The Last Darling Read Online Free PDF

true. A distant ancestor had, in fact, crossed the Atlantic, but with his heart set on Canada. And his fortune was not made in banking but in furs. His eventual residence in America was completely accidental and somewhat tragic. He was a clever man, but unfortunately also very clumsy and absentminded. He would design the most elegant and impressive animal traps of his time, but he would often forget where he had placed them. One afternoon, while pacing in his dimly lit cabin, the gnarled teeth of one his own designs clamped shut around his left leg. It would be four days before another person heard his screams. By that time his leg would be almost completely sawed through. His leg would be removed just below the knee, and it would be almost five months before he had the strength to speak. The event, though traumatizing, was a revelation, for the person who found him was a beautiful young girl by the name of Melinda. Despite her young age, then only fourteen, he made an oath that she would be his wife. However, during his recovery, she turned fifteen and was immediately engaged to another trapper farther north – a man she was very much in love with.
    The clumsy trapper, after hearing the news, cried profusely. He went to humbly congratulate her father and, to his great satisfaction, learned that Melinda and her family had never actually seen the fiancé and communicated with him only in the form of letters. Melinda and her mother were, at that exact moment, heading north to meet him. The clumsy trapper readied his sled, riding day and night in order to arrive a full day before Melinda and her mother. He tricked the over-excited fiancé into drinking more alcohol than he should have, then subdued and stripped the unconscious body in a back room of the cabin.
    When Melinda and her mother arrived, he assumed the role of her fiancé, always keeping a handkerchief or cloth covering his face, claiming a case of frostbite had made him unsightly. The wedding was immediate and quickly consummated in the hallway of the adjacent tavern. The clumsy trapper, knowing he could not stay disguised forever, took Melinda and fled to America, far from the young girl’s family. Once there, he revealed his true identity and enforced the strictest bonds of matrimony. He did his best to cherish and support her; her happiness, however, can only be guessed at.
    In his haste, he forgot about the subdued fiancé – an error which led to the poor young man’s death after a particularly bad and abrupt snow storm covered his cabin with snow and sleet. When the locales removed the snow and found his body naked and bound, they assumed Melinda had killed him in a perverse and sexual way. Four other sexually motivated murders were attributed to her despite the victims being women. For a brief time Melinda was considered Canada’s most depraved and deviant killer, though no official police reports linked her to the crimes.
    How the clumsy trapper discovered an aptitude for banking is uncertain, but what is known is that he was able to triple his wealth over the small span of two years. As each new generation inherited the company, its wealth and influence diminished. By the time Thomas Stearns had acquired the title of CEO, only four branches remained and, due to a fire, only three were operational. The truth was, Thomas Stearns had little interest in banking, and in fact, cared little for money in general. He would lock the door to his office and spend hours writing poetry – most of it bad and all of it unpublished.
    When Clover and Francis singlehandedly saved his failing business and bohemian lifestyle, he decided, with nervous resolve, to share his poetry with them. Clover, having been forbidden to read poetry due to its sensual nature, was overjoyed and immediately impressed with the verses Thomas Stearns gave her. Francis, having little interest in books, simply smiled and nodded encouragingly – an act which would secure Thomas Stearns’