Blind Loyalty by M J Marlow (ebook reader wifi .txt) 📕

continue working on the rest of her bonds. Her head was hanging down in momentary defeat. She heard them and looked up weakly. “Joey!” “Father?” she sobbed. He untied her and someone handed him a survival blanket. He wrapped her in it and picked her up in his arms. He carried her over to a fallen log and set her down. “I knew you’d come for me,” she whimpered as he rubbed her arms and legs to get the feeling back into them. When he saw the wound, he hissed and got the aid kit. He cleaned and bandaged it as well as he could, biting his lip as she whimpered in pain. “I’m so tired.” “You have to stay awake a bit longer, Joey,” Adam said to her and saw her eyes fill with tears. “Just until we can get you warmed up, baby. Can you do that for me?” Joanna nodded and he saw her struggling to continue fighting. She might look like her mother, but she was definitely his daughter. “That’s my girl.” Joanna was wrapped in blankets and strapped into the sled and skied back down the hill to the cabin. Adam carried her in and set her down in front of the fire. He left Sarah and the girls to take care of her under the tutelage of his medic and went outside to call the Judge. Only when this was taken care of did he take a brief moment to let his strength falter. Those little bastards had tied his daughter to a tree during a blizzard and left her to die! There was no punishment bad enough for what they had done. Joanna could ‘feel’ him coming at her in the darkness and she was already off the bed and throwing a second man over her shoulder before he could recover from his shock. She ran for the door and it opened before she could reach it. “NO!” Joanna screamed as she saw him standing there in front of her. “You’re dead! You can’t be here!” “You owe me a son, Joanna,” James’ nightmare voice sounded in her mind. “I am coming for you.” “NO!” Joanna screamed for real and sat up in bed. She would never let him have her again! She would kill him first! “Joey,” Sarah cried in dismay as she got up to shake her cousin. Joanna’s eyes were filled with terror and Sarah slapped her. Joanna blinked and looked up at her. “You were having the nightmare again.” “I’m sorry, Sarah,” Joanna said as he sat up and saw that it was still night. “I keep waking you up.” She got up and groaned as her body protested her motion. “I was hoping I could forget.” “Mom says it’s going to take a while,” Sarah said as she put her arms around her cousin. “It’s been a year, Sarah,” Joanna said softly. “How much longer do I have to go through this?” Had it only been a year since the man who had raised her with the lie that he was her father had tried to turn her into his slave? Only the intervention of the medical staff at the Haven in Paris had kept his rape from ending in a pregnancy. She was glad she hadn’t had to go through that punishment. But why couldn’t she leave the memory of it behind? She bit her lip and looked at her cousin for advice. Sarah had been her staunchest champion over the past year of nightmares and uncertainty. “Maybe if you have some hot milk you’ll relax enough to sleep?” Sarah pulled Joanna out of bed. “Come on.” They went downstairs and found the kitchen already had occupants. Joanna’s scream had woken up the entire household. She was very upset about that. But that apology died as her father handed her a document. She looked at the Petition for Emancipation in confusion and handed it back to him with a puzzled frown on her face. He would have to go after the lawyer who had filed it then. “I didn’t think you were responsible,” he said to her; “but I needed to hear it from you personally. We couldn’t blame you if you wanted nothing more to do with us…” “Why would I ever want that, Father?” Joanna broke in thoroughly upset now. “You’re my family! After fifteen years of being tortured by a man who said he was my father why would I want to leave the man who really is my father?” She picked up the paper and frowned at the name. “This is the lawyer whose firm handles my trust fund,” she said as she read the name. “Why would they file a document like this without asking me first?” “You owe me a son, Joanna,” James’ nightmare voice sounded in her mind. “I am coming for you.” “Joey!” Sarah cried as she watched her cousin go white and faint dead away. She got a wet towel and wiped Joanna’s face. “Wake up, Joey! Please wake up!” Lora got the smelling salts and opened the bottle under Joanna’s nose. She started to cough and her eyes filled with tears in protest. She opened her eyes and looked into their concerned faces. Adam helped her to a chair and Sarah brought her a glass of water. She could not believe what her mind was telling her. That would mean that James Leighton was reaching out from the grave to get her back into his clutches. And that was just not possible. “We’ll go see the lawyer in the morning,” Adam decided. There was something going on in Joanna’s mind he did not like. It had been a year since her torture had ended. Surely by now she should be forgetting what had happened and move on? But why should he? It had taken him nearly that long to let go of the pain of his first wife’s betrayal. He looked over at Rachel and wondered