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

of her over-strict aunt, and the delight of her male cousins, Elis had quit riding mares when she was twelve. She was a fearless child and mares were too tame for her. She wanted an animal that would challenge her. Titan, her chestnut stallion, came rearing out of his stall and Elis grabbed his bridle and pulled his head down. The horse lifted her off of her feet and she hung on until he calmed. “Ye Gods, Monkey. You’re going to meet an animal you can’t handle one of these days and be stomped to death.” “Is that your clumsy way of alluding to my petite stature?” Elis said as she turned her head to look at him. She was five foot five, a respectable height for a young lady as Patricia had noted on more than one occasion, but compared to her cousins who were all past the six foot mark like all men of the Stanley bloodline, she was a midget. “Not in the least,” Nicholas laughed. “I was alluding to the size of that mountain giant currently masquerading as a horse.” “Titan would never hurt me,” Elis replied as she stroked the animal’s nose. The Stanley family had bred horses for generations; she had chosen and raised this stallion from a foal so he was like her pet. “He can’t help it if he’s a big bad brute.” She smiled and held out her hand with the sugar cubes in her palm. “Can you, darling?” She mounted and threw her arms around the stallion’s neck as he danced beneath her. “See how he dances?” She laughed at her cousin’s look. “Race you to the mill?” “Elis…” Nicholas’ call for her to slow down went unheeded as always. He mounted his own stallion and followed her. Titan was at the mill long before his own stallion, Challenger, was even clear of the copse of trees along the back road. When he arrived at the mill, Elis was nowhere to be seen. “Elis?” She had ridden up the mill and seen two handsome young lords looking the structure over. Gunther and Fritz moved over to the mill and began exploring, taking in all the new sights and sounds of their new home. They did not see the young men as they moved around the other side of the structure, and Elis did not know she was in need of them. She did not know the men on sight, so she wondered who they were and why they were here as they turned and came up to her. The taller one with his thick brown hair and cold blue eyes saw her and nodded his head to her. He saw the stallion she was riding and he could not help but be impressed. The girl was handling the monster as if he were a pony. He reached up to touch the magnificent horse and Titan side-stepped in irritation. “He doesn’t like to be touched there,” Elis told the stranger. “Are you lost, sir? I don’t recognize you from the area.” “We were invited to a birthday ball,” lord Marston, the shorter golden-haired man with deep green eyes bowed his head to her. “I am Lord Marston. This giant beside me is Lord Dandridge.” He smiled at her encouragingly. “From his descriptions of you, we are addressing the birthday girl herself, lady Elissa Milosevic.” “Who described me to you?” “Your cousin, Lord Nicholas,” Dandridge lied to her. They knew using the name of a relative always made young ladies calm down, and this one had all of the signs of becoming difficult if they spooked her. “Is he about?” “Give him another three minutes,” Elis laughed, the sound like silver bells on the morning air, “and he’ll be here on that old slug he rides.” They stepped closer and Titan did not like it. He reared and she slid around and hung on his bridle to pull him back down. “Easy, pet. Easy, darling. You’re all right. They didn’t mean to frighten you.” “I’d love to have her talk to me like that,” Marston smiled as he stepped towards closer; “wouldn’t you, Dandridge?” “Lovely thing like her?” Dandridge smiled as he moved up behind her. “You bet!” He smiled as he pulled on one of her golden curls. “Oh that’s right. We do have a bet.” “Take your hands off of me,” Elis demanded as she pulled her hair out of his hold. “You have no right to touch me! I don’t belong to you!” Marston laughed in delight. She was such a tiny thing, compared to them, and she was standing there facing them down; refusing to be afraid. She must be a true innocent if she didn’t realize the danger she was in from them. He took another step and Elis turned to run. One moment she was on the ground, the next that same ground was giving way under her feet. She screamed as she slid into the darkness but her tormentors were gone. She whistled for her dogs and saw them at the top of the hole a few moments later, whining and barking as they tried to understand why she was down below them. She told them to stay where they were and speak and they barked for all they were worth. Elis tried to pull free and felt something twist in her ankle. She closed her eyes a moment and prayed and then she began screaming again. “Monkey?” Nicholas called down several excruciating minutes later. Elis looked up to see him leaning over the edge. His eyes were filled with concern. “How the deuce did you get down there?” “Just get me out, Nicholas,” Elis pleaded with him. “I can’t move. It just makes me sink in deeper.” “Hold on,” he nodded and disappeared from sight. A moment later, a rope came snaking down to her and she tied it around her waist. She was pulled free and back up to the