ravenous by now. She's eating for two now don't forget, and you both slept through breakfast."

Tim nodded then turned and jogged back the way he'd come. He would visit the solarium again before he actually went to find Sam but Liz didn't need to know that. He turned to look back for just a second as he reached the entrance hall but only the closed door of the kitchen now greeted him. He turned and headed past the stairs instead of up them and went through the little door into the first floor hallway that would take him past the library and into the solarium that abutted the west wing. There was an entrance to the west wing from the solarium so they would be able to get there by taking a less obvious route than going back through the entrance hall.

Harry was still there, though he had woken from his nap and was now sitting propped against a little stone bench sipping from the wine bottle. He waved and rose, brushing crumbs and dirt from his pants as he did, then smiled at Tim.

"Good afternoon." He said as Tim joined him next to the bench and set the basket of food down on it. "Had a good sleep then?" He asked with a wicked little grin that Tim couldn't have missed.

"Well, you can keep your hairy nose right out of that business." Tim said with a chuckle. "Actually though, It's about last night that I came to find you." He continued mysteriously. "About last night and that time in the orchard." He gave Harry a look that intimated things he didn't want spoken until they went to find Sam in the west wing.

Harry looked intrigued. "Oh?" He cocked his head in interest. "This sounds like a story I shouldn't miss. Is it one you can tell me now..." He stopped then shook his head. "Never mind. What sort of plan are you rolling around? I can see it even in the set of your body and the look in your eye."

Tim wasn't surprised at the old Hare's ability to read him. He knew the hare wasn't as senile or as unobservant as he liked to pretend to the rest of the staff.

"Sam and I want to talk to you together." He motioned towards the west wing and looked at Harry meaningfully. "We want to talk where we won't be overheard."

"Oh..." Harry said thoughtfully. It was obvious he was trying to puzzle out exactly what this little meeting Sam and Tim had planned might be about. When his cogitating produced no real results he nodded. "I assume this meeting is to be held on a confidential basis?"

Tim nodded. "Completely confidential. If you can't promise we'll just leave it here and no more will be said about it."

Harry shook his head. "I've had the odd secret of my own in my day. I won't break confidence with you or you're girl if that's what you want. Just don't expect me to agree to anything that might get either of you hurt or something. I'll try to stop you, without breaking my word not to tell of course, if that's the sort of thing you're thinking of."

Tim put a hand on Harry's shoulder reassuringly. "Not at all. This is more of a..." he paused thinking for a second before continuing. "A matter of objectified realities." He said at last.

"I'm not sure what that means," Harry said with a chuckle. "But it sure sounds interesting. Lets go."

Tim picked up the picnic basket and motioned for Harry to precede him towards the door into the west wing of the house. "Sam's waiting on the third floor somewhere on the far end of the west wing. The door will be slightly open so we'll know which room they're in."

Harry didn't miss the "they" in the statement but refrained from comment for the moment. This was shaping up to be the most excitement he'd had in years and he wasn't about to spoil it now.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Sam and Lady were laughing when Harry and Tim entered the hallway that contained the room they'd chosen. Harry's one remaining ear wasn't as good as his eyes, but even he could hear the two distinctive patterns in the laughter that meant that more than just one person waited in the room down this hall.

Tim started for the door holding his hand out to stop Harry where he stood for a moment. "Give us a minute. I need to let Sam know we're here."

He moved down the hall to the door that was open just a crack and stepped inside closing the door behind him and leaving Harry standing dumbly in the empty hall. He didn't have to wait long, after only a few seconds the door opened once more and Tim's head peered out. "Ok Harry; you can come in now."

He moved to the doorway and glanced inside before entering, looking past Tim at the two overstuffed chairs, set a few feet back from the empty fireplace and facing each other at an angle. He stepped inside to let Tim close the door behind them then examined the room more thoroughly.

There was a silver pot on the mantle of the fireplace covered so thickly in tarnish that it might have been iron instead of silver. The chairs were burgundy, a color he'd never fancied himself but one that had been a favorite of his wife until her death. There was a large old-fashioned wooden bed; almost old enough to be hand-hewn against one wall with the door to the bathroom opening just to it's right at the back of the room.

He moved over to where Sam sat and extended his paw with a smile. "I'm sorry I didn't get to meet you properly yesterday. You were so tired after going through customs and I thought we'd have time once we got here." He said cordially.

Sam took the offered paw. "It's a pleasure. You did good just to get us home in that storm last night. I should have thanked you then, but thank you all the same."

Harry motioned to the empty seat across from her. "Do you mind? My old back isn't what it used to be and I did carry your mother in last night after all." He rubbed his supposedly bad back and winced comically.

Sam chuckled. "Not at all. Age should have its privileges after all."

Tim chuckled himself as he walked over and sat on the arm of Sam's chair while they waited for Harry to go through the motions of slowly lowering his old tired body into the chair. "So old and tired he sleeps like a baby on a stone solarium floor." Tim thought with amusement.

When Harry was settled, he sat back and sighed then looked at the two across from him with interested patience.

Sam handed Tim a little book bound in leather. It was worn and its pages were yellowed with age. He took it and got to his feet to hand it over to Harry who took it with only a moments hesitation.

"What is it?" He asked as he examined the soft, worn, leather cover and ran his fingers over the words that were too faded to make out.

"It's a journal; well not really a journal as much as a story in journal form, I think." Sam said seriously. "Tim can tell you how he found it, but he wanted me to verify that, even though I just came here, I believe everything he is about to tell you. In fact I have experienced a lot of it myself even across the sea before I arrived."

Harry's eyes widened in curiosity as he fingered the book open to the first page and read the name of the entries original author and the date.

"Ok, I'm listening." He said as he flipped the cover shut again. "I'm glad Tim brought a snack cause if this date is right..." he held the book up a little with one hand to indicate what he'd read. "We've got a lot of time to cover."

Tim reseated himself on the arm of Sam's chair and began the story from the very beginning with the encounter in the orchard all the way to the end of the previous night and waking up to find Lady whole and alive once more in their bed. Sam interjected a few points on the times when Lady had come to visit through the computer, but otherwise she left this telling to Tim. He skipped over the actual descriptions of their lovemaking but Harry seemed to get the point anyway and just motioned for him to continue with the story. When he had finished he looked down at Sam and shrugged.

   "That's everything. It's an unbelievable story and the only proof we have that it isn't just some odd fiction is that I found that book. Against all odds I found it in less than fives minutes in the attic. It doesn't count for much, but it has to count for something."

   Harry shook his head. "No lad. You're mistaken. You said that this, Barbara did you say her name was?"

   Tim nodded but Sam spoke up before Harry could continue. "She prefers Lady actually, but her real name was Barbara Allen." She said without really breaking the rhythm of the conversation at all.

   Harry nodded in acknowledgement and continued. "Lady then. Lady would know things about the area, at least from her time, that neither of you could have taught her. Even if she was some charlatan, which I couldn't bring myself to believe for an instant could have avoided detection this long if she wasn't a ghost in the first place, not with all the staff around to trip her up if they saw her even once. No, this story has no holes. It's too unbelievable to be so perfect in every detail."

   He paused for breath and they could see excitement in his eyes. He really did believe them. They waited while he brought himself a little under control so his reason could take over and let his emotions drive from the backseat only.

   He shook his head. "No, no. I can't make the judgment on just the story alone Tim. I believe your story, or at least that you're telling everything you think you saw, but any of those things could have been a huge conspiracy." He held up his hands in a warding gesture as he saw both of them wanting to protest. "Seriously now. I have to take the skeptics view here. I've been brought into this without warning, and I know it's because you already know I am open to believe in ghosts and spirits." He gave Tim an appraising look. "Yes I'm willing to believe you, but you're still going to have to convince me. Why don't you have the young lady whose hiding in the bathroom come out and talk to me herself?"

   Sam and Tim jumped a little in surprise. Tim knew he should have expected it, but that didn't lessen the embarrassment at being caught hiding something from the person they were asking to trust them. They'd planned on introducing Lady anyway, but they'd expected to do it on their terms and he'd suddenly sent the pitch they'd thrown right back at them in a line drive to center.

   Lady stepped into the room. She had found a long white evening dress, cut in an old fashioned style and as long as the dress she'd worn when she'd been without a real body, in a closet somewhere and was wearing it with all the grace her previous life had taught her. She walked slowly to the end of the bed then sat on its end with the dress modestly dangling around her feet with her legs cocked to the side along the footboard.

   "Good afternoon Barbara." Harry said with a nod of greeting. "I assume you are the Barbara Allen I've been told about?" He said without an inch of skepticism in his voice. That must be the accomplishment of a lifetime, Tim thought as he saw the skepticism that wasn't in his voice flicker through his eyes.

   "If you prefer I can call you Lady, though if you're not comfortable..." he looked at her inquisitively.

   Lady nodded her consent and smiled a little. "Being a friend of Tim's and all, of course you may." She said.

   Harry's eyes narrowed. "I've just noticed that you don't seem to have any accent at all. That's rather strange don't you think."

   Lady shrugged. "If I could explain it I would do so gladly. It's not that I can't remember how I used to speak, only that, for some reason we don't understand, I speak just the way Sam and Tim speak."

   Harry rubbed his forehead. Could you favor me with a example of you're... ah... more regular turn of phrase?" he asked after a few moments.

   Lady nodded. "Anything you'd like me to talk about in particular?" She asked.

   Harry shrugged. "Tell me about the old house. Whatever you can remember."

   When she started speaking again her accent and phrasing of the sentences were so inundated with inflection and accent that neither Sam nor Tim could have come anywhere near understanding more than one word in ten. They got the idea that she was describing the house where Argus had lived, mostly in terms of ballrooms she'd seen, halls she could remember, and places she'd hid from the nannies on days when they're father's had business and they're mother's met for a sort of sewing circle, mostly to gossip if what Lady seem to be saying was true.

   When Lady finished, Harry was looking perplexed. He'd been in the burned-out ruins of the old house, and he'd seen rooms and halls like she described, but he'd never been there alive and he could only imagine that her descriptions might be accurate. The thing that caught him was the unconscious layout she'd described, which did in fact match everything he knew about the old manor. Also, he'd been around old Irish men a lot in his life, and not a single one of them spoke quite as she did. If she'd been simply taught, or listened and taught herself, then the language, the inflections, even the accent would be more recognizable than hers was.

   Besides, he thought, why wouldn't she just use her accent all the time if she were just trying to be convincing. She'd never have made up something as completely suspect as I don't know why. She'd have a hell of a good explanation in that case, which made everything all that more believable.

   "Damn it." He thought. "When does something too unbelievable to be false have to be true and where does it start to look like a setup again?" This kind of double and triple thinking had driven him out of the service years ago and he was starting to get a headache.

   Sam and Tim waited patiently and Lady cocked her head in interest wondering what the old hare might be thinking.

   Harry sat in silence with his face in his hands for a long time as he thought over everything, rolling it around in his brain to see it from every angle. Finally he raised his head and his eyes were weary showing the first signs of old age, genuine sign in any case, that Tim had ever seen from him. It was accompanied by a slight gleam.

   There was so little to work with, that he'd been at a loss to grain more ground, to find something, anything, that would be at least a tiny bit of solid proof to back up who and what Lady was. He'd found it locked away in the store of old tales his grandmother used to tell him. She hadn't worked in the old house herself, but her mother had spent a few of her younger years working there and had passed along many stories of the rich life the family had led. The journal, or book, or whatever you wanted to call it, had brought this particular story back to him.

   What he was thinking of wouldn't prove anything if she couldn't take him there since the story could have been just a fanciful old wives tale as some undoubtedly were, but if there was such a place; the only two people who could possibly find the place now would have to be the ghosts of those buried there.

   "Lady," He started solemnly. "Can you take me to where you're buried?" He asked gently. If she really was, or had been at any rate, the ghost of Barbara Allen, then he didn't want to upset her with a reminder of who else lay with her in the little grove that the story had spoken of.

   Lady's eyes widened a little in fear but she nodded and swallowed the fear of her own emotions that had risen up in her. "I do know that place. I could take you there if you like, though it would be a long walk through deep snow just to reach the forest edge."

   Harry shook his head but was looking much less skeptical now than he had a few minutes before. "There's a pair of two-man snowmobiles in the garage. They've been with us ever since the horses were sold and we had to have a way to get into town after a big snow."

   "What's a snowmobile?" Lady asked curiously. "Is it some sort of wagon like the car you brought Sam home in?"

   Harry nodded. "That's exactly what it is. You'll need something more substantial than that dress if were going out though." He said as he got to his feet.

   Tim rose about to tell Harry that he was coming with them but Harry raised a hand to forestall any argument. "No. You will stay here. Two can ride a snowmobile easily enough but we can't take them both in case there's an emergency." He smiled just a little. "Besides, just the fact that she's willing to take me there mean's one of two things." He said in a lowered voice. "Either she's lying and intends to get rid of me out there somewhere, in which case you'll know better if she returns, and in the other she really is telling the truth and we're going to see a place that, if it exists, she will want take you to later, without company, when she's ready."

   Tim chocked back his protests but Sam was still ready with hers. "I know you mean well, but you may have missed the fact that she's just been... sort of... reborn, I suppose you could say, this morning. She doesn't have anything heavy to wear and we'd be all day going through the closets around here finding something."

   Harry shook his head and smiled reassuringly. "She can wear some of my wife's old things. They're not much for style, but they should fit since she was a heifer who was quite a bit larger than Lady is, at least around the middle." He made a little motion towards Lady in apology. "Not to say that you are in any way large, only that my dear departed wife's clothes will be quite adequate for this purpose." He added in way of explanation.

   Lady chuckled but Tim and Sam could still see a little pain behind her gaze as she thought of the journey she was about to make. "No offense taken. I'd be pleased and honored to borrow you're wife's old things." She bowed her head in respectful acceptance of his offer. "Only; how will you get me to the clothes, or the clothes to me for that matter, without taking either me or them through the house where anyone will be able to see and wonder what you're about?"

   Harry smiled. "Oh... that's not a problem. There's a side door out of the west wing leading out onto the grounds. I'll get some clothes together and bring them around on the snowmobile, then you can change and we'll be on our way."

   Lady nodded and looked at Sam and Tim as Harry left the room and jogged away down the corridor. "Will it work?" She asked.

   Tim shook his head. "I really don't know. If you really can take him to..." he paused remembering the hurt in her eyes when Harry had mentioned her grave. "To this place he wants to see, which I don't doubt you can if it still exists, then yes it'll probably work."

   Lady chuckled. "I meant; will bringing the snowmobile and clothes around to the side entrance work. Do you think he can get away without being seen?"

   Tim was a little taken aback. "Uh... Yeah. It will probably work just like he said it would. He lives over the garage and it's not really a part of the main house at all, just connected by a passage in the solarium. Nobody will question why he's going out on the snowmobile even if they do see him leave the garage, and if you join him at this end of the west wing nobody will see you leave at all."

   Chapter Twenty-Five

   Sam, Tim, Lady, and Harry sat in a ballroom near the side door into the west wing and ate heartily from the picnic lunch Tim had been thoughtful enough to bring. Lady and Harry talked incessantly about everything, mostly because Harry's unease for things more complex than a steering wheel and gas pedal and Lady's complete lack of technological understanding seemed to give them a rather common ground in that area to work from.

   Sam sat in Tim's lap with an arm around him and sipped tea from one of the plastic cups that had been packed along with the rest of the things. There had been only three cups, but Tim was satisfied with sharing Sam's cup when he wanted a sip, so they had given one to each of the others and shared one between them. It also gave them a good reason to stay close, which both of them were enjoying.

   Finally Harry set his cup to the side and rose. "I'm not sure how far we have to go, or what sort of obstacles we'll have to get by to find this place, but it would have to be pretty close, and without many obstacles if we want to get back before dark." He said in way of a suggestion that they should depart.

   Lady nodded to Tim and Sam as she rose and followed Harry to the door. "It's a good way in, so don't expect us back for awhile." She said to them as Harry opened the door for them. She smiled reassuringly. "It's fine. We'll see you in a bit."

   They were gone a moment later and the door swung shut behind them. Sam and Tim looked at each other and smiled.

   "This is an awful big ballroom don't you think?" Sam said as she pushed herself to her feet. "Nobody dancing or anything. Maybe if we dance, we can make it remember what it used to be like to have hundreds of couples capering around in wild convulsions as the music played." She said, holding her arms out wide and sweeping around and around as she looked up at the mirrored ceiling.

   Tim chuckled and stepped right between her arms as she spun to face him. His left hand found her waist and stopped her spin as the other gripped her left hand in his. He right hand instinctively found his own waist as he began leading the dance to a music that seemed to rise in his head. Sam laughed lightly, as she might were they real dancers surrounded by other courting couples, while Tim whirled them around the dance floor in a classic waltz he didn't even know that he knew.

   The song in his head ended and another took its place. The room around them was shimmering and shining in deep purples and greens of every shade as banners and streamers were reflected in myriad colors from the ceiling above. He pulled Sam in closer as a slower, mellower, tune, with little percussion and a lot of woodwinds swept in.

It wasn't just in his head anymore. The notes echoed off the walls, ghostly and enchanting like a breeze through dark moors at night. It wasn't any song he'd every heard in his life. He would swear to that. Sam laughed again, loud this time as if she were trying to talk over the very music he was hearing as they gently swung through another turn his mind told him this dance required.

"Can you hear it?" She said happily. "It's wonderful!" She almost shouted. "Can you hear the music?"

He could. He heard more. He heard the footfalls of other dancers around them. He saw her now in a dress of green satin with a white lily pinned to her shoulder and a crown of flowers upon her brow. They were pale yellow daisies; some heart-struck lover's gift no doubt. He wasn't frightened at all. He was too amazed to be frightened as his feet continued to carry him through the steps of a dance he didn't know.

