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