also by cassandra king
Queen of Broken Hearts
The Same Sweet Girls
Making Waves
The Sunday Wife
Copyright © 2013 Cassandra King
King, Cassandra
Moonrise/by Cassandra King
ISBN 978-1-940210-00-1
1. Southern fiction. 2. Domestic Fiction. 3. Gardens-Fiction. 4. Psychological Fiction. 5. Gothic
Fiction Interior Design by Karen Minster
First Edition
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to people, living or dead, or actual events, is coincidental.
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To Rebecca King Schuler,and the beloved memory ofNancy Jane King,who will be with us always.Always, sweet sister.
And yet to think of you!—such peace
Around me settles soon
As if—I’m puzzled how—my gaze
Were spellbound on the moon.
—GÖETHE
Table of Contents
An Interview with Cassandra King
Cassandra King on Planting a Moon Garden
MOON GARDENS
Isit up with a start, my heart pounding. A noise like the scraping of a chair against the wooden floor wakes me, and for a brief moment, I have no idea where I am. The fire has died out, and a melancholy whiff of woodsmoke lingers in the cool air. Woodsmoke and something else, like the pungent aroma of sage. Pushing aside the crocheted coverlet, I swing my legs over the side of the bed, a bed so high that my feet barely touch the floor. I wait for a minute and listen for the noise again, but the room is quiet and still. The only sound is the soft snoring of my husband, who always sleeps like the dead. His back is turned my way, and I watch the gentle rise and fall of his bare shoulders. He is not one to be disturbed by things that go bump in the night.
I slip out of bed and stumble through the darkness toward the tall arches of windows just beyond the fireplace. Not once since we’ve been here have I closed the heavy brocade curtains, nor do I intend to. The lace panels provide just enough privacy for me to walk around in my nightgown, or wrapped in a towel after my bath. Tonight, however, I want light more than privacy, so I push the lace panels open. Like everything else in this place, the lace is antique, beautiful but fragile, liable to come apart in my hands if I’m not careful with it.
With the windows uncovered,
