Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
“Well, just dress me in black and call me Jane Eyre.”
6
Grace’s colorful exclamation as Aaron brought the Jeep to a stop had me looking up.
I scrambled out the door the next minute, my camera already rising to my eye. I didn’t bother to yell at those in the front vehicles to get out of the way, just went left into the grass—because there, rising against a backdrop of jagged peaks burning in the late afternoon sun, was a house straight out of a gothic romance novel.
“Are those turrets?” Vansi’s excited voice. “Freaking turrets!”
“And jeez, an honest-to-God ruined wing?” Kaea whistled. “Maaaan.”
I couldn’t shoot fast enough. Clad with exquisite gray-black stone that might’ve been a dark variant of local schist, the house was set up in a classic U shape, with the central structure and the wing to my left in fairly good condition—albeit a bit run-down. Half-crumbled fences made of the same stone arched around from either side and to the back, and had perhaps once protected kitchen gardens or more formal landscaping.
Ivy bright with the green of new spring growth crawled up one side, feathering red veins left bare over winter, while the area in front of the house looked like it might’ve at one time been a garden.
It was now badly overgrown, but not with the golden grass all around us. Spiky purple thistle fought for space with what looked like a mass of raspberry bushes, while clusters of dandelion seed heads, delicate and ethereal, swayed in the breeze.
Lovely chaos.
But the true showstopper was Kaea’s “ruined wing”—because it was exactly that. While the wing still stood for the most part, it bore marks of a brutal fire that had collapsed one of its turrets and burned long slashes of soot into the stone.
Silent phantom flames.
What windows remained were badly cracked, the rest gaping holes of nothingness. I couldn’t wait to get out here at sunrise, shoot it in the ghostly light of morning.
“Lu!” Aaron called out, and only then did I realize how far I’d wandered into the grass. “We’re driving to the top of the front drive to park! You want to hop in?”
I shook my head. “I’ll get some shots of you driving up, then walk in!” I also wanted time alone to enjoy this mad structure out in the middle of the wilderness, plan the images I was going to take.
Most would be for my portfolio—but if we could borrow one of Darcie’s floaty dresses and pin it in a way that fit Grace’s shorter and curvier frame, get Aaron into a white or black shirt and black pants—or as close as possible—we were all set for a romantic gothic shoot.
Car doors shut, engines started, vehicles began to move . . . but I didn’t end up alone in the aftermath. Ash had stayed behind. “Hey, hope you don’t mind the company.” He slipped his hands into the pockets of his beige slacks, which he’d paired with a sky blue polo with a distinctive logo on one side. “I wanted to show you something.”
It took effort to hide my irritation. “Of course I don’t mind.”
He waited until I’d taken a few images of the departing vehicles, then pointed me to the right. “This way. We only have a small window of time.”
Deciding I could come back to get the shots I’d wanted, I went with him to a spot that placed me at an angle from the ruined wing. “What—” Breath catching, I ignored him for the next five minutes as I fought to capture the incredible light show against the shattered glass of the burned part of the house.
The broken shards gleamed in the thick light of early sunset—neither too sharp, nor too red—that refracted off the glass in a way that made the building come eerily alive. My heart was pounding by the time the light faded, and I half expected to turn to find Ash had long ago given up on me and left.
But I found him seated in the grass not far from me, his eyes on the glass that was no longer afire. “Brilliant, isn’t it?” He shook his head. “Saw it by accident yesterday while taking a walk, was hoping you’d have your camera on you so I could ask you to take a few shots. I knew my phone wouldn’t capture it.”
“You can have as many of my photos as you want,” I promised, knowing that I’d captured a spectacular series. The kind of images that won awards and made names out of photographers.
Rising to his feet, Ash brushed off the seat of his slacks. The round face of his watch with its multiple dials caught the light. “We’d better go in. Darcie wants to show everyone the place together.”
More than satisfied with the images I’d taken, I fell into step with him. “Seriously, Ash, thank you. My heart’s still pounding.”