Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 100853 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100853 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“Is somebody in here?” a thready child’s voice asked.
“Back here,” I called out. “Just going through some papers.”
Judging by the size and the hair color, I’d have to say August, my brother Tenn’s and his wife Scarlett’s son. I didn’t interact with the kids much, but I knew them by sight.
“What are you doing up here?” I asked as August tentatively entered the room.
“Hide and seek,” he answered simply.
That was enough. Hide and seek in Heartstone Manor was an Olympic-level event. “What’s off-limits?” I asked.
“Everything on the kitchen level,” he answered promptly. “Dumbwaiter, garage, cars, people’s bedrooms, and Griffen’s office. Also,” he added, “no hiding behind the curtains in the art gallery because Mom’s afraid we’ll knock something over.”
I nodded sagely. “Solid rules,” I said. We’d had similar ones growing up. “But the attic’s not off-limits?”
August shook his head.
“You want a suggestion?” I offered.
He stared at me, wary but not afraid. “Sure,” he said.
I crooked my finger, and he closed the distance between us. Leaning down, I whispered in his ear. When he heard my idea, August gave a quick whoop of glee and disappeared.
It wasn’t long before I heard more steps in the hall. I looked up, expecting to see Nicky or Thatcher, and was surprised to see Paige, her pale blue eyes scanning the room, jolting as they landed on me. For a second, our gazes locked. Nerves swirled across her face, and she took a step back, wrenching her eyes from mine to scan the room again.
“Have you seen August?” she asked.
I didn’t want to lie, but I wasn’t going to rat the kid out either—not when he had such a stellar hiding place, courtesy of yours truly.
“Well,” I said, sitting up and putting the box to the side, “I’ve been really focused on going through this paperwork. I’m not sure I was paying attention.”
Her eyes narrowed on mine. “Uh-huh,” she said. “So, you don’t know where he is?”
“I’m sure he’s around somewhere,” I said, “but if I knew, telling would be cheating.”
Paige huffed out a breath of annoyance. “True,” she said, “but Finn is putting out tea with fresh-baked shortbread, and I didn’t want August to miss it. So, if you see him, could you let him know?”
“If I see him,” I agreed.
She backed out of the room and carried on down the hall. I wanted to ask her to stay, or to follow and invite myself to tea, but talking to me wasn’t part of her job description. I listened to August’s lighter steps following her down to tea as the late afternoon sun shifted, casting the attic in shadow.
In a house full of family and warmth, I was alone in the dark. It was exactly what I deserved, no matter how much I might wish for more.
Chapter Five
PAIGE
Ipulled the covers up tight around my shoulders, trying not to shiver. With every exhale, my breath came out in a cloud of ghostly white. I knew if I braved the chill in the air and turned on the taps in my bathroom, they’d sputter. The light switch on the wall would click uselessly. When it happened, it happened like this. Electricity out. Plumbing dry. And my room so very cold.
Some nights, I could ignore it and fall back asleep. I’d wake in the morning to bright sunshine, running water, and working lights, as if the icy cold and dark had never happened. Other nights, I slid from bed, pulling my robe tight around me, and braved the dark hall to flip the breakers. Why flipping the breakers would fix the plumbing along with the electricity, I couldn’t say. But sometimes it did. None of it made sense.
I never thought of Heartstone Manor as creepy—until times like this, in the dark of night, when I could see my breath in the moonlight. Heartstone was unlike any nannying job I’d had before, and exactly like the others in one specific way: my nanny family was great. I liked the Sawyers. I trusted Hope and Griffen. They loved their family and adored their daughter.
I’d picked up some of the family lore in the last year and knew what had happened to the patriarch, Prentice. Griffen’s younger brother, Ford, had been in prison for a year for killing his own father. You could have knocked me over with a feather when Griffen let Ford move right back into the Manor after his release. It seemed none of his siblings thought he’d done it, but love could be blind.
I couldn’t say I was thrilled when Ford took up residence in the room opposite mine in the guest wing. If I’d known I’d be sharing a hallway with a killer, I don’t know that I would have agreed to live in the Manor. But now that I was here, it was too awkward to ask to move. It would be obvious why I wanted to leave. And hadn’t getting into the house been part of my goal? It would be a lot harder to track down the mysterious Sarah Sawyer if I were living in town.