The Curse of Clan Ross by L. L. Muir

Author:L. L. Muir [Muir, L. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Goodreads: 20940765
Publisher: Lesli Muir Lytle
Published: 2014-02-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

After about an hour, Jules rested in a clearing full of tall grass and wildflowers. It was so tempting to lie down and sleep, but sleep wasn’t even close to the top of that list. Clothing had slipped to number three, after water and food. It was when she lifted her eyes from the tempting flower bed that she first saw the smoke. A nice, focused trail of it lifting into the sky.

“Civilization. Hallelujah.” She headed straight for it.

Sounds of industry reached her ears just as she noticed her feet were following a path through the trees. A lovely little stream came next, where she bent down and drank her fill. Soon, both water and path led her to a thatched house with a water wheel on its side. The wheel had little scoops on it, just a bit deeper than a paddle, more shallow than a bucket—about the size of frying pans. It might not be used for harnessing any energy at the moment, but it was doing a fine job lifting water from the stream and dumping it into a trough at the roofline of the house.

Somebody was thinkin’.

She wondered if the woman who lived in the little house might be a laundress considering the long lines of clothes at the other end of the house. Either that, or a few dozen people lived there among the little cluster of buildings. The yard was still in deep morning shadows, thanks to the giant oak trees that surrounded the place, so Jules felt brave enough to scurry to the clothes on the line, to see if they were dry, hoping her dark coat and jeans wouldn’t draw any attention.

She was grasping the hem of a plaid wool skirt when she realized she was being watched.

Shit!

A woman stood at the corner of the house, shaking her head. She wore a solid blue dress with a plaid pinafore over the top and an apron on the front. Catching someone about to steal from her clothesline didn’t seem to alarm her, but she was suggesting, rather strongly, that Jules not do it.

Jules put her hands behind her back.

The woman motioned for the would-be thief to follow her.

Why on earth would Jules follow her? Was this one of those centuries where thieves had their hands cut off?

But then again, why on earth shouldn’t she? The woman looked harmless enough. And it wasn’t as if she or her hands might end up as the meat in someone’s giant pot of stew.

Jules shook off the Hansel and Gretel images and followed the woman around the corner of the house where she stood with a door open, pointing inside while she scanned the yard. The fairy-tale-gone-bad images came roaring back until the woman gave her a wink. Evil, child-eating witches didn’t wink, right?

The air inside was heavy with steam. Small fires burned around the room, their smoke floating up into a funnel-like ceiling. That had to be the source of the smoke that had led Jules there.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.