LITMIR.BIZ

      CONTENTS

      CHAPTER ONE

      CHAPTER TWO

      CHAPTER THREE

      CHAPTER FOUR

      CHAPTER FIVE

      CHAPTER SIX

      CHAPTER SEVEN

      CHAPTER EIGHT

      CHAPTER NINE

      CHAPTER TEN

      CHAPTER ELEVEN

      CHAPTER TWELVE

      CHAPTER THIRTEEN

      CHAPTER FOURTEEN

      CHAPTER ONE

      DRACULA’S castle!

      No…on second thoughts, Crys decided, that was perhaps being a little unkind to Dracula!

      She had been driving for hours, had stopped the car at the top of the driveway in the hopes of somehow getting her bearings in the rapidly deepening fog. But all such thoughts had fled as she saw the name of the house grooved into one of the stone pillars that flanked the broken-down gateway. Her startled gaze moved to the monstrosity of a house just visible at the end of the driveway. Victorian Gothic architecture—and every era since, if the numerous extensions were anything to go by.

      The whole thing jarred on Crys’s heightened sense of line and design.

      This couldn’t possibly be her destination—couldn’t be the Yorkshire home of the elder brother of her good friend Molly. Molly was slightly eccentric, yes—a little unorthodox, too—but that was no reason to suppose it ran in the family!

      Crys frowned up at the pillar closest to her. Despite the covering of moss, the name ‘Falcon House’ was still readable. She picked up the letter she had received from Molly several days ago, quickly scanning its contents until she came to the directions for finding Sam Barton’s home. The name ‘Falcon House’ clearly stood out from Molly’s otherwise hurried scrawl.

      But this place wasn’t really a house at all. It was a castle, with high turrets and towers, and even what looked like a defunct moat encircling the outer walls.

      Perhaps Sam’s home was at the back of this monstrosity? Hadn’t Molly mentioned at some time that her brother was caretaking the place for an absent friend?

      Having now seen Falcon House, Crys wasn’t at all surprised the owner was absent most of the time—it would give anyone nightmares to actually have to live in this dilapidated old pile.

      Yes, she decided, that had to be the answer. If she drove down the driveway and over the rickety-looking drawbridge, there was sure to be a smaller—more comfortable!—house situated somewhere at the back.

      Except, as Crys discovered a few minutes later, having driven slowly down the rutted and holed road and into the forecourt to a castle encircled by a moat—albeit an empty, smelly old moat full of indescribable rubbish—there was virtually nothing behind the building. Just a small piece of land that probably should have been a garden but was so overgrown with bushes and trees it resembled a jungle!

      Crys parked her car, climbing out onto moss-covered gravel and stretching her tired limbs even as she gazed up and up at the tumbledown castle before her, taking in the pipes that hung loose on the walls, the several tiles that had slid off the roof to lie shattered on the ground below.

      Even through the damp fog Crys could see that most of the lower windows were either boarded up completely or had curtains drawn against prying eyes. The windows on the upper floors, although virtually all intact, seemed to look blankly out on the rest of the world.

      Not exactly welcoming, and the whole place had such a neglected air that Crys was sure no one could actually be living in it. It—

      She had heard something!

      It was an undistinguishable, muted sound, but nevertheless she had heard a noise of some sort. It seemed to be coming from the side of the house.

      She swallowed hard, hesitating. Should she go and investigate, and risk goodness knows what? Or should she simply get back in her car and drive quickly away?

      The second choice definitely had its own appeal. But hadn’t she spent the last year running away from one situation or another? Wasn’t it time to stand her ground and face whatever it was that needed facing? Wasn’t this exactly what her acceptance of Molly’s invitation to spend some days in Yorkshire with her at the home of her brother had all been about?

      There again, was this really the right occasion for her to start facing up to the world once again?

      Crys almost laughed out loud at the ludicrousness of the situation she found herself in. Almost…

      It had been a big step for her to accept Molly’s invitation at all—to make the long and tiring journey from London to Yorkshire. Only to be confronted with—this.

      But what was ‘this’, really? She’d turned into the drive of a dilapidated old castle, and the blinding fog was adding to its air of mystery and so increasing her unease, despite the fact that the property gave every indication of being uninhabited.

      Except for a rhythmically grating sound coming from the side of the house…

      Easily sorted, Crys told herself briskly. She would just have to go and investigate. If it was just the brisk wind blowing a branch against one of those sightless windows, fine. If the sound was a human being, she would simply ask for directions to Sam Barton’s home and be on her way.

      But her resolve was shaken somewhat when she passed under the archway that led onto the forecourt and found herself face to face with the largest dog she had ever seen in her life!

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