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You Promised Me Forever (The Dirty Ankle Series Book 1)

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by Lizabeth Scott




  You Promised Me Forever

  by: Lizabeth Scott

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  You Promised Me Forever Copyright © 2016 Lizabeth Scott

  All rights reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, currently known or future inventions except as may be expressly permitted in writing from LizabethScottBooks@gmail.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be resold. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it from Amazon Kindle Books then you are reading a copy not sanctioned by the author and is not allowed.

  Manuscript Evaluation – Kathy Golden

  Proofreaders – Shannon Peeples & Jean Whitesell

  Formatting – Lizabeth Scott

  Cover Design – Leah Kaye Suttle, Graphic Designer & Book Cover Artist

  *This book is intended for a mature audience only.

  Special Thanks

  Special thanks to my author friend Elizabeth Lennox for encouraging/nagging me to write that first chapter in 2013 which eventually became my first book, Sweet Surrender.

  A huge thank you to my manuscript evaluator/trailer creator/promotion nudger Kathy Golden for turning my grammarless sentences into comma perfect books and for helping me to realize what I really meant to say. Sometimes Southern just doesn’t translate.

  Thank you to my two awesome Beta Readers Shannon Peeples and Jean Whitesell. You both have been my cheerleaders and biggest Liz Scott supporters from the start.

  Thanks to all you marvelous readers for taking a chance on a new Indie author over the past few years and embracing The Royal Vow Series, The Hearts of Gold Series and The Dirty Ankle Series. Because of you I get to have fun everyday bringing stories and characters to life on the pages of your ebooks. Stay tuned, with God willing and the creek don’t rise, there’s much more to come!

  xoxo

  Liz

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  Table of Contents

  You Promised Me Forever

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  EPILOGUE

  MAY I SUGGEST…

  SWEET DESTINY CHAPTER ONE

  CONNECT WITH LIZ!

  CHAPTER ONE

  Nicolette Mary-Margaret Montgomery peered longingly over the hedge that ran along the back veranda of her grandparents’ house. From her higher elevation she could see the boy next door as he played fetch with his dog. She smiled when the dog ran with the yellow tennis ball and the boy took off in pursuit. A giggle worked its way out when the dog ran back to the boy and they both rolled on the grass.

  “Nicole! Come away from there and stop looking at that uncouth boy next door.”

  “Yes, Grandmother.” Nicole gave the happy scene one last lingering glance before she joined her grandparents at the tea table set outside on the veranda. Her grandfather winked at her and she smiled back. She tucked her white dress under her as she sat in the wicker chair, smoothed the front and sides, making sure there were no wrinkles and that her dress covered her knees. Once satisfied that no transgressions could be found, she cupped her gloved hands, palms up, and gently settled them on her lap.

  “Feet, Nicole,” her grandmother reprimanded, as she reached for one of her fine porcelain cabbage-rose tea cups and began to pour perfectly steeped tea into the dainty cup.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Nicole crossed her ankles, put her knees together, tucked them under her, and tilted them properly to the right.

  “Posture, Nicole. How many times must I remind you, dear? A proper lady never slouches,” her grandmother prompted.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Nicole imagined a string coming out of the top of her head, pulling her straight towards the ceiling and corrected her appalling posture.

  Nicole sat primly as her grandmother discussed the weather with grandfather as she served their tea and placed tiny cucumber sandwiches on each cabbage-rose dessert plate. With a slight nod from her grandmother, Nicole removed her gloves, laid them across one knee, opened her napkin, placed it gently across her lap and then began to nibble on her cucumber sandwich. Nicole liked eating outside on the veranda; it almost seemed like picnics she’d read about in books.

  She knew she should keep up with her grandparents’ conversation, should she be asked to interject, but her mind and eyes kept straying to the boy next door. The conversation had moved to politics, and Nicole couldn’t keep up anyway. The boy next door had been joined by his two brothers; the brothers never interested her much, only the light brown-haired boy who looked to be a little older than her age. The other boys looked younger. All three were throwing the tennis ball between them with their dog barking and jumping to try and catch it. They were much too far away to hear. Nicole wondered what the dog’s name was.

  Tilting her head sideways, a memory flittered through her mind. She’d had a dog once when her parents were still alive. She tried really hard, but she couldn’t remember the dog’s name. She’d been four when her parents were killed in a terrible plane crash and she came to live with her grandparents. Her grandmother said the dog was filthy and a carrier of disease. Nicole never knew what had happened to the dog. One day he just disappeared and was never spoken of again. She knew better than to ask.

  Nicole finished her sandwich in the appropriate thirty nibbles and reached for another on the three-tiered serving dish. She jerked her hand back sharply when her grandmother rapped her knuckles. “One sandwich, dear. We don’t want to become portly, now do we?” Her grandmother looked at her with disapproval.

