Daughters of Silence (9 page)

Whirling, she walked off. Jenna stared after her, unsure what to think or do. There had been such anger in Hallie's face, such malice in her eyes. It was as if she'd suddenly become a different person overnight.

“I wonder what's the matter with her,” she muttered.

She scanned the crowd for Hallie, but the other girl seemed to have vanished into thin air. Frustrated, she turned one way, then the other.

Her gaze drifted to the barn. She could see Rob, high up on the roof. He and Frank Douglas and two other men hammered on timbers at the very peak.

A shadow fell across the barn. A faint shadow. Very faint. But the sight of it sent Jenna's nerves tingling with alarm. She glanced up at the sky.

Nothing. Not a single cloud to mar the pure stretch of blue.

She looked at the barn again. The shadow seemed to twine around the skeletal framework like a gossamer snake. No one else seemed to notice. She shook her head, denying her own senses.

Then the barn trembled.

Jenna took a step forward, then stopped. The sun shone down gaily. Everyone else chatted and laughed, even the men working on the barn. No one seemed to see the shadow. No one seemed to have noticed the building's faint shiver.

For a moment, Jenna thought she might have somehow lost her mind.

Then another, sharper tremor passed through the framework. This time, however, some of the workers noticed it, too. Several of the men on the roof called to the others, asking if they'd felt anything.

“No,” Jenna whispered, feeling in her bones a disaster was imminent.

The barn shuddered. There could be no doubt this time. The whole structure quivered like an animal twitching its skin. Men clung desperately to the timbers. The framework swayed one way, then the other.

Rob lost his grip. He dangled by one hand, swinging wildly with every movement of the barn. Wood shrieked and groaned as it was stressed beyond its limits.

“Hang on!” Jenna shrieked. “Rob, hang on!”

He couldn't have heard her in the din. But for a moment he looked straight at her, almost as if he'd read her mind.

Then she saw his hand slip from its hold.

And she watched him fall.

“R
ob!” Jenna cried. “Oh, no!”

She raced toward the swaying barn and heard the wooden timbers groan and snap. Men screamed as they clung to the shattering structure.

Then the whole framework collapsed. Timbers snapped in two like toothpicks. Splintered shards of wood flew in all directions as the barn crashed to the ground. A great cloud of dust puffed up, tossing stinging grains into the faces of the horrified watchers. The sharp smell of pine lanced the air.

Jenna's heart beat so hard she thought it would come right out of her chest. She could hear groans from beneath the wreckage. A man screamed, a sharp, tearing sound that scraped along her nerves until she thought she would scream with him.

She wasn't going to do Rob or anyone else any good if she panicked. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself.

“Rob?” she called as she reached the wreckage. “Rob, can you hear me?”

He didn't answer.

Other people came to help. Jenna worked with the rescuers, pulling boards away to free the trapped men. There were a few broken bones and a lot of cuts and bruises, but it seemed they'd all been very lucky.

Jenna would have been relieved … if she'd found Rob. But she didn't see him anywhere.

“Please let him be all right,” she murmured. “Please let him be all right.”

She said it over and over, as if that might make it come true.

“Jenna!”

Recognizing Hallie's voice, Jenna turned. The other girl picked her way through the wreckage. Dirt smudged her face, and a long tear marred her skirt.

“You're all right?” Hallie demanded. She sounded almost like her old self, although a strange light glimmered in her glassy eyes.

Jenna nodded. “Are you?”

“I'm fine. Have you found Rob yet?”

“Not yet,” Jenna replied. Somehow, she managed to keep her voice from shaking. “I think he's under there.” She pointed toward the main section of wreckage.

“Oh, Jenna.”

The girls looked at each other for a moment. Then they started working. Hallie never stopped and never complained. Jenna forgave her for the terrible things she'd said. Nothing else mattered except that she'd come to help when Jenna needed her most.

Then Jenna spotted a bit of cloth, buried beneath a mass of splintered wood. Pale-blue cloth, like Rob's
shirt. She found a long plank that felt stable and crawled along it to get a better look.

Was he down there? Was he alive?

“Be careful!” Hallie called.

The plank shifted under her, and Jenna felt herself falling sideways, into the rubble. She clung to the wood and stood perfectly still. Her heart pounded wildly. Finally, she felt the beam settle into place. She began creeping along again.

Crawling as far as she dared, she peered into the wreckage. She saw a dark head of hair and the edge of a shirt.

Rob! His eyes were closed, and she couldn't see enough of his chest to tell if he still breathed. Or not. A thick heavy beam rested across his body, pinning him in place.

“Rob?” she called.

She stared at his face. He didn't move a muscle. His eyelids didn't even flicker. Then he opened his eyes and looked straight at her.

“Jenna!” he called in a strained voice. He coughed and squeezed his eyes shut again.

Her breath went out in a gasp of relief. “Are you all right? Can you move?”

“I think I'm all right,” he groaned. “But I can't move. This beam is too heavy. My arms are trapped.”

Jenna turned to Hallie. “Get help. Quickly!”

Jenna turned back to Rob. “It's going to be all right,” she promised him. “Help is coming. Hang on.”

“I'm trying, Jenna,” Rob replied.

Jenna spotted several men running toward her. “Over here!” she shouted and waved. “Hurry!”

When the men reached her, they quickly cleared the
smaller pieces of wood away. Then they levered a timber beneath the heavy beam pinning Rob.

