The Secrets of Mia Danvers Read Online Free PDF Page B

please continue,” he said.
    “I had just rounded the corner to step onto Carrington property,” she continued. “I was following the stone wall with my fingertips, as is my custom. It began to rain so I was trying to stay close to the wall itself to take advantage of the small amount of protection from the weather it provided. The shrubbery, as you know, is rather thick and robust in that area so I had positioned myself in between the two. It kept me warmer and somewhat covered from the onslaught of rain.”
    She exhaled slowly. “But then I heard a sound—a woman crying, to be precise. I nearly stepped forward, out onto the stone path to see if I could be of assistance. But then I heard him.” She shuddered, then looked up as if she met Alex’s gaze. “I apologize for changing my mind, but I believe I would like some tea now.”
    He rang the bell and Hodges came in immediately as if poised just outside the door with the tray. He set down the tea service, then poured Miss Danvers a cup of tea. Alex nodded to the man and he excused himself out the double doors. Alex picked up the teacup and saucer, the delicate china clanked as he handled them. He reached forward to hand them to her. “Here.”
    Her fingers were cold when they brushed his, but their frigidness did little to hide the heat that flashed through him at the touch of her hand. A peculiar reaction considering she wasn’t at all the sort of woman he typically found attractive. She was far too thin, not to mention her flagrant disregard for propriety.
    She took a shaky sip, then held the cup in her lap. “Thank you.” She sat quietly a moment, as if relishing the tea and allowing the warmth of the cup to heat her hands. “Yes, well at first,” she continued, “I thought perhaps it was simply some lovers caught in the rain. I stayed still, not wanting to interrupt them or draw attention to myself. But it didn’t take long for me to realize that they were not lovers.”
    Alex wrote notes as she spoke. Perhaps when he provided the inspectors with firsthand knowledge of the words spoken between Sally and her attacker, they might move past their theory of a lovers’ quarrel.
    “He was hurting her,” Mia said. “Pulling her hair and gripping her tightly and speaking to her so vulgar it made my ears burn. She whimpered and begged him, but her pleas and fear only seemed to fuel his anger and amusement. He laughed at her, called her names.” She took another sip, then stared at the ground for several long moments. “Then he cut her.”
    Alex listened to every word she said, making notes of every detail he suspected was important. He thought back on what his mother had always said about the Danvers girl that lived on their property, and wondered why she had always believed Mia to be mad. There was nothing in her behavior that suggested she had a mental disturbance.
    “He continued his assault of her, stabbing and cutting through her clothes. I could hear the fabric tear with every movement of his knife.” Mia shook her head and Alex realized she was crying. Silent tears slid down her cheeks. “When it was all over he spat on her. Then he lit a cigarette and walked off. Whistling.”
    Alex was unsure of what to say. She had certainly been through an ordeal. No one should have to witness such a crime, not with their eyes nor their ears.
    She swiped at her tears. “I should have tried harder to stop him. Called out or . . . anything to draw his attention away from the girl,” Mia said. “But everything happened so quickly, I wasn’t able to help her.” She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut as if trying to shake the disturbing image away.
    But of course she hadn’t seen anything, though he suspected that sometimes an imagined scene could be just as frightening. The urge to touch her washed over him; rub her arm or drape his arm over her shoulders, comfort her in some way.
    “And I was so scared,” she added softly.
    “I doubt trying to