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It wasn&039;t easy for an iet away by himself for a few days It was a cos, postpone appointments, inform clients, alert staff

There was a whole world of people dependent upon hie the services of an assistant

But after careful thought, Evan decided there was nothing else to be done No one was to knohere he was, or what he was doing Not his staff, not his clients, not the press Naturally, he could be reached via cell phone if there was a crisis of any sort Otherwise, until he&039;d done what he set out to do, he would remain incommunicado

He had to know

He hadn&039;t been able to get the information his sister had so casually passed on to him out of his host

Helen

He would wake up at night in a cold sweat fro so herself to any er

It couldn&039;t be borne

The terrible grief he&039;d felt upon her death was turning slowly, inexorably, into a cold and killing rage

Had she tricked hi of her own death?

He hadn&039;t thought her sh, to try to leave him, much less succeed She knew the consequences He had made them perfectly clear

Till death do us part

Obviously she couldn&039;t have done so alone She&039;d had help A man, a lover A woman, especially a woman like Helen, could never have devised such a scheme on her own Howbastard, working out the details of her deception?

Laughing and fucking, plotting and planning

Oh, there would be payain, continue about his business and his life without an outward ripple He could nearly convince hiain that Pamela&039;s claims were nonsense She was, after all, a wohts of fancy and foolishness

Ghosts didn&039;t exist And there was only one Helen Reton The Helen who had been lahosts whispering, or caught the bright sound of his dead wife&039;s taunting laughter

What if she wasn&039;t dead?

He had to know He had to be careful, and clever

"Ferry&039;s loading"

His eyes, pale as water, blinked "I beg your pardon?"

The ferry worker stopped blowing on his take-out cup of coffee and instinctively stepped back fro into an e," he repeated "You&039;re going to Three Sisters, ain&039;t ya?"

"Yes" The smile that spread over the handsome face orse than the eyes "Yes, I aend, the one known as Air had left her island to go with the man who promised to love her, to care for her And when he&039;d broken those pro She&039;d borne children in sorrow, raised them in fear Had bowed, and had broken

Had died

Her last act had been to send her children back to the Sisters for protection But she had done nothing, even with her powers, to protect or save herself

So the first link in the chain of a curse was forged

Nell thought of the story again Of the choices and mistakes, and of destiny She kept it clear in her head as she walked down the street of what had become her home What she intended to keep as her ho a blistering lecture to a young boy she didn&039;t recognize Autoain, but Zack er and never broke rhythht over to Mrs Deuts and apologize for being ato pay a fine for possession of illegal explosives and willful destruction of property-five hundred dollars"

"Five hundred dollars!" The boy, thirteen at the outside, Nell calculated, lifted a head that had been sunk low "Jeez, Sheriff Todd, I ain&039;t got five hundred dollars Myto kill me as is"

Zack merely raised his eyebrows and looked merciless "Did I say I was finished?"

"No, sir," the boythat Nell wanted to go pat his head

"You can work off the fine by cleaning the station house Twice a week, three dollars an hour"

"Three? But it&039;ll take h to shut up "Yes, sir You weren&039;t finished"

His lips wanted to twitch, but Zack kept theot some odd chores around ht, that one stung There was no crueler fate than being imprisoned by chores on a Saturday

"Same rate You can start there this Saturday, and in here Monday after school If I hear you&039;re in anyto have to stand in line to skin you Clear?"

"Yes, Uncle Zack um, I mean, yes, sir, Sheriff"

"Beat it"

He beat it, nearly spinning the air into a funnel as he raced past Nell

"Uncle Zack?"

"Second cousins, really It&039;s an honorary term"

"What did he do to earn the hard labor?"

"Stuck an ash can, that&039;s a firecracker, in his history teacher&039;s pu puain"

"Now you&039;re sounding proud of him"

He pokered up, as best he could "You&039;re ers off, which is what I nearly did at about the sae when I blew my science teacher&039;s pumpkin to hell and back Which is beside the point, especially e&039;ll be in for similar Halloween pranks tomorrow if I don&039;t make an example now"

"I think you did the job" She walked over, sat down "Have you got time for another matter, Sheriff?"

"I could probably carve out time" It surprised him that she hadn&039;t leaned over to kiss hiht, so still, so sole to need soenerated false identification, and I&039;ve put false infor theabout life insurance fraud There were probably policies"

He didn&039;t take his eyes off hers "I think a laould be able to handle that for you, and that when all facts are known, there&039;ll be no charges brought What are you telling me, Nell?"

"I want to marry you I want to live my life with you, and make those children with you To do that, I have to end this, so I will I need to knohat I&039;o to jail"

"You&039;re not going to jail Do you think I&039;d let that happen?"

