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Forbidden Secrets

Forbidden Secrets

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SYNOPSIS

Victoria Fawson desperately needs answers about her father’s death. When she visits the Maitland Manor to discover those answers, she finds only secrets…haunting secrets that leave her wondering who she can trust. Should she trust her feelings for the one man who hides from the world—the man who might put her in danger?

Justin Maitland hasn’t been human for over a year. He knows things about his family—things that could destroy Victoria. The only way to help her is to send her back home without learning anything. Yet, how can he let her go when he’s given her his heart?

Victoria Fawson desperately needs answers about her father’s death. When she visits the Maitland Manor to discover those answers, she finds only secrets…haunting secrets that leave her wondering who she can trust. Should she trust her feelings for the one man who hides from the world—the man who might put her in danger?

Justin Maitland hasn’t been human for over a year. He knows things about his family—things that could destroy Victoria. The only way to help her is to send her back home without learning anything. Yet, how can he let her go when he’s given her his heart?

Chapter One Look Inside

A place between heaven and hell really did exist.

Justin Maitland knew this beyond a shadow of a doubt. Hidden amongst the trees outside Maitland Manor—a place no longer his home but his prison—he gazed upon the smiling, carefree visage of his brother, Jonathan. No doubt courting yet another comely lass. A stab of longing sliced through Justin, and wistfully he stared down at his hands. Five fingers, five fingernails, all very human in appearance . . . but he knew better.

Was he in Purgatory?

Perhaps. But this Purgatory was not so much a place as an altered state of being . . . a curse with no hope of redemption.

Justin’s thoughts often drifted to the moment he’d been cast into this Devil’s existence—lost his humanity and become a beast to be loathed—a moment he simply called the lighting. It was a space in time when all of life’s purposes and regrets swirled to a single point of clarity. All that could have been no longer wavering in indecision, but perfectly clear, like the sky after a blistering rainstorm. To suddenly realize all that he wanted from life, and know it would never again be within his grasp was a fate worse than death. In truth, death would be a blessing.

Instead, his destiny was to wander the earth not quite a man, nor amongst the living. Trapped for eternity as an entity to be feared.

Reviled.

And hunted.

* * * *

North Devon, England 1890

No turning back now.

Victoria Fawson gripped the plush edge of the coach seat and stared anxiously through the window as the landscape whisked past her. The village of Exmoor brought shivers to her as it was, but when she spotted Maitland Manor looming ominously ahead, chills rushed up her spine as the whispered secrets of this place whirled through her mind.

Victoria’s every instinct screamed to turn tail and run, but her heart told her the answers to her father’s murder lay here.

She glanced across the coach at her French maid, Francine. The younger woman sat ramrod straight with her lips pulled tight, her gaze aimed out the window. As Maitland Manor came more fully into view the color slowly drained from the maid’s face.

“We are almost there.” Victoria managed a tight smile, twisting her hands in her lap, a nervous habit she’d never managed to break.

Francine took an unsteady breath. “Are you certain this is what you want, Mademoiselle?” A slight tremor shook her. “After all, Maitland Manor is haunted.”

Nervously Victoria laughed. “Don’t tell me you believe all those silly ghost stories.”

“Oui. They are true.”

Victoria arched an eyebrow, suppressing her own trepidations, and taking hold of logic. “Do you have firsthand knowledge?”

“No, but—”

With a flick of the wrist, Victoria brushed the maid’s concerns away. “I think the stories are told to keep people away.”

Francine nodded. “It’s working rather well, if you ask me.
There aren’t many women who volunteer to stay there.”

“I have no other choice,” Victoria grumbled as helplessness filled her. “According to my father’s journals, Justin Maitland was the last man to visit him. I need Mr. Maitland’s help if I’m to discover the murderer’s identity.”

“I understand, Mademoiselle, but there has to be another way.” Francine peeked out the window and shivered.
“When I met Mrs. Maitland in the marketplace the other day,” Victoria continued, “and she invited me to the manor to meet her brother-in-law, Jonathan, I knew this was the only way I could get inside to ask questions.”

“Doesn’t Mademoiselle Maitland think you’re coming to court Mr. Jonathan?”

“Yes, and she must continue to believe that.” Victoria adjusted the cloak over her traveling gown. “My father was a close friend with Justin, who is the oldest brother. I’ve tried to contact him, but the letters I’ve sent over the past year have gone unanswered. The Maitland family is purposely keeping secrets. I feel it. Getting inside the manor is the only way to find what I’m searching for.”

“Then I pray you find what you need quickly. I cannot bear the thought of staying longer than a week in such a haun—” Francine flicked her gaze toward Victoria, “um, I mean dreary place.”

The vehicle slowed as it neared the house. Silence expanded inside the vehicle as Victoria leaned against the seat, trying to collect her wits. If only she felt as brave as the front she had presented to her maid. Victoria bunched her fingers in the folds of her velvet traveling dress and nibbled her lower lip. She must do this to discover the truth. She prayed she’d be able to accomplish her goal.

The vehicle jerked to stop and her uncle’s footman, Jeffries, opened the door. The older servant helped her down, and as soon as her feet touched the pebbled ground, she glanced up at the towering Maitland Manor. Trepidation clutched her throat.

“I’m not afraid,” she whispered, taking her first step toward the dark, foreboding structure. “And I absolutely do not believe in ghosts.”

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