  “No, ma’am.” Nicole sat quietly until her grandmother excused her from the table and directed her to read quietly in her room. She stood and pushed her chair in. Her grandfather secretly slipped a peppermint into her hand and winked as she walked by. She looked over her shoulder as she went in the back screen door and found the boy’s backyard empty. She was a little sad she wouldn’t be able to watch him play from her bedroom window.

  Nicole hoped he’d come out again after dinner. The boy, she knew from watching for the past four years, didn’t follow a schedule, but he usually came back outside to play after dinner until his mother called him in.
That was the time that Nicole loved the most. On very warm days Grandmother would allow her to open her bedroom window and she would listen for the boy’s mother to call him inside to take a bath and to get ready for bed. Nicole could just imagine the mother reading the boy a story and tucking him into bed like in her story books. She couldn’t remember her own mother or father reading to her, but she liked to believe that they had.

  Once in her room, Nicole chose her favorite leather bound book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and sat on the edge of the Queen Anne chair and adjusted her dress, legs and posture. Satisfied she was exhibiting proper deportment, she opened to the first page and soon lost herself in the story. Occasionally she’d raise her head and listen for her boy next door. Hearing nothing, she dove back into the world of Alice.

  ***

  Nicole counted her steps. Each morning she was required to take in the morning air while strengthening her constitution by walking in the backyard. Two hundred steps down the hedge on the left, three hundred and sixty-seven steps across the back and two hundred and ten steps up the right-side hedge. Then she would turn around and begin her counting all over again until her grandmother called her in.

  On the third lap she heard a rustling noise in the hedge. Then on her one hundred and fifteenth step, a head poked out of the hedge, stopping her in her tracks. A head with a mop of shaggy brown hair that kept falling in its owner’s eyes popped through. Nicole giggled as he tried to blow his hair away from his face, not even bothering to use a comb or to even run his fingers through it to keep it out of the way. His eyes were dancing with mischief and were so blue they gave her shivers.

  “Hey. What’re you doing?”

  Nicole eyed “her boy” from next door. “I’m taking my morning constitutional.” She’d never heard his voice and thought he sounded rather childish.

  “Con-sti what?” The boy started to crawl out of the hedge, but Nicole stopped him by pushing on his shoulders with her hands.

  “No, please…stay back. We have not been properly introduced, and my grandmother would not approve.” Nicole glanced anxiously towards the house, glad she didn’t see her grandparents at the windows. She knew it was wrong to speak with the boy, but she desired more than anything for just a few moments with him.

  “You talk funny.” The boy looked her up and down. “And you dress funny too.”

  Nicole ran her hands down her white cotton split-skirt and tunic, confused about why he thought her walking costume was humorous. Every inch of skin was covered except her hands and face. “I can assure you I speak the same as my grandmother and grandfather. Perhaps you are the one that speaks differently. And there is nothing wrong with my garments.”

  “See, nobody I know says things like that. What’s your name, girl?”

  Nicole again glanced toward the house, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, a habit her grandmother detested. “I don’t know if it is proper to be on a first name basis with someone I just met.”

  “I’m William Marcus Harrison, but everybody calls me Will. So, now we’ve been introduced, and you can tell me your name.”

  “It is a pleasure to meet you, William.” Nicole offered her hand to William, paused, and then dropped it again when he appeared disinclined to shake her hand. “My name is Nicolette Mary-Margaret Montgomery.”

  “That name’s a mouthful. How old are you, Nic?” William dropped to his knees and began digging in the dirt at the base of the hedge.

  “Nicole,” she corrected, and cringed when his khaki shorts touched the ground, grinding dirt into the knees. “And it’s not polite to ask a lady her age, but I will tell you anyway, William. I’m eight years old.” Nicole was fascinated with his earnest digging. He seemed not to mind the dirt on his hands or under his fingernails. Grandmother would have one of her spells if Nicole came in with dirt on her hands.

  “That’s why you’re so little. You’re just a baby. I’m ten. I’ll be eleven in eight months and two weeks.” William dug up a clump and tossed it behind him. Sprinkles of dirt rained on him.

  Nicole frowned at his dirty shirt and stuck her little chin up defiantly. “I am not small. My grandmother is forever reminding me to watch my weight.” Nicole looked back towards the house. She knew her time was almost up. “Please, you must go William before my grandmother comes.”

  “Can I talk to you tomorrow?” Will looked up, waiting on her answer. “You’re not as stupid as other girls I know. I wouldn’t mind talking with you again.” William stood and brushed his dirty hands on his shirt and shorts.

