Diamonds and Dreams by Rebecca Paisley Read Free Book Online Page A

about me. If I have
to spend two weeks listening to your incessant lectures, I fear
I’ll go insane. Out of courtesy, I have allowed you to rant and
rave to your heart’s content today, but be forewarned that I will
not tolerate such behavior again. Have I made myself clear?”
    “Indubitably.”
    Saber didn’t miss the twinkle in his
friend’s bright blue eyes. As usual, it tempered his aggravation.
“Addison, you are as incorrigible now as you were when we met.”
    “It was at some opera, was it not? We were
twelve.”
    Saber smiled. “We were eleven, and it was at
your mother’s birthday party.”
    “Ah, yes. You had filched Lord Warton’s
snuffbox and put pepper in it. You swore me to secrecy.”
    “ You stole his snuffbox and put
pepper in it. You swore me to secrecy.”
    “Yes, I do believe you’re right. It was but
the beginning of many pranks to come. It was then, too, that I gave
you your nickname. I thought it rather clever, lifting ‘Saber’ from
‘Saberfield.’ “
    “I think it is rather unseemly.”
    “Now why doesn’t that surprise me, Your
Grace ? But you must admit, ‘Saber’ does suit you. You can be as
cold and hard as steel. You’ve a sharp wit, you’re to the point,
and your slashing anger can draw blood as well as any weapon I can
think of.”
    “Are you trying to antagonize me again?”
    “I am merely indulging in what no one else
in England would feel safe doing—pushing you beyond your limit. I
confess to feeling a tremendous amount of pleasure at being cheeky
in your presence and living to tell about it.”
    “You are implying that I am a beast?”
    “Say you nay to the charge, sir?”
    Saber grinned. “I’m supposed be angry at you
right now, Addison. Get out before I decide I like you again.”
    “As you wish.” Addison made a low,
exaggerated bow, and then looked Saber in the eye. “But do ponder
the things I told you, Saber. They came from a friend, not an
enemy.” With that, he quit the room.
    When he was gone, Saber removed his robe and
sank into the tub of steaming water he realized Addison must have
ordered for him. Lying back, he closed his eyes and dwelled on
Addison’s accusations.
    Your life is boring and uneventful.
    The indifferent air, the authority...your
shields against caring.
    Opening your heart means taking another
chance on life, and you might lose again.
    You’ve loved and lost so many times...
    Saber remembered each charge. They were
true. All of them.
    But there was nothing Addison or anyone
could do to change them, he knew. Addison was daft for hoping a
fortnight in the country was the answer to such unsolvable
problems. “For hoping for a miracle,” Saber whispered, bathwater
lapping at his lips.
    A miracle. Saber shook his head at the
absurdity. No help from heaven had ever come to him, and nothing
miraculous whatsoever was going to occur at Leighwood either. The
fortnight would end and then he could come back to London and get
on with...
    Get on with what? he asked himself. With his
life?
    He didn’t have one.

Chapter Three
     
     
    Big wiped his forehead with the back of his
hand and surveyed the surroundings. “I have no idea where we are,”
he said in answer to Goldie’s question concerning their location.
“For all I know we’ve journeyed in a perfect circle, and Hallensham
is right over on the other side of this water.”
    Goldie watched the ripples dance on the
clear, clean pond they’d found hidden in a dense thicket, and
breathed deeply of the crisp woods-scented air. “Big, we’ve been
travelin’ for days. Hallensham is a long way away from here.”
    He threw her a sour look. “I’m going to go
see if I can snare some kind of supper for us. Don’t you dare
wander off while I’m gone.”
    As soon as Big left, Goldie pulled a sliver
of soap from her dress pocket, shed her clothes, and waded into the
fresh water. “Maybe when Big gets back, he won’t be such an
ill-box,” she commented to the big gray mongrel,