Captive Surrender Read Free Page B

protectiveness that swept through him at the thought of Levant
ever getting close enough to Prudence, or her sisters, to be able
to touch her.
    “ Seems a lot
of hassle to go to though, just for a beach,” Stephen drawled
around a yawn. His posture remained relaxed and at ease, yet
everything within him reverberated with a tension that refused to
subside. He ignored Levant’s disparaging snort and didn’t have to
wait long before he got a reply.
    “ It isn’t
just a beach. It is far more than that,” Levant snapped
impatiently.
    Stephen lifted a querying
brow and sighed when Levant made no attempt to expand on his
comment. Determined not to be thwarted, Stephen turned a dark glare
on the man beside him. “It is sand, pebbles and sea. There are a
lot of beaches like that up and down the coastline. Why that beach?
Why not the one next door?”
    “ Because this
one is the closest to Dinnington, and it is away from the nosy
parkers in Marchwell. It has everything we need.” Levant seemed to
realise he had said far too much and closed his mouth with a snap.
He nudged his horse into a trot and left silence to descend over
the riders as they made their way out of the storm.

     

    CHAPTER
TWO
    “ It’s
alright, mother,” Prudence sighed. “Everything is going to be
alright. Just come with me,” she murmured softly as she turned her
mother around and led her back toward the house.
    “ But they
have gone, you know, they have gone,” Agatha replied with a frown.
Her small frame trembled beneath the thin material of her white
nightdress. It was cold outside, but Agatha had not bothered to put
a shawl on before she had left the house to wander aimlessly around
the gardens.
    Prudence shouldn’t be
surprised, really. It wasn’t the first time that she had found her
mother wandering around the house and grounds late at night, or
early in the morning. Usually, either she or her sisters made sure
that the doors were kept locked and bolted, but everyone must have
forgotten to slide the bolts across last night. How long Agatha had
been wandering around the gardens Prudence had no idea but, from
the sight of her mother’s muddy, and slightly blue feet, she had
been outside for some time.
    “ I know that
they have gone, dearest, but we can find them in the morning. Right
now, it is too dark to see anything,” Prudence muttered and shared
a frustrated glance with Maggie, who appeared in the sitting room
doorway. “Go and fetch a bowl and some water, we need to get her
clean,” she sighed and eyed the muddy footprints they had left on
the tiled floor behind them.
    She turned to Robbie. “Go
and fetch a stool.”
    Within minutes, Robbie
was holding his mother’s hand and talking nonsensically to her
while Prudence and Maggie quickly washed the mud off their mother’s
feet.
    “ We can’t
carry on like this indefinitely,” Maggie warned. Her chin wobbled
at the mumbled nonsense that their mother repeated over and
over.
    Several years ago their
father had abandoned them in favour of a dissolute lifestyle in
London. He had taken with him what had been left of the family
coffers and spent the lot before his death. Unable to cope with the
scandal and shame, their mother’s health had declined at a steady
rate every day since, and she had descended into a state of madness
that now posed a significant risk to her life. Unfortunately, in
order to protect themselves and their home, Prudence and her
siblings had been left with no option but to fend for themselves
and care for their increasingly frail mother.
    “ We have no
choice,” Prudence snapped as she pushed to her feet. “We will lose
the house if Uncle Bernard ever gets wind that she is like this.
She will be confined to heaven only knows where, and then what?”
She stopped as she realised her voice was getting louder and
louder, and immediately regretted her outburst. Nobody argued with
her though, because they knew she was right.
    Uncle Bernard,
embarrassed by his