Daughters of the Summer Storm by Frances Statham (best sci fi novels of all time .TXT) 📗

dizzy. The closed room, the shallow breathing of Shaun Banagher, drove her to the front door for fresh air. With her hand over her mouth, Maranta collided with a stocky, brawny figure walking up the steps.

Chad, surprised to see the young woman before him, reached out to steady her. Then as he recognized Marigold Tabor's sister, his eyes became hostile and his body stiffened.

"What are you doing here?" he sneered. "Gloating over what your sister has done to him?"

At his harsh words, Maranta shook her head and reached for the railing. "What happened?" she asked in an anguished voice.

"A spike pierced his chest when he was loading a flatboat at the docks. It was a deep gash, and it's healing very slowly."

"When did it happen?"

"Why should that matter to you?"

Undeterred by his frosty manner, Maranta whispered, "Is he. . . going to die?"

Chad swallowed and a muscle twitched in his jaw. "He might, unless he can be kept still. He keeps trying to get out of bed to go to your sister—and each time, the bleeding starts again."

"Has a doctor been to see him?"

Chad's harsh laugh indicated his contempt at her question. "And who would pay for a doctor?" he asked. "You—Miss Tabor? Or your wealthy parents? Maybe you would, at that—to ease your guilty conscience. Shaun won't spend a blasted penny on himself, even for getting a doctor, because he thinks Marigold Tabor is still waiting for him, and he'll need the money for her. And I can't tell him any different. Shaun would sell his soul to the devil for your sister's sake. But I guess he just couldn't make money fast enough to suit her."

"You don't talk to my Miss Maranta that way," Feena said, suddenly thrusting herself between Chad and Maranta. "Come, ma petite," she said to the girl. "We have done all we can for today."

Feena took the girl's arm and led her to the landau. The servant drove home, handling the reins, while Maranta, pale and silent, rode beside her, unable to get Chad's words out of her mind.

Robert Tabor, with the front door still open from his arrival home, heard the carriage. At first, he thought it was Eulalie, coming home with the condessa, and he stepped outside to assist them. But then he saw that it was the small landau and Feena was driving it, with Maranta beside her. Callie had not told him that she was out, also.

Quickly, Robert bounded down the steps when he saw Feena helping Maranta from the carriage and half-supporting her.

"What is the matter, Feena? What happened?" he asked, taking the woman's place at Maranta's side.

"Miss Maranta saw something that upset her."

Gently, Robert put his arms around his daughter and walked beside her up the stairs, Feena trailing along behind.

Robert frowned. Where had they been? Had Maranta seen a carriage accident? Or had the two, in their drive, stumbled upon a duel? He would find out later—after Maranta felt herself again.

"Callie," Robert Tabor called. "Bring some brandy upstairs to my daughter's room."

Maranta's color returned after she sipped the fiery liquid that her father had ordered.

Feena, fluttering around the room, aroused Robert's suspicions. The old antagonism between the servant and the man who had married Eulalie Boisfeulet had not lessened over the years—the war between them was constant, and Feena was still banished back to Midgard whenever she did something to displease Robert Tabor.

He would like to have gotten rid of her altogether, but it was far too late for that. She had spent her entire life with the Boisfeulets, taking care of Eulalie as a child, and then Jason and the twins, Marigold and Maranta. She was quite old, but her loyalty was as fierce as ever, and it displeased Robert that he had seldom been included in that loyalty.

Robert looked at his young daughter, sitting in the big chair, her long, black hair spilling over her shoulders. So like Eulalie when he first knew her. And Feena, standing like some dark Valkyrie by her side, daring him to reprimand her for—he knew not what.

"You may go, Feena," Robert said to the woman. "I wish to talk with Maranta alone."

Feena's eyes widened, and she looked at Maranta, giving a silent warning to the girl before she obeyed Robert Tabor and left the room.

"Where did you go this afternoon, Maranta?" he asked.

Her hands fluttered against her skirts, and she cleared her throat. "To. . . to. . ."

"You'll have to speak louder than that, Maranta, for me to hear you."

She cleared her throat and started again. "Papa, don't be angry with me. I. . . I had to see him. It was not his fault that night that he didn't come. Marigold had no way of knowing, but Crane knew what had happened. . ."

The puzzled look gradually gave way to a slow angry red that crept over Robert's face to mar his handsome features.

"You are speaking of the man that Marigold had been forbidden to see?"

"F-Feena went with me. I. . . didn't go inside alone."

Robert moved and slapped his hand against his thigh. "What is it about this. . . this Shaun Banagher that causes even an obedient daughter like you to lose every ounce of discretion, to. . . to follow in her wayward sister's footsteps? Does he have you mesmerized too, Maranta?"

"N-No, Papa."

He did not hear her; for he noisily paced back and forth in the room. "I'll teach that young pup a lesson he'll never forget. I'll have him horsewhipped."

Maranta, her face losing its color again, hurried to her father's side. 'P-Papa, I beg of you. Please don't harm him. He. . . he is ill."

"I care not for the man. It's you, Maranta, that I am concerned about." Robert stared down at the tiny pleading figure, and his terrible visage softened.

"What am I going to do with you, Maranta? Do I have to marry you off, too, to keep you away from the fellow?"

Maranta looked up into her father's tawny eyes with