The Silver Rose by Susan Carroll Read Free Book Online Page B

their roots sunk deep in the dark secret places of the earth. Gnarled branches swayed in the wind, their leaves whispering of ancient mysteries, druids, fairy folk, and sorcery. The perfect place for a witch to dwell.
    Simon leaned forward to give Elle’s neck a pat, more for his comfort than for hers. The eerie aspect of the wood should have rendered the mare nervous. Although Elle was restive, he could have sworn it was more the eager excitement of a horse scenting journey’s end.
    Strange as that notion struck him, Elle seemed at home here. Any tension, any unease was all his. Perhaps it was because for the last quarter mile, he kept remembering the last time he’d stood face-to-face with Miri Cheney. Her silvery-blue eyes as cold as a winter sky, she had aimed a pistol directly at his heart when fate had intervened in the form of an explosion, throwing them both to the ground. Would Miri have really pulled the trigger? Had she learned to hate him that much?
    He would soon have his answer . . .
    The thick canopy of trees and the storm-ridden sky robbed the afternoon of much of its light. As the road narrowed, Simon squinted to discern the way ahead, trying to compare what he saw with the directions he had been given.
    Knowing that Miri’s former home, Belle Haven, was lost to her, Simon had made inquiries at the inn regarding her present whereabouts. The Passing Stranger was the sole male bastion on this island populated by petticoats. Although the men were not as frightened of him as the women, the habitués of the taproom regarded him with dour suspicion.
    Simon had always found that if he scattered enough coin, he could loosen someone’s tongue. The one who had finally betrayed Miri to him was not one of the rough-hewn seamen or fisher lads, but another woman. She’d come creeping into the taproom with a shawl flung over her head, a faded creature with hard, shrewish features. Although she had trembled with fear, she had dared to seek Simon out.
    “I—I hear you are looking for the Lady of the Wood,” she said in such a quavering voice he had to bend closer to hear her.
    Simon nodded.
    “And—and you are paying?”
    Simon had been hard-pressed to conceal his astonishment. His memory of the women of this island was that they were doggedly loyal to one another and especially to their beloved Lady of Faire Isle and her family. As he pressed several coins into Madame Alain’s eager work-reddened hands, he felt a curious mingling of contempt and pity for the woman. That had not stopped him from acquiring her information.
    “Just follow the road through the forest. Eventually you’ll see a path split off leading deeper into the wood itself. Just follow that path and it’ll take you straight to her cottage.”
His money clutched tight in her fist, Madame Alain had stifled a sob and bolted, although Simon was not certain what she was running from, him or her own guilt.
    As he neared the track Miri’s betrayer had spoken of, Simon realized there was one fact the woman had failed to mention. There was not one path, but two forking off from the road in completely opposite directions. As Simon reined in, hesitating over which way to go, he was startled to discover that his horse had definite opinions on the subject.
    Elle tossed her head, pulling toward the least likely of the paths, the one that was less traveled and more overgrown. Simon did all he could to hold her back as lightning lit up the wood again. He spied something so astonishing he thought if he had been a horse, he would have reared back.
    Elle merely strained at the bit, redoubling her effort to surge down the path. Simon barked out a sharp command, hauling back on the reins in a way that demonstrated he’d tolerate no more of her nonsense. When he finally settled the mare, he peered down at the creature he’d spotted, still unable to credit his eyes.
    There was something almost supernatural about the cat squatting calmly at the fork in the paths, in