“No! Don’t lock me in here,” she screamed, hysteria replaying scenes from her childhood. “I’ll be good!” But her cries went unheard.
The acidic odor thickened, and the very air started to blister her mouth. Its burning filled her nostrils in spite of the protective arm she held over them. Her eyes felt as if hot coals were heaped upon her lids. Wavering sheets of fire filled her head, and she couldn’t think. Coughing and choking, Katherine stumbled as she blindly fought to get her bearings. But her mind refused to release the layout of the room from her memory. With smoke-filled eyes, she searched the plastered walls for an escape.
A window! Her mind screamed. There has to be a window! Didn’t she gaze through one as a child? Didn’t she climb through it to play at the edge of the forbidden field when her mother thought she was napping? Who joined with her there and played with her silly childhood games? She couldn’t remember.
A crackling sound came from behind her, and she spun around.
“Momma?”
A wave of nausea swept over her as she tried to see through the brilliant sheets of yellow and red flames that suddenly loomed up before her. Wavering, she fell back against the wall. Fighting unconsciousness, Katherine touched the window’s frail wooden frame. Desperately she tore at the rotten wood that had sealed the window shut. Finally it gave way. She pulled more of the boards off until an opening appeared. Suddenly a pair of large hands reached through the opening, grabbed her by her arms, and pulled her from the cottage.
Straining to see through the darkness, Katherine’s subconscious stored the image of a shape and form that was tall and powerful. Try as she might, she couldn’t discern any features for the night engulfed her rescuer’s face. She lay on the ground, sucking the cool night air deeply into her inflamed lungs. Her eyes, though watery from the stinging smoke, no longer burned. Sitting up, she looked at the cottage. She blinked tears away to clear her vision, but the cottage was unchanged! Where were the flames of fire? What happened to the choking, life threatening smoke? There wasn’t any smoke! And where was her rescuer? Was it Charles? No, he wasn’t strong enough to have pulled her out. Had Katherine only imagined the hands that freed her?
Rubbing her aching arms, she concluded that the fire and her rescuer had to have been as real as the dew that now penetrated her thin gown. She couldn’t have made up the pain that lingered in her eyes and nose, nor the soreness of her arms where she had been grabbed. Someone had gone to great lengths to lure her here. But for what purpose? To frighten her so that she would leave? She rose and, with irregular steps, again ventured toward the cottage. No wonder she couldn’t open the door. A shovel had been wedged between the latch and the flat stone step. Her head began to spin again, and she grabbed hold of the door latch until the dizziness passed. Though unable to sort through all the events, Katherine thought she knew the reason behind them.
“They’re trying to chase me away from Wistmere!” she whispered, her voice husky and thick. “It has to be Alex and… May-Jewel!” She knew that both were greedy enough to want the estate for themselves. But she wasn’t going to be frightened away. “No!” she vowed. “Robert Craig owes me this, and I’ll not leave here!”
Still groggy from the smoke’s effect, Katherine staggered back to the manor. She had to know where Alexander and her half-sister were during her attack. With unsteady steps, she made her way to May- Jewel’s room. Again she tried the latch. This time it gave. Upon entering, she saw that May-Jewel was asleep. Katherine bent over the slumbering form, and, as she did so, blackness overcame her, and she fell unconscious onto the bed.
Chapter Six
As Alex gently laid Katherine on her own bed, he and May-Jewel set about trying to revive her. Taking Katherine’s hands into hers, May-Jewel shook them gently and called her sister’s name.
“Katherine.”
The voice prodded the fibers of Katherine’s subconscious until her eyes sprang open, filled with terror. She sprang up and almost out of bed.
“Be still, Katherine! You’re all right!”
Hands gently pushed her back down onto the pillow. Her mind veiled in shadows, it took a moment for her to realize that she was in her own room, her own bed. Then she saw May-Jewel and Alex standing at her bedside. She stared into their questioning faces.
“The cottage…” Her voice quivered with urgency.
Alex nodded to a form standing out of Katherine’s view. She heard the bedroom door close.
“The cottage!” she exclaimed, bolting up again from the bed and looking to Alex.
“Yes, you were rambling about the cottage being on fire. I’ve sent Charles to investigate.”
May-Jewel sat beside Katherine, taking her hand again. “Why were you wandering around outside at this hour? And why go to the cottage?”
Unable to voice an answer, Katherine closed her eyes against their questioning looks and withdrew into silence. In her
