by Hannah West
What was she doing in a place like this? What could she possibly need here?
Then a horrifying thought accrued to him. This must be where she got her sister medicine.
Most likely her sister’s poison.
She stopped before a door and about to knock when he stepped out and grabbed her hand.
“Don’t,” he warned, “this is not a place you want to be.”
She swung around and knocked off his hand, glaring at him. “What are you doing here?” she hissed.
“I am saving you from poisoning your sister,” Devon intoned, taken aback at her tone.
She snorted, “Don’t be silly. This does not poison her; it is where I get her medicine.”
She narrowed her eyes on him. “What is it to you anyway?”
Devon felt the need to help her, to help her sister, but could he tell her that? Perhaps it would be safe to touch upon it in a more general sense.
“I would care for any person who needed help, Malia,” he said sincerely, putting feeling into his words.
The use of her given name seemed to soften her a bit, but she did not give in.
“I need to get it, we ran out a few days ago and she is getting worse,” she said softly.
Sudden and idea hit him. “Let me take you sister to a real doctor. She could get the better help she needs. I’m sure whatever she is taking is making her worse if not causing the issues.”
Unexpectedly her eyes filled with tears. “We can’t afford a real doctor and the medicine is very expensive.”
It warmed him inside to think how much she cared for her little sister, but it could also be her weak point. If he could help her sister then maybe she would be more welcoming of him.
It bothered him that she could not afford basic care, but then again it was not surprising most in the working class and under could not. Only the richer end of merchants and the nobility could.
But he was a part of both and had money to spare. It would be nothing to him and everything to her.
And he wanted to take away this pain she felt over the need to make her sister better.
“It would be my pleasure to pay for it,” he returned.
“Why?” she asked softly.
“So you may forgive my earlier actions. I do not like seeing you crying,” he said softly reaching out to brush away her tears.
He was surprised when she let him.
Chapter Nine
Malia must have gone mad for that was the only way to describe what she had just done. She had taken one of her uncles’ horses and her sister without telling anyone.
But she knew if she had told anyone they would never have let her and her sister’s life mattered more than the disapproval of her family.
Malia looked down at her sister who rode in her lap and asked her, “How are you doing, my sweet?”
Her sister’s hazel eyes met hers and they were wide with curiosity, but her wan face was pale. Her sister coughed before she answered, “I am okay, Malia. Where are we going? Mama will be mad I am gone.”
Malia brushed hair away from her sister’s sweaty forehead. “We are going to get you better, lamb. I have a friend who is paying for you to see a real doctor. You will be better in no time. Mama will be away for a day so she will not need to know until we get you back.”
“Do you trust this person?” Luna asked her.
“I would not bring you with me if I did not,” Malia told her sister.
She wasn’t sure if that was completely true, but the need to see her sister better was stronger than her need to be sure.
She barely knew Devon, but knew he must be more than a common labor to afford this for her. She had a feeling he was one of the factory owners or a landowner if not the son of one.
But she was willing to forgive his actions at the pound if he could make Luna better. It was a small price to pay.
Devon was leaning outside an older two-story brick that had been well maintained waiting for them. He came forward when she reined the horse to a stop and took the reins from her.
After tying the horse up he reached up for Luna, but she pressed herself back into Malia. She looked up to her unsure of this strange man.
“It is okay, lamb. This is Mister Devon, my friend that I told you about. He is the one who made it possible for you to see the doctor. He is a good man, you can trust him.”
With one more look at her sister she slowly reached out for Devon who helped her down. After he had Luna in his arms Malia jumped down before he could reach for her.
She had forgiven him, but did not want him to touch her. She did not want to feel those stirring to come back.
He eyed her with a slight grin then led them inside and into a small office withed with supplies.
Luna looked around in wonder and it hurt Malia’s hurt that her sister had never been allowed to leave camp. She had always been a small ill thing.
She saw a small picture of a watercolor painted butterfly and raced over to it to stare but didn’t touch it.
As Luna stared at the picture a sweet looking old man came into the room with a wide smile on his face.
“Good to see you again, Master Devon,” the doctor greeted. “Is this the little lady you were talking about?”
The doctor went over to Luna and offered her a hand. She smiled up at the kind man and took his hand, letting him lead her to a lowered table where he lifted her onto it.
“Now let us take a look, Miss Luna,” the doctor said cheerfully.
He went over everything once and then asked a series of questions before turning to Malia and asking her the questions Luna could not answer.
With a grim look to his face the Doctor turned to Luna with a small smile. “May I talk to your sister alone for a moment?”
Luna nodded and went over to where Devon had placed himself in the room’s corner. It would seem that she had come to like him.
But the look on the doctor’s face as she followed him across the room worried her. Knots twisted in her gut, dread filled her at the possibility her sister would never get better.
