“The duke is a mean old ogre!” She tried to take Heather’s hand again. “He doesn’t want his son to see me.”
“You met his son in secret? James is his son and the one who gave you the pretty locket?”
She nodded. “The old duke doesn’t have to know. You won’t tell him about us, will you?”
“He will never hear it from me,” Heather assured her.
“Oh. Oh dear.”
“What’s wrong, Bella?”
The girl put a hand to her throat and then began to sift through the sand as though looking for something. “It’s gone. My locket!Shetook it.”
“Who? Your sister? But you told me you had it in the Singing Caves. You told me it was your treasure.”
“It is my treasure! I had it when I went in there. Where did it go?” She let out a keening wail.
Heather’s heart shot into her throat. She wanted to run, but dared not lose this chance with Bella. “Describe it to me. Let me help you find it.”
“It is silver and in the shape of a heart. His portrait is inside. She took it! She took it away from me and laughed about it!” Bella’s eyes began to darken as she stared at Heather. “Did you help her steal it from me?”
“No! I promise, Bella. I would never hurt you.”
“Did you help her?”
Her eyes.
They were suddenly as dark as storm clouds, turbulent and unearthly.
“No, Bella. You must believe me.” Heather leaped up, realizing she had overstayed her welcome. “The duke will be looking for me. I have to go.”
Bella tried to pick up a fistful of sand and throw it in Heather’s face, but howled when her hand simply passed through the grains like air. “You are as bad as my sister! You want to hurt me and trick me!”
Heather began to panic. She wanted to run back to the house, but her legs felt as heavy as pillars of granite and she could not move them. What was happening to her? “Bella, are you holding me back? You have to release me.”
“I won’t!”
Dear heaven.
“Please, Bella. Do not be angry with me. I am trying to help you. Do you know why you are still here? Do not cry. I will help you find your locket. Is this why you cannot move on, because you are missing your locket?”
Bella nodded, and then scampered to her feet and ran toward the caves.
Heather started to chase after her, suddenly finding herself free to move again. But she took only a few steps before she stopped.
Dear heaven, what am I doing?
She needed to run from the Singing Caves, not to them.
They were still surrounded in an eerie mist. She could barely make out Bella standing on the rocks and staring back at her.
Then Bella held out her hand.
Suddenly, Heather felt a jolt course through her body, and it knocked her to the ground. That granite heaviness overtook her again. She no longer had control of her limbs.
She screamed as Bella began to pull her toward the caves, as though she had managed to tie a rope around her waist along with the jolt and was dragging her ever closer.
That rope…that bond…that tie to his house the duke had spoken of.
