Nell Read Online Free

swallowed. “I’m nn-nn-nnnot—”
    â€œWhat’s the matter?” Terrence jeered. “Can’t get the words out? Maybe you’re demented. That’s it.” He noticed his sister quivering with anger. “Jilly, look here. We’ve got a loony in the kennel.”
    Jillian stepped forward. “Stop it, Terrence.”
    â€œIt’s all right,” he said. “The lad needs a lesson in manners.” He swung his crop back and forth. “My mount needs saddling. Are you dense, lad? I mean for you to do it.”
    Frankie neither spoke nor moved, but the crimson ebbed and flowed in his cheeks.
    Jilly felt the bile rise in her throat. She watched as Terrence lifted his crop and brought it down, hard, on the inside of Frankie’s wrist. Skin tore. Blood ran into the younger boy’s palm and dripped to the ground. Still, he remained silent.
    Jilly’s eyes burned. She pressed her fist against her mouth. Terrence lifted his crop again, but before he could bring it down, she lunged forward, dragging at his arm with her weight. “Stop it!” she screamed. “Stop it, or I’ll tell Mum.”
    Cursing, Terrence slapped her face and threw her aside as if she weighed no more than a feather pillow. Jilly landed against the fence and slipped to the ground, unable to find her breath. Through the roaring in her ears, she heard a sound like a wolf’s howl. Gasping, she struggled to sit up, tears streaming down her cheeks.
    The sight of the girl’s blue face and racked body mobilized Frankie in a way that his own pain had not. Rage came to him as it comes to all who are slow to anger, with an intensity that grips the mind and sweeps clean everything before it like the path of a hurricane. He threw himself on Terrence, slamming his forehead into the boy’s nose and splitting his lip before Terrence gained the advantage and flipped him over, lifting a punishing fist.
    Before he could bring it down, Jilly jumped on his back, twined her arms around his neck, found his earlobe, and bit down. The metallic taste of warm blood filled her mouth. Behind her a voice shouted something she couldn’t understand. Pain exploded in her head, and then everything went black.
    ***
    Slowly, through the cobwebs cushioning her brain, words began to take shape and make sense. Jilly turned her head and winced against the pain in her temple. Cool hands moved against her skin.
    â€œThere, there, darling,” her mother’s voice crooned. “Everything will be all right.”
    Jilly opened her eyes. “I’m hungry.”
    â€œYou shall have your tea as soon as you can sit up.”
    â€œWill you set a place for Nell?”
    Margaret Fitzgerald sighed. “Jilly, love, don’t you think it’s time to put Nell to rest? After all, you’re nearly eleven years old.”
    Jilly turned her face to the wall.
    Her mother sighed again. “Very well. I’ll have a tray brought up for you and Nell.”
    â€œTerrence is a beast,” Jilly said.
    Her mother’s forehead wrinkled. “Whatever possessed you, Jilly?”
    â€œHe was hurting Frankie.”
    â€œBut you’re a girl,” her mother protested, “and a very small one. Surely, a big boy like Francis doesn’t need you to fight his battles.”
    Jilly shook her head. “He wouldn’t fight Terrence. No one fights with Terrence.”
    Margaret Fitzgerald sighed. “Terrence is”—she searched for the right word to describe her stepson—“difficult. Your father has spoiled him dreadfully, I’m afraid. But it isn’t your concern, Jillian. I want you to stay away from Terrence, and from Frankie Maguire.”
    Jilly tightened her lips.
    â€œYou heard me, Jillian,” her mother said sternly. “I want you to promise me that you won’t go near the kennel when the Maguire boy is there.”
    Jilly remained silent.
    Her mother