Deadly Secrets by M J Marlow (good short books .txt) 📖

Elizabeth. “Tasha…” “Don’t worry about everything so, little sister,” Natasha smiled at her gently “Your dress does not require much alteration.” She picked Elizabeth up and handed her to Elis. “Here. Use your niece to deflect her anger. You know how much Patricia adores the child.” Elis balanced her four month old niece on her hip and jogged upstairs. She entered her bedroom to find her aunt Patricia and the dressmaker. Elis handed the child over to Patricia and took the dress into her changing room. She came out to stand on the little dais so the dressmaker could make alterations. The woman threw up her hands. “I don’t know how you always manage this, my lady,” the woman smiled and shook her head; “but the fit is perfect as always.” “Good,” Elis smiled and went to take the offensive thing off. It was much too revealing for her tastes, but it was what Natasha wanted her to wear at her birthday ball, and Elis would do anything to make her older sister happy. She came back wearing a plain blue riding habit that hung on her like a sack. She saw their looks and looked down. “I’ve lost a little weight since I wore it last,” she shrugged. She held her hands out for her niece and Patricia shook her head. “Leave the little one here,” her aunt smiled at her great-niece gently. “Go out and get some sunshine.” Elis didn’t argue. She went back out to the stables and Titan nuzzled her pocket. She reached inside and brought out the apple she had picked up as she passed through the kitchen and let him take it off her palm. She put her hands on either side of his bridle and leaned against him as the tears came again. If she could just stop crying, she thought to herself as she mounted her stallion, she would be just fine. She headed for town and was just tying Titan’s reins to a hitching post outside of the church when Martin came out. He was standing with two girls a few years younger than herself who were obviously related to him. “Hello, Lady Elissa,” Martin nodded his head to her. Elis did not speak to him. She walked past him without a word and went into the church. “She is still quite angry with you, Uncle,” Sylvia Lawrence frowned as she saw the hurt in his eyes. “Doesn’t she understand you were only trying to keep her safe?” “Maybe she will one day,” Martin replied. He looked down at his nieces and smiled. “I promised you some ices, I believe.” He held his arms out and his nieces allowed him to escort them to the nearby restaurant. They sat down and exchanged twin looks. They had a purpose now. They were going to do everything in their power to see to it that Elissa Milosevic forgave their uncle and took him back. It was obvious to them that he loved the girl. All they needed to know now was whether she felt the same way. Elisa felt like such a coward for not even talking to the man. She had been inexcusably rude to the girls he was with. Both situations were wrong and so she left the church after praying for several moments for strength and went to speak to them. “Baron,” Elis nodded to Martin coldly as he rose to his feet. “I find myself having to apologize to you. I was inexcusably rude to you all just then.” “You have cause, Lady Elissa…” “No,” Elis shook her head. “There is never an excuse for poor manners.” She turned to the girls and held out her hand. “It is obvious you are related to the Baron,” she smiled at the girls. “I am Lady Elissa Milosevic. I am visiting with my aunt, Lady Patricia Kensington, and her family at Clearview.” “We are Sylvia and Sabina Lawrence,” Sylvia spoke up for the pair. “Baron Everley is our uncle.” She was smiling with a warmth that melted some of the chill on Elis’ heart. “We will be here all summer, Lady Elissa. We would love to get better acquainted…” She saw her uncle flinch. “Well just because she’s mad at you, Uncle; that doesn’t mean we can’t become friends, does it?” She looked at Elis pointedly “Does it?” “I would love to get to know you both better,” Elis smiled at her. “If you’d like, why don’t you both come to tea tomorrow? I will introduce you to the family.” She looked at Martin and he knew the invitation was not including him. At least, that is what he thought she was about to say. He nearly fainted when she smiled at him. “If you have the time, you may escort them, Baron Everley.” He watched as she went to her horse and mounted. He was still standing there stricken to silence as she disappeared from view in the trees lining the road along the hill. He sank down as Sabina pulled on his hand and sat there in silence as he tried to process what had just happened. Elis, on the other hand, was cursing herself for making the offer. Why had she included him in the invitation? She was angry at him, so why had she just asked him and his pretty nieces to tea? She was still trying to puzzle that out when she walked into the house and froze in the middle of the entry hall. “Elis?” her aunt’s voice cut through the fog. Elis looked up at Patricia numbly. “Is something wrong, child?” “I just invited Baron Everley and his nieces to tea tomorrow, Aunt,” Elis said as she sank down on a chair in the entry hall. She looked at her aunt in despair. “Why would I do that? I hate him.” “No you don’t,” Daniel said as he came out of the Study. He was