Ghosts of the Falls

By Sarah Gilman

Ghosts of the Falls by Sarah Gilman

Determined to prove she's fit for the family business, exorcist Jade Clarence knows the assignment waiting in Maine is her last chance. Born into a family of exorcists, Jade's unorthodox ideas have gotten her into trouble in the past...and cost the life of a client.

After haunting a Maine state park for more than a century, Dutch Hutchinson will do whatever it takes to bring an end to his unfulfilling existence. When an act of arson brings a beautiful exorcist to town, Dutch takes corporeal form in order to spend his last hours in her company.

Jade quickly uncovers Dutch's true identity and finds herself falling for the man behind the spirit. But when Jade's legacy threatens their future, they will have to overcome the greatest of odds—life and death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Oct 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781622662463

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Ghosts of the Falls

Sarah Gilman

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 by Sarah Gilman. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

Entangled Publishing, LLC

2614 South Timberline Road

Suite 109

Fort Collins, CO 80525

Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

Edited by Marie Loggia-Kee

Cover design by L.J. Anderson

Photography by Gemma Wright Photography

Ebook ISBN 978-1-62266-246-3

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition October 2013

The author acknowledges the copyrighted or trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction: Tinker Bell; Chevy; The Exorcist (movie).

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Acknowledgments

This story was inspired in part by a real logging tragedy on the Connecticut River in the 1800s. This HEA is for you, Charles.

Titles Also written

by Sarah gilman

Out in Blue

Wings of Redemption

Deep in Crimson

Chapter One

What an odd place for an exorcism.

Jade Clarence walked along a dirt road through lush, green woods, her legs stiff after the three-hour drive into Maine. During her career, she’d exorcised malicious spirits from unwilling human hosts, houses, schools, cemeteries, even a grocery store, but never from a remote state park.

The trees formed a cathedral ceiling of green overhead, and the wide Quinnetukut River rushed over the rocky riverbed to her left before narrowing and plunging into a gorge. Such a vibrant place, so full of life. It should have been immune to a haunting.

Perhaps the man who had called about the ghost was a smart-ass prankster? He’d sounded sincere, according to her brother Jeremy’s notes. Besides, there had been other witnesses to the unusual Hutchinson Park Motel haunting and the fire that followed.

Shattering windows. Levitating furniture. Water turning red. If the description of the haunting turned out to be accurate, a spirit more powerful than any her family had encountered in decades, since her grandfather’s time, inhabited the area.

That said a lot about how much her younger brother Jeremy still trusted her, despite all the mistakes she’d made recently. This was her chance to prove herself, to earn her brothers’ respect and to convince them not to cast her out of the family business.

Unclenching her fisted hands, she forced herself to relax. She held too much stress in her body these days. Grinding her teeth in her sleep. Tension headaches. Sometimes a muscle ticked next to her eye. After she removed this ghost, she should spend a few extra days here, breathing the air, watching the trees sway in the breeze. Perhaps she could find a nice swimming spot where she could relax in the sun. Then she could go home refreshed, to resume her normal workload.

The road led, supposedly, to the grave of the ghost blamed for the incidents. Nearing the gorge, Jade picked up her pace. The burial site was, in her experience, the best place to start.

Hutchinson’s Falls, read a faded, wooden sign mounted on a tree. The roar of the rushing water drowned out the bird songs of the forest. Mist from the falls moistened both her face and her inappropriate-for-hiking-in-the-woods black cotton dress. When she’d first arrived, she hadn’t thought she’d have to venture this far. Shivering, she kept walking, alert for any signs of a spirit presence.

Hello there, ma’am, a male voice called.

Jade’s breath caught in her throat and she pivoted. Several yards away, a man lifted his hands and showed her his palms. He appeared about her age—mid-twenties. He wore heavy boots and dark pants. The toasted skin tone of his bare torso and his physical condition suggested he spent all day, each day, laboring in the sun.

Nice.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, he said in a warm, pleasant voice. I live nearby. Not many of the park visitors venture all the way out here, so I thought maybe you’d gotten lost.

She held out her hand as he approached, hoping he turned out as friendly as he sounded. More nervous of a man—and a handsome one at that—on a public trail than of a possible ghost in the area? That was her life, having grown up around spirits but never having much luck socializing with the living. I’m Jade Clarence. I’m not lost. I was just looking around.

They call me Dutch. He shook her hand, his eyebrows raised. Clarence. So, you’re the exorcist? I wasn’t expecting you. No one returned my call.

Ah, so he was the client. Dutch Vernon, according to the file. She swallowed, forced a neutral expression, and hoped he wouldn’t take offense at the truth. I wanted to visit the site firsthand before we spoke. We get many prank calls.

"Oh, I’m sure

Reviews for Ghosts of the Falls

[avoraciousreader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

4.5*Book source ~ Many thanks to Entangled for providing a review copy in exchange for an honest review.Jade Clarence is an exorcist, but she doesn’t like the way the family business handles exorcisms. Her great-grandfather started the business after his wife was killed by a spirit and his incantations destroy the soul of the spirit causing extreme pain to the ghost. Jade feels that she can find an incantation to send a spirit on without destroying the soul or causing pain. She also feels that a good spirit should have the right to stay if it wants. However, after allowing the spirit of a teen hoodwink her into believing he is benign, he kills the property owner where he is hanging out. A tragedy that falls on Jade’s shoulders since she refused to perform the exorcism. Her older brother is giving her a chance to redeem herself with an exorcism at Hutchinson’s Falls. If she can’t do her job he’ll have no choice but to kick her out of the business. But Jade finds out that Dutch is no ordinary ghost, so she doesn’t do the job. When her brother comes to do what she can’t, Jade is forced to resort to extreme measures to make her point.This is a great short story with interesting aspects of exorcism and great characters. It could use a bit more character development because I couldn’t get a really good feel for Jade or Dutch, but for a short it is pretty good. I’m a little fuzzy about what Jade did there at the end and how that’s going to work for the long term, but I’ll suspend belief and just go with it. I don’t think I’ve ever read a story involving exorcists, so that aspect of the story was fascinating to me. I look forward to reading more stories by Sarah Gilman.