Fantasy 03 - Double Fantasy by Cheryl Holt Read Free Book Online Page A

wouldn't."
    It was the perfect opening for him to expound, but he was silent as stone, and she could barely resist the urge to reach over and shake some answers out of him.
    He sat on the rail, his hips on the edge, his arms and ankles casually crossed, and he stared up at the mansion, its shape outlined in the moonlight.
    "Have you always lived here?" he inquired.
    "Since I was a baby. Our parents died, and my aunt Edith brought us to stay with them."
    "You're so lucky," he murmured with a great deal of envy.
    "Yes, I am," she agreed, not meaning it.
    She didn't feel lucky. It was difficult, having to grovel to her Merrick cousins. They were selfish and cruel, and Ophelia in particular was overbearing. She relished tormenting Sarah and had wielded Sarah's painful secrets like an executioner's axe, constantly threatening to tell if Sarah didn't do as Ophelia bid her.
    Sarah often felt that she was little more than Ophelia's slave, so for the most part, she tried to be unobtrusive and inconspicuous, to never bother her cousins or yearn for more than she'd been given. Years earlier, she'd been terribly greedy, but that sort of covetous-ness could drive a person insane.
    She was older now—and much wiser. The consequences for insatiable conduct were exceedingly dire, so she'd convinced herself that she was contented with her lot. She would never again crave more than what she had.
    "And how about you?" she queried, still delving for information. "Where was your home before you returned to Gladstone?"
    "I didn't have one."
    "Everyone has one, Mr. Merrick."
    "Not me. I grew up at sea With Jamie. I'm a nomad. I'd give anything to have a spot like this to call my own."
    "Will you and Mr. Merrick—that is, Lord Gladstone—reside here full-time?"
    "I doubt it."
    "But why wouldn't you?"
    "I suppose we're not the type to settle down. We never learned how."
    "Why would your brother fight so hard to regain this place if he doesn't care about it?"
    Jack shrugged. "It's his, and he's entitled to it, but he doesn't have to like it."
    "What will become of Anne? Will he take her away?" "I don't know his plans."
    The comment was a bald-faced lie, Sarah was sure. She'd seen Mr. Merrick and his brother together. They were thick as thieves. When one of them inhaled, the other exhaled, their entire existence bound as if by invisible threads. Jack Merrick would have been apprised—down to the most minute detail—of what Jamieson Merrick intended to do, and the fact that he couldn't say, or wouldn't say, was extremely worrying.
    It boded ill for Anne; it boded ill for herself.
    "I spoke to Anne a while ago," Sarah told him. "She's discussed matters with your brother. He claims that if she weds him, he will let me remain on the property for as long as I wish."
    "Did he?" Merrick was completely noncommittal.
    "Is he a man of his word?"
    "Occasionally."
    She snorted. "You're an obnoxious tease, and I have no idea why I'm talking to you."
    "What would you have me say?"
    "I want you to enlighten me as to what will happen in the morning."
    "How would I know? I'm not a fortune-teller."
    "Will your brother keep his promise?"
    "Will your sister do as he's demanded and wed him?"
    "How would I know?" Sarah tossed back, and he was the one who snorted.
    "Now who's being a tease?"
    She was peering out across the garden, while he was still studying the house. He turned toward her, and it was the strangest impression, but suddenly she felt a powerful urge to fall into his arms and cast caution to the wind.
    He felt it, too, the sense of connection flowing between them, and she could perceive his shocked awareness. She was no sheltered virgin like Anne, and she recognized what was occurring. He desired her, and the realization made her heart pound.
    A dangerous and blazing need swept through her, and she was desperate to be touched by him, which stunned her to the marrow of her bones.
    Her prior scandalous behavior had proven that she was possessed of a weak