Читать книгу ElsBeth and the Privateer, Book II in the Cape Cod Witch Series - J Bean Palmer - Страница 7

That night ElsBeth crawled happily into bed. She could see the silvery moon through her window. It seemed to be winking at her in a friendly fashion.

The stars were twinkling, too. Her lids grew heavy and she soon dropped off to sleep. But it was a fitful sleep and full of dreams. Oh, what dreams …

“ElsBeth, save me!” Robert Hillman-Jones, dressed in his expensive Abercrombie & Fitch clothes, was covered in muck and stumbling down a tunnel. ElsBeth called over and over for him to stop, but her classmate ran on deeper and deeper into the darkness.

Something was after him, and ElsBeth couldn’t catch up. She fell farther and farther behind. She was so tired. But she couldn’t stop. She felt a cold, creepy presence not of this earth.

Now something chased ElsBeth! She tried to run faster, but the muck sucked at her sneakers. The thing behind her closed in. Her heart raced. She couldn’t go any faster and it was almost upon her. ElsBeth collapsed, and waited for the end … but nothing happened.

“Wake up, dear. It’s time to get up.”

Instead of cold slimy mud, ElsBeth felt warm soft hands on her forehead. And heard her grandmother’s musical voice.

ElsBeth blinked. She unconsciously rubbed the bat birthmark on her heel. It was morning. The sun was already up and she was tangled wrong way to in the half-moon comforter on her little captain’s bed.

Sylvanas was perched on the headboard, looking both disinterested and concerned at the same time. In the chair by the bed her grandmother smiled gently.

Grandmother still looked distracted, but the important thing was that she was there.

ElsBeth relaxed. It was just a bad dream. But Grandmother had cautioned her before that a witch’s dreams could be important. She must write everything down in her diary before she forgot.

ElsBeth took up the small leather-bound book she kept on her bedside table. She pulled the lavender velvet ribbon, opening to the next blank page.

The silver bat that weighted the end of the ribbon flashed in the morning sun, sending its reflection so it looked like a small bat was flitting about the room. The little witch scribbled everything she could remember.

This was the first dream she’d had since Halloween. Then she had dreamt of the pirate Billy Bowlegs and his awesome treasure. And that dream had turned out to be true.

While ElsBeth wrote, Hannah stood up, then turned around, confused. She backed up and plopped down into the rocking chair by the window.

The older witch shook her head and said out loud — but seemed to be talking to herself, “This isn’t good. This is just not good.”

Hannah looked like she was in some kind of trance. She got up again, patted ElsBeth’s head, and slowly wandered out, seeming to forget that ElsBeth was even there.

ElsBeth had never felt so alone as she watched her grandmother leave, without even asking her about her dream.

What could be wrong with Grandmother, she worried again as she pulled on her purple sneakers and got ready for school.