Darkwood Manor

“Doesn’t matter.”

He was taller than her, but no more than six feet or so in boots. Worn jeans were topped by a black T-shirt. He had good hands, she noted, and surprisingly long hair. Far too long for your average cop.

“It does to me. Look, I appreciate you saving my life, but I’m fine, now, and I really don’t have time to play games.”

He drew her closer until his mouth moved against her temple. “You need to go back to New York. No questions, no detours, just get on the highway and drive.”

He used the fingers of his other hand to capture her chin. “Do it, Isabella. Now. While you can.” Then he drew her closer still, set his mouth next to her ear and added a soft, “If you want to live, you need to get as far away from this house as possible.”

Darkwood Manor

Jenna Ryan

MILLS & BOON

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In Memory of Sheena

You were a strong, brave girl all through your life.

Now Heaven has a beautiful new angel.

Fly fast and free, sweet Little Pea.

We’ll always be with you.

We’ll always love you…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jenna started making up stories before she could read or write. Growing up, romance always had a strong appeal, but romantic suspense was the perfect fit. She tried out a number of different careers, including modeling, interior design and travel, but writing has always been her one true love. That and her longtime partner, Rod.

Inspired from book to book by her sister Kathy, she lives in a rural setting fifteen minutes from the city of Victoria, British Columbia. It’s taken a lot of years, but she’s finally slowed the frantic pace and adopted a West Coast mindset. Stay active, stay healthy, keep it simple. Enjoy the ride, enjoy the read. All of that works for her, but what she continues to enjoy most is writing stories she loves. She also loves reader feedback. Email her at jacquigoff@shaw.ca or visit Jenna Ryan on Facebook.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Isabella Ross—Her ex-boyfriend left her a haunted mansion in Maine.

Donovan Black—He is a descendant of Darkwood Manor’s malevolent original owner.

Katie Lynn Ross—Isabella’s cousin disappears from the manor soon after their arrival.

Darlene Calvert—Donovan’s cousin is desperate to get out of town.

George Calvert—Donovan’s aunt feels like a prisoner of her own father’s will.

Orry Lucas—The acting Sheriff has aspirations and more than a few secrets.

Gordie Tallahassee—The local Realtor sees a gold mine in the shadowy manor.

Robert Drake—The developer is hungry to purchase Darkwood Manor.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Epilogue

Prologue

The road that wound northward along the rocky Maine coast felt slick beneath the tires of David Morris Gimbel’s vintage Corvette.

He grinned as the car jumped forward. You couldn’t do speeds like this in the city, and a vehicle needed to stretch its legs every now and then. Plus the text message he’d received that afternoon had sounded urgent. He was considering the implications when his cell phone interrupted.

He glanced at the screen. “I’m twenty miles away, Haden. More problems?”

“Lights winking off and on,” the man on the other end responded. “I’ve been hearing moans and thumps, too. Then, not five minutes ago, a wail that made every hair on my body stand up. Saw a shadow on the cliff, but it disappeared when the wail started.”

David navigated a hard corner one-handed, squinted into the misty night. “Shadows are made by people. So are noises and light switches. Wail could’ve been a dog hunting for a mate.”

“I’ve had three dogs in my time, Gimbel. None of ’em ever made a sound like that.”

“Nineteen miles.” David scoped the road before him. Unless his mental GPS had been thrown off by the moonless September night, he was two wide turns away from Cemetery Point. He gunned it through number one and strove for patience.

“Lock your doors, draw your shades and pour a couple fingers of whiskey. The next sound you hear will be me screeching to a halt in front of your cottage.”

“I can hear you screeching from here,” the man retorted. “Aw, hell, I should’ve called my nephew instead of a nonbeliever like you.”

The tires slipped, but David didn’t back off the gas. “Since when do federal sharpshooters buy into the woo-woo scene? Pour the whiskey, Haden, and wait for my head—”

He broke off, swore sharply.

He heard Haden’s gruff “Gimbel? You there?” right before his cell phone landed on the floor.

