Garden of the Moon by Elizabeth Sinclair Read Free Book Online Page B

head and tiny ringlets of curls framed her face and neck, a style that hadn’t been in vogue for a very long time, and her Empire-waisted dress was totally out of date as well, the woman’s face…her eyes…could have been…Sara looking back at her from the canvas.
    “Look here. Deys a gentleman, too.” Raina held up another canvas, the same size and with the same style frame.
    Dragging her gaze from the unknown woman’s portrait, Sara glanced at the second painting. Disbelief then surprise vibrated through her from head to toe. It couldn’t be, but it was. It was the strange man who had appeared to her in the swamp and in the upstairs window.
    Speechless, she sank weakly into a Queen Anne chair, caring nothing about the dust that would cling to her dress.
    This couldn’t be. It just couldn’t be. Who were these people, and why were their paintings in Harrogate? Propping them against her legs, Raina stood them side-by-side for Sara to look at.
    It was then that Sara noticed it. The locket hanging around the woman’s neck. The same one that was on her dressing table down stairs. The locket Clarice had said Maddy never took off, the one that had been buried with Madeline Grayson. The portrait was of Maddy.
    Her gaze shifted back to the man’s face in the other portrait. Was he Jonathan Bradford? Something that stirred next to her frantically beating heart told her it was.
    But what of the other painting, the one she’d removed from her bedroom? Could that be Katherine? If Maddy and Sara looked that much alike, then Sara finally understood why the woman hated her. She also understood Clarice’s initial reaction to her: the wide eyes and the paling of her complexion. She probably thought Maddy had come back from the dead.
    “What’s dis?” Raina rummaged around at the back of the painting. The sound of the backing being ripped away brought Sara back to the moment. “Look! Deys a book, too.”
    In somewhat of a daze, Sara took the small, leather-bound book. A light layer of dust nearly obscured the writing on the cover. Using the hem of her gown, she wiped the cover clean. Written across the black leather in gold leaf were five words… The Diary of Madeline Wade .
    Sara’s head grew light. Her temples began to throb. She swayed.
    Raina’s hand on her shoulder roused her from her stupor. “You’s looking poorly, Miss Sara. We needs to git you out a dis dust fo you takes sick. No tellin’ what kind of sickness is up here.” Taking Sara’s elbow, Raina lifted her from the chair. “Jest lean on me.”
    Sara tucked the book in her pocket, took two steps, and then stopped. “Get the paintings, Raina…both of them.”
    “But—”
    She smiled weakly at the maid. “I’ll be fine. Just get the paintings.”
    Reluctantly, Raina did as she was told, but kept a sharp eye on her mistress. Juggling one portrait under each arm, Raina followed Sara down the steep attic stairs.
     
    ***
     
    After supervising Samuel, whom Sara had summoned to hang the replacement paintings above the mantel, she sat on the foot of the bed and stared at them. Her resemblance to the woman in the portrait was uncanny. Her chestnut hair, the exact same shade as Sara’s, outlined her heart-shaped face with tight ringlets. They shared the same upturned nose, stubborn chin and high cheekbones. Even the tiny mole Sara had on her neck just below her ear had been added to the painting. Her eyes, the same shade of green as Sara’s, glittered with some inner secret happiness that Sara had notice in her mirror of late. If what Clarice had said about Jonathan and Maddy being in love were true, Sara didn’t have to try hard to figure out what secret Maddy’s happy smile hid, but it didn’t explain her own smile.
    With that thought, her gaze slid to the painting of the man. He had to be Jonathan. With hair black as night and eyes the color of Spanish moss, Sara had no trouble understanding why Maddy had fallen in love with him. Just staring at