Mystery at the Edge of Madness by Beth Byers

Author:Beth Byers
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2020-06-21T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Severine exited the house with only the dogs. She found the rain had stopped, but the grass was soggy and the slope away from the house looked like it could be a river of mud. She stared towards her car just on the other side of the rising water and realized that someone had moved it.

The night hadn’t been kind to her car, and they would need to replace the front window and have dings and dents from falling branches removed from the paint. She started as she saw Mr. Thorne and Mr. Oliver walking up the drive.

“Good morrow,” Mr. Oliver called when they were close enough.

“Miss Severine,” Mr. Thorne said. “I am happy to see you are well again.”

She examined them as they approached. Tall and strong and entirely without suspicion. Was she being naive again? Seeing the best possible version of things? “Thank you.”

Should she apologize for her state the previous evening? Severine was tempted to do just that, but her pride refused to allow it. Mr. Oliver glanced at Mr. Thorne and the two friends seemed to have a private conversation.

“Miss DuNoir,” Mr. Thorne said, clearing his throat. “I am concerned.”

Severine lifted her brows and then glanced behind her. She pulled her black shoulder wrap around her body more tightly. “Are you?”

“You left your auto with your friend and climbed the hill in the dark?”

Severine nodded.

“Did you see anything?”

“The lights of the house. The flashes of lightning. The rain.”

“Nothing else? Another person?” Mr. Oliver asked this time. Her gaze turned to the tall, blonde man and she shook her head.

“There was darkness and rain and a storm. There could have been a battalion of men watching me and Lisette climb that hill, and I doubt either of us would have noticed.”

Mr. Thorne and Mr. Oliver glanced at each other once again in silent conversation, and Severine said, “There is a reason for these questions and I assume it is alarming. Will you tell me or will you insist that we gather up Mr. Brand or Grandmère?”

Again, the two men eyed each other as though insisting the other answer.

She sighed, hating that she was only eighteen years old and they acted like men rather fixated on honor and chivalry and those other antiquated things and so thought she her delicate sensibilities needed protecting. “I prefer if you take your concerns to Mr. Brand, if you don’t care for my opinion on the matter. If you insist upon treating me like a doll, I rather fear that we have little to discuss beyond the weather, and it is frightful, isn’t it?”

Anubis’s low growl had them all turning towards the trees. “Ah, perhaps that’s whatever has you alarmed.” Her voice was light.

“I rather hope not, by Jove,” Mr. Oliver replied.

Severine laughed before she turned and glanced at Mr. Thorne. “I’ll just step into the woods and see, shall I?”

Severine took a step towards the tree with Anubis at her side when Mr. Thorne grabbed her arm. “Please don’t. It’s not safe.

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