The Sound of her Voice

By Luann Lewis

Dwayne Davis is a contented hermit working at his new job as caretaker of Ephraim Mansion. The last thing he needs is this new chatty resident, Rose Abernathy, interrupting his peace and quiet. Rose, however, is delighted to have him there. She has been awfully lonely.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eXtasy Books Inc
• Release date: Feb 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9781487436667

Book preview

Sometimes one must be helped to make the most of life. And sometimes one must be helped to make the most of death.

Dwayne Davis is a contented hermit working at his new job as caretaker of Ephraim Mansion. The last thing he needs is this new chatty resident, Rose Abernathy, interrupting his peace and quiet. Rose, however, is delighted to have him there. She has been awfully lonely.

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The Sound of Her Voice

Copyright © 2022 Luann Lewis

ISBN: 978-1-4874-3666-7

Cover art by Martine Jardin

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by eXtasy Books Inc

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Smashwords Edition

The Sound of Her Voice

By

Luann Lewis

Dedication

To my husband, as always, who is my forever love,

and to James Tucker, who has always believed in my writing.

Chapter One: A Noise Upstairs

The jangle of the key ring in Dwayne’s hand gave him a certain satisfaction. For one, the echo as he moved from room to room was a reminder that this place was his. No, it didn’t actually belong to him, but unless there was some sort of charity event scheduled, from six-thirty in the evening through eight-thirty in the morning it was as good as his own. This sense of ownership was one of the many advantages included in the new job of caretaker of the Ephraim Mansion. For Dwayne, however, the biggest advantage was the frequent solitude. There was peace in the silence of being away from people.

All his life, Dwayne had experienced overwhelming stress in the presence of people, a stress no one else could quite understand. This eventually robbed him of peace and joy. It went way past the stresses he shared with other men who’d grown up Black and fatherless in this society. The unrelenting noise of humanity made it so he couldn’t hear his own thoughts or feel his own feelings. Alone at Ephraim Mansion, he was able to relax and breathe.

Here he could hear the birds chirping. He could enjoy the sound of the breeze moving through the tall grass. He could sense and feel the shifting of the house as it settled into its foundation. He could even notice the scuttling of the occasional mouse. Those were things that couldn’t be absorbed when he was under the buzz of the suburbs, or worse, when he was assaulted by the cacophony of the city.

The Ephraim Mansion had visitors during the day: reenactors, tourists, students on field trips, locals who enjoyed the familiar landmark. They could be loud. But for the most part, the sound was low-level. The mansion was not famous enough to draw huge crowds, but it was the tourist attraction that made the small town of Ephraim, Georgia notable. People came there to learn about the mansion’s history—and to see its ghosts.