CHAPTER 9

          Late at night, the big house was quiet, but not scary at all. That thought made Sparkle smile to herself. She had assumed that a place this huge, with so many windows opening out onto darkness, would feel sort of like a horror movie. Intrepid heroine wandering the halls of a spooky house, alone, with nothing but a flashlight… until the battery dies.

          She shook her head and laughed at her own imagination. Instead of scary, the house felt like a safe haven against the night outside. Maybe it was the warmth of the honey-toned logs or maybe it was something else entirely.

          But one thing Sparkle was sure of was that she already loved it. Big, but not imposing, it was a happy house. Or would be if its owner wasn’t frowning constantly. But he’d smiled with Hayzel, she reminded herself as she heade