how he could ever have preferred her flighty sister. His beloved second wife smiled over at him and came over to help Joanna to her feet. “It’s time you were in bed, Joey,” she said softly. “If you think you need it, we’ll have Lora give you a sedative.” She flinched and put her hand to her swollen abdomen. Seven months pregnant with her first child at the age of 36, she took every little twinge to heart. “The little beast!” She smiled over at Adam. “Do you think you could tell your son to take it easy on his mother, my dear?” “You need your sleep,” Joanna frowned. “You go to bed, Mom. I’ll make my own way.” She laid her hand on Rachel’s abdomen. “You behave in there, little brother. Let Mama get her sleep and I’ll give you a puppy.” “She’s going to be the ruin of our child,” Adam laughed and put his arms around ‘his’ girls; “before he’s even born.” He kissed Joanna on the forehead. “One cup of hot milk and then bed for you, Joey.” “Yes, Father.” “Now, wife,” Adam said as he picked Rachel up in his arms; “let’s go have a talk with this imp in the making.” Joanna watched her parents leave and she felt much better for seeing them so happy. She put on a pot for the milk and sat back to wait for it to warm. The rest of the family left her alone and she was happy for that too. She always felt so stupid after her nightmares. Her father had told her that she shouldn’t feel that way, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted them to go away and they were not listening to her. Maybe she should do as Aunt Lora suggested and go talk to a counselor who dealt with rape victims. It certainly couldn’t hurt. “You owe me a son, Joanna,” James’ nightmare voice sounded in her mind. “I am coming for you.” “Leave me alone!” Joanna sobbed as she put her hands over her ears to shut out his voice. “You’re dead! You can’t hurt me any longer.” She got her milk and sat with it between her hands so long it was ice cold before she remembered to drink it. She drank it anyway and washed the glass. As she dried it and moved to put it away, something moved outside the windows. She went to the light switch and turned it on. “No,” she whimpered as she saw who was standing there. “You’re dead,” she sobbed as he came towards her. “You can’t be here!” The glass slipped from her hand. “You can’t!” James watched as she fainted and smiled. He was going to enjoy this new form of torture. In the morning she would look for proof that he had been here and find nothing. The snow coming in now would cover his tracks quite well. He left her where she was and walked away, pleased with how well his plan was going. These people were so certain of their security, not one of them had thought to check Joanna for implants again. His money had seen to it that she was tagged almost as soon as she had arrived back in Colorado. It made it quite easy for him to slip into her sleep and give her nightmares. She deserved worse, he thought as he limped away on the two canes he had to use. Because of her he had suffered a year of casts, traction and physical therapy that still gave him nightmares. Joanna struggled back to consciousness and cleaned up the mess she had made. She was shaking with fear as she pulled on her coat and went outside. The snow was coming down now and she could see it covering tracks leading off towards the road. Someone had been outside the kitchen door, but she refused to believe it was James. He was dead. No one survived a fall from a fifth floor terrace and walked a year later. It was impossible. But just to be on the safe side she would ask Doctor Matson about it. He had become a very close friend of her aunt Lora’s over the past year. If he were on the ball, he should be asking Lora to marry him soon. He would make Sarah a very fine second father. Then all they had to worry about was finding a new wife for Grandfather and the family would be whole again. “Joey?” Winbourne said as he came into the kitchen. “What are you still doing up? Don’t you have school in the morning?” “Are you looking for a wife, Grandfather,” Joanna asked him as her mind remained locked on her last thought. She saw him flinch and wondered why. “You’ve been alone a long time…” “I have all of you, Joey,” Winbourne smiled at her, wondering what had brought this up. “Why do I need anyone else?” “What was she like, Grandfather?” Joanna asked as she sat down a moment. “Grandmother Caterina?” “It’s past your bedtime, Joey,” Winbourne stated. “I’ll tell you after school tomorrow.” He kissed Joanna on the forehead. “Bed, young lady. Now.” “I bet she was pretty,” Joanna said as she got up and left the kitchen. “And smart and….” Her voice trailed off as she went upstairs and Winbourne shook his head. Something had put that thought into her mind. But he couldn’t blame her for being curious. She had never had a chance to meet her grandmother or her uncle Michael. It was time she got to know them both. He saw the piece of broken glass on the floor and noted the blood on it. Frowning, he tossed it away and then went upstairs where Joanna was standing in the middle of the bathroom looking at the gash in her arm in confusion. He made her sit down and tended it for her, picking out several pieces of glass before he could