Wild Conquest. Hannah Howell

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СКАЧАТЬ quickly suppressed the unwelcome thought that she had lost her own chance for happiness when she had rebuffed Tearlach.

      “You cannot expect Master O’Duine to be kind to you after you flirted so shamelessly with him only to toss him aside,” Pleasance said, frowning. “Just what do you consider wrong with the man? I know of no great lack in him morally and he is not without an adequate income.”

      “He lives in the backwoods, far west of the Massachusetts colony, Pleasance, out on the fringes of civilization where there are only a few cabins and farms, mayhaps a small village.”

      “You intended to change his mind about where to live, if I recall.”

      “He is too stubborn. He insists that his home lies out there, and he wants no other. I am certain there are still wild, savage Indians there.”

      “I believe the recent war between us and the French with their Indian allies ended what Indian problem there was. And I would be much more wary of the French myself.”

      Letitia gave Pleasance a cross look. “He also has a sister. Did you know that?”

      “Aye. A girl of but twelve or so, I believe. What matter?”

      “He expected me to care for her.”

      “That is hardly unreasonable of him.” Pleasance realized that Letitia’s main complaint about Tearlach O’Duine was that she had been unable to get the man to do exactly what she wanted.

      “Pleasance, the girl is part savage. She is the spawn of the rape of her mother by some heathen,” Letitia whispered. “The woman survived the attack and kept herself alive until the babe was born. Why, I cannot say. Better to die and escape the shame than to live and bear the fruit of it. And Tearlach still keeps the creature, intends to raise her amongst civilized people. That man is not quite right in the head.”

      “The girl is his sister,” Pleasance said. “They share a mother’s blood.”

      Pleasance sighed and wondered why she even tried to explain such sentiments to Letitia. Her sister lacked the compassion to understand. Nevertheless, she felt a need to defend Tearlach. Before any further discussion could ensue, however—a discussion she knew would severely try her already waning patience—Pleasance forced her thoughts back to the matter at hand. She idly tugged on her full bottom lip as she tried to think of a less drastic, less criminal solution to Letitia’s problems.

      “Perhaps if I speak to Master O’Duine,” she finally said.

      “That will do no good. No good at all.” Letitia got to her feet and began to pace the cramped quarters. “He is angry—with all of us. There is something else as well.” She glanced nervously at Pleasance.

      Unease rippled through Pleasance. “What?”

      “I gave him a gift and that too must be returned.”

      “What sort of gift?” Since Letitia received only a small stipend from their parents, the gift could not have been too expensive or improper.

      “A lovely silver tankard.”

      Pleasance gasped, astonished by the extravagance and the impropriety of such a present. “Wherever did you get such a thing?”

      “From John. It was an heirloom of his family’s.”

      For a moment Pleasance was too stunned to speak. Letitia was prone to doing things without thought, but this seemed too reckless and stupid even for her. It also presented a far greater problem than some ill-advised love letters.

      “How could you have been so stupid?”

      “It did not seem so stupid at the time. Tearlach much admired the tankard,” Letitia said, outrage tinting her voice.

      “So you gave it to him and then thought of John. How is it that John has not yet noticed it is gone?”

      “Well, I have had to make an excuse or two. I cannot keep doing that for much longer.” She fell to her knees before Pleasance, grasping her sister’s hands. “Please, you must get it back for me. If John should ever discover what I have done, all shall be lost.”

      Staring into her sister’s tear-drenched blue eyes, Pleasance resisted the strong urge to slap that perfectly oval face. Such stupidity was beyond understanding. She was sorely tempted to let her sister sink into the mire she had concocted. Unfortunately, that mire could touch their whole family. What she did not wish to do she would be forced to do to protect her family from scandal. She had herself to consider too. Her own future was at risk.

      “And you did not ask Master O’Duine for the return of this gift?” Pleasance asked, fighting and failing to keep the fury from her voice.

      “Aye, I asked him. I explained that I had been overcome by a generous impulse. I also explained that the impulse had been in error. He said I was indeed generous, that it was a fine gift he would long appreciate. As for the error in giving him such a gift, he simply remarked that I seemed to be making a great many errors of late. He hoped I would soon have a better turn of luck, then he literally pushed me out the door. The man is impossible.” As Letitia spoke she rose to her feet and strode back to her chair to flop down in it, renewed anger evident in her every gesture.

      “Oh, nay, Letitia. Master O’Duine is not the impossible one. ’Tis you. You insisted he was the man you wanted, even forced me to reject him. You flirted shamelessly with the man. He stayed on in Worcester far longer than he had planned because you gave him reason to believe that his interest was returned in full measure. Then you blithely cast him aside for John. You wrote Master O’Duine love letters. Now you want them back. You gave Master O’Duine a lavish gift which was not yours to dispense with, and now you wish that back as well. It would all make a fine comedy save that our family would be the butt of all the jests.”

      “So you mean to give me no help?”

      “I am sorely tempted to let you fall, face first, into the mire you have stirred up.”

      “Pleasance, you cannot do that to me!” Letitia wailed.

      “Nay, sadly, I cannot.” Pleasance shook her head in a weary gesture of utter disgust, with herself as much as with Letitia. “I find John a very dull stick of a man, but he and his kin have been friends of this family for many years. You have set the stage for a monstrous scandal which would surely touch John as well. He does not deserve that.”

      “’Tis not all my fault.”

      “Then there is our own family to consider,” Pleasance continued, ignoring Letitia’s truculent interruption. “You seem to have thought little of them in your recent foolhardiness, Letitia. Mother would be destroyed. She could neither bear the ill talk which would result nor the estrangement from society that such scandal always brings. I dare not even think how Papa would react. Then there are our brothers. They would feel honor-bound to defend each slur aimed at us, and I do not have to tell you what tragedy could result.”

      “So you will do it?” Letitia said. “You are, after all, the only one who knows how to get into Tearlach’s locked room.”

      “I truly regret the strange, unasked-for skills that I possess,” Pleasance muttered.

      “If you had not been such a bad child, you would not have been СКАЧАТЬ