Beneath the Attic Read online

  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.

  “Oh, probably just a Foxworth ghost,” he said, smiling. “Ignore them.”

  I knew I looked shocked.

  He laughed. “I’m so sorry about all this.” He opened his bedroom door. “In a few minutes, it will all fade away, maybe in a few seconds. Believe me,” he said, with the confidence I was far more used to seeing. He had his arm around my waist, and then, in one swift move, he lifted me into his arms and carried me to his bed.

  For a while, at least, he was right.

  It all faded away.

  Epilogue

  When I awoke in his bed in the morning, Garland was already dressed and gone. I left his bedroom and returned to the Swan Room, where I found Dora waiting, sprawled on the rose-colored velvet chaise longue. She sat up instantly when I stepped in.

  “Oh, sorry, ma’am. I just dozed.”

  “Didn’t you sleep well last night?” I asked, going to the clothing she had laid out for me. She didn’t reply, so I turned. “Did you hear anything, see anything?”

  “I don’t know what you mean, ma’am.”

  She sounded guilty to me, guilty of something, or afraid to admit to something. I stepped toward her, and she actually backed up.

  “Were you wearing something that belonged to Mr. Foxworth’s mother last night? Don’t lie. I saw you,” I said sharply.

  Her eyes widened.

  “If you don’t tell me the truth, Dora, I will see to it that you are sent home, and I will have my husband fire your brother. Well?”

  She started to cry. “If I tell you, he will send me away anyway and hurt my brother.”

  “Not if I don’t tell him what you’ve said. We need to trust each other, Dora. I have to trust you with so many personal secrets, don’t I? You have to trust me with yours. Well?”

  She looked down, took a deep breath, and looked up slowly, the tears making her eyes look more like glass.

  “I put on his mother’s clothes and lie still in her bed.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know exactly, ma’am. He comes during the night and lies beside me. He doesn’t touch me,” she quickly added, “but sometimes he cries, and then, before he leaves, he says, ‘Please, please forgive me.’ I don’t know if he means me or . . .”

  “Or?”

  “Maybe his mother. I don’t know. If you tell him . . .”

  I shook my head. “I won’t tell him,” I said, but I felt a little numb. There were ghosts in this house. When you don’t let go of the dead, you turn them into ghosts, I thought. Maybe my father had told me that. I couldn’t remember. No, I wouldn’t tell him what Dora had revealed. Someday perhaps he would trust and love me enough to tell me it all, including why he wanted his mother to forgive him. I took a deep breath.

  “Okay. I’ll wear what you put out, but I want to wash and fix my hair. The minister is coming today to talk to us.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” she said, and curtsied.

  This time, I let her. Maybe I would always let her. Why did Garland trust her enough to keep such a deeply emotional secret? Was there more she wasn’t telling me?

  I started out and then turned, stopping her from following. “If I find out he does touch you and you’re lying about that, I will tell him you’ve betrayed his secret, Dora.”

  She shook her head.

  “The moment he does, if he does, you will tell me.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She lowered her eyes the way a lady in waiting might lower them for a queen. I didn’t want to be a queen. I wanted to be a wife and eventually a mother. I wanted this great house that truly seemed above all the troubles in the world to protect me and my child, my children. Of course, I wanted to be rich, too.

  When I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror, I saw a new firmness come into my eyes. I will have my place in Foxworth Hall. I will have my portrait on that wall, and with my beauty, I will drown out and silence the bleak, dark chorus of ancestors that have ruled it so firmly for so long.

  Maybe a marriage shouldn’t be this much of a challenge, I thought, but I was prepared for it. Garland Foxworth would see my self-confidence. I was determined about that.

  Later, we sat with the minister and talked about ourselves. Garland held my hand the entire time and repeatedly pledged his love. Reverend Chase, a man close to seventy, with silvery gray hair and charming, soft blue eyes, smiled.

  “I feel like I’m sitting with your parents, Garland, and such a beautiful wife at your side. As they say, this is a match made in heaven.”

  “Yes, it is, Reverend.”

  “I kept your parents’ wedding words, and I think I will, with your permission, use them for you two.”

  “Of course,” Garland said. He looked at me.

  “Yes,” I said. “It would be an honor.”

  “Well, then, it’s all fixed and perfect,” Reverend Chase said.

  I looked at Garland. “Why don’t we make our first toast now with Reverend Chase?” I said.

  Garland widened his eyes with surprise and smiled. “Really?”

  “Yes. And why don’t you take out that bottle of limoncello you’re hiding somewhere in this office?”

  “What? Are you serious?”

  “Have you ever had any, Reverend?”

  “Never heard of it,” he said.

  “Garland?”

  He rose, his eyes on me, and then pulled out two books on a shelf and revealed the bottle.

  “You sure?” he asked, going toward the glasses.

  “We have to overcome our demons, or we’ll never be truly happy, right, Reverend Chase?”

  “I couldn’t have said it better.”

  We made our toast and then walked him out to the carriage. Lucas had brought him. As they went off, we watched.

  “I think you’re going to be quite a surprise, Corrine,” Garland said.