Sam's grip tightened on his hand. "Argus!" She said happily. "I can see Argus in you. It's as if you've stepped right into his shoes."

Tim saw the ghostly image of Barbara, slightly younger than she was now; appear, superimposed around the still visible form of Samantha as she smiled widely and laughed in pleasure at the dance.

The song ended. The images faded. Tim and Sam's feet stuttered to a stop. The hall assumed its more regular dusty appearance. When they looked again they realized that this was not the room in their... vision? Memory? Tim wasn't sure. That ballroom had been decorated with carved trim and had sported balconies where couples tired of dancing could sit and eat. This room was larger but had no balconies and no carved trimming anywhere.

"What was that?" Sam said a little breathlessly.

Tim shook his head. "I'm not sure. It must have been from Lady's past somehow, but whether it was a memory, or some sort of vision, or even a daydream; I just don't know."

"It was wonderful." She said with another laugh. "You were fantastic. I didn't know you knew how to dance so well. I didn't know I knew how to dance so well."

"We didn't." He said trying to remember the steps to the dance they'd just finished. "Or I didn't at any rate. I've even seen a dance like that in my life. The closest I've come is the clutch and shuffle my dad did with mom when they had those parties with dad's business clients; remember?"

Sam thought for a moment then nodded. Clutch and shuffle was just about the proper description for what his father's sort of dancing had been like. Now that she thought back on it she was surprised he'd even been able to go out in public again after that little display in front of his clients. The thought drew another laugh from her.

Tim smiled. He was finding that he loved to hear her laugh just that way. He'd never realized how good her laughter had made him feel before today. He'd never take that laughter for granted again, he thought solemnly.

They spent the next half-hour trying to recreate the steps of the dance they'd experienced. It was fun and tiring. They might not have made much progress with the actual dance, but they'd had a grand time trying. They collapsed beside the basket, which still held a considerable amount of fruit and cheese along with about half the tea. They filled their cup and sipped in turn passing it back and forth until they were both satisfied.

"We're going to have to get Lady to teach us that one when she gets back." Sam said just a little out of breath. "I'd love to have it at the wedding."

Tim chuckled. "I'm not sure I wouldn't just revert to the clutch and shuffle in a crowd. It might be in my genes you know."

Sam's stifled laughter kept her from sounding as serious as she would have liked, but she gave him the best warning glare she could manage. "You'd better not. I just saw how well you could dance and I'll expect nothing less at our wedding. No matter how much my belly gets in the way."

"Well I'm game if you are. That was fun. Especially when I was doing it right and not stepping all over your feet and mine both." He said with a smile.

He had been rather clumsy at first during their initial tries at reforming the dance, but he'd at least progressed to stepping the right way when he was supposed too. Now if he could only keep his feet from tangling together when he did, he would be well on his way.

Sam smiled and gave him a little kiss. "I really do love you ya know." She said as she leaned her head on his shoulder and put an arm around his back.

He smiled and put his arm around her in return. "I know; and I love you too."

Sam pecked him on the cheek then rose. "Let's try something easier this time. We can at least teach you the basics before we ask Lady for help." She said holding out her arms in a dancing position. "Lets start with the two-step."

They practiced and danced for three more hours. By that time Tim had mastered the two-step and was making good progress on a basic waltz Sam had remembered her mother teaching her. As they came to the last steps of the waltz, broke apart, and Tim bowed while Sam curtsied oddly in her jeans, clapping broke out from the doorway.

Lady and Harry stood beside the door already shrugging out of their heavy clothes and leaving little puddles of melted snow around their feet. Lady was clapping heartily and smiling at them as they turned in surprise.

"A fine dance, if a little simple." She said as she unzipped the blue down parka Harry had lent her.

Harry stood beside her nearly as white as a pearl fresh from the polisher. His glance kept returning to Lady and then darting away again.

"Are you alright?" Tim asked moving towards Harry.

He shook his head. "She has to be," he said incredulously. "It's the only way."

Tim put his hands on the old hare's shoulders and shook him just slightly. "You're not making a lot of sense Harry. What's going on?"

Sam touched Tim's shoulder lightly signaling him to back away a little. He stopped his shaking and did as he was instructed.

"He's in shock." Sam said kindly as she helped the hare out of his jacket. "I think he finally saw something that convinced him."

Tim nodded in understanding. "I guess I just didn't expect to see him this shook up over it."

Harry shook his head and Tim saw the stunned look leave them. "She's the damn thing alright. She might not be a ghost now, but she definitely was at some point." He said this last in a whisper that Lady wouldn't be able to make out. "It's there. Nobody would have found it that didn't know right where to look. Nobody could have put it there less than two hundred years ago, not with the growth on those trees, the size of the roses."

He seemed to be babbling, but if it was connected, then something had certainly proven to him beyond a doubt what he'd wanted to know.

"Roses?" Tim asked trying to get Harry's mind on a single track.

Harry didn't need it anymore. "That's the sort of thing for Lady to tell ya." He said nodding to her. "It's not my place... seeing as... seeing as things are, you understand." He waved a hand dismissively.

"What I want to know, is how you're going to..." he shrugged not really knowing where to go. "Hide her? Make her a place to live? I don't know. What is your plan? I'm assuming you have one, or you wouldn't have gone to all the trouble of convincing me."

Harry looked at Tim as he said this but he shook his head. "Oh no. This isn't my plan, its Sam's. Let her explain it."

He turned to look at Sam who had given Tim a little amused push at his laughing tone.

"Well..." She said thoughtfully. "Let me introduce you to your granddaughter Lady. She said motioning towards her."

   Lady nodded with a small, bemused smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

   Harry shook his head. "I don't have any family. My son died years ago childless. He was old enough of course, but he just never met the right woman I guess. He was killed in a boating accident two years after graduating from college." He motioned towards Lady. "Even if he'd have a child that I didn't know about, she'd have to be thirty by now, not fifteen."

   Sam hadn't thought of this but it didn't really change the basics of the plan all that much. There had to be some part of his family that could have escaped his notice and which he hadn't ever thought to mention.

   "She doesn't have to be a granddaughter. She could be a child of a cousin with no other family or even a close friend or relation of your wife's. The story doesn't need to hold up to great scrutiny as long as Liz and mom will believe it. They aren't likely to go looking too deeply into your family tree if you explain how the situation came about and ask them to take her in because she has nowhere else to go."

   Harry looked thoughtful and Tim decided to be truthful. "We'll be playing to their more nobles sides, and we're sure this will work as long as you support us and are willing..." he paused and cleared his throat a little. "Willing to lie to them just a little."

   "Alright. Yes. That should work. As long as we keep it fairly simple, and don't leave much of a trail to follow in the explanation." He rubbed the stub of his missing ear in thought. "She's just a relation. I think she's a niece or second niece or something like that. Her parents died in a fire. That's straightforward and happens all too often these days." He nodded to himself as he continued building his story. "I just received the letter yesterday when I went out to get the mail as I was leaving to pick up our guests. There was no mail really, but I can make up just this one piece that never really existed. I didn't remember to open it until after we returned from our little exploration of the west wing. I can wait until you're all at dinner tonight before I bring it to your mother's attention." He thought and tapped a paw on the floor. "It'll have to be a personal letter from some executor, someone who wouldn't even remember it. An officer of the court maybe; sending the letter at the same time as he sends the child would be just like the government."

   He nodded and this time when he spoke it was obviously to them and not just him self. "I'll ride out on the snowmobile early in the morning to pick up this relation, who's supposed to arrive on Christmas morning on the train up in Carlow. I really will go to Carlow and when I come back I'll come around from the back of the house and pick up Lady from the west wing's side door then drive us back up to the front of the house to meet you and your mothers for an introduction."

   "It sure doesn't sound simple." Tim said. "It sounds like it will work, especially if you go out early enough and return early enough that nobody will see you going or coming back until you come up to the front.

   Sam nodded. "The house won't really be awake until eight tomorrow at the earliest. If you can manage to get out and back before then you'll have your best chance at not being seen."

   Harry nodded. "I'll have to leave at six, even with the fresh snow and an open road to use it's forty-five minutes each way on the snowmobile."

   Tim shook his head. "Maybe you shouldn't go all the way to town anyway. Nobody is likely to see you going or coming back, and even if they did see you it could actually trip us up if someone mentions that they saw you alone on the return trip later."

   "You're probably right there." He thought for a minute. "I'd still have to leave at six to make it believable, but instead of going all the way to town I could just park the snowmobile in the woods. I'll have a little fun riding around the house before I put it up tonight so the tracks will be all mixed up anyway. Nobody will be able to tell where it was driven tonight or tomorrow unless it snows."

   They all nodded their approval. It wasn't going to do any good to keep thinking over the plan any more than they already had. It would work or it wouldn't and too many factors could affect the outcome anyway. They'd just have to trust to luck and their minimal amount of planning.

   "I'm going to get the snowmobile back into the garage, then I'll type a sufficiently serious toned note with all the right words of consolation. I've got an old tin type typewriter up there my wife used to write letters on." He nodded to Lady. "In the meantime, you should stay out here. Nobody ever comes down this end of the west wing until the spring cleaning, so you're safe here even if you wander a little." He motioned to Sam and Tim. "Sadly you two can't stay with her. It'll look suspicious if you're not seen for the rest of the night. You'll have to go out and have fun, sing carols and generally make merry with everybody until everyone retires for the night."

   Sam and Tim nodded their understanding and each gave Lady a regretful look. She smiled a little but waved a hand dismissively. "It's fine. I'm sure I can manage to sneak up to your room for a private Christmas Eve after everyone is asleep."

   Harry looked doubtful at this but said nothing. He was their friend, not their keeper. Besides, she wouldn't likely be seen by anyone in any case, not unless she went right down and joined in the festivities. She might even have been able to get away with that after midnight when the whole staff would be well into their cups and have started drifting off to bed, or other engagements.

   "You two don't stay too much longer. You'll need to make an appearance a good deal before I show up with my letter." Harry said as he put on the clothes he'd just recently gotten out of. When he was done he waved a silent farewell and headed back to the snowmobile.

   Sam and Tim turned to Lady. "Congratulations." Sam said happily.

   Tim smiled and nodded in agreement. "If this works, which it should, you'll be, pretty much, part of the family. Even if Harry died they wouldn't just throw you out without anywhere to go."

   Sam chuckled. "Mom has a thing for stray kittens. She'll have a field-day with a stray little girl."

   Chapter Twenty-Six

   Dinner on Christmas Eve was a huge affair. The entire staff, or at least the ones who had stayed for the holiday's; at least sixteen of them had, were gathered in the largest formal dining room sitting around the huge wooden table that groaned beneath the weight of at least twenty different dishes.

   Everyone served him or herself, at Liz's insistence, and chatted merrily as wine and food were consumed in prodigious quantities. Songs broke out along the table and were taken up by at least some of those closest to the, usually, inebriated instigator. Once or twice in a bout of superb merriment, no less than three songs had broken out all at once as glasses were raised in toasts and backs were patted in friendship.

   Sam and Tim sat close together holding hands beneath the table as they watched the amazingly merry Irish do what they did best. Have fun. They nursed glasses of juice; neither had wanted the wine even though Liz and Lily had offered to let them have just one glass if they wanted. They were enjoying the food and each other's company as they watched and laughed together while the party went on around them.

   By ten-thirty the party was in full swing and still stronger liquor was being consumed in the form of heavily spiked Irish eggnog. Not everybody was drinking heavily of course, but it was the rule rather than the exception in this case. About this time someone wheeled in a stereo from somewhere and began to play Christmas carols while others paired up and started dancing.

   Liz and Lily were pulled out into the dancers no less than twice each and returned each time laughing and wheezing for breath. Sam and Tim were drawn into the dancers several times but somehow always ended up dancing together after a few minutes laughing and twirling around following the steps of the other dancers. When White Christmas began playing they slow danced. At the end they kissed and the collective sigh of almost the entire staff suddenly brought them to the realization that everyone, with the exception of one other couple, had stopped to watch them.

   They were both terribly embarrassed but they smiled and laughed anyway not ashamed of their actions but a little self-conscious at so much attention being paid just to them. When they returned to their seats both of their mothers were looking at them affectionately.

   Instead of mentioning the dance Lily brought up their trip exploring the house instead. "See anything interesting on your explorations today?" She asked with a smile just as Tim saw Harry enter the room from the corner of his eye.

   Sam nodded. "Oh, it's a beautiful house. There are ballrooms and huge rooms full of all sorts of old furniture and rugs. There are clothes of some sort in almost every closet, and I found this really pretty old fashioned dress..." She stopped talking and watched as Harry hurried up beside Liz's chair. He looked quite the part, his tie undone and jacket only half buttoned, as if he'd just been settling in for the night before being hit with this piece of news.

   Everyone nearby turned to look as Harry tapped Liz on the shoulder and bent to whisper into her ear. When he straitened Liz nodded to him and rose from her seat as he scurried towards the door into the entrance hall where they could talk more privately.

   "I wonder what that was about?" Said Lily watching Liz follow the obviously distressed old hare out of the hall.

   Sam shook her head. "I'm not sure. He seemed perfectly fine all day while he was showing us around the house."

   Lily turned to her daughter. "Oh? Did he say why he wasn't coming to the party tonight?"

   Sam didn't have any answer to give that would certainly match what Harry might say in explanation so she lied as simply as she could. "No, he just said he'd see us later when we left him in the solarium. We didn't even think about the party until we got back for dinner."

   Tim nodded in agreement but didn't say anything. He couldn't lie worth shit and he'd always found it more convincing when he simply kept his mouth shut instead.

   "Where was I?" Sam redirected the conversation before Lily could ask any more questions. "Oh yeah. The dress. I saw this really nice dress and thought I might like to try wearing dresses for awhile."

   This statement completely derailed Lily's train of thought. "You'd what?" She managed to stutter out in her amazement.

   Sam looked a little cross. "Wear dresses. You know, those things girls sometimes wear instead of jeans." She said waving to her mom as if to get her attention.

   "I heard you, but I didn't believe what I was hearing. You haven't even worn the dresses Liz bought you before we left. I don't think I've seen you in a dress since you turned eight and started picking your own clothes."

   Sam waved her hand dismissively. "Those are little girl's dresses. This one was completely different. It was elegant, not frilly and puffy. It was simple and beautiful, and it wasn't white or pink."

   "Well," Lily said thoughtfully. "I suppose the dresses were a little... uh... frilly and puffy as you say." She glanced at her daughter again and smiled. "We'll just have to go shopping then." She said with a nod. "We'll need to pick up some maternity clothes, she gave a rueful little smile at this, when we go to the doctor next week anyway. We can find something that will suit you then even if we need to come back after the baby is born."

   Sam nodded enthusiastically. "That would be wonderful."

   Liz came back into the room just then and headed towards them. She puffed out her cheeks in exasperation as she dropped into the chair next to Lily and sighed.

   "Well?" Lily asked curiously.

   "It looks like we're going to have another young woman in the house by tomorrow morning." She said resignedly. "Its Harry's great niece or something. I don't think even he's completely sure what her relationship to him is. He got a letter yesterday and didn't remember to open it until this evening. It was from some government office or something saying that this great niece of his, Lady Allen by name, would arrive on Christmas day."

   Lily looked a little stunned at the news. "A grand niece? Isn't there some family between him and her still living?"

   Liz shrugged. "Apparently not, or at least not anyone that the state could identify. I'd imagine they would see someone his age as a sort of last resort in any case. Besides; if there were other options they wouldn't have already sent the girl would they?"

   Lily nodded. "I don't suppose they would. What's his plan though? Is she supposed to live with him above the garage? How old is she?"

   "I think she's fifteen or sixteen. I offered to let her live here in the house too, there's no room in that small apartment above the garage for both him and a young woman." She gave Lily a look filled with pity. "I just don't think she's got anyplace else to go besides an orphanage, and as long as Harry's willing to take responsibility; I don't think it's an unreasonable request. After all; this has technically been his home longer than either of us has been alive."

   Lily turned to Sam and Tim. "How do you two feel about this? She sounds to be about your age so really this decision will affect you two more than either of us."

   Liz looked over Lily's shoulder curiously. She was also interested in their answer. The appearance of another girl their age might cause jealousy, strife; conflict in other words. Sam might snub her in fear that Tim would like her more or Tim might snub her to avoid hurting Sam's feelings even by accident.

   Sam shrugged. "If we don't have a choice but to meet her at this point; I think I'll reserve judgment until then." She said in a serious tone as she nudged Tim in the ribs lightly signaling that he was expected to respond as well.

   "Well." He started, trying to sound just a little unsure. "I don't see that we can turn her out on the street without feeling pretty shitty afterwards. If she turns out terrible we can always have a talk with Harry about what we should do to solve problems as they arise." He said lamely.

   Luckily Liz and Lily took his uneasy tone to mean that he was also reserving judgment but with some reservations. That wasn't what he'd intended to convey, but it was none-the-less effective. They both nodded and sat back in their chairs.

   "You're right about that at least. We don't have a lot of choice but to at least meet her at this point. If things turn out... badly; we can discuss other options with Harry when and if that time comes." Liz said in a satisfied tone.

   The Christmas Eve party wound up and up as time went on but the family just wasn't into anymore. Lily and Liz smiled and chatted when one or two of the staff sat down breathlessly to eat or drink to regain their strength but they mostly only responded to questions. Tim and Sam rose around eleven and kissed their mother's on the cheek as they retired to a less noisy atmosphere for the night.

   Liz nodded. "In fact I think that's a fine idea. We'll probably be leaving shortly ourselves. We didn't get to sleep in this morning and I'm certainly feeling it right about now."

   Lily nodded agreement. "If we all slipped off at once it would be a bit too obvious, but well just stay a few more minutes once you've gone."

   Tim and Sam moved along the wall unmarked and slipped out the doors into the entrance hall. The door shut off a good deal of the noise and they suddenly realized just how raucous the party they'd just left had been. The relative quiet of the entrance hall was almost disturbingly peaceful.