“I’m afraid I have bad,” he said gently.
The knife in her chest twisted. “What is wrong with her?”
He sighed sadly. “It would seem that she was born with a weak body, but that is not the cause of how bad she has gotten. From the answers I was given I assume she has only gotten worse over the years?”
Malia nodded, unable to answer passed the lump in her throat.
“She is ingesting something that is making her sick, but should you find out what it is and stop it then she will get better, but the damage has already been done. She will always have a weak body from this and will need to be careful,” he imparted.
Hope lit up inside of her; she always dreaded her sister would die young.
“She is live?” Malia gasped.
He nodded. “A long life, but not without setbacks. She will need to take a certain medicine her whole life but she will be fine. However whatever she was ingesting is starting to withdraw from her system and she is going to have a rough time over the next few days. I believe she was taking a strong drug to help suppressed her illness but it was also too strong for her and was hurting, not helping.”
Malia had no idea what they had been giving her had also been making her sick, but at least it had not been a poison. But it being a drug was just as dangerous.
But how could Malia afford that kind of care for her sister her whole life? She could only think of one way and that made her grow cold.
To care for her sister, since her family did not have that kind of money, she would have to do the one thing she had been hoping she would not have to. She would have to go to her father in the fall and marry a rich lord. She would have to sell herself to give her sister the life she would need, but if that is what it took then she would gladly do that.
So her feelings for Devon would mean nothing. He was not an option as he would not marry a gypsy and she could not marry him as her father�
��s heir, as the daughter of a lord.
She could enjoy this summer and then that would be the end of it. Perhaps that was what she needed to do, was to just to end whatever was happening between them.
“Devon has paid for her care with me for the next year, Miss Malia. He must care for you two very much,” the doctor said thoughtfully.
Yes, he must, Malia thought to herself a bit uneasy.
When Malia asked how much the care cost she nearly fainted. Even the stipend her father paid her mother could not cover half of that.
She looked over to her sister who was smiling and chatting with Devon when he looked up and gave her a gentle smile. Oh she was indebted to him and very much in trouble.
~
The real trouble did not come until Malia took a sleeping Luna home. Devon had insisted on coming with them and she had told him how bad that idea was.
She explained how her family would react upon seeing him and he had still on anyway. She could not decide if he was brave, foolish or both.
However as they neared the area camp was set up, three of her uncles met them upon the path, their faces angry.
“Have you and Luna been with this, English?” Dani, the youngest of her mother’s brother asked. He spoke in Russian, not wanting the ma to understand.
She answered back in kind. “Yes, Uncle Dani, but you don’t understand.”
“You took Luna away from home and she is sick,” he snapped at her.
“This man,” she said gesturing to Devon “did something for us that we could not have done. He paid for her to see a doctor, Dani, a real one!”
“And what does he expect in return,” her other Uncle Alexi.
“Nothing,” she insisted.
“I find that hard to be true,” Dimitri sneered.
“Luna is sick and now she stands a chance to live a full life. Would you turn that down, let her die?” Malia asked. “Would you let her die at the cost of your pride? What we thought had been helping her had only been making her worse. It caused damage, Dani. She will need treatment her whole life.”
“That cost money we don’t have, Malia,” Dani protested.
“I know,” she said seriously, “but we both know how I can make sure she is cared for.”
“Any you know the families feelings upon that matter,” Dimitri said sternly.
The others echoed his feelings and she gritted her teeth.
“It must happen and you well know it now. Luna is more important to me than my freedom. Family is most important and I know you will not let her suffer more,” she said with finality and they looked reserved.
Malia turned to Devon and back in English she replied, “Thank you for everything.”
Malia handed down a sleeping Luna to Alexi who came forward and dismounted herself.
Her uncles stood there waiting for her to follow them. She waved them away but she knew it would take more than that to leave her alone with an English man.
So Malia came closer to him and suddenly hugged him. “Thank you,” she whispered in his ear, then, “Leave before they do something to you. I shall meet you later.”
With that she pushed away from him and followed her uncles, clutching the bag of her sister’s medicine to her chest.
Chapter Ten
Spring flew by turning into summer and Luna grew healthier and strong with each passing week. She had fewer attacks and felt better each day and with each day Malia grew more grateful to Devon for what he had done for her.
But her family had forbidden her rom seeing him again. So in tradition of the gypsy way she snuck out to see him through she knew it would only lead to her pain when summer ended. But at their meetings she grew to like him more and was happier than she could remember being.
And weeks passed in contentment until one day he leaned in closer to her, breath paused and searching her face before he kissed her again. With that kiss she started to fall.
But when just weeks were left before fall she found herself wavering on her resolve to marry a lord to pay for her sister’s care.
She knew her father would never give her the money needed; he hated the life his wife came from and would not do anything the help that could make it thrive.
