Only silence replied. He must have gone back downstairs, I thought. I returned to the Swan Room, put on one of my new robes, and walked out and down the stairs slowly. The lights were very dim. When I reached the bottom, I paused to listen, but the sounds I heard came from the heavier winds that were piercing every crack and crevice in the great house. I heard footsteps way up, the sound surely coming from what had to be that attic, but it might have just been my imagination, I thought when it grew still again, that or the wind, which surely found it easier to invade those walls and windows.

I could see there were no lights on in the library. None of the downstairs rooms looked occupied. Why would he come down here to sit in the dark? It was stupid of me to think so. I turned to go back up to the Swan Room. I decided that I might as well just go to sleep and talk to him in the morning.

I paused when I reached the first landing. There was the distinct sound of a door closing.

“Garland?” I cried. When there was no response, I hurried up the remaining steps and stopped at the top.

At first, I thought it was my imagination or the wind again, but when I looked to my left, Garland came out of the shadows. His hair looked like he had been running his fingers through it repeatedly, and his shirt was unbuttoned.

“What are you doing?” he asked when he saw me.

“Where were you? Why did you leave me like that? I called for you and went downstairs to look for you.”

“Oh. I’m sorry,” he said. He paused and looked down, shaking his head. “I was overwhelmed with the memory of my mother’s miscarriage. I was there when it happened, not a nice sight. I still have nightmares occasionally, and then,” he continued, looking up at me, “you know my younger sister died in childbirth. I don’t talk about it all. Mr. Bravado. So there you have it, another Foxworth secret revealed.”

He smiled and reached for my hand.

“I’m so sorry for frightening you,” he said. “C’mon. Spend the night beside me, but in my bedroom. I’ll make it up to you.”

He started us away. I glanced back once. That was where his mother’s and father’s bedrooms were. I walked past the Swan Room with him but turned when I heard what sounded like footsteps behind us.

It was just a flash, almost no more than a shadow, but it looked like a woman wearing one of Garland’s mother’s night dresses, one I was supposed to wear. She seemed to float into another shadow. I stopped, and he turned.

“I thought I just saw someone, Garland.”

He looked back, too. “Where?”

“Just for a moment . . . wearing . . .” I hesitated to say.