Roses Read Online Free Page A

Roses
Book: Roses Read Online Free
Author: G. R. Mannering
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solitary day followed in which she was visited at mealtimes by a maid evidently petrified to be in her presence, and then passed another gloomy night. By the time the nanny arrived, the amethyst-eyed toddler was weak with neglect and loneliness. She had not stopped whimpering since dawn and that was how the nanny found her: cowering under the wet nurse’s empty rocking chair.
    “The child is down here?” the nanny had asked, following Ma Dane down a long corridor on the third floor.
    “Yes, that is correct. We keep her in Master Eli’s old nursery. I had a suite of rooms prepared for his birth, but they were not finished in time and he had to spend a few days in here after he was born. The room is sufficient for the needs of this child.”
    They stopped before a plain door and Ma Dane took a key from a pouch about her waist. Her fingers were trembling although she was trying hard not to show it. When she met new staff, she liked to be as imposing and haughty as possible to terrify them into submission right away, but this was proving to be difficult. Anything that concerned the amethyst-eyed child caused her nerves to jitter. She felt like a girl again, dressed in the ancient tatters of a fashion long gone, who was laughed at in the street.
    “Does the child need to be locked in?”
    “She has a tendency to roam about the house if left to her own devices and it upsets the servants.”
    “All unruly ways shall be punished.”
    But Ma Dane scarcely heard what the nanny said. She unlocked the door and marched inside, and at first she did not see it, but thenshe caught sight of a wary little face beneath the rocking chair, and she sucked in her breath. The thing was biting the nail of its thumb in that achingly familiar way.
    “I will leave you to become acquainted,” Ma Dane barked, sweeping out of the room and shutting the door hastily behind her. In the empty corridor outside, she leaned against the wall for a moment to regain her composure, the back of her neck slick with sweat.
    In the nursery, the nanny squared up to the thing trembling beneath the rocking chair.
    “I am Nan and I want you to come out immediately.”
    If the baby had been wary, she was now petrified and could not have moved if she had wanted to. She hoped desperately that her wet nurse would return and stared hard at the dark wooden slates of the floor, wishing to awake from this nightmare.
    “Come out. This is the last time I will tell you.”
    A moment later, a clawed hand swiped beneath the rocking chair, grasping the doughy arm of the toddler and wrenching her out in one yank. She did not have time to cry or even take a breath before she was confronted with a cratered, thick face hissing into her own.
    Nan smelled of crumpled tissues and floor polish. Her limp gray hair was raked into a twist on the top of her dome-shaped head and her sagging skin resembled dribbled wax. Ma Dane had been pleased to note her horrific presence, thinking that she was just the sort of woman who could have controlled Asha, if indeed anyone could have.
    “From now on, you shall do as I instruct. You are lower than a servant here. You are a dependent, is that clear?”
    The child gazed back at her in mute shock.
    Taking silence for disobedience, Nan thwacked her across the thigh in a sharp, cutting slap.
    Tears sprang to her violet eyes.
    “When I am speaking to you, you will give me the sign of respect.”
    Grabbing the child’s left hand, she shoved it against her chest.
    “Is that clear?”

    The amethyst-eyed child did share the same temperament as Asha— Ma Dane had guessed that much correctly. But had she been cared for and shown tender affection, the child would have been merely headstrong. In fact, her initial shyness would have worked in her favor and she could perhaps have been single-minded but sensitive. As it was, this would not be the case.
    Cruelty soured her. Nan was used to treating spoiled little darlings who were lavished with adoration from
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