Not her sheets and pillows. These were rough and smelled of bleach. She would never allow these linens on her bed! Or on any of the beds at the inn. She tried to turn over, but something restrained her. As if her wrists were tied. There was a beeping sound, loud beside her...
She’d dodged Willow’s questions about Russell, diverting her with questions about her new friend, Henry. It broke Catherine’s heart to look at her daughter, laughing and chattering away like any nicer-than-average fifteen-year-old, and thinking about what it would do to Willow when she discovered...
The wallpaper was an old woman’s choice, bouquets of roses tied in pink ribbons. The floral carpeting on the stairs had faded to pale blooms. Clearly, this part of the house hadn’t been touched since Jon’s parents died. I had a brief image of Jon as a boy, towheaded and energetic, running up thes...
It was midmorning and she was clammy with clay, sweaty, and hungry. At the sight of an unfamiliar number, she started to silence the noise without answering. She wouldn’t be in a fit mood to speak with anyone until she’d had another cup of coffee and a snack. Then she reme...
I was sandwiched between my brother Donald and little Philip in his elbow-cracking plastic car seat. The windows were closed because of the cold, and my parents smoked with such relentless abandon that I glanced up from my book at one point and thought we were driving through fog. When it was too...
