Shades of the Wind Read Online Free PDF

her. “Are you hurt?”
    The inhuman cry of melancholy came again as the animal threw back its head and
    howled. When it returned its gaze to Catherine, it brought up one paw and stabbed at
    the air. The gesture caused an immediate reaction in Catherine’s tender heart.
    “You wait right there,” she said resolutely.
    Moving to the bed, Catherine pulled on her robe and belted the sash as she slid her
    feet into canvas house slippers. But when she tried to open her door, she found it locked
    from the other side!
    Absolute astonishment made her mouth sag open. Jerking on the doorknob, she
    could not believe Nyria had locked her in her own room. Astonishment turned almost
    instantly to anger and she lifted her hand and pounded her fist against the panel.
    “Nyria!” she shouted, beating on the door as hard as she could. “Open this door!”
    From outside the window, the animal returned to its miserable baying and the
    howls were so sorrowful, it made the hair stand up on Catherine’s arms.
    “Nyria! Bahru!”
    She heard tapping coming from the room to which she realized Olabishi had been
    taken. Unable to call out, the woman was letting her companion know she too was
    locked in.
    Catherine kicked at the panel, rattled the doorknob and pulled at it until her hand
    began to cramp. With every ounce of her pent-up fury, she pummeled the door as hard
    as she could until she heard footsteps coming down the hallway toward her door.
    “What do you want?” Nyria asked from beyond the panel.
    “You locked the door!” Catherine accused.
    “Yes.”
    The one word—spoken with such emphatic agreement—stilled Catherine in her
    tracks. She stared with disbelief at the door. Had the woman meant to keep her in her
    room all night? Why?
    “Open it, please,” Catherine asked, not expecting to have her wishes denied.
    “In the morning.”
    Catherine could not believe what she was hearing. She slammed her fist against the
    door and demanded it be opened.
    “In the morning,” Nyria repeated. “You will be safer that way.”
    “What are you talking about?” Catherine shouted at her.
    21
    Charlotte Boyett-Compo
    “Everyone is locked into their rooms at night, Lady Catherine,” Nyria explained. “It
    is the master’s wish. He wants his guests safe.”
    Safe from what? Catherine wondered with a touch of fear niggling at her belly.
    “But what if there should be a fire?” she protested, yanking on the doorknob again
    in the futile hope she could spring the lock.
    “You are safe, milady,” Nyria told her. “He will let nothing harm you.”
    Catherine was not claustrophobic but she did not like being locked in her room. If
    the door needed to be secured, she could do it from her side. Surely that would be safer
    than having it where anyone could come along and unlock it to gain entrance. She said
    as much to the housekeeper.
    “Only the master and I have keys to the rooms, milady.”
    The thought of His Grace having access to her sleeping chamber whenever the
    mood struck was no more to Catherine’s liking than being locked in.
    “He will not enter unless invited,” Nyria told her with that uncanny knack she
    seemed to have of reading Catherine’s thoughts. “He can not.”
    Catherine stood there in complete bafflement as she heard the housekeeper’s
    footsteps moving away.
    “Nyria! Wait!” She pressed her face against the panel. “At least see to the animal
    that is causing such a racket.”
    Nyria did not answer immediately and when she did, her words sounded odd. “He
    is hungry. He wants to feed.”
    “Then feed him!” Catherine pleaded.
    There was a low, brittle laugh from the housekeeper and when she spoke, her
    words sounded bitter. “He will not take what he needs from me,” Nyria answered in a
    harsh, brittle hiss. “That was the Covenant he made with my father. Believe me, if I
    could, I would gladly provide what he needs.”
    A Covenant with a dog? Catherine thought, wondering at the woman’s