“Or you could be just losing your mind.” Jennifer crossed her arms.
“I’m not crazy.” At least Darcy didn’t think so. Maybe Surlock could help her sort everything out. Surlock! “I have to make sure he’s okay.”
She hurried to her closet and flung open the door, then quickly pulled on underclothes, shorts and a T-shirt. She pushed her feet into a pair of sandals and rushed from the room.
“Will Surlock be joining you for breakfast?” Ms. Abernathy asked as Darcy flew down the stairs.
“Yes, why do you ask?”
Ms. Abernathy raised an eyebrow as if she expected Surlock to follow Darcy down the stairs.
“He’s not upstairs if you’re implying anything.” Darcy slowed her steps to a fast walk as she went past the housekeeper.
“One of the maids took fresh towels out to the guest house this morning and said it looked as if his bed hadn’t been slept in all night. I thought maybe he’d slept elsewhere.”
Darcy skidded to a stop halfway across the room and turned to look at the housekeeper. “He’s not in the guest house?”
Ms. Abernathy studied Darcy. “You look a little pale. Maybe you should sit for a bit.”
“I’m fine.” Surlock hadn’t changed back. He was still roaming the countryside as a werewolf. Could he come out in the daylight? She mentally shook her head. She was pretty sure vampires were the ones who couldn’t walk in the sunlight. She had to find him before some hunter came along and shot him.
Her parents had problems with hunters sometimes. Some redneck would see a big buck and want to shoot it for sport. Her father usually made sure the no-trespassing signs were in place, but the hunters didn’t always pay attention. She swallowed past the lump in her throat as she pictured Surlock’s beautiful head mounted on someone’s wall.
“I’m going for a walk,” she said as she continued out the door.
“Darcy, wait for me,” Jennifer called down to her.
Darcy hesitated. She didn’t want to put Jennifer in danger, but right now she really needed her friend, even if Jennifer didn’t believe her.
They went to the guest house first. Darcy prayed the whole time that the maid had been wrong, or that maybe Surlock had only been out for an early morning stroll.
The guest house was empty, and worse, his bed looked as though it hadn’t been slept in. The maid had been right.
“Where do we look now?” Jennifer asked.
“Are you sure you want to go with me? I don’t want to risk your life.”
“I don’t believe in werewolves,” Jennifer reminded her. “I don’t know what you saw, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a wolf.”
“You might change your mind. Just remember I tried to warn you.”
They made their way past the bushes and trees. Darcy stopped and looked around.
“Why are we stopping here?”
“This is where I took off my nightgown.”
Jennifer raised her eyebrows. “You were running around outside naked? Was he naked, too?”
“Yes. It wasn’t a big deal.”
“Oh, I’m not judging you. I’m just surprised I never thought of doing it. Of course, it would be a little more difficult to run around naked in the city. Maybe having a country home wouldn’t be so bad after all.”
Jennifer didn’t realize how serious the situation was. They walked down the trail that led through the park. Darcy scanned the area, but didn’t see or hear anything unusual.
“No werewolves,” Jennifer said. “Darn, and I was hoping Surlock might have a brother. Some big strapping … German shepherd.” She snickered, then bit her lip when Darcy cast accusing eyes her way.
Darcy should have known Jennifer was just playing along and didn’t really believe anything Darcy had told her. Not that she could blame her friend. When she thought about it, the whole story did sound crazy.
“I’m sorry,” Jennifer said. “I couldn’t help it, but you don’t really think Surlock is a werewolf, do you? If you do, then that means your fashion wardrobe this fall might include a strait-jacket. This is all a prank you and Peter set up, right?”
Darcy shook her head.
Jennifer drew in a sharp breath. “You’re telling the truth.”
Darcy nodded.
Her friend threw her arms around Darcy. “Don’t worry sweetie, we’ll find help for you. I won’t let them stick you in any cold institution.”
“I’m not crazy.”
Jennifer stepped back and looked Darcy square in the eyes. “There are no such things as werewolves.”
A low growl came from the woods, followed by rustling in the underbrush. Both girls froze in their tracks.
CHAPTER 16
Darcy took a step toward the dense woods.
“Are you crazy?” Jennifer grabbed her hand and tugged her along as she ran toward the house. “It could be a rabid dog or something.”
“No, it was Surlock.” But Darcy had to admit that she was a little afraid, too. She wasn’t sure if Surlock would recognize her. He might attack first, ask questions later.
Rather than go inside the house, Darcy pulled Jennifer toward the guest house so they would have a little more privacy.
“What are you doing?” Jennifer looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “We have to tell someone there’s a mad dog on the loose.”
Darcy could feel the color drain from her face. “No, we can’t say anything. That wasn’t a mad dog. It was Surlock, and he is a werewolf.”
“There are no such thing as werewolves,” Jennifer said between gritted teeth.
Darcy had a feeling she would never be able to convince her friend, but she knew what had happened last night. Surlock had changed into something that wasn’t human.
“Think what you will, but you can’t tell a soul.” She couldn’t bear it if Surlock was hunted down and killed. “Swear it.” She gave Jennifer her steely-eyed look.
“Okay, I won’t say anything, but if anyone is hurt by a wild dog that’s running loose over the countryside, then it will be on your conscience, not mine.”
“I’ll take all the blame.” Now she only had to hope Surlock didn’t kill anyone, and if he did, that he got rid of the body.
She sat down with a thud on the sofa. What if he did hurt someone? Would she be able to live with her guilt for the rest of her life? She didn’t think so.
“It will be okay,” Jennifer said, sitting beside her.
Darcy shook her head. “No, I don’t think it will. I don’t think anything will ever be the same.”
“Are you sure about what you saw?”
“Yes.” She closed her eyes and relived the scene last night. “We’d made love. He grabbed his head.” She looked at Jennifer. “He always gets this loud humming noise in his head after we make love. Like someone screaming.”
“But it always stops, right?”
“Yes, when I put eardrops in or he goes underwater.”
“Underwater?”
She shrugged. “We were in the pool, and we’d just made love. When he went underwater, it seemed to help.”
“I’ll never go swimming in your pool again.” She shook her head. “Never mind. Just go on with your story.”
“We didn’t have any eardrops or anything. I tried to help Surlock up so I could get him back to the house, but he told me to run. He said he couldn’t stop it this time.”
“So you ran,” Jennifer said. “Don’t you see, he didn’t change into a werewolf or anything else. He probably had a really bad headache.”
“No, he moved his hands away from his face and it was like I was staring at the wolf, and his face was hairy.”
“How bright was it outside?”
“Almost like daytime.”
“No shadows? The clouds didn’t drift in front of the moon and maybe made you think you saw something that wasn’t there?”
Darcy closed her eyes and tried to visualize it all again. His eyes had looked strange, and there had been hair on his face. But it had gotten darker when the clouds drifted in front of the moon. Could it have been a trick of the light?
There was a dog or a wolf roaming the countryside. Maybe when it howled, she had only connected the dots and thought werewolf. Maybe? But there was still one question left unanswered.