   "These Irish sure know how to celebrate something don't they?" Sam said wiggling her ears a little in discomfort.

   Tim grinned. "Apparently." He said and started for the stairs. "Shall we?"

   Sam nodded and took one of his hands as they climbed to the third floor and started towards Tim's room. A few moments later Liz and Lily jogged up the stairs and waved for them to stop.

   They stopped and turned curiously.

   Liz blew out a breath as she came over. "Glad we caught you. Almost forgot. Harry's going to be picking up Lady, that's the girl's name, early tomorrow morning. If you want to be up to meet her, she'll be here around eight."

   Tim and Sam nodded. "We'll set the alarm then. Wouldn't want her to think she's not welcome." Sam said with a little smile. "Anything else?" She asked after a moment.

   Liz shook her head. "No that's it. Good night then." She said.

   "Good night." Sam replied and led Tim around the corner and out of sight.

   Liz and Lily waited a few moments for their footsteps to recede down the hall before turning and entering Liz's room together.

   Lily turned as Liz shut the door and frowned. "This is..." She motioned between the two of them. "Getting rather awkward. They're going to figure it out eventually on their own. I'd personally like to tell them ourselves rather than have them find out on their own."

   Liz frowned and hung her head in thought for a long time as she leaned back against the door still gripping the knob behind her back for support. When she spoke it was in a resigned tone. "I promised we'd tell them once you came. I don't suppose we can put if off much longer. Now though..." she shook her head slowly. "It's just not the right moment..." She held up a hand to forestall Lily's arguments. "I don't mean not the right month I'm just talking about Christmas and now this new addition coming. I mean it's just not the right time tonight, or tomorrow. I swear though; it will be soon. Maybe before we go into town next week would be better."

   Lily was still frowning but she nodded in approval. Liz had been reluctant to actually sit down and have this conversation with their children since Lily had first brought up the idea. Liz was more afraid of the explanation than the reaction. She just didn't see how she would explain what she felt for Lily in words that their children would understand and accept. She was afraid of their rejection.

   The fear was a holdover from her marriage to a husband who offered rejection with a fist, or a length of water hose, and an upbringing that told her morally that same sex relationships were not normal. She feared her son might turn into his father if confronted with something that she herself had always considered abnormal. She was slowly coming to realize that what her family had taught her was a lot of petty garbage, but the fear, the ingrained belief was still there battling with her.

   Lily moved over and folded Liz in her arms. It was at times like these, when their love could show through so clearly, that Liz was most comfortable and best able to beat down her ingrained resistances. Her eyes met Lily's and they both smiled.

   "Lets go to bed. I'm..." Lily yawned hugely. "Oh... I'm just so tired."

   They changed quickly into nightgowns then climbed beneath the covers and curled up together with Lily nestled against Liz's back, one arm around her belly and her muzzle lying across the side of her neck. Liz fell asleep to the soft, warm breeze of her love's breath moving over her cheek. She was smiling when she slipped into dreams.

   Sam went into the bathroom and started the water running for a shower. Tim started to go to join her but she met him in the doorway and smiling put a hand on his chest and playfully pushed him back. "Now, now. She said with a twinkle in her eye. Sometimes a girl wants a bit of privacy."

   Tim chuckled. "Yes Ma'am." He bent and kissed her gently. "You did great with mom and Lily. Much better than me." He said as he broke the kiss.

   She blushed a little beneath her fur and smiled at the compliment. "No bribing me with sweet nothings." She said with a little laugh playing it off even though she knew he was being completely sincere. "The hot water's going to run out before you get to use it if you keep me standing in the door this way for long."

   Tim gave a look of mock horror and backed away with arms held up in surrender and a big smile on his face. "And wouldn't that be tragic!"

   "Wouldn't it just." She said as she shut the door with a giggle she couldn't suppress.

   Tim couldn't stop smiling as he went over and logged into his laptop. He would write a few scenes in his book while he waited. It was obvious that Sam wanted to surprise him with something, but he couldn't think of what it might be. He opened the document that contained all this notes and the first few rough chapters he'd already written. He reviewed the last paragraph then started typing.

   A few minutes later Sam re-emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a towel with a silly little smile on her face. Tim didn't notice her emerge right away so she came over and read a few lines over his shoulder as he typed. She put her hand on his shoulder gently to let him know that she was there and to his credit he jumped only slightly.

   "Shower's all yours dear." Sam said brightly. "I never realized how good at this you were. Do you still have the magazine the contest people sent you? I'd like to read it sometime."

   Tim looked up at her over his own shoulder. "Sure. It's in the desk here." He tapped the right bottom drawer with a finger. "Read it anytime you like." He turned in his chair and tugged her towel playfully but not hard enough to actually remove it. It still caused her to screech just a little in consternation and swat at his hand playfully. "Shower free then?" He asked with a chuckle.

   "It certainly is." She said giving him a mock glare. "I left it running and I hope the hot water's all gone by the time you get in."

   He laughed and trotted to the bathroom door then turned just as he was closing it behind him. "Oh, and don't do anything I wouldn't do." He said with a chuckle.

   Her damp towel hit the door just a second after he'd closed it but each could hear the other laughing.

   He finished his shower quickly then stuffed his dirty clothes into the hamper before leaving the bathroom once more. Sam's towel had been folded neatly and placed atop the chest of drawers next to the bathroom door. Sam lay in bed propped up reading the magazine she's asked about. She glanced over the top of the pages as he entered and a smile quirked the right side of her mouth. She set the magazine aside then propped herself on her knees and spread her arms wide to present her outfit to best advantage.

   Tim smiled broadly. "Now that's what I like to see." He said happily as he looked her over.

   She wore a set of blue cotton pajamas with little fairies embroidered on them at random intervals. They were the most recent editions of the fairy pajamas she'd worn every Christmas since they could remember. There had been at least seven variations on the theme over the years as she outgrew each successive set. Her mother always made the pajamas and they always had feet already sewed into the pants part of the outfit.

Tim had always adored this outfit and Sam had always worn it because his eyes lit up even more when he saw her on Christmas morning than when he saw the presents under the tree. She saw that same light in his eyes now as he smiled gently and his eyes slid out of focus remembering all the Christmas mornings of the past.

She leaned forward, grasped his hands, and pulled him onto the bed. They burrowed together under the covers and lay there just holding one another for a time before a soft knock came on the door.

Sam kissed Tim on the forehead then slid out of bed and went to answer it. "Come in." She whispered softly to Lady. "We're just getting ready for bed. You can join us if you like."

Lady blushed and looked just a little uneasy. "Uh... to sleep?" She asked hesitantly so just Sam could hear.

Sam nodded and smiled a little. "It doesn't matter, but yes, just to sleep." She whispered back. It was a small private moment between the girls and Sam understood that Lady wasn't worried about the sex, but about how she might feel having another woman share their bed."

"We love you too." Sam said, and then embraced her. "I'm not sure how that happened, but we do." She kissed Lady's forehead gently. "Now come to bed."

Lady let her dress fall to the floor and crawled into bed on one side of Tim as Sam resumed her place on his other side. Tim smiled at Sam and hugged her close while Lady put an arm around them both and snuggled into Tim's mane, inhaling his clean soapy scent, and smiled. Then they slept.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

It was still dark when the alarm buzzed insistently for the trio of lover's to awaken. Sam was the first to rise. She yawned, stretched, and then looked around for the source of the irritating buzzing. In her sleep haze she'd forgotten completely about setting the alarm for five so Lady could get ready and go down to wait for Harry. Tim blinked and made a protesting little grunt deep in his throat as he was forcefully pulled from sleep. Lady sat up and yawned then gave a little smile, as her mind focused a little better on the room and it's occupants.

Sam's mind clicked into place after a moment, then she went over to the chest of drawers and punched the off button dropping the room into silence once again.

"Morning." Lady said with another yawn.

Tim ran a hand across his eyes and groaned. "Is it morning? I thought morning meant when the sun started coming up."

"Not this morning it doesn't; Lady has to get down to the west wing side door and wait for Harry. He won't be along until nearly eight to pick her up, but if something happens between now and then he'd only know to look for her there. Besides she has to go before anyone else is awake to see her."

Tim grunted and pushed himself up in bed. "Alright, alright." He smiled crookedly. "I'm up."

Sam remained in her pajamas and Tim put on a Christmas sweater and a pair of sweats while Lady re-entered her dress and then they all set off for the west wing.

When they arrived Lady stepped into one of the side rooms, where they'd found a closet full of old dresses, and changed into something less formal. What she chose was a simple white day dress with a cloth sash tied around her waist. She spun slowly for them to examine her as she came out of the room.

"What do you think? Will I look the part of the orphaned girl dressed up to meet her only known relative?" Lady asked.

Tim nodded. "Simple but pretty." He said approvingly. "Not that you'll see much of it beneath all those snow clothes." He added as an afterthought.

Sam chuckled. "Well, girls like to look pretty on Christmas even if they aren't going to be goggled at."

They still had a little over two hours to wait before they could expect to see Harry if things went as planned. Tim smiled and held out his arms to both women and bowed his head in a gentile manner.

"Ladies. Will you join me in the ballroom then?" He said in his best eloquent tone.

Sam fluttered her eyelashes and put a hand to her chest like some old southern belle flattered into heart palpitations. "Why my dear man, of course." She put her arm through his and cuddled up to his side laughing as Lady took his other and he led them down the hall and into the ballroom.

He propelled each of the ladies forward onto the dance floor letting their arms disengage from his and bowing like some Edwardian courtier. "How dears shall I choose with whom to dance first?" He asked in a tone of whimsical amusement.

Sam cocked her head and laughed. "I suppose we do have some time to dance, but you're still no Frank Sinatra."

"Oh, that's hitting below the belt." Tim said in a wounded tone. "Being true makes it even worse." He said with a crooked grin. "Actually, I was hoping while we have some time, if Lady would consent to teach us a step or two."

Lady smiled. "I'm willing if you are." She said and held out here hands to Sam. "First you watch. Seeing a dance is the first step to learning. Watch our feet, not our... um... bodies." She said with a wink.

Sam seemed like a clumsy child compared to Lady's smooth graceful steps. She missed several steps that weren't familiar to her and they were forced to start over more than once when the laughing fits had eased up a bit. Tim watched them dance for over an hour. Sam's movements improved as she picked up the steps and let Lady lead while they swiveled and pivoted around the floor. When they finished the dance for the first time Tim applauded so enthusiastically that both women were obliged to curtsy in acceptance of the compliment.

"Now you two try." Lady said with a smile.

   They came together and started to dance, Tim following the steps he remembered seeing. He stumbled more than once as his right foot went where he'd meant his left foot to go but each time Lady stopped them and placed his feet in the correct positions then reminded him of the proper steps for the next three or four measures. After only thirty minutes he was hesitantly able to complete the whole series of steps, though with nothing like the smooth flowing grace Sam and Lady had acquired.

   "Once you've learned the steps by heart, your feet will do the work seemingly on their own, which will leave you free to enjoy the dance rather than thinking about the form of the dance." Lady said reassuringly. "The key is practice."

   Sam smiled. "I just thought of something I wanted to ask you." She said as the memory of their sudden magnificent dance came back to her. "We were in here yesterday just after you left and Tim and I started to dance." She looked up at the ceiling. "It wasn't anything like this though," she said waving her hands at the ceiling. "It was another room with balconies and candles everywhere. We danced like... like... like two completely different people."

   Tim nodded. "We danced like you and Argus must once have danced." He said softly and as gently as he could. He knew Argus' name would be a sting in her heart as soon as he said it. He wasn't completely right, it did hurt a little, but it was for the lost times in her memory not for Argus. She had come to terms with that loss now. She had found love again.

   Lady smiled a little and seemed to be remembering. "Oh we were at the same dances all the time. His parents threw parties at least once a month and all the most gorgeous people where there. The music, the lights, the smells..." She sighed and put her folded hands over her heart. "I remember the last song we danced too. It was called wind on the wild moor and there was a very special dance that went with it."

   "That sounds like what we heard." Sam said excitedly. "We wanted to learn the dance. It was so haunting and beautiful."

   Lady nodded. "Yes, I can remember the dance. I'll teach you if you like, but it's much more difficult without the music."

   "I'm sure we can find the music. But I don't think there's going to be time today for more dancing." He nodded to the Harry as he stepped into the room and smiled through a ski mask.

   "Sorry to interrupt, but it's about time to get ready. It won't hurt to be late, but I want to go around and approach from the road just in case and I wouldn't want to keep everyone waiting."

   Lady nodded and began donning the snow outfit that Harry had brought for her yesterday.

   "You two better be getting on back to the main house. They'll be expecting you anytime now." He pulled back his sleeve to look at his watch. "They might have already sent someone to check if you're up or not. You'll have to figure out where to tell them you went in case someone asks."

   They nodded and turned to Lady. "Good luck." Sam said and patted her reassuringly. "Yeah, we'll see you downstairs in a little while, and remember not to know us when you get here." He smiled affectionately and kissed her cheek.

   They waved and left the room then started jogging towards the main house.

   Harry helped Lady finish dressing then gave a reassuring smile. "That's a pretty dress you managed to find."

   Lady nodded in thanks. "You've been wonderful Harry. You're a real friend." She said and gave him a little peck on his masked cheek.

   He would have blushed if he didn't have fur. Instead he just gave a silly little grin and waved her forward. "Let's get on the way then." He said and steered her out into the hall then headed for the side door where the snowmobile sat idling in wait.

   Chapter Twenty-Eight

   Sam and Tim entered the den of their little apartment area and smiled at Liz and Lily who sat lounging beside a crackling fire in the hearth chatting animatedly about Sam's new discovery of dresses. The room was littered with presents in festive wrapping paper with bows in a half dozen colors. Sam looked around in silence and a sort of wonder at the sheer number of gifts Tim and his mother had bought. Sam giggled without realizing she was going too as she heard her mother tell Liz about her dislike of frilly and puffy dresses.

   The two women turned in surprise at the sound. "Oh!" said Liz. "We've been wondering when you two would show up. Where've you been, we sent someone to your room to check and you weren't there."

   Sam grinned. "Well..." She shrugged and gave an embarrassed look. "We went to watch the sunrise from one of the balconies in the west wing." She lowered her head a little and embraced Tim pressing her self against his side. "Tim thought it would be romantic."

   Lily chuckled. "Well it certainly sounds romantic. I hope you didn't get up too early though. Not getting enough sleep can really ruin the atmosphere."

   Sam gave her mother a little glare. "No; it was wonderful, really." She said sincerely.

   Liz smiled. "I didn't know I raised a romantic. I guess I'll have to start giving him money for flowers soon or he'll be tearing up the garden in no time."

   Tim nodded solemnly. "Oh that's certain. A rose every morning is the way to a girls heart isn't it?"

   Lily laughed. "Don't you think that ones a little bit cliché?" She asked merrily.

   "Cliché? It's a classic." Liz said giving Tim a wink. "You can never go wrong with a classic."

   "Merry Christmas Mom." Sam said as she laughed and gave her a hug.

   "Merry Christmas to both of you." Lily said as she squeezed her daughter gently.

    Sam sat on the sofa next to her mother and poured a cup of hot tea for herself from the pot sitting on the table before her. Tim was looking through the gifts nearby and found the one he was looking for after a few moments.

"Here it is." He said happily as he picked up a small wrapped box. "I wanted to give this one to you first." He moved over to sit beside Sam on the couch as he handed her the package wrapped in gold foil.

She opened the paper with care, she was always neat when she opened presents, and set the paper aside as she stared hard at the little, black, velvet covered jewelry box in her hand. Her eyes flicked up to meet his for a moment and he nodded towards the box with a smile.

"Go on." He said.

She looked back to her mother who was staring at the box almost as intently as Sam had. Her eyes seemed a little more moist than usual as she nodded to her daughter and smiled.

Sam tipped the lid of the box back to reveal a pair of rings.

The first was an engagement band, thin and well crafted of several filament thin wires of white gold and yellow gold melded together. Two small diamonds were set among the wires almost flush with the surface where the wires seemed to spin up to clutch them side-by-side. One held by white gold wires, the other by the gold each of which formed an arch around the back and down each side of the small diamond connecting in the center to form the two arches and "v" of a heart.

The other was a wedding band made using the same technique of braided wire and at it's top was the bottom "V" that, when worn on the same finger as the engagement band, would connect to form a small heart, one side silvery, the other gold, with the two diamonds in it's center.

She touched the two rings with care to feel the heart beneath her finger. She looked up at Tim. He had lowered himself in front of her and for a second she didn't know where he'd gone then her eyes found him again and met his. His smile was happy and wonderful. This was the confirmation of everything she'd been so afraid he wouldn't want. Her hands were shaking now as he reached for them and wrapped them and the box in them within his, one on top of hers, the other below.

"Sam." He said. "Will you be my wife?"

   Sam smiled and nodded then drew her hands from his and threw them around him. Her sudden weight overbalanced him and they both went crashing over the table sending the pot of tea and both her and her mother's cups skidding off the table an onto the rug.

   Tim looked up in shock from where he lay with his legs still propped up on the table, which amazingly hadn't simply collapsed under the weight, as warm tea soaked into his back. Luckily the cup he'd landed on had skittered away across the floor rather than breaking, but that hadn't saved him from a wetting.

   Sam was even more shocked for a second than Tim as Lily and Liz bent over them asking if they were all right. Tim's eyes met hers for just a moment as the shock fled and both of them started to laugh.

Sam hugged him for a second more then let her mother helped her up then turned to take one of Tim's hands and help his mother lift him as well. "Well, that didn't go exactly as planned." He said as he shook cooling tea from his tail and grinned. "I guess I should have picked a less precarious position, stability wise anyway."

Sam laughed but she still looked a bit mortified as Liz and Lily gathered up the scattered bits of the tea set while Tim sat down beside Sam and patted her reassuringly on the paw.

