Boyett-Compo, Charlotte - WindTales 02 Read Online Free PDF Page A

brother's treasured
    books—the only things the taxman had allowed him to take from the estate when they had been
    summarily evicted from their ancestral home—on the desk, and began to hum softly to herself. It was an
    old tune: The Prince's Lost Lady. The song was a sad ballad and it swept the smile from her face and she
    stopped humming, swinging her head around to see him watching her again.
    “I know you've been watching me,” she told him. She stopped her dusting, folded her arms over her
    chest, and turned to face the bunk. “You might as well stop trying to pretend you're asleep."
    A flicker of a smile touched the still lips and the blue-black eyes opened slowly, lifted, and merged with
    Genny's.
    “Good morn!” the impish girl grumbled, nodding once quickly at her companion, and then unfolded her
    arms, turned back to her dusting. “Don't feel as though you have to answer!"
    He would have if he could, if only to take the anger from her soft voice, but he couldn't make himself
    speak. When the man called Patrick had come to question him, he could do no more than shake his head
    at the gentle interrogation.
    “When you're ready,” Patrick had said. “We won't rush you."
    And no one had; but this young woman, this beautiful, sensuous young woman, had been trying her best
    to wear him down with her teasing smile and easy banter. Now, her tactics were beginning to change: she
    was adding a touch of hurt feelings to her repertoire. He saw her glance around at him and frown.
    “You can talk, can't you?"
    He nodded.
    A light of triumph lit her pretty face. “But you just don't want to, is that it?"
    He looked down at the covers. He shook his head.
    Genny threw her hands into the air. “I give up with you!” she said with a hard sigh.
    She couldn't read his expression, she was not all that accustomed to the many ways in that men looked
    at women, but she thought she detected a hint of hurt in his sunburned face. “Or is it just that you still
    don't trust us?"
    “Leave the man alone, Genevieve."
    Genny turned to see her brother standing in the doorway, a cup of steaming brew in his hand.
    “I was only trying to...” Genny started to say, but her brother waved away her explanation.
    “My sister,” Weir announced as he came into the cabin and hooked a foot under the low stool beside
    the bunk, “is an expert at annoying people.” He pulled the stool toward him and then sat down, extended
    the cup toward the silent man on the bunk. “Just ignore her and she'll eventually go away.” He glanced at
    his sister, smiled at her look of pique. “Go bother Paddy, Genevieve,” he ordered as he settled the china
    cup in the man's hand.
    “Well, at least he wants my company!” she sniffed, flouncing for the door.
    “Don't be so sure,” Weir warned, winking at the convalescing man. He thought he detected just a hint of
    an answering grin deep in the wounded eyes looking up at him.
    “Women,” he whispered as Genny slammed the cabin door shut behind her departure. He leaned
    toward the other man and grinned. “You can't live with them; you can't live without them; you can't sell
    them to the highest bidder, eh?” He laughed. “Unless you're a Hasdu!"
    The man on the cot looked down at the steaming cup.
    Weir understood. He and Paddy thought somewhere along the line someone close to this man had hurt
    him very badly; it was evident in the lack of trust he was exhibiting despite everyone's effort at putting him
    at ease, at assuring him he was safe.
    “She hurt you pretty bad, didn't she?"
    The remarkable blue stare shifted in surprise to Weir.
    Weir smiled gently. “It's a man's curse, sometimes: trusting a woman. Were you lovers?"
    There was a slow nod.
    “And she betrayed you?"
    Another slow nod for reply.
    “I'm sorry."
    There was a slight shrug.
    Weir didn't know what else to say. So far, this was the most they'd gotten out of him. No words as yet,
    but at least some questions had been answered. He