Read Online Time After Time by Wendy Godding - Free Book Online Page A

that was almost indiscernible. Climbing down and pulling on her robe, she went to investigate.
    It was dark in the corridor, her room set too far away from the other family members for them to be the cause of the disturbance. The only light came from the glow of the lamp in her bedroom behind her, which cast eerie shadows along the wall and illuminated the faces in the ancestral portraits.
    She scanned the length of the passage. It was quiet and empty. She heard nothing except the evening sounds that belonged to Broadhurst Manor and were comfortingly familiar. But for some inexplicable reason she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise.
    Like she was being watched.
    A cold breeze blew into her room and she shivered. There were no windows open. Staring hard into the darkness she thought she saw the brief flicker of a shadow, as if someone lay hidden in the corner, shielded by inky darkness. Like a spider, waiting to ensnare its prey.
    ‘Is someone there?’ she called, her voice echoing in the corridor. She felt a little silly.
    When no one answered, she shut her bedroom door, closing it with a solid thud and pressing it securely. Hesitating for just a moment, she locked it, turning the key quickly and stuffing it into the pocket of her robe. It was the first time she’d ever locked her door at Broadhurst Manor.

Chapter Ten
    Present day
    I woke the next morning to the sounds of Evanescence’s My Immortal coming from my cell phone by the bed.
    It was Beth and it was only seven am.
    ‘What’s up?’ I mumbled, wiping the sleep from my eyes.
    ‘My mum took her car and mine’s still in the shop.’
    I read between the lines and groaned, ‘No. Not the bus!’
    ‘If you left now you could walk?’
    Silence greeted that suggestion.
    ‘You could call Laura?’
    ‘She lives across town,’ I complained, ‘and Meredith has already left.’
    ‘Sorry, Abs,’ Beth said, sounding genuinely apologetic, before she hung up.
    The bus was the epitome of hell for me, as Lilly and Emma were regular travellers of it, a fact that I found odd for popular teenage girls. Nevertheless, catching the bus would provide Lilly and Emma with riotous entertainment and me with some form of humiliation.
    Damn , I thought, Maybe I could skip today . But I never cut, and besides, I had an idea for my painting of Broadhurst Parsonage.
    I shivered, thinking back to Broadhurst, where I’d been just moments before Beth had rung. How I wished Penelope was as aware of these double lives as I was. If only there was a way to warn her, to make her alert of the threat stalking her. Of the man with the terrifyingly beautiful silver grey eyes.
    Rolling over, I stared at the ceiling. I envied Penelope. Envied all the other forms of me who’d been blissfully unaware. Ignorance was something I’d never have—not in this lifetime, at least.
    After locking the front door, I hurried down the path, not wanting to be late for the bus. It picked up at the end of the street but never seemed to arrive on time, arriving ten minutes either side of schedule. Thanks to Beth, I hadn’t needed to catch the bus for months, and I had hoped to never face it—Lilly with it—again. But there was no point in being annoyed; it wasn’t Beth’s fault, and I hadn’t quite saved enough money to afford my own decent car. Not if I wanted to get out of Brookdale anyhow.
    ‘Abbie!’
    I froze at the sound of a male voice calling my name. Even though he’d been at school for nearly a week, he hadn’t spoken to me since that first day in art. Still, I knew his voice. Knew it very well, even without the strong English accent.
    Gathering my wits, I began walking again. I didn’t even look in his direction.
    ‘Abbie! Hey, wait up!’ The sound of footsteps running to catch up meant I had no choice but to turn around, though I did briefly consider running away.
    Marcus appeared almost the same as I’d seen him in my dream last night, only more modern in his jeans and t-shirt, his