Folly's Reward Read Online Free PDF

deliberate concealment, Prudence couldn’t say.
    “Now that’s another question for another time, don’t you think? Like Tantalus, I’m starving, Miss Drake. Allow me to escort you to breakfast.”
    * * *
    The mist did not entirely burn off until the next week, when bright sunshine at last streamed unhindered into the courtyard. Prudence sat by the nursery fire mending clothes as Bobby played with a pile of blocks. She couldn’t stop thinking about Hal. There seemed to be nothing she could do about Bobby’s affection for the man. And her hostility to this disturbingly handsome stranger only resulted in Hal’s teasing her even more unmercifully.
    So she had avoided him, and done her best to keep Bobby out of his way.
    For an entire week.
    Yet for an entire week, she had not been able to stop thinking about him. Every day she would hear his laughter and the ring of his boots. His eyes watched her at every mealtime, even though she kept her gaze firmly on her plate. And she had dreamed about him again—every night for a week.
    It seemed like an unpardonable treachery to herself, and filled her with fury.
    When she stepped out into the yard first thing the next morning, she found him sitting on the mounting block, the sun sparkling on his dark hair. Very much at ease, his long legs stretched before him, Hal wore one of Mr. MacEwen’s old coats. He was vigorously polishing his boots.
    Prudence tried to ignore him, but as she walked past he looked up and laughed.
    “‘And is not my hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench?’ / ‘As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle—?’”
    Which was Prince Hal and Falstaff, wasn’t it? All those evenings spent reading aloud with her father and the other children around the fire came flooding back. She stopped and turned to face him.
    “I do not mean to be inhospitable—”
    “It doesn’t matter,” he said, rubbing hard at the salt stains. “I don’t blame you. I asked for honest emotions, so I can hardly complain if that’s what I’m getting. Yet Drake isn’t generally a Scottish surname. Are you, too, hiding behind a name that may not be your own?”
    “My father came from Devon to study medicine in Edinburgh. He met my mother there, married her, and stayed in Scotland. There’s no mystery about it.”
    “Which says nothing as to why you’re so afraid.”
    The cold breeze chilled her face. “I’m not—”
    “Yes, you are. I know fear when I see it. You’re afraid for Bobby, and not just because he’s so recently orphaned. But if you are indeed hiding here, you’re being very foolish, angel.”
    Panic beat beneath her bodice. “What has Bobby told you?”
    “Nothing to concern you, not even who he really is, for I haven’t asked.” His blue gaze seemed sincere, even indignant. “I would not steal secrets from a child.”
    “We’re here for a little holiday, that’s all.” She hated to lie to him, but how could she risk the truth? “We’re not hiding, though I think perhaps you are. Have you recalled anything more about yourself?”
    Hal closed his eyes for a moment. “Shadows,” he said. “Dreams. Little that makes sense. Your name is English, but you have lived your life in Scotland. I have no name, but—”
    “But what?” she asked.
    He thrust on his boots and leapt lightly to his feet. “But I know this: I’m not used to cleaning my own footwear. And I’m certain that I’ve never been this far north in my life.”
    “How can you be sure?”
    “Who could forget this place?” He glanced away at the peaks rising behind the Manse. “A landscape that sinks so deeply into the soul? There’s nothing tame here, nothing easy, nothing familiar. I am more swallowed up by these mountains than any seal swimming the far ocean.”
    “You must have been going somewhere in Scotland,” Prudence said desperately. “Surely it was only chance that brought you here?”
    “Maybe, maybe not.” His blue gaze seemed seductively open, even