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OXLEY MANOR, A COUNTRY HOUSE HOTEL
ENGLAND
TWO YEARS AGO
Puck didn’t expect to find a body She certainly hadn’t been looking for the skeleton of a man no one seemed to remember How she had mourned hi, that at fourteen she had no idea what love was
But she did know!
Now, so many years later, she was still at Oxley Manor, and thisfroht years old and still trying to escape Muifted to her, she would leave Oxley Maybe
There were perks to living where she did Today she’d been planning on going wildcrafting in the Preserve at the north end of the 130-acre estate She’d made sure her phone’s sound was off, put it in her shirt pocket and buttoned the flap When her mother inevitably called and couldn’t reach her, she’d say that yet again she’d forgotten the gadget She let no one know that she used her phone to photograph all the plants she found on the estate so she could catalog them
One of the farrandmother used to pick yellow-leaved wild thyme there She could use the herb in the wreaths she made and sold
The Preserve was a dozen fenced-in acres that the owner, Mrs Guilford, said were to be left untouched No machines, not even people were to walk across it Wildlife only She had installed signs warning of danger, but everyone knew that Mrs Guilford was trying for some conservation award so she could use it in the hotel’s publicity
At the edge of the thorn-filled woods, Puck stopped and listened She was good at hearing what others didn’t, adept at seeing what they couldn’t No one was nearby She was thin and kne toplants or animals Not even the birds ran from her
There was a lock on the gate and Puck knew the key was hanging on a rack in the kitchen, but she hadn’t dared take it It ht be missed Instead, she’d cli few crushed plants in her wake She didn’t want anyone to know she’d been there
She walked in quite a way, across about four acres Briars scratched her legs and so bit her on the neck After a couple of hours, she hadn’t seen any wild thyht she should turn back
She decided to go out a different way so she’d be less likely to leave a path She’d walked only a few yards when the ground suddenly gave way under her She fell straight down for what had to be ten feet Fortunately, she landed on etation It was a relatively soft landing but she was dazed