Shifting Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page B

her feel insecure in an excitingly dangerous way—rather like riding the Ferris wheel at the World’s Fair in St. Louis.
    Settling into the car seat beside her, he pulled out of the parking lot, into the line of cars moving down the street. She studied his ominous profile, the square, clenched jaw, the dark secrets of his gaze, and thought she was most assuredly mad to feel an attraction for this strange man.
    “ The doctor said you’d probably start to remember things soon.” He appeared to be focused on the mechanics of operating the vehicle, but the tension in his voice told her the comment was weighted with hidden meaning. What did he think—or fear—that she’d remember?
    “ I hope he’s right,” she said then decided to take the plunge, see how he would react to the return of her memory. “Sometimes when I see things, like the tall buildings, or when you tell me something, I sort of get that memory back. When you told me this was Kansas City, I knew it was and that I’d been here, but that’s all.”
    “ You admit you’re not some Victorian woman named Elizabeth Dupard?” Again his voice had a peculiar edge to it, as if he were testing her.
    “ I know I’m Analise Parrish,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “I know I can’t be Elizabeth Dupard if I’m Analise Parrish.”
    But I am Elizabeth! And Analise.
    *~*~*
    A weak sun was trying to peek through the clouds when they turned onto Analise’s street. She sat upright, gripped the dash as she noticed several cars parked in front of her house. Men in uniforms stood in the yard. Policemen. Had some crime been committed while she was gone? Or were they waiting for her? Had the doctor’s tests revealed her to be insane? Had he sent the police to get her?
    Panic stricken, she turned to Dylan, the man whose motives she didn ’t understand or trust, but the only person she could turn to at the moment. “What’s happening? What do they want?”
    “ You don’t know?” He swung around the parked vehicles and pulled up in front of Rachel’s house. “I see your ex-husband’s car among the crowd.” He indicated a shining white vehicle.
    Her ex-husband. Not Blake. She knew now he didn’t mean Blake.
    Did this have something to do with the divorce? Were they here to take her back to him? That thought made the world spin crazily. “I don’t remember my…” She had to force the words past her numb lips. “My…ex-husband.”
    “ Then you’d better come meet him.” Dylan got out and came around for her. “Why are you shaking?” he asked as he took her hand. His gaze bored into her as if trying to ferret out her secrets, her very soul.
    She wanted to beg him to get back in the car and drive her far away. But she had nowhere to go. This was her home, her only remnant of the life she remembered. The house wasn’t exactly the way she remembered it, but it was the closest she’d found since waking that morning.
    She got out of the automobile, making an effort not to clench Dylan’s hand too tightly but not releasing it either. Like her house, he wasn’t completely familiar, but he was the only person she knew in this strange world.
    As they walked across the yard, one of the policemen came up to them. “Can I help you?” he asked.
    “ You can tell us what’s going on,” Dylan answered. “This is Ms. Parrish. She lives here.”
    Analise waited, holding her breath, wishing she could sink into the earth or fly into the clouds, anything to escape whatever the officer was going to say to her.
    The officer lifted his eyebrows. “You’re Analise Parrish?”
    “ Yes, she is.”
    “ Hey, Milton,” he called over his shoulder, “it’s the Parrish woman!” He turned back to her. “We thought something had happened to you. Your husband’s been worried. He came out, found the broken door but no sign of you, and called us.
    They weren ’t going to arrest her! “I fell down the stairs. My neighbor took me to the doctor.”
    “