BooksBarbecue
Back The Woman from the Waves Save as PDF
Chapters (59)
  1. THE WOMAN FROM THE WAVES
  2. Copyright
  3. CONTENTS
  4. Dedication
  5. PRONUNCIATION GUIDE
  6. GLOSSARY
  7. PROLOGUE
  8. THE SURFACE
  9. CHAPTER ONE
  10. CHAPTER TWO
  11. CHAPTER THREE
  12. CHAPTER FOUR
  13. CHAPTER FIVE
  14. CHAPTER SIX
  15. CHAPTER SEVEN
  16. CHAPTER EIGHT
  17. THE SHORE
  18. CHAPTER NINE
  19. CHAPTER TEN
  20. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  21. CHAPTER TWELVE
  22. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  23. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  24. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  25. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  26. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  27. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  28. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  37. THE STORM
  38. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  39. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  47. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  48. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  49. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  56. EPILOGUE
  57. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  58. ALSO BY ROSLYN SINCLAIR
  59. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

When she got closer, Madeleine said, “So what did you⁠—”

“I brought you this.” Hæra pulled her left hand from her pocket and held it out. Wrapped around her palm was a string of wooden beads ending in a cross. A rosary.

Madeleine looked at it in confusion. What was this? Was Hæra telling Madeleine that she was actually a Catholic or something? That made no sense after…

“Recognize it?”

Startled, Madeleine looked up to see Hæra’s amber eyes slicing into her. A lean and hungry look.

“No?” Hæra said. “I thought you would. It was yours.”

“Mine?” Madeleine looked back down at the rosary. It looked like a thousand other rosaries. Plain lacquered wood, with a…

With a chip on one of the beads from when she’d dropped it during the second year of her novitiate. Mother Gertrude had advised her to take better care of her things. Then she’d gone and lost it during her first trip to Orkney after she’d fallen off the dock and…

The rosary blurred as she looked at it. So did everything in her peripheral vision. She couldn’t move.

A second thing appeared in front of her. Hæra’s right hand, with something else in its palm.

A torn, blue scrap of jacket fabric.

Madeleine’s fingertips went numb. Her whole body went numb. Maybe she was having a stroke. Maybe all of this was one last hallucination before she died.

She looked up, barely breathing, and ran smack into Hæra’s gaze again.

That gaze was no longer sharp as a knife. Instead, its edges had rounded and softened. Hæra’s hard mouth had softened too, into a smile that looked a little sad.

“I’m not an angel, but I am your answer,” she said quietly. “And I always knew you would return to me.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Madeleine hadn’t turned and run after Hæra’s revelation, which was a surprise.

True, for a few moments, it seemed she couldn’t move at all. She’d gaped up at Hæra, face drained of all color, body rigid. She hadn’t taken either the rosary or the scrap of blue fabric from Hæra’s hands. Hæra wondered if she was going to pass out and need to be caught for a fourth time.

Madeleine hadn’t passed out. Instead she’d said, “I need a second,” and leaned against the nearest fence post to stare off into the distance. After that second had passed, and then a few more, Hæra had suggested they go for a walk, and Madeleine said she couldn’t think why not.

Now here they were: tromping over the fields Hæra had learned to call home. Madeleine stuffed her hands in her pockets. Hæra let hers swing free and easy at her sides to match her long stride.