Beauty & the Beast: Christmas Regency Romance (A Regency Christmas Book 1) by McColl Charity

Author:McColl, Charity [McColl, Charity]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: PureRead
Published: 2019-11-23T16:00:00+00:00

5

Bright Night

Ariel was drifting on the fringes of sleep when she heard heavy footsteps outside their cottage. Heart pounding, she slowly got out of bed and crept toward the cupboard where she pulled out the old rifle she kept there for her own protection.

She didn’t like handling guns, but her mother had called it a necessary evil. Most intruders thought twice about confronting someone who was holding a gun, and her father had taught her how to use it. That was the only dangerous venture her mother had agreed to and encouraged.

“We may not always be there to protect our daughter,” Margaret Dixon had said. “And so we have to teach her how to take care of herself.”

The candle in the small parlour was nearly burnt out, and she quickly replaced it with another one. Trevor had given her a handful of them, and she smiled as once again, her thoughts returned to him. He really was a kind and generous man.

She thought she heard something like a grunt outside the door and at first thought it was a wild pig that had strayed from the woods, for they sometimes did that.

“Who is there?” she asked in a fearful voice but at first only silence greeted her words. Then she heard her father’s drunken voice as he broke out into one of his favourite ballads and her heart settled down. Putting the rifle aside, she opened the door and slipped her hands under his armpits and dragged him in.

“Oh Papa! What am I going to do with you?”

She noticed that he didn’t have a bottle in his hand and like he usually did. And she was surprised that he’d come in earlier than usual. He usually staggered home after the first cock had crowed and sometimes never.

“Papa, you’re breaking my heart,” she wept as she dumped him on the floor and locked the door securely. “Do you want to die and leave me all alone in this world? I promised Mama that I would always take care of you, but now I don’t know what to do.”

Timothy hiccupped and continued with his drunken singing. “Get me my bottle,” he said as she dragged him to the room.

“There’s no more drink.”

“Get my bottle,” he said and lashed out, the blow catching her on the side of the head. She went backwards reeling and struck her head on the wall, and everything went dark for a few seconds.

When she regained her senses and picked herself up from the floor, her father had fallen face first across the bed and was snoring.

Her cheek and head hurt but she dashed the tears away and stood looking down at her father.

“Oh Pa, you’re really breaking my heart,” she carried the candle out of her father’s bedroom and returned to her own. What was she going to do with her father?

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