Petteril's Christmas by Mary Lancaster

Author:Mary Lancaster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mary Lancaster
Published: 2024-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

She found Piers in her bedchamber, sitting on her bed in his shirt sleeves. He was leaning forward, facing the door, his elbows resting on his knees. He must have heard her voice below, for he didn’t look surprised to see her.

But his eyes were veiled, unreadable as they had not been for months. Her heart twisted and she hated Titus all over again.

“Where have you been?” he asked steadily. No greeting. No warmth to his voice.

“I can’t tell you.” Though she meant it to be bold and clear, it came out as a whisper.

His eyelashes swept down over his cheek. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I thought we had got past this, April.”

She had hurt him and she couldn’t bear it. She flew across the room and sat beside him on the bed, but he made no effort to touch her. His very aloofness was repelling.

“It’s not that I won’t,” she said desperately. “I can’t. I can’t let you bear more because of me.”

He raised his eyes to hers once more. “What did you do, April? Did you kill him?”

She shook her head violently, for she couldn’t let him think that. “No. But I did know him and when Jimmy Knott discovers that link... I can’t let it touch you any more directly. I-I’m trying to find who did kill him.”

“By yourself,” he said deliberately.

She closed her eyes and nodded, willing herself not to cry. “This is different from before. I’m not trying to find out something you can’t, just to prove I’m useful to you so you won’t send me away. This endangers you. Your name, your family.”

“Do you think I would let them hang you?” he asked in disbelief.

Her throat tightened unbearably, and she swallowed. “I know you would not. And I can’t, I won’t risk you. But I’ll tell you what I can.”

She felt his gaze on her skin, harsh and perceptive, but she could not look at him in case she wept.

“Who is Titus Green?”

“He was my stepfather. He married my mother. Or at least, she took his name. It’s funny. I never even knew that surname till he died. I hated him. He was mean and vicious. He hit her whenever she did something wrong, or just when he felt like it. Me too.”

“I thought you didn’t remember any of this.” His voice was merely conversational now, not accusing, but somehow it hurt her more.

“So did I. But he turned up at the door, the day I went to see Annie, and I recognized him and then I began to remember other things. To get rid of him, I said I’d meet him in the park the next morning to find out what he wanted.”

He didn’t say, You should have told me then. But they both understood it.

“It...it upset me,” April said unsteadily. “Remembering. My-my mother had another baby and there wasn’t room or money for me, so they sent me away.”

“Sent you away where?”

“To work in an alehouse just outside the Acre.

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