Page 61 of The Bride Wore White

Jack slammed on the brakes. “What the hell?”

“Meet Clara Dover,” Prudence said.

Chapter 28

She’s gone mad,” Jack said. He opened his door and got out.

“You’d better let me handle this,” Prudence said.

She put the manuscript on the floor, jumped out of the car, and went forward.

“Clara, what have you done?” she said, pitching her voice to be heard above the roar of the flames.

“No,” Clara screamed. “You can’t be alive. You’re supposed to die by fire. Gilbert said you would burn in hell tonight for what you did.”

“Clara,” Prudence said. “Listen to me. You’re hallucinating.”

“No,” Clara shouted. In the flaring light of the blazing house, her face was a mask of horror and disbelief. “I came here to witness your death by fire. You’re supposed to die in that house. Why aren’t you dead?”

She whirled and stumbled toward the cliffs.

“Clara, stop,” Prudence called. “You’ll fall.”

Prudence started forward but almost lost her balance when one of the slippers slid off her foot. She braced a hand against the fender to catch herself.

“Stay where you are,” Jack said. “I’ll get her.”

He was already running after Clara.

But it was too late. With a scream of rage and anguish, Clara vanished over the side of the cliff. Jack stopped at the edge and looked down. Turning, he loped back to the car, leaned into the passenger seat, and took a flashlight out of the glove box.

“Is she—?” Prudence asked.

“I don’t know.”

Jack headed back to the edge of the cliff and switched on the flashlight. Prudence hurried after him and watched as he swept the beam of light back and forth. Clara was sprawled midway down the rocky path that led to the cove.

“Here, take the flashlight,” Jack said. “I’ll get her.”

Prudence held the beam steady as Jack descended and crouched beside Clara.

“She’s alive,” he announced. “Looks like she hit her head. I’ll bring her up. We’ll take her to the hospital.”

He collected Clara and carried her up the path. When he brought her into the glow of the headlights, Prudence saw the blood matting the gray hair.

“Her robe is too dirty to use as a bandage,” Prudence said.

She leaned down and tore a strip off the bottom of her nightgown.

Jack watched her put the makeshift bandage on Clara’s bleeding head. “The woman just tried to murder both of us and now we’re trying to save her life. Don’t know about you, but I find this situation extremely irritating.”

“Stop grumbling. You know we have to do what we can.”

“Also, we need answers,” Jack said, visibly cheered by that logic.

She was securing the ends of the bandage when sirens sounded in the distance.

“Someone driving past on Cliff Road must have seen the fire and reported it,” Jack said. He watched the flames leap into the night sky. “Probably visible for miles. That will save us having to waste time trying to find a phone.”

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