Hannah Howell Read Online Free PDF

truth. “If he is so willing to grab at this chance, then ye canna truly claim ye were safe there. He was obviously thinking about it, might even have tried to kill you a few times ere now. Ye simply failed to see it.”
    Tess opened her mouth to snarl an answer, then snapped it shut. She felt her anger slowly slip away. The logic of Revan’s words could not be fought, especially since their validity had already been proved. Sighing, she refilled her battered tin cup with watered-down wine.
    “I saw it. Well, I saw it clearly only yesterday.”
    “So, he has tried to kill you?” He found her abrupt change in mood a little unsettling but was glad to see those huge brown eyes grow soft again.
    “Aye, he has. I thought they were accidents, although something about them made me uneasy at the time. I pushed such thoughts aside. After all, he is my uncle. Blood family. I can think of three times he may have been—well, probably was—behind what happened. He saw a chance and grasped it.”
    “ ’Tis quite possible. Do ye have other family?”
    “More than most would want. Why?”
    “How can your uncle think he will get what wealth ye have? Have ye willed it to him?”
    “Nay, never. ’Twas my mother’s, put aside by her father and added to by mine. Her father wanted her to have some of her own money. Grandfather Thurkettle never ceased to think of it as ‘when’ not ‘if ’ she left my father. The money and land was to come to me next. She died and Grandfather Thurkettle controlled it, then he died—”
    “And Thurkettle took control.”
    “Aye, I fear so. He ruled it until my eighteenth birthday.”
    “What happens then?”
    “ ’Tis all mine. Only two short days ago my uncle no longer held the reins.”
    “Two days—” He stared at her in shock. “Ye are eighteen?”
    The total disbelief in his voice struck her as somewhat insulting. “Aye, I am eighteen. How old did ye think I was?” Even as she asked the question, she was not sure she wanted to know the answer.
    “Your clothes . . .” He waved his hand to indicate her baggy male attire. “I thought ye but a girlchild playing about or the like. Why, in God’s good name, is a lass of your years wearing a man’s clothes?”
    The rather disgusted look in his blue-gray eyes stung. “I was mucking about in the stables, Sir Halyard, doing various other chores that are apt to make one just a wee bit dirty. I have but two gowns. One plain and one a wee bit less plain. I canna afford to ruin them.”
    Suddenly she was painfully conscious of her shabby attire. He was such a beautiful man, and she looked like some ragamuffin. Then she stiffened with pride. After all, he had given her no warning that she was about to take a trip with a gentleman. She could hardly be expected to appear at her best on the off chance that some beautiful man would get chained up in her uncle’s dungeon, then drag her off into the night.
    Revan knew that he had insulted her, and he almost apologized. Then he recalled what she had just said, and his thoughts were quickly diverted.
    “Why only two gowns? What about that money?”
    “I told you—my uncle held the purse strings.”
    “Aye, but from the little I ken of such matters, he would be allowed to draw expenses from the fund, coin he would need to house, clothe, and educate you, or the like. Did he have complete control?”
    “Nay. There are two lawyers as well who try to keep an eye on it. He would have to tell them if he needed to have some coin and why. Grandfather Thurkettle didna fully trust his son, and there are some restraints upon my uncle. I suppose Uncle felt it was too much to bother with.” Even as she said it, she doubted the truth of that.
    Before she averted her gaze, Revan read her sudden doubt in the expression on her face. He bit back the words he had been about to say. There was no doubt in his mind that Thurkettle would have bled her inheritance of every penny he could. If he was allowed expenses,