Always in My Dreams Read Online Free PDF

short order he had the man securely trussed, his hands behind his back and one of his own gloves stuffed in his mouth.
    Skye couldn't say why she was still standing around, except perhaps because it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her. It was practice of sorts, she supposed, for being an adventuress.
    Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Yellow Cap was stirring. She started to call out a warning, then realized it was unnecessary. Once again the stranger seemed to have anticipated trouble. He turned on his haunches, saw Yellow Cap's struggle, and neatly clipped him on the chin with his fist. Yellow Cap's jaw cracked and his head struck the frozen ground with a thud. Skye winced.
    "So you can fight with your fists," she said when she'd recovered her voice. "Just like a Dublin street brawler."
    The stranger merely shrugged and began tying up Yellow Cap. When he was done, he dragged the unconscious man toward Skye's hiding place.
    She retreated quickly. "What are you doing?" she demanded. She wished her voice could have shown more anger and less fear.
    "I'm moving him off the path," he said calmly. Even the exertion of dragging Yellow Cap's considerable bulk to the hiding place hadn't winded him. He came within a few feet of Skye but he didn't once turn in her direction. After leaning Yellow Cap against the rough trunk of an evergreen, he shifted his attention to Black Cap and repeated the procedure. He completed his activity by kicking up snow where it had been pressed flat from dragging the bodies. In less than a minute he had obscured the trail to the bodies.
    When he was standing on the path again, he glanced once in Skye's direction. "You'd better go before they come around and you're discovered with them."
    Skye hesitated, waiting for the stranger to move on.
    "I assure you they won't be half so gallant as I am about a lady's welfare."
    She blushed and her husky brogue deepened. "You do me credit, sir, callin' me a lady, but I'm not so fine as all that."
    The stranger was quiet a moment, considering. "Then perhaps you'd agree to go somewhere with me. There'd be money in it for you."
    "You mistook my meanin', sir; I said I wasn't so fine as a lady, but that doesn't mean I'm a whore."
    The stranger was stunned into silence, and then he chuckled quietly. "And you mistook my meaning. You could help me if—" He stopped. There was a shout of rowdy laughter somewhere along the path behind him. More than one person was part of the vocal fray. Someone called a name. A woman giggled in response. A joke was finished and there was more laughter.
    "Go on," Skye urged him when the stranger hesitated, looking in her direction. "Get out of here." She would have repeated herself, but he needed no second urging. He vanished almost in front of her eyes.
    Skye came out of her hiding place just as Daniel and his friends came upon the grove of pines.
    "Skye!" Daniel said, halting in his tracks. "I thought you'd gone home."
    "And I see you lost no time in chasing after me," she said. She glared at his friends. They didn't have the same grace as Daniel to look sheepish. Her eyes touched everyone in the crowd. Louisa Edison and Alice Hobbs were gaping at her. Thomas Newman's laughter was trapped at the back of his throat. Charlie was staring at the ground. Richard Mill and Amy Scott seemed to wish themselves elsewhere.
    Skye was suddenly fiercely angry. Angry at Louisa and Alice for staring at her as if she'd grown a third eye. Angry at Thomas for not sharing his laughter. Angry at Charlie and Richard and Amy for being embarrassed. But most of all, Skye was angry with Daniel for not supporting her. She was a lady, and she had never given them any reason to think otherwise.
    The words simply came tumbling out. "What if it had been the baby, Daniel?" she asked. "What if something had happened to the baby?"
    There was a collective gasp from Amy, Alice, and Louisa. The men were staring at Daniel, their looks registering