Novel - The Return by Sharon Sala

Author:Sharon Sala
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Mira
Published: 2000-11-17T20:00:00+00:00

The sun was hovering at the crest of the ridge when Catherine sat up with a jerk. Confused, she tried to reconcile her surroundings with what she remembered last and couldn’t figure out why she was sitting on the floor. Seconds later, Luke was kneeling before her.

“Catherine…do you know where you are?”

“In Grannie’s cabin?”

Luke exhaled softly. At least that was a positive response.

“But why am I on the floor?” she asked.

He brushed a lock of dark hair away from her face and smiled.

“Didn’t think I could get you up those damned narrow stairs without dropping you.”

Her confusion spread. “But why would you need to—”

“You fainted.”

Her lips parted in disbelief. “I didn’t!”

“Yes, you did. In my arms, as a matter of fact. Scared the hell out of me, too.”

She swept her hands across her face, feeling for fever. Her skin was cool, almost clammy.

“Was I sick?”

“I don’t know, darlin’. When I drove up, you were sitting in your car. You muttered something about Jubal Blair being alive and then went out like the proverbial light.”

She paled. Memory hit with the force of a fist to the gut, then she started to shake.

“He’s not dead,” she muttered, then grabbed Luke by the arm. “Did you know he’s not dead?”

Luke frowned. “Yes, darlin’, I knew.”

“My God…oh, my God. Grannie said he was dead.”

“Well, the way I heard it, he came darn close.”

“He shot him. Why didn’t he die?”

Luke’s heart skipped a beat. He knew the story. Someone had ambushed Jubal and his sons one night while they were running their dogs. They’d killed all the dogs, as well as Jubal’s sons—except the youngest, who’d taken himself off to greener pastures earlier that very day. Jubal was still alive when they found them, but had suffered a massive stroke. To this day, the incident was still a mystery. He took her by the shoulders, but to his dismay, her head rolled on her neck like a limp rag doll.

“Who shot him, Catherine?”

Her eyes wouldn’t focus, and then suddenly she stilled, as if suddenly realizing what she’d said.

“How would I know? I wasn’t here.”

“Then why did you say he shot him? What do you know that we don’t know?”

She looked at him then, wondering how much of her past she could reveal without putting herself in danger. If only she knew what the situation was between those two families. Were there any still living who carried on the hate, or had society and sanity finally intervened? She wanted to tell, but the secret was so old, and she was so new to the revelations.

“Nothing,” she said, and shrugged out of his grasp. “I don’t know anything. Grannie just told me he was dead.”

His mind began to whirl with possibilities the law had never considered. Pulpit Rock was only a short distance from the cabin. Years ago he’d heard the tale about the witch putting a curse on the Blairs that had caused their deaths. As a kid, he’d laughed it off, but there was another possibility that now made more sense.

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