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

your nap now. Say goodbye to your sister and go with Gentry.” Elis started to follow as another maid came to take Natasha away and Patricia held her back. “You’ll see her later, Elissa. Your sister needs her rest and you and I need to talk.” Elis looked at the hand on her arm and knew her aunt was dangerous. She was acting completely unlike herself. “Come to the Music Room. We’ll leave the men to their talk.” Elis looked past her and realized that her Grandfather and Alexei were being held under guard. And not by just any men; her blood turned to ice as she recognized Marston and his friends. “Aunt!” Elis cried in dismay as she was forced away. “What have you done?” Patricia didn’t say a word. She forced Elis into the Music Room and made her sit down. “Please tell me what’s going on!” Patricia slapped her across the face and Elis looked at her in shock. Her aunt had never hit her before! She put her hand to her cheek and saw the hatred in the woman’s eyes. “It was you all along!” “You always have been far too perceptive, Elissa,” Patricia spat at her. The door opened and Elis saw Marston coming inside. “I am giving you to a man who will teach you how to be a proper wife. He will beat the Rom out of you if he has to.” She reached out to touch Elissa’s hair and Elis backed away from her. “You’re such a pretty child, Elissa. I have ever only wanted what was best for you.” “By having my parents killed?” Elissa snapped. She saw the hurt in Patricia’s eyes quickly replaced by rage and the cold calculating hatred. “Mama was your sister! How could you let them kill her?” “She was tainted, Elissa,” Patricia said softly. She pulled a length of silk cord out of her pocket and held it out to Marston. “It was too late for her then.” She kept coming towards Elis and the girl looked around for some way to escape them. “But you and your sister can be salvaged, Elissa. You can still be the women she was meant to be before your foul gypsy father took her away from us.” She clapped her hands as Marston got her into the corner and bound her wrists. “It will be a double wedding,” she laughed as the man clamped his lips on Elis’ as she struggled for release. “You will marry Marston and Natasha will become Dandridge’s bride.” “If you refuse,” Marston spoke up as he clamped his hand on her throat, “your grandfather and your brother will die; your sister will be sent to a brothel, and your darling little niece will be on her way to an orphan asylum. Your family’s lives and futures are in your lovely little hands, Elissa.” He raised Elis’ eyes to his. “Did you really think you could beat us, Elissa?” He laughed and ran his hand down under the bodice of her gown. “I have promised your aunt that you will remain a virgin until we wed, but there are things I can do to you that do not strip you of that status.” He clamped his hand on her elbow and yanked her towards the door. “Let us retire to your bedroom so I can show you what those are.” Elis looked to her aunt for assistance but the look on Patricia’s face told her that she would get nowhere with her pleas. Marston forced her upstairs and Elis heard her sister’s scream. She was being hurt, Elis knew. She yanked her arm out of Marston’s hold and ran towards the sound of Natasha’s cries. She got the door open and saw her sister bound to a bedpost. Her chemise was down around her feet and Dandridge was whipping her like an animal. “You leave my sister alone, you foul thing!” Elis screamed. She saw a letter opener and grabbed it. Marston caught her as she started to plunge it into Dandridge’s back. He slugged her and she blacked out. She came back to awareness to the sound of angry voices. She was lying on her side on the floor and Natasha was on her knees beside her, shaking in anger and pain. “Meda?” “Oh thank God!” Natasha cried as she pulled Elis to her. “I thought he’d killed you!” She looked into Elis’ eyes grateful to see no real damage had been done. “We can’t let this happen, Ursa. Somehow we have to get out of this place.” “Where are they holding Grandfather and the other men,” Elis asked her. Natasha did not know and Elis had to guess. There were only so many places a person could be held on the estate grounds. One of them leapt to her mind and her blood ran cold as she remembered. “The mill. It’s where I was held by Zeller and his friends.” She struggled to her feet and saw the door closed. So she turned to the windows. “Do you trust me, Meda?” Her sister nodded. “Hold on. I’ll be back with help.” Natasha watched as her fearless sister climbed out the window and edged her way along the wall. She saw her slip into the nursery and prayed Elis knew what she was doing. Elis prayed she knew what she was doing as well, as she landed softly on the floor and attacked the nanny. She bundled her niece up and fashioned a pack to tie the baby to her chest. Then she swung out again and crept down the wall as she used to when she was eight. She hit the ground and snuck around to the stables. She got her stallion and led him out as quietly and quickly as she could And then she was off. She was flying along over the ground at a speed that exhilarated her. Titan had never been this fast or