This Old House - A Lily Blooms in the Jaws of Hell

In 2005, a crumbling landmark on Stockbridge Street in Eagle Lake, Texas, finally breathes again. As the walls are stripped and the floors laid bare, the house answers back—footsteps thud across an empty roof at 2 a.m., the hallways fill with the sweet sting of cherry tobacco when no one is there, and a wet paint lid dries with one word looped in cursive: Annie. Drawn into the home's secrets, the new owners uncover a much older story—when the building was Smithson's Inn, a respectable stopover with hidden corridors and stricter secrets. A newlywed couple insisted on a first-floor room. A body vanished without a trace. Sixteen years later, the earth gave up what the inn had taken. At the center of it all stood Annie Smithson, the proprietor who knew how the house kept score. Inspired by chilling real events during a modern restoration, This Old House braids a present-day haunting with a 19th-century mystery of murder, deception, and a lily blooming where no flower should grow. As the past presses through plaster and time, the question becomes stark: what lies beneath the white limestone rock in the rose garden—besides dirt? Unlock the door. Listen closely. Some houses don't want to be saved—they want to confess. Visiting the well known Inn are a number of Americans, French aristocrats, and a couple who earlier in the day married in Stafford's Point near Rosenburg, Texas, Mister Johnathan Thompson, and the former Miss Rebecca Davison. When they arrived, they insisted on staying on the first floor and were given an old room that was once a parlor converted into a bedroom. Annie Smithson, the proprietor of the Inn and daughter of Wm. Smithson, became involved when there was a murder, but the body disappeared and was nowhere to be found until sixteen years later. The story evolves into one of hidden passages, murder, deception, and general chicanery ensues. Although most of the old homes built in the mid-1800s in this small community have been destroyed, this home still stands, and the part of the house removed from it still stands on the adjacent lot next door, which by the way was the kitchen at one time. Again, this is a story of fiction for entertainment purposes. But, haunting events did occur in this home that inspired the author to write this story! Happy Reading!