As she left the cottage, she vowed not to let Theo make her jump through hoops with any more jobs like cleaning fireplaces. There was only room for one puppet master on Peregrine Island, and that was herself.
Something whizzed by her head. With a gasp, she fell to the ground.
She lay there breathing hard, the dirt cold and rough beneath her cheek, the world spinning around her. She squeezed her eyes shut. Felt her heart pounding.
Someone had just tried to shoot her. Someone who might, even now, be coming after her with a gun.
Chapter Ten
ANNIE TESTED HER ARMS AND legs, only moving them enough to make sure she hadn’t been hit. She listened hard but heard nothing except the ragged sound of her breath and the pound of surf. A seabird called out. Slowly, carefully, she lifted her head.
The bullet had come from the west. She saw nothing unusual in the thicket of red spruce and stunted hardwoods that lay between where she was lying and the road. She pushed herself higher, the weight of her backpack shifting, and gazed back toward the cottage, then the ocean, then up at Harp House looming at the top of the cliff. Everything looked as cold and isolated as always.
She came to her knees slowly. With only a backpack for protection, she was too exposed. She had no experience with firearms. How did she know that had really been a bullet?
Because she knew.
Was it a hunter’s errant shot? Peregrine Island had no game animals, but every home had guns. According to Barbara, more than a few islanders had shot either themselves or each other. Generally, they’d been accidents, she’d said, but not always.
Annie heard something behind her—a noise that didn’t belong—the sound of a horse’s hooves. A fresh rush of adrenaline sent her to the ground again.
Theo was coming after her to finish the job.
As soon as the thought took shape, she struggled to her feet. She’d be damned if she’d let him shoot her while she was cowering in the dirt. If he was going to kill her, he’d have to look her in the eye when he pulled the trigger. As she spun around and saw the powerful animal galloping toward her from the beach, a terrible sense of betrayal ripped through her, along with a desperate need to believe this wasn’t happening.
Theo pulled up and threw himself off Dancer. There was no gun in his hand. No weapon of any kind. Maybe he’d dropped it. Or . . .
His cheeks were ruddy from the cold, but his jacket was unzipped, and it opened as he dashed toward her. “What happened? I saw you fall. Are you all right?”
Her teeth were chattering, and she was shaking all over. “Did you just try to shoot me?”
“No! What the hell? Are you saying somebody tried to shoot you?”
“Yes, somebody tried to shoot me!” she cried.
“Are you sure?”
She gritted her teeth. “I’ve never been shot at, but yes, I’m sure. How could you not have heard?”
“I was too close to the water to hear anything. Tell me exactly what happened.”
The heels of her hands stung through her gloves. She clenched her fingers. “I was on my way to the house, and a bullet flew past my head.”
“Where did it come from?”
She tried to remember. “I think it was over there.” She pointed a shaking hand toward the road, the opposite direction from the way he had just come.
He studied her, as if he was trying to see how badly she’d been hurt, then took a quick survey of the landscape. “Stay where I can see you. We’ll go up to the house together.” Moments later, he was riding toward the trees.
She felt too vulnerable to stay where she was, but she’d be even more exposed if she walked back across the open expanse of the marsh to the cottage. She waited for her legs to steady, then ran toward the trees at the base of the drive leading to Harp House.
It didn’t take Theo long to pull up next to her. She expected him to chew her out for not staying put, but he didn’t. Instead he dismounted and, taking Dancer by the lead, walked with her.
“Did you see anything?” she asked.
“Nothing. Whoever did this was long gone by the time I got there.”
When they got to the top of the drive he told her he had to cool Dancer down. “I’ll meet you in the house,” he said. “And then we’re going to have a conversation.”
She wasn’t ready to go inside, where she’d have to talk to Jaycie. Instead she slipped into the stable while Theo walked Dancer around the yard. The stable still smelled of animals and dust, although with only one horse housed here now, the smells were fainter than they’d once been. Spidery light seeped through the window above the rickety wooden bench where she and Theo had talked that afternoon, not long before she’d gone down to the cave to meet him.