"Don't worry. This will be one of those moments that's a lot funnier later when you tell it at a party." He said lightly as he took the box from her hand gently. "Here, let me do the honor." He slipped the engagement half of the pair of rings from the box and set the box on the table then took her left paw in his and slipped the ring on her finger.

She wrapped her arms around him again, this time more gently, and hugged him tight. "Yes, yes, yes." She whispered in his ear.

Liz's voice broke the silence as she looked down at her watch. "Oh." She said suddenly. "It's almost eight. Harry and his... daughter?" she looked towards Lily who shrugged. "Uh... his niece, she corrected herself, should be here any minute."

They all headed for the entrance hall just in time to see the doors swing open to admit a gust of wintry breeze and a small flurry of snow. Harry led the way holding the hand of a young woman who followed behind already starting to peel off layers of snow gear that appeared a size or two too large for her.

"Glad I took some of my wife's old things. They sent her without a stitch of decent winter clothes. Can you believe it?" He asked in an exasperated voice. "When I picked her up she was standing in front of the station shivering. Locked up tight it was. Didn't even know trains would run on Christmas."

Liz stepped forward to take the girl's jacket and scarf. As she unbundled herself Liz stopped and looked from her to Harry and back again. She didn't know why she'd expected a young female hare but she had. It had never occurred to her, though it should have, to ask what species the girl was. The chestnut mane flowed down her sleek head and she smiled shyly as she handed jacket and scarf over to an obviously distracted Liz.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Ma'am. My name is Lady Allen." She curtsied a bit clumsily in her heavy snow pants. For a moment Liz wondered just how she'd gotten into those snow pants while standing half frozen on a station platform, then, imagining the embarrassing position that must have been, she broke through her earlier surprise and her smile warmed a few degrees.

"I'll bet you're uncomfortable in those. If you want to change there's a downstairs bath just down the hall second door to the right." She said as she carried the jacket and scarf to the closet and pulled out a hanger.

Harry patted her on the shoulder. "Go on. Nobody's going to bite around here, I promise."

Tim and Sam stood to the side and listened to the banter trying to remain as unobtrusive as possible. To Lady's credit she didn't so much as glance their way as she went up the hall to the bathroom. Harry had already decamped from his snow gear, since he was wearing trousers beneath there had been no need for modesty, and was helping Lily store it in the hall closet over the rubber mat that would catch drips from melting snow.

Liz waited until Harry had finished hanging his jacket and scarf on a hanger then inclined her head so he would come over to speak to her. "I should have thought to ask about this before, but I read the letter myself and no mention was made of it. I assume you had no idea that she was a filly until you actually saw her on the platform?"

Harry shook his head and replied in a low voice taking his cue from Liz. "No Ma'am. All I knew was that she was the daughter of a relation I'd never met on my wife's side of the family. Is it going to be a problem do you think?"

Tim and Sam kept their faces indifferent as Liz glanced over at them to gauge their response so far then shook her head.

"I don't think it will make a significant difference under the circumstances. She'll be staying on the second floor until she finds a room she likes. It's the first door on the left beside the stairs. I had the maid go in early to prepare it. Does she have any luggage you need to bring in?"

Harry shook his head and gave a very sad little frown. "I don't think there was anything left after the fire, poor thing. She was at a slumber party when it happened apparently, but she's terrible upset about it and I shouldn't have brought it up myself but I didn't realize..." He cleared his throat a little as Lady left the bathroom but he said quickly before she could come into hearing distance, "That asking about luggage would bring up the subject." He finished under his breath.

Tim and Sam were dumbfounded. This had to be one of the greatest acts they'd ever seen put on. Tim decided he would never underestimate Harry again as he put another smile on his face as Lady emerged from the hall wearing the pretty day dress with the cloth sash. It was noticeable more rumpled than it had been when they parted, but it was still serviceable. She came to stand before Liz and performed a much more graceful curtsy than before.

"Ma'am. I would like to thank you for taking me into your home." She said rather formally as if addressing some great feudal lord or lady.

Liz chuckled. "Oh there's no need for all that formality. We might live in a big house in the middle of nowhere, but we're really very down to earth people. My name is Elizabeth, but you can call me Liz." She smiled and motioned to Lily. "That's Lily, my friend and mother to my soon-to-be daughter in law." Lily nodded and smiled in greeting as Liz motioned for Sam and Tim to come forward. "These are Sam," she touched Sam on the shoulder, "and Tim." She said. "Those are short for Samantha and Timothy of course." She added as an afterthought.

Sam put out a hand for Lady to shake. "Lady wasn't it?" She asked as they clasped hands. The question seemed so genuine that even Tim, who knew better, wouldn't have guessed these two had met before.

"Well..." She started a little uneasily. It was unease at introducing herself to someone she already knew intimately, but without that knowledge it just sounded as if she was a little unnerved at meeting so many new people. "Actually my name is Barbara, but my friends thought it was... a bit... hefty, so they started calling me Lady."

Sam nodded and moved aside for Tim to greet her.

Tim smiled as he shook her hand. "Pleasure to meet you." He said to keep things simple.

Lady smiled. "Well, you've all been so friendly... I don't know what to say." She fidgeted with the edge of her sash for a moment and looked down.

Liz touched her shoulder gently. "Don't worry about it dear. You've been through a lot from what I hear. I'm amazed you're holding up this well. We were just about to open Christmas presents, but if you would feel more comfortable being alone for a while..."

Lady shook her head vehemently. "No, please, I would like to..." she paused and dragged a single tear from some deep well of emotion. "I'd rather not be alone."

Even Tim and Sam were moved by this performance. They were starting to wonder just how much money they could make taking Lady and Harry on a tour of the states doing some of the great plays. In fact, they were having trouble keeping their mouths from hanging open.

Harry moved in and put an arm around his niece. "I'll take the snowmobile back to the garage then." He said patting her hand. "I'll get it racked up in the garage then join you when I'm finished." He said in an aside to Liz.

She nodded. "That's fine Harry. We'll take good care of her for you until you get back. We'll be in the apartment opening presents."

   "You going to be alright?" He asked Lady with concern.

   "I'm fine." She said. "I'm fifteen not five." She gave him a kind smile of amusement.

   Harry nodded. "Good girl." He rose and started getting himself back into his snow gear for the ride to the garage. It wasn't a long ride, but at his age you didn't take chances. "I'll just be a few minutes."

   The rest of the group walked in silence back to the little den in Sam and Tim's little apartment with Lady bringing up the rear trying not to pry into what should be a family affair. Being too friendly when you've just met could be as bad as being unfriendly. She seated herself on the floor beside the couch at its far end, sort of hidden, but able to see everyone as they passed around the first round of gifts.

   To everyone's surprise, except Liz, Lady's name was on the third package. It was marked to: Lady from: Santa and was wrapped in green and white paper with a big yellow bow. Lady's face genuinely lit up with wonder as the gift was handed over. She held it in her lap like some grand prize and waited with everyone else until everyone had a gift. They counted down from three, a family tradition, and then opened the first presents. They would open them as they were passed out after this, but for the first everyone waited.

   Liz opened an orange-papered package containing a bath kit with oils and bubble bath. Lily tore open her red and green package and showed everyone a bottle of perfume with gold inked lettering across the small crystal bottle Chanel. Tim opened a bag with reindeer on it and lifted out a box of magnum condoms. He looked a bit chagrinned as everyone laughed, including Lady, who looked rather confused at the little black box but decided she should since everyone else was laughing. He flipped open the card and grinned at Lily.

   "Now that's amusing." He laughed.

   "Best prepared." Lily said through a chuckle. "Sorry, I didn't know we'd have more company until last night and I'd completely forgotten." She said to Lady. The false laugh she'd produced told Lily that she'd been quite embarrassed with the joke gift and Lily really had forgotten about it.

   Sam's yellow and white package held a cherry jewelry box with glass doors on the front and two drawers for rings, earrings, and pins. She checked the card and thanked Liz for the gift.

   Lady's package held a small lamp shaped like a fairy holding a crystal ball. The globe of the crystal ball was removable and a small light bulb could be put inside. It had originally been intended as a reading lamp for Lily, who liked fairies, but last night Liz had done some present shuffling so their guest wouldn't feel left out.

Lady smiled as she ran a finger over the little globe. "It's pretty." She said. "Thank you."

Liz smiled and reached for more gifts. Tim and Sam were a bit more cautious to check their gifts after the box of condoms, and it was a lucky thing they were. There were at least two other gag gifts, one from Liz to Tim and another from Lily to Sam.

Tim's had been a rather revealing set of panties and bra. He'd been extremely confused at first but when he'd shown Sam the contents of the box, hiding it from everyone's view with the lid, she'd given Liz a glare that could have melted an iceberg. Sam's gift was even worse apparently, since Lily had warned her not to open that one until she had some alone time. Lily and Liz had laughed for almost two minutes after this, but the other three in the room hadn't yet figured out the mystery of the box wrapped in pink paper.

The other gifts were mostly small thing, sheets, trinkets, a necklace from Liz to Lily with three green gems set in it. Lady got three gifts in all, and was ecstatic with each of them. Just as they were handing out the last of the gifts Harry appeared in the doorway carrying five wrapped packages, one each for Liz, Sam, Tim, and Lily, and one for Lady who took it with a look of surprise.

"Sorry it took so long." He smiled crookedly. "I had to finish wrapping these."

The wrapping did appear to have been done in quite a rush, but nobody seemed to mind. Liz looked downcast though. She hadn't considered needing a present for Harry when she'd done her shuffling the night before. She should have thought of it, but Harry waved a hand before she could say anything.

"Nay Ma'am. There's no need. You've kept me on here and that's enough for me these days. I see Lady had some presents too and I appreciate that more than you could know. I would have gotten something more myself, but I just didn't have time."

Liz nodded and gave him a smile making a mental note to find out when his birthday was so she could make it up to him.

Liz's gift was a little book with a stiff, worn leather cover. It was very old and looked a bit battered but when she opened it there was nothing written on the pages. She cocked an eyebrow at him as she flipped through a succession of blank pages.

"It's a journal; an antique really. I bought it for my wife nearly fifty-three years ago and she never wrote a word in it. That book came from Spain you know. Bought it off a street cart when I was in port there." He rubbed the stump of his ear before he started babbling completely. "Anyway; she never wrote in it. Said it was too special for that, but I suppose you might like it. Sort of a way to write all this..." he waved both arms to encompass everything under his sweeping arms. "Down for your grandchildren to read about. You know. Teach them their roots."

Liz nodded and smiled. "That's a wonderful idea. Thank you Harry." She said placing the book atop the other gifts she'd received.

Lily opened her gift next, folding back the brown paper wrapping and drawing out a small wooden box. It was as old and worn as the book had been and Lily expected this to be something equally as treasured. She opened the box carefully to find an entire family of carved and yellowed ivory horses lain in green velvet within. She gasped and shook her head. "Oh no. I couldn't." She said seriously. "Those must be worth..." she paused unable to think of a value. "They must be almost priceless. They look so old."

Harry pursed his lips and thought. "They were free actually. Belonged to my son when he was a boy. He loved horses and spent half his time in the stables, when there were still horses there anyway." He smiled fondly. The old man who owned the house then, this was six or seven years before Master Bolgus inherited the house. The master then was Weltbrand McKingsly, a kind old fellow, though he was actually several years younger then than I am now, come to think of it." He realized that he was getting off the story and chuckled a little at himself. Nobody seemed to mind though as he continued his tale. "So Weltbrand go sick and died, but in his will he left my son that little set of horses to take with him wherever he went. My boy was only eight or nine at the time and he cherished them for years. By the time he'd grown up and left for college though, he'd forgotten his boyhood love of horses. He was into cars and girls by then and after he left I found these tucked safely in their box in a drawer of his dresser. That was after he died of course."

Lily hadn't known that Harry had a son that died. They'd only talked and joked for a few minutes since she arrived and this wasn't a subject that had come up.

She nodded and gently closed the box. "I'm really not sure I can accept these. I hardly know you..."

Harry shook his head. "It's nothing, a bauble to clutter up my little apartment. I've got most everything my boy ever owned up there. Those should be something someone should cherish." He pointed at the box. "Not just sit there until they're found after I pass. I want you to keep them and give them to someone who will care for them like my boy once did."

Harry wasn't sure why he felt the need to give away so many things to this family. He'd lived on this estate through three occupations and had never, that he remembered, given any of them gifts before. There was just something different about these people, and he knew his time was shorter than ever now. He was starting to feel the boundaries of his own existence these days. It was a humbling experience and he was now only marking time. Perhaps, in his own way, he was hoping that these people, who seemed to care about everyone around them, would one day grieve at his passing when none other might remark it.

Tim's gift was an ancient looking pocket watch on a chain. Its cover was so worn from polishing that only a series of small bumps were visible there where once there must have been a shape or image. He opened the face to see with amazement that it was still running.

"You'll have to wind it once a day to keep the right time. Its very old, belonged to a young woman I knew before I met my wife. She gave it to me to remember her when she left for Paris in nineteen forty-eight. I believe it was a sort of family heirloom and she was the last of her family. She was shot on her way to Paris and died before she arrived there. Who knows, if she had lived. I might never have met my wife later."

Tim nodded and clicked the lid of the watch shut. He'd have to put this in a very safe place. "Thanks Harry. It's great." He said sincerely.

Sam opened her gift next wondering what it was and what sort of interesting story it would have behind it. Inside the brown paper was a very old shoebox of the type made even before logo's had been printed on them as a standard thing. Inside the shoebox, wrapped in gauzy paper that had yellowed with age, was a crystal circlet set with green and red stones along the front of the band. It sparkled in the firelight as she gently raised it for everyone to see.

"It's real crystal, but the stones are just pretty pieces of glass." Harry said fondly as he looked at it. "It's a wedding circlet. My wife wore it at our wedding, and I'd like you to have it for yours."

Sam looked at her mother who nodded a bit reluctantly. She wasn't sure she approved of all these almost priceless gifts from this aged Hare's past, but she wasn't about to say no when he was obviously so earnest about giving them.

The last gift was Lady's and she unwrapped it with delicate grace. Inside the paper was a wooden box similar to the one Lily had unwrapped except slightly larger and even more worn. The finish had rubbed off in several places, exposing the dark wood beneath. A simple metal latch held the box closed. Lady's hands shook slightly as she flipped the latch and slowly lifted the lid. Inside the box, on a cushion of silk, was a tiny unicorn, perfect in every detail. Its mane flowed in an unseen breeze and its tiny hooves pawed the air as it reared up on its hind legs and was frozen in imperishable crystal forever. She reached in and stroked the tiny statue with a forefinger wonderingly.

"That, my dear, doesn't have a story." Harry said as she lifted the fist sized crystal statue out of the box for them all to see. "It's a complete mystery. All I can tell you is how I found it."

   He paused and looked around as if expecting to see skeptic looks. He didn't see anything of the sort. None of them might seriously believe the story, but they would listen to every syllable with rapt attention.

   "When I was still a boy, younger than any of you here, I met a young little princess, or so she seemed to me at the time, named Sarah. She was actually a daughter of the McKingsly family in this very house who my mother worked for at the time. I lived and went to school in the east wing with the other servant children. Though she was never supposed to mix with rabble like us, common servants; she used to sneak into our part of the house and meet up with a group of us. She still thought herself higher than us and she lorded over us whenever she came. It was a sort of playacting game to mimic the way her parents treated ours. We played along because that's what we were taught to expect. One day she told us to go out into the woods and find her a treasure. She was still young enough to believe such things as mystic treasures and dragons and unicorns existed somewhere and she wanted us to go find them for her."

   He paused and chuckled to himself. "I suppose I did find what she wanted, but by the time I got back with it she had forgotten why she sent us in the first place." He rubbed the stump of his ear. "That's getting a little ahead of the story though. Some of the children didn't want anything to do with the stupid idea, mostly because their parents had told them often enough not to wander out of sight of the house alone, but some of us, like me, were just old enough to be adventurous and not care how stupid the quest."

"We got separated even before we got out of the orchard. Two boys ran back home while they were still in sight of the house, but I continued on to the edge of the woods with one other boy about my age. We dared each other to go beneath the dark trees that looked like huge monsters to such small boys. In the end I was the one to go and he was to stand at the edge of the trees to call me back if I got lost."

He chuckled again at the memory. "I went into the woods a good distance, you can see a lot better in there than you'd expect from the outside, but when I was silent for longer than he'd expected the other boy ran off in fright thinking I'd been swallowed up or something. I did end up going too far in the end and every direction seemed the same to me. When I called out to the boy there was no reply so I had no way of telling in which direction the orchard now lay. Instead of waiting there as I should have done I turned to the direction that I thought I had been walking then went in the opposite direction absolutely sure, as only a boy who is lost and scared can be, that I would see the edge of the forest in just a few more steps."

"I walked for a long time thinking that, but after what must have been an hour I realized that I was terribly lost. The forest did seem to have swallowed me up and I thought for a minute that it would never let me out. I panicked and started to run. I didn't choose a direction or try to go in a strait line I just ran as fast as I could until a stitch in my side made me stop. When I looked around again I was in a small clearing with a small mound, a fairy mound I thought then and still think, in its center. At the top of the little hill I saw something shining in the sun and climbed up to see what it might be."

He smiled again and waved a hand. "I thought it was gold or something up there, but when I climbed up all I saw was a little piece of what looked like glass buried in the grass. I dug around it, wondering why it had been buried way out here, and that," he motioned towards the little statue, "is what I dug up that afternoon."

"I was found the next day wandering in the forest by a group of parents who'd come out to look for me. I was clutching the statue and only said that I'd found it in the forest and couldn't remember where. That was true. I'd gotten bored with the mound when it didn't relinquish some other secret and started off again hoping to find home. After awhile I got tired and laid down to sleep. By the time I woke up I'd forgotten which direction I'd come from. I was found by the searchers less than an hour later."

He shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "That's the whole story really. The family didn't recognize it and my parents let me keep it. It was put away and I forgot about it until years later when I went looking for it again in my parent's things after they died. I found it just like that when I was twenty-seven, the year I married my wife."

Lady looked down at the statue, which had been placed back in its box with care, then back to Harry. Everyone else was silent pondering his story. "I'll keep it safe." She said as she closed the lid with great care.

This response didn't seem to have been the one Harry expected but he nodded anyway. "Aye, keep it safe." He said thoughtfully.

He shook his head and turned. Everybody else was looking a little confused at the exchange. "Sorry. I get a bit mystical when I bring that thing out." He chuckled. "Probably just a girl's toy, lost in the woods while her papa was chopping wood or something. A fancy bauble with a good story."

Liz smiled. "It certainly was a good story."

Sam got up, went over to him, and gave him a big hug. "They're all wonderful. It was so thoughtful of you too."

"The gifts are very appreciated Harry. Why don't you both join us for breakfast..." Liz paused, looking at the clock. "Or an early lunch," she amended as she saw the time. "There's plenty for everyone I'm sure."

They all agreed and the four set off for their rooms to change into more normal clothes for the day leaving Harry and Lady to make their way to the dining room together.

When the others were gone Lady turned and gave Harry a look of reproach. "What is that thing really?" She asked quietly as if the walls might listen and pass on whatever they said.

Harry shook his head. "It's just what I said it is. An oddity I found in the forest when I was a boy." Her skeptical look made him bow his head just slightly so he wouldn't meet her eyes. "Look." He said finally. "I don't really know for sure, but I think it's got some sort of magic. Real magic I mean, not just some scientific trick or something that just seems like magic. I didn't say this in front of Liz and Lily, but I'm positive that this statue transported me back to a place where I could be found. My memory is hazy just after I found it, and the next thing I can remember is waking up and being found within minutes."

"Then why give it to me?" She asked. "If it's somehow special, magic, whatever. Then why would you give it away at all?"

"Because you're as magical as it is; I suppose." He said after a moment. "You died three hundred years ago and now you stand here alive again. If that thing is magic, it belongs to you. I'm old. I'm dieing."

Her eyes filled with tears at this statement but he shook his head and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's not a secret, and it probably won't happen tomorrow, but a years worth of tomorrows, two. It's not a betting mans game. You are a part of this land. That thing, whatever it really is, is a part of that too. I can't say more than that because I don't know. I just feel that giving it to you was the right thing to do."

She stood long in thought before she finally nodded. "Maybe you're right. Thank you Harry."

"Keep it safe." He replied.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

New years day had come and gone. They were all feeling a bit foolish packed in the back seat of the limousine, but it was the only car large enough to accommodate the entire family, Liz, Lily, Sam, Tim, and Lady with Harry driving. The snowplows had come along the back roads between Christmas and new years and there luckily hadn't been another storm since so the roads were relatively clear. Harry still drove cautiously, turning a twenty-minute drive into an hour drive.

They stopped first at the mall, dropping off Lily, Liz, and Lady so they could go shopping while Tim and Sam went to see the doctor for Sam's first checkup. Harry tried to give Lady a credit card and told her to buy whatever she fancied, but Liz and Lily told him they wouldn't have it and insisted they would pay for everything. Sam and Tim were to call Liz's cell as soon as they were finished at the doctor's office and then Harry could bring them back and they would all meet up for a late lunch.

They left Harry still holding the credit card and looking as if he wanted to protest some more. They waved as they hustled Lady through the mall entrance smiling and with Lady looking just a little flustered.

Harry looked at Tim and Sam in the rearview mirror and sighed. "Your mothers are too nice for their own good." He said as he slipped the credit card back into his wallet and replaced it in the cars middle console.

Sam chuckled. "They're like children with a stray kitten right now. Remember, they've never really been able to be generous to anyone before so they're probably going a little overboard; but they mean well."

Tim nodded. "You may not know this Harry, but both of our families were relatively poor up until a few months ago."

"I'd heard something like that from some of the staff; yes." Harry said as he put the car in gear and glanced in the side mirrors for traffic. The roads were not very busy at this time of the morning and he was able to pull out with little pause. "I suppose a little excess generosity can be expected under those circumstances. I'm just concerned about showing enough interest in her welfare to make my part as her guardian look genuine."

Sam and Tim looked at each other. Neither of them had considered that when they'd asked Harry to take on the role. They hadn't though of it as a continuing position that would have to be played to the hilt. They'd just thought of it as a way to get Lady introduced into the house and accepted by their parents.

   They'd just realized that by asking Harry to play this part they'd, in essence, asked him to adopt Lady. That meant providing for her in all the ways that a parent was expected to provide for their child. It made what he'd agreed too suddenly much more heroic and humanitarian than it had seemed before.

   "Harry." Sam started. "We probably haven't thanked you the way we should have for doing this." She glanced at Tim then looked back towards the front a little uncomfortable making this statement to what amounted to the back of Harry's head.

"You knew you'd be as good as adopting her for real when you agreed didn't you?" Sam said.

Harry didn't reply right away. He was silent until they pulled up to a red light and stopped two cars back in line. He had been quiet for so long that they weren't really expecting an answer when he said, "She told me a lot about her life and death on our trip to and from her grave. Her father murdered her; because she couldn't forget the man she'd loved in an instant to accept his suitor. She's been grieving for almost three hundred years. She deserves to be happy in this miracle life she's been given. If I can do that by spending my final few years on this earth being her guardian and protector then that I will be."

Tim's arm crept around Sam's shoulders and pulled her close to him as his heart resonated with the feelings Harry expressed. He felt the same about both Sam and Lady, though he might never have been able to put it so eloquently. He nodded in approval but knew that nothing more needed to be said; so remained quiet. Harry didn't expect, didn't even want, praise or thanks. He was a truly noble soul, a rarity in a world of capitalism and high technology that had spawned so many truly terrible people.

Harry turned into the parking lot and slid the car in as close to the front entrance as he could. Sam looked out through the window at the two-story brick building with a little trepidation and grasped Tim's hand tightly for comfort.

The doctor she'd last visited in the states had been kind and understanding, but he'd been unable to hide the pity in his voice, manner, set of body, everything he did screamed that he hated to see her life wasted by a pregnancy at her age. The people in the waiting room had been even worse. She'd asked an expectant mother, a kind looking lady just a few years older than Sam, if she'd felt movement by the middle of her second trimester.

The mother had happily responded that her baby had been active a lot by the middle and end of the second trimester and had asked if Sam was expecting. Sam had replied happily that she was, but the response wasn't at all pleasant. The expectant mother's reaction had been pity, but others in the room had heard, and many looked disgusted; some had even looked angry, but the worst had been the accusing looks that had been thrown, not at her, but at her mother. She wasn't sure she wanted Tim to have that particular experience.

"Tim." She squeezed his hand as he slid toward the door to get out. Her voice was a little squeaky and her concern showed in her eyes.

He squeezed her hand back and nodded. "It's ok. Lily told me about it. I'm perfectly aware of the reaction we're likely to get." He smiled. "We know better. Just lean on me if you need too all right? I'll be there the whole time."

She nodded and he opened the door. He climbed out, and then helped her out as well. It was quite cold out still so they hurried inside as fast as they could, glad that someone had cleared away the ice from the sidewalk in front of the building. The waiting room was sparsely populated that morning with only two other couples waiting to see the doctor.

They'd arrived at nine forty-five, and Sam's appointment was for ten o'clock, but by the time they'd finished filling out the forms required for a new patient it was almost ten thirty. Sam passed the form to the woman behind the desk with the floor to ceiling shelves of color coded, alphabetically sorted, charts behind her. The woman smiled as she looked at the name on the sheet.

"Ok Samantha," she read Sam's name off the sheet, probably to be friendlier and put patients at ease. "Let's see. You're here for the first time?" She asked scanning the information looking for any blanks she might have missed. Her eyes stopped when they found the birth date. She looked a little confused for a moment. "Uh... dear... She glanced up at Sam then her eyes scanned the room. "Is this the correct date of birth?" She asked holding the form up so Sam could see it.

Tim got to his feet and walked unobtrusively to stand beside her. The woman glanced at him and gave a little frown but said nothing.

"Yes. That's right." Sam said.

"Do your parents know you're here?" The nurse asked in a very low voice that didn't hide her disapproval in the slightest.

Sam was livid, but Tim's calm voice kept her from lashing out at the insensitive woman. "Sam's mother made the appointment. I believe she spoke with a doctor Grestin almost a month ago at the request of a doctor Williams about Grestin taking over Sam's case."

The woman gazed at him with unveiled disgust and this time Sam, taking her queue from Tim, let only the slightest hint of her distaste for the woman pepper her words. "Since you obviously have a problem, you can have one of the other nurses deal with us from now on. I will have a word with doctor Grestin about your attitude." With that they both turned and went back to their seats leaving the receptionist looking a bit regretful of her attitude and shocked at their calm assurance.

   In an attempt to save her job, the receptionist worked exceptionally efficiently on processing the new patient forms, and Sam was called in within five minutes of the altercation. The nurse who led them in smiled and greeted Sam by name and gave Tim an approving look as they accompanied her down the hall to the examination room.

   "The doctor will be in shortly Miss Glade. You can change into the examination gown in the bathroom just there." She pointed to a door at the back of the examination room and smiled.

   Sam gave Tim a little smile and went to change. The nurse, unexpectedly, stopped and gave him a pat on the shoulder and a very bright smile. "It's wonderful to see someone your age taking responsibility for once. Not many do these days. Good luck." She said as she left the room and shut the door behind.

   Sam emerged from the changing room a few moments later wearing a blue cloth pullover gown that had replaced the open back versions that had been such an embarrassment to patients over the years. "I wonder what that was about?" She asked glancing at the door.

   "Not everyone has a harsh view of our... uh... situation." Tim said. "She's just one of the nice ones I think."

   Sam chuckled. "Well, she sure sounded surprised that you didn't run off screaming when you found out I was pregnant."

   Tim shrugged. "Not everyone who gets a girl pregnant is in love." He said and then gave her a little kiss on the cheek. "Then again, not everyone got you pregnant. So it's ok." He added with a grin.

   She swatted his shoulder playfully. "You're so bad." She said with just a trace of a smile.

   They sat in silence for a few minutes with Sam sitting on the end of the examination table and Tim in a little chair beside the door. Sam glanced at a few of the magazines disinterestedly before dropping them back into the rack on the wall then turned to Tim.

   "That reminds me." She said motioning at the magazines. "I finally got a chance to read your whole story the other day. It was really good. I didn't even remember that night until I read that. The way you described it; it was just like that, except..." She looked a little embarrassed as she made the admission. "Well, you said we huddled together because we were scared. I don't remember it that way. I seem to remember that I was scared and you held me until I calmed down."

   Tim shook his head. "I was just as frightened as you were. I just think you were too scared to notice. You were just as much a comfort to me as I was to you, just like the story said."

   Sam smiled. "It really was a great story."

   "Thanks." Tim said with a little pride. He wasn't foolish enough to believe that one good story made a writer, but her approval meant more to him than winning the contest ever had.

   The door opened and an old tiger entered. He wore a long white coat, grey pinstripe trousers, and brown loafers. A pair of glasses perched precariously on his muzzle, threatening to slid down to his nose any second, as he read over something on the clipboard in front of him.

   When he looked up his gaze fell on Tim in the chair and a slight look of concern came over his face. "Uh... Miss Glade?" He said as if Tim might actually have been his patient. It was apparent that nobody had warned him of Tim's presence.

   "No sir. I'm Tim; Samantha's fiancé." He said holding out his paw to shake.

   The doctor looked over his glasses at Tim for a couple of seconds as if sizing him up, then shifted the clipboard more firmly into one paw, then gave a welcoming smile as he clasped the offered paw warmly.

   "Ah my boy. Congratulations to you both then. I wish you every happiness." He said sincerely. He released Tim's hand and turned to Sam. "I see at least one happiness if already on the way. You're chart says you're in your fourteenth week? Is that right?"

   Sam nodded and smiled. This strange doctor's upbeat attitude and bedside manner were already easing the tension she hadn't realized she'd been feeling. "Yes sir. I had morning sickness for a few weeks, but it stopped around the ninth week. Since then my appetite seems to have increased considerably."

   The doctor gave a knowing little nod. "That's perfectly normal at this stage. I expect you've also had the occasional odd craving. When these happen feel free to indulge, but try to satisfy them with healthy foods as often as possible."

   The doctor looked back at his clipboard again riffling back a few pages to check some entry. "You're scheduled for an exam and an ultrasound today. Is that right?" The doctor asked.

   "Yes that's correct." She said.

   He nodded and smiled. "Ok then. Lets get started. I just have a few preliminary questions."

   The rest of the visit went well, and when they left they had a little manila envelope with a printout of the ultrasound showing their developing baby curled in a little ball in Sam's belly.

   They joined the others for a late lunch after a short ride back to the mall. When they sat down at the table Tim and Sam noticed that their mothers were looking rather concerned about something and Lady didn't seem herself at all.

   "Is something wrong?" He asked over the top of his menu. "You seem upset about something." He glanced at Lady but she just shook her head almost imperceptibly and darted her eyes towards Lily and Liz.

   Liz shook her head. "I think Lady's feeling a little under the weather." Liz said and patted her shoulder comfortingly.

   Lady nodded a little at this as if in agreement. "I'm sorry Liz, I was feeling fine this morning but now..." She said, putting her hand over her stomach as if she was nauseous.

   Sam looked concerned. "Do you think we should go home? If Lady's not feeling well..." She said leaving the suggestion out for consideration.

   "No, I don't want to ruin everyone's day. I'll be fine." She said nervously.

   Liz shook her head. "It won't ruin anyone's day. If you're sick you should be in bed not running around the mall." She nodded reaching a decision. "I know. Harry can take you home then come back and pick us up later." She looked at Lady warmly. "So you don't have to worry about ruining anything dear."

   Lady nodded sullenly. "Yes, I would like that if Harry wouldn't mind?" She said earnestly.

   Harry shook his head. "Not at all. You need to be in bed if you're ill. It's no wonder after all you've been through." He rose and grabbed his coat from the back of the chair. "Come on, let's get you home."

   Sam stood too when Lady rose to join Harry. "Me and Tim will go too." She said tapping Tim on the shoulder.

   "We will?" He said looking at her. "Oh... uh... Yeah, we'll go too."

   Sam rolled her eyes a little. "We don't really need to stay. Tim can work on his book; class will start again soon and he'll have a lot less time then, and I can keep Lady company until she feels better." She said.

   Lily chuckled. "I can see whose going to wear the pants in this relationship." She said to Liz with a grin. "Alright. We'll find something to do without you I'm sure." She said waving a hand. "We'll call when we're ready to go home Harry, so don't worry about heading back right away."

   The four went back to the car with Sam fussing over Lady all the way not having noticed the surreptitious glances she'd thrown Tim at the table. Once they were safely ensconced in the car with Tim and Sam on one side and Lady on the other Tim looked at Lady questioningly.

   "What's really going on?" He asked in a worried tone.

   Sam looked from him to Lady and back again. "What are you talking about? She said she wasn't feeling well."

   Lady shook her head. "It's alright Sam. I'm not sick, not really. It's just..." She paused as Harry opened the front door and slid in behind the steering wheel. She nodded back toward him then shook her head and lowered her eyes.

   Sam got the message and nodded. They rode in silence all the way back to the house. When they arrived Sam waved Harry off and let Tim help Lady out of the car and into the house.

   "It's alright Harry." She said with a touch on his shoulder. "She'll be fine. I think she's just upset about something and wanted to get away from Liz and Lily so we could talk about it."

   Harry nodded. "I figured something like that." He shrugged. "Let me know if it's something I should be aware of, that way I'll know if I should just make up a flu or something."

   Sam smiled. "We'll let you know. Until then we'll just stick with the flu for now." She patted him on the back then turned to follow Tim and Lady into the house.

   She found then in Lady's room on the second floor with Lady pacing the carpet and Tim sitting and looking confused on the end of the bed. Sam looked over at him as she entered questioningly and he shrugged.

   "Ok, what's going on?" Sam asked looking over to where Lady was pacing back and forth.

   Lady stopped pacing and looked up at Sam pleadingly. "I don't know. I think something's wrong with my body. I haven't felt like I did when I was alive before, but I thought that was just adjusting to this new body, but now..."

   "Like what?" Sam asked in a concerned but calming tone.

   "I've had muscle aches, and I'm hungry all the time, and now this." She pulled up the hem of her blouse to show them her belly. The bulge there was barely noticeable, and Tim would swear it hadn't been there on the morning she'd woken up in their bed. None-the-less, there it was. A small bulge just below the navel that looked dreadfully familiar.

   "Oh no." Sam said.

   Lady was a little confused now. She turned to look from Tim; his head tilted back and eyes closed as realization struck like a thunderbolt, to Sam, whose paws had instinctively moved to caress her belly just below the navel.

   "Oh..." Lady echoed as her eyes widened. "Oh!" She repeated in a little panicky voice. "Oh no. No. That can't be right." She said shaking her head.

   Sam put a paw on Lady's shoulder. "I don't think so hon." She looked at Tim questioningly. "But how?" She asked him in confusion.

   Tim looked worried and thoughtful. "All I can do is guess." He said warningly but obviously willing to share at least some hypothesis.

   Sam nodded for him to continue.

   "We must have donated to making up her body. During the bonding that night, whatever force formed her body took what it needed to do it from us. I'm sure she's exactly genetically who she should be, so I don't think it was our cells exactly that were taken, but something caused her to form a material body."

   "That doesn't explain..." Lady unconsciously rubbed her belly affectionately. "This." She said as she looked down at her hands.

