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We kissed

"Well?" I asked

"What?"

"Did it feel like stone?"

He laughed

"Hardly It felt and tasted like candy cotton

"I'll call you tomorrow, early in the afternoon," he said as he walked away I waved and then turned and started toward the front door

Suddenly, I thought I saw a shadow ht I stopped and studied th

e darkness My heart began to race when sorass The light came from an upstairs

"Is someone there?" I called

All I heard was the soft breeze slipping in and out, under and above the leaves of the trees and around the roof of the house Thicker clouds had ht there had been The darkness felt heavier, deeper, rushing forward and co up behind me like a tide of black water

Everything sensible and cautious told ht I had seen, but I didn't like being spied upon It was enough to feel constantly under glass when I was in the house perfor my duties, but not to ever have any privacy even out here wasIt raised the tes was lingering there to watch what I did and then report ive him a blast that would have even surprised and shocked Beni, I thought

I took a step toward the corner of the house and then another, listening hard for footsteps and concentrating on the shadows, peering through the corridors of darkness in search of solad of that, happy to attribute it all to ination, but before I turned back, I saw that there was a light on in the cottage

For a long e All the time I had been here, I hadn't been closer to it than this, I thought What was the big deal about it anyway? I gazed up at the lightedon the second floor of the estate A heavy curtain had been drawn closed No one appeared and it was very still, very quiet about the grounds The light in the cottage flickered It was a candle, I realized Why would there be a candle lit inside?

Curiosity put et closer I had to know Softly, alh the shadows and the candlelight toward the s Every once in a while, I paused to listen, but I heard no one, saw no one The candlelight flickered again Shadows seerounds like dark spirits A sainst the side of Endfield Place and then disappeared as would light from a match that had been blown out The breeze picked up, whistled through some brush and small trees, spun a crown of cool air about ht sky, a sky without stars, blanketed in a shroud of silence