Ghost Horse

by Patricia Rosemoor

  I understood all but her not contacting me to let me know what had happened. To let me know that she was all right. Dawn should have known that I wouldn’t judge her. That I would have backed her up and done whatever I could to get her out of this mess.

  I couldn’t help but be relieved that my foster sister and best friend might still be alive and unharmed and in hiding…and couldn’t help wondering if once again I’d been abandoned by someone I loved.

  I realized Merle was staring at me—because I wasn’t eating or because she’d been waiting for a response to what she’d told me? I pulled myself together, picked up my fork and took a small bite of chicken.

  “Nissa really misses Dawn,” I said.

  “But now she has you.”

  Merle seemed relieved, no doubt because I didn’t press her further. I doubted that she’d told Damian as much as she’d just told me.

  The more I thought about it, though, the less sure I was of how the Centaur-Dawn scenario had played out that night. Definitely, there had to be a connection. But if Dawn had arranged her disappearing act and if no one else was involved, then why was someone trying to drive me away from the place? And how did someone searching the attic fit in with the rest?

  “Well, I’m done here,” Merle said, “as soon as I wash your plate and glass.”

  “No, go. I’ll do it.”

  “All right, then. I’m off the next couple of days. You won’t go leaving without telling anyone, will you?”

  Nearly choking on my mouthful of food, I somehow got it down. “I’m not planning on leaving anytime soon.”

  “Good girl.” Merle patted my shoulder as she walked by me to the back door.

  Left to myself, I made quick work of the food and cleaned up as I’d promised, then wondered what I was going to do with myself now that I was rested and fueled. I needed a distraction until I could look at what Merle had told me in the cold light of morning. I could read if I had a book that interested me. Surely something on the library shelves would do.

  Was Damian holed up in the library? I wondered. My pulse was doing a dance at the thought of running into him. Which would he be tonight—the Damian who heated my blood with passion or the one who left me chilled and uncertain?

  Before I could make myself move in that direction, I heard a shriek that came from outside the house. I rushed to the back door and flung it open. The night was clear and the moon cast a blue glow over the earth.

  “Wa-a-ait!” echoed through the night at me.

  My gaze snapped to a nearby copse of trees, where a bobbing light preceded a slender figure.

  “Nissa!” I called out.

  What in the world was she doing outside running into the woods? Without thinking, I set out after her.

  “Nissa!” I called again, “Stop right there!” but either the girl didn’t hear or was ignoring me.

  Thankfully my legs were longer than hers, I was well rested and seemed to have no ill aftereffects from the carbon monoxide. The distance between us quickly narrowed. The beam from her flashlight bobbed, and I swore it picked up something moving ahead of her. Something or someone.

  I had just about caught up to her when Nissa stumbled and shrieked. The flashlight flew from her hand, hitting the ground at the same time she did.

  I was on her in seconds.

  “Are you all right?” I gasped, realizing I was out of breath.

  Nissa was already flying to her feet. I caught her arm and she struggled with me.

  “Let me go. I have to go!”

  I didn’t loosen my grip. “Go where?”

  “After her!”

  “You can’t run into the woods at night!”

  “I saw her!” Nissa shrieked, striking me, elbow to head, in her struggle to free herself.

  “Ahh!” I fell back and would have fallen if not for the tree that caught me. For a moment I was seeing stars that weren’t in the sky.

  “Chloe! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t!” A frantic Nissa was trying to grab on to me.

  “I…I’ll be all right. Give me a minute.”

  “She’ll get away.” Nissa sobbed and stared into the dark.

  I put my arms around her. “Who will get away? Nissa, who were you following?”

  “M-my mother’s ghost.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Let’s get out of here.” I hugged Nissa tight and let her sob against my chest for a moment. My throat tightened, and my eyes stung in empathy. How many times had I cried like this over the loss of my own mother? “We’ll go back to the house and talk. Okay?”

  She nodded and forced out a muffled “Okay.”

  Praying that Nissa wouldn’t bolt on me, I let go of her and fetched the flashlight she’d dropped. Then I took her hand, laced my fingers through hers and started back for the house. Nissa came along without a struggle. She sniffled and wiped away her tears with her free hand. Several times on the way, she glanced behind her, as if hoping to spot the ghost.

  When I got her into the house, I took her straight upstairs to her room. She was trembling, and I thought she could use a minute to pull herself together.

  “Why don’t you change for bed and then we’ll talk.” Thinking she’d want some privacy, I turned around and crossed the room. “I’ll just go look at your fish.”

  Once again I was transfixed by the beauty of the tank with its pretty hidey-holes for the colorful fish, one of which amused me as it spewed sparkly gravel in every direction. Some of the bigger translucent chunks looked too big for the little fish to move. Which just proved that if you have enough determination, you can do anything.

  I could hear Nissa moving around behind me, climbing into her pajamas. And sniffling.

  Wanting to distract her a bit, I asked, “Did you put the fish tank together yourself?”

  “Dad helped me with the stuff like the tank itself and the filters, but I picked out the fish and everything in it.”

  “Great job. It’s beautiful.”

