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Chelsea Handler Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang (epub
Brit Brinson [Dia of the Dead Dia of the Dead (epub)
Cody Goodfellow [Radiant Dawn Radiant Dawn (epub)
Cate Tiernan [Immortal Belove Immortal Beloved (epub)
C J Busby [Deep Amber 01] Deep Amber (retail) (epub)
Carl Ashmore [Time Hunters 01 The Time Hunters (epub)
Drew Hayes [Super Powereds 02 Super Powereds Year 2 (epub) i
Beth Harbison [Shoe Addict 02 Secrets of a Shoe Addict (epub)
Cara Lynn Shultz [Dark World The Dark World (retail) (epub)
Brylant Pindara Katie Hickman

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.There were breaks in the trees where one or more had died and been cut down over the years, and there were shrubs that had grown up closer to the road.But it was still familiar enough to make Anna’s heart ache within her chest.Winterset was their nearest neighbor, but she had not ridden along this drive for three years.The rows of trees ended, opening onto a broad expanse of lawn leading up to the great house itself.Winterset lay on a slight rise in the land, like a jewel in its setting.The drive curved in a circle in front of it, ending just before the low stone wall, topped by an iron railing, that stood some yards in front of the house.The wall was centered by two stone pillars standing higher than the iron railings, and atop each pillar lay a staghound au couchant, its ears pricked alertly.The fierce dogs were, it was said, modeled after the hunting hounds of Lord Jasper de Winter, who had built the house in the seventeenth century.Between the iron fencing and the house lay a small inner courtyard, with a wide stone pathway leading from the drive to the front door of the house.The house itself was elegant and symmetrical, with a long central section flanked on either end by two shorter gabled wings.It had been constructed of yellowish stone, almost honey-colored when it was built, but now darkened in patches by age, and much of it spotted by lichen.As a result, when the sun shone on it, as it did this summer day, the stone was a mellow golden; on dreary days, it had a dark and gloomy cast.Much of its graceful elegance came from its large windows and the stone balustrade that ran across the top of the house.Stone chimneys dotted the roof.The chimneys at the front gables were carved so that they appeared to twist upward in spirals.At various corners of the roof, statues of fierce griffins and eagles jutted up into the air.Anna looked up at the building.She had always loved Winterset, even when she was a child, seeing the statues of the fantastical griffins and the twisting chimneys as delightful whimsy.But now, looking at the house, she understood the superstitious unease with which many people regarded it.The statues and twisted chimneys did give the place an odd air, even—especially on a gloomy day—an atmosphere of foreboding.The uncannily accurate renditions of the staghounds on the gate piers only added to the faint menace.Despite the ravages of time, the faces of the large dogs were eerily realistic, so that one felt almost as if the animals were watching one carefully.It was the sculptor’s skill at creating the hounds, Anna thought, that had contributed to the local legend that on the nights of the full moon, the staghounds rose from their positions and, at the piercing whistle of their long-dead master, Lord Jasper de Winter, ran with him on a ghostly hunt through the night, eyes gleaming like red-hot coals.There was a rustling in the bushes beside Anna’s trap, and she whipped her head around.A man stood just beyond, scarcely visible, watching her.Chapter TwoAnna’s hands tightened on the reins, her heart suddenly in her throat.Then the figure moved, shoving through the shrubbery to the driveway, and she relaxed.“Grimsley.I did not see you there.”The slight man, a trifle stooped from years of bending over plants and weeds, reached up and swept the dark cap from his head, revealing a shock of curly hair, the dark streaked through with gray.“Good day to ye, miss,” Grimsley replied, with a deferential bob of his head.He had once been head gardener here at Winterset and had stayed on as caretaker during all the years it had sat empty.“How are you?” Anna asked politely, and the man moved over to the side of her trap.“Very good, miss.Kind of you to ask.” He grinned up at her, displaying a row of crooked teeth.“The old place is still a beauty, ain’t she, miss?”“Yes.I have always found Winterset quite lovely.” Anna paused, then added, “I hear that the owner plans to return.”He nodded his head eagerly.“Yes, miss, that’s the truth.Mr.Norton came by and told me today.Says the grand folk are coming back.Mayhap ye will be coming over here again, then.”Anna quickly shook her head.“I wouldn’t think so.”“Don’t seem right, the house without a de Winter in it.”“I am sure Lord Moreland is a good employer.”“Not a de Winter,” the man said unanswerably.He turned to look again at the building.“House is lonely without them.Don’t seem right, Lord de Winter leaving Winterset like that.Going to some heathen place.”“Barbados,” Anna said automatically.This was a familiar conversation; she had had it nearly every time she had run into Mr.Grimsley in the past few years.“Selling the house.” The middle-aged man’s jaw set stubbornly.“It was far too big a place for my uncle,” Anna said.“And he did not wish to live there any longer.”Her mother’s brother, Charles, was the Lord de Winter about whom the caretaker spoke.An unmarried, childless man, he—and Anna’s mother, Barbara—had been the last of the de Winter line.When he left Winterset, he had put the house and all his other assets into the guardianship of Anna’s father, as someday, when he died, all his belongings would be inherited by Anna and Kit.Kit still managed the de Winter lands and money, but their father had sold the house, as all of them preferred to live in their own home, Holcomb Manor.Anna could see that her words had not mollified Grimsley; she knew that they never had before and doubtless never would.The man was peculiarly obsessed with Winterset and the de Winters.He had been born on the estate and had lived his entire life there.He had continued to occupy the small gardener’s house on the grounds for the last three years, while the house had stood empty.Of course, he was also rumored to take a few nips of gin throughout the day, which Anna suspected had something to do with some of the odd notions he took.She turned the conversation back to the subject that still nagged at her brain.“Do you know when Lord Moreland will be arriving at Winterset?”Grimsley shook his head gloomily.“Soon, Mr.Norton said.‘Best be getting it in shape, Grimsley.’ That’s what he said.How’s one man to do that, I’d like to know.”“I am sure he will not expect you to do any more than what you can,” Anna assured him.“Ree—Lord Moreland is a very fair man.”He nodded, but Anna could see the skepticism in his eyes.“Well,” she went on bracingly, though she knew that the assurance was more for herself than from the caretaker, “I imagine that he will not stay here all that long, anyway.I understand that he is merely looking it over to see about selling it.”“Aye.” Grimsley shifted and looked away, and suddenly Anna understood what bothered him.“Even if he does sell the house,” she told him with the sympathetic understanding that had made her a favorite among all the people who worked for the Holcombs, “I would think that a new owner would keep you on as head gardener—and would probably even hire men to help you.Then you would be able to keep the grounds in the manner that you would like to.”He looked up at her, and a kind of odd, shy smile touched his lips.“Aye, miss, that he would—if he be the kind ye and yer brother be.”“If he is not, rest assured that there will always be a place for you on the Winterset lands,” Anna replied.“Thankee, miss [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]