A Groom With a View by Jill Churchill Read Free Book Online Page B

their rooms.
    “Too much static. But it's a typical spring storm. It'll clear off by morning.”
    The wind howled and a branch broke and slithered down the roof. Jane and Shelley blindly felt their way back to their rooms. Jane shuddered and she got into her long flannel nightgown.
    “Too bad there wasn't any chance of talking to Eden about the treasure," Shelley said, calling from the next room.
    “We can catch her sometime tomorrow," Jane said. She took another quick glance at her notebooks and then settled in with a mystery book she'd brought along, which was a challenge to read by the flickering kerosene lamplight. She could hear Shelley puttering around in her own room. Probably cleaning things. Shelley was an inveterate cleaner-upper.
    After a bit, Jane realized the temperature had dropped and it was getting really chilly. She opened her doorway to the hall. "There's a very bad draft out here. I wonder if a door's been left ajar?”
    There was a low wailing sound from somewhere.
    “What was
that!"
Shelley exclaimed, rushing through the bathroom to Jane's room.
    Jane was wide-eyed. "I don't know. I don't hear it now."
    “Open the door again," Shelley said.
    The wail began again. Jane started to laugh, albeit a bit nervously. "It's the wind down this hall. I lived in a dormitory once that was like that. Get the right combinations of doors along the hall opened and a good wind outside and you get an eerie howling noise."
    “You're real certain that's what it is?'
    “Certain enough that I'm not going to go check it out.”
    Shelley went back through the bathroom that led to her room.
    A minute later, Jane called through, "I'm in charge here. I do have to check it out."
    “Want me to go along?" Shelley was trying to read a magazine by the light of her small bedside kerosene lamp.
    “No, of course not," Jane said, mentally pleading,
Please insist on joining me!
    But Shelley took her at her word. Jane put on a robe, lighted her lamp, and opened the door again. The howling, which wasn't audible with the door shut, sounded louder and more ominous.
Don't be a big baby,
Jane told herself.
Just check that the main doors are locked and don't go all spooky and stupid.
    This resolve lasted down the hallway and into the main room. As Jane approached the front door, which was open slightly, an enormous gust of rain-laden wind blew it all the way open. The heavy door crashed against the wall, and bounced back, nearly smacking Jane in the process. The wind had blown out her lamp, which she set down on the floor.
    She closed the door, tested it, and discovered that the latch was old and didn't quite fit. After a bit of experimenting, she discovered that closing the door, then flinging herself against it, caused a nice snick as the bolt actually went home. Now that she'd solved the door problem, all she had to do was go back to her room.
    In the dark.
    Without a lamp.
    Or flashlight.
    But there was lightning. And if she got her bearings with each flash and took it slowly, she could return without running into anything. She stood quite still, peering blindly into the main room, ready to get a good fix on just where she was the next time there was a flash of light.
    Something brushed against her ankle.
    Jane screamed just as a great noisy blast of sound and light seemed to strike only feet away. Over the sound of her heart thudding, she could hear the distinct ripping sound of a big limb peeling off a tree outside the house.
    There was a creature in the house. A raccoon? A possum? Or something bigger and scarier. Or, worse yet, a person! But what would a person be doing at ground level? Crawling? The thought gave her the creeps even worse.
    She tried shuffling briskly in the direction shethought she needed to go, but cracked her foot against a chair leg. She was disoriented. There shouldn't have been a chair there. Dear God, why hadn't she brought along a flashlight?
    Something bumped her leg again.
    And meowed.
    Jane nearly collapsed