Page 7 of Moon Craving

Her watching had resulted in more questions than answers. Abigail was hoping the

message from the king had been written and that she would find it here.

Before going to the Highlands to marry a laird there, her stepsister, Emily, had

once said that she would never know what was going on if she did not eavesdrop. Abigail

did not have the option of listening in on conversations, but she had her own methods of

discovering that which her mother would keep hidden.

Like reading her sister's lips from a distance.

Abigail had lost her hearing and her mother's love six years ago to a fever that had

almost taken her life. When she'd woken from the fever and her affliction was discovered,

her mother had refused to return to Abigail's sick-room. It was left to Emily, her stepsister

only a couple of years older than she, to nurse Abigail back to health.

It had taken only one visit with her mother and stepfather after Abigail was well

enough to leave her room for the girls to realize Abigail no longer held status as a

precious daughter. Indeed, Sir and Lady Hamilton did their best to pretend Abigail did not

exist at all.

Once the girls realized the effect her deafness had on their parents' affections,

they had known they could not let others know about it.

Emily had been worried Abigail would not only be rejected, but be seen as cursed.

The older girl had taken on the task of helping Abigail hide her burden from the rest of the

keep. She had worked tirelessly with Abigail, teaching her to read lips and to continue to

speak in a well-modulated voice.

Emily had been a strict taskmaster, but Abigail knew her sister's insistence on

practice to the point of exhaustion had been motivated by love. Nevertheless, there had

been times Abigail had wondered if waking from her fever had been for the best. Out of

her own love for Emily, Abigail had never given voice to her doubts.

She had not wanted to hurt the stepsister who loved her and treated her more

kindly than her blood sister ever would. Abigail missed Emily so much.

And without her there to help, Abigail's voice had dropped to what she knew was a

near whisper. Speaking was difficult enough; speaking normally was almost impossible

without Emily's constant covert instruction. It was a testament to how well Emily had