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    Eyes of the Cat: Unholy Wedlock (Part 1 of a 4 Part Serial)
    Eyes of the Cat: Unholy Wedlock (Part 1 of a 4 Part Serial)
    Eyes of the Cat: Unholy Wedlock (Part 1 of a 4 Part Serial)
    Ebook119 pages1 hour

    Eyes of the Cat: Unholy Wedlock (Part 1 of a 4 Part Serial)

    By Mimi Riser

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    About this ebook

    Part 1 of a 4-part serialized novel...
    Once upon a time, in a far, strange land (1883 Texas, to be precise), there arrived from back East a beautiful and headstrong young princess...um, I mean a scientist...named Tabitha Jeffries. Hardly more than a girl really, but she had the courage of an Amazon and a heart as big as her intellect. To save another girl, named Gabrina, from an arranged marriage to this presumably wicked prince (well, a laird, anyway) called Alan MacAllister, Tabitha switches places with her. Expecting, naturally enough, that the awful Alan’s Highland Scots family (who just happen to live in a full-scale medieval castle) will release her the moment she confesses she’s not Gabrina. Only—and this is the annoying part—Alan’s family is actually more interested in a bride, period, than they are in a specific bride... “Gabby or Tabby, ’tis such a wee dif’rence”... In other words, they keep her—fussing and fuming, kicking, clawing, biting, punching and screaming, notwithstanding.

    And Alan himself, who turns out to have wanted Gabrina even less than Gabrina wanted him, decides that he does want Gabrina’s replacement. He decides this on first sight, in fact. And one can scarcely blame him, because that first sight was a lulu. It was the sight of said replacement—who had just escaped a tower by way of a tree that snagged off most of her clothes on the climb down—leaping wildly out of that tree in her unmentionables. Very interesting. Something to make a man stop and think. Catching her in his arms, Alan thinks he may be in love.

    Numerous battles and embraces, some bloodcurdling adventures, and an emotional triathlon later, Tabitha is beginning to think the same thing. Now all she has to do is solve a ten year old murder, prevent a new one, and save herself and Alan from a horrifying family legacy. There’s always something, isn’t there?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMimi Riser
    Release dateSep 7, 2014
    ISBN9781311465047
    Eyes of the Cat: Unholy Wedlock (Part 1 of a 4 Part Serial)
    Author

    Mimi Riser

    Mimi Riser is a longtime author of fiction and nonfiction, including several series and spanning a variety of genres (with flavors ranging from sweet to spicy hot). Her books celebrate the upbeat, the offbeat, and “beating the odds.” She began life in the urban northeast, but now resides in the rural southwest with her best friend & husband Rob.

    Read more from Mimi Riser

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      Book preview

      Eyes of the Cat - Mimi Riser

      EYES OF THE CAT

      Part 1:

      Unholy Wedlock

      MIMI RISER

      www.mimiriser.com

      Eyes of the Cat is now released as a serial, which means it has been divided into separate parts that are offered individually. This is the first of four parts.

      Serial Copyright © 2014 by Mimi Riser

      All rights reserved.

      Smashwords Edition, Smashwords License Statement: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      [Note: Eyes of the Cat was originally published by a NY house, in mass-market paperback, under a different title. It has since been revised and re-edited. This is the new expanded edition and contains material not found in the paperback.]

      Disclaimer: This novel is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

      <><><><>

      <><><>

      Chapter 1

      A castle?

      A Scottish castle.

      A medieval Scottish castle in Texas?

      Staring out the train’s dirt streaked window at endless arid plains, Tabitha Jeffries shook her head. She’d been chewing on the matter for days, but still found it difficult to swallow. It wasn’t the castle itself that disturbed her well-ordered proprieties so much—though that was part of it. A Highland castle ought to be in the Highlands of Scotland, oughtn’t it? It seemed not only peculiar, but also impractical to construct such a monstrous edifice out upon this scrubby terrain. Wherever did they find the stone for it?

      Oh, right—it had been built from those mud bricks called adobe. That was some consolation, she supposed. Tabitha shook her head again without even realizing she did so. It was one of those irksome little habits her late aunt had never been able to quite cure her of. Another habit was the rapid jiggling of one knee or the other whenever she was agitated or engrossed in thought. At the moment, it was her right knee that bounced up and down.

      What really bothered her was the reason for this journey. How could a family send a girl nearly halfway around the world to marry a man she’d never even seen? What kind of a man would accept an unknown bride? This was modern day 1883 America, not 1483 Scotland, for heaven’s sake. The whole idea was positively feudal. There was something almost indecent about such an arrangement.

      Although she had to admit that Gabrina MacAllister—who was, after all, the girl affected by it—didn’t seem to think so. Tabitha had heard enough about family loyalties and honor and tradition these past days to last her until doomsday. She’d met only one of them so far, but was already sick of the entire MacAllister clan. And she was sick of tartan wool, too. It was hot and scratchy, not to mention inappropriate for a paid companion to wear her employer’s clothes.

