Page 87 of The Defiant Curse

Pulling the feather-down blankets back, she put her feet on the floor and tried to figure out where the sounds were coming from in the castle.

Yeah, something was going on downstairs.

It sounded like someone wanted her attention.

Well, well, well…

This was a bad time to be in a country without a gun. If it was an intruder, she was going to be bare-knuckling it. Granted, if she started screaming, Michael would pop up.

There was no doubt there.

A part of her said to go wake him, but she’d heard them earlier that evening, and they sounded like they were going to need some sleep.

If the room was a-rockin’, she wasn’t going a-knockin’.

PERIOD.

Padding her way, barefoot, to the door, she carefully opened it.

The sounds were definitely coming from downstairs in the castle. Someone had a vendetta against all the doors and cabinets.

That was for damn sure.

As she prepared to head down, that was exactly when she heard it.

Crying.

Oh, Jesus.

That wasn’t a man’s voice. That was most definitely a woman’s that she heard. Oh, and she was taking a wild stab at who it would be.

Ceit.

Yeah, she didn’t like this.

Now, she had to investigate, simply because she was one hell of a curious cat.

You know…

The ones that got killed by ghosts in a haunted castle when you interrupted their little funfest.

Yeah, on top of that, she should be freaked out, but instead she was weirdly calm.

Moving down the stairs, she peeked around the corner, and that’s when she saw the back door wide open. In that moment, there was panic that maybe this wasn’t a ghost.

Maybe they were being burgled.

Uh-oh.

Then again, with the castle being this far up into the mountains, who in their right mind would do that? Oh, and risk running into a big dude like Michael?

That was insanity.

So, she was going to investigate.

Yep.

She was insane.