Garden of the Moon Read Online Free PDF

she’d always say, and then set off on another entirely different subject.
    Though exciting to be sitting here having a conversation with one of the most important people in her life, Sara was curious as to why, after so many years, her grandmother had chosen now to appear to her.
    “Gran, why are you here?”
    “My darling girl, I have hung around here for five years waiting for you. I thought your mother would never agree to let you come to Harrogate.” She clicked her tongue disapprovingly. “I never saw what your father found so enchanting about that woman. If you ask me, she is stubborn, opinionated, and much too concerned with the dictates of society. Her mother used to say that even as a child Patricia would dig in her heels and–”
    “Gran!” Sara didn’t want to talk about her mother. She wanted to hear what had prompted her grandmother’s unexpected visit.
    “Sorry, dear.” Gran smiled. Then her expression softened even more. “I came because I needed to tell you that there’s something very special waiting for you here. Very special.”
    “Special?” Sara blinked. “What is it? What’s special?”
     
    ***
     
    Her grandmother shook her head. “I can’t say. He’d only let me speak to you if I promised not to say too much.”
    Sara grew impatient. “Who is this he you keep referring to?” She glanced around the room.
    “An unimportant detail.” The ball of light pulsed frantically, but Gran paid it no heed. “I just don’t want you to give up on being the mistress of Harrogate and leave because things get…difficult. That would be tragic.”
    “Leave Harrogate?” Appalled at the thought, Sara shook her head firmly. “I’ve waited forever to live here. I would never leave.”
    Gran cast a skeptical sidelong glance at her. “You may change your mind.”
    “No! Never!” Sara sat straighter. Her chin had firmed into the stubborn pose that, to Sara’s everlasting disgust, made her resemble her mother at her most obstinate, but she didn’t care. “Why would you even think such a thing?”
    An odd expression crossed Gran’s face. The same expression she’d always gotten when Sara talked to her about the portrait of the woman over the fireplace. Back then Sara had been too young to put a name to it, but now…Could it be fear? Shock waves rocked Sara.
    The word fear and Gran just didn’t go together. Gran was the most fearless woman Sara had ever met. One of her favorite pastimes had been to don a pair of her husband’s trousers and ride like the wind, legs astride, over Harrogate’s lands and to hell with the neighbors . When other southern belles were adhering to a strict female society, Gran was doing as she pleased and laughing in the face of all the frowning matrons while she did it. It was one of the reasons Sara had admired her so much and one of the reasons she had loved coming to stay with her. Sara could be herself here and not have to worry about a flaming reprimand from her strict mother.
    Why now was Gran afraid?
     
    ***
     
    But before Sara could ask, Gran hurried on. “As much as I love this old house and want you to live here, I have to warn you that evil lives within these walls.”
    A cold chill climbed Sara’s spine. When they’d come down the drive earlier that day, was that what she’d felt? Did the man in the upstairs window have something to do with it? In the deepest part of her heart, Sara didn’t believe that he did.
    “E…evil? What kind of evil?”
    Gran shook her head. “You have to discover that on your own, my darling girl.” When Sara would have protested, Gran held up her hand. “You have the courage. My blood flows through your veins. I know you can do it. I feel it, here.” She placed her hand over her heart. “All I can tell you is that the secret to your success, the way to claim victory over the evil, lies hidden in the house and inside you. Find it, and you will find all the answers you seek and happiness beyond your