Ransom Read Online Free PDF

smiled. “I know you have one in your bedroom too,” she said.
    â€œHow did you know? Did Christen tell you?”
    â€œNo, she didn’t tell,” she replied. “I would put you to bed in your room every night, but most mornings you were sleeping in Christen’s room. I guessed there was a passageway because I know you don’t like going into dark places, and the hallway outside your bedroom door was very dark. You had to have found another way.”
    â€œAre you going to paddle me for telling?”
    â€œOh, heaven’s no, Gillian. I’ll never strike you.”
    â€œPapa would never paddle me neither, but he always said he would. He was just fooling me, wasn’t he?”
    â€œYes,” she answered.
    â€œDid Papa hold my hand?”
    â€œNo, he didn’t go with you into the passage. It wouldn’t have been honorable for him to run away from the battle, and your father was an honorable man. He stayed with his soldiers.”
    â€œI pushed Christen down the steps and there was blood on her. She didn’t cry. I killed her.”
    Liese sighed. “I know you’re too young to understand, but I still want you to try. Christen did fall down the steps and so did you. Spencer told Maude he thought William lost his footing and slid into Lawrence. The stone floor was slippery, but William insisted someone had pushed him from behind.”
    â€œMaybe I pushed him,” she worried out loud.
    â€œYou’re too little to make a grown man lose his balance. You don’t have the strength.”
    â€œBut maybe . . .”
    â€œYou aren’t responsible,” Liese insisted. “It’s a miracle none of you was killed. You needed stitches, however, and so Spencer and William took you to Maude. William stood guard outside the cottage until the battle came too close. Maude said he was desperate to get you to safety, but unfortunately, by the time she was done sewing you back together, Baron Alford’s soldiers had surrounded the yard, and escape was no longer possible. You were captured and taken back to the castle.”
    â€œDid Christen get captured?”
    â€œNo, she was taken away before the tunnel was discovered.”
    â€œWhere’s Christen now?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Liese admitted. “But perhaps your Uncle Morgan can tell you. He might know. Tomorrow you must go and ask him. He loves you like a daughter,Gillian, and I know he’ll help you find your sister. I’m sure she misses you too.”
    â€œMaybe she’s lost.”
    â€œNo, she isn’t lost.”
    â€œBut if she’s lost, she’ll be scared.”
    â€œChild, she isn’t lost. She’s somewhere safe from Baron Alford’s clutches. Do you believe me now? In your heart, do you believe your sister is alive?”
    Gillian nodded. She began to twine Liese’s hair around her finger. “I believe you,” she whispered with a yawn. “When will Papa come and take me home?”
    Liese’s eyes filled with tears again. “Ah, love, your papa can’t come for you. He’s dead. Alford killed him.”
    â€œHe put a knife in Papa’s belly.”
    â€œDear God, you saw it happen?”
    â€œPapa didn’t cry.”
    â€œOh, my poor angel . . .”
    â€œMaybe Maude can sew Papa up, and then he can come and take me home.”
    â€œNo, he can’t come for you. He’s dead, and the dead can’t come back to life.”
    Gillian let go of Liese’s hair and closed her eyes. “Is Papa in heaven with Mama?”
    â€œHe surely is.”
    â€œI want to go to heaven too.”
    â€œIt isn’t your time to go. You have a long life to live first, Gillian, then you can go to heaven.”
    She squeezed her eyes shut so she wouldn’t cry. “Papa got dead in the night.”
    â€œYes, he did.”
    A long while passed in silence before Gillian