Night Winds by Gwyneth Atlee

Author:Gwyneth Atlee [Atlee, Gwyneth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Historical, General
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Published: 2000-09-14T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

After thudding over several ruts hidden by the darkness, Shae steered her velocipede to the middle of the deserted street. As solid rubber tires jostled her over crunching shells, she thought that the machine’s nickname, Bone Shaker, had never been more apt. Nevertheless, she pedaled faster, faster, her fury increasing with each revolution and spinning past the inky, silhouetted houses that seemed to hem her in.

Jumbled images flashed through her mind, jagged as the fragments of a shattered mirror. Mother. King. Alberta. Lucius. The cameo. The portrait. The hidden box inside the dusky wardrobe.

She hurtled through the moonlit night, then skidded around a corner, thinking only of her goal. She had to find her father. She had to make him understand he couldn’t lie to her anymore.

She couldn’t think beyond that necessity. Could barely conceive of anything past a compulsion for more speed. As if after six years, six more minutes mattered. As if she sensed that time was running out.

Shae sped around another corner, then looked up to see a white horse thundering directly toward her. The animal trailed some sort of buggy, but Shae noticed little besides the fact that the huge beast was about to run her down.

With a screech of terror, she hit the brakes and turned sharply, desperate to avoid a collision. As the velocipede slid out from under Shae, the white horse lurched in the opposite direction and then stumbled on loose shell. The gig behind tilted on one wheel, then jerked suddenly upright.

Shae landed on her left side, then rolled onto her back. Her hip ached where she had fallen, and her palm and knee both burned. She was beginning to feel like nothing so much as a mass of layered bruises. Gingerly, she tested arms and legs and was relieved to find them functioning.

She heard the approach of horses’ hoof beats.

“Damn, Ross.” A man’s voice came from the other side of the gig. “You see her fly outta that buggy? She ain’t movin’ neither. What if we gone and killed her? We only wanted Payton, not his sister. Mr. Lowell will piss vinegar when he hears.”

Darkness flowed inside Shae like an overturned inkpot. Could her own recklessness have helped to cause the death of Phillip’s sister?

Then a second realization made her breath catch. These must be the men who had shot Phillip! She forced herself to freeze in the hope they wouldn’t see her.

“Shut up, you idiot.” A different voice this time, even rougher than the first. “Someone’ll be along, with all the racket. Be best if we skedaddled.”

“Wait. Look at this. Horse musta hit this two-wheel contraption. Awful late out for a ride on one o’ these outfits.”

A horse moved closer. Shae’s heart thudded even harder. She didn’t think she’d been hurt much by the fall. Should she try to run, to hide in shadow, or should she continue to feign unconsciousness?

She heard a creak of leather and then a man’s footsteps. “Damn, it’s another girl, Sal. What the? Why, I think it’s the same one as was with the nigger-lover when we shot him.

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