Dollenganger 06 My Sweet Audrina by V. C. Andrews Page B

I asked, feeling perplexed. "And don't come any closer. If you do, I'll run."
"If you run, only give chase and catch you," he said.
"I can run very fast," I warned.
"So can I."
"If you caught me, what would you do?"
He laughed and spun around in a circle. "I really don't know, except it would give me the chance to see you really close, and then I could find out if those eyes of yours are truly violet, or just dark blue."
"Would it matter?" I felt worried. My eye color was like my hair color--ambiguous. Strange eyes that could change color with my moods, from violet to dark, dark purple. Haunted eyes, said Aunt Ellsbeth, who was always telling me in indirect ways that I was weird.
"Nope, it wouldn't matter," he said.
"Arden," called a woman's voice, "who are you talking to?"
"Audrina," he called back. "You know, Mom, the youngest of those two girls who live in that big fancy house beyond the woods. She's awfully pretty, Mom, but shy. Never met such a shy girl before. She stays behind the bushes, ready to run if I come too close. She sure isn't like her sister, I can tell you that. Would you say that's the proper way to meet a boy?"
From inside the cottage his mother laughed gaily. "It may be exactly the right way to interest a boy like my son, who likes to solve mysteries."
I stretched my neck to see a beautiful darkhaired woman sitting at an open cottage window, showing from her waist up. She seemed to me as lovely as a movie star with all that long, blue-black curling hair tumbling down onto her shoulders. Her eyes were dark, her complexion as fair and flawless as porcelain.
"Audrina, you're welcome here whenever you care to visit," she called in a friendly, warm fashion. "My son is a fine and honorable boy who would never do a thing to harm you."
I felt breathless with happiness. I'd never had a friend before. I had disobeyed, like the First Audrina, and dared the woods . . . only to find friends. Maybe I wasn't as cursed as she'd been. The woods weren't going to destroy me, as they had her . . .
I started to speak, to step forward and show all of myself and brave meeting strangers on their own ground. Just as I was ready to reveal myself, out of the depths of the woods behind me came the sound of my name being called repeatedly, commandingly. The voice was distant and faint, but each time it sounded it was closer.
It was Papa! How did he know where to find me? What was he doing home from his office so early? Had Vera called him to tell him I wasn't in the house or yard? He'd punish me, I knew he would. Even if this wasn't the forbidden, worst part of the woods, he didn't want me out of sight from those who watched over me from morning until night.
"Goodbye, Arden," I called hastily, peeking from around the tree and waving. I waved again to his mother in the window. "Goodbye, Mrs. Lowe. I'm happy to have met you both, and thank you for wanting me to be your friend. I need friends, so I'll be back soon, I promise."
Arden smiled broadly. "See you soon, I hope."
I ran back toward Papa's voice, hoping he wouldn't guess where I'd been. I nearly collided with him as he came striding along the faint path. "Where've you been?" he demanded, seizing hold of my arm and swinging me halfway around him. "What are you running from?"
I stared up into his face. As always, he looked wonderfully handsome, clean, wearing a new threepiece stockbroker's suit, tailored to perfection. Even as he let go of my arm, he brushed away dried leaves that clung to his sleeve. He checked his trousers to see if the briars had snagged them, and, if they had, he might have treated me worse. As it was, his quick inspection found his new suit undamaged, so he could smile at me enough to take some of the fear from my heart. "I've been calling you for ten minutes. Audrina, haven't I told you repeatedly to stay out of the woods?"
"But Papa, it's such a beautiful day, and I wanted to see where the rabbits run to hide. I wanted to pick wild strawberries, and