      But me spare travelin’ gown fits you sae well, Tabby dear. And you look sae bonny in it, the fluffy curled and fluffier brained Lady Gabrina had chattered cheerfully every morning of their tiring trek west. Her nickname, Gabby, suited her.

      You wouldna be sae cruel as tae deny a poor, lonely lass such a wee bit o’ comfort, would you? It makes me feel less homesick tae pretend I’ve a countrywoman alang side me. Why, with your fair hair and those green eyes, I could a’most swear you were a MacAllister. Leslie’s been sayin’ we could a’most be sisters.’Tis the reason I chose you. The other lasses your agency offered were all puddin’ faced hens, they were. I didna fancy bein’ cooped with any o’ them. But the moment I laid eyes on you, I said tae meself, now there be a Highland lass, whether she kens it or nay!

      Thank goodness this was only a temporary assignment. Their train would be rolling into Abilene Station any blessed moment now. Lady Gabby would be greeted and herded off by her Texas kinsmen, and her exhausted chaperone would have several well earned days all to herself before returning to Philadelphia and whatever needy damsel or matron the agency next assigned her to.

      If it’s another Scotswoman, I’ll quit.

      This looks like the end of the line for us, ladies, offered an attractive young man with a military bearing and British inflection, as the train screeched to a rocky stop. Gad, you’d think someone would oil those wheels once in a while, wouldn’t you? If I ran my ships the way these lads run their locomotive, I’d be fish food on the bottom of the ocean by now.

      Aye, Leslie, you’re a bonny, braw sailor, and Tabby and I both ken it. Dinna we, Tabby dear?

      Well, you would have more personal knowledge of that than I, Lady Gabrina. Captain Lawrence is your family’s friend, after all. However, since he ferried you across the Atlantic without mishap, I believe I can safely assume that he’s a more than adequate seaman. Tabitha rose from her seat in the private compartment to gather their hand luggage together.

      Leslie Lawrence hurried to relieve her of the heavier pieces, and was rewarded with one of her rare smiles.

      And I know for a fact that he’s a most solicitous traveling companion. She blushed at his returned grin. I’m sure Lady Gabrina has already thanked you for it, Captain Lawrence, but I should like to add my own gratitude to hers. It was most chivalrous of you to take a leave of absence from your professional duties to see us safely out here.

      The handsome Englishman swept a small bow before her. It was my extreme pleasure, Miss Jeffries, but not quite so altruistic as you seem to think, I’m afraid. You see, I was heading west, anyway. I… He paused, suddenly blushing himself for no discernible reason. "Well, the truth of it is, I’ve resigned my naval commission and accepted the captainship of the merchant schooner True Love. She sails for the Orient out of San Francisco the end of this week. I’ve had to make special arrangements to get me there on time," he finished in an awkward rush.

      Oh, was all Tabitha could say. This was certainly a piece of news. Lawrence had had such a promising career it had seemed. Gabrina had confided that he would probably make admiral before he was forty. Whatever could have induced him to resign?

      Leslie! Why didna you tell me?

      With the lady’s faint, came the answer to Tabitha’s question.

      Oh, dear Heaven, how awful. She rummaged through her purse for the smelling salts she always carried for her overly hysterical, or overly corseted clients. Why didn’t I guess this before? It was so obvious, now she considered it. And so pathetically ironic. Of course they’re in love!

      Gabrina and Leslie had grown up in each other’s pockets, to hear them tell it. They’d probably been in love since childhood. But Leslie had been so ambitious, Gabrina must have thought he was married to his career. That was undoubtedly the real reason she’d agreed to this ridiculous marriage to her Texas cousin, Alan MacAllister—who must be one sorry specimen of a man to have agreed to such an impossibly medieval alliance, himself.

      "I wish he were here right now. I’d give him a lesson in modern customs he’d never forget," Tabitha muttered to herself while fanning some lavender water under Gabrina’s pert little nose. She hadn’t been able to find the spirits of ammonia, so the lavender would have to do. It smelled nicer, anyway.

      Dearest, I wanted to tell you before now, honestly I did, Leslie began the moment the girl’s eyelids started to flutter.

      He’d been kneeling beside her, chafing her wrists and staring at her with such an agony of love, Tabitha almost could have fainted, herself, just from the backlash of his emotion. Except she really wasn’t the fainting kind. The prim maiden aunt who had raised her never allowed such self-indulgent displays as fainting.

      "I would have told you, darling, but I was afraid it wouldn’t make any difference. You seemed so determined on going through with this bloody marriage— Oh, I beg your pardon, Miss Jeffries." He shot a sheepish glance at Tabitha.

      That’s quite all right, Captain Lawrence. I understand the provocation, she assured him.

      But, Leslie dear—Gabrina’s eyes filled with tears—"you didna give up your commission for me, did you?"

      That was too much for the young captain. His British reserve broke and he swept her into his arms like a tidal wave swamping the shore.

      "My commission? Dear God, what’s my commission worth without you? What’s anything worth without you? he choked out. Give up my commission for you? Gabby, you little fool, don’t you realize I’d willingly give up my life for

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