Smoke and Mirrors by Peters Elizabeth As Michaels

Author:Peters, Elizabeth As Michaels [Peters, Elizabeth As Michaels]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Romance, Suspense, Contemporary, Paranormal
ISBN: 9780861888344
Amazon: 0861888340
Goodreads: 43825960
Publisher: Simon
Published: 1989-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

8

By the time Erin finally got to bed she was so tired she thought she could sleep through a hurricane. But some part of her mind must have remained alert and on watch; when the sounds from the adjoining room began, she woke instantly.

Every limb felt as if it were encased in iron, and for a while she argued sleepily with the warning mental voice. “It’s just Kay going to the bathroom, she doesn’t need me.…” But the footsteps didn’t cross the hall, they passed her door and went on. “She can’t sleep, she’s going down for a book or a glass of milk.…” The silent sentry didn’t believe that either. There was something about the footsteps.… They were too loud, they clicked emphatically, with no consideration for other sleepers in the house.

Erin struggled out of bed and ran to the door. She had opened her window and the night air was chilly, but she didn’t stop to put on robe or slippers. Kay’s footsteps, still unmuted, made it clear that she was heading for one of the rooms on the second floor. Erin followed. The light on the landing, which was left burning at night, showed her that Rosemary’s door stood wide open, though the room itself was dark.

Erin’s alarmed imagination boiled with theories she would have been ashamed to voice aloud. But surely there was something wrong. No one would waken a weary friend except in a dire emergency, and if Kay were bent on a private conference she wouldn’t make so much noise, or leave the door ajar.

Noiseless, on bare feet, she crept toward the door, not entirely certain of what she intended to do. As she stood in brief hesitation, a light went on within; and in its glow Erin beheld an eerie sight: Kay, standing at the foot of the bed, perfectly perpendicular and totally unconscious. Her staring eyes looked past Rosemary at some vision only she could see, and her hands fumbled across the blankets like those of a blind woman.

Rosemary’s face was crumpled and sallow. The muscles in her throat contracted as she swallowed. “Kay,” she said hoarsely. “What is it?”

Kay’s hearing was as distorted as her vision. She did not respond. Bending stiffly, she raised the ruffled flounce and looked under the bed. Then she straightened, crossed the room, and went into the closet.

“I’m sorry,” Erin whispered from the doorway. “I heard her moving around, and there was something odd.… She’s sleepwalking, isn’t she?”

“It would seem so.” Rosemary showed no surprise at seeing her.

“Has she done this before?”

Rosemary shook her head. “Not for years.…” She started violently. A voice—obviously Kay’s, but eerily unlike her normal tones—echoed from the depths of the closet.

“Nobody. Nobody here. Have to make sure. Where else? … The dressing room? Have to look. Make sure he is all right.…”

Rosemary threw back the covers. Her nightgown was an astonishingly flimsy feminine concoction of ruffles and lace and ribbons, but she didn’t seem to be aware of the cold.

Kay was groping among the garments hanging on the racks.

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