ground. She threw her arms around her cousin’s neck as he held her close while she shivered in reaction to her near demise. “I’m fine,” she said to his query. “I’m just glad Titan wasn’t caught in it. “We would never have gotten him out of there.” She threw her arms around Gunther and Fritz’ necks. “They showed you where I was, didn’t they?” Nicholas nodded. “You precious boys!” He set her down on her feet and cried out as her ankle buckled under her. “Ow!” “Can you ride back, Monkey?” “It’s only my ankle, Nicholas,” Elis frowned. “I’ve ruined our fun!” She stepped into his hands with her good foot and let him lift her up onto Titan. “Home, my friend. Home.” They rode back to the stables and Nicholas lifted her down and carried her up to her room. He turned her over to her maids and started to leave. “You never told me why you aren’t going to be at the Ball, Nicholas,” she winced as the maid pulled off her riding boots. “Ow, Charlotte! That hurt.” “As well it might, Miss,” Charlotte sniffed. “You’ve injured your ankle.” She saw Nicholas’ shocked look as he saw the bruising and swelling. “Someone should call Doctor Charles, lord Nicholas.” “I’ll get Mills to send a runner,” Nicholas nodded as he got to his feet, “and be right back.” Elis nodded and bit her lip as the shock wore off. It hurt like nothing she’d felt in a very, very long time. Given the fact that her entire childhood was a series of mishaps, that was saying something. While Patricia arrived and fussed over her, Elis’ maid Charlotte ran a bath for her and got her to bed. Her aunt had Charlotte elevate Elis’ ankle with a pillow while she gave the girl a small dose of laudanum for the pain. When the doctor arrived, she was nodding off. He shook his head at the maid and she did not defend herself as he went to examine Elis’ ankle. With Patricia, it was always wiser not to. He was happy to report that there were no broken bones. He wrapped her ankle and told her she wouldn’t be doing any dancing at her ball. “No dancing?” “You don’t to make the injury worse, my lady,” Charles said to her sternly “By rights you should stay off it completely for the next week but, knowing you, that would be asking too much.” He looked at her uncle and aunt and cousin. “Off the ankle as much as possible. If the pain grows too bad, a quarter teaspoon,” he looked over at Charlotte pointedly at this dosage and saw her nod at his knowing look, “of laudanum in some tea will suffice.” The doctor left and Elis fell asleep and dreamed about balls where no one could dance and the ground opened up and swallowed everyone whole. Marston and Dandridge stood on the edge dangling ropes just out of reach and laughing in fiendish delight. She came awake screaming and struggling as they sprouted horns and pulled her to them by her hair. Her terror became real as she realized someone real was holding her down. She opened her eyes and saw her oldest cousin Philip there, his eyes filled with concern. He bent down and kissed her on the forehead. “Only you, Elissa,” he sighed as he tugged gently on the curl falling against her pale cheek, “would injure yourself before your own birthday ball.” He helped her sit up and plumped the pillows up behind her back. Then he took a box out of his pocket and handed it to her. “I hope you like it.” She opened it and her eyes widened in delight. “I seem to remember I promised you a rainbow for your sixteenth birthday.” “It’s beautiful, Pip,” Elis smiled as she ran her fingers along the strands of gemstones that fashioned a rainbow. There was a pair of ear bobs with dangling gold holding smaller pieces of the gems and diamonds, as well as a bracelet. She set the box down and threw her arms around his neck to kiss his cheek. “Thank you.” The door opened as Philip put the necklace on her and carried her over to her vanity so she could see how it looked. “It’s perfect!” She put her hand to it. “I am never taking it off.” “Don’t be a goose,” Philip smiled down at her fondly. “You’ll get lots of necklaces before men are through giving you jewelry…” “But they won’t be the rainbow my beloved cousin had fashioned especially for me,” Elis smiled back at him. “Like Mama’s stars Pip! No one could ever give me anything more special.” She threw her arms around his waist and leaned against his side. “Ever!” Philip kissed the top of her head and extricated himself from her hold as graciously as he could. She let him put her back to bed and sat there stroking the necklace and smiling dopily. He got Charlotte when he saw the pain in his young cousin’s eyes and sat with her until she dozed off. When she did, he removed the necklace and put it back in the box. He put it into her jewel box and then went back to kiss her on the forehead. She was such a gorgeous child with her golden hair and rosy complexion. The only flaw was a slight scar along her left eyebrow that she had gotten from falling out of her nursery window waving at them as they had come to visit when she was seven. “She looks like an angel when she’s asleep,” his mother, lady Edwina Stanley, sighed as she came into the room. Unlike her sister-in-law, she dressed in fashion in colors designed to suit her coloring. Today it was a visiting gown of a rich burgundy with a short jacket of a patterned silk. She took off her hat and veil and set it aside then pulled