Let the shadows fall behind you : a novel

293 Pages·2009·9.267 MB·English

by  Kathy-Diane Leveille

L e t t h e
S h a d o w s F a l l
B e h i n d Yo u
letTheShadow-inside-11-printer.indd 1 2/25/09 10:04:02 AM
letTheShadow-inside-11-printer.indd 2 2/25/09 10:04:03 AM
L e t t h e
S h a d o w s F a l l
B e h i n d Yo u
A N O V E L
Kathy-Diane Leveille
CLEARWATER | FL | USA
letTheShadow-inside-11-printer.indd 3 2/25/09 10:04:04 AM
LET THE SHADOWS FALL BEHIND YOU
Copyright © 2009 by Kathy-Diane Leveille.
All Rights Reserved. Published and printed in the United States of America by Kunati Inc. (USA)
and simultaneously printed and published in Canada by Kunati Inc. (Canada)
No part of this book may be reproduced, copied or used in any form
or manner whatsoever without written permission,
except in the case of brief quotations in reviews and critical articles.
For information, contact Kunati Inc., Book Publishers in Canada.
USA: 13575 58th Street North, Suite 200, Clearwater, FL 33760-3721 USA
Canada: 75 First Street, Suite 128, Orangeville, ON L9W 5B6 CANADA.
E-mail: [email protected].
F I R S T E D I T I O N
Designed by Kam Wai Yu
Persona Corp. | www.personaco.com
ISBN 978-1-60164-167-0 EAN 9781601641670
Fiction
Published by Kunati Inc. (USA) and Kunati Inc. (Canada).
Provocative. Bold. Controversial.™
http://www.kunati.com
TM—Kunati and Kunati Trailer are trademarks owned by Kunati Inc.
Persona is a trademark owned by Persona Corp.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. All events described herein are imaginary, including settings and characters. Any
similarity to real persons, entities, or companies is purely coincidental and not intended to represent real places or living
persons. Real brand names, company names, names of public personalities or real people may be employed for credibility
because they are part of our culture and everyday lives. Regardless of context, their use is meant neither as endorsement nor
criticism: such names are used fictitiously without intent to describe their actual conduct or value. All other names, products or
brands are inventions of the author’s imagination. Kunati Inc. and its directors, employees, distributors, retailers, wholesalers
and assigns disclaims any liability or responsibility for the author’s statements, words, ideas, criticisms or observations. Kunati
assumes no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, or omissions.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Leveille, Kathy-Diane.
Let the shadows fall behind you : a novel / Kathy-Diane Leveille. -- 1st
ed.
p. cm.
Summary: “A woman whose life has been plagued by the disappearances of
loved ones reluctantly confronts her family’s troubled past in this
enigmatic story of loss, forgiveness and the power of friendship”--Provided
by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-60164-167-0
1. Domestic fiction. 2. Psychological fiction. I. Title.
PR9199.4.L477L47 2009
813’.6--dc22
2008050616
letTheShadow-inside-11-printer.indd 4 2/25/09 10:04:04 AM
D E D I C A T I O N
To Pierre, Chris and Ben,
who always believed.
And to my mom and dad,
who set me free to roam
the fields on the farm.
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
Thanks to the New Brunswick Arts Board for the Creative Writing Grant.
Thanks to author M. J. Vassanji and his faithful mentoring through the
Humber Creative Writing Program.
Thanks to historian David Goss; naturalist Jim Wilson; and the archivists at
the Saint John Regional Library for their time and expertise.
Any oversights in the research are solely mine and not theirs.
Special thanks to publisher Derek Armstrong
and editor in chief James McKinnon
for their unflagging commitment.
letTheShadow-inside-11-printer.indd 5 2/25/09 10:04:04 AM
6 n KATHY-DIANE LEVEILLE
letTheShadow-inside-11-printer.indd 6 2/25/09 10:04:04 AM
C h a p t e r O n e
No … don’t leave me!
Brannagh Maloney awoke in darkness. “Nikki?” she mumbled.
Something pinched her eyelids shut. Brannagh popped two fingers
into her mouth before laying them across each eye. She felt the ice
crystals sealing her upper and lower lashes dissolving.
She opened her eyes. The down sleeping bag had slid off the
mattress and onto the floor.
Don’t go.
She rarely remembered dreams. If a rare echo carried over to
the waking day, she ignored it.
Brannagh glanced at Nikki’s dark, curly head on the pillow next
to hers. He looked deceptively vulnerable with his six-foot frame
curled inward. His right arm, browned by the hot summer sun, was
flung across his forehead.
Brannagh yanked the cover upwards. She tucked one corner
around his shoulder then sat up, pulling her knees into her chest.
In the muddy half-light seeping beneath the window curtain,
whiskers of hoarfrost glinted on the timbered walls where the
joints met below the red-shingled roof. Autumn was a mere blip in
the changing of the seasons in northern Ontario.
Nikki was leaving today. Brannagh looked forward to a week
of solitude and time to regain her perspective. She would sketch
the surrounding hills now that the waves of scarlet and plum had
disappeared, leaving behind skeletal branches; a bleak blend of
brown and grey.
Alex Turner, Nikolai Mirsky’s assistant, had found the cabin
LET THE SHADOWS FALL BEHIND YOU n 7
letTheShadow-inside-11-printer.indd 7 2/25/09 10:04:04 AM