Until the Dawn by Elizabeth Camden Read Free Book Online

with his arm around Pieter. Handsome, too. She swallowed hard and tried to smother this strange sense of yearning. Pieter looked up from the book, sending her a wide smile.
    “Look at you, reading the old language just like a realDutchman,” Sophie said with an approving nod. “My family quit speaking Dutch generations ago.”
    “My father does business in the Netherlands,” Pieter said. “He’s a famous architect who builds things all over the world.”
    An architect who seems to prefer destroying things rather than constructing them . “So I hear.” She tamped down the bitter sentiment, scrambling for a polite way to ask what germ of insanity had warped Quentin Vandermark’s mind into thinking the demolition of a national treasure was a worthwhile use of his skills.
    “I’ve heard rumors about the long-term fate of this house that I find difficult to believe,” she said, hoping her choice of words would fly over Pieter’s head, but the boy understood her perfectly.
    “We’re going to blow the house up,” Pieter said, pride in his voice. “My father knows how to use dynamite.”
    Dynamite? This was even worse than she’d imagined. “Now, why would you do such a thing?” She tried to sound lighthearted, but this was awful, a desecration of something wonderful and rare.
    “Because the house is cursed, and I hate it,” Pieter said.
    His father sent him a sharp glare. “Pieter . . .”
    The boy cleared his throat. “Um, we’re doing it because Grandpa asked us to. The house belongs to him, not us. We’re just doing it as a favor.”
    “We’re doing it out of loyalty ,” Mr. Vandermark said pointedly to his son. “We both owe Nickolaas a great deal, and it is his wish to return this piece of land to its natural state, without a house on top of it.”
    She clenched the back of a chair so hard her knuckles hurt. This house was everything to her. It was beauty and mystery and a tiny piece of paradise. This man didn’t know the first thing about Dierenpark or he wouldn’t be so cavalier about tearing it down.
    “You can’t,” she said weakly. “The town depends on this house. It would be wanton destruction to tear it down. An unimaginable catastrophe . . .”
    There was more she wanted to add, but Pieter interrupted. “Do you know where the lanterns are? We couldn’t find them, and it was dark last night.”
    A guilty pleasure took root, for if Mr. Vandermark hadn’t fired the servants so abruptly, they wouldn’t have been in the dark. Nevertheless, Pieter wasn’t to blame for what had happened, so she sent him a smile.
    “Do you want to come hunting for them with me? I suspect I can find a few lanterns in short order.”
    Pieter glanced back at the table. “I have to finish my breakfast first.”
    The only thing on the kitchen table was a half-eaten apple that looked like it had been plucked off the tree outside. “All you’ve had is apples?”
    Neither answered, but given the way Mr. Vandermark’s mouth tightened, she’d guessed right.
    “We didn’t bring any food with us,” Pieter said. “And I don’t think anyone knows how to cook.”
    Well, at last. A chance for her to become indispensable. “There are eggs in the larder outside, and some cheese, as well. Why don’t I fix you all a nice breakfast?”
    Pieter’s delight was comical. “Yes, please!”
    She motioned for Pieter to follow her to the larder and help carry in the food, but Mr. Vandermark’s voice stopped her.
    “Wait until I have one of my men accompany you.”
    “But the larder is right outside the back door.”
    “You will wait for one of my men to accompany you.”
    The demand didn’t seem odd to Pieter, but it seemed a waste of time to Sophie. The larder was visible from the window, a mere twenty yards away.
    A bull-necked man finally arrived and introduced himself as Ratface. Sophie tried not to blanch. A disfiguring scar tracked across the middle of his forehead, through his eyebrow, and continued