Enchanted, A Paranormal Romance / Fantasy (Forever Charmed) by Rachel Wells Read Free Book Online Page A

seemed more like instructions than an invitation. Mandy had just nodded silently, a small smile on her face to be polite.
    She couldn’t have been happier to get back to the security of the Boat and drive back to her own house. She was definitely not looking forward to another gathering like tonight’s. This time she had advance notice, so she would be sure to come up with some plan to excuse herself from whatever activity they were planning for next time.
    Her mom and dad were sitting in the living room watching something on the flat screen. “Hey honey! Nana said you went out with friends. How was it?” her mom called out to her.
    “It was fine. They were um, nice. Is Nana around?” Mandy asked.
    “No, she said she had some things to do around her house. She said to tell you she hoped you had fun though.”
    “I did. Well, I’m gonna go upstairs. I want to start that new book I got.”
    “Night Mandster,” Mandy’s dad called.
    “Sleep tight hon,” Mandy’s mom echoed.
    “Night,” Mandy answered.
    Once upstairs she changed into her flannel pajama bottoms and a t-shirt. She had been hoping Nana would be at the house because she desperately wanted to question her now. As she wasn’t, Mandy decided to settle for second best: the Internet. She flipped open her laptop on the desk where it sat and turned on the little lamp. She hesitated a minute before the keys wondering which array of words she should Google first. Finally she typed in “York Beach witch”. A bunch of hits filled the screen before Mandy. One of the first promised photos and stories of Mary Nasson’s grave.
    Mandy stared frozen at the screen. This was a little eerie. So what , she said to herself. This is a small town. All small towns have their silly little legends. It doesn’t mean anything . She forced her hand to click the mouse, opening the page.
    Mandy scanned it wearily. She saw words like “white witch”, “herbalist”, “exorcisms”, and “haunted”. But it was the pictures on the page that sent goose bumps crawling up and down Mandy’s bare arms and seemed to chill her to the bone. Pictures of a tombstone. A tombstone that had the very face etched into it as was carved into the trunk currently sitting at the foot of Mandy’s bed.
     
    * * *
     
     
    Chapter 5
     
    Mandy sat seemingly glued to the chair, unable to move her eyes from the screen. It was definitely the same face, she had no doubt about that. What did it mean though? Who was the face? Who was the woman? She hit the print button on the browser and a minute later the paper slid out of Mandy’s printer, the mystery image staring up at Mandy from the page. She forced herself to get up off the chair and take the paper over to the trunk.
    Mandy was chilled to the bone and she didn’t think it was due to the inclimate weather this time. She sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the trunk and lay the paper down on top of it so the twin faces were both peering up, side by side. She bent over the images and compared them, even though she knew instinctively that this was unnecessary. She was sure the faces were one and the same, but she hoped there would be some minute detail that would be different. That would somehow unlink the trunk to the haunting image on the gravestone.
    Mandy started at the hair of the woman. She tried to examine it strand by strand, looking for some difference, but it curved up and away from both faces, stacked on top in some sort of up-do or bun. Whatever term you called it, they were identical. On to the face and the shape of the jaw line. They were both rounded and curved, almost having a soft angelic look about them. The eyes, perfect almond shapes with heavy lids. Noble noses, full round lips gracefully arching in all the right spots. The necks, slender, leading off into rounded shoulders draped loosely in cloaks of some sort. Nothing was out of place or amiss between the two images.
    Mandy folded the paper containing the image of the