A Secret Kiss

by Alexia Praks

  Chapter 7

  Princeton Brothers & the Wood Nymph

  The brothers loved it. They absolutely loved the roast pork—and of course none of them choked. Tristan, Logan, and Hayden couldn’t help chomping down the delicious, soft morsel and then grabbed for more.

  “There’s still dessert,” Mary said from across the table, smiling.

  “You’ll have to visit home more often to get a proper feed, boys,” Molly, their grandmother, said.

  Hayden nodded his head, his mouth full.

  “Or we could just take Beth with us.” Darcy suggested.

  James and Brenda glanced at each other, and Dale, the brothers’ grandfather, laughed.

  Beth cleared her throat and said, “Unfortunately, Master Darcy, I still wouldn’t be able to cook you such nice roast because I wasn’t the one who prepared that roast. Although, I sort of did, since the person responsible happened to be sick all of a sudden. But that was only via specific instructions.”

  “New chef, then?” Conrad put in. “Finally, we have decent food to eat. Not that yours isn’t that good, Beth. Your baking is the best in the world. I especially love your chocolate brownies.”

  “Understandable, Master Conrad,” Beth replied, hiding a smile.

  “That roast pork was meant for Dale and Molly,” Brenda said.

  “Prepared by one of my favorite girls,” Molly added.

  “Who unfortunately couldn’t join us,” James muttered, frowning.

  “Is she unwell?” Dale asked.

  “Headache,” Brenda said. “She’ll be fine.”

  James’s frown darkened. “Standard coffee again, I suppose, Beth?” he asked the housekeeper.

  “I’m afraid so, Mr. Princeton,” Beth replied.

  James sighed in resignation at the answer. Sebastian and Nicolas glanced at each other, wondering who this new chef was and why their father was so against standard coffee.

  James, on the other hand, blamed his seven sons for showing up three days early. If it weren’t for them, he would be having his delicious coffee after dinner. He knew exactly why his adopted daughter Sakura refused to come down. It was because of his sons. He knew she’d never felt comfortable around them, and the brothers had never really acknowledged her as their sister as they had with Alaina and Tara. At first, he was afraid his judgment had been wrong, that he’d adopted a criminal into his house. But after months of trying with his gentle words and kind smile, little Sakura had come out of her shell one rainy night after she’d screamed in her sleep. Sebastian had alerted him, and he rushed to her bedroom to find her whimpering in the corner of the closet. It still broke his heart even now to think about that night.

  “Do you really love me?” she had asked him, tears in her eyes.

  Gently, he had drawn her into his arms and hugged her tight. “Of course I do,” he said. “With all my heart.”

  She had looked up at him, her small lips quivering. As if he’d said the golden word itself, she’d tightened her small arms around him and cried her wee heart out. “Then you must only love me in secret,” she said. “Please love them more. My new brothers and sisters, I mean. I do not want to see them get hurt because of me. I love you. You won’t kick me out, will you? Please, I didn’t burn the orphanage down. I really didn’t. I didn’t kill Mrs. Byrd. I really didn’t.”

  “I know. I know,” he’d said, rocking her in his arms. “I won’t let you go. You’re my daughter now.”

  “Thank you,” she sobbed.

  It had been much later when he found out the meaning of Sakura’s words. His own children, Tara included, had been treating Sakura unfairly. The little girl believed that if he and Brenda didn’t show any sign of love toward her, then her new brothers and sisters wouldn’t hurt her. Of course, James would never tolerate such malicious behavior from his children and had taken the bull by the horns by setting them straight and telling them he wouldn’t take such nonsense from them and was indeed very disappointed. They were the Princetons, after all, and should set good examples to the public.

  James had known his sons were smart, and true to his thinking, by the end of the month, he’d decided the lesson was very effective indeed. Perhaps it had been too effective because the boys began to ignore Sakura completely, to the point that she no longer existed in their lives.

  James put down his knife and fork, knowing very well he’d have to talk with Sakura later tonight. After all, she couldn’t very well hide away in her room for the next few weeks when everyone was here preparing for Mary’s wedding.

  He turned his attention to his sons, eyeing them from one to another. They were all enjoying their meal to the max, and of course, he wasn’t at all surprised they didn’t pay any attention as to who had been responsible for preparing their meal.

  After the dinner, they retired to the drawing room where Beth served them standard coffee and tea. James looked as though he was about to balk as Beth gave him a cup, and the brothers wanted to laugh.

  “It’s not half-bad,” Hayden said, taking a sip.

  “I too was looking forward to the coffee,” Dale commented, and Molly shook her head.

  It was a bit later that the brothers decided they needed a walk to work off their big meal and headed out to the pond to the north of the house near the woods. It was amazingly beautiful as the brothers took in the scenery. The pond was surrounded by cherry, magnolia, and other trees native to the island. The moon was high above on the horizon, reflecting on the glassy water. The air was warm and breezy, and now and again, native life stirred in the distance.

  “I forgot how quiet and peaceful it is here,” Darcy said softly, gazing up at the moon. He realized then that this was the place he wanted to be, the place he belonged. Yes, he needed peace and quiet. He needed solitude.

  Nicolas remarked. “Beautiful scenery. I can’t believe it’s in our backyard.”

