If You Were Mine Read Online Free PDF Page A

locals in towns and villages, and combed
fields, all to no avail. Slowly, they moved north but could find no
sign of her, until Peter had overheard a chance conversation in the
village pub just outside of Peterborough.
    A
beautiful young woman, a stranger to the area, was found dead on
the outskirts of the town wearing nothing but a necklace. Careful
questioning of the locals, and the farmer who had discovered the
body, had led them to learn about her final resting place in this
small, rural graveyard.
    Having
had no identification upon her, she hadn’t even given the dignity
of being buried among any of her ancestors in the family crypt.
Instead, she had been quickly buried in a simple pauper’s grave in
a village she hadn’t even resided in, with nothing to mark her
presence but a plain wooden cross. If it hadn’t been for the
villager’s shock and sympathy for her plight, she wouldn’t even
have had the cross.
    Anger
began to bloom inside the empty aching void that was Dominic’s
heart. Taking a deep breath, he slowly pushed to his feet feeling
considerably older than his four and thirty years.
    “ What I don’t understand is,” Dominic shifted against the cold
that had begun to seep into his bones, “why didn’t she come to
Havistock? I told her the day I left that if she needed anything,
she was to contact Havistock Hall. My man of business was under
strict instructions to assist her in every way should she approach
him for help. He assures me he has never received any such
communication from her.” He didn’t think he would ever be warm
again.
    “ We know Rupert kept her locked in her room. The few remaining
staff in residence were under strict instructions to keep her
isolated, and had been paid highly for their services. Her only
contact with the outside world was through Kitty, who herself was
watched closely by Rupert’s men.” Peter cursed roundly and abruptly
turned away from the graveside, as though he couldn’t stand to be
there any longer.
    “ She wouldn’t have been given the opportunity to contact
Havistock Hall. Even if she did write, Rupert would have ensured
her letter didn’t go anywhere.”
    Dominic
sucked in a frustrated breath, and in a desperate bid to seek
relief from the clawing pain that gripped him, focused on what they
had learnt about Isobel’s final weeks.
    “ I know, but we also know that she left the house at some
point and disappeared. We don’t know at the moment where she went,
and where Rupert and his men finally caught up with her, but it
must have been somewhere around here. Someone must know
something!”
    Peter
paused and looked back toward the dark soil that entombed his
sister’s final resting place, before turning toward his best
friend. He had fought in hellish conditions with Dominic Cavendish
by his side, and would trust the man with his life, certainly with
his sister’s life. He knew Dominic well enough to appreciate just
how deeply in love he was with Isobel. Grief had turned his
handsome features grey, and with the deep lines that now married
his classic features bore testament to how devastated he was by the
news of her brutal murder.
    “ We know the Rector was contacted by the Magistrate, who
having no idea of her identity ordered a pauper’s funeral,”
Dominic’s warm breath fogged in the cold autumn air as mist settled
around them, giving the graveyard a pervading sense of eerie gloom.
“We also know that she was found by the track somewhere near here.”
His voice quavered as the vivid image of his beautiful sister, cold
and lifeless lying in the mud rose in his mind. Anger and grief
surged through him, and he abruptly fell silent as he attempted to
control his emotions.
    Neither
man could bring themselves to mention the word ‘murder’, but both
knew they were thinking the same thing.
    Any
question as to the validity of her identity had been soundly
quashed, when the farmer had described the only item found upon her
body was a single