His Vampyrrhic Bride Read Online Free Page A

jails.
    However, he’d grown to like the building. The roof tiles were as red as sun-ripened tomatoes. The stonework had mellowed down to a soft, buttery yellow. A slate tablet over the front door boasted that Mull-Rigg Hall had been
Raised From Ruin In The Year Of Our Lord 1866
. That’s when the pillars and imposingly posh frontage had been added.
    Tom collected the chainsaw from the garage. When you’re twenty-three, chopping down dead trees with a powerful, motor-driven saw is immensely appealing. Even Chester’s jokey warning of ‘if you cut your legs off with that thing, don’t come running to me’ did nothing to lessen his enthusiasm to start blasting tree trunks with the ferocious blade.
    Tom Westonby had just returned to the driveway when he heard a familiar roar.
    The bus was making its return journey. At that moment, he recalled a vivid image of the bus as it headed to the village a couple of hours ago. The stranger in white had been on board. The one he’d pursued through the forest at midnight.
    Without a second’s hesitation, he dashed to the end of the drive. He was just in time to see the bus pass by the gates. There were a dozen passengers: mainly adults with bags of groceries. His heart pounded as he searched the faces.
    Where was the woman in white? He scanned face after face. Where was that flow of pale, almost luminous blonde hair?
    Twin girls were in the seat that his midnight stranger had occupied earlier. They were about eight years old; simultaneously, both stuck their tongues out at him.
    The bus roared away.
    His heart went from pounding with excitement to a plunge of disappointment.
    Maybe I really did imagine her
, he told himself as he headed back to the garage.
Not that I want to see her again
. He tried to rationalize away his confused swirl of feelings.
After all, why on earth would I want to see her? If she’s prowling around the forest at midnight she must be a nut-job.
    ‘Hello.’
    Catching a lungful of air, he spun round.
    There at the end of the drive stood the stranger. His gaze swept over her, taking in the blue eyes, the beautiful face, and the mist of pale, blonde hair.
    She took a step towards the gate, her head tilting slightly to the side as she studied his face; it seemed as if she was reading the thoughts inside his head.
    ‘I got off the bus around the corner.’ Her voice possessed a pleasant, light quality. ‘I wanted to pay you a visit.’
    ‘Oh?’ He knew his response was staggeringly inarticulate. Because at that moment he felt spectacularly inarticulate. What did you say to someone you’d hunted like a wild animal?
    ‘You were planning to kill me last night, weren’t you, Tom?’
    All he could do at that moment was stare in shock. Once more he had a vision of being hauled away to jail.
Surely, the woman will complain to the police. She’ll tell them that she’s been assaulted by the savage madman of Mull-Rigg Hall.
    Her lips formed a ghost of a smile. ‘Well, Tom, here I am. Your helpless victim. The one you attacked last night. So . . .’ Her gaze turned to the chainsaw in his hand. ‘Aren’t you going to finish what you started?’

FIVE
    T om Westonby stood there on the drive and gawped at the stranger who had just had made that extraordinary suggestion:
aren’t you going to finish what you started?
The way her eyes had fixed on the chainsaw suggested she really believed he would attack her.
    Tom’s patience vanished. He realized she was playing games with him, and that annoyed him so much that he put the chainsaw down, then rounded on the woman.
    ‘Don’t be so ridiculous!’ he snapped.
    ‘Ridiculous? I’m not the one who goes chasing after people they’ve never met before.’ Her blue eyes registered genuine shock at the abrupt way he’d spoken.
    ‘I’ve got every right to chase trespassers. You shouldn’t have been on this property. Were you seeing what you could steal from the house? Because I know you weren’t alone, were you?