Excerpt of The Haunted Lost Rose by C.L. Bauer

But the voice didn’t want me to tell. My thoughts raced as I battled with the secret. I shut my eyes and made my final decision. I was leaving the house with it. I pulled my coat closer to me as I walked down the sidewalk. I slowed my steps after my first slip. The snow was slick to walk on. I carefully passed more and more police, news reporters, camera crews, and others before I arrived at my car.

As I began to slide uncontrollably toward my door, a black gloved hand held me up.

“Whoops,” I yelled. “Thank you so much.” The gentleman was holding me up in his arms, and I felt as though I was at his mercy for some reason.

“You’re welcome.” His voice was low. I heard some sort of an accent, but I just wasn’t sure what it was. I looked up slowly to gaze into the prettiest brown eyes. They were the color of my favorite candy bar. They were very large, offering a girl enough room to get lost in them on a rainy day. Heck, on any kind of day. His dark hair was wavy, windblown, and had hints of a white hair here and there. Mmm, I never was that fond of salt and pepper hair, but just these little touches looked good, well looked great on him.

He was still holding me up, when I stiffened and reached out my hand to my car door.

“Here, let me get you to the door.” He slowly pushed me closer and made sure I had safely made it inside the vehicle. “Have a good day, Ms…”

“O’Donohue, Charlotte.”

He smiled. His smile could very well melt every snowflake on my coat. In fact, I was warm all over. “Ah, O’Donohue, as in every O’Donohue in this blessed city?”

I nodded. I just didn’t have the ability to speak right now as he smiled again.

“And I suppose you all know everything about everyone just like a large Irish family should?”

I cleared my throat. Come on, get a hold of yourself. “We wouldn’t be Irish if we didn’t. We all know secrets, but we just tell only one person.”

He nodded knowingly. “And that person tells another, and before you know it, everyone in the world knows everything?”

I nodded again and smiled like some goofy teenager. “It seems as though you’ve caught on.”

“I’ve only been here a short time, but I catch on very quickly.” He looked toward the house and pointed. “I need to go in there.”

“Then I need to warn you that there are a couple of those O’Donohue men in there.”

“I bet I can guess which ones. One of them called me. It was nice to save you.”

Save me? Right, from the fall. He began to shut my door, but I braced my arm against it. “I didn’t get your name.”

He shook his head shyly, and smiled again. He seemingly thought that could distract me. “No, you didn’t. Sorry, occupational hazard. Be careful out there.” He closed my door very unceremoniously.

I watched him pull his coat’s lapels up around his neck. He shoved his hands inside his pockets and began to walk toward the house. He turned around once to look back at me. I smiled like an idiot just in case he could see that far. Then he disappeared into the structure. I also saw a curtain move in one of the windows on the third floor. Then I saw another curtain flowing freely on the second floor, but I also saw a shape, a dark form. The curtain was pulled back and then fluttered back into place. It was nothing, probably just a draft, wasn’t it? I was only lying to myself. I knew what I saw. The spirit haunting that house was very concerned with the man who was entering the old Taylor Club, but I was more intrigued by the stranger.

I bit my lip. “Who was that?”