The silhouette of the guardrail was a blur, but he figured the nose of his car hit it at more than three times the posted limit. If ghosts existed, he was about to find out.

Closing his eyes, he prayed his death wouldn’t be painful.

Chapter One

“Was he out of his mind? Are you?” Katie Lynn Ross crouched slightly to peer through the peeling wrought-iron gate in front of her. “That’s not a picturesque New England house up there—it’s spook central.” She scratched at the rusty bars. “Someone’s playing a Halloween prank on you, Bella. And don’t start with the ancestral thing. Contrary to Grandma Corrigan’s belief, the children of her bloodline are not mortal links to the spirit world and therefore drawn to areas where such specters appear. This is David’s idea of a final joke. Places like Darkwood Manor don’t exist.”

“Unless we’re sharing a hallucination—unlikely—yes, they do.” Going down on one knee, Isabella Ross snapped several pictures of the distant house. “Apparently.”

“You’re visualizing a shriveled-up corpse, aren’t you? Some creepy-bird lover’s mommy, stuffed and propped in the attic.”

“Cellar.” Isabella stopped snapping. “And what I’m imagining is the kind of hatchet job David would have done if he hadn’t driven his car over that cliff last month.” The sadness that swept through her brought a sigh. “I just wish he were alive so someone could talk him out of it.”

Katie cast her a shrewd look. “Someone you, or someone else?”

Standing, Isabella shouldered her camera strap. “David and I were done. It wasn’t the worst breakup, but it wasn’t pretty, either.” She studied the vaguely Gothic structure at the end of the driveway. “Not sure why he left this place to me, but he did, so there you are. Grandma C’s delighted on a visceral level while Grandpa C and Aunt Mara have dollar signs in their eyes.”

“Don’t you love the dynamics of a family business?”

Isabella smiled. “Actually, I do.”

“Well, hell, so would I if I got to search out and develop prospective hotel sites. I crunch numbers, Bella. My job’s not as glamorous as yours.”

“It is when you get to descend unannounced on one of our hotels for the express purpose of exposing an embezzler.”

“Yeah, that is kind of cool.” Her cousin tapped out and lit a cigarette. “But are you telling me you had no inkling that David was going to leave you his—ha, ha—country house?”

“Nope. All I know is I got this place, and some distant blood relative got the rest.”

“Lucky relative.” Katie rattled the bars. “At a guess, I’d say your ex was worth at least…uh, okay.” She released her grip as the gate stuttered inward. “I suppose this means welcome.”

“Or run if we’re smart?”

Katie drew a triangle with her cigarette. “Sherlock, Watson, Baskerville Hall, aka Darkwood Manor.”

The gate gave an ominous creak. Not exactly a warm welcome, but Isabella was used to that. The people she met in her line of work weren’t always eager to part with the structures her family wished to acquire.

Leaves swirled by a strong breeze blew around her booted ankles, and for the first time since the reading of her ex-boyfriend’s will, a shiver danced along her spine. It wasn’t so much a sense of foreboding, she realized, as a feeling of uncertainty.

David Gimbel had possessed many odd qualities, with quirky riding high on the list. Why he’d left her this recently purchased property in Maine might not make particular sense, but the intrigue factor far outweighed any doubts she might have. And Isabella was nothing if not easily intrigued. Her cousin—not so much.

During the walk from gate to front door, Katie bombarded her with questions. What had David planned to do with the multiwinged monstrosity before them? When had he purchased it? And again, why had he left it to Isabella rather than one of his much-despised stepsiblings?

“Face it, Bella, if a person wanted to get back at an evil step, what better way to do it than by leaving him or her a white elephant that I swear no one except maybe Edgar Allan Poe would call home?”

“So Baskerville Hall’s become the House of Usher, huh?” She made a crushing motion with her foot as she spoke.

