Secret Letters by Scheier Leah

Author:Scheier, Leah [Scheier, Leah]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction - Young Adult
Publisher: Disney
Published: 2012-06-26T05:00:00+00:00

I stared at this impossible note in blank amazement. It was as much of a puzzle after the tenth reading as it was on the first. It had to be authentic, I could not doubt that, for the girl’s parents would surely know their daughter’s handwriting. And yet the script was sloppy and weak; an educated noblewoman would never have written such a note. There were splotches of ink across the page and one section was blurred and unclear. I simply could not believe that her last message to her parents would be so thoughtless; an earl’s daughter would have taken more care with a dress order. And why would she ask them to burn the letter? Her elopement would not remain a secret for long. What purpose would be served by destroying this final memory? Something was very wrong, I was sure of it. Lady Rose had been described as awkward by some, high-strung by others; but no one had ever called her cruel. And this was a letter calculated to inflict pain, to embarrass and wound those who had loved her. I had not known the girl, but I still could not accept it.

I studied the note again with a more critical eye. The ink stains had surprised me most of all. Maids wrote messy letters; their mistresses used blotting paper. I brought my candle closer to the page. The first mark had been made with a thumbnail dipped in ink; I could see the whorls of a partial thumbprint. It might have been an accident, of course, it might have been—

But then I saw the second stain, and I knew that there had been no accident and the letter was a lie. One fingerprint could have been an oversight, but three identical prints across the page?

But what was the significance of the markings? What could I learn from this discovery? I held the page at arm’s length in front of me and frowned. The prints had been clearly placed beneath the words He, life, and Please. But this sentence did not make sense in any order. If there was a message in this, it would have been a hasty one, thought of quickly and executed in a moment. It could not be complicated.

That’s when I saw it.

The first stain was the largest and the most deliberate, underlining the entire word. The next two were smaller and placed at the beginning of the words:

HELP.

One pleading word behind a mask of lies. It was the only message of the letter.

And it would be her final farewell, for the man who had forced her to write those words intended that she disappear. I beg that you will not search for me. No one would look for her, and her kidnapper would make certain she was never found.

But who had taken her, and why?

And why had the earl burned the letter as she had asked him to do? Was that a natural response to his daughter’s last message? Shouldn’t he have saved it as a final memory of her—or at least preserved it so Mr.

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