According to Mrs. Krenson at the Lakeside Inn, it had started out as a rough fur-trading town that had gradually grown into the popular tourist town it was today. The inn, once the local house of pleasure, had been remodeled and modernized over the years. Rising out of a picturesque forest, with mountains at its back and the lake at its feet like a small sparkling sea, it now resembled a gracious, well-preserved old lady, appearing both elegant and mysterious. At least, that’s what it said in the brochure and what Cassidy had thought when she’d arrived a few weeks before. Now, with dark clouds hanging over the valley, the lake was nothing like the crystal-clear mirror it resembled in the pictures and Cassidy had to wish for “sturdy” rather than mysterious. The day had dawned gray and wet and, standing at her bedroom window, Cassidy couldn’t help shivering as she looked up at the mountains shrouded in swirling fog, eerily beautiful and threatening.
