Read Online Fall From Grace (Slater #1) by Sammy King - Free Book Online Page A

bones.  Her belly was large and her back ached, the child whom grew inside her seemed to stretch her skin to almost tearing point and Laura was beginning to wonder how much more she could take.  She rubbed her face and slowly stretched, trying to find some comfort. When she stood her toe brushed against firm heavy plushness, as she looked down she saw curled at the foot of her bed laid Thomas. A thin blanket draped over his body, his eyes closed.  Laura flopped back down onto her bed, unable to peel her eyes away from her prodigal father, the father who mysteriously returned as sudden as his mysterious disappearance.
    She sat for a long time taking in the image of his face, the peacefulness in which he slept, the slight frown he wore, the eyelashes that brushed his cheeks, the small sighs that he made. She startled when Thomas suddenly flicked his eyes open and stared tiredly up at Laura. It was as if he was still trying to grasp his bearings as to where he was, but soon recognition crossed his eyes and he softly stared up at his daughter.  He smiled and sat up slowly, easing his hulking body off the floor and dusting off his pants.  He gingerly sat on the bed.  Laura reached out her fingers to stroke his beard, she never remembered it being so long, just as she felt the wisps of hair on his chin, Thomas captured her hand in his and bought her palm up to his lips, giving it a tender kiss.  Tears fell from her eyes, caressing her cheeks as she pulled her father into a tight embrace, crying harder, her sobs wracking her entire body.  She stayed there crying for her lost childhood, her father, her mother, and her own child, who too would grow up fatherless.
    Thomas reached up and pet Laura on the back, soothing her tears.  When she sat up and looked at his face she could see that his eyes were red and puffy from his own tears.
    “Have you always been there?” Laura asked between hiccupping sobs.
    Thomas took Laura’s face in his hand and looked into her eyes.  The blue so soft and beautiful, his eyes were filled with love that threatened to swallow her whole.
    “I would have hanged had they found me child” he croaked.
    “Did mother know?”
    Laura could see the flash of regret run through his eyes, he couldn’t lie to her.
    “She did, and had I known how sick she was, I would have come back” he spoke gently.
    “You said the man who took me was a man of influence, but who was he daddy?” Laura asked.
    “James Slater” Thomas frowned and shuddered.
    Laura shook her head as questions raced through her mind.  Why would a Slater try to steal a peasant child? What would he want with her?
    “Why did he try to take me?” she asked. 
    Thomas shook his head and ran his hand down over his face.  He pet Laura’s back, his eyes were swollen and puffy from the tears that he seemed to be unable to hold back.
    “Laura the Slater family isn’t a good family.  They have money, they have importance and they portray themselves as men of cloth, but they have an evil spirit that run’s deep through their souls.  Your Aunt told me that your child belongs to Porter and this breaks my heart” he said, his voice catching in his throat. 
    Laura felt more confused than she was before Thomas had come back into her life.  She didn’t understand what he meant by the evil spirit.  Porter was nothing but gentle to her, but then the image of him wrapped up in the red headed woman’s legs flashed into her mind.  The way he looked at her, the way he didn’t even try to cover what he was doing.  Her heart ached at the image and her heart broke again, not for herself but for the Slater child that she carried, the child that too would be born with that evil spirit running through its veins.
    Laura laid her head down on her father’s shoulder and tangled her fingers lazily in his beard, taking in his familiar scent, of pine and earth. She still had so many questions, but she no longer had the energy to deal with the