Colton Manor by Francene Carroll Read Free Book Online Page A

that she’d find Damien in there. Just like the previous night, he was nowhere to be seen. She thought she must be imagining things when she saw that the cellar door was ajar again, but this time when she heard a muffled sound coming from down there she didn’t stick around to find out what it was. If Damien was sleepwalking again, and he couldn’t remember anything about the last episode, who knew what he was capable of. She’d read news stories about sleepwalkers murdering people, and Damien had shown an angry side to himself tonight that she did not want to see any more of.
                  Taking the stairs two at a time she bolted to her room. Damien’s door was closed, but that didn’t mean anything. Once inside her own room she locked the door and tried to calm herself down by texting some friends and doing some sketches. If she had anywhere else to go she would have hightailed it out of there immediately, but the only person she knew in the area was Bonnie and she couldn’t just turn up there in the middle of the night. When she finally got into bed it took over two hours for her to drift off, and she didn’t hear Damien return to his room at all during that time.
                  Ursula had no idea how long she’d been asleep when she was awoken by a noise in the hall just outside her door. She assumed it was Damien finally going back to bed. She held her breath as she listened for the sound of his door opening and closing, but there was nothing. She figured she must have been dreaming and she was about to roll over and try to get back to sleep when a faint squeaking sound caused her to sit up in fear. In the dim light from the lamp she’d left on she saw the door handle move. Damien was trying to get into her room!
                  It seemed like time stood still as she waited to see what he would do next. She half-expected him to start pounding on the door, or even try to kick it in, but to her intense relief his shuffling footsteps moved away. She heard his bedroom door open and close, and then there was silence.
    After her fear had subsided a little her next emotion was anger. Just what kind of game was he playing? How dare he try and come into her room uninvited in the middle of the night. She did not want to think about what he had planned to do to her if the door was unlocked, and she made the decision that the next day she would ask him to leave. Even if he was sleepwalking, his behaviour was just too strange for her to deal with. She’d be better off on her own with the ghosts because they at least couldn’t physically harm her. Who knew what Damien Knight was capable of when he was sleepwalking, or if he was sleepwalking at all.

Chapter Four
    Ursula was up very early the next morning. She hadn’t been able to get back to sleep after her scare, and now she just wanted Damien to come downstairs so she could break the bad news to him. She needed to get it over and done with so she could concentrate on her painting, but as she sat in the kitchen waiting for him to surface the hours ticked over and she feared he was going to sleep in till noon like he did the previous day. The cellar door was closed again and she couldn’t bring herself to look in there to see if anything had been disturbed. Instead she paced the porch and did some sketches, but by ten o’clock there was still no sign of him.
                  When the antique clock in the hall struck eleven she couldn’t wait any longer and she made her way up to his room.
                  “Damien, are you awake?” she said, knocking on the door, softly at first. When there was no response she knocked a bit harder. “Damien, I really need to talk to you about something important. Please get up.” Now she was beginning to lose her patience and she tried his door handle, but to her surprise the door was locked. “Damien, I know you must be awake. Please get dressed and come downstairs.