  “Thanks. You can turn around now.”

  Nissa looked so young and vulnerable sitting on the edge of her bed that I joined her and put an arm around her back. “Now…tell me what happened.”

  She took a deep breath and said, “I was down by the barns with Dad checking on one of the pregnant mares. She was okay, so he told me to come back here to get ready for bed. That’s when I saw someone come around the other side of the house.”

  “Why did you think it was your mom’s ghost?”

  “I…I saw her. I used my flashlight, but she took off through the w-woods and I did, too. Then you came.”

  Nissa blinked and tears rolled down her cheeks again. I didn’t know what to say, so I hugged her again. Sometimes that’s all someone needed—another person to listen and a comforting pair of arms. How much of a look had Nissa gotten with the flashlight? The figure could have been anyone…possibly the person who’d been rifling through the attic.

  “You believe me, don’t you?” Nissa asked.

  “I saw someone, too,” I hedged.

  “But you don’t think it was Mom’s ghost, do you?”

  A week ago I would have said I didn’t believe in ghosts, but circumstances had changed the way I thought.

  “I don’t know,” I said honestly, though a flesh-and-blood person seemed far more likely than a spirit. “But I believe in you, Nissa.”

  The girl wrapped her arms around my waist and buried her head in the hollow at my shoulder. We stayed that way, neither of us saying anything, for a long while. My heart went out to Nissa, and I felt closer to her emotionally than I had to anyone in a long time.

  Anyone since Dawn.

  Eventually the excitement caught up to the girl, and I realized she was getting sleepy. I pulled the covers down and scooted her under them.

  “Pleasant dreams,” I murmured, turning out the bedside light.

  Once out of her room, I went in search of Damian so that I could tell him what had happened. He’d told me he w
anted to know about any incident that had to do with his daughter immediately, and I figured this qualified.

  He wasn’t in the house, so he must still have been at one of the barns. Flashlight in hand, I set out to find him, which proved to be an easy task. I simply followed the raised voices into the far barn. Damian sounded really angry, so I stopped just inside the door and stayed in the shadows to listen.

  “I want to know whenever someone who doesn’t belong steps foot on Graylord Pastures’ land!”

  “Now you want me playing security cop?” Theo answered, sounding equally angry.

  “Unless you want to be personally responsible if more feed disappears. This latest theft is going to set us back thousands!”

  I started at the realization that something else had gone wrong on the farm. Jack Larson had just been asking me if there had been any new crises. As if he had known…

  “It’s not my fault that you’ve made your own enemies,” Theo grumbled.

  “If I’ve done anything to make someone strike back, I don’t know who, or what I did.”

  “What about Priscilla? You think what you did to her was fair?”

  My pulse picked up at the mention of Damian’s ex-wife.

  “What are you saying, Theo? You think she’s behind all the bad things that have been happening to us?”

  When the barn manager said, “I’m just giving you an example of someone who would have reason to hate you!” I didn’t get the feeling that he was too fond of Damian himself.

  “My divorce might not have been amicable, but I can’t see Priscilla trying to ruin me. Then how could she get more money out of me?”

  “Think what you will,” Theo said, sounding as though Damian was a fool. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to get out of here and get home.”

  Theo stalked through the barn, so preoccupied with his own thoughts that he didn’t seem to notice me in the shadows.

  Outside, he got into his truck and drove off.

  Great. Now I had to give Damian more bad news. Part of me wanted to run the other way, but the other part figured he didn’t need to be alone now, either.

  I crossed through the barn, noticing most of the stalls were empty because the horses were pastured. Damian was spreading a blanket across a couple of bales of fresh hay in one of the empty stalls.

  “Planning on sleeping here tonight?”

  Damian started and whipped around so that his hostile gaze met mine. Then he took a deep breath and blinked the hostility away.

  “Funny Valentine is overdue,” he explained. “Gestation isn’t precise—but usually no longer than a year. Valentine is past that by a week. I want to be here in case she needs me.”

  “Nissa said the mare was all right.”

  “She seems to be, but I’m being cautious, just in case.”

  “Wouldn’t keeping an eye on her at night be Theo’s job?”

  “He and Alex and I take turns.”

  I hesitated only a second before saying, “I heard the argument, you know. I was back there.” I indicated the entry to the barn. “So, there’s been more bad luck?”

  “Thousands of dollars of feed stolen. Someone backed a truck right up to the feed shed and took it.”

  “And no one heard the vehicle?”

  “It must have happened when I was at the hospital with you. Alex was in the house dealing with the fireplace. Theo was back at his place for the night.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “What do the authorities say?”

  “They haven’t been out here yet. It’s not a critical situation, so someone will be out in the morning. But truth be told, I doubt they’ll get my feed back. Or even find the culprit. What are you doing out here, anyway? You should be resting. Not wandering around.”

  That he sounded like he cared warmed me through, made me even sadder that I had to give him more bad news.

  “I’m fine, Damian. Rested. No ill effects. Like new. But something happened…. I had to talk to you.”

  He stepped closer and closed his hands around my upper arms. “What now? Did someone else try to hurt you?”

