Lady Thief - By Rizzo Rosko Page 0,103

know of it, though her fear had almost gotten the better of her when he stood up, naked in her hut, and demanded to know how it was that she knew his name. Her fear had nearly prevented her from giving a valid response until she recalled that his hair would make the perfect excuse. After all, 'twas what she used to send those men after him in the first place.

Though she was certain her lie had worked, she still caught his narrowed glances that were surely meant to be secret, and the distrust that lay across his face as he observed her.

Anger twisted her guts. He acted so distrustful of her when he and his family obviously hid things of her own past from her.

Elizabeth would rectify that. She would be with Lady Gray and accompany her throughout whatever the lady decided to do during the day. Eventually, Elizabeth would make it known that she wished to become better acquainted with the young lord whom she had saved.

She knew better than to attempt any romantic involvement. She would befriend him. Then she would hint and pry until the answers of her father were revealed to her. 'Twould be difficult, but she would persist until all that anger and suspicion in his soul melted away.

She was not some evil fiend out to steal his wealth, and she would not be thought of as one simply because he chose to dislike her. She merely wished to live a life outside of that hovel where she had been raised. Clean, and safe from predators of both the animal and human variety.

She would befriend Blaise, gain his trust, and in return the young lord would be at ease knowing his home had not been invaded by a creature of foul intent.

Elizabeth could hardly wait for their next meeting.

***

Blaise lounged while his father paced. Marianne stood by and watched her husband with her hands clasped above her bulging belly.

"The girl is six and twenty. Too old to be your daughter. You know this," she said.

Blaise shuddered and lifted his goblet to his lips to chase away the chill. He thanked the Lord for that small miracle. That the woman who had rescued him, and for whom he had experienced physical lust, no matter how brief, was not his sister, was a tremendous relief.

Still, his father continued to pace. When Eliza revealed who her father was, next she spoke of the identity of her mother.

When she explained that her mother was Bertha Hollow, the same prostitute whom William had once visited in his youth, panic had entered his eyes until she revealed her age. She had been born a good year before his father ever went to Bertha for her services.

As Blaise had not been in the solar at the time to learn of this, he had to be told later. Terror chilled his blood at the thought until Marianne used calm logic to explain how Eliza could not have been mistaken. If she insisted that Ferdinand was her father, then her father he must be.

“She claimed that her mother took her from her father before she had been born and that her mother went into hiding later. I had assumed Bertha had been killed by Ferdinand when we stopped hearing from her.” His father said.

Marianne’s eyes were downcast. “That poor woman. To have to hide away from Ferdinand her entire life.”

“Aye,” William stopped his pacing and sighed.

Blaise shrugged, refusing to let the tale bring any pity out of him. “I still distrust the daughter.”

His suspicion aside, he could hardly believe his rescuer was older than he by almost a full year. His step mother was also older, and Blaise's original betrothed until he had written her a letter calling off their marriage.

Insulted, the red-headed wench had gone and kidnapped his father and married him instead, even if only by accident. It seemed Blaise would be forever haunted by older women in his life.

William nodded at Blaise’s earlier statement. "Aye, I know ye do. But ‘tis not all that concerns me. If she truly is the daughter of Ferdinand then she has no doubt inherited some of his more dubious personality traits."

Blaise found himself under the hard blue stare of his father. "I believe this would be a fine time for your suspicious nature to run free. Keep on your guard around her."

"William! 'Tis nonsense that a person can inherit any bad behaviours and ye well know it. If it were true, I would be