With a last deep drag, Katie ditched her cigarette. “If this place had turrets and a tower, I’d call it Dracula’s castle. I can see the possibilities, though—if only from your and Grandpa C’s perspective. A hoard of contractors, electricians, plumbers, painters and cleaners later, you might make a lifestyle hotel out of this. Or to use Aunt Mara’s preferred term—a boutique hotel. Although why any sane person would go for Early American Gothic on vacation is…”

“Yes, I get it.” Isabella surveyed the grimy windows of the second and third floors. “You won’t be booking a room here.”

A reluctant smile crossed Katie’s lips. “Book a room on two, and you’ll wind up on one. Unless you’re a ghost and you can float over floorboards that are bound to be rotted through.”

Isabella gave her head an amused shake. “Your glass isn’t half-empty, it’s bone dry.”

“Only until I get back from Bangor. Once I light into those hotel ledgers, my glass’ll be overflowing. Maybe I’ll quit smoking for good, give you and Aunt Mara a mid-October Christmas present.”

“We nag you because we love you, Katie.” Isabella gave the support beam at the base of the porch a tentative poke. “Not sure about this.” However, when her finger didn’t penetrate, she set her foot on the first tread. It groaned but held.

A gust of wind sent a scatter of leaves across the sagging stoop, and caused a tattered screen to flap like bat wings. The shadows shifted accordingly.

Scraping her midlength hair into a stubby tail, Katie offered a flat, “So my vision won’t be obscured.”

“Did I ask?” Isabella regarded the cockeyed double doors. “We might need a battering ram to get inside.” Backing up, she snapped another picture. “For the photo wall.”

“That’ll be some fun wall.” Katie glanced skyward. “Why is it getting dark at three in the afternoon?”

“Because there’s a storm brewing?”

“Now there’s a promising answer.”

Isabella inserted her key and twisted the ancient lever. To her surprise, the door moved. Only ten inches, but there was room for them to squeeze inside.

“The lawyer said it was wired,” she remarked over her shoulder.

“By Thomas Edison?”

Isabella flicked the first switch she spied while Katie ventured in deeper. When a bare bulb crackled overhead, she smiled at her cousin. “Original fixtures to match the original plaster falling from the ruins of a coffered ceiling.”

“And a six-inch layer of dust on every visible surface.” Katie yelped as her ankle turned on a piece of broken board. “The word visible not being applicable to the floor. This isn’t a project, it’s a death trap.”

“It has good bones, though.” Isabella zeroed in on the staircase. “That banister’s spectacular. Carved mahogany.” She took two shots. “The newel post’s some kind of leaf and vine depiction. And don’t say poison oak.”

“I was thinking hawthorn. Bella.” Katie caught her arm. “You can’t seriously plan to stay here.”

If this was the habitable section David’s lawyer had mentioned, even Isabella wasn’t that adventurous.

When her cell phone rang, she answered with a preoccupied “Isabella Ross. Hi, Aunt Mara…Yes, we’re here…. Uh, well, it’s—”

“Amityville,” Katie declared. “And I’m being generous.”

A protracted creak overhead had both women raising their eyes.

“Not sure—maybe,” Isabella allowed in response to her aunt’s question about ghosts. She squinted into a cobwebbed corner. “Either that or a really big rat.”

“Like there’s a difference?” Several yards away, Katie blew on a carved molding, then stood back, triumphant. “Behold your resident gargoyle, Bella, trapped in a sea of hemlock.”

Grinning, Isabella returned to her call. “It gets better the deeper you go inside, Mara, which suggests a secondary entrance.” A parlor drew her forward—until she caught a movement on the floor. “I’ll get back to you when I’ve seen the rest.” Slapping her phone closed, she dropped it in her pocket. With a wary eye on the rubble to her left she hopped onto a length of rolled carpet. “Why is there always a snake?” she muttered, shivering. “Katie, can you hear me?”

A branch scraping the window was her only response.

“Oh, good, so it’s you and me, snake, and I’m betting you’re poisonous.” She backed along the dusty roll until it ran out. “Katie?”

Her cousin didn’t reply.

