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Back The Nest Save as PDF
Chapters (82)
  1. Cover
  2. Copyright page
  3. Introduction by Will Errickson
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. TREMORS
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. SUSPICIONS
  13. 1
  14. 2
  15. 3
  16. 4
  17. 5
  18. DREAD
  19. 1
  20. 2
  21. 3
  22. 4
  23. 5
  24. 6
  25. WITNESS
  26. 1
  27. 2
  28. 3
  29. ALERT
  30. 1
  31. 2
  32. 3
  33. 4
  34. 5
  35. ENCOUNTER
  36. 1
  37. 2
  38. 3
  39. 4
  40. 5
  41. 6
  42. HAVOC
  43. 1
  44. 2
  45. 3
  46. 4
  47. 5
  48. 6
  49. SEARCH
  50. 1
  51. 2
  52. 3
  53. 4
  54. 5
  55. CLASH
  56. 1
  57. 2
  58. 3
  59. 4
  60. 5
  61. 6
  62. 7
  63. COUNTERATTACK
  64. 1
  65. 2
  66. 3
  67. 4
  68. 5
  69. 6
  70. 7
  71. VICTORY
  72. 1
  73. 2
  74. 3
  75. 4
  76. 5
  77. 6
  78. 7
  79. 8
  80. 9
  81. EPILOGUE
  82. About the Author

Bonnie Taylor murmured to her friend, “Get a good night’s sleep. Things will look brighter in the morning. That’s what my mother always said, and she was always wrong.”

Elizabeth Carr could not sleep. Wanda Lindstrom’s gashed face stayed in her mind. Elizabeth was weeping for the woman with an honest, open grief that wracked her body and mind. These were tears of self-­knowledge, too. All at once, the daughter of Jessica and Richard Carr saw herself not with her own self-­centered eyes but with the judgment of a world outside. What a long way she had to go before she could match Wanda Lindstrom’s self-­sufficiency, and the value of the woman’s work! And what a long way to be worthy of Peter Hubbard in the way Wanda Lindstrom had been.

For the first time in her life Elizabeth Carr, lying on a bumpy mattress in a wind-­leaking lighthouse on a roach-­infested island, was led to take stock of her weaknesses and failings instead of basking in her taken-­for-­granted strengths and blessings—her family’s wealth, her own good looks and innate brains and charm. They were a heri­tage, not earned. She had never really applied herself fully at school. She resolved strongly that in her senior year and her graduate work thereafter she would stretch herself. It would be a way of remembering Wanda Lindstrom for giving her life for Peter Hubbard. Who, Elizabeth considered palely, had very nearly sacrificed his own life for her!

She could not keep her eyes closed. A lemon moon was out after the storm, shining through the window over Bonnie’s blanketed shoulder. The rain was gone, the wind and waves were easing off. Elizabeth raised herself on an elbow. How lovely things could be. The sand was a curious lavender hue and the sea a contrasting pewter color in the yellowish moonlight.

Bonnie’s dark face against this strange combination of night colors was even more beautiful than ordinarily. Egyptian princess? She had a nobility. And Craig had his own, of the sea itself . . .

The woman’s musings were interrupted by a faint clicking sound from outside. She put it to loose boards. This lighthouse’s walls would be flapping like seagulls in the next big blow, she groused. Elizabeth dropped back to her lumpy pillow, and closed her ears against the sound. With the men leaving at dawn, she’d have to be up unearthly early to put the coffee to the kettle . . .

5

FIVE

In the New Place of dark, warmth and rechambered food stores, an irritating odor was thickening the air and creating disquiet and restlessness. Around the pulsing central Dome of the Nest, the creatures stirred and fanned the gloom with their antennae.