Witching Hour Read Online Free PDF

with a little gasp of relief.
    'More business, I suppose.' She made no attempt to hide the
    bitterness in her voice.
    'Of a sort.'
    'I suppose it didn't occur that my mother and I would be waiting
    for you—would be worried?'
    'Frankly it didn't.' A match flared as he lit a cheroot, his hands
    sheltering the flame against the snatching wind, and she saw his
    mouth twist cynically. 'I hardly imagined I would be the most
    welcome visitor the Polzion House Hotel had ever had.'
    She'd heard the edge in his voice when he mentioned the word
    hotel, and she made her own tone blank and a little wondering.
    'You resent the fact that the family home is now a commercial
    enterprise? I'd have thought as a business man yourself, you'd have
    been delighted.'
    'But then,' he said coolly, 'I would hardly describe that particular
    venture as a commercial enterprise.'
    Morgana was silent for a moment, her brain working madly. Far
    from lacking interest in his inheritance, it now seemed he was only
    too well informed. But where had he gleaned his information? she
    wondered. Was that where he'd been since this morning? Going
    round Polzion, asking questions? She flinched inwardly as she
    thought of some of the answers he might have been given. On the
    other hand, it was far more likely that he'd found out all he wanted
    to know through correspondence between his solicitors and Mr
    Trevick, who would have been bound to be frank.
    She decided to proceed cautiously. 'I admit we're not the Hilton,
    but we make out.'
    'Do you really? You seem to be alone in that opinion. From what
    I've learned, the hotel seems to owe quite a lot of money to a
    number of people.'
    She was mortified, but she made herself reply quietly. 'Yes—we
    do, unfortunately. But it's been a bad year.'
    'It must have been a succession of bad years if all I've been told is
    true.'
    'If you want to put it that way,' Morgana agreed, numbly hating
    him.
    'I don't, believe me.' His tone was dry. 'After all—a hotel in
    surroundings like these. It's hard to see how it could fail.'
    'In the course of your snooping, you may also have noticed that
    Polzion isn't exactly Newquay,' she said sharply. 'I'm sorry if we
    haven't come up to your expectations, but no doubt you'll be able
    to figure out the reasons why at your leisure.'
    'Unfortunately, I don't have that much leisure to waste.' He
    sounded abrupt again. 'I'm going to walk down to the house now,
    and meet your mother. Are you going to come with me, or have
    you got more spells to cast?'
    'No,' she snapped. 'I'll come down with you.' She felt chilled to the
    bone, and cold and sick inside.
    'Good. I didn't relish the prospect of being turned into a frog as
    soon as I turned my back.'
    'I think in the circumstances,' she said tightly, 'a rat would be more
    appropriate.'
    'If we're playing at animal similes, I can think of one or two that
    would fit you quite well too,', he returned equably, and Morgana
    flushed in the darkness. After a moment's pause he turned away
    and moved off down the hill, without waiting to see if she was
    following or not. Morgana gritted her teeth and went after him,
    fumbling in her cape pocket for her own torch. It couldn't compete
    with the powerful beam that his flashlight was sending out, but at
    least it gave her an illusion of independence.
    He said over his shoulder, 'Be careful you don't fall.'
    'Thanks for the advice,' she snapped, 'but I do happen to know
    every inch of these moors.' And remembered too late that he'd had
    to haul her up from the ground only a few minutes before.
    'Then perhaps you'd like to go first. My own acquaintanceship is
    only just beginning,' he said silkily.
    'That,' she snapped, as she went past him, her chin in the air, 'is
    entirely your own fault.'
    She walked ahead of him as fast as she could go, determined not to
    stumble again or make a fool of herself in any other way, although
    every instinct was screaming at her to run and never stop until she
    reached Polzion