Search for a New Dawn by Barbara Delinsky

Author:Barbara Delinsky [Delinsky, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 0060876506
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2009-10-09T07:00:00+00:00

Her gaze traveled along the meandering riverbank. Suddenly something caught her eye and she gasped in horror at the sight of a cluster of ghostly luminous skeletons waving in the breeze. Her heart pounded within her as she sat, frozen, unable to take her eyes from the unearthly gathering, until a small owl, hooting softly from one of the silver limbs, broke the spell, and she immediately recognized the source of her terror as a group 154

Barbara Delinsky

of birch trees, their bark reflecting the moonlight in the most haunting way. Clutching a hand to her chest, she slowly calmed herself, a bit embarrassed at her fright.

“Is something wrong?” The voice was low and right by her ear, having come unheralded through the night woods. Rory jumped up and whirled around, an involuntary cry escaping her lips—instantly smothered by a hand over her mouth. She had only to scent the nearness of him to recognize the intruder. The hand came away in time for her to whisper a breathless, “Eric . . .” before her knees buckled. As she rested her forehead against one palm, a strong hand slipped beneath the neck of the loose jacket to massage the tensed muscles of her neck and upper back, while another supported her in an iron grip.

“My God, Rory, why are you so uptight?” If he had intended his surprise appearance as a joke, there was no humor in his voice now, just raw concern, which Rory noted with pleasure.

“You terrified me!” she exclaimed, her voice several notches higher than usual. She looked into his eyes, lit by the moon, as he knelt beside her, then looked away as quickly in exasperation.

“You were frightened even before I

spoke.”

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“What gave you that idea?” She struggled to steady her breathing, no simple matter in this man’s presence.

“I’ve been watching you since you got here. . . .”

“You’ve been what?” Fright quickly turned to anger as she rasped at him, “What right have you to disturb my privacy?”

“No, no, little one,” he reproached her, standing as he did so and thus emphasizing the diminutive. “It was you who disturbed my privacy, since I had been here long before you arrived.”

“B-but . . . I didn’t see you!”

“Obviously, not.”

“I thought you were still up on the mountain with Christopher and Peter.” She really had not wanted to see him, reluctant to have to cope with his particular form of temptation. He cleared his throat impatiently, looking from side to side. “As you may or may not have noticed, the daylight is gone. We didn’t plan on spending the night on the mountain, you know,” he mocked her.

“Too bad . . .” she murmured under her breath, rising to move to a safer distance from him.

“What about you, Rory?” The note of

mockery was still there, as he readied for the kill. “Why aren’t you back at camp, curled up 156

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beside Daniel, warming him the way you warmed me not so very long ago?”

It was a lucky thing she had put a space between them or she would have slapped him.

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