"It&039;s not up to you, Zack"

"The false papers and so on aren&039;t going to put anyone&039;s sense of justice up The fact is" He&039;d given this angle a great deal of thought "The fact is, Nell, once you tell the story you&039;re going to be a hero"

"No I&039;m no one&039;s hero"

"Do you know the statistics on spousal abuse?" He pulled open his bottom drawer, took out a file and dropped it on his desk "I&039;ve put soht want to have a look at it sometime"

"It was different for me"

"It&039;s different for everybody, every tiood hoe anything A lot of people who think it&039;s different for thee their situation are going to look at you, hear what you did Soht not have taken because of you That makes you a hero"

"Diane McCoy It still bothers you that you couldn&039;t help her That she wouldn&039;t let you help her"

"There are a lot of Diane McCoys out there"

She nodded "All right But even if public sentialities"

"We&039;ll handle theet their money back We&039;ll pay it back if we have to We&039;ll do e have to do together"

When she heard that, a weight lifted "I don&039;t knohere to start"

He rose, came around to her, crouched at her feet "I want you to do this for me That&039;s selfish, but I can&039;t help it But I want you to do it for yourself, too Be sure"

"I&039;ll be Nell Todd I&039;ll have a name I want"

She saw his expression alter, the deepening of eaze, and knew she had never been"I&039;m afraid of him, and I can&039;t help that either But I think I realize I&039;ll never stop until this is done I want to live with you I want to sit out on the porch at night and look at the stars I want that beautiful ring you bought ht I&039;d never have I&039; scared"

"I know a lawyer in Boston We&039;ll call him, and we&039;ll start"

"Okay" She let out a breath "Okay"

"There&039;s one thing I can take care of right now" He straightened, walked over and opened a drawer in his desk Her heart gave a lovely little flutter when she saw the box in his hand "I&039;ve been carting this around withit in here, or in s"

She got to her feet, held out her hand "Yes, let&039;s"

Her sto when she left to walk back to the bookstore But there was anticipation tangled with the nerves And every tier, anticipation won

She walked in, sent a wave to Lulu, and practically floated upstairs to Mia&039;s office

"I need to tell you"

Mia turned froht I could spoil your ratulations and I know you&039;ll be very happy together, but I won&039;t"

"You saw "

"Little sister, I saw your face" However jaded she considered herself about love, the sight of it war" She leaped up, snatched Nell&039;s left hand "A sapphire" She couldn&039;t stop the sigh "It&039;s a love gift As a ring it sends out healing, and can also be used as protection against evil Beyond all that, it&039;s a doozy" She kissed Nell on either cheek "I&039;m happy for you"

"We talked to a lawyer, so to help oing to file a restraining order against Evan I know it&039;s only a piece of paper"

"It&039;s a symbol There&039;s power in that"

"Yeah In a day or two, once he&039;s got everything in place, he&039;ll contact Evan So he&039;ll know With or without a restraining order, he&039;ll coht" Was this what she&039;d been feeling, the dread, the building of pressure?

The last leaves had died, and the first snow had yet to fall

"But you&039;re prepared, and you&039;re not alone Zack and Ripley will meet every ferry that comes here after he&039;s been contacted If you don&039;t plan to ht away, then you&039;ll stay with reed to participate When the circle&039;s joined, he can&039;t break it That I can promise you"

She intended to tell Ripley next, if she could find her But the minute Nell stepped outside, she was stricken with a wave of nausea that rolled thick and greasy through her belly She staggered a little, sweat popping out on her skin With no choice, she leaned back against the wall of the building and waited for it to pass

When the worst of it eased, she regulated her breathing The jitters, she told herself Everything was going to start happening now, and happening very fast There&039;d be no turning back There would be questions, and press, and stares, murmurs even from people she&039;d come to know

It was natural to be a little queasy

She looked down at her ring again, the hopeful glint of it, and the lingering dregs of sickness passed

She would find Ripley later, she decided Right now she was going to buy a bottle of chaood Yankee pot roast

Evan drove off the ferry and onto Three Sisters as Nell leaned weakly against the wall of the bookstore He surveyed the docks, disinterested The beach, uniiven, he drove to High Street and pulled up in front of the Magick Inn

A hole-in-the-wall in a town suitable for ot out of the car, studied the street, just as Nell turned the corner into the market

He walked inside, and checked in

He&039;d booked a suite, but found no charly preserved antiques He detested the fussiness of such roo the streamlined, the modern The art, if one could call it that, ran to misty watercolors and seascapes The mini-bar didn&039;t hold his favored brand ofbut beach and water, noisy gulls and what he supposed were fishing boats run by locals

Dissatisfied, he walked to the parlor From there he could see the curve of the land and the sudden sharp jut of cliffs where the lighthouse stood He noted the stone house as well and wondered what type of idiot would choose to live in such an isolated spot

Then he found hiht dappling through the trees A trick of the eye, he decided, already bored