Garden of the Moon Read Free Page B

for her to be there.
    She blinked and gasped again.
    Like a puff of smoke from one of Papa’s cigars, the man had vanished.

 
     
    Chapter 2
     
     
    “Oh!” Sara cried, half in surprise and half in disappointment that the man had disappeared.
    Raina grabbed her mistress’ hand. “What?” Her gaze darted from Sara to the house and back. The woman’s eyes widened, nearly popping from their sockets.
    Raina had already been spooked enough. No reason to add to her upset. Sara just shook her head and patted the chocolate-brown hand clasping one of hers like the jaws of an enraged ‘gator. “It’s all right. I was just taken aback by the grandeur of the place. I don’t recall it being this immense.”
     
    ***
     
    The half-lie slid easily from her lips. Oddly, the appearance of the unfamiliar man in the upstairs window hadn’t caused her any alarm or discomfort. The words he’d spoken in the bayou echoed through her mind again. I’m waiting . His slow smile, in some strange way, had been welcoming, as if he knew she belonged here…as if he had been waiting for her.
    Another shiver washed over her. However, rather than feeling apprehensive, a wild, rising tide of excitement swelled inside her.
    Who was he? He couldn’t logically be the same man she’d seen in the bayou. It had to have been her imagination that had conjured him. Perhaps he hadn’t vanished at all. Perhaps he hadn’t been there at all. Or he might have just stepped from her line of vision. But, if it wasn’t the bayou stranger, then who was he?
    The new overseer, perhaps? It wouldn’t have surprised her if Papa had hired someone to help manage the plantation. He’d been spoiling her without her mother’s knowledge for most of Sara’s twenty-seven years. Papa’s intervention had been the only reason that Sara hadn’t found herself walking down the aisle with that pimply-faced Jason Bannister from River Oaks Plantation. Why the man must have been forty-five if he was a day. When Sara had asked him to leave, her mother had been furious, screaming at her that she’d end up an old maid if she didn’t lower her standards. That night, out of sight of Patricia, Sara had hugged Papa fiercely. Just the thought of sharing her wedding night with that old man had made her skin crawl.
    As the memories raced through her mind once more, Sara continued to stare at Harrogate’s upstairs window…waiting…inexplicably hoping the man would reappear. When he didn’t, she consigned the incident to a shadow cast by the towering oak trees or perhaps her excitement about finally coming home .
    Still, the idea that a stranger, captivating or otherwise, could be wandering around in her house brought back a small measure of the creepy unease she’d experienced earlier.
    “Samuel?” Sara gently poked Raina’s father in the side. “Please go inside and make sure everything is…in order?”
    With a slow nod, the burly, black man jumped to the ground, climbed the stairs and then entered the house.
    To avoid her maid’s questioning look, Sara pretended to be absorbed in her surroundings. No need to explain why she’d sent Samuel inside before them. If Raina thought that a strange man lay in wait for them inside the house, wild horses wouldn’t get the girl in there.
    A few minutes later, Samuel emerged, descended the stairs and grinned. “Looks fine to me, Miss Sara.”
    “Nothing unusual?” Sara stared hard at him.
    “No, ma’am.”
    “You looked upstairs?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “You spectin’ something’ unusual?” Raina blurted, her hands clasping Sara’s in a death
    grip.
    Sara pulled her fingers from Raina’s grasp. “No, of course not. I was just being careful. It’s not unusual for vagrants to take refuge in these deserted homes, you know. Do you want to go in there and find some vagrant ready to pounce on us?”
    “No ma’am.”
    “Very well. I suggest you pull yourself together and enjoy the moment. Nothing but a wonderful future