Camellia and the Christmas Curse by Elizabeth Cole

Author:Elizabeth Cole [Cole, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SkySpark Books
Published: 2021-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

The evening ended quickly after the altercation at the card table. Camellia and the other ladies all agreed that Mr Hightower had been intolerably rude to Mr Ryder. Accusing a man of cheating at cards was perhaps even worse than accusing him of murder…which Finn would know all too well. No wonder he left in disgust.

Camellia was so tired that when she lay down in her bed, she fell asleep almost immediately, despite a rising wind and the promise of bad weather. In the middle of the night, though, Camellia woke up. She thought she heard the end of a woman’s scream, but she couldn’t be sure she hadn’t dreamed it. She reached out to relight the candle by the bedside.

As she did so, she heard a new sound. It must be outside. It must. It was a barking, baying sound, like a pack of dogs. But on such a night, in the middle of winter… Could it be wolves? Wouldn’t the Fitzgeralds have a groundskeeper to hunt for wolves, in order to keep them away from the castle? The sound came again. Camellia could not be sure it was dogs now. Perhaps it was just the wind howling, or far off thunder.

A sudden knocking sound made her squeak.

“Camellia?” Mrs Bloomfield’s voice came from the other side of the door. “Are you awake?”

Camellia climbed out of bed and hurried to the door. “Mrs Bloomfield! What’s the matter?” she asked, stepping out into the hall.

“Didn’t you hear Lady Paget? She’s been carrying on about her room being haunted. All because her candle went out by itself, and because there are high winds making noise outside. What does she expect? We’re in an ancient building on a hilltop in the middle of winter!”

“Her candle went out by itself?”

“So she says. I’m sure it was caused by a perfectly mundane draught.” Mrs Bloomfield gave her a tired smile.

“Should we go and console her?”

“I doubt it would help at this point. Her most effective consolation came courtesy of a large glass of port.”

Camellia bade Mrs Bloomfield good-night, and turned back to her door. But as she did, she caught sight of Finn walking down the hall from the other direction. He was fully dressed in his evening clothes. It was after three in the morning and he hadn’t gone to bed. Where had he been?

“Mr Ryder, did Lady Paget’s scream wake you?” she asked politely, even though it was obvious he hadn’t been asleep.

“No. I’ve been in the library. Reading. Did she wake you?” he asked.

“I was already awake. I thought I heard wolves outside.”

“Impossible, Miss Swift. Wolves no longer live in Britain. They were hunted to extinction.”

“Then what could I have heard? It wasn’t the estate’s dogs!”

“I promise you it wasn’t wolves. The wind makes strange sounds in the winter,” he added, very reasonably.

“You’re just saying that to make me feel better about returning to bed.”

He gave her a wicked little smile. “There’s nothing that would give me greater pleasure than seeing you safely to bed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.