AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His jaw clenched, and his eyes hardened into crystals. “We are family. This is not charity.”
“Liam is dead. We are not family.”
She moved past him, trying not to wince nor limp when pain shot up her leg. The leg Liam had smashed with a dueling cane to keep her from running. The leg a renowned elderly healer named Cian had healed as much as possible. The leg that always ached when the weather took a chilly turn.
Her children sulked after her.
But before she got far, Calle clamped his hand around her wrist and spun her to face him. She inhaled sharply. Not from surprise. But from fear. Instead of Calle’s red-brown hair, she saw Liam’s. Instead of Calle’s amber eyes, she saw green. Instinctively, she flinched away as if a hand might strike her.
It didn’t.
Calle released her, his tortured expression gazing back at her. “Nyana, I’m sorry.”
Embarrassment heated her cheeks, and she lowered her gaze in shame. Calle would never hit her. Ever. He was not his brother. Logically, she knew that.
“Come on, girls,” she murmured as she guided them ahead of her down the dirt road covered in brown, crunchy leaves. “Time to go home.”
“Bye, Uncle Calle,” Maisy said despondently, trudging after her. Although Nyana refused to turn, her daughter’s disappointment broke her heart in two. “Maybe we can come play this week.”
“Maybe,” Calle replied despondently.
She felt his stare on her back until they reached the bend in the road. Only when out of sight did she allow herself to crumble quietly. Her hands shook as she spotted the cane she had hidden within a tangle of vines. She tugged it free of the red and withered brown foliage, using it to support her bad leg on the journey home.
Long journey home.
A sob stuck fast to her throat.
She swallowed it down.
Never again would she cry. Never.
A chill raked across her arms when an upcoming storm announced its presence in a gust of wind. Instead of grabbing her shawl from Maisy’s shoulders, she tucked it around the little girl to protect her from the cold. Eva dragged her feet on the long walk down the dirt path, her small frame shivering with each step she took.
Nyana picked her up and placed her on her hip, where she proceeded to snuggle into her shoulder. Her youngest daughter weighed very little. Much less than she should. The stress of hoping Eva would be born a boy had gotten to Nyana during the pregnancy. She’d lost a lot of weight. Too much. Eva was born at only five pounds. And she’d been born a girl, leaving Liam without an heir.
It had been one of the worst nights she’d ever endured.
Another chill tingled down her spine. This time from fear rather than the cold.
Liam is gone, she reminded herself, increasing her pace as she awkwardly continued down the road holding Eva in one arm and her cane in her other hand. He can never hurt us again.
The breeze whispered through the few leaves remaining glued to the trees as winter approached on autumn’s wing.
Her blistered hands ached at the reminder. Chopping wood proved to be too difficult for her small frame. But she had to try again. She had no choice if she wanted to keep her daughters warm during the winter.
By the time they reached the path leading to the house on the outskirts of the small village they now lived in, her entire body ached from the protesting muscles in her arm to the screaming pain of her leg.
And then she stopped short when she spotted the house.
Dread tightened in her stomach as her gaze rested on the red paint plastered on one side of the wall, dripping down gray stone like streams of blood.
Murderer.
Fear slammed into her heart as she stared at the house for a long minute, waiting for someone to rush out of the trees with weapons drawn.
The property remained quiet. Eerily quiet.
“What does that say, Mama?” Maisy asked inquisitively. She began spelling it out. “M-U-R—”
