Page 5 of Haunted Hearts

“I only did it for you, Blaze. You and Lillith. I didn’t want the girl you were sweet on to lose her brother, and so I warned them.”

“You must have frightened poor Robert out of his mind. That is probably why it is said he was delirious and jumped from a cliff in a storm.”

“Nonsense. I did no such thing. I did not curse that boy, I assure you.”

“That’s not what the Bonnels think.”

“They overreact,” she said, swiping a hand through the air. “I had good intentions to help them, but they turned everything around.”

“Your actions started a feud between our families. A feud that has never ended.”

“Really?” She looked up in curiosity. “Oh, that old goat, Henri Bonnel, was always looking for a fight. It was bound to happen sooner or later.”

“Mother, there was never trouble between our families before that.”

“Things happen,” she said with a shrug. “We are all forced to make changes if we’re going to survive.”

“If it wasn’t for you, I’d be a knight right now and I’d also be married to Lilly.”

Her head snapped up and a smile crossed her face. “So that’s why you’re not married yet. You’re waiting for the Bonnel girl. Well, it’s never going to happen, Blaze. I’m sure by now she holds her father’s beliefs about us. She’ll never change, and you won’t be able to convince her of anything different.”

“Our fathers both died without ever resolving the feud. I don’t want to go to my grave with Lilly glaring at me in hate, the way she did today.”

“Oh. So, you saw her today then?”

“Aye,” he admitted. “I went to the graveyard when they were burying her father.”

“I wouldn’t worry about things, Blaze. Things will turn out just the way they’re supposed to.”

“Is that something you saw in your damned cards?” he asked snidely. “Because, the death of Lord Bonnel is something we should be very concerned with.”

“Whatever for?” She shrugged her shoulders. “I wasn’t even here so they can’t blame his death on me this time.”

“Mayhap not, but something tells me that this time they’re going to blame it all on me.”