Read Online For the Taking by Lilian Darcy - Free Book Online Page B

sounds of the horses. It was one of those days when it was good just to be alive. Briefly, Loucan wished he could simply enjoy the feeling, and forget the goals that drove him so hard.
    “We’d always lived so frugally,” Lass was saying. “I thought we could barely make ends meet. Cyria worked cleaning houses. Wouldn’t consider retirement, even when it began to get too much for her. She was so stubborn, and always thought she knew best.”
    “I remember that,” Loucan said. “I wondered if that trait might intensify, over the years.”
    “She was determined I should get a business degree so I could look after myself. I assumed that was because we had nothing to fall back on. It always seemed strange to me that my father would have sent us away with nothing to help us.”
    “But Lass, he didn’t.”
    “No, I realized that after her death. Cyria herself never mentioned the subject, and any questions I asked, she deflected. She gave me a watch for my sixteenth birthday, the kind that’s set in a solid gold bangle. It was the only expensive gift she ever gave me, and I thought she must have saved for months to buy it. I was so touched by that. Then when she died and I found she’d left me thousands of dollars worth of gold and pearls—enough to buy the old dairy and the farmhouse and several acres of land, restore the whole place and set myself up in business—I was just astonished! ”
    “It was in character,” Loucan said. “She retained her mistrust of land-dwellers and her desire to protect you until the very end.”
    “Yes, she did.” Lass smiled. “She loved me. I never doubted that. It didn’t take the treasure she’d left me to prove it.”
    “But there was no quarter circle? It’s made of a silvery metal, very distinctive, with some Pacificansymbols etched into it. Nothing like that among the gold and jewels she left you when she died? There must have been!”
    “No, Loucan. I’m sorry. There wasn’t.”
    Hearing it in such simple words, he had to believe her, and she carried even more conviction when she continued, “Believe me, if I knew anything about it, I’d be only too glad to hand it over.”
    “Because it would get me out of your life?”
    “Yes.” She tilted her head to look at him. Their horses clopped along the hard, dry dirt road, sending little swirls of warm summer dust into the scented air. “ Would it get you out of my life, Loucan?”
    Her voice was a little lower and a little huskier than usual, and the dark felt hat sat low on her forehead, darkening her eyes. They were sea-toned, instead of iridescent green opal. In the bright light, the hair that curled just below the hat’s brim looked like flame.
    Loucan shook his head slowly.
    “No. It wouldn’t get me out of your life,” he said. “You know there’s no going back, Lass.”
    “There is, if I choose! Once you leave—”
    “No,” he repeated. “You want to stay in contact with Saegar and your sisters. For better or for worse, Pacifica is a part of your life again. I won’t pretend that it’s pure, unadulterated good news. Joran is still on the loose, playing his old games.”
    “I’m starting to remember Joran….”
    “He’s gotten even more dangerous now that he no longer has your father’s backing. He traced Phoebe through my search for her, and her life was in danger at one stage. We know he’s after the four sections of the key.”
    “Why is it so important? What is it a key to, Loucan?”
    “To Pacifica’s hidden archive of scientific knowledge. Your father locked it away when the unrest began. He thought it would only add to the danger. Joran believes—and maybe he’s right—that if he can control and make use of that knowledge, he can hold power. I can’t let that happen. He’s driven purely by ego, and he would lead our entire people to destruction.”
    “Where are the other quarters of the key? You said my siblings had them? Surely that puts them in danger!”
    “They’ve