Vertigo Peaks by Dion Anja EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Dion Anja
- Language: English
- Genre: Lesbian Romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
SHE WALKED, TORMENTED BY faces. They were all she saw: faces
solemn and split with hunger; brows knitted like a surgeon’s thread; lips
tight as the barren land she trod, grumbling, spitting; and eyes riveted on
her—eyes without luster, hard and relentless. Valerie tried to hold her head
high as she swept the narrow alleys, arm in arm with her husband.
The fading, brittle joy of autumn had slipped by into the heavy frost of
November. The golden leaves were piled, rotting in corners, and Valerie
breathed fumes of burnt coal. Soon, the white breath of winter would
blanket the peaks with snow, catching the naked trees and surrounding the
thatched roofs and chimneys.
She peeked at her husband. He was a slim, short man, and he leaned
forward when he walked. Instead of a mouth, he had a thick, black
mustache that bristled the hair on the back of Valerie’s head. His face was
still now, though a ghost of a smile creased his cheeks and somehow, it
filled Valerie with dread.
Even though she had not seen many places before, Valerie knew that this
town was not a sight to behold. Poverty and famine took over what was
once a merchants’ hub. Children were pulling on their mothers’ skirts with
grizzled, moth-eaten sweaters and hats, some even barefoot, crying for a
bigger piece of bread. Mothers stroked their unkempt hair, sighed, and
turned to meet their colorless faces.
Valerie suspected they did not want her
husband to feel bereft as they pinched the children’s hollow cheeks to bring
them color as Valerie and her husband passed them by. She thought of her
uncle’s cottage, her own calloused hands and swollen legs, exhausted by the
day’s work, and she felt tired again, unmoored by her sadness. But she
recovered quickly when her husband—the infamous Ethan Vertigo—
harshly tugged her back.
“Stop staring at them, you’ll scare them off. Just smile and wave like I
do,” he whispered in her ear. “Yes, my dear,” she said quietly and turned to
her side. His eyes were vacant, and Valerie stumbled on the rough, stony
ground when he released her arm. A few giggles and sneers erupted from
the crowd, and some shook their heads in protest immediately, punctuating
the couple’s little trip to make amends.
A few weeks ago, when Valerie had just been married and left her uncle’s
cottage behind, her marriage felt less like a blessing than a crime against the
people she walked amongst now, shoving everything politely hidden behind
the hills. She peered back through the crowd and saw, in the lurid glare of
the oil lamps, its pointed roof piercing the gray sky like a cathedral’s spire
—Vertigo Peaks. The manor-house stood tall and proud in the middle of the
forest, overlooking the little town and its meandering, gravel road.
Yet, its
glistening, paned windows and dark, stone walls felt like an imposition, and
Valerie had the impression it wasn’t right to look at it.
After that lurid night, it was not right at all.
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