The Selkie Enchantress by Sophie Moss

Author:Sophie Moss [Sophie Moss]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00943HQJW
Goodreads: 13559398
Published: 2012-08-28T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Sam scooped up a pile of manure with his pitchfork and plopped it into the ancient metal wheelbarrow. Steam rose up from the muck, drifting into the cold air. He turned at the squeak of the barn door sliding open, spotting the silhouette of a woman slipping through the widened crack in the door. “Tara?”

She nodded, closing the door behind her and stepping into the damp barn. Her small frame was dwarfed in an oversized raincoat. One of Dominic’s, no doubt. Her short dark hair was wet and plastered to her pale face, her expression guarded.

Sam leaned the pitchfork against the wheelbarrow. “Is everything alright?”

The wind raced over the pastures, an eerie whistling through the web of stone walls. Tara pulled her coat tighter around her shoulders. “I’m not sure.”

Sam rolled the wheelbarrow out of the stall, hooking the rope guard behind him. “What’s up?”

She glanced over her shoulder, as if she was afraid of being watched. “I probably shouldn’t be here.” She walked over to where a white pony stretched his neck over the stall. She cupped her hands under his velvety muzzle, letting his whiskers tickle her palms. “I need to ask you something. I… wasn’t sure who else to talk to.”

Stay out of it, Sam. You’re here to slip off the radar. To blend. Just take care of the animals and stay out of it. The sheep pawed restlessly at the hay. An icy wind blew in through the cracks in the rotting barn door.

The pony nickered, nuzzling her hand and Tara took a deep breath. “I think there’s something happening again. I don’t know what it is. And I can’t get my head wrapped around it.”

“What do you mean?”

Tara reached up, letting her fingers comb through the pony’s gray forelock. “When you came here this summer and first heard the selkie legend, is that what changed your mind? Is that what made you stay?”

He caught the edge in her voice, the way her eyes kept darting back to the door. “It wasn’t just the legend. It was that and the roses, seeing you and realizing you weren’t the woman Philip said you were… meeting Glenna.”

Tara nodded. “But it was the story? The fairy tale? That’s what first clued you in?”

“I think so, yes.”

“What if there was no legend? What if things just seemed… off?”

Stay out of it, Sam. Just stay out of it. Questions, angles swirled inside his investigator’s mind, but he clamped them down. He wasn’t that person anymore. He was someone else now. “What are you getting at, Tara?”

“Did you…” Her fingers toyed with a string coming loose on the pony’s faded red halter. “Did you believe in magic before coming to this island?”

“No.”

“Do you believe in it now?”

He chose his words carefully. “I believe there are some things that can’t be explained by logic.”

When Tara said nothing, continuing to thread her fingers through the pony’s mane, Sam dipped his hands in his pockets. All he wanted to do was work on this farm, care for these animals and keep a low profile.

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