She wanted something she knew she could not have, she wanted Devon and though he gave her his time she did not know if he wanted as well. He had promised to come to one last meeting and she had made up her mind to ask him.
Malia wondered if he would go against the standards of society for her or if he would bock at it. She had found him to be brave, could this work?
Sitting on the rock ledge overlooking the pond she waited under the afternoon sky for him to come, but when the afternoon sun dipped beyond the horizon her hopes set with it.
“He didn’t come,” she said hollowly. She had been serious but perhaps he had not.
Malia felt cold inside as the flames of her hopes and desires burned into dying embers.
She decided on the long walk back to camp she would turn as cold as her deaden feelings and become the lady she would need to be to save her sister. She could do that.
As she signed away from freedom, she would seal away her heart. The dull ache in her chest was painful and she wished to never feel that empty pain again.
She would become and ice queen so if she ever met him again she could crush him the way he had crushed her.
Chapter Eleven
“Do not go, Malia,” Luna begged of her, tugging on her hand.
Malia bent down to kiss her sister’s cheek. “I have too, lamb. We knew this would happen. As soon as I am settled in and marry I will bring you and Mama to live with me. Would you like that?”
Her hazel eyes went wide. “In a real house, like the ones in the village?”
Malia laughed softly, “Much bigger and went you are old enough I will give you a Season too.”
Worry creased the little girl’s face. “Mama told me I could not do what you are doing. I am not to be a lady.”
Confused her brows creased with thought? Why would her mama tell Luna she could not be something? A child should be allowed to dream about being anything, but this made Malia wonder about who Luna’s father was. Her mother had been gone to London for a month and nine months later Luna had been born. Mama had been closemouthed about the whole affair and refused to talk about the girl’s father.
There was something about the way she had not even told the family about the mystery man.
Malia always suspected it was a man from her mother’s past that she knew when she lived as the Marchioness of Lakewood. Now that she would become a fixture of that world, she had the chance to find out. Her sister was not a bastard since her mother was still married to her father, but she was not his child.
Malia tweaked Luna’s nose. “You can be anything, lamb. Mama just doesn't want you to be hurt.”
“But will it hurt you to marry a lord?” she asked with the innocence of a small child.
“No,” Malia answered quickly and gave her one more kiss before getting into the carriage her father had sent.
She knocked on the roof and the connivance started forward. Luna called out for her once more and she peeked out the window to see her Uncle Dani scoop her up.
Malia turned back in her seat as tears stung her eyes. She was going to miss her sister; since she had been born they had never been apart for more than a few days.
But with a steely resolve she decided these would be her last tears, from here on she would be unbreakable.
Chapter Twelve
Tepid water was her greeting from her father. He had given orders for the carriage to stop at an inn he owned on the out skirts of London so that she could be cleaned of her ‘gypsy’ possessions and dressed in a style ‘befitting her station’ as the maid who helped clean her said.
Malia had to bite her lips to keep in her retort. She was proud of her gypsy ways and heritage but she knew that if she was going to make a success of this marriage business she would have to keep it to
herself.
If the maid’s distaste for her roots was any indication of how these people felt about her mother’s people, how would their upper crest feel about it?
Malia had glared at the woman until she had left in a hurry. The woman had been heard muttering about curses as she hurried away.
Huffing Malia finished her bath and got out. As she was drying herself of with the softly linen she had ever held she thought back to her baths in the ponds and creeks. It had been a simple pleasure that now she was forbade to do it again. The cost of this towel could possibly feed her whole family for more than a month, she was sure.
But this was the way she would live now, in the riches but she would forever think of the cost and what else could have been better done with the money. Like the beautiful pale blue dress that hung up waiting for her to dawn it, to become someone new, to leave behind her old self.
Could she do that completely? Or would there be a man that could accept some of her true self?
It was a fanciful wish on her part. She knew that, but she would allowed her choice in who she would make her husband. She would see to it. Her father would have no objections, she was sure, if she happened to pick a powerful man in good standing with a title at least equal to his. Since she was his heir and her father’s title was not a hereditary titled passed just to son, but any oldest child. Whoever married her would also gain the matching title as her spouse.
She did not hold out for love, but instead was looking for a partnership which would allow her, her freedoms and all the resources she needed.
Fingering the ice blue silk in her fingers, she hated the fact that it appealed to her, made her feel as if she were a traitor to her mother.
But this was all for Luna, who had become such a happy child. If she did not do this to secure to the money, then her sister would be given a year of life only to have it taken away most cruelty.
That was something she just could not do.
Resolve reaffirmed Malia picked up the dress and stepped into it, glad it was on that laced up in the front. She eyed the bustier that when around the middle of the dress that would prop up her breasts for display. She almost chose not to wear it but the dress did not offer enough support.
