Page 86 of Cursed
Beside her, Andre stiffened. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Over there,” she managed, pointing.
He followed the direction of her hand, and his breath caught. A jaguar was standing in the swamp, about twenty feet away, staring at them. Well, not a real, solid jaguar, because she could look right through the cat to the foliage on the other side of him.
“You see that?” she asked, unable to raise her voice above a whisper.
“Yes,” Andre answered, his tone awed.
The big cat stood regarding them. It swished its tail, then opened its mouth, raised its head and roared. Only there was no sound.
Slowly it turned and began to walk away from them, into the bayou. And the farther it got, the more light she could see shining through the mass of the animal—until there was nothing left of the cat at all.
Beside her, Andre made a strangled sound. “It’s gone. I saw it leave. I felt it leave me.”
“Yes. The cat that haunted you has vanished.”
He stared after the animal, but she knew he still wasn’t entirely convinced.
She took him in her arms, hugging him tightly, wanting to hold him forever out here in this beautiful natural setting that he knew so well. But they had other obligations.
“We should go back, so Janet won’t worry about us,” she said.
He nodded. “I wasn’t thinking about her.”
“I’m glad you were focused on us.” She hesitated for a moment, then said, “But we have to think about her too. She cares about you very much.”
“Yes.”
Quietly, they both moved off the makeshift bed and began getting dressed.
Andre bent to pluck a piece of greenery from her sweatpants. And she did the same for his shirt. Then, hand in hand, they walked back toward the house.
“So, will you tell me how you got out of the handcuffs?” she asked.
“I did it when I changed—to the cat.”
“Oh.”
As they stepped onto the lawn, Morgan saw a lone figure was standing on the balcony, staring out toward the swamp.
It was Janet.
When she spotted them, she hurried down the stairs, then stopped short as she gave them an assessing appraisal.
Morgan felt herself flushing and fought not to look down at the rumpled clothing that had served as bedding not so long ago. Probably she should have checked more carefully for bits of moss and other debris.
A small smile flickered on Janet’s lips. “You look like you … worked out your differences,” she said in a soft voice.
“Yes,” Morgan agreed, then asked the question that had been bothering her since she’d first come here. Looking thehousekeeper directly in the eye, she asked, “Did you put that robe in with the items for the church sale?”
Janet shook her head. “I may have. I … don’t honestly know.”
“Maybe we have to chalk it up to magic—good magic,” Morgan answered.
“Yes,” the housekeeper agreed.
“One more question—did you rake away the jaguar prints from a few nights ago?”
