Blind Loyalty - M J Marlow (i am reading a book .txt) 📗

“I’m your older and wiser cousin, Joanna,” Sarah looked at her seriously, “so you need to listen to me.” Joanna nodded, intrigued. She had only ever had herself before; having a cousin was going to be nice. “Aidan Murphy is a dog,” she continued. “He will hit on you…”
“Hit on me?” Joanna was confused. She had not been raised with a knowledge of slang, so Sarah’s term was unfamiliar to her.
“If he likes you,” Sarah tried another tack; “he’ll get you alone and try to kiss you or...” She saw Joanna shudder and thought it a reaction to her words. But Joanna had suddenly had a flash of memory and seen such things happening to her. She closed her eyes a moment and willed herself to calm down. “I know. He’s a teenaged boy, so what can you expect?” She laid her hand on Joanna’s arm. “Don’t worry. You’re going to be in all my classes, so you just stick close and I’ll keep him off of you. If he tries anything, you just tell Patrick and Ryan. They’ll set him straight.”
“But isn’t he your boyfriend?” Joanna blushed at her personal remark. But she was remembering the embrace Aidan had given the girl. Didn’t such things mean that he was her boyfriend? Or was this Aidan person just one who liked to touch as many girls as he could get his hands on?
“Oh heavens no!” Sarah laughed. “Aidan plays at being a boyfriend, but he isn’t serious. He’s like another brother to me. He sticks around me so other girls won’t hit on him.” She saw Joanna looking at Aidan and frowning. “He reminds you of your father, doesn’t he?” Joanna nodded and Sarah laughed and hugged her. “I like you, cousin! It’s so refreshing to be around a person who doesn’t lie.”
Joanna looked at her in shock at the mere suggestion. Why would she lie? Joanna wondered if she would ever get beyond confusion with these people. It had always been much easier, and far less painful, to tell the truth. Her head turned quickly as a horn sounded a bugle call. Adam was standing on the back porch with a cornet to his lips. He raised his arm to show them his watch and turned smartly on his heel to go back into the house.
“Uncle Adam’s way of telling us it’s time to come in,” Sarah said as she linked arms with Joanna. “We’d better hurry before he launches into Ladies of Spain or something.” She smiled as Joanna giggled and gave the girl a hug. “I am going to love having another girl around here. It was just Mom and I while Aunt Rachel was with you at your place. It was kind of lonely.”
“Lonely?” Joanna looked at her strangely as they walked up the trail to the house. How could she be lonely with all these people around who actually cared about her? She suddenly froze as she noted the architecture. They lived in a castle! she sighed as she saw the towers and crenellations. “You live in an actual castle!”
“It’s our home,” Sarah said as they walked through the gate in the walls around the castle and entered the kitchen. “Do you want to wash or dry?” She said as she handed Joanna a dishtowel. “It’s our night to do dishes.” Joanna stood there a moment and Sarah frowned. “You did have chores at your place, didn’t you?”
“Not if Father was around,” Joanna shook her head. She could tell Sarah that she had helped in the kitchen whenever Father wasn’t there. She saw Sarah’s question and knew she could explain how her father didn’t think it proper for a girl of her ‘station’ to act as a ‘scullery maid’. But she was not going to be disloyal to her own father. She didn’t care how nice they were. She liked being allowed to help. Sometimes she used to pray her father would go away and not come back. She bit her lip and felt horrible for such disloyal thoughts.
“Come on,” Sarah replied as she put her arm around Joanna’s waist; “You can dry.”
