Isabelle floated past. She did a little pirouette, then she fisted her hands on her hips. “I didn’t see anything. You probably imagined it.”
Edward stopped beside me and lifted his palms. “I didn’t see anything either. But my spectacles are all fogged up—I can’t see the hand in front of my face.”
I pressed my fingers into my eyelids. Was it all in my head? Was I still hyper-sensitive from my attack in the woods, or was someone truly there?
“I’ll go check it out, see if there are any footprints. Maybe it was Andrew skulking around,” Derrick said.
“I’m sure it’s nothing. Tessa’s being dramatic,” Isabelle huffed.
“I still want to look.” Derrick skated toward the shed.
Isabelle blew out a breath and skated after him, but before she could catch up, the front of her skate struck the ice, and she fell. Grabbing her ankle, she moaned in pain.
Derrick turned away from the shed and skated to her side. He reached to examine her ankle.
“Can you bend it?”
“No,” she whimpered. “It’s twisted.” Tears gathered under her lashes then coursed down her cheeks.
“Let’s take a look.” He removed her skate and probed her ankle. “It is starting to swell. You should go inside.”
She held up her arms. “Help me back to the house? I don’t think I can walk on it.”
He cast a torn look at the shed, then he gave me an apologetic look. “I’ll be right back. Wait for me?”
I nodded and let out a heavy sigh as he helped a limping Isabelle off the ice. Even though she’d taken a hard fall, and her ankle was already red and swollen, the timing of her injury was suspicious. I wasn’t surprised she’d try to ruin our skating outing and monopolize Derrick’s attention, but to actually injure herself in the attempt was a whole new level of determination.
And she called me dramatic.
My gaze wandered back toward the shed. Had someone been watching me? I chewed on the corner of my lip, unsure if the suspicion was all in my mind.
Edward must have noticed my apprehension. He stopped in front of me and patted my arm.
“I’m not as spry as my grandson, but I can still scare off a lurker. I’ll go look.” He shuffled forward. At the edge of the pond, he bent to change out of his skates. Back in boots, he trudged toward the storage shed, then he disappeared around the side.
“I don’t see anything,” he shouted, the wind carrying his voice. “But there are some footprints over here.” He shouted something else, but I couldn’t make it out.
A movement in the tree line caught my attention, and the air lodged in my throat.
There! The hooded figure stood behind a tree trunk.
I wasn’t imagining things!
“Hey!” My skates skidded over the ice as I tried to get closer. A powerful gust of wind attacked me from behind, but I held my balance. As I worked my way toward the other end of the pond, the trees came into focus, and the figure weaved between the thick branches. The wind picked up again, blowing a strange object over the ice.
A feather?
No. The fletching of an arrow.
Fear burned through my chest as I realized how vulnerable I was out on the ice. Had the shooter from yesterday returned? Gooseflesh rose on my arms, and I looked over my shoulder, shocked to see how far I’d traveled.Too far.My throat tightened. I couldn’t see Edward at all.
When I glanced back, the figure was gone. I searched the trees, but I couldn’t find him.
Then someone else came rushing along the wooded path. I squinted, realizing it was Mae.
She darted a look behind her, and I spotted Richard on her heels. He reached for her arm, forcing her to an abrupt stop. She tried to shake him off, but he held tight, taking her face in his hands. They were arguing.
I had to get off the ice, away from the hooded figure and the intense scene playing out in front of me. Pushing off with my skate, I moved only a few feet before I heard a sharp sound. I froze, heart stuttering in my chest. It sounded again. There were cracks in the ice where I’d just been standing. The area I’d wandered into was thinner than the rest of the pond.
