EXCERPTS FOR DEBORAH RANEY
A Vow to Cherish by Deborah Raney
Steeple Hill 2006
PROLOGUE
John rolled over in bed and propped one elbow on the pillow. He rubbed his eyes, disoriented, then groped in the dark to find the other side of the bed empty. Holding his breath, he listened. The shower in the bathroom off the master bedroom droned. He threw back the covers. Why had Ellen allowed him to oversleep? She knew he had an important meeting this morning.
Easing his long legs over the side of the bed, he tried to focus on the digital clock on his bedside table. The red numbers blurred and faded, but it looked like one-fifteen.
Not yet fully awake, he plodded into the bathroom. Through the steam of the shower he saw that Ellen’s carriage clock on the counter read one-fifteen also.
“Ellen? What’s wrong? Are you sick?”
“Well, sleepyhead,” she called cheerfully through the shower curtain, “you’re finally up. No, I’m not sick. What makes you ask?”
“It’s one o’clock, El. You just went to bed two hours ago.”
The spray stopped abruptly. “One o’clock? In the morning? It can’t be.”
“Well it is.” He yawned and stretched. “Come back to bed, you silly girl.”
Wrapped in a thick white towel, she stepped from the shower. Her pale auburn hair clung in ringlets to her forehead and the nape of her neck. John planted a soft kiss behind her left ear.
But she brushed him off and leaned to inspect the clock, her forehead furrowed. She picked up the clock and held it to her ear, bemused laughter rising in her throat. “That’s strange… I could have sworn it was morning.”
She looked so bewildered that John thought for a minute she might truly be ill. But she dried off, retrieved her nightshirt from the floor, and followed him back to bed.
Later, at breakfast, John teased her about her nocturnal wandering, and they laughed together.
Six months later he would look back to that incident as the inauspicious beginning of their nightmare.
BLOG EDITOR NOTE: Look for a SNEAK PEEK to the sequel, Within This Circle, next month.
Recent Comments