Read Online The Guardian of Secrets: And Her Deathly Pact by Jana Petken - Free Book Online Page B

determined to keep her secret safe, as Joseph would kill her if the truth came out. When they reached the wooden bench at the bottom of the narrow lawn, they sat down, wrapping their shawls tightly around their heads against the cold, damp air.
    “My darling Celia,” Marie began. “I can only imagine your pain. This has been a dreadful shock for you, for all of us.
    “Auntie, I just don’t understand why this happened… Why Papa?” She looked at her aunt for the first time.
    “I don’t know, dear. It’s all so senseless and incomprehensible. We may never accept his death, even if his murderer is caught, but your father wouldn’t want to see you like this, darling. Why, you’re nothing but skin and bones. You must look after yourself better. Making yourself ill won’t bring your father back to you.”
    Celia lowered her head and focused her eyes on her hands folded on her lap. If she spoke now, a flood of tears would surely follow.
    “Celia, I asked you about what happened to your face when I arrived, and I have to tell you that I don’t believe you fell down the stairs. I’m sorry, but I don’t. Tell me the truth now. Please tell me what happened. You’ll feel so much better if you do.”
    “Don’t worry about me, Auntie. I really did slip coming down the stairs.” Celia said, finding her voice at last. “Why would you think differently? I slipped, and it was a silly thing to do. It could have happened to anyone, so why do you find it so unbelievable? Please, Auntie, don’t ask me about it again. My father’s dead and what happened to me pales in comparison.”
    She looked deeply into her aunt’s eyes. There was no pity there, only disappointment. “Did you know that my father was going to marry Mary Shields?” she asked, trying to change the subject.
    “No,” Marie said, not quite sounding truthful.
    “Me neither. I can’t believe he didn’t tell me. I wonder how many other secrets went to the grave with him.”
    “Your father was still a relatively young man, Celia dear. It was inevitable that he’d want to share his life with another woman. That’s the way of men.”
    “Yes, Auntie, I know, but all the same, he should have told me. We never kept secrets from one another, ever. I would have been happy for him.”
    “I know that, and he knew that too. He probably felt guilty for keeping it from you, but I think he just felt that you weren’t ready to accept another woman in your life. He loved your mother so much, and he loved you more than life itself. You do know that, don’t you?”
    “Yes, of course I do. I’m sorry. I’m just angry at everything and with everyone at the moment. I can’t explain it. I feel so abandoned, and I just want him back. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to him.”
    “And I didn’t get the answers I was looking for,” Marie said.
    Celia stood up, pulled the shawl even tighter across her face, and hid her eyes from the pity she saw.
    “Auntie, I want to go in now so no more questions, please. I can’t… I just can’t…”
    Watching her aunt shake her head in defeat, she felt utterly ashamed of herself, but as they walked towards the house, she also accepted that her silence and the consequences that would come from it had irreversibly sealed her fate. She longed to tell her aunt the truth, that her husband had beaten her, that he had violated her body. That she thought he was her father’s killer. But if she did, she would have to deal with the questions and ramifications. She needed more time to think, to clear her head, for her shame was almost too much to bear now.
    Her pitiful behaviour on the day Sergeant Butler told her the news was humiliating beyond words. She had believed in Joseph’s love for her. She had pretended that he still did love her, even after the news of her father’s death. If others learned the truth, found out that her husband had raped her and that she suspected that he had killed her father, she would be even more