  “Dad must have hired a new gardener,” Logan said. “As well as a new chef.”

  “That was the best meal ever!” Conrad shouted out into the night, stretching his arms out as if he were on top of the world.

  “You always eat too much,” Tristan commented, gazing off at the night stars above.

  “Speak for yourself.” Logan chuckled.

  “Speaking of which…,” Nicolas said suddenly. “Alaina and Tara haven’t arrived yet.” There was a note of concern in his voice that the brothers couldn’t miss.

  “Probably enjoying their time in town,” Logan said. “Not that there’s much in town here.”

  “Should probably shoot them a text or something.” Sebastian suggested.

  “Yeah,” Nicolas said and pulled out his phone.

  Logan came up and hooked his arm around Tristan’s neck. “So what happened to your girlfriend?”

  Tristan frowned at his brother and naturally told him to bugger off.

  “Come on,” Logan egged his brother on. “I’m your brother and best friend.”

  Tristan couldn’t deny that Logan was his brother as well as his best friend and therefore felt it only right he tell him what had happened. “We broke up.”

  “Is that why you chose to crash at my apartment and drink yourself stupid? To celebrate your single life again?” Sebastian asked none too gently.

  Tristan managed to look rather sorry for what he’d done. “Yeah. Really sorry about those paintings, bro.”

  Sebastian just shook his head since he didn’t have anything else to say.

  “She was hot,” Logan said.

  “She was too clingy,” Tristan muttered.

  “So… about that girl today,” Conrad blurted out.

  The brothers knew instantly whom he was talking about. It was hard to get the image of the young woman out of their minds, for God’s sake. Especially for Sebastian and Darcy since they’d been the ones who had the most interaction with her.

  “Hey, did you hear that?” Sebastian asked.

  “What?” Nicolas queried.

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nbsp; “Listen.”

  The brothers went quiet, and then they heard it. It was a dog barking, and it was getting closer. They searched around them, and then out of the blue a little West Highland white terrier appeared.

  The dog ran up to the men’s feet and stopped. He dropped something onto the ground, stood on his hind legs, and stuck his tongue out at Logan.

  Logan crouched down and stroked the dog’s head. “Isn’t that…”

  He didn’t have to finish the sentence because they all knew what he meant, and instantly they circled around Toby, who seemed to be enjoying being the center of attention.

  Nicolas picked him up and chuckled. “What are you doing here at this time of the night?”

  “If he’s here…,” Conrad said.

  “Then his owner…” Tristan continued the sentence. On cue, the musical voice they expected to hear came.

  “Toby? Toby? Where are you? Come out now. You’re grounded, mister!”

  They waited expectedly for the owner of the dog to appear, but they didn’t expect her to appear like that.

  She was dressed in a lacy pink nightdress—flimsy and short—showing off her very fine figure. With her tresses down and wet and her feet bare, she looked like some sort of wood nymph that they happened upon in the night.

  The brothers couldn’t stop staring at her.

  Sakura didn’t expect her dog to be surrounded by seven men in the middle of the night and in the woods near the house too. She was too shocked to say anything. In fact, she was too shocked to do anything. Then, when she was aware they were staring at her and she was in a near-naked state, she hastily turned on her heel, intending to rush back. But because she was confused, shocked, nervous, and totally out of her wits, she stumbled and fell flat on her face.

  The brothers—except for Darcy—acted in accordance to their manly behavior. They rushed to save the damsel in distress. Since Sebastian was the closest to her, he got there first. He pulled her into his arms and asked her if she was all right. Sakura, however, was too shocked to reply. Logan helped her legs out of the vines, finally allowing Sebastian to lift her up.

  Sakura wanted to die rather than live through the humiliation of all seven brothers seeing her in such a state. Sebastian laid her down and Toby rushed to her, barking loudly.

  “I’m fine, Toby. I’m fine,” she said. Then she glanced up at Sebastian, who looked rather concerned about her well-being. She turned to Nicolas.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “How did you get here?” Logan queried.

  Darcy stood rigid, watching the scene before him, his heart thumping too hard for his liking. He bloody well didn’t like the fact that his brothers were showing too much concern and interest in the girl before them. He had the urge to barge in, scoop her up in his arms, and take her far away. It was a stupid notion, of course, and Darcy had never been stupid.

  Sakura, on the other side, felt her heart beating way too fast for her liking to be surrounded by the brothers again. She hugged Toby even tighter against her chest and bit her lip. Oh God! She needed to get out of here. Now!

  She hastily got up and said, “Thanks for finding my dog,” and ran back the way she came.

  They watched her go, unable to hide their disappointment.

  “We didn’t ask for her name,” Conrad said.

  “How did she get here wearing that?” Hayden asked no one in particular.

  “She lives in the cottage just down the road, remember?” Nicolas reasoned. “Otherwise, she wouldn’t be wearing…” He left the sentence unfinished because, to be honest, he couldn’t come up with an explanation himself.

  The brothers decided they’d had enough for the day and started to wander back to the house. Conrad picked up the thing Toby had dropped and found it was a memory stick.

  “I think this belongs to her,” he said to his brothers.

  “We’ll have to give it back,” Sebastian suggested.

  “Yeah.” Conrad nodded, smiling broadly.