Always Mine by Sophia Johnson Read Free Book Online Page A

lips.
    The bewitching scent from his hands caused an involuntary catch in her breathing. He stilled, then lifted his fingers. Was he afraid he was waking her? Several moments passed before he moved away.
    She did not dare twitch a muscle. After hearing the door close, she peeked through thick lashes. She was alone.
    Over the years, she had learned much about the Sinclair and Morgan families. Brianna’s mother died after birthing her, and her sister, Alana, took over the duties as mother.
    When Brianna was eight years old, the baron founded Saint Anne’s Abbey with Alana as its abbess.
    Damron Morgan was noted for his temper and strong will.
    After his marriage to Brianna, she gave him two sons, but their history said she later leapt from the parapet of Blackthorn Castle.
    “Not bloody likely,” Lydia muttered aloud. She had never believed it, for Brianna had lived at the abbey with Alana. She damned well would never put her immortal soul in danger.
    How in blazes did she get here in Brianna’s body?
    Had all those misty flashes of strange memories over the years belonged to a previous life? Even at five years old, when she had seen Damron’s likeness, she claimed he
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    belonged to her. Her father told her she misread Damron for Demon, though she now believed it was more than a child’s mistake. She remembered the feeling of fierce possession that filled her as she bought the brooch, the face and voice that begged her to vow she would never leave him. It was Damron’s as surely as it had been tonight.
    When she’d walked high above on the castle parapets, the wind had blown as furiously as a hurricane gust and lifted her into the air for scant seconds before dropping her back against hard stone. Her head struck something. Then, darkness. She’d heard the raptor’s voice, felt the flutter of its wing feathers.
    She had moved through black nothingness until the echo of a frightened voice cried out, “Please God, please God, help me!” The sensation of moving ended then with a sense much like slipping on a muddy river bank and sliding into the water.
    She’d felt another blow to the head. More darkness. When she again became aware, she had struggled to make her body respond to her mind. Had her soul returned to a former life then?
    She had often thought about the journey of souls, but always in the sense that souls went forward into another time.
    What if her matured soul was called back to relive a previous life? Maybe this explained why she had felt such a tie to the drawing. If she had once been Brianna, it would account for those strange images that did not belong to Lydia.
    Was there a way back? One thing she knew for certain. If she indeed was in a former lifetime, she had no intention of leaving the way the early Brianna had.
    Hours later, Lydia woke with tears streaming down her face. The same nightmare often plagued her. An unseen man accused her of betraying him. A flash of light hit shiny metal, a sword raised to strike. Her mouth opened in a soundless scream.
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    Sophia Johnson
    Someone stirred beside her. She was not at home in her bed.
    Before she could stifle it, a distressed cry escaped her lips.
    Elise turned over, and Lydia forced herself to lie still. She broke into a cold sweat. No longer could she hope the past days were a dream.
    “Oh, Brianna, you look frightful.” Elise raised up on an elbow. “Have you been crying? Did you not sleep? Does your head hurt? Your forehead does not stick out like an egg this morn. Do you want to stay in bed today?” She bounced up with the exuberance of a colt.
    “No, I haven’t been crying, yes, I did sleep, no, my head doesn’t hurt, and I don’t want to stay in bed.” Lydia forced herself to smile at the sweet young woman and watched her as she rose and went about her morning ritual.
    While they slept, someone had built up the fire. Other objects, not there the night before, were on the washstand. She watched Elise wash her face and