The Tiger Lily Read Online Free

eggs hatched, and consequently she didn't immediately
follow Brett but crept closer to the little nest. Seeing the broken shells, she
clapped her hands with excitement and glanced eagerly around, positive her
quail wouldn't have left without displaying the chicks. She had just opened her
mouth to call joyfully to Brett when she spied the sinister shape coiled a few
feet away from the nest. A copperhead snake. A copperhead with an obscene bulge
in the middle of its sinuous length that cruelly revealed the fate of the quail
and her eggs.
     
    Horror
choked Sabrina, and remembering the way the little quail had seemed to watch
for her each day, she was filled with fury. A cry of half-anguish, half-rage
came from her, and blindly she reached for a fallen oak branch and attacked the
snake.
     
    Brett
heard her cry and spun on his heels, swiftly returning to the nest. He found
Sabrina, weeping and furious, wielding the oak branch with fatal efficiency.
     
    The
snake was dead long before Brett could pry the oak branch from Sabrina's
clenched fingers. She was still sobbing angrily, tears streaking down her
cheeks, her eyes a pure gold glitter between the spiky dark lashes when she
finally released her hold on the branch and flung herself into Brett's
comforting arms.
     
    "It
ate her!" she cried with furious revulsion.
     
    "I
know, sweetheart, I know. But these things happen in the wild," Brett said
helplessly. Lifting her from the ground, he gently enfolded her slender body
next to his, murmuring soft, consoling sounds.
     
    Sabrina's
arms were tightly clasped around his neck, her face buried under his chin, but
suddenly she flung back her head angrily and said vehemently, "But it
shouldn't have happened! Not to my quail!"
     
    Brett
looked down at her, intending to say something to ease her hurt, but the words
stuck in his throat as he stared at the little face just below his. Her eyes
were bright with tears and anger; her cheeks were flushed pink. The wide,
generous mouth was inches from his own, and Brett was overwhelmed by a surge of
tenderness.
     
    Suddenly
assailed by an emotion he had no business feeling for a seven-year-old girl, he
instantly thrust her away from him and setting her urgently on the ground, put
several feet between them. Drawing a ragged breath, he forced himself to
concentrate on what she had said, and unsteadily he got out, "No, no, it
shouldn't have happened, poppet, but it did. You have to realize that nature
isn't always kind. Life can be cruel." Bitterly, ruthlessly ignoring the
emotions that clawed through him, he said, "Life is cruel—you can't always
have things the way you want them."
     
    After
that, it was as if the death of the quail had been the death also of their
re-established rapport. Brett assiduously avoided Sabrina. What he had felt for
her was damnably wrong, and he convinced himself that the incident was further
proof of how dangerous women could be—even very young ones.
     
    Sabrina
suffered again at suddenly being anathema to her idol. She was bewildered,
hurt, and angry at the same time to be now treated as if she had committed some
unforgivable, terrible offense. As the days passed, and the time grew nearer
for the del Torres family to depart for Nacogdoches, Sabrina took refuge in
disliking her once beloved Senor Brett. He was a beast!
     
    There
was one other incident in connection with the quail. Two days after the
discovery of the snake, as Brett was dismounting from his morning ride, he
happened to overhear one of the grooms scolding Martin. That Martin was very
aware of Brett's presence was obvious from the nervous glances he kept shooting
his way. But Jem, the English groom, was completely oblivious of Brett as he
grumbled, "Did you get rid of that snake? I don't mind you trapping
animals and such, but I'll be damned if I'll have you keeping snakes near the
stables—and a bloody copperhead at that! Why you keep it and don't feed it is
beyond me! If you haven't let it