AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not likely!” Sheri exclaimed stridently. “You’ve already tried to poison us once tonight, just keep out of the way.”
“Cody, why don’t you come and help me see what we can throw together quickly?” Cora said in a conciliatory tone, even while she threw Ellie a look which was something akin to a false pity.
“I’ll check on Sheri,” Ezra declared, taking himself off.
And just like that, she was alone at the dinner table among the ruins of what should have been a lovely meal, wondering just how things had gone so wrong.
Standing up as if in a daze, she stumbled out of the kitchen, out of the house, and left them all to it.
With no clear idea of how she got there, Ellie found herself in the barn with Blaze. Without a thought, as to whether she was in any danger, she let herself into the horse’s stall and flopped down on the hay in the corner.
Blaze came over and nuzzled at her, and Ellie petted the animal’s nose and neck.
“It doesn’t make any sense, Blaze.” Ellie allowed the tears to fall at last.
“I checked that chili less than an hour before we ate, and it was just fine. There’s no way it could have had too much chili powder in it unless…”
She trailed off from her monologue with the horse as her mind started whirling at a mile a minute.
Surely it couldn’t be what she was thinking. And yet how else could something like that have happened? She’d measured the ingredients precisely, and she’d given the dish a taste test before she went up for her shower… and then she’d left it unattended for around forty minutes.
“There’s no way it could have had too much chili powder in it…” she repeated in a halting whisper. “Unless somebody doctored it. Sabotage, Blaze. It must have been sabotage, but who would do such a thing?”
Of course, she didn’t need to think too long and hard over that one. If anyone was going to deliberately ruin a meal in order to make her look bad, that it was going to be Cora, Carly, or Sheri. But which one? Or were they all in on it?
Closing her eyes against the dejection, she allowed herself to give in to a brief moment of misery and let the rest of the tears fall. She just needed to let it all out, she told herself. Then she’d be ready to pick herself up and start over again.
“Ellie?…. Ellie, wake up.” The voice was barely above a whisper, but she blinked open her gritty eyes and looked around her.
“Sorry, I must have dozed off,” she said to Syrus in a voice that still held the slight huskiness of sleep. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, stretched a little, then stilled as Syrus brought his hand up to her hair and pulled out a couple of stalks of straw.
She looked up at him. He was kneeling next to her, his face just a couple of inches from her own, those clear, tawny eyes quite mesmerizing.
“We were looking for you. Got a bit worried when we couldn’t find you in the house.”
“Everything got messed up and…”
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s not the end of the world. We’ve all messed up a time or two.”
Her gaze was drawn to his mouth, the full lips that looked so soft. She licked her own lips reflexively, then caught the bottom one between her teeth when she realized what she was doing.
Syrus moved his hand from her hair and grasped her chin, pulling her trapped lip away with his thumb.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, overcome with the desire to redeem herself and tell him her suspicions. “It’s just that I think…”
Somewhere in the back of her mind Gran’s voice was preaching to her again. ‘Now come on, sweetie, it’s a sad and sinful day when you accuse somebody without the slightest shred of proof.’
She trailed off and shook her head, her conscience getting the better of her. The motion moved his thumb against her lower lip, and he pressed down, then swept it across again with slow deliberation.
Ellie’s breath stuck in her throat and her eyes flew to his. Time seemed to be suspended as Syrus glided his fingers across her cheek and into her hair.
He bent his head and her gaze flicked to his mouth once again as it inched closer.
She could feel his breath on her face, feel his warmth on her skin, and anticipation had her heart thumping hard in her chest. Then, the second before his lips touched hers, a high-pitched voice shrieked out his name.
“Syrus? Syruuus…” The note was long and screechy, and Blaze immediately pawed the ground in fright, automatically backing away from the door of the stall and bringing down her powerful, bucking hoofs dangerously close to the two of them.
Syrus pulled her close and tucked her into his chest, gathering her in his arms and ducking his head into her neck until Blaze finally moved away again. Then he was on his feet, pulling her up with him.