Spying the movement again, Isabella gauged the distance between her and the stairwell. Grandpa Corrigan said she should face her fears. No problem, she could do that. She’d face the spot where she’d seen the snake from the far side of the entry hall.

She glanced over her shoulder. It wasn’t in Katie’s nature to play games. If her cousin wasn’t answering, that meant she couldn’t hear, ergo, she’d probably left the house for a smoke.

Still walking backward, Isabella retraced her steps to the front door.

“Going on a diet tomorrow,” she decided, squeezing through. “Katie, are you out here?”

But there was no one on the porch or in the weed-choked yard. And nothing to see or hear except gusts of wind, a sky full of purplish clouds and several thick branches pressed against the windows to her right.

“Terrific,” she murmured and ran the list of possibilities.

Katie never smoked indoors, so, yes, she’d have come out here to light up. But she wouldn’t leave the property without a word, and they’d only been apart for a few minutes, so she couldn’t have gone far. On the other hand, the floor inside was a minefield of rubble and broken furniture. She might have ventured into a room, tripped and hit her head.

Isabella slid damp palms along the sides of her pants. Grandpa C swore snakes wouldn’t bite unless distressed. But then Grandpa C had marched up to and fearlessly across enemy lines numerous times in the Korean War. His idea of danger varied greatly from that of his granddaughter.

Easing back inside, she hung her shoulder bag and camera on the newel post and started for the room with the carved molding. It wasn’t a gargoyle as Katie had suggested, but an angel, one with vacant orbs for eyes and an expression that sent an unexpected chill fluttering over her skin.

Because the space ahead was shuttered, she had to feel for a wall switch. A weak light appeared at the far end of the room. Directly ahead, however, the shadows remained virtually impenetrable.

“Not quite so much to love about my job at the moment,” she reflected, then raised her voice. “Katie, can you hear me?”

Something shifted behind her, and she spun. But there was no one in the doorway or beyond that in the entry hall.

Exasperated by her overreaction, she regrouped and made her way carefully along the wall.

Wind whistled through cracks in the shutters. A branch banged against the siding at random intervals. The floorboards sagged and protested.

Ahead of her, a chunk of plaster toppled from a mound she could barely make out. Next to it, she spied what looked like a huddled body.

Her heart spiked. Keeping her hand on the wall and her sights fixed, she approached it.

A door at the far end of the room creaked, causing her to look up.

She realized her mistake instantly. With her concentration thrown forward, she had no time to react when her foot landed on air—and her momentum sent her tumbling into the blackness below.

FROM THE SHELTER OF a damaged shutter, the man outside watched the woman inside stumble and fall. Served her right, he thought, twitching an irritable shoulder. Now maybe she’d leave.

He couldn’t do business with a snoopy female hanging around. Bad enough that big galloot from the coach house kept tromping around the perimeter of the property. With luck, he’d topple off a cliff and, if she didn’t die here, take the blonde and her camera with him. Maybe some clever third person could make that happen.

On the other hand, he might not be thinking this through quite right. Lose the woman, lose the chase rabbit. Was that the best-case scenario for him?

A slow grin lit his face and made his black eyes glitter. Bad luck for the rabbit might be a lucky stroke for him. Let the woman be the focus, the diversion, the target. Leave him free to go about his business.

As he melted into the thickening twilight, the man found himself hoping the pretty blonde rabbit wouldn’t die too soon.

ISABELLA’S MIND REELED. What kind of moron put a single step in the middle of whatever this room was? Ballroom, grand hall, dining room? More to the point, why hadn’t she brought a flashlight from the car?

As her vision cleared and the pain of her hands-and-knees landing receded, the shape ahead resolved itself into a filthy tarp. Which relieved her because it wasn’t Katie and set her nerves back on edge because there was still no sign of her cousin.

An obvious thought occurred as she pushed herself upright. Katie never went anywhere without her cell phone.

She pulled out her own cell phone and punched in Katie’s number. Waited. Hissed at the pain in her left ankle when she stood, then reminded herself she deserved it for not paying attention to her surroundings.

