No Other Woman (No Other Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

stories and the legends. Yet as she touched the stone, she suddenly became certain that she heard a noise.
    A footstep?
    One...
    ... and then another.
    Aye, footsteps. Someone else, out in the night.
    She moved suddenly and swiftly from one of the stones to the next.
    Again, she thought she heard footsteps.
    Someone was following her.
    Unease swept through her.
    In the middle of the night, when all the world lay still, someone was following her. Someone was coming behind her in the night. Someone...
    You are losing your mind, she thought. This is madness! She told herself sternly that she had to be imagining the sounds... no one would come after her so furtively in the night. There was no reason to be afraid.
    Again, she moved a few steps forward, moving on to a third stone, and paused.
    She just barely caught the sound of shuffling feet before those footsteps paused as well.
    This was her home. These were her people. She'd never been afraid of the dark. She'd never been afraid here because she knew everyone who lived in and around Castle Rock.
    She kept very still, waiting and listening.
    Nothing.
    She was afraid, imagining things, because of her nightmares, she told herself. She'd been remembering all the stories they had told and all the games they had played by the stones, which were still considered sacred and mystical by many superstitious villagers. She was letting her imagination run away with her.
    No.
    She had really heard footsteps. Or something. A rustle in the grass. A soft pounding on the earth.
    Fear was settling into her.
    "Who's there?" she called out in the night.
    In answer, the wind seemed to rise, keening suddenly against moonglow and shadow. She waited, pressed now against one of the stones, but she heard nothing else.
    No one would come after her. She had no reason to be afraid!
    "Answer me!" she said sharply. "Who's there?"
    Still nothing.
    She pushed away from the stone and started walking once again. This time, she decided to leave the stones behind her. She moved easily, barefoot over the heather toward the shore. The strangest sensation of unease swept along her spine.
    There was nothing at first. No sounds of anyone following her.
    Then again, she heard a rustling.
    She turned back.
    She saw a shadow, slipping behind one of the stones.
    Or did she?
    In the night, light and shadows blended. The Druid Stones cast strange lines against the hills and vales. Had she seen movement? Or had the moon shifted, and lengthened the eerie play of light and dark that filled the night?
    "Who is it? Who's there?" she cried out sharply.
    No reply.
    Yet there was someone or something in the night. She was convinced of it.
    Looking back at the stones, she was suddenly quite certain she was being watched. Icy water seemed to run in rivulets down her neck and spine.
    What kind of fool had she been to leave the castle and run into the night? she queried herself. Not a fool, she countered herself passionately. She had known this land all her life, knew the earth, the stone, the loch, the cliffs and hills and rocks.
    Through all her life, she had known nothing but security here. She had never known what it was like to be afraid until...
    Until the night The Fire had raged. And the kiss of the flame had been burned into her heart forever.
    Oh, God. That was so long ago.
    And this was now.
    Happening. In truth.
    She barely breathed, studying the stones that stood like silent sentinels on the hill crest.
    Again, she heard movement. And this time she cried out in fear.
    The shadow was definitely no figment of her imagination. A caped figure was now running directly toward her.
    The night had been so still. When he first heard the cries, he thought that they were whispers of the rising wind. Then he heard them more clearly.
    And he saw the woman running from the shelter of the Druid Stones. Saw her clearly, for the moon chose that moment to break free from the clouds and cast a shimmering glow of light down upon her.
    She was