   "It might be a mystery forever." Said Sam. "We can suppose whatever we want, but we don't even know how a ghost could have existed in the first place, or what she was made up of, or anything concrete for that matter."

   Tim nodded. "You're right; but I think we can safely say that she's pregnant, because you were pregnant when she got her new body. I don't think she'd get pregnant again just because you did, but it's the only explanation that makes any sense."

   "So she's like our daughter having our child?" Sam asked with consternation.

   Lady was standing back unable to say much as she listened to the debate but at this she looked up at Sam. "No. It's our child. All three of us made it." She said with both paws clasped protectively over her stomach. "I don't know how I can say that but I know it's true. Tim's right though, I'm pregnant because you were pregnant when we bonded. I feel that's the truth too."

   Tim nodded. "We could make a bet right now but I think anyone who bet against me would lose. I'm willing to wager the baby will show a positive paternity for all three of us if we have a test run."

   Sam shook her head. "I'm not going to make a wager like that when ghosts are coming back to life around me." She said with a chuckle. "Seriously though. I'm not sure all of this matters as much as two other questions."

   Lady looked curiously at Sam. "What two questions?"

   "Well, the second depends on the first." She held up one finger. "First; do you want to be pregnant and have our child?" She asked looking at Lady.

   Lady's eyes widened as she nodded vehemently. "Of course I want the baby. It's unexpected; yes, but I'm so happy..." She sniffled and blinked tears from her eyes. "I'm happy now that I know."

   Sam moved over and embraced her comfortingly and Tim came up behind and wrapped his arms around both of the women in his life. He now felt like he'd just been told he was having twins.

   "So what's the second question?" Tim asked as they broke the embrace and sat on the floor in a circle with their heads almost touching. They all held hands tightly reassuring each other with their presence.

   "That's the big one. I expected the answer to the first, but this ones going to be a lot more difficult. I'm amazed you haven't seen it already yourself." She smiled.

   "Um..." Tim said as he thought quickly. After a moment it snapped into place and he groaned as Sam nodded when she saw the realization fill his eyes.

   Lady looked from one to the other. "What? You two are going to have to keep me informed here. I've only been alive for a week so you have to go over things a little more clearly for me."

   Tim motioned to Sam in disgust, but not at either of them; only at himself for taking so long to see the problem.

   "You see; Liz and Lily have just gotten used to the idea that Tim and I are having a baby together. You may not realize that pregnancy at our ages is highly criticized these days because we generally live longer lives thanks to medicines and such and no longer have to reproduce as quickly as possible."

   Sam looked at Lady to make sure she understood and continued when she received a little nod. "Alright so here we are, two young adults, barely out of childhood in the eyes of society, and were pregnant and soon to be married. You on the other hand, are single, female, and pregnant. You have no birth certificate, no relatives, and are living here under an assumed identity that wouldn't hold up under any real scrutiny."

   She paused for just a second to let this sink in then continued once more. "You aren't going to be able to hide it for long. You're probably exactly as far along as I am and you're already beginning to show. Within another four or five weeks we'll both look like were carrying cantaloupes under out shirts and it'll be noticeable even in clothes at least two weeks before that."

   Lady frowned. "I see at least part of the problem, but why can't we just say I got pregnant before I came here? Harry could take me to the doctor because I'm sick and we can make sure the right tests get run to find out. That will give us an explanation to give to Liz and Lily."

   "No it won't." Tim said with a shake of his head. "Oh they'll probably buy that you were already pregnant, but they'll insist that you tell them who the father is. You're story will come under very close scrutiny if you refuse to tell them and that will lead to a whole new set of problems when they figure out that you didn't come from anywhere. You technically don't even exist, legally speaking." He paused to sigh before continuing. "I don't see a way out of this one."

   Sam nodded. "Well the first thing we have to do is get Harry in. He's taken responsibility and involved himself." She tugged at one of her ears gently in nervousness. "Admittedly we got him involved before we knew everything, but now that he is involved we've got to tell him. That's the first step. He's older, he may well have a completely different view of the situation."

   Chapter Thirty

   The look on Harry's face was unreadable. They weren't sure if it was confused, angry, sad, or simply so shocked that it had gone completely blank.

It was two days after Tim, Lady, and Sam had figured out Lady's condition and they'd been trying ever since to find a way to drag Harry off somewhere private to talk without raising suspicions. It hadn't been an easy thing to do, but finally Lady had thought of the most brilliant plan. They went dancing.

   Sam and Tim explained to Liz that they wanted to learn how to dance for their wedding and Lady apparently had been to dance school and was willing to teach them what she knew. They told her that they'd need a dance partner for Lady who knew some of the dances and Harry had intimated on a previous occasion that he was a fair dancer himself. Really they didn't have to ask, but they didn't want anyone wondering where they were and coming to look for them so they made sure everyone knew. This ensured that they could meet in relative security without raising suspicions about what they were up too out in the west wing.

   "Harry? You don't look well." Lady said with some concern.

   Harry reached up reflexively to rub the stump of his missing ear as his mind began churning again trying to work around a few thousand stripped gears. After a moment he nodded slightly, though the blank look hadn't gone out of his eyes.

   "Maybe we shouldn't have put it so bluntly?" Sam said in a frightened tone.

   "I'm fine. I'm fine." Harry said a second later. "Just sort of hit me like a ton of bricks is all." He rubbed his ear stub again. "Is there any point in asking who the daddy is?" Harry asked cautiously giving Tim a queer look.

   Tim shook his head. "If we knew the answer I'm not sure we could comprehend it. I think we can basically assume that all three of us are his or her parents for the sake of expediency though."

   "Oh that'll be easy to explain to the doctor who delivers the baby." Harry said in a rather amused tone. At least he wasn't shock white anymore, Sam thought. "Alright; putting aside any questions of how and who, then why did you bring me out here?"

   Tim waved a hand in an all-encompassing gesture. "Because you're involved up to your eyes. We didn't know and you didn't know about this, but now we have to deal with it. I'm sure you can see all the problems this is going to raise. I mean with Lady being something of a non-entity legally speaking. Not to mention that her story isn't going to hold up under any direct scrutiny."

   "Aye; the very kind this sort of revelation is going to generate." The hand rubbing his ear stump paused for a moment. "I see the problem, or at least some of the problems. What do you plan to do about them?"

   Sam sighed and shook her head. "That's the problem. We're stumped. Completely at a loss."

   "The way I see it there's only a two places to start." Tim said holding up a paw and starting to count off on his fingers. "One; we tell the truth. That would require figuring out a way to explain at least some of all this and prove at least part of our story." He folded down the second digit. "Two; we figure out a way to convince Liz and Lily not to pursue the question of how or who about Lady's pregnancy." He paused then added. "That one doesn't look promising though; I'll tell you that now."

   Harry sighed and resumed rubbing the stump of his ear. "You're right about convincing them not to ask questions, so that only leave coming clean and telling the truth. But as to how to even start..." He laughed. "You know your parents better than I do."

   Sam shuffled her feet looking down at them as she spoke. "That's going to be really hard." She said softly. "They aren't going to believe the ghost story without some proof. They might not even believe it then, but if we present the right information they might have to accept what we want to convince them of. Which is basically that Lady is pregnant with our child."

   Tim glanced quickly at Sam. "I didn't think of it that way." He looked thoughtful for a few moments. "I guess in essence that's right. If we tell the whole story the only conclusion that will keep Liz and Lily from involving outside authorities at some point, be it the state or whatever, is to convince them that Sam and I are responsible for Lady and her baby."

   Harry nodded reluctantly. "You're probably right about that. I have to admit that what's really the point here is keeping you two and Lady together. Beyond that all we can do is hope that nobody outside the family here gets called in to investigate..." He paused to look at the others in the room meaningfully. "Who knows where that might lead? It would be like opening Pandora's box. We're talking orphanages, prisons..."

   Lady gasped. "Surely nobody will go to prison?"

   Sam put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Let's not think of that. I just don't think Liz and Lily would do it either. At worst they'll make you both leave, and while that would be terrible; at least it would be better than the alternative."

   Tim shook his head. "We're wasting time. We should be thinking of ways to avoid those problems instead of how we would deal with them. That can come later if it has too, but I don't think it has too."

   Harry sighed. "You're right, but if there's proof that Liz and Lily would accept, I can't think of what it would be."

   "I don't think we need more proof than we've already got." Tim said earnestly.

   The other three turned to look at him in amazement.

   "I don't see..." Sam started but his smile stopped her mid sentence.

   "Well; it was what you said earlier. What we need to prove isn't the story that she's been a ghost or any of that. What we have to prove to mom and Lily is that both of us are responsible for this baby." He said with a little gleam of understanding kindling in his eyes.

   "How?" Harry asked interested now.

   Tim nodded to Sam. "Love do you remember when I said I wouldn't bet against a paternity test when we first discussed this?"

   Sam nodded in return and waved him encouragingly to continue.

   "Well; that's the solution." He said looking at them as if they should have already figured this out. When he still saw only confusion he sighed. "Look. Paternity tests are pretty accurate right? Well then the results would be pretty undeniable proof that Sam and I are both parent's to the child. See?"

   Harry did see. He saw more though and clucked his tongue as he caught the wave of an idea. "Wait..." he said holding up a hand. "I just realized something too." He thought for a few moments. "This could prove more than just that Tim, and the test wouldn't even have to point to both of you."

   Tim folded his arms across his chest and nodded for Harry to continue.

   "It's a problem of time see. If Sam got pregnant the day before you moved, and Lady is at the exact same stage of pregnancy as you said you suspect, then we're talking... what? Two day's, even if we say two weeks, in which you would've had to get Lady pregnant too for you to be the father." He raised his paws in a giving away gesture. "The point is," he continued. "That if a paternity test proves that Tim is the father, or even better, that Sam is the second mother, then we've basically got a huge time problem that has to be solves before they can disbelieve our story about Lady's origins."

   "Oh." Sam said in a whisper of realization. "They'd have to believe that not only had Tim gotten me pregnant, but if we proved that I was a parent to the baby too, they would have to additionally believe that Tim artificially impregnated Lady within days of arriving, and that I had agreed to all of this and somehow let Tim harvest an egg to do this supposed implantation with."

   Lady was very confused. "I don't understand half of what that means, but if I'm following the basic idea; you're saying that we can prove that what's happened is impossible unless our story is true?"

   "Yeah, that's it in a nutshell." Tim said brightly. "We can't prove that our story is true, but we can prove that nothing else will explain it."

   "It's definitely our best shot." Harry said in a relieved voice. "Now the only question is; how do we do it? Do we tell Liz and Lily and then suggest that they have the paternity tests run as proof of the story or do we go have the tests done and bring them when we try to explain?"

   Tim shrugged. "I don't think tests we brought would be all that convincing. If they really wanted too, they could convince themselves that you, if you were trying to run some kind of scam, had the test results doctored to show just exactly what you wanted them too. If we let them choose who does the test and where then the tests will have a lot more leverage."

   Sam sighed and put a paw on Tim's shoulder. "When will we do it?" She asked softly. "It has to be soon. She'll start showing no matter what we do in just a couple of weeks at the outside."

   Tim blew out a breath. "Well. First thing is; I think it should just be you and me Sam." He said with a bowed head. "I want to include Lady too, but I really think giving either Liz or Lily a target to center on while we're trying to get all this out would be a mistake of monumental proportions."

   Harry nodded in agreement but remained silent. This was just between the three of them now. He could get in some serious trouble, and he would likely be doing some major explaining even if this whole thing worked out. He might even have to leave if worse came to worse. He rubbed the stump of his ear in resignation and leaned back to see where the wind was going to blow.

   Chapter Thirty-One

   They all sat in Liz's bedroom in chairs that had been moved in from other rooms just for the occasion. Four overstuffed armchairs were set in a circle around a circular rug on the floor at the end of the bed.

   Tim hadn't been in the room since his mother had brought him up to talk about Sam being pregnant. He looked around as she shut the door and motioned for him to take one of the seats. He smiled and nervously fell into the chair wondering for a moment if Sam had found Lily yet. He'd wanted to get them all together in a quiet place before opening discussions about Lady, but when he'd found his mother she'd already been looking for him and Sam. She was surprised that she'd found him alone until he explained that Sam was looking for Lily so they could all talk.

   Liz had looked concerned at that, but she'd nodded and they'd come up here, where someone, apparently Liz, had already set up a place to have some sort of discussion.

   Moments later Lily and Sam appeared in the doorway and Sam shot Tim a questioning look and mouthed, "What's going on?" to him as she took the seat to his right. He shrugged and shook his head as Liz and Lily took the two seats opposite.

   Liz sighed and put a hand to her forehead as if trying to steady herself for something. "Sam. Tim. Lily and I wanted to talk to you about something." She looked at Lily with a sort of pleading expression.

   Lily frowned but nodded and turned to continue Liz's speech. "We've been considering having this talk with you for..." she paused. "Well, for quite some time."

   "We were..." Liz started but stopped herself. "Ok, I... I was scared about how you might react when we told you." She said looking at them with a sort of fear that Tim had never seen in her eyes before.

   Lily looked concernedly at Liz, got up, and went her chair. They held a little whispered conference for a minute, in which Liz shook her head a couple of times before Lily was satisfied and returned to her seat.

   Sam and Tim looked at each other in complete confusion. Sam gave Tim a little nod and motioned to their mother's with one hand encouraging him to get the ball rolling on their end of this strange conversation.

   "Uh..." He started before either of them was able to start speaking again. "Sam and I... Well, we had something rather important to talk to you about too."

   Liz looked dejected but resigned at this. "So you did figure it out already?" She sighed. "Lily thought you might have." She looked at Tim pleadingly. "I swear Timmy, we didn't want to hide it forever, it just... Just never felt like the right time."

   What in hell was she talking about, Tim thought. This wasn't the way this conversation was supposed to go. She had to be talking about something he didn't even suspect. Something neither of them had any idea about.

   Sam shook her head. "I'm sure neither of us has any clue what you're talking about." She said in confusion. "You'd sound completely different if we were talking about the same thing believe me."

   Lily narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "What exactly is this thing you were going to talk to us about?"

   Tim shrugged and looked at Sam helplessly then turned back to Lily. "It's about Lady actually. It's important, but if you need to say something first..." he looked at Liz, who still wasn't meeting his eyes.

   Lily shook her head and sighed. "Isn't this just a cluster-fuck? I wish we'd picked different days for this. Ok, out with it then." She said knowing that Liz might grasp onto anything that could save her from this confession but knowing she needed to get it out in the open before the fear that Tim would find out on his own ate her alive.

   "You two know what it's like to be in love now." Lily began looking at them to receive their nods of confirmation. "Then you'll be able to understand that love isn't something you quibble over when it comes along. What you might not understand is that sometimes..." She paused and took a deep breath.

   Liz couldn't hold it in any longer. "We're in love!" She shouted just as Lily paused. Sam and Tim looked at her in desperate confusion now unable to comprehend, yet, what Liz was trying to say. They saw that Liz had broken down completely now and was weeping into her hands, bent double with her face and hands in her lap.

   "In love with who?" Tim asked softly, his voice barely audible over his mother's sobs.

   Lily gave him a stern look. "Who else. Me." She said as she went to wrap Liz in a comforting embrace.

   Tim and Sam were dumbfounded. Their confusion at the subject turned into a disarray of thoughts flying around like a sparrow whose gotten into a room and can't figure out how to get back out again.

   "Uh..." Tim started looking back at Lily. "If I'm understanding you; you're telling us that... um... that you and my mother are... what? Lovers?"

   Lily nodded.

   "Oh." Tim said in relief.

   Liz's head came up from her hands and she started at him in disbelief. She hadn't expected that tone of relief when he'd found out. It was so against everything she'd anticipated that she wanted to ask if he'd really understood. Lily wasn't in much better shape, but she could actually see that Sam was trying to keep herself from laughing at the completely derailed look she knew must be stamped on her face.

   "We're lovers." Liz said again, as though she was sure he just needed to hear it again for it to sink in so he could rage or cry or whatever she'd really expected from him.

   "Sounds like you're sure then." Tim said with a shrug. "I don't really see how either of us has any right to dictate your love lives to you." He said and sat back glad it had been something this simple. "Jeezus, I thought you were dying or something for a second there."

   Lily looked over to Sam expectantly. Sam smiled. "A few months ago I might not have understood so well. Now though..." She looked knowingly at Tim then continued. "Now I know that body parts don't make much difference to the heart."

   Lily's smile was genuine, but there was an undertone of confusion in her eyes as her daughter displayed an understanding of the situation she wouldn't have thought completely possible. Unless...

   "Uh... Does this new understanding have anything to do with... um... what you wanted to talk to us about?" Lily asked gently.

   Sam nodded slowly. "Yes. It does. But you'll need to hear the full story. It's pretty unbelievable, but in the end... I think we've got proof, or at least there's a story that explains something that can't be explained any other way."

   Lily's mouth hung open for a moment as she was unable to think of a reply then she snapped it shut and just nodded before returning her gaze to Liz who was still looking a little stunned.

   "Are you going to be alright dear?" Lily asked as she gently stoked Liz's mane.

   Liz nodded. "I'm just... well I'm just so happy. I'm not going to have to choose between you." Another sob escaped her as she said this but she smiled. "I was so scared..."

   Lily shushed her and put her arms around her rocking her back and forth until she had calmed enough to continue on her own. She sniffed back the last of her tears and waved Lily back to her own chair.

   "I'm alright now. Everything is great." She smiled.

   Tim looked at Lily reluctantly. Apparently Liz had missed everything that had passed between Lily and Sam a few minutes ago.

   "There's something else." He said shifting uneasily in his seat. "There's a story we need to tell you..."

He glanced over at Sam who nodded. "Go ahead. You're doing fine." She said softly.