  Nicole gasped, her eyes widening with horror as the stains on his clothing grew. “Are you going to be in trouble?”

  “In trouble?” Will scratched his head in puzzlement, getting his hair dirty in the process. “For sneaking through the hedge? I don’t see why I would be. I didn’t hurt it or anything.”

  “No, William.” Nicole shook her head and pointed to his shirt and shorts. “Because of the dirt. Will you be sent to bed without dinner, or will you have to pray for an hour for forgiveness?”

  Will had to stop and think about what she’d said; she was talking funny again. “Do you think I’m gonna be in trouble ‘cause I got dirty?”

  “Yes, of course.” Nicole nodded. His parents’ punishments must be much more severe than hers, with three boys in the house. His mother would be repairing garments and removing stains constantly otherwise. Children needed to know their actions had consequences. Reprimands were the only way to learn.

  “No. I think my mom expects me to get dirty.” He shrugged his shoulders. “How else can I play if I don’t get dirty?”

  “Nicole! It’s time to come in dear,” her grandmother called from the porch.

  Nicole pushed William back into the hedge. “Go, please, go!” Nicole whispered to William before turning around and heading back to her house.

  “Okay, I’ll go, but from now on, you’re my girl.” Will was able to get out before he fell back through the hedge and landed on his butt. While he was already on the grass, he lay back and thought about his conversation with the strange girl next door. Her name was a mouthful, but he’d already gotten around that. He would call her Nic.

  She had some pretty weird ideas about getting dirty. Her folks must not let her play very much. Maybe they thought she would get hurt since she was so small. She wouldn’t be very good at football or building tree houses in the woods. She sure liked to walk though. He’d been watching her walk for a long time in her backyard. At first he thought she had been looking for something.

  His dog Max discovered him lying in the grass and came to give him slobbery kisses. Will giggled and rolled to his feet and wondered what Nic was doing now. She was a little thing and was probably not good for much of anything, but he kinda liked her. Especially, her red hair…well, it wasn’t all the way red. It was brown, but with the sun on it, it looked sparkly red. He would have to watch out for her, teach her stuff, and keep her safe. That would be his new mission, to keep Nic safe, and to teach her how to be a kid. Somebody needed to help her. Why not him?

  He would talk to her again tomorrow and tell her that he was going to help her out. She needed to learn how to play and to talk like a normal person. There was no way he could be friends with someone he couldn’t understand.

  “Come on, Max, let’s go dig worms and go fishin’.” Max must have understood. He barked in agreement and they both ran to the tool shed to get the shovel.

  ***

  The next day, Nicole hurried through her lessons and dressed in her walking costume in haste. She simply couldn’t wait another moment to see if William would talk to her again today. Grandmother had gone to the hairdresser for her weekly touchup, and Grandfather was busy at his desk in the study.

  “Grandfather.” Nicole stood outside the study waiting for permission to enter. She’d always liked the way her grandfather’s study smelled. It smelled of leather from the furniture and the many books on the shelves
, of pipe tobacco, which he kept in a box on the mantle, and a lemony smell from the wood polish Hilda used every Thursday for cleaning.

  “Yes, dear. Are you ready for your exercise?”

  Nicole smiled when her grandfather looked over the top of his spectacles at her. It made him appear as if he had four eyes. “Yes, sir. If I may.”

  “Of course, dear.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Nicole turned to go.

  “Nicole.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Her grandfather put his pen down and rested his elbows on his desk and laced his fingers together peering at her over the tops. “Your grandmother is going to be gone a few hours. Why don’t you invite the young man from next door to step over and visit with you for a bit?”

  Nicole’s eyes grew large and her back straightened. How had her grandfather found out about the boy next door? Would he tell grandmother? Her nails began to bite into the palm of her hands and she blinked quickly to banish the tears forming in her eyes. She’d never see her boy again.

  Wait…Grandfather said to invite him over? Nicole shifted her eyes towards her grandfather and visibly relaxed. His eyes were happy and he smiled at her as if he understood about William.

  He leaned back in his chair and the leather creaked, but he never stopped smiling. “I see no reason why you and the young man can’t be friends on occasion.”

  “But...”

  “And I also see no reason your grandmother needs to know. Now hurry up. I heard the school bus earlier. He should be about ready to charge through his backdoor.”

  “Thank you, Grandfather!” Nicole called, as she ran to the back veranda.

  Nicole flew down the veranda stairs and out to the backyard. She’d almost made it to the exact spot she saw William yesterday when once again his sandy mop of hair stuck through the shrub.

  “Hey, Nic.”

  “Hello, William. It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?”

  “It’s Will. Do you wanna come see my treehouse? My brothers and I built it all by ourselves.”

 

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