She smiled as she turned her new relative to the sink. Adam watched from his office on the security monitors as his niece kept the girl occupied. Sarah was a wonder. She had a knack for pulling people out of their shells and Joanna was no exception. The two were giggling by the time the dishes were done and the kitchen tidied. He wished he could speak to her about her mother, but his sister had told him not to push. The past sixteen years knowing that Hannah was living just across town from him as another’s man’s wife had been torture. Joanna looked almost exactly like her mother and shared some of the same personality traits. He was looking at the framed wedding photo of himself and Hannah when Rachel came into the room with a whiskey in her left hand and her own drink in her right hand. “Thanks,” he smiled and took it from her. He nodded towards the screen. “I don’t see him in her at all.” He shook his head. “She’s trying to keep her distance from us,” he laughed. “I wonder how long that will last?” “She can be very stubborn,” Rachel smiled as she sipped at her Manhattan; “but our little Sarah is determined to make Joanna feel like she belongs.” She smiled as she saw her nieces. Joanna should have been here with them years ago. “I’m just glad we got her away from that bastard when we did. Another few months and she would have been lost to his conditioning.” She saw his expression. “If it’s too hard for you, Adam. I can take her somewhere else…” “No,” Adam barked. He saw the shock on her face. “That girl belongs here with us.” “Another one of your ‘feelings,’ Adam?” “Scoff all you want,” Adam snapped at her good-naturedly. “My ‘feelings’ are usually right. She’s Hannah’s daughter so that makes her my sons’ half-sister. The Judge is her grandfather. You are her aunt. She’s family.” He got to his feet as he saw the clock. The family autocrat reared his head. “Join me at the lake once I send these two to bed and put the Jeep away?” Rachel nodded and he walked into the kitchen with his empty glass and the girls jumped. “Have you finished your homework, Sarah,” he asked his niece bluntly. She nodded and he turned to Joanna. “School tomorrow. You should both get to bed now.” She smiled at him shyly and he felt his heart ache as she had her mother’s smile. “Good night, girls.” “Is he always so abrupt?” Joanna wondered as she and Sarah went to their room and got ready for bed. She remembered his expression. He looked as if he were seeing a ghost. The regret in his eyes had made her heart ache in sympathy. “Uncle Adam runs the house like a military preserve, Joanna,” Sarah told her, not seeing the point of keeping this from her. “Bedtime is strictly observed here.” Tender hearted as ever, she grieved for her uncle. She knew this was hard for him and she was not afraid to say so. “It’s hard on him to see you here.” Joanna nodded, understanding how he must feel. He was being presented with the daughter of a woman he had lost to another man, a reminder of that loss. She was being presented with a family she had never known she had! Joanna felt the shock hit and it sent her to sit on the window seat nearby. Her father had always told her that her mother had no family. Why had he lied to her all these years? They didn’t seem like bad people. What harm could it have done for her to know they existed? Had he been afraid they would take her away from him? “Sarah,” Rachel said as she stepped into the room and frowned at Sarah. “I thought your Mother told you not to speak of this?” The girl looked defiant and Rachel shook her head. “Your uncle would not thank you for that.” She sat down next to Joanna as she saw the girl struggling to accept all the changes that had suddenly come into her young life. Rachel just held her for a few moments until she felt Joanna relax. She couldn’t blame Joanna for wanting to protect herself from them. “Would you have taken me away from my father,” the girl asked as she looked out the window at the lake shining in the moonlight; “if you had known I existed?” “In a heartbeat, Joey,” she said as she sat down next to Joanna and put her arms around the girl. “But we did not know you existed until I accepted the assignment with your father. We were all told Hannah had died, and attended her funeral; but he never told us about you. I thought it was safer for us both if he didn’t know that I was a relative of yours.” “It wasn’t right of him to keep me from knowing about all of you.” Joanna knew that her father would have made Rachel leave immediately if he had known that. He hadn’t liked it when she started to feel close to other people. But that did not explain this. How could he not have wanted her to know she had other family? “I don’t understand why he did it.” “He needed to keep you isolated,” Rachel said bluntly, “so you would be totally dependent on him.” She stroked Joanna’s hair. “If we had known about you, Joey, we would have sued for custody long ago.” She saw Joanna go pale. “Is something wrong?” “I want to go home,” Joanna sobbed. Her father’s voice slammed into her head with his warnings and the confusion returned. What was she doing here? These people wanted to take her away from her father! She had to get out of this place! “This is too much for me.” She pulled away from Rachel and shook her head as Rachel tried to comfort her. “Stay away from me, Rachel. You lied to me!” She had to go back, Joanna thought as the image of a book told her truth was hidden. He was hiding something even more important from her. She needed to know what it was. She needed to hear him explain why he had done all these things to her. Her head was aching and she put her head in her hands and felt the tears falling again. She was so tired of breaking down like this. Rachel put her arms around her and held her tight, and Joanna felt comforted. “You are never setting foot in that house again, Joey,” Rachel said as she raised Joanna’s eyes to hers. “Get to bed. You have school in the morning.” “NO!” Joanna pushed the woman away and ran down the stairs and out of the house. “I am not staying here!” She wanted her father to explain why he had kept such things secret from her and she wanted that explanation now. She heard people behind her and looked over her shoulder briefly to see Ryan and Patrick coming after her. She got to the corner and a Jeep cut her off. She saw Adam at the wheel and she backed away, shaking as he got out and came towards her. “Please don’t hurt me,” she sobbed as he caught her by the wrist. “I won’t run again. Please don’t hit me!” She burst out