The Revenge of Lord Eberlin by Julia London

believe what had just happened. That little fool had chosen her ruin over Ashwood? He should have tasted victory on his lips, knowing that hisdesire for revenge was at hand . . . but he didn’t feel that in the least. He felt out of breath and oddly unsettled, as if this plague on him had sunk its roots deeper, tangling with his guts.
    How could she agree? Ridiculous woman!
    He was suddenly reminded of a spring day many years ago, when he and Lily were children. He’d been charged with looking after her, and they’d gone up to the abandoned cottage at Uppington Church. Lily had been infatuated with that musty, old, one-room cottage. She’d built little fantasies around it—one day it was a castle, the next a seaside fortress, the next a hovel where a princess of magic hid her talents. She would summon faeries to help her fight the evil forces when needed.
    Tobin was older and had found her games rather tedious at times. He recalled her ceaseless chatter and how he’d generally spent his time with her engaged in his own idle pursuits. Whittling, throwing rocks at various targets, reading.
    On that particular afternoon, Lily had fancied herself a warrior princess and, if memory served, marauding Vikings had beset her. It was a warm spring day, and she’d discarded her cloak and bonnet so that she might dash around and jab at the invisible Vikings with the sword she’d fashioned from a stick. Tobin had positioned himself on a rock, where he’d worked on the horse he’d been carving while keeping a watchful eye on the little hellion. However, he’d managed to losetrack of her and had been startled when she’d called out, her voice coming from somewhere above him. Tobin had looked up to see her straddling a tree limb high above him, her booted feet dangling and her so-called sword stuffed into the sash of her frock.
    “Bloody hell,” Tobin had muttered. “What are you doing up there? You could fall and break your neck!”
    “I won’t fall.”
    “Come down,” he’d said sternly, pointing to the ground. “Come down at once.”
    “Why?” she’d demanded, as if it were perfectly reasonable to have climbed so high.
    “You are too high. Come down!”
    “It’s not so very high,” she’d argued from her perch. “I can climb much higher.”
    “Then your fall will be even greater, and you will break your neck and your arms and your legs, and I shall be punished for it! Come down at once, Miss Boudine. I command you to come down!”
    She’d laughed at him. “ You cannot command me. I am allowed to do as I please, and you may not tell me how high I may go.”
    “Then I will not help you if you are stuck,” he’d said angrily.
    “Then I shall rescue myself. I am a princess warrior and I could jump if I wanted to.”
    “God help me, don’t jump,” Tobin had said nervously, positioning himself beneath the tree just in case she’d tried it. But Lily had started to slowly inchher way back on the limb. He’d cringed when she’d faltered and almost lost her balance. He’d groaned beneath his breath as he’d watched her stockings catch on the tree bark and tear. And he’d felt his heart skip a beat when she’d paused with a soft cry to study what Tobin had presumed was a cut in the palm of her hand.
    By the time she’d shimmied down to where he’d been able to reach her and haul her to the ground, her frock had been soiled and torn, her hair had come undone from its braids, and her hand had been bleeding.
    He’d clucked at her as he’d wrapped his handkerchief around her hand. “You’ve gone and done it now, haven’t you?”
    “Done what?” she’d asked, blinking up at him with big green eyes.
    “For heaven’s sake, Lily, do you understand anything at all? I’m to look after you.”
    “Why?”
    “Because girls need looking after.”
    She’d seemed completely baffled by that. “I don’t need looking after.”
    He’d scoffed at that. “ You more than anyone. Most girls are not so foolish