Ransom My Heart Read Online Free

you? That money was to buy malt and hops for the summer’s batch!”
    â€œI know.” Mellana sniffled. “I know! But a maid cannot always be thinking of beer.”
    Finnula’s jaw dropped. Her sister was dim-witted, it was true, but surely this was the stupidest thing any woman in the history of Shropshire had ever done. For a while, the girl had had a very enterprising little business going out of her kitchen cellar. Mellana’s ale was widely respected as the best in Shropshire. Innkeepers from neighboring villages thought it worth the trip to Stephensgate to purchase a barrel or two from the lovely brewmistress. But without any capital left to buy ingredients, Mellana’s beer-brewing days were numbered.
    â€œA maid,” Finnula echoed, bitterly. “A maid! But you aren’t a maid any longer, are you, Mellana? You’re going to have a child. How do you intend to support it? You cannot expect to live always here at the millhouse with Robert. He’ll be married himself soon, and while Rosamund’s the sweetest of girls, she won’t long tolerate a clinging sister-in-law who hasn’t the sense God gave a chicken, let alone her fatherless child—”
    Finnula instantly regretted her harsh words when Mellana burst into a fresh set of tears. Through her sobs, the girl gulped, “Oh! And you are one to talk, Finnula Crais! You, who were wed exactly a single night before returning to the mill—”
    â€œA widow,” Finnula pointed out, refusing to be manipulated by her sister’s tears. “Remember, Mellana? I returned a widow. My husband died on my wedding night.”
    â€œOh,” choked Mellana. “Wasn’t that convenient, considering how much you hated him?”
    Finnula felt herself turning red with rage, but before she could march off in a huff, as she intended, Mellana grabbed hold of her wrist and beseeched her, her face earnest with contrition, “Oh, Finn, forgive me! I oughtn’t to have said that. I regret it most sincerely. I know it wasn’t your fault. Of course it wasn’t. Please, please don’t go. I need your help so much. You’re so clever, and I’m so very stupid. Won’t you please stay a moment and listen to me? Isabella told me of a way I might make some of my coin back, in a manner that I’m quite certain would work…only…only I’m much too timid to try it.”
    Finnula was only half listening to her sister. In the other room, Camilla’s husband must have taken out his lute, for suddenly the strains of a merry tune reached the kitchen. Above the music, Finnula could plainly hear their brother calling their names. Curse it! He’d be in the kitchen in a moment, and Mellana was the worst liar in the world. The truth would be out, and there’d be no more celebrating. There would, like as not, be a murder. Finnula hoped Jack Mallory and his bloody donkey were nowhere near Stephensgate.
    Mellana straightened suddenly, her blue eyes wide. “But you could do it, Finn! You aren’t timid. You aren’t afraid of anything. And it wouldn’t be any different from trapping foxes or deer. I’m certain it wouldn’t!”
    â€œWhat wouldn’t?” Finnula, sitting on the hearth with her elbows on her knees, looked up at her sister’s suddenly transformed face. Gone were the tear tracks and puffy eyelids. Now Mellana’s deep blue eyes were sparkling, and her red lips were parted in excitement.
    â€œOh, say you’ll help me, Finn!” Mellana grasped one of her sister’s hands, the one with the fingertips heavily callused from pulling back the drawstring of her bow. “Say you’ll help!”
    Finnula, quite distracted by her fear of her brother’s wrath, said impatiently, “Of course I’ll help you, if I can, Mellana. But I don’t see how you’re going to get out of this one, I really