  “Even to myself,” I said.

  He laughed, and we walked around the house to watch the finishing touches being made on our wedding site.

  I knew now how this would begin.

  I had no idea how this would end.

  More from this Series

  Out of the Attic

  Book 10

  Flowers in the Attic: A…

  The Flowers in the Attic…

  Flowers In The Attic

  Book 1

  More from the Author

  The Silhouette Girl

  Spindrift

  About the Author

  One of the most popular authors of all time, V.C. ANDREWS® has been a bestselling phenomenon since the publication of Flowers in the Attic, first in the renowned Dollanganger family series, which includes Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and Garden of Shadows. The family saga continues with Christopher’s Diary: Secrets of Foxworth, Christopher’s Diary: Echoes of Dollanganger, and Secret Brother, as well as Beneath the Attic, Out of the Attic, and Shadows of Foxworth as part of the fortieth anniversary celebration. There are more than eighty V.C. Andrews novels, which have sold over 107 million copies worldwide and have been translated into twenty-five foreign languages.

  Join the conversation about the world of V.C. Andrews at Facebook.com/OfficialVCAndrews.
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  V.C. Andrews® Books

  The Dollanganger Family

  Flowers in the Attic

  Petals on the Wind

  If There Be Thorns

  Seeds of Yesterday

  Garden of Shadows

  Christopher’s Diary: Secrets of Foxworth

  Christopher’s Diary: Echoes of Dollanganger

  Secret Brother

  The Audrina Series

  My Sweet Audrina

  Whitefern

  The Casteel Family

  Heaven

  Dark Angel

  Fallen Hearts

  Gates of Paradise

  Web of Dreams

  The Cutler Family

  Dawn

  Secrets of the Morning

  Twilight’s Child

  Midnight Whispers

  Darkest Hour

  The Landry Family

  Ruby

  Pearl in the Mist

  All That Glitters

  Hidden Jewel

  Tarnished Gold

  The Logan Family

  Melody

  Heart Song

  Unfinished Symphony

  Music in the Night

  Olivia

  The Orphans Series

  Butterfly

  Crystal

  Brooke

  Raven

  Runaways

  The Wildflowers Series

  Misty

  Star

  Jade

  Cat

  Into the Garden

  The Hudson Family

  Rain

  Lightning Strikes

  Eye of the Storm

  The End of the Rainbow

  The Shooting Stars

  Cinnamon

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  The De Beers Family

  “Dark Seed”

  Willow

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  Broken Wings

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  Celeste

  Black Cat

  Child of Darkness

  The Shadows Series

  April Shadows

  Girl in the Shadows

  The Early Spring Series

  Broken Flower

  Scattered Leaves

  The Secrets Series

  Secrets in the Attic

  Secrets in the Shadows

  The Delia Series

  Delia’s Crossing

  Delia’s Heart

  Delia’s Gift

  The Heavenstone Series

  The Heavenstone Secrets

  Secret Whispers

  The March Family

  Family Storms

  Cloudburst

  The Kindred Series

  Daughter of Darkness

  Daughter of Light

  The Forbidden Series

  The Forbidden Sister

  “The Forbidden Heart”

  Roxy’s Story

  The Mirror Sisters

  The Mirror Sisters

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  The House of Secrets Series

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  Echoes in the Walls

  The Girls of Spindrift

  Bittersweet Dreams

  “Corliss”

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  Stand-alone Novels

  Gods of Green Mountain

  Into the Darkness

  Capturing Angels

  The Unwelcomed Child

  Sage’s Eyes

  The Silhouette Girl

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  Gallery Books

  An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

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  Following the death of Virginia Andrews, the Andrews family worked with a carefully selected writer to organize and complete Virginia Andrews’s stories and to create additional novels, of which this is one, inspired by her storytelling genius.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Vanda Productions, LLC

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

  First Gallery Books trade paperback edition August 2019

  V.C. ANDREWS® and VIRGINIA ANDREWS® are registered trademarks of Vanda Productions, LLC

  GALLERY BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or [email protected].

  Interior design by Erika Genova

  Cover design by Anna Dorfman

  Cover photographs by Stephen Carroll/Trevillion Images (mirror), Ysbrand Cosijn/Trevillion Images (woman), Wuttichok Panichiwarapun/123rf (brass swans)

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Andrews, V. C. (Virginia C.), author.

  Title: Beneath the attic / by V.C. Andrews.

  Description: First Gallery Books trade paperback edition. | New York : Gallery Books, 2019. |

  Identifiers: LCCN 2019003705 (print) | LCCN 2019006776 (ebook) | ISBN 9781982114404 (ebook) | ISBN 9781982114381 (trade paperback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781982114398 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781982123635 (mass market : alk. paper)

  Subjects: | BISAC: FICTION / Sagas. | FICTION / Suspense. | FICTION / Family Life. | GSAFD: Suspense fiction.

  Classification: LCC PS3551.N454 (ebook) | LCC PS3551.N454 B46 2019 (print) | DDC 813/.54—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019003705

  ISBN 978-1-9821-1438-1

  ISBN 978-1-9821-1440-4 (ebook)