Call of the Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

and Lalitha followed her. But Sophie reached the second floor some time before her halfsister could struggle up the stairs.
    “Come on!” Sophie said impatiently when at last Lalitha entered the bed-room. “You know I cannot undo this gown myself.”
    Lalitha put down the lace dress she was carrying, then she said:
    “Sophie, do not . . . make me do this. I have a . . . feeling that His Lordship will be very . . . angry. Angrier even than ... your mother.”
    “Why do you not call her ‘Mama’?” Sophie asked. “You have been told often enough.”
    “I...I mean ... Mama.”
    “I am not surprised that she gets into a rage with you,” Sophie said spitefully. “You are so stupid, Lalitha, and if Lord Rothwyn also gives you a beating, it is no more than you deserve!”
    “I could not. . . stand any . . . more,” Lalitha whispered.
    “You have said that before,” Sophie remarked.
    She glanced at Lalitha’s face and said a little more gently: “Perhaps Mama was rather rough with you tonight. She is very strong and you are so thin, I wonder her cane does not break your bones!”
    “They feel as if . . . they are . . . broken!” Lalitha said.
    “They are not or you would not be able to walk,” Sophie remarked practically.
    “No, I suppose . . . not,” Lalitha agreed, “but I. . . cannot face ... Lord Rothwyn and his ... anger.”
    “You have never met him,” Sophie said, “so what do you know about his anger?”
    Lalitha did not answer and she said more insistently: “Tell me. You know something, I can see that.”
    “It is just a . . . book that I found here in the . . .
    house. It is called Legends of the Famous Families of
    England. ’’
    “It sounds interesting,” Sophie said. “Why did you not show it to me?”
    “You do not often read.” Lalitha answered, “and I was also... afraid it might... upset you.”
    “Upset me?” Sophie asked. “Why should it upset me? What did it say?”
    “It recounted the origins of the Rothwyn family and how the founder, Sir Hengist Rothwyn, was an adventurer and a pirate.”
    “Yes, go on,” Sophie said.
    “He was very successful and was also known to have been very fierce.”
    Lalitha saw that Sophie was listening and went on: “All down the centuries, so this book said, the Rothwyns have inherited the uncontrollable temper of their ancestor. Lord Rothwyn’s name, ‘Inigo,’ means ‘fiery.’ ” “I think I am well rid of that particular gentleman!” Sophie remarked dryly.
    “There was a verse about Sir Hengist written in 1540,” Lalitha continued as if Sophie had not spoken. “What did it say?” Sophie asked.
    Lalitha thought for a moment.
    Then in a weak voice which trembled as she spoke she recited:
    “Black eyes, black hair,
    Black anger, so beware,
    If revenge a Rothwyn swear!”
    Sophie laughed.
    “You do not think I am afraid of that balderdash!” she sneered.
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six,
Chapter Eight

Chapter Two
    Driving towards the Church in the hired carriage which should have been carrying Sophie, Lalitha wished she did not feel so ill.
    The brandy which her Step-mother had given her after the beating had made her feel better for a short time, but now a strange and an unnatural lassitude was sweeping over her and
    her back was beginning to throb unbearably.
    She knew she should be grateful to Sophie for preventing her Step-mother from beating her insensible, as she had done on other occasions.
    Only the previous week Lady Studley had come to her bedroom with some complaint which had aroused her anger and found Lalitha in her night-gown.
    She had beaten her then until she had fallen unconscious to the floor and lain there for hours.
    Eventually it had taken all her resolution and what remained of her strength to crawl into bed. But she had been so cold from lying for so long on the floor that she had been unable to sleep or to keep her teeth from chattering until it was time for her to