Liberty for Paul Read Online Free PDF Page B

one. But truly how could she resist such an opportunity? “Yes, sir,” she said smugly, sending him a tentative smile. Then hefting the bundle of clothes over her head, she used all her strength—which wasn’t that much since she was a lady after all—and hurled his clothes across the room to fall into a graceless heap. Of course they didn’t land on the bed, not that she’d expected them to.
    Proud of her demonstration of following his orders, Liberty turned to face Papa and was about to make an inane comment, but was halted in her tracks when she heard Mama gasp and saw Papa’s eyes almost pop out of his head. For a moment there she’d forgotten the state of her gown. However, their responses quickly jogged her memory.
    She’d purposely destroyed her gown by ripping the sleeves, undoing half the buttons and somewhat crumpling her skirts, all before he chased her around the room, which only added to the dishevelment. Her plan had been to be seen with her gown this way and accuse him of trying to ravish her. Of course she hadn’t planned to take this so far as to make it public or anything. She just wanted to convince her father to cut ties with him. That plan wasn’t going to work now.
    “Sir, may I please have a few minutes to redress?” Mr. Grimes asked evenly.
    “Fine,” Papa barked. “Both of you, my study, five minutes.”
    Leaving the room in haste, Liberty ran from that room as fast as her slippers could take her. But no matter how fast she ran, or how many times she looked over her shoulder, Mama was still hot on her heels.
    “Liberty Ellis Banks, what were you thinking?!” Mama shrieked, grabbing hold of her back of her dress to keep her from going into her room without her.
    Liberty cringed. She hated her name. Liberty was all right, but she hated being called Ellis. She’d let people think it was because it was more commonly a boy’s name. However, the truth was, it was her mother’s grandmother’s maiden name, and to be quite frank, she’d never liked her great-grandmother very much. Great-Grandma Ellis had been a crotchety ancient bitty who was always spewing vile insults and darning something. On Liberty’s eighth birthday, she told her she’d never live up to the Ellis name, then in front of all the friends and family that were gathered to celebrate, she pointed out all of Liberty’s flaws. She made sure to mention how plain Liberty was compared to her sisters and declared she’d never catch a husband with her gangly smile.
    Unconsciously, Liberty ran her tongue along her crooked top teeth. They weren’t so bad, she admitted to herself. In fact, they were better than most; yet compared to the rest of her family, hers looked awful. One of her front teeth were straight, but the other was at a slight diagonal. It sat slightly in front of the straight one, not a lot, but enough to catch notice. The bottoms, which thankfully she could keep concealed a lot easier, were a jumbled mess. No two teeth down there could be considered straight—well except the big ones, but of course those were in the back, blast it all.
    “ I don’t know,” Liberty admitted solemnly after a minute, unfastening the rest of her buttons. She knew what she had been thinking up until the time that Pa…er…Mr. Grimes had told her the story of his scar. That’s when she’d grown a conscience, or perhaps it was a brain. Either way, it was then she realized she couldn’t go through with her heartless plan. Not only was it a stupid thing to do, but she discovered she didn’t have the heart to do it. Of course she still didn’t like him, but to sentence him to the kind of life he’d have been forced into had she followed her plan and the story leaked. She shuddered just to think of it.
    “You do too know,” Mama snapped.
    Liberty’s fingers froze. She’d never heard Mama be sharp, ever. Nothing she’d ever done in the past had brought about this amount of anger from Mama. “I’m sorry,” Liberty said