Vexed by Erica Ridley & Ava Stone & Elizabeth Essex

Author:Erica Ridley & Ava Stone & Elizabeth Essex [Ridley, Erica]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: AVAST0NEinc

Good God! Where the devil was she? Cassy had been there one moment and gone the next. By the time she bolted away and Jack chased after her, she’d disappeared, somewhere in the maze. Who would’ve thought so slight a girl could move so quickly in a dress?

“Jack!” she screamed from somewhere in the hedges. She couldn’t be too far away. But how to find her?

“Cassy!” he called back and hurried toward the sound of her voice, which lead to a dead end. Damn the bloody maze.

She was whimpering, somewhere close by. Jack spun on his heel and rushed back the way he’d come and chose a different path. Her whimpering became louder. He rounded the next hedge and there she was, cowering in a ball in a corner of the maze, shivering.

Good God!

“Cassy!” Jack raced to her. “Sweetheart,” he said more softly when she hadn’t lifted her head to see him. Still she didn’t seem to hear him, so he sank to his haunches and lifted his hand out to touch her arm.

The moment his skin touched hers, she yelped and shrunk against the hedge.

What the devil?

“Cassy,” he tried again, more urgently. “Love, what’s wrong?”

Finally, she lifted her head up and her eyes looked wild. “Get away from me.”

Jack pulled his hand back from her, even though he wanted to wrap his arms around her and comfort whatever was wrong. “Cassy, what is it, love?”

“Make him stay away from me, Jack,” she sobbed.

Jack glanced over his shoulder but there was no one there. “Sweetheart, it’s just us.” Wasn’t it?

But Cassy shook her head stubbornly. “He’s here. He was just here, Jack.”

He? Who? “Oscar?” he asked, feeling like a dolt and beyond helpless.

And then she cried even harder. “Oscar! He’s done something to Oscar, Jack. I know it.”

“Who?” he asked, reaching his hand out to her one more time.

“The m-man in bl-black,” she managed between sobs.

The ghost she was convinced had grabbed her last night? A sickening feeling washed over Jack.

Madness does run in the family. Blackwater’s warning from the night before echoed in his ears. Jack shook the thought from his mind. Cassy wasn’t a blood relation to Lady Claire Deering’s family. Even so…

He’d known Lady Claire nearly all of his life. The lady was frightened to death that madness would take her someday like it had her mother and aunt. And yet he’d never thought her mad, not even one day of their acquaintance. But Cassy…he couldn’t make himself finish that thought. She couldn’t be mad. There had to be some other explanation…

An explanation that involved glaring ghosts that only she could see? No one with a rational mind could accept such a thing. It wasn’t even in the realm of possibilities. Jack’s sickening feeling worsened.

“Come on, sweetheart,” he said gently. “Let’s get you back inside the castle.”

“He’s done something to Oscar. W-we have to find Oscar.”

Jack nodded in agreement. “Aye, I’ll find him. But let’s get you out of here for now, shall we?” And then he scooped her up in his arms and pushed back to his feet before she could object.

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