Witching Hour Read Online Free

escape. That was why she had felt so restless earlier.
    She flashed a brief smile at her mother as she passed her in the
    doorway. 'I'm going out for a little while.'
    'Just as you please, dear,' Mrs Pentreath responded.
    Morgana went into the hall and on into the small cloakroom which
    opened off it. Her old school cape was there, and she swung it
    round her shoulders, pulling the hood up over her cloud of dark
    hair. As she re-emerged into the hall, the telephone rang, and she
    crossed to the reception desk to answer it.
    'Polzion House,' she said crisply.
    It was a relief to hear Robert's quiet 'Hello, darling. Just ringing to
    find out how everything went today. What's he like?'
    'Your guess is as good as mine. He didn't show up.'
    'Well, that's pretty cavalier,' Robert was plainly taken aback.
    'Hasn't there even been a message?'
    'Nothing at all. We've spent the whole day on tenterhooks, and all
    to no avail.'
    'I suppose he could have had an accident,' Robert said slowly.
    'We thought of that.' Morgana laughed. 'And at this moment he's
    breathing his last at the foot of Polzion cliffs. I wish he was,' she
    added hotly.
    It was Robert's turn to laugh. 'Darling, what a little savage you are!
    It's a good job my respected mama can't hear your fulminations.'
    'Meaning her worst fears would be fully justified?' Morgana asked
    coolly, then relented. 'I'm sorry, Rob. Your mother can't help the
    way she is, any more than I can. And I won't say anything
    shocking in front of her, I promise. I'm just a little uptight over this
    whole business, that's all. And the atmosphere in the house is
    deadly at the moment—Elsa prophesying doom all over the place,
    and Mummy's trying to be optimistic and see a silver lining in
    everything. I was just going for a walk when you rang.'
    'In the direction of the Home Farm?' he enquired hopefully.
    She sighed. 'Not really. I do need to be on my own. for a time. You
    understand, don't you?'
    'I'll try to anyway,' he said cheerfully. 'You know I'm here if you
    need me. Perhaps I could pick you up later when you've walked
    your blues off, and we could have a drink somewhere.'
    'Now that would be nice,' she said. 'See you.' She was smiling as
    she put the receiver down. Robert was sweet, she thought, and
    she'd forgotten to tell him he was the fair man that Elsa had seen in
    the cards, but it didn't matter. Gems like that would keep, and she
    would enjoy telling him later, over their drink.
    As she went out of the house, closing the side door carefully
    against the gusting wind, Morgana wondered why she hadn't
    considered going down to the Home Farm, because until Rob had
    mentioned it, it hadn't even crossed her mind to do so.
    Was she being totally fair to him? she wondered. He wanted to
    help. The phone calls proved that. He was kind and concerned, and
    he'd been furious when he heard about the entail, calling it a 'load
    of outdated nonsense and prejudice'. And although she agreed with
    every word, it wasn't what she wanted to hear right now.
    Nor did she really want to hear him ask her to marry him, which
    she suspected he might do. If and when he proposed, she wanted it
    to be for the right reasons, and that was quite apart from the fact
    that deep in her bones she felt they didn't know each other well
    enough yet.
    Of course, it might be that they would never know each other well
    enough. She and her mother might have to leave Polzion and go
    miles away, and eventually, inevitably, the gap that she and Rob
    had left in each other's lives would be filled with other people.
    Journeys led often to lovers' partings as well as their meetings, she
    thought with a little grimace. And 'lover' was a strong way of
    describing Rob, although she enjoyed the moments she spent in his
    arms. He was a normal man with all the needs which that implied,
    but he was not overly demanding. He preferred to let their
    relationship proceed steadily rather than sweep her off her feet into
    a headlong surrender they