  Heat spread from his palms through my blouse to my flesh, distracting me. He sounded so concerned. And his intense expression thrilled me. It made me think he did care…at least about my welfare.

  I mentally shook myself. This was about his daughter, not about me.

  “Nissa…she’s all right. But she thought she saw Priscilla’s ghost.” I quickly told him about the race through the copse.

  Damian cursed under his breath and let go of me. “I wish Nissa would get it out of her head that her mother’s dead.”

  “She would if you’d let her see Priscilla. Nissa isn’t the only one who thinks your ex-wife is dead. There are rumors that she just disappeared, that she met with foul play.” I wasn’t going to tell him that Theo had been one of the people to suggest as much. Considering the conclusions my talk with Merle had led me to, I said, “And more rumors about the real reason Dawn disappeared in the middle of the night.”

  The last was a bit of an embellishment, but I got what I was looking for.

  Seeming truly puzzled, he said, “Dawn left a note, for God’s sake!”

  Which made me think that he really believed it. “A note that was written after she was gone.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I was looking for anything Dawn might have left in the computer,” I said, hoping he would think I meant the lesson plans. “And I found the note. I read it. The date on the file was wrong. Dawn’s supposed goodbye was written the day after she disappeared.”

  I wished I could tell him everything. The whole truth. But I wasn’t foolish enough to believe he would let my lies go. I would be the one to go. And then I would be yet another person gone, making Nissa feel even more abandoned.

  I remembered her arms around me, the emotions we’d shared, and knew I couldn’t do it. Not yet.

  And truth be told, I wasn’t ready to leave Damian, either. Though I’d known him only for a few days, I was drawn to him like no other man.

  He was pacing now. “What happened to Dawn, then? Did someone get rid of her?” He stared at me and shook his head. “The things that have been happening to you… What if they weren’t accidents?”

  “There are some pretty strange things going on here, all right,” I agreed.

  What if they weren’t accidents? What if someone really wanted me dead?

  “Priscilla!” Damian wrenched out. “Is it possible she could be doing these things? If she was here tonight, without my knowing, then anything is possible.”

  He was talking more to himself than to me. His agitation was contagious. But I didn’t even know Priscilla. What could she have against me?

  “So you do think Nissa saw her mother?”

  “I’m afraid so.” He ran a hand through his hair. “My ex-wife has practically bankrupted the farm with her demands of money. She made herself quite a deal…she knows she’s not welcome on the property, but apparently she can’t stay away even if she’s the one who left us.”

  So I’d been correct that Priscilla’s not being around was to Damian’s liking. But I wondered what he meant by her making a deal. And why would she be sneaking around?

  I asked, “If she didn’t come here to see her daughter…then why?”

  “I imagine she’s the one who has been rummaging around in the attic. No doubt I can thank Mrs. Avery for letting her in. And for covering for her.”

  “You think she’s been searching for the Equine Diamonds?”

  “Nothing would surprise me where Priscilla is concerned. She’s a liar and a cheat. You can’t trust anything she tells you.”

  A liar and a cheat. I swallowed hard. Damian could be describing me.

  “My ex-wife could never have enough of anything,” he went on. “She ran through money like water, but over the past several months she’s had her lawyers hounding me for more. Apparent
ly she made some bad investments. She’s been playing me, suggesting that I wouldn’t want to see the mother of my child out on the streets.”

  “I…I’m sure that wasn’t your intention.”

  “Of course not. I mortgaged this place to give her enough money in the divorce settlement to satisfy her. The money could have supported her for a decade. Maybe now you see why I say not seeing her mother is best for Nissa. Priscilla has destroyed her own life. I don’t want her to ruin Nissa’s, as well. I won’t let that happen. My daughter is the most important thing in the world to me.”

  Damian’s emotions were raw and on the surface. I was deeply moved by his love and protectiveness for Nissa, something I had longed for myself once my father had taken himself out of my life for good. My foster parents had been kind, caring people, but I’d never been able to forget what I’d lost.

  Damian’s concern and, yes, his obvious pain over the situation, made me feel closer to him, opened up my heart to him. I sensed he felt his world was crumbling, one brick and then another. I knew how devastating that could be, and I wanted to help him hold on.

  For the second time in one evening, I wrapped comforting arms around another human being. First the daughter, now the father.

  Strong arms wrapped around my back and pulled me closer in response. “Ah, Chloe…” He murmured my name, his lips pressed against my hair.

  And then his lips inched from my temple to my cheek with aching slowness. Slowness meant, no doubt, to give me time to move away. Such slowness that I found it hard to breathe when I didn’t.

  I gasped as his mouth slid over mine.

  Damian kissed me with such thoroughness that the effect traveled along every nerve, all the way to my toes. I gave as good as I got and I knew that I had never felt so sweetly ravaged or so thoroughly seduced just from a kiss.

  His forehead pressed to mine, Damian murmured, “Chloe, maybe you should go back to the house.”

  “Is that what you want? For me to go?”

  “No.”

  “Then don’t send me away.”

  I wrapped my arms around the back of his neck and tugged until our mouths meshed once more.