Luanne Rice Read Online Free PDF Page B

white.”
    “I’m better
now.”
    “That’s
good,” Jessica said.
    “Would you
like a ride home, Jessica?” Rose’s mother asked.
    Jessica
hesitated, seeming to think about it. Rose felt her color rise—was their
friendship over before it really started? Was Jessica embarrassed to be with
her? Or did it have something to do with Jessica’s secrets, the fact that her
real name might not really be Jessica Taylor? Could she really be named after
that singer, James Taylor? Maybe Jessica’s mother liked love songs, like Rose.
    “Well, I’m
not really supposed to get into cars without asking my mother, but in this case
I think it would be okay.”
    “We’ll call
your mother first—how’s that?” Rose’s mother asked.
    And they
did.

Chapter 3
     
    D riving Jessica home, Lily was actually doing
several things at once. Keeping her eye on the narrow road, keeping her eye on
Rose, and trying to assess how upset Jessica was by what had happened. Lily
glanced in the rearview mirror and smiled.
    “Thank you
for coming to get me,” Lily said. “For thinking so fast.”
    “She didn’t
seem to be feeling too good,” Jessica said.
    “Well, she
wasn’t. But she’s fine now.”
    “What
happened?”
    Lily
glanced down at Rose. This was the moment Rose always dreaded. Because the town
was so small, most people had known her for her whole life. They knew and loved
her—and, the thing Rose disliked the most, compensated for her. Lily knew she
could answer right now—say something vague and dismissive. Or she could take
the direct approach and tell Jessica the truth. But she had learned over time
to leave it to Rose. What Rose wanted her friend to know, she would tell.
    “I had a
spell,” Rose said.
    “You’re
under a spell?” Jessica asked, not understanding.
    They drove
past a few summer cottages and the old mill. The road was shadowed by steeply
rising cliffs and tall spruce trees. Lily glanced down at her daughter—her wavy
brown hair and gold-flecked green eyes. Lily had to hold herself back from
explaining. She watched Rose formulate the words, knowing that once she said
them, her friendship with Jessica would change, however slightly.
    “Yes,” Rose
said. “An evil wizard put it on me.”
    Lily
glanced down, taken by surprise.
    “He turned
your hands blue?”
    “Yes. And
sometimes makes me dizzy and weak. He attacked my heart.”
    “Rose …”
Lily began.
    “Is he
real?” Jessica asked, sounding nervous. “Will he put a spell on me? It’s
Captain Hook, isn’t it? I saw him standing there, just before you had to sit
down!”
    “No, it’s
not him. He’s good,” Rose said. “It’s someone else. He lives far up the fjord,
in a cave in the tallest cliffs, surrounded by straggly old pine trees.
Sometimes he turns into a fish hawk. You hear him cawing in the early morning,
gliding over the bay in search of sweet little things to eat.”
    “Rose
Malone,” Lily said. Her daughter looked up defiantly. She knew that Lily wasn’t
about to call her a liar in front of her friend; on the other hand, she had to
know that Lily couldn’t allow Jessica, newly moved to this remote and foreboding
part of Canada, to think that there was an evil wizard attacking little girls.
The road twisted up the crevasse behind the village, onto a flat stretch
overlooking the bay’s wide blue expanse.
    “I live
here,” Jessica announced as they pulled up in front of a small white house.
    “Jessica,
there’s not really an evil wizard,” Lily said.
    “There is,”
Rose insisted. “And he puts slivers in people’s hearts so no one will ever love
them. The heart is where love lives.”
    “Rose,
everyone loves you,” Lily said, smiling in spite of herself. “So you’d better
make up a better story than that.”
    “Okay,
then. He put a spell on my heart that makes all kinds of crazy things happen.
He gave me a heart condition.”
    “But,”
Jessica said, frowning, “my grandmother has a heart