looking weary and her heart went out to him. He had taken over the reins of his estate while she had been with her brother and was proving to be a natural at management, but he tended to push himself. She knew why; he was avoiding a certain young lady with eyes like emeralds and hair the color of polished mahogany. He kissed her cheek. “So Everley is in residence with his nieces.” He smiled briefly. “Nice girls. Just a year younger than you, monkey.” He looked over at his mother. “Lady Margaret Spencer will be joining us for tea tomorrow with her mother.” He saw his mother’s hopeful look. “They’re stopping on their way to Bath.” “I’ll see Cook prepares something special for tomorrow’s tea then,” Patricia nodded. She looked at the two pale-faced children and shook her head. She was going to have to take a hand in matters. These two were far too stubborn for their own good. She smiled at Elis. “A letter arrived from Natasha and Everett. I thought you’d like to see it, dear, so I left it in your room on the writing desk.” “Thank you, Aunt,” Elis nodded and remained where she was. She waited until her aunt was gone and then she looked at Daniel. “You know she’s going to get involved in your courtship now, Daniel.” “I’m counting on it,” Daniel said to her. She looked at him in shock. “Maybe if Margaret and her insufferably pushy mother get a dose of my mother, they’ll back off.” “Is that what you really want?” Elis asked him bluntly. He looked at her in surprise. “I like Margaret, Daniel. She would make you an excellent wife.” She held up her hand. “She’s only quiet because it’s what her mother expects of her. Get her away from her mother and you’ll see the real woman.” She lit up as she saw a purpose. “I’ll help!” She was on her feet and hugging him. “I know just what to do and I think Everley’s nieces will be a big help.” “Monkey…” “You’ll thank me, Daniel,” Elis smiled and ran for the stairs, leaving her stunned cousin frozen in place. That’s what she’d do, all right. Margaret’s mother wouldn’t know what hit her when those two and their uncle hit her. She liked lady Margaret and she knew Daniel’s only reason for not offering for her was because he thought she had no backbone. He didn’t want a quiet rabbit for a wife Well, Margaret’s days as a rabbit were over! Elis would see to that! Daniel shook his head a moment after she vanished and smiled. Cheeky thing! She really thought she could stick her nose into his love life? Well two could play at that game. He would have to enlist the help of Everley’s nieces and see to it that his young cousin and Martin were thrown together at every possible moment tomorrow. Yes, he nodded and smiled at his decision. He would see her down the aisle before he ever made an offer. Sylvia and Sabina were even more determined to help their Uncle after the tea. Elis had sat there stiff and unresponsive as he had tried to talk to her, but they could see she wanted him. In their great wisdom at the advanced age of fifteen, they could recognize people who belonged together. So they hatched a plan. Elis received a note from them asking her to join them in town for shopping. She rode down into town and saw them talking to a strange young man standing by a gypsy wagon. They did not see the other wagons coming towards them, but she did. She watched in horror as they were forced inside. Elis turned Titan towards home and froze as a dark-haired, dark-eyed man mounted on an immense black stallion cut her off. “I’m afraid we can’t have you spoiling out game, little one,” he said to her bluntly. He whistled and four other men came riding out of the trees. “You understand?” Elis pressed Titan’s sensitive spot and he reared, his hoof catching the man on the shoulder. Then she was riding for home, pressed against his neck. She could hear the men riding after her, but Titan was swift. He would not fail her. She heard a crack and Titan screamed in pain. She cried out as a blossom of red appeared on his neck. He dropped to the ground, dead long before he hit and she knelt beside him, sobbing in grief. “He was my friend,” Elis sobbed as the man yanked her to her feet. She slapped him across the face. “You monster! How could you do that to him?” He started to force her away and she whirled on him and drove her fist into his nose. He cursed and let her go, watching as she went back to her horse. “I’m sorry, Titan,” she sobbed as she threw her arms around his huge neck. “I’m so sorry.” She heard him and she looked around for something to hurt him with. She clamped her hand around a rock and rose to her feet, her eyes flashing fire. “I was there the night he was born. I had hoped it would be years yet before I would have to watch him die!” She waited until he was in range and then she threw the rock. He cried out in pain as it hit the arm he threw up to protect his face. When he lowered it, she was running. He got on his stallion and rode her down, yanking her up by her hair and holding her across his lap as she kicked and struggled. They joined the wagons and he dumped her inside with the other girls, amazed that such a tiny thing could be so fierce. He had been meaning to make this just a simple abduction, but this golden-haired she-cat was never leaving again. She was going to be his! “We go,” he snapped as he locked the