AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I held no illusions that I could run forever. They’d find me eventually, but once our daughter was born and they could see for themselves that she wasn’t the monstrosity Natalie had made her out to be, they’d come back around. I just had to wait it out.
As if sensing my thoughts, the baby shifted and pressed one of her little limbs outward, tickling my ribs and making me laugh. The sun broke through the clouds, a shaft of light hitting the rolling ocean waves and drawing my eyes straight to the dock. A sign. A sliver of hope.
My chest constricted as my gaze drifted from the water to the shore. A woman. There was a woman standing at the edge of the beach near the dock. There were people here? Caleb had made it seem like we were completely alone. Were they all under his thrall?
She must be one of his minions, waiting for the boat and its shipments.
Adrenaline surged through me, and I took off across the bluff, searching for a way down to the beach. I was hoping for stairs of some kind, but when I spotted a hill that had a gentle enough slope for me to walk down, I realized that was probably my best choice. Any stairs or path likely hadn’t been well maintained and might give way beneath my weight.
Keeping my attention split between the woman on the shore and where I was walking, I half-ran, half-slid down the hill until I was running across the sand.
“Hey! Over here!” I nearly screamed for her to help me but thought better of it. If she was under his thrall, I had to play this right.
She turned her gaze from the water, her expression startled as I approached. I was sure I looked like a disaster in my dirt-covered sweatpants and one of Caleb’s sweaters, with a scarf wrapped loosely around my throat. My hair was a wild mass, blowing every which way in the coastal wind.
“Hi!” I said, smiling too brightly. “I’m Sunday.”
“That’s an unusual name.” Her voice was sweet and lyrical as she blinked up at me in surprise, a hand clutching the shawl wrapped around her slight frame. Her long fiery hair fell over her shoulder in a thick braid, soft curls framing her freckled face. She was a lot younger than I’d initially thought. Closer to a girl than a woman. Perhaps a teenager, though it was hard to know for sure. “I’m Kelly.”
“What are you doing out here? Waiting for a boat?” The hope in my voice was ridiculous. She’d see right through me.
“No. They won’t be returning for another four days. Once a week she delivers to the island.”
“I’m just up there in the house on the hill. Where do you live?”
Kelly offered a ghost of a smile. “The village. We’re all there.”
We?My heart lurched. “How many people are on the island? I thought it was abandoned.”
“Oh, we’ve always been here. So many of us.”
There’s a whole damn village of people here? That fucking liar.
“I didn’t realize.”
She grinned. “Well, miss, you’ve only been here a short while. You’ll see. One day you’ll be as much a part of Warg Island as the rest of us.”
Something in her words sent a shiver of foreboding down my spine. “Warg Island? That’s what this place is called?”
“Aye. Don’t you know where you are? What a silly girl you are if you’re in a place you aren’t even knowing the name of.” She gave a soft laugh and shook her head.
“It happened kind of fast.”
“He is persuasive. Father Gallagher.”
“You know him?”Idiot, of course she knows him.
She gave me another sidelong look. “Aye, we all know him. He’s not one who’s easy to forget.”
The way she said that sent another tremor through me. “No. He leaves quite an impression.” I heaved a frustrated sigh, not wanting to say too much but needing more information. “How do I get to the village from down here?”
Kelly pointed to my left, eyes not meeting mine.
I followed her gaze, seeing a bend in the rocky beach’s shore. A hike. Lovely. “How far is that—” I started, but she was gone by the time I turned back to her, yards away in the distance, walking along the water’s edge. “Okay then, bye. Nice talking to you.”
With a huff, I started down the path she’d indicated and made my way toward the village. The wind picked up, catching my scarf and sending it flying down the beach before the tide swallowed it. I’d have to explain that to Caleb tonight, but I didn’t think he’d care. It wasn’t like the heirloom he kept sacred.
The walk didn’t take as long as I feared, though the sun was a lot lower in the sky by the time I spied the three-foot stone with its smooth face proclaiming Warg Island had been established in 1819 with a population of 107.
