Upon a Mystic Tide Read Online Free PDF Page A

nodded. “She’s the innkeeper.”
    Bess’s mouth felt stone dry. She licked at her lips. “I can’t explain this, Maggie. I know it’s going to sound crazy, but I have to go there. Now. Today.”
    “You don’t have to explain—not to me.” Maggie smiled. “T. J.’s making arrangements for you right now.”
    Bess vaguely remembered T. J. saying something about him calling Miss Hattie. How had he known?
    Maggie cocked her head. A frown creased the smooth skin between her brows and she glanced off into space as if she were listening to something only she could hear. Seconds passed, and the strangest expression formed on her face. Worried, Bess clasped Maggie’s arm. “Are you okay? Is it the baby?”
    “No, no. We’re fine.” She patted her stomach, a fleeting smile touching her lips.
    Despite her assurance, something concerned Maggie; it shone in her eyes. “I’m getting the strongest feeling that you’re protecting me. I don’t need that from you. Now, be honest. Are you two okay?”
    “We’re fine. I promise. It’s, um, about Seascape Inn.” Maggie brushed her gleaming red hair back from her face, clearly avoiding Bess’s eyes. “When you get there, you might, um, see a man in an old Army uniform—one with a yellow carnation here in his lapel.” She touched a fingertip to her dress, just above her left breast.
    A shudder rippled up Bess’s backbone. Why did this disclosure strike her as significant as Tony’s message? “Okay.”
    “Trust him,” Maggie said. “He’s trying to help you.”
    “This has something to do with the painting.” Certainty flooded Bess. “That’s why you had me look at it before. You were hoping then—” Bess drew in a sharp breath. “This man—he’s the reason this strange stuff is happening now, isn’t he?”
    Maggie nodded.
    Her wariness alerted Bess. “Is there something  . . . different about him?”
    Looking as guilty as sin, Maggie shrugged, stepped back to the tall column behind her, then sat down on the padded bench circling it. “To some. But I—I don’t think I’m supposed to say anything more, Bess. Just trust him, okay?”
    “You’re sounding as weird as Tony.”
    “I know.” Maggie grimaced, rubbed at her stomach, and rotated her swollen ankles. “Can you just trust me, too?”
    For a long minute, Bess stared at her friend, not sure what to make of all this. But considering every aspect of her life lay in shambles already, what did she have to lose? “Why not? I always have.”
    Maggie swallowed and stilled, again as if listening. “Bess,” she said, “I know this is stretching the bounds of friendship, but you might  . . . ” Her voice trailed.
    “Might what?” Lord, but she hated to see Maggie distressed—
especially in her condition. The baby was due in November, just five months away.
    She turned away. “You might hear the man without actually seeing him.”
    A bolt of fear rocketed through Bess. Tingling head to heel, she stiffened her shoulders and stared hard at Maggie’s narrow back. “Is he telepathic?” Tony was telepathic. Was there a connection?
    “Sort of.” Maggie looked back over her shoulder at Bess. “You’ve nothing to fear from him, though. Honest. If I thought for a second you did, I’d tell you.”
    Nervous. Evasive. Cryptic. So unlike Maggie MacGregor. “What aren’t you telling me?”
    She looked back in front of her, toward the white-carpeted floor. “It’s  . . . complicated.”
    Complicated. Well, that was comforting. “This man,” Bess gave her instincts free rein. “He’s not like us, is he?” Speaking her feelings aloud had her skin prickling.
    Maggie twisted her lips and shifted on her feet, clearly uneasy. “If I say no, will you change your mind about going to Seascape?”
    “No,” Bess insisted with absolute certainty. The pull for those good feelings tugged more mightily than anything she could imagine. Nothing would keep her from going to Seascape Inn.