Here is the photo for Sue’s Thursday prompt.
The honeymoon suite, he’d said. A honeymoon to remember, he’d laughed. Can’t wait, she’d said.
They arrived after nightfall. The tower that looked like a crag grinned down at them. The top-most windows of the candle-lit room watched their progress. He stopped the car.
“Well?” He turned to her with a questioning look. “What do you think?”
She clenched her fists and stared ahead, straight into the palely flickering window eyes. “You’re kidding.”
He laughed. She glared at him, unsure what the laughter meant.
“I’m not getting out of this car,” she said, keeping her voice steady with an effort.
He leant across and kissed her on the cheek. “You are silly sometimes,” he murmured. “I’m just teasing. The hotel’s a bit further down the road, overlooking the beach.”
She shot him a look of relief and her fists unclenched. “Let’s go then. I’d kill for a hot bath.” She kissed him back. “And other things.”
He grinned and the car moved off along the winding coast road to where the hotel crouched on the cliff overlooking the rocky cove. Behind them, the tower windows of the ruin blinked and went dark. Eyes followed them, satisfied. In a little while, shadows gathered at the foot of the tower and slid along the narrow impasse that led to the hotel, but not back again.
Jane Dougherty Writes 