Wild Swans - Jessica Spotswood Page 0,1

some bit of genius hiding in me somewhere. But over the last couple months… Well, I’m getting tired of trying so hard only to end up a disappointment. Maybe that’s not how this works. Maybe whatever spark blessed or cursed the other Milbourn girls skipped a generation.

To hear people in town talk, the women in my family weren’t just gifted; they were obsessed. And those obsessions killed them, three generations in a row. Maybe four. For all I know, my mother could be dead now too. Do I really want to continue that tradition?

Outside, thunder growls. Inside, something rattles. I stare up at the portrait of Dorothea as it twitches against the exposed brick wall. Just the wind, I reassure myself. There’s no such thing as ghosts.

Dorothea was fifteen when her mother painted her. She wears a royal-blue shirtdress and matching gloves, and her hair falls in short brown curls around her face. She wasn’t what you’d call pretty—too sharp featured for that—but there’s something captivating about her. She stands tall in the portrait, shoulders back, lips quirked. It’s not quite a smile. More like a smirk. A year later, she’d survive the collision that killed her mother and sisters. Her broken leg never healed quite right, Granddad says; she walked with a limp the rest of her life.

Lightning flashes. The lamp flickers. Rain is puddling on the wooden floor. I should close the doors, but Dorothea’s eyes catch mine and somehow I don’t want to turn my back on her portrait.

There’s no such thing as ghosts, I remind myself.

Then the room plunges into darkness.

I run for the french doors, but before I can get there, I slam into something. Someone.

My heart stutter-stops and I shriek, scrambling away, slipping on the wet wooden floor.

“Ivy!” Alex grabs my arm. His fingers are warm against my skin. “It’s just me. Chill.”

“Jesus! I thought you were a ghost!” I take a deep breath, inhaling the salty breeze off the Bay. My pulse is racing.

“Nope, just me.” He waves a flashlight. “Soon as the lights started flickering, Ma told me to bring you this. She knows how you get about the dark.”

I fold my arms across my chest. “Shut up. I’m not scared of the dark anymore.”

“Uh-huh. Sure.” Alex shines the flashlight up over his face like a movie monster. I should have known better than to mention ghosts. He’ll tease me about it forever. Remind me how he used to sneak over and scare Claire and me during sleepovers, how I used to sleep in my closet during thunderstorms, how I had a night-light till I turned thirteen.

“Gimme that.” I reach for the flashlight.

“If you’re not scared, why do you need it?” He holds it above his head. I’m tall—five ten—but the summer we were fourteen, Alex got taller, and he still hasn’t stopped lording it over me. As he stretches, his shirt lifts to reveal taut, tanned abs.

I drag my eyes back to his face, but sort of leisurely like. He got soaked on his sprint from the carriage house, and his red T-shirt is molded to his muscled shoulders. The summer we were fifteen, he started lifting for baseball, and the girls at school went all swoony over him. I am not immune to a nice set of abs myself—but Alex is my best friend. Has been since we were babies, since my mother ran off and Granddad hired Alex’s mom, Luisa, to be our housekeeper. There’s nothing romantic between Alex and me.

That’s what we decided after prom. What I decided. Alex and Luisa and Granddad are the only family I’ve got. What would happen if Alex and I started dating and it didn’t work out? It would be awkward and awful, and I don’t want to risk that. And if it did work? The baseball coach up at the college has already scouted Alex, all but promised him a scholarship if he keeps his grades up this year. If we were dating, Alex would be one more thing tying me to Cecil.

“I hate you,” I mutter.

“No you don’t.” He gives me a cocky grin. Sometimes I think he’s waiting for me to change my mind about us, but I’m not going to. Once I make a decision, I stick with it.

But the house presses around us, cold and quiet and more than a little spooky, and I fight the urge to snuggle up against him.

The front door slams. “Ivy!” Granddad hollers.

Just in time to save me from myself.

Alex relinquishes the