this smooth of gait. Shadows Dance was like riding the wind itself. She got to the clan and handed the baby over to Magda. “My aunt,” she spat out the term in rage, “has taken Grandfather, my brother, and my sister hostage. She means to force marriages on Natasha and myself to men of dishonor.” She turned to the clan. “There are only two places her men could be holding our family; an old mill where I was once held prisoner myself, and the old ruined church.” She pointed off in the directions. “I do not know how many people she has, or who is on her side, so we must be careful.” They all nodded and she knew they would do their part. “I have to go back now,” she told them as she mounted her stallion again. “My sister needs me.” They did not argue with her and she was stunned. Her cousins would have tried to talk her out of her plan, her brother would even have tried to do so. But these people listened to her and did as she suggested. She could not know that in the absence of grandfather and brother she was their voice. So she rode back to the estate, put her stallion back in the stall they had placed him in, and then slipped back into the house the way she had come. She had just entered the bedroom when the door opened. Men separated her from her sister and held them as Patricia came inside, her eyes blazing. “Where is the child?” she asked them bluntly. “My baby?” Natasha choked and tried to pull free. “Someone has taken my baby?” She struggled violently. “Let me go! I need to find my baby!” “Take her to the nursery and keep her there,” Patricia told the men. “Tie Elissa’s wrists and help her sit down.” The men did so and Elis looked up at her enraged aunt calmly. “What did you do, Elissa?” “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Aunt,” Elis said softly. “How could you think I would do anything to harm my own niece?” She was angry now. “My family does not harm its own, Aunt Patricia. That is what you do!” Patricia slapped her and Elis looked up at her calmly. “Bring the drug,” Patricia told one of the men. “She won’t be able to lie to us.” She stroked Elis’ hair and she pulled away. “I had hoped not to have to damage your mind, Elis. You are such a delightful child; but it is obvious we are going to have to take drastic measures to keep you under control.” She looked over at Marston who had just come in. “I am sorry, Lord Marston, but your bride-to-be will be left with the mind of a child. As long as you give her pretty things, you will have complete control over her.” “I am not marrying her for her mind, Lady Kensington,” Marston shrugged. He saw the girl’s eyes snap with fire. “I’m going to miss her fire, but I’ll make do.” “You have one chance to save your mind, Elissa,” Patricia said as the man came back with a bottle in his hand. “Tell me what you did with the baby.” Elis clamped her mouth shut and refused to speak. “Pity.” She nodded to her men and they held the struggling girl as Patricia poured the drug into her and made her swallow it down. “Let her go. She’ll quiet down in a moment.” Elis could feel her body going warm and her head spinning. The room began to dance around her and rainbows sparked behind her eyelids. She opened her eyes and wondered when her aunt had become a horned demon. She had always been such a nice woman. Patricia sprouted wings and a halo and Elis giggled. She knew she was losing her ability to concentrate and focus. They would ask her to betray her family and she wouldn’t be able to fight them. She couldn’t let that happen. She tried to get up and her body was limp and unresponsive. She hit the floor and made her sit back down. “She’s ready,” Patricia nodded. She cupped Elis’ chin in her hand and looked at her kindly. “Elissa, you have to tell us where the baby is. She could get hurt…” “She’s with family, Aunt Patricia,” Elis shook her head. “They won’t hurt her. They’ll take her where you can never touch her and give her a happy life.” “Elissa…” “No,” Elis broke in, shaking her head. “She’ll be safe. She’ll be happy. That’s how it should be.” She nearly choked as Patricia gave her more of the drug. “Won’t tell!” she giggled as Patricia repeated her question. “Baby’s safe!” Marston yanked her up to her feet and she looked into his eyes and continued to giggle. “Baby’s safe!” she said once more. She sighed and slid into the darkness. “Take her away, Marston,” Patricia hissed. “See if you can’t convince her to tell you where she took the child.” She looked down at her helpless niece and her eyes were cold. “Amory, go to town and bring back the Vicar. In an hour, she will be your wife, Marston, and you will do whatever you must to make her tell you where the child is.” Marston smiled and picked Elis up in his arms. He could already think of several things he would do to the little angel. He wasn’t really interested in whether she ever told them where the baby had gone. He carried her over to the bed and laid her down gently. The others left the room and he sat next to her, stroking her hair, her cheeks, her lips, and her body slowly. Soon she would be his to do with as he chose. He fell asleep with his arm over her body and woke up to see her looking around in confusion. Someone knocked on the door as he helped her to