   He told them about the first time he'd encountered the ghost in the orchard, then about the strange emails that had led him to the attic where he'd found the book. He reminded Liz about showing her the book and explaining the same story then. She nodded and he continued. He told them next about the second time he'd seen the ghost in the orchard and how the snow dervish had engulfed him, how it had kissed him there, and how he'd been so excited that he'd run to his room to write everything down. He told them about how Barbara had appeared in his room in a half-transparent form crying real tears from eyes that were the only thing solid about her.

At this point Lily held up a hand to stop him. "Barbara? Didn't..."

Sam shook her head interrupting her mother. "That'll all be explained. If we get off the track here it'll be like piling one train on top of another trying to get back."

Lily looked a little irritated but nodded curtly for Tim to continue.

He told them about the entire story in the diary, and about all the parts that Barbara had explained that weren't in the diary itself, like how the diary had survived, and how it had gotten into the attic. He told how he'd called Sam on the phone and how she'd been so skeptical until Barbara had gone right through the computer and into Sam's bedroom on the other end. Here Sam took over for a few minutes telling about how she'd met Barbara and found out that she was real. She told then how she could pass through doorways and how she'd tried to touch her and felt cold on her palms. She told how over the next few months Barbara had become a regular visitor and reminded her mother about how on occasion she would hear voices in Sam's room and come to check on her daughter.

Lily hadn't remembered, but several incidents popped into her mind like jack in the boxes as she was reminded. She had heard Sam talking out loud to someone, someone with a female voice, on several occasions. She'd checked on her at least twice when this had happened and just written it off as some strange auditory trick of sound as Sam read from the computer out loud or something.

   Then Tim took over once again with the story of Barbara trying to get him back inside on the night Sam and Lily had arrived. He told how she'd tried to keep him warm when she couldn't force him to go back inside and how she'd gone to hide while he and Sam had their reunion. He told how she'd not been in the room when they'd gone up to bed after dinner, how she'd later appeared in the night.

   Here Sam took over again because she'd been the one who had first woken to speak with Lady when she'd returned that night. She told about Lady's proclamation of love for them both, how she'd offered to leave if they asked. She told them how they had responded in kind to her love and how she'd asked to bond with them.

Here, as Sam knew there would be, there was an unstoppable protest from her mother. "Are you telling me... that you; pregnant and all, consented to... bond... or whatever it was... with someone or something you didn't even understand the physical makeup of? That is assuming of course that we can believe any of this ghost business at all." She added as an afterthought.

Sam nodded. "Yes. I did." She'd known she would have to make this concession from the start because she really had done exactly what her mother was saying she'd done. "I love her. I knew she wouldn't harm any of us on purpose. We all agreed and it was a wonderful experience, but we're not quite finished yet. If we get past this point, I think you'll have plenty more to be angry about..."

Liz glanced over at Lily. She knew this could explode very quickly and she wanted to head that off if she possibly could. "Lily. Wait. Let them finish. There's going to be a lot of questions at the end of this I promise..." She gave both of them a rather disheartening look that said just how much of their story she believed as of this moment.

Lily snorted and sat back with her arms folded. "Go on then. I'm listening." She said in a scathing tone.

Sam winced but nodded for Tim to continue the story.

He took a deep breath then continued, telling them of the strange sharing of bodies, mixing of emotions, the strange duality of the moment. He left out exactly what they'd been doing during the bonding, but he got the distinct impression that both women were well aware of exactly what act they'd been engaged in. He jumped from there to the next morning when they'd woken to find a third living person in the bed. He told how they'd been dumbfounded and how they'd worried about what they would do with a flesh and blood person who'd just appeared in their bed.

"Harry." Liz whispered to herself. As he described the predicament they'd found themselves in suddenly and how they'd thought and thought until a solution had finally come to them.

Sam nodded at Liz and took up the story once more where her plan took over. She told how they'd taken Harry aside to meet Barbara. How they'd explained the story to him and how he'd questioned them and Barbara about anything he could think of that would contradict her story. She told about how he'd finally thought of one thing that might prove, to him at least, that she was who she said she was. She told of their afternoon trip into the forest and how she and Tim had stayed behind waiting and had danced to the vision in the ballroom. She told them about Harry's reaction when the two of them had returned and how he'd suddenly been sure after seeing her grave that she was really the reincarnation of Barbara Allen's spirit.

"How did showing Harry a grave convince him that she was a ghost? I know it must be spooky, but that doesn't explain his reaction." Lily said, breaking in as Sam paused for breath.

Tim shook his head. "It wasn't the grave that convinced him. At least that was the impression I got from what he said when they got back. I got this feeling that it was more... more like the location of the grave or something." He finished lamely.

Sam took up where he'd left off. "I think the grave was lost. He'd heard of it or something in a story but nobody living knew where to find it. She must have led him right too it. I remember him saying something about trees that were too tall and roses that had grown wild. He could undoubtedly explain better."

"Ok... Let's not belabor the point at the moment. I think we'll be bringing Harry and Lady into this chat later, but perhaps we should hear everything first." Liz said waving for them to continue with an air of accepting the inevitable.

Tim took up the story again giving Sam a little nod. He finished telling them of the plan for Harry to suddenly have an orphaned distant relative, how they'd planned out the discovery of the letter, the arrival by snowmobile Christmas morning. Here he stopped and took a deep breath.

"By now you've realized that the girl you know as Lady Allen is the very person of whom this story is referring. All this we've told you so far is true. I swear it is. I know it's hard to trust us after we've just described how large a lie we told, but for what it's worth now, I'm sorry we ever lied; we just didn't see an alternative. There wasn't any proof." He looked at Sam so she could continue. They'd decided it would be best if their parents heard the next few revelations from her rather than him.

Before she could start explaining though Lily sat forward and started to speak.

"In all of this story, so far at least, you haven't told us one good reason why you'd be here now. Something happened the other day when Lily was sick didn't it? Is she supposed to be dying or something? Need money for an operation to save her suddenly restored life?" Her tone was acid as she spat out these ideas with scorn.

Sam gave Tim a worried glance but forged on with admirable calm. "No. She's pregnant." She said. The words seemed to have a ring of finality to them.

Lily scoffed. "I'm sure she is. Wonder if it was her idea or Harry's in the first place." She said to Liz in a tone of complete disgust.

Liz wasn't scoffing though. She was watching the horrified looks coming over the faces of her son and his fiancé.

She shook her head and gave Lily an irate look. "I remember you said something earlier about proof?" She said glancing sideways at Lily.

Sam nodded, then paused, and then shook her head. "It's more complicated than proof. It's a sort of proof I think, but it doesn't prove the story really. If what we suspect is right... it will disprove everything else." She said glancing at Tim to make sure she'd gotten that right. She wasn't even sure she completely understood.

Tim nodded and directed his next statement to Lily, who was obviously the most skeptical of the pair. "We decided to have paternity tests done."

Lily sat up straighter at this but her expression didn't change much. "I suppose they said they know a good doctor did they? Or maybe you've already got the test results with you?"

Sam flashed her mom and angry look and banged her fist on the arm of the chair raising a tiny puff of dust. "Stop it mom!" She said in a quivery voice just on the edge of shouting. "I love you, but damn it..." She visibly reigned herself in at her mother's look of shock at her tone.

"That's enough, both of you." She said looking from Lily to her daughter. "You're right Lily that this could all be a scam, but lets hear this plan and then we can trip it up in any way you think it should be."

Lily wasn't looking furious anymore. She was looking as if she'd just realized that her daughter wasn't a little girl anymore and had been hammered hard by the fact. She nodded and looked down at her hands now folded in her lap.

"We, Tim and I; not Lady or Harry, have asked for a paternity test. You can choose the doctor, drive us to Dublin and have it done there, pick randomly out of a phone book. Hell fly us to London if you think every doctor in Dublin might have been co-opted." She said, her mind going back to her mother's scornful comments.

Now it was Tim's turn to ease the atmosphere. "We want you to test both my paternity and Sam's paternity against Lady's baby." He said directing the comment to Liz this time.

Liz sat back thinking but Lily had raised her head again and seemed to have brought herself under control again.

"It's reasonable." She said slowly. "I can't see how anybody, no matter how dedicated, could make an offer like this and hope to produce false results. Maybe though, you can explain one thing to me." She said calmly.

"Anything that will help you get a grip on the problem." Sam said. "Assuming that we have an answer of course."

"Why test your paternity?" She asked. "That's what I don't understand."

Sam's eyes brightened. They had finally found the key to the whole thing and it hadn't even been pointed out to them directly.

"Well, that's the key to proving this whole thing, or at least disproving everything else." She said in relief. "We suspect that Lady's body, and hence also her pregnancy, are a result of out bonding with her. If that is true, then the baby..." She left the words hanging letting the two women figure it out for themselves.

"The baby would test positive against all three of you." Lily said thoughtfully then a little light came on in her head as if a flash bulb had suddenly gone off.

"What about DNA?" She asked suddenly.

"The babies?" Sam asked looking confused.

Lily waved her hand dismissively. "No. Lady's... If she's got a grave, then she's got a body buried in it." She pointed out. "It's not guaranteed to prove she isn't who you say she is, but if it did match..."

Tim shook his head. "I'm not sure that's going to work. How would you feel about somebody digging up your three hundred year old body? If it was certainly going to be proof one way or the other maybe... but there are other considerations. We can't exhume human remains and just send them to a lab in a hefty bag. Besides, if that sort of evidence did prove that Lady is the reincarnation of a three hundred year old dead girl, our current concerns would seem like small fish in comparison."

"Hum... you have a point." She tapped her fingers on the arm of her chair and looked at Liz for help.

"I think..." Liz said gravely. "We should go ahead with the paternity tests. Lily and I will choose three clinics and you won't know which one's they will be until you arrive. Only the three of you will go, and Lily or myself will watch as each sample is taken. That should satisfy even my inner skeptic if all three results show the same thing."

Lily nodded. "I have to admit that I'm not convinced, but even if you're wrong about all this and just being scammed, then I can't see how the tests will do anything but good."

"I think we should get Harry and Lady up here now. There are a few points involving your story that I would like to discuss with them." Liz said, her voice growing a little fiery.

Lily nodded and got up from her chair. "I'll go find them shall I?" She asked calmly.

"They'll be in the solarium waiting for you." Sam said. "We knew you'd be going to look for them sooner or later."

Lily nodded and left the room. Soon she would return with the other two and when she did, the fur would certainly fly.

Chapter Thirty-Two

They sat around the table passing the results of the tests between them as Lily and Liz watched their faces. Consternation, surprise, disappointment; all were in evidence as each set of results was scanned and the final analysis was read. Sam and Tim were surprised at the results, but they were mostly just disappointed and scared what these results would mean to their mothers.

The tests had gone off just as they'd planned with three clinics running two sets of tests, one against Tim and one against Sam. Lily had monitored all of the tests herself, staying in the room while each blood sample was taken and questioning both doctors and nurses. It had been a perfect assumption, except there was something they hadn't considered.

Liz cleared her throat. "Not what you expected?" She asked noncommittally.

Tim looked up from the test results he was scanning for the third time and shook his head. "No. I expected something a bit more... conclusive."

Each of the six total tests had come back totally inconclusive. They basically said, in medical terms, "we don't know."

"Actually," Lily said dropping the test she'd been reviewing in front of her. "I think these results are pretty conclusive." She said tapping the stapled stack of papers.

"How so?" Sam asked glancing at the paper Lily had been reading and wondering if she'd missed seeing that one.

"Well, you see..." she started, rubbing a paw across her forehead. "We saw these last night before we told you that they'd come." She paused to let this sink in. "We couldn't decide before we got them if we'd be more suspicious of tests that definitely said yes or definitely said no. With you're story, these tests make perfect sense. A conclusive result would actually have been rather a detriment to the story."

Lily put her paw flat on the table. "What this really says, if you look up some of the terms they use in a dictionary, is that they couldn't even come up with the babies species, much less determine paternity. They assumed it was equine but even that was inconclusive. The long and the short of it is that they've assumed..." she flipped to the back page of the test in front of her and read aloud. "...Contamination of subject sample through mishandling or other unknown cause." She let the pages fall back again.

"If this was just the case in one of the tests we might even believe it." Liz said as Lily finished reading. "The problem is, and I'm sure you didn't notice because you'd have needed to read completely through each result paper, that all of the results said exactly the same thing."

Tim shook his head. "So what does that mean? Is this convincing evidence or damning evidence?" He asked rubbing his forehead in exasperation.

Liz thought for a long time before replying, not needing to think of her answer, but how to phrase her answer. "It has to be convincing." She nodded as four heads rose to look at her in surprise.

   "Yes, you see. Your reaction is what makes it convincing." She said putting both paws on the table and shaking her head. "When we saw these results; we knew how much you'd expected them to say what you believed. The fact that they didn't say exactly that makes them all the more believable."

   Lily sighed. "There's also the fact that we believe you." She said in resignation.

   The whole table was silent waiting expectantly for Liz to confirm or deny this belief.

   "There is that." She said with a crooked smile. "Nothing we've seen points to some grand conspiracy. Harry doesn't want money, Lady just, genuinely I believe, wants to be with both of you, and we just can't see why Tim and Sam would say any of this if they didn't believe it completely and honestly."

   "Without evidence to the contrary, which there doesn't seem to be; we have to believe your story, no matter how outlandish it seems." Lily said.

   All of them wanted to cheer in triumph but were able to hold back. Sam and Lady embraced jubilantly and Tim, seated across the table from them, barely held himself from going to them.

   "So..." Tim said questioningly. "Is there a plan?"

   Liz smiled. "We've had time to get over the shock by now... It's a bit of a strange situation all in all; but I think the best way to handle it is just to see how things play out. We like Lady. She's intelligent and obviously loves both of you very much. We're not sure what this is going to do for your wedding plans though. Other than those concerns, things can go on just as they have for the past few weeks. We'll try not to pry into your relationships since you've been so accepting of ours. Under other circumstances things might be different, but were rich now. We can afford to do strange things if we want too."

   Chapter Thirty-Three

   The ballroom sparkled with the reflected light of a double hundred candles flickering their merry glow from candelabra's set up all along the edge of the room. Two were set to each side of the little raised platform at the center of the room bathing the little altar with subtly moving lights.

   Behind the altar stood Harry wearing what looked like a druidic garment, which wrapped around the waist and then crossed over each shoulder forming a V in front and back then below the belt flared out. It hung down to the ankles covering front and back with only a split down each side. The fabric was of green and gold with a sash of red tied around his waist, the loose ends dangling down along his side to just above the knee.

   Since Harry wasn't of any particular faith he'd chosen the outfit to match his best guess of what a druidic ceremonial garment might look like. He based this idea only from his own imagination, but the end result looked quite mystic overall and blended well with the atmosphere that had been created.

   Tim stood in front and just to the right of the altar dressed in his tailored tuxedo and fidgeting with the bow tie nervously as the few guests, all members of the house staff who'd wanted to attend, found seats and settled in.

Of the twenty-five total house staff only seven, not including Harry, had decided to attend. The tutor was there, finding a seat near the back and trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. He wore a charcoal gray suit that would have looked more in place in the front of a class full of students than at a wedding. Harry gave him a little smile and a nod as he chose a seat and smiled in return. Mrs. Pennycoat was there, looking rather out of place in a billowy blue dress with lots of lacy parts instead of the cook's whites he was so used to seeing her in.

To his surprise Kelly, just starting to show a round belly, was in attendance, accompanied by the ermine butler who'd fathered her baby and who looked, if that was possible, even more nervous than Tim felt. Tim wasn't sure if this was because Kelly or the wedding, but he rather thought the latter because of the little glances the ermine kept throwing at Kelly when she wasn't looking, as if he were looking for an opportunity to flee.

   Agatha and Alfred, her husband, sat right up front as close to the altar as they could get their chairs. Agatha was a great friend to both Lady and Sam and while she'd expressed surprise at the three-way relationship, she'd accepted it completely without reservations. Alfred was less well known to the family, but he seemed to share his wife's opinion and though he could be a bit gruff, he didn't seem to harbor any reservations either.

   The last guest, and also the usher, was Peter, the head butler. Tim was surprised to see him at all, but apparently, despite his upright and stiff manner, he had come to enjoy the company of both Liz and Lily when he wasn't running the house from behind the scenes. He nodded and gave him a smile of welcome as the last guest arrived and Peter came down the isle and found a seat. He received a small friendly smile in return and decided he'd have to make more of an effort to be friendly to Peter from now on.

   The double doors leading out into the hall were shut behind the last arriving guest, and now as music played, orchestrated by Harry from a little remote control behind the altar, they both swung slowly open again to the first chords of "here comes the bride" as they revealed the two women, slightly rounded at the bellies, in their matching white dresses, simple and in the old fashion of Lady's preference, who stood beyond. When the doors had fully opened, Lily stepped in front of Sam and Liz stepped in front of Lady in unison then backed into the room extending one hand each towards their chosen bride-to-be and bowing.

   Sam held out her right hand and Lady her left. Liz and Lily took the offered hands and formally moved beside their charge, Liz on Lady's left and Lily on Sam's right as they walked down the isle in traditional slow fashion to the beat of the song. The room was large and it took several repeats of the song before the procession reached the foot of the dais and stopped perfectly on the final beat of the fifth repetition.

   Tim moved to his place at the center of the dais just in front of the altar as Harry ended the music with a flick and stepped around to stand beside him. Neither turned their heads to look at the other, but each knew exactly how the other would look at this moment.

   Harry wore a beatific smile as he stepped into his place and looked down kindly upon the procession as they waited for him to speak. Tim had eyes only for his two loves as Liz and Lily released their hands and they drew back the lacy veil's to reveal their smiling faces looking back up at him.

   "We gather; as is the way," Harry began. "To rejoice in the joining of these three in the personal bonds and fealty of marriage."

   Liz and Lily stepped forward just at the precise moment in perfect unison as Harry paused for a brief second before continuing.

   "Who will renounce their bonds of kinship with these two women so that they might be joined in new bonds of family to Timothy Randal Strider?"

