Graveminder

Chapter 48

BUT SHE HASN’T CALLED ME AT ALL THIS WEEK,” LIZ STRESSED. “TERESA never goes this long without calling or visiting.”

“Your sister doesn’t consider how her actions affect others, Elizabeth.” Cissy Barrow snipped a dead rose from the bush she stood beside and tossed it into a nearby bucket. “She thinks her interests are more important than duty.”

“Do you know where she is?”

“We had a disagreement,” Cissy admitted.

“About?”

Cissy waved dismissively, garden shears in her hand. “The usual. She thinks only of herself. You’re not like that, are you, Elizabeth?”

The inflexible self-righteousness of her mother’s voice made Liz tense. It wasn’t that her mother was heartless, but she didn’t believe in coddling anyone. Children are to be obedient and devoted. Young women should respect their mother. Purposelessness leads to complacency. Liz had heard her mother’s reminders often enough that she knew the deceptively mild questions for what they were: tests.

Liz squared her shoulders and kept her voice even as she said, “No, Mama. I think of the family first.”

Her mother nodded. “Good girl.”

“Do you need me to do anything?” Liz offered tentatively. “I could talk to Teresa if you know where she is.”

“Eventually, child. Right now, she’s not quite ready to talk. She will be in a few more weeks, but she’s confused right now.” Cissy’s gaze wandered over the garden that she had planned and cultivated in Liz’s yard. It wasn’t what Liz herself would’ve picked, but there were things worth defying her mother over and things easier to let slide. Floral placement fell in the latter category.

“Soon I’ll have everything in place. Both of you will fulfill your roles.” Cissy clipped another dead rose.

“Our roles?” Liz felt the fear inside of her growing by the moment. “What roles?”

“One of you will be the Graveminder, Liz. I realized that it would need to be you. Teresa understands that now. First, though, we need to remove Becky from the equation.” Cissy stepped back to admire the rosebush. “Byron will do just fine if we can convince him. Better to work with known tools than start from scratch, right? He switched his loyalty from your cousin to that girl when Ella died. He’ll switch to you just as easily.” She tossed the shears into the bucket with the rose heads. “I’m going to wash up.”

Liz stood in her tiny yard and watched her mother walk away. She’s talking about Rebekkah being dead. If I’m the next Graveminder, that would mean Rebekkah would be dead. Trickles of fear grew into full-fledged terror. What has she done? Teresa, where are you?

Liz said that she didn’t believe in “twin-sense” anymore, but in a town where dead people could—and did—come back, believing in a connection with a womb-mate wasn’t that peculiar. I don’t want to believe it right now. If she did believe it, if she thought about the real reason for her fear, she’d have to ask herself just how capable of murder her mother really was.

“Please be okay, Terry,” Liz whispered.