Surrender the Wind by RITA GERLACH

Author:RITA GERLACH [GERLACH, RITA]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9781426713774
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Published: 2009-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

The drizzle lifted. The sky turned milky white and the breeze sighed through wet leaf and bracken. Seth walked his horse down the lane beside Michael Bray's. Drawing near a dwelling, a flock of rooks rose overhead from a crop of elms. Their unearthly screech filled the air. Hetty Shanks's cottage sat off a tree-lined road that led toward the sea and the cliffs above it.

They dismounted and looped their horses’ reins over a rickety picket fence. Seth scanned the place. It was ordinary, like other cottages he had seen along the country roads. The thatched roof and red door was as Mave had described. An herb garden grew beneath a window and to the right sat a rain barrel, a crude wooden bench, and a butter churn.

The door sat open. Seth called, but no one answered. He moved the door in with the tip of his boot. It opened up to a single room, dark and homey, sparsely furnished yet clean. From an open window, the breeze blew back a pair of muslin curtains, the air laden with the heady scent of sea and rain.

Seth stood with his hand against the doorjamb. A cast-iron pot hung inside the fireplace on a hook. The coals beneath it were gray and powdery. He moved his hand over them and felt warmth emanate from the ashes. Careful to touch the side of the pot, he discovered it was still warm.

“She has not been long from home,” he told Bray.

“Perhaps she's gone into the village.” Bray picked up a tattered shawl and tossed it back on a chair.

“We would have passed her on the road if she had.” He walked outside and looked up at the gray and forlorn sky, how the clouds whirled, how they oppressed earth, cliffs, and sea.

“What woman would leave a pot of stew over the fire unattended? Why would she leave when it looks as if the sky is about to burst?”

Bray came up beside him. “A sure sign she left in a hurry. These tracks show she had a visitor.”

Seth looked down at the ground. Boot prints were beginning to dry in the wind. The outlines of horseshoes were pressed into the soggy earth. He lifted his eyes to study the road ahead. It was quiet except for the birds fluttering in the trees.

“Perhaps she is close by.”

“She did not answer when you called her name,” said Bray.

“I may have frightened her off.” Seth glanced back at the red door. “No woman would leave her door unlatched.”

“She may have been called away. Whoever was here before us gave her a lift into the village.”

“Or harmed her.”

Bray frowned. “I pray that not be so. We need her to answer some important questions, don’t we?”

“I have a feeling she has either fled or fallen victim to this rider.” Seth crouched down and ran his finger along the outline of a print.

Seth stalked away. Bray made a quick turn and followed. Mounting their horses, they moved them down the road. Seth leaned to the side of his saddle to observe the tracks left in the mud.

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