   Two weeks ago Tim had legally changed his name from Timothy Randal Pack to Timothy Randal Strider, adopting his mother's family surname to renounce his own kinship with his abusive father. It had been his decision, but his mother seemed to tear up every time she was reminded of the fact, and today was no different.

   She stepped forward her eyes gleaming wetly in the candlelight and spoke in as firm a voice as she could. "No bonds of kinship hold Lady Barbara Allen," she intoned. "Her choice is her own."

   As Liz finished Lily stepped forward and said, in the grave tone she'd decided was proper for the occasion and the question, "I, Lily Samantha Grove, mother of Samantha Jane Grove, relinquish all bonds of kinship so that a new bond of family may be born tying kin to kin forever."

   Harry nodded in approval of these statements and turned to move behind the altar once again as Lady and Sam stepped from the floor onto the dais to stand upon either side of him. As they came abreast he turned so that all three ended facing Harry behind the altar side by side.

   "I understand that you have written your own vows?" Harry asked.

   It was finally Tim's turn to speak and he resisted the urge to clear his throat as a little lump rose in it. "We have." He said in a surprisingly clear, strong voice.

   Harry only nodded in reply waving a hand in indication to proceed.

   Here, normally the bride and groom would have exchanged vows, but in essence this ceremony would bind all three to each other rather than just both women to him. The vows were written by each to reflect this, and so rather than simply two facing each other, the three joined hands and formed a circle so that all could face each other.

   "My life, love, and body I owe to you. I pledge them all faithfully until my death parts us." Lily said in a soft voice barely audible to the guests. That didn't matter because everyone who counted could hear them and Harry nodded as she finished.

   "Do you accept this vow?" He asked the other two in the circle.

   "We do." They intoned together.

   "My life, love, and body are mine to give. I pledge them all faithfully until my death parts us." Tim said in a stronger clearer voice that carried to everyone in the hall perfectly. The change was minor, but Lady had insisted that her vows be slightly modified when the three of them had sat down to write them.

   "Do you accept this vow?" Harry asked again.

   "We do."

   Sam repeated the pledge and again Harry asked the others to accept.

   "We do." They replied.

   "Do you consent to bind yourselves, one to the other, in the bonds and fealty of kinship and family while your lives shall last?"

   "We do." All three said now.

   "And do the families of these three wish to be bond one to the other by their choice? If not; speak now or be bound by ties of kinship unbreakable to the final child of this family line." Harry intoned looking from Liz to Lily.

   "We do so wish." They said.

   "Then." Said Harry with a smile. "Be bound now forever in kinship by your own hands and hearts." The three entwined their arms, a feat accomplished smoothly only after hours of practice, and each placed a paw upon the heart of the other two for a moment then Harry said finally. "Let the celebration begin!"

   Chapter Thirty-Four

   Life had been great for the past few months. Bellies grew and the three lovers became closer than ever. They had moved into the little apartment that had been meant for Tim and Sam, but they had managed to share bathrooms and closet space without killing each other just yet. Their classes had been moved to the den of the apartment to help keep Lady and Sam off their feet as their pregnancies continued. They'd made up a lot of time in their studies and passed the end of year tests a week before the end of May.

   They had jointly redecorated the baby's room, deciding to give it a sex neutral look by painting the walls a bright and cheerful yellow and putting up bunnies on the walls in both pink and blue. Two cradles shared the room now, and dressers were filled with baby clothes, bottles, diapers, and all the other things that would be needed immediately when the two new members of their family were brought home.

   Those rooms now stood empty for a time, quiet and waiting, as two of their intended occupants went through the pains of bringing their children into the world, miles away in St. Benedict's hospital.

   Tim found himself caught between dueling duties. It was June second, eight days past both women's expected delivery date, when both went into labor within spare minutes of each other. Harry had loaded everyone into the car and gotten them to St. Benedict's in record time. Sam's water broke as they were being helped from the car by a pair of orderlies with wheelchairs. They rolled the two women into the hospital with Tim close on their heels while Liz and Lily started the inordinately large task of filling out the paperwork.

   Doctor Grestin arrived within another half-hour and got both of his patients, as he had taken over the care of Lady as well as Sam, settled into side-by-side rooms and checked their progress. After a few minutes with each patient he appeared again in the hallway where Tim was standing indecisive about who he should be with since he could only be with one at a time at any given moment. He wanted so badly to be with both of them during this time, but it was impossible. The hospital simply wouldn't allow them both to share a birthing room.

   "Tim." Grestin said when he saw him there. "It's alright. Everything is moving along smoothly. Both of them are coming along fine and Lady's water broke just a few minutes ago as she was brought into the delivery room." He paused to give a smile and patted Tim lightly on the shoulder. "I suggest you choose quickly or you'll stand out here and miss everything. It looks like Sam is going to deliver first, so go see Lady first. It'll be a few more hours before they're fully dilated in any case, so you'll have time."

   "Thanks Doc." Tim said patting him on the shoulder. "I'll do that."

   The doctor left heading down the hall to the nurses station to leave instructions then disappeared through a set of double doors.

   Tim watched him until he was gone then turned and went into Lady's room.

   "Hi." He said happily. "How are you?" He asked as he came up to her bedside.

   She gave him a bright smile. "I'm doing good at the moment. Contractions only coming once in a while." She reached out and took his paw in hers. "I know you haven't seen Sam yet. She needs you too. I'll be ok for a while yet." She said kissing his paw lightly. "Tell her I love her will you?" She added as she waved him out of the room.

   He jogged over and went into Sam's room next. She was in the middle of a contraction and her face was screwed up in pain as she breathed in gusts like the video had taught them. He hurried over and took her hand quickly.

   She squeezed his hand as the contraction eased and looked up with relief and love in her eyes. "How's Lady?" She asked.

   "God that's typical." Tim said with a chuckle. "I come to see both of you and you're worried more about each other." He kissed her hand and smiled. "She says she loves you." He said kindly. "I share the sentiment. How are you feeling?"

   Sam smiled. "It's not so bad. I'm glad we decided to have a natural birth. It hurts, but I can feel everything moving, getting ready to bring life into the world." She squeezed his hand again. "Our baby is coming."

   He spent most of the next two hours jogging between the two rooms watching the time between contractions get closer and closer. Liz and Lily arrived soon after his first couple of visits between rooms and they stationed themselves in opposite rooms so neither of the girls would have to be alone.

   At two fifteen Tim was holding Lady's hand as she gritted her teeth and curled up around her belly as another contraction wracked her. She squeezed down on his hand reflexively almost hard enough to crush bone then loosened the grip as she came to terms with the pain.

Lily appeared in the doorway at that moment breathing heavily with excitement.

   "It's time." She said looking at Tim. "Doctor's on his way and they're moving her into the birthing room now. Tim nodded and looked down at Lady again giving her hand a squeeze as he saw the comprehension just behind the pain.

   "Go." She said squeezing his hand in return. "I'll be fine."

   Tim was loathed to leave but terrified to stay. Liz came up behind him and drew his hand from Lady's then put her own in its place. "Go on." She said. "I'll stay with Lady until you get back."

   Tim turned and gave one last look back as he crossed the doorway to follow Lily to the birthing room. "I love you." He said quickly before hurrying off to find Sam.

   Chapter Thirty-Five

   He entered the birthing room, clothed in sterile cap, gown, and mask, just as the doctor rose from between the stirrups to tell Sam to push for the first time. He hurried to Sam's side as she sat up and grunted with the effort as the next contraction came. She clutched out and grasped Tim's hand in her right hand squeezing had with effort as Lily appeared on her left and took her other hand.

   After a moment Sam collapsed back breathing hard as the contraction eased. She brought Tim's hand up to her chest and clutched it to her desperately unable to speak. His other hand went up to gently stroke her brow as he praised and comforted her. Another contraction came seconds later and the doctor didn't have to tell her to push this time. She sat up like a bolt and screamed with the effort as her eyes squeezed shut and every muscle in her body went rigid at once.

   After three more series of pushing and relaxing the baby slid free. The doctor cradled him gently, passing him to the nurse as Sam watched with relief and joy in her face unable to take her eyes from the small bundle as the nurse cleared the mouth and nose and the baby began crying loudly in protest. Tim's heart leapt as he heard the sound of his newborn son for the first time. He looked down at his wife and brought her hand up to his chest and clutched it in both of his. Her eyes thinned as another contraction came on her to expel the afterbirth, but her mind was no longer focused on the pain.

   Lily moved aside as the baby, now swathed in blankets, was brought over and laid in his mother's arms. Sam drew her hand from his so she could hole their baby against her breast and look into his eyes for the first time. Tim felt joy as he watched his wife and his son.

   Sam looked up at him and smiled tearfully. "Oh Tim. He's so beautiful." She said leaning the bundle so he could see his son's face."

   "He's wonderful." Tim said quietly. "You're both wonderful."

   The buzzer on the doctor's belt went off and Tim looked over at him remembering that there was still another baby to be delivered today. The doctor checked the buzzer and rushed from the room without saying anything as he crashed through the doors already stripping off gloves and gown.

   Sam's eyes were wide as she looked from where the doctor had just stood up to Tim. "Is it Lady?" She asked in a tone of dread that mirrored Tim's feelings exactly.

   Tim blanched. "It must be. Unless he's delivering more than two babies at the same time." He said looking down at her still holding their baby in her arms and looking terrified.

   "Go Tim. Hurry." She said in a frightened voice.

   A nurse entered the room a little out of breath and looked around. When she saw him she waved him over with relief. "Mr. Strider! Your wife's..." she paused looking very perplexed as she saw Sam and the baby lying in the bed behind him.

   He rushed past her leaving her to puzzle it out on her own. There wasn't time to explain the situation and he didn't have the patience right now to try. Once in the hallway he jogged to the nurses station halfway along the corridor and slid up to the counter. The nurse jumped as he suddenly slid into view with a look of half panic on his face.

   "Lady Strider," he said quickly. "She's in labor, where have they taken her?"

   The nurse recovered from her shock with professional ease and tapped a few keys on her computer screen.

   "She's been moved to birthing room five. That's strait down the corridor here," she pointed the direction he'd been going. "Take a left at the first hallway and it'll be on the right at the end of the corridor."

   He rushed away without thanking the woman and pelted down the hall sliding around the corner and nearly losing his feet. He saw Liz, looking worried, standing outside a door near the end of the hall looking in the window with a look of worry on her face. She heard him coming as he ran up panting and turned.

   "What's wrong? Is she alright?" He asked grabbing his mother's shoulders in his fright.

   She shook her head as a nurse came out of the room looking a bit frantic and holding a gown and mask.

   He wanted to rush into the room right then, but he forced himself to put on the gown and mask, then slip into the gloves as the nurse held them out for him. Her eyes, he noticed, kept slipping back to the doors as little sobs of pain and fear issued from within the room. As soon as he got the gloves on he literally elbowed the nurse aside and pushed into the room with his shoulder.

   The first things he noticed were the doctor's hands. They were gloved in red. He looked sideways as the door opened and Tim saw the front of his gown was bloody as well. His heart wrenched and for a moment he couldn't tear his eyes away but the sounds issuing from Lady were too much to bear. She reached out for him weakly as he rushed to her side. The look of pain and fear on her face was devastating and Tim grasped her hands in his as if he was clinging to a life preserver in a storm.

   The doctor came up beside him and grasped his arms pulling him away a few inches and turning him around. Lady's blood smeared on his gown as the doctor made him turn away from Lady's pleading face. "Only a moment." He heard the doctor whisper in his ear as he drew him away.

   "Tim. It's not good. The baby seems to be fine, but she started bleeding and we can't figure out where it's coming from. She's going to be too weak to push at all soon, and if we don't get the baby out now it will die. We can prep for a cesarean section immediately, but at the rate she's losing blood we might lose them both before they can be moved."

   An orderly burst through the door carrying four bags of red liquid and an IV pole that he began setting up immediately while a nurse began explaining to Lady in a calm neutral voice what they were going to do.

   "Tim!" The doctor's voice drew his attention back from where it had wandered.

   "You have to get her to push Tim." He said again. This was the important thing and the rest was all waffle. "Can you get her to push?"

   Tim nodded.

   "Good boy." The doctor said and patted him on the shoulder leaving a bloody paw print where his hand had touched then turned his attention back to the delivery.

   Tim turned back to Lady's side and clasped her hand again gently in his and knelt beside her bed. "Lady?" He said softly.

   She turned, and the pain, fear, and weakness in her face threatened to destroy all of his barriers tearing them down like so much papier-mâché before a bulldozer. He hardened his resolve and kissed her forehead gently.

"Honey I love you. You have to push." He said into her ear. She shook her head slightly and closed her eyes.

   "Lady. Please. I know it hurts. The doctor says if you don't push you'll both die. Please Lady, push. Sam needs you. I need you." He begged squeezing her hand hard enough to break through to her.

   Her eyes opened again wide as saucers and she grimaced. He saw the strength returning to her eyes as she nodded once in determination. He helped her sit up starter and her breathing eased a little as she concentrated hard on the task at hand then bore down, screaming in defiance, pain, and determination as a new pain cramped her belly like steel talons.

   She concentrated all of her might, everything she had to give, into one mighty push that lasted almost a full minute before she collapsed helplessly into Tim's supporting arms.

   It was enough. The doctor caught the baby as it slid free of it's mother's body accompanied by gouts of blood and fluid. He cradled her in his arms and quickly cleared her mouth and nose of blood and mucus. The baby wailed in protest, her little face wrinkling in disgruntled indignity as a smiling doctor Grestin handed her to the nurse. The doctor didn't let himself linger long on the newborn though; he immediately started in to find the source of the mother's bleeding. He held little hope, something massive must have given way within her as she gave her last titanic effort and with it brought her child into the world at the cost of her own life.

   Tim cradled the limp shallowly panting form of Lady in his arms bent over the bed and smearing blood in her fur from his gown. Her eyes opened and met his without any trace of the fear or pain remaining in them. She reached up and stroked his mane with a trembling hand.

   "I love you." He said cradling her head in his arms. "Sam loves you. Don't leave us."

   She smiled brightly and caressed his cheek gently. "I heard her cry." She said in a very low gentle voice. "I heard her live." And with those words, she died.

   Epilogue

   Sam and Tim each held a sleeping child in their arms as they sat in tear filled silence watching the black marble casket being lowered slowly into the grave. Nearby stood two weatherworn markers recently cleared of undergrowth save the two wild roses twining together around the headstones almost as if embracing each other.

   Harry stood to Tim's left with tears glistening in his eyes and his hat clutched in his hands. He'd been the only living person who'd known how to find this place, and it had been difficult for him to bring himself to visit it a third time since he'd learned of Lady's passing. They hadn't wanted intruders on this sacred ground, so it had been Harry and Tim, working through the night clearing and cleaning the whole clearing among the grove of cherry trees, which surrounded the original graves of Argus and Barbara. They had finished digging the grave itself only hours before and had arrived back at the house just in time to change clothes and return one last time to lay Lady to rest once more.

   The same eight who'd attended the wedding were invited to the funeral. Everyone helped to bare the coffin, except Sam and Lily who cradled the babies in their arms as they walked slowly behind the rest of the procession. A path had been cleared for the car to come in as close as possible to the site, but it had still taken ten minutes to bear the coffin the rest of the distance to the grave.

   Tim stepped forward cradling the dappled white and chestnut paint form of his daughter as he bent and placed a yellow rose on the lid of the coffin. He stood once more and looked around at the assembled men and women. "Her life with us was short." He started in a choked and cracked voice. He cleared him throat unobtrusively and continued in a louder, if not any better, voice. "She will be loved for a lifetime even though she's gone." He finished before stepping back so that Sam could step forward with her own rose.

   "Lady was a miracle from a past of tragedy." She said brokenly. None of the guests questioned this choice of words even though only Liz, Lily, Harry, and Tim knew their true meaning. "She finally received her due from life and left a bit of her love behind to remind us." She continued with a sniffle. Tim moved up behind her and put an arm around her shoulder as he cradled little Barbara in the other. She leaned back into his comforting embrace for a moment in silence before kneeling and placing her own yellow rose alongside Tim's.

   The rest of the procession moved into a line and each placed a red rose atop the two yellow ones as they either whispered a goodbye or simply passed in silence. As each person passed on they left the clearing going back to the house and their lives.

   When everyone has passed only the family were left and Liz placed her and Lily's white roses atop the small pile of red ones before turning to Tim and Sam. They had consoled and comforted all that they could. No more was needed here, as they were saying goodbye. It might be necessary later, but for now they simply nodded to their children and held their arms out to receive the babes. Tim and Sam passed them to their mothers and smiled sadly but affectionately at their children as they were carried back up to the house.

   When the two women were gone Tim and Sam turned to Harry, who had waited silently to the side until everyone else had gone. He was still crying silently as he came over with three shovels and passed one to each of them. They would bury their own. It was only right.

   "You know," Harry said in a choked voice. "I think I would like to be buried here as well." He said as he bent to flip the switch that would lower the coffin the rest of the way into the grave. "My wife was cremated, so her ashes could be buried with me. If you would agree of course."

   Tim put an arm around Harry and hugged him affectionately. "Of course Harry." He said solemnly. "I'll make sure when you pass that you and your wife are both buried here together." He patted him on the back gently then added. "But you don't get to die on us just yet. I don't think we could take it just now."

   Harry nodded. "I'll be around for a bit longer anyway." He said as they lifted the machinery away from the grave and carried it a few feet away. Sam folded the cloth down into the grave over the coffin covering the roses from sight as they returned and took up their shovels.

   "We loved you dearly Lady." She said with her hands over her heart. "We miss you already."

   Tim enfolded her in his arms from behind and she leaned back into him. They stood like that for a long time with Harry watching in peaceful patience as a gust of wind brought the smell of wild roses to his nose and the day dimmed into a lazy twilight around them.