E-BOOK - The Ghost of Briar Rose

Australia, 1914. Rose is locked away in a back room, considered a monster by her father. But when the new gardener arrives and glimpses the girl Rose believes herself to be on the inside, she decides to take a chance on love—with devastating consequences.

A hundred years later, Rose is now haunting the beautiful old mountainside garden, keeping the world at bay to protect her dark secrets. For ghost hunter Cleary Branchwood, getting rid of her seems like just another easy payday. But Rose is determined to unravel the mystery of her death and clear her name of a horrifying crime.

As they join forces to unearth Rose's tragic past and set her free, they must also confront their growing feelings for each other. Could Cleary and his young daughter be the family Rose has always yearned for?

But with each step closer to the truth, Rose fears that the monster lying dormant inside her will destroy not only her chance at love, but also the lives of those she cares for most.

CHAPTER ONE
ROSALBA
He said he loved me.
He said he’d come back for me after the war and marry me, that nothing could keep him away. Not even death.
But he lied.
I fisted my skirt in my hands, glaring across the garden.
Dew sparkled in the moonlight, glistening on the petals of fragrant peonies and lilac, while beyond the flowerbeds and imported trees, rugged bushland stretched away into the night.
I had tried to move on.
To forget the way his eyes lit up when he smiled at me, the warmth of his hand clasping mine. His promise of a beautiful future together. But every night, as I stalked the gravel pathways and trails that meandered between the tree shadows, his face tormented me.
“Leave me alone!” I yelled into the dark. “Haven’t you haunted me long enough?”
The breeze lifted my hair away from my face, but I didn’t bother raking it back. There was no one to see me. No one to run screaming in fright. Just the owls and insects, the frogs in their muddy hollows, and the stars gazing down from the inky bed they shared with the moon.
I envied the stars, twinkling and dancing in the endless expanse above. They were free while I was trapped in this leafy prison forever. A monster, my father had called me. An evil spirit, the locals said, warning each other not to come here.
They were right to be afraid.
Right to stay away.
No one was welcome here. No one. All my secrets were buried here. All my lies, and the bad things I’d done that made me tell them. Buried in the earth that sank under my feet as I ran past the prickly roses and blackberry vines, the shadowy tree trunks, under the tangled branches, always restless. Always searching for that one truthful thing I had misplaced, yet dreaded to find.
I slowed to a walk, my toes sinking into the damp grass.
Mosquitoes buzzed and nagged around me, even though their quest for a feed was pointless. I could feel their confusion as they circled me, the scent of my blood stirring them into a frenzy, but of course it was unobtainable to them and anyway probably deadly.
I snatched a little bloodsucker from the air and caged it in my fingers, puffing my icy breath on it. When I opened my hand, its tiny, lifeless husk floated silently to the ground.
William once told me that true love’s kiss could break any spell—or curse or affliction, even one as terrible as mine. He hadn’t called it terrible, of course. Your father has a lot to answer for, Rosalba. Putting those ideas in your head, filling your heart with fear and self-loathing. To me, you’re perfect ... if only you could see yourself the same way.
Typical William, always the shining knight. Back then, as a naïve girl, I had believed him. At least for a while. And when he said he loved me, I had believed that too. I’d cross endless deserts to be with you again, Rosie girl. Scale deadly peaks, and swim raging rivers. Nothing will keep us apart, not even death …
“Then where are you?” I shouted, my voice echoing in the treetops like an owl’s cry. “If you loved me, why did you stay away?”
I listened hard, but there was no reply.
There had been no reply for a hundred years, yet the silence still dragged on my heart. If only I knew why you broke your promise, William. Were you rotting in a foreign field? Or was our love a lie, as Father said? I’ve been waiting for more than a century, and my heart still hasn’t healed.
“So many years alone … yet I keep hoping you’ll return for me.” Return and break the curse that trapped me here in an endless, timeless loop.
Time was a funny thing, wasn’t it? The way it slipped through your fingers like flakes of rust, or dead leaves. Or broken heartbeats. It was a trickster, a magician. Making a hundred years pass in an eye-blink, while stretching out the moments till you wanted to scream—
A noise rumbled through the night.
The growl of a car motor echoing up the mountainside.
I stopped walking, holding my breath.
Was that shouting?
Yells and catcalls, drunken laughter.
My heart began to punch against my ribs, my breath quickening as I turned back along the track and hurried uphill. When I climbed the ridge that overlooked the dirt road beyond the front gateway, I saw headlights carving through the dark.
Tyres screeched as a beat-up ute came over the rise, three youths bellowing and hooting as they leaned out the windows.