“When we lift the beam, young lady, you pull him out,” one of the men said. “Can you do that?”

“Of course I can,” Jenna told him.

He nodded. “All right, men. All together now.”

Jenna heard them groan with effort as they bore down on the timber. The beam creaked and shuddered. Then it rose. An inch. Two. Up off Rob's chest. Rob gave a gasp of pain.

The beam rose higher. Grabbing Rob under the arms, Jenna tugged him out from under. The moment he was clear, she called to the other men. They eased the beam back down.

“Thanks,” Rob muttered, holding one arm across his chest.

Jenna knelt beside him. “You're hurt!”

“I think it's just a few cracked ribs,” he protested. His gaze went to the beam. “Right now, I'm feeling very lucky.”

“You are lucky,” one of the men told him. “Let's get you out of here so the doctor can look at you.”

Rob nodded. Then he turned to Jenna and took her hand in both of his. “Thank you. I owe you for saving me, and I always pay my debts.”

She blushed. “I didn't do anything, really.”

“You did.” He smiled. Then the smile vanished as he grimaced in pain.

“Go get yourself taken care of,” she ordered.

Two of the men lifted him and carried him away. Jenna got to her feet and dusted her skirt off as best she could. As she did, she spotted something else beneath the pile of wood.

A hand.

“Look!” she cried, pointing.

The men leaped into action again. A whole section of framework had fallen in one piece and they had to lever it away. Finally, they reached the trapped man.

It was Frank Douglas. He lay on his back, his arms flung wide. His eyes stared blindly upward.

A two-by-four had pierced straight through his chest. Tattered flesh and bits of bone had sprayed up around the wood. A pool of blood surrounded Frank's body. Jenna stared, too horrified even to move. The blood spread, staining every board it touched.

She tried to look away, but couldn't. The pool grew larger still. She couldn't believe that a human body could hold so much blood. She saw the crimson pool creeping closer. In a moment, it will touch my shoes, she realized.

With a strangled cry, she leaped back. She covered her mouth with both hands.

“Oh,” she gasped. “Oh, oh, oh!”

Someone laughed. Jenna instantly recognized that high-pitched giggle. Her skin crawled with horror as she turned to Hallie.

The other girl stood over Frank's body. Blood had soaked the hem of her skirt, staining it crimson. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Her blue eyes glimmered with a wild look.

She stood over the dead man, laughing.

She threw back her head and her golden hair came loose from its pins, streaming out over her shoulders.

“I wanted it to happen, and it did,” she laughed.

“It did!”

“H
allie!” Jenna cried. “What's wrong with you?”

Still Hallie laughed. She couldn't seem to stop. She fell to her knees and pressed her hands to her cheeks, laughing and laughing. A circle of onlookers stared at her as though she'd gone mad.

Jenna couldn't stand it any longer. She grabbed the other girl by the shoulders and shook her hard. Hallie gasped. Then the giggles turned to sobs. Tears ran down her face in a flood. They ran into her wide-open mouth. Hallie turned her face and pressed it into Jenna's skirt. Jenna held her head and stroked her hair.

“It's all right, Hallie. It's all right,” she murmured. Jenna gazed around, feeling helpless. She didn't know what else to do.

Mr. Sheridan rushed up to them. “She's overwrought,”
he told Jenna. He swept Hallie into his arms and carried her away from the wreckage.

“Come, Jenna. We've got to get her home.”

Hallie's mother joined them at the carriage and held Hallie in her arms during the ride home. Hallie soon stopped crying, but she stared straight ahead with a blank, haunted look that made Jenna feel uneasy.

As soon as they arrived at the house, Mrs. Sheridan led her daughter up to bed. Jenna followed. She watched Hallie fall deeply asleep the moment she stretched out across the bed.

“Is she going to be all right?” Jenna whispered.

Mrs. Sheridan turned to her. “Don't worry, dear. She'll be fine once she gets some sleep.”

“Do you mind if I stay with her?” Jenna asked.

“That's a fine idea, Jenna. I know she'd love to find you here when she wakes,” the older woman said.

She stroked her daughter's hair gently, then turned toward the door.

“Mrs. Sheridan?” Jenna called.

The older woman turned back. “Yes, Jenna?”

“Did you happen to see a … a shadow move over the barn before it fell?”

“A shadow?” Mrs. Sheridan repeated, frowning. “No. No one mentioned seeing a shadow. Jenna, dear … you're not feeling unwell, are you?”

“No, ma'am.”

“Perhaps you should lie down—”

“I'm fine, really,” Jenna insisted.

Mrs. Sheridan hesitated. Then she nodded. “All right. But if you should feel strange in any way, I want you to tell me right away.”

“I'm fine,” Jenna said again.

The older woman studied her. Then she smiled gently and turned away again. Jenna settled onto her own bed with a book. The room was silent except for Hallie's soft, regular breathing.

Jenna read the same paragraph several times, then set the book aside. She couldn't concentrate. An image of the terrible accident ran over and over again in her mind.

Hallie's voice echoed through her memory.
I wanted it to happen, and it did.

And that shadow. Why hadn't anyone else seen it?

Jenna wasn't about to mention it again. Not after Mrs. Sheridan's reaction. People might start thinking she'd gone crazy. But she had seen it. And it had something to do with the barn falling, she felt certain.