Free Moonlight by Tim O'Rourke Page B

mouth worked its way up her throat and nicked at her fair skin. She moaned in pain, and then the mouth covered hers again.  A tongue darted into her mouth and she kissed back. T hen for the first time, she could feel the whole of his body pressing down over hers. Winnie reached out with her hands for him, wanting him now, yet hating him. She could feel no one there.
    The mouth broke away from hers and she threw open her eyes and although the room was in complete darkness, his face shone palely down into hers. She looked up at Thaddeus. His eyes bore right into hers and he smiled...
    ...Winnie sat bolt upright in bed, her whole body covered in a sticky sweat. She sucked frantic mouthfuls of air into her lungs as she fought to breathe. With her heart racing, she peered about her room as the early morning sun streamed through the windows in thin ribbons of light. Her head ached from the alcohol she had drunk the night before. Winnie sat and shivered as the last fragments of her dream ebbed away. She felt troubled by her dream. Not because it had scared her - but it had felt so real. Not just the feel of his touch, but the feelings she had felt while kissing him.
    Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Winnie tried to push the last remaining shards of the dream away, which still lingered on in the furthest corners of her mind. Why had she dreamt of them together like that? She thought , as she padded over to the bathroom. Sure, Thaddeus was hot, with his messy hair, stubble, and dark brown eyes, but to have had such a vivid dream...what did that mean? As she turned on the taps and watched the hot water slosh into the bath, Winnie feared that just like she had tried to push him away in her dream, where she had secretly wanted him, she didn’t want those feelings to become a reality.
    “I can’t allow that to happen,” she whispered to herself. “I won’t let it happen.”
    She hadn’t come to Cornwall to settle down, to fall in love and live happily ever after. She didn’t believe in fairy tales. Winnie only wanted to stay long enough to earn the money to pay rent on a place of her own. She wanted her own life – not somebody else’s.
    Winnie turned off the taps, stripped, and climbed into the bath. As she sunk beneath the water, she warned herself not to become too comfortable at the mansion, form any atta chments, or grow roots. R oots kept you in one place. They stopped you from running away if you wanted or needed to. She closed her eyes and let the water wash over her.

Chapter Thirteen
     
    Winnie stood in fresh panties and a bra, and worked her way through the clothes in the closets. All of the clothes were beautifully made. She went through each dress, skirt, top, trousers, and jeans, admiring their expensive quality. Although most of the clothes varied in style and fashion, most of them were coloured black, scarlet, violet, cream, or pale green. She paused over a couple of the garments and held them up to herself; they seemed to fit perfectly. Winnie pulled open the drawers in the base of the closet and found neat rows of shoes, trainers, and boots. She let her fingers dance over their suede and leather forms and as she did, Winnie noticed something which struck her as being very strange.
    None of the shoes had ever been worn. She turned a couple of pairs over in her hands and studied each sole. They were in perfect condition. There wasn't one with a worn-down heel or scuffed toe in the whole collection. Winnie stood for a moment, hands on hips, and then turned back to the clothes. She pulled out different garments at random and searched their linings. To her amazement, all the clothing had the price tags still firmly fixed in place. Winnie found it a little curious but was also slightly relieved that none of the clothes had been worn. She hadn't relished the idea of wearing the clothes of a dead woman.
    Shrugging to herself, she removed a sweater and a pair of jeans and pulled off the price tags. Dressed,