The MacNaughton Bride Read Online Free

seemed to have eyes in the
back of his head – and was hard as a brick wall to run into.   She made it out to the shack near the
stables, which was the first place Jenny had been able to find that would keep Adelle out of the elements.
    She was asleep atop a bale
of hay, huddled under several blankets.   Aislinn closed the rickety door behind her and
walked over to her sister, placing her hand over that thin shoulder and shaking
gently.   Calling to Adelle would have been both a security risk – someone
might have overheard it and grown suspicious – and useless.
    Adelle – who turned her mirrored face up to her sisters with a huge grin and
threw herself into Aislinn’s arms – was both deaf
and mute.  
    Once she was able to set
her sister – who was younger than she was by a few minutes and smaller by
a pound or so when they were born – away from her, their conversation
commenced at a frantic pace.  
    Although Aislinn and Adelle had developed
their own sign language as they grew, Aislinn had had
taught herself – and then subsequently her sister – the more
accepted, British version that Aislinn had hoped
might help Adelle , if she ever got a chance to
interact with the rest of society.
    Father had ignored Adelle .   Aislinn was sure that he wouldn’t have noticed if Aislinn had disappeared, much less Adelle .   Adelle hadn’t
had much of a chance.   Everyone
ignored her – except her sister – and before Aislinn grew enough to assume responsibility for her sister, Jenny had taken care of
the infant, while putting forth the rumor that although Madam Montgomery had
birthed twins, only one of them had survived.   Since Jenny and their Father were the only two in attendance
when Sarah gave birth then died just a few hours later, Adelle’s existence – or lack thereof - was never questioned.   Albert was too stunned by the loss of
his wife – too deep in the bottle from that point onward – to
question the servant when she gave him the sad news that the smaller, obviously
weaker infant – who hadn’t made even one peep from the moment of her
precipitous birth – had died.
    Despite her inauspicious
beginnings – and surroundings, which were always quite secretive so that
no suspicions were aroused, Adelle thrived, and it was
due in large part to Aislinn , whose love for her
sister knew no bounds.   She did her
best to teach Adelle everything she learned, never
expecting that she couldn’t learn.   Aislinn was a smart girl – everyone kept
telling her – and Aislinn expected that Adelle would be smart, too. The girls were inseparable,
even as adults, and Aislinn was fiercely protective
of her sister.  
    When they were all moved to
Uncle Bertram’s, Aislinn was extremely careful to
make sure that arrangements were made for Adelle to
move, also.   She wasn’t about to
spring Adelle on Uncle Bertram, although she’d
considered it until she got to know the man.   Since things had turned out differently, she had secreted
her sister in the attic and put into motion her plan to get them both out of
there as soon as possible.
    Adelle was driving her sister crazy with questions about their new home.   What was the house like?   Was her betrothed old and gray as Aislinn had wanted?   Was she being treated well?
    Aislinn answered each question patiently, stumbling a bit on the one about her
betrothed being old and gray.   He
most certainly was not.   She’d
fervently wished that Uncle Bertram would marry her off to some old man who
might die soon after their wedding, leaving her a widow who was free to do as she
pleased.   Aislinn had had so much freedom in her upbringing – however unintentional it
might have been on her Father’s part – that staying with their Uncle, who
had insisted on the strictest of proprieties in regards to her behavior –
had had her chafing at his restraints.   She could barely find time to slip away and see her sister.
    Her betrothed – Kell , he’d said