After Midnight Read Online Free PDF Page B

lips. No one had ever called her lovely before. He had taken her completely off guard. These type of encounters were supposed to take place at night, in romantic gardens, shadowed hallways, not in mid-morning in a library stacked with books.
    She swallowed. She didn't know what she would do if he tried to kiss her.
    God help her, she might kiss him back.
    Gordon held her gaze so long that she thought for sure he would kiss her. Then he glanced away and the spell was broken. "Would you like to see the Gutenberg?"
    Suddenly she felt foolish. She must have imagined more than had actually occurred. Of course Gordon hadn't intended to kiss her. She was acting as flighty as Ruth. "Oh, yes, yes, I would. I'll get right to work on it."
    He halted at the doorway to allow her to pass. "I didn't mean that ye must get straight to work. You have the entire month. I want ye to enjoy yourself at Fraser

Castle. I only meant that ye might like to see it. It truly is remarkable. It's above in a storage room." He shrugged. "More books than space."
    She passed him, but then waited for him to join her at her side. The romantic moment had passed, and they were once again just colleagues. As they talked on their way down the corridor and up the grand stairs, Emily relaxed. This type of relationship she could handle. So what if Gordon thought himself a vampire? Was that really any stranger than the man with the dogs in the Louis XIV chairs?
     
    "Fisherman, you say?" Ruth perched on the large oak worktable in the center of the cozy kitchen. She sat on her hands, swinging her legs as she chatted with Angus.
    Ruth had originally come to the kitchen seeking Igor out of boredom. Emily and the vampire were so busy with the Gutenberg and each other that they'd barely acknowledged her presence in the dining room, where Emily had laid out the tools of her trade. Besides, the ink made Ruth sneeze. But now that she was here, she found she was actually enjoying the Scot's company. And he was a fine-looking man, in a hulking, au natural sort of way.
    "Aye." Angus shook his head as he peeled an onion. He had removed his black coat and wore an apron over his linen shirt. "My whole family have been fishermen for as long as we've hated Englishmen. 'Tis what our men do."
    "Then why did you come here? I mean that Gordon Fraser, he's nice enough, but you have to admit, he's a little strange, living in self-imposed exile on this island and telling everyone he's a vampire."
    Angus placed the onion on the table and split it in half with a small cleaver. "I had no choice," he said in his thick Scottish brogue. "My father wanted me tae be a fisherman like him and his father before him, but I couldna fish. I was an embarrassment tae my clan. A MacReed who couldna fish."
    Ruth watched as he cut the onion into tiny slivers, as fascinated by his voice as his tale. "Oh, I understand what it is to be a disappointment to your father. Mine wanted me to marry his partner, but he's just not the man for me." She snatched a cube of raw potato from one of the piles he'd made on the work table. "Why couldn't you fish, Ig… Angus?"
    He sniffed and continued to dice the onion. "I am ashamed tae tell ye, lass, but I get deathly ill at sea."
    Ruth's eyes widened. "A fisherman's son who gets seasick?"
    With the back of one meaty hand, he wiped at the tears that gathered in the corners of his eyes. "Aye. I tried. The sweet Virgin knows I tried, but I couldna. Whilst my father and brothers brought in the nets, I knelt with my head hung over the side." He sniffed again loudly.
    Ruth dug into her sleeve and produced a fresh white hanky.
    Angus set down his cleaver and accepted the lacy bit of fabric. "I had no choice but tae take the master's position as manservant." He dabbed at his eyes.
    Ruth felt her throat tighten. "Oh, Angus, that's such a sad story."
    He hung his head, blotting his nose with her hanky.
    "Aye. 'Tis, indeed. What kind of a man am I that I must find work in a