A Rose by the Door
Chapter One
Beatrice Bartling jolted awake. Something banged on her front door,
twice, three times, cutting through the stark silence of night. The
sharp blows came again. A fourth time. A fifth, terse, hollow,
insistent.
She hadn't any idea what time it was or what the emergency might be.
"Just a minute," she croaked into the darkness. Just a minute,
while, to no avail, she did her best to quell the pounding in her
own heart.
Across the room, she could just make out the silhouette of her
bureau, the shapes and shadows of the night reflected back to her in
the mirror, rainbow shades of gray. The digital clock in the corner
read 3:08 A.M.
Who could need her at this hour? Why would someone come to the house
in the middle of the night?
Fear made her move slowly. She folded back the covers, swung her
feet to the floor, gath ... read full excerpt from A Rose by the Door ebook
