Entwined Read Online Free PDF

that she wanted to see how he created them.
    “Very good. Master Eamon would be most displeased should anyone invade his privacy.” The fear returned, a bit stronger now before Nan mastered her expression. She quit the room then, leaving Lu wondering just what Aidan’s silent brother was hiding in his smithy and why the housekeeper claimed devotion to a man who so clearly frightened her.
    A shuddery breath left her. What would Master Eamon do if he found out she’d been lying to his brother? Father’s words haunted her, as they had for four long years. “If ever they discover what we’ve done, it will be the prison barges for you as well as me, girl. Never think otherwise. We committed a crime, you and I. The money paid is all but gone so we can’t give it back.”
    No matter how much she wished otherwise, she didn’t have enough trust in her soul to tell Aidan the truth.
    Lu turned and looked at herself in the mirror that hung above the mantle. Her eyes were two wide, dark, glossy disks floating in an overly pale face. “I am Lu,” she said to herself, trying to make herself believe it. “I am Lu.” She clung to the thought like a raft at sea. It was the one thing that was hers, for Aidan had given her the ridiculous moniker because he’d seen the real girl hiding between the lines. Pray God, he’d love her still.

Chapter Four
    “Keep going that way and you’ll find the garden wall.”
    Lu came to a sudden halt at the sound of the deep voice. It wasn’t Aidan’s; his was a bit lighter in tone. No, this voice was warmer and tinged with more of an Irish lilt than her fiancé’s well-bred English diction.
    A note of humor colored it as the man continued, “Besides, the stables are in the other direction.”
    She turned and found Eamon Evernight sitting in the shadows with his back against a large rowan tree. The younger Evernight brother hadn’t spoken a word in the house. He’d simply eased away from conversation until he’d blended into the woodwork. A fine trick for one so large as he. But Lu had been aware of him, or his stare rather. She’d felt it linger across her neck when her back was turned and heat her checks when she’d faced his way.
    Oddly, he never outright stared, but tracked her from under his lashes. Which made it all the more unnerving that she’d known he’d been watching her.
    He watched her now as well, his gaze steady and waiting.
    “How did you know I was headed for the stables?” She’d been out of her room and headed for them as soon as the weather had cleared.
    The corners of his eyes crinkled just a touch. “I recall hearing you had an affinity for horses.” His lids lowered, a slow perusal that had her skin prickling. “Seems inevitable that you’d suss them out as soon as you could.”
    The way he spoke to her, as if to tease; she did not know why, but it roused her. Why hadn’t Aidan taunted her in this manner? She’d expected it of him, even hoped for such an exchange.
    “Oh?” she said lightly. “And what if I was merely going for a walk?”
    “Well, your muttering ‘where the bloody hell are the stables’ might have provided me with further clues.”
    She laughed. “I must say, Mr. Evernight, your powers of observation are keen. Though it wasn’t very nice of you to repeat a lady’s indiscretion to her.” Good Lord, she had been swearing like a stable hand, hadn’t she? Ladies did not do such things. She’d have to repeat that fact until she remembered. Damn it.
    A deep, slow chuckle drifted over to her. Strangely, she thought that Eamon Evernight did not laugh often. Which was a shame because it was a very nice sound.
    “I won’t think any less of you, I promise,” he said. “Especially when I have uttered a few of those words a few times myself today.”
    Shaking her head slightly, Lu stepped closer, bringing herself under the shade of the tree, and Eamon came into better focus.
    My, but he was large. His shoulders were twice the width of