This is the final installment of Eirin. I would like to thank everyone for all the wonderful feedback I have received as well as your patience. I know it has taken a long time but I think you will find it worth the wait.
Again, thank you and enjoy.
meg
Lord Hawthorn watched Eirin as she tossed and turned in her bed. She had been having bad dreams all night. The healer had given Eirin something to help her sleep shortly after she had come out of her faint, but it hadn't helped with the nightmares. After going over the conversation he had heard in the library and having a long talk with Maria, he had put together most of the events. Now the only question that needed answering was 'Who was she?' She wasn't Phillip's daughter of that he was certain. Even before he had forced Maria to tell him of her suspicions he had come to that conclusion.
His heart clenched as he listened to Eirin once again call out for her father. She had been alternately crying out for him and weeping all night. He crawled into bed with her, fully clothed, and held her, soothing his hands up and down her hair and back. She finally wept before falling into a deeper sleep, whimpering occasionally. He held her all night, unable to fall asleep and wishing he could do more to help her.
****
Melissa rushed into the house intent on finding her father. He was in the study, already deep, in his cups. "Lissy, me darlin', I do believe we are going to have to move on. Damn shame it is, sure is a damn shame." He finished by emptying his drink in a single swallow and stumbling over to the bar for a refill, still mumbling about how much he had enjoyed this house and was going to miss the allowance.
Melissa looked at him, cursing him silently for being drunk when she needed him. She had stolen a horse from Lord Hawthorn and stopped only long enough to steal another on her ride back from his estate. She had made it in a little more than a day and a half, riding straight through; she was dirty and tired and out of patience. Somehow she still needed to warn him of her slip with Eirin and he needed to be lucid when she did.
Melissa grabbed the glass from his hand, sloshing liquor all over her clothes and the floor. "Phillip, we are in trouble, we need to leave, now!"
"Oh, we have time; he's probably only just arriving there now. If we leave today, we should be far enough away by the time they get back." Phillip stumbled back over to the bar to get another drink. If he had to leave this lush life behind then he wanted to do it in style. Who knew when he would live like this again? Ah, well, that's life. He had spent time in the gutter and he had spent time in a mansion.
Melissa was beyond the capacity to reason or argue with her father. She stomped over to the bar and with one swipe of her arm; she brushed the entire contents onto the floor, causing Phillip to start yelling and slurring curses at her. "What do you mean 'he's arriving their now'? Who is arriving where? What are you talking about old man?"
"It's that uppity solicitor. He was here a few of days ago, insisting on seeing Eirin. I had to tell him that she was with that Lord. Didn't tell him the whole story, but he'll learn it when he gets there for sure. He said he was going to fetch her back." Phillip looked longingly down at the shattered glass and spilled liquor scattered across the floor.
Melissa slowly walked back to the sofa and slumped down on it. "Phillip, we don't have a day. We don't have any time at all. This is much worse than I imagined. We've made a mess of it. We need to leave now, I just left Lord Hawthorn's castle, and I'm sure they have already started following me. If we do not leave now, we will both be jailed and maybe hanged."
Melissa began to shake at the thought that she might have to go to jail. She wouldn't mind Phillip going to jail; he was cut out for it. She on the other hand was not. While she may not have been a well-bred young lady, she was none the less a good girl, and she knew she wouldn't make it in jail. She wished she could just leave without Phillip, but she really needed him.
Two months ago, she might have been able to make it on her own; now she had a child in her and before long it would start to show. No one would take on a mistress carrying someone else's bastard in their belly. Foolish her, she thought. She should have insisted he accept her as his mistress. He just felt so good; she had never had the will to deny him. If he had been her protector instead of just her bedtime partner, she wouldn't be in this situation. It was his fault. If he had been a true gentleman he would have offered her his protection from the beginning.
Melissa looked up as Phillip loomed over her. His face was red and his eyes were cloudy, but his mouth was pulled tight and his hands were fisted. He was drunk and now he was angry, never a good combination. "What do you mean you just came back from Lord Hawthorn's castle? What would you have to do there? How can you be caught there?" Spittle flew from his lips as he tried to get the words out.
Melissa cowered back on the sofa, realizing that she had no escape from him. "I had to go, I have to have money. I can't stay here, I'm in trouble. You wouldn't get any money; the solicitor wouldn't give us any. What was I supposed to do? All you do is drink and play with women, I needed help! We wouldn't be in this situation if you had killed her like I told you to. This is all your fault!"
Melissa was still cowering on the sofa, but slowly she had begun yelling at Phillip as she remembered that it was his fault they didn't have any money.
"What did you tell them?"
"I told them the truth, you killed her father, and she's an ungrateful bitch who couldn't look to anyone but herself. If you had thought more you would have married her. Then we could have had all the money, but no, you couldn't do that. 'I don't do virgins Lissy, they ain't no fun. Why would I marry her when I get her money for free?' That's what you said. Look at us now; we have no money and no way to escape. Kill her, marry her, anything, but no, you are a worthless failure, I don't know why I have stayed with you!"
Melissa began pushing at Phillip to move him back so she could get up. She was furious with him and his ineptitude, and she wasn't going to stay here and let him drag her down again. She shouldn't have come back here at all. She was smarter than him, and she would make it on her own. That was the last thought she had before the left side of her face exploded in a flash of light and pain and her head snapped back to bounce off the back of the sofa.
Phillip did not wait for Melissa to recover as he pulled his left fist back and hit the right side of her head, directly on her ear. He continued hitting her as blood welled out of her right ear and from her split lip. He felt her lose a couple of teeth with one of his hits and split the skin above her left eye with another. Finally, Phillip stopped and looked down at his daughter. She had lost consciousness and was slumped on the sofa. Her hands were bloodied as well so that he assumed she had tried to protect herself, though he couldn't remember her doing so.
He looked around, realizing what he had done and started to panic. She had told them he had killed Lord Somers. He couldn't stay here. He rushed from the house, not even stopping to grab anything to sell for money.
