Moonstruck Madness Read Online Free PDF Page B

highwayman, Bonnie Charlie.
    Sabrina gratefully slipped into the warm water of the tub and relaxed, letting the sweet-scented bath oil Mary had added soak into her body. With her hair pinned up she looked like a small child as she yawned widely.
    "I'm glad we don't have to do this every night, or I'd be swooning over the breakfast table," Mary said, curling back up in her chair as she waited for Sabrina to bathe.
    "You know, I do really appreciate your waiting up for me. It's good to know that you're here and I can talk to you."
    "Have you ever thought what an odd life we're leading?" Mary asked. "I do wish sometimes that we could just live normally like everyone else."
    "Because of our odd life, Mary, we are able to live normally," Sabrina contradicted. "We live very simply compared to others, and even that takes money."
    "Oh, I know, Rina, and I'm not complaining, truly I'm not," Mary reassured her. "It's just this gnawing fear and worry that you'll be shot or captured. I suppose it's my own guilty conscience, but I'm constantly in fear of letting something slip."
    "I know how you feel. I'm tired too," Sabrina confessed. "But what can we do? This is our only means of support. Do you imagine I'd do it otherwise?"
    Mary looked at Sabrina's set face, hesitating for an instant before she replied reluctantly, "Well, maybe. You are a bit of a devil, Rina."
    "Mary!" Sabrina cried with an indignant laugh, splashing water on her playfully. "Of course I must admit I do so enjoy seeing my lords Malton and Newley's faces when I have them at sword point." Her eyes darkened at the thought of them and she angrily wrung the soapy cloth free of water.
    "What is it?" Mary asked in concern, seeing the look on her sister's face.
    "We found Nate Fisher in the woods tonight. He'd been caught poaching, and for his punishment he was hanged by the neck."
    "Oh, no," Mary breathed.
    "Oh, yes," Sabrina assured her in a hard voice. "Do you remember how we hated all of these people when we first came here? They were all the same to me, and I hated the lot of them. But gradually that changed as I came to know them, and I discovered that people were pretty much the same no matter where you were. The poor and underprivileged still going hungry, and the rich that bully them still getting away with it."
    "Do you know, Rina," Mary confided, "I've come to love it here. I want to stay here always. We won't go back to Scotland, will we?"
    Sabrina shook her head regretfully. "There's nothing to go back to. This is our home now, Mary."
    Mary smiled with relief. "I never thought I'd hear you say that. I've always loved this house, especially when Mother was alive and we were just little girls. Remember playing in the orchard and stealing apples?"
    Sabrina laughed. "Yes, very well. And I haven't mended my ways, have I? I didn't want to think of those days when we first returned to Verrick House. I was so full of hate and revenge that I didn't want to remember the nice things about it. But now that I'm seventeen I can look at life differently, more objectively than when I was a little girl, and I can accept both my memories and the present."
    "It's taken you a while," Mary teased.
    "Ah, but then we were hardly made welcome, were we? I don't think the Marquis' solicitor could really believe his eyes when we stormed into his offices. Do you know, I think for the first time in his life he was actually speechless. The Marquis probably had neglected to inform him that he had children."
    "You'll never call him Father, will you?" Mary asked curiously.
    Sabrina looked at her steadily. "And why should I? He's no father to us. Why, he's never seen his only son and heir! No, he can stay in Italy with his rich Contessa as far as I'm concerned. In fact, I would say we've been exceptionally lucky that he's been living abroad. Do you think he would've taken us in with welcoming arms? He's hardly proven himself to be paternal."
    Sabrina laughed harshly. "He would have sold Verrick