Four rings later, Katie’s voice mail picked up. Frustrated, Isabella left a message, closed her phone and, walking carefully, picked her way to the back of the room.

The door to her left stood ajar. It screeched like an angry crow when she moved it. As she crossed the threshold, she told herself the feeling of being watched came from her mind, not from the premature darkness that had begun to spread throughout the house.

Beyond the weathered walls, purple clouds had given way to brooding black, and she could hear the wind picking up. The first raindrops hit the windows as she started along a dusty corridor toward—what else—another door.

A veritable maze of interconnecting hallways, the ground floor seemed to go on forever. She passed through two kitchens, a pantry, a massive library, three dining rooms and a dozen other spaces whose purposes eluded her.

Part of her could visualize Darkwood Manor as a Corrigan-Ross property, but a much larger part was struggling with the certain knowledge that Katie wouldn’t have ventured in this deep alone.

Spotting a thin door, she wedged it open. Uneven stairs topped by a rickety wooden railing descended from dusky shadow into fathomless black. Welcome to the cellar, she realized. Yuck.

Hesitating, she tapped her fingers on the jamb, then hit the light switch. “I can’t think of a single reason why you’d be down there, Katie, but on the off chance you’ve lost your mind, I’ll check it out. And be really pissed off if I find you.”

From a point far below, she detected a scrape, possibly a trace of smoke. When she leaned forward, a moaning floorboard blotted the sound out, but she knew what she’d heard, and it hadn’t been the foundation settling.

A bulb at the bottom provided only a weak wash of light, barely enough to make out the mud floor. Although the stairs looked sturdier than the railing, she’d encountered dry rot before and fully anticipated it here. Still, what choice did she have?

She set her foot on the first step. When it didn’t splinter, she moved to the next. And the next.

Her scraped palm stung against the stone wall. Her breath wanted to hitch. She wouldn’t let it, but couldn’t stop the prickles that raced over her skin.

“Not going to freak,” she promised herself. “Just please don’t let it be a snake pit down—”

She broke off, sucking in a startled breath as the handrail and one of the treads cracked in tandem.

Her foot shot through the plank, forcing her to grab the portion of railing still attached to the wall. That it held surprised her—but not as much as the arm that hooked her waist and hauled her upright before her trapped ankle snapped in two.

For a moment, Isabella’s head swam. Then her brain clicked in and she swung her head to face a man. Possibly young. Definitely strong.

He smelled good, she noted, like soap and skin and the rain outside. While she couldn’t make out his features, she spied the glimmer in his eyes.

“You don’t want to go down there, Ms. Ross.”

Suspicion crowded out fear. “Who are you? How do you know my name?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me.” She pushed on his arm. When he refused to release her, she twisted sideways. “Look, I appreciate the rescue, but I’m fine now, and I really don’t have time to play games.”

Instead of slackening his grip, he drew her closer until his mouth moved against her temple. “Best use of that time you don’t have would be to get in your car and leave.”

She gave him a determined shove. “I’d love to if you’d let me go.”

“Stop squirming and listen. You need to go back to Boston. No questions, no detours, just get on the highway and drive.”

When she continued to struggle, he used the fingers of his other hand to capture her chin. “Do it, Isabella. Now. While you can.” Then he drew her closer still, set his mouth next to her ear and added a soft, “If you want to live, you need to get as far away from this house as possible.”

Chapter Two

He vanished before she could question him further. Vanished as he’d been trained to do by the government. As he’d been able to do long before anyone had thought to train him.

He knew the melodrama hadn’t worked. He hadn’t expected it would. But short of tying a blanket over her head and tossing her on a southbound train, it was the best he could manage.

He wasn’t supposed to be in the house. He’d promised his uncle he would look around discreetly, without fuss. Fuss led to attention, and that would send the rats scurrying.

If they’d been ordinary rats, he wouldn’t have cared. He still wasn’t sure why he did, but his uncle was concerned, so it wouldn’t hurt him to skulk for a while.