The Catswold Portal

The Catswold Portal

Shirley Rousseau Murphy

FOR MOUSSE

Cat’s eyes in the face of a woman…seem to promise the most unusual and selective delights as green and seductive they glitter…The cat face is an ensemble of marvelously matched and balanced features and the total result is one to stir the heart. Where the human female is able to approach them, she becomes irresistible.

Paul Gallico, Honorable Cat

Contents

Epigraph

Chapter 1

He ran pounding through the forest, his tennis shoes snapping…

Chapter 2

Perhaps the universe tilted for an instant to allow Braden…

Chapter 3

She pressed the pony fast along the high, grassy plateau,…

Chapter 4

Braden, barefoot and wearing cutoffs, set his coffee cup on…

Chapter 5

Melissa wrote the note in a thick layer of dust…

Chapter 6

The soldiers kicked their horses to a trot, moving fast…

Chapter 7

Braden was parking the station wagon after a pointless drive…

Chapter 8

The scullery was steamy hot and noisy with the gossiping…

Chapter 9

Feeling her way down the cellar stair clutching the rail,…

Chapter 10

Uneasily Melissa approached the door of the queen’s solar, wishing…

Chapter 11

The banquet hall was noisy—laughter and drunken shouts rose over…

Chapter 12

“University of Chicago,” Olive Cleaver said, dusting cake crumbs from…

Chapter 13

Melissa slipped quickly into the king’s chamber. With any luck…

Chapter 14

From behind the draperies Melissa listened to the queen’s muffled…

Chapter 15

The torchlight guttered and hissed, sending shadows running down the…

Chapter 16

Now in the Harpy’s mirror mist clung against the buildings…

Chapter 17

The spell-light came quickly down the stair striking across barrels…

Chapter 18

The Harpy flew across the night, ducking through caverns and…

Chapter 19

Melissa woke hot and uncomfortable. The king slept sprawled across…

Chapter 20

Melissa ran, ducking branches. She was just able to glimpse…

Chapter 21

Night was drawing down over the garden, making the vast…

Chapter 22

She climbed the vine and swung onto Efil’s balcony. She…

Chapter 23

Vrech left the portal and garden quickly, heading east along…

Chapter 24

Speeding trucks made the roadbed tremble. Their hot diesel wind…

Chapter 25

Riding fast, Siddonie and her two companions galloped along the…

Chapter 26

In the Hell Pit the Harpy basked among flames, easing…

Chapter 27

Stiff-legged, the cat stalked the door, her eyes burning with…

Chapter 28

Basin Street jazz drowned the wind in the garden. The…

Chapter 29

Braden was pulled out of a deep sleep, fighting to…

Chapter 30

The Harpy sat rocking beside Mag’s wood stove, her expression…

Chapter 31

Morian carried the little cat up the garden, snuggling her,…

Chapter 32

Dawn. Melissa woke lying next to Braden deliciously warm curled…

Chapter 33

At dusk Braden made himself a drink and stood studying…

Chapter 34

She fled through the rain to the tool shed, and…

Chapter 35

The lights of the street lamps looked thin and insubstantial,…

Chapter 36

The cars racing by them, the speeding lights and the…

Chapter 37

Olive Cleaver didn’t sleep well. She thought in the night…

Chapter 38

“Get on the horse! Get on the horse now!”

Chapter 39

The Harpy and Mag and the gathered rebels watched, in…

Chapter 40

The tall Victorian house rose above the narrow street shadowed…

Chapter 41

The beautifully dressed women on San Francisco’s streets had filled…

Chapter 42

The golden tom stared under the couch at the calico,…

Chapter 43

It was dawn. The dark green of night had hardly…

Chapter 44

Braden was drinking his third cup of coffee and going…

Chapter 45

Melissa left Braden painting—already he had roughed in a canvas…

Chapter 46

Three hundred cats roamed within the fenced, wire-roofed compound in…

Chapter 47

It was the evening the calico scratched Morian that Melissa…

Chapter 48

Efil watched the compound from a nearby hill where he…

Chapter 49

The Greyhound bus smelled of cigarettes and stale food. A…

Chapter 50

“Call them forth leaping,” Olive read, “bring them careening…”

Chapter 51

Pippin sat naked in Olive’s dining room reciting Netherworld spells.

Chapter 52

Wylles reached the top of the garden filled with rage…

Chapter 53

The Harpy cupped her little mirror in her hands and…

Chapter 54

Through the open bedroom window the bay was dark under…

Chapter 55

She was afraid of taking the elevator by herself. She…

Chapter 56

The coast was ragged and wild. Waves crashed against the…

Chapter 57

The Harpy’s mirror was red with flame. In the little…

Chapter 58