several
months, and the Lord Tinley has been as understanding as is required in your
situation, but I’m afraid your taxes are long past due. Have you any money for
his lordship?”
Malinda
eyed him speculatively. She knew that Lord Tinley was half off his rocker. He
had no clue who owed taxes or who had paid in full. He had never so much as cared
about when her grandfather had paid him before, but now that there was no man
in their little hut the steward had taken to assuming more of a role in his
collections from them. She saw the way his tongue swept quickly over his bottom
lip and the way his hand patted his side in slow rhythms. “I am working on
gathering up the sums required, my lord.”
“Well,
perhaps we can work out an arrangement, my dear.” His hand made to sweep across
her arm and Mule, her large mastiff, latched onto his doublet with a growl that
would have shaken any man to his core.
“Mule!”
Malinda snapped her fingers and the dog immediately lay down at her side. “I’m
so sorry, Sir Halfscomb. He must have thought you were going to try something
inappropriate with me. You know how these beasts can be sometimes. He doesn’t
know Lord Tinley’s rules about improper engagement on his property. I know I am
quite safe in your presence, for Lord Tinley requires complete decorum from his employees . He wouldn’t think twice about firing anyone in his employ for
abusing his tenants.” Malinda looked up at Halfscomb with an innocent
serene stare, and he quickly withdrew his hand away from her.
“So
be it.” Lord Halfscomb clenched his teeth and sneered angrily at her. “Then I
give you two days to rectify this situation before you are cast out from your
home and it is burned to the ground. That is well within the laws of Tinley
Faire, as well as any tenant contract within these parts. Fair warning. Good
day, Ms. Grier.”
He
strutted off much like he had come, but the fast paced waddle was almost too
much for her. She made great effort to still the giggles that threatened to
break free at the spectacle his wide behind made, and was successful in
quelling the tide of emotions until he was far enough away that he could not
hear her. She entered her home, loud giggles breaking free from her mouth. Even
though the severity of the situation tickled the surface of her mind, it was
the sight that met her in the doorway that took her breath away.
“Grandmother!”
Her grandmother was sitting in the chair by the fire. She had not climbed from
the bed in days, and yet there she sat. It should have made her happy to see
that her grandmother had risen from bed, but from the way her shoulders hunched
over and her head hung loosely to her chest, Malinda feared the worst. When she
crossed the room to her side, she lifted a hand to touch her grandmother’s head
and found it cold to the touch. The cries that shook the little house could be
heard for miles around as Malinda mourned the last connection she had in her
life. Mule howled at her side, mourning with her. Soon other animals gathered
outside, their sounds multiplying the agony of her passing. When tears were no
longer able to fall from her eyes, a storm cloud engorged the sky above and the
rains took over in a torrential downpour that the lands had not seen since her
grandfather had passed.
Chapter 3
Malinda
had quite forgotten her tax dilemma as she prepared her grandmother’s body for
the afterlife. She was busy gathering enough material to make a peaceful shroud
and finding the manpower to help dig her resting place. She would be buried that
evening when the sun set across the sky, for it had been her grandmother’s
favorite time of day. Malcome and several of the males in the area had promised
to help dig the small grave next to her grandfather’s. They would be together,
side by side in death, much as they had been in life.
Malinda
put the finishing touches around her grandmother as she added tiger lilies and
lilacs near her