Castle on the Mead (Pepper Bay Series, Book 9) by K.T. DADY

Author:K.T. DADY [DADY, K.T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-31T23:00:00+00:00

18

Harrison

It was the day before Halloween, and Charlie was driving Harrison back to the castle. They were chatting happily about the upcoming ball and how excited the locals were to attend. The darkness of evening had set in, but it was still a mild late-October. Some of the lights were on at the entrance to the driveway, as Jimmy kept testing which areas were best suited to light and shade.

Something else was illuminated in the near distance, catching Charlie’s eye first. He slowed the car on the gravel and pointed at the main door to the castle, causing Harrison to look up from his satchel between his legs in the passenger seat. ‘Oh my God!’

Harrison’s heart leapt to his throat at the sight of the door on fire.

Ashley!

He flew out of the car and ran towards the ferocious flames eating the old wooden door for dinner.

‘I’ll get the hose,’ yelled Charlie, sprinting to the side of the building where the hosepipe was attached to one of the outdoor taps. Charlie pulled out his phone and asked for the fire brigade just as Harrison ran around to the kitchen entrance, relieved to see it was unscathed.

He darted inside to find the kitchen empty. There wasn’t even any smoke in that area. He ran towards the hallway. ‘Ashley?’ he screamed at the top of his voice. ‘Ashley?’

The hallway was getting darker by the second, but luckily, it was only the door that held flames. The old stone walls and lack of anything flammable was helping to stop the fire from spreading.

Harrison was frantic. He had no idea if anywhere else in the castle was on fire. All he could think about was Ashley. He ran into the living room. No fire. No Ashley. He checked her workspace. Empty. He sprinted downstairs to his workshop. Locked. He made his way up the stairs, yelling her name constantly.

Where the hell is she?

‘Ashley?’

The decorators had left the day before, having completed their tasks. Mrs Twinkler was at bingo for the evening, and Ashley would normally be pottering around, seeing what else she could do to make the castle better.

His heart was racing as he made it back to the hallway. Water was trickling through cracks in the burnt door, so he ran back to the kitchen to fill a bucket with water. One large whoosh towards the door helped a bit, seeing as Charlie was on the other side, hosing it down. He threw the bucket to one side and ran back to the bottom of the staircase.

‘Ashley?’ he yelled, then coughed and wiped his mouth.

There had been so many times in his past when he’d woken dripping in sweat, shaking uncontrollably from a nightmare about his skin burning. Sometimes, someone was attacking him, other times, he was trapped or pinned by a weight on his chest, restricting his lungs. The first year after his attack was the worst, not helped by the hard, plastic face mask he had to wear for a while to help with recovery.

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.