Into the Woods Read Online Free PDF

the gentility. He rolled one shoulder nervously as he glanced around to see if anyone was listening. There was no one close enough to hear their words, of course.
    "It hasn't even been a full day since you came to me with your request. Patience, Mr. Harper."
    He muttered something unintelligible.
    "I do wonder if Vanessa Arrington will be susceptible to something so common as a love potion," she said casually, glancing out of the corner of her eye to gauge Harper's reaction.
    He stared sharply at her. "How do you know she's the one?"
    She really shouldn't tell him. She should keep her mouth shut and let him believe that she had unearthly powers. With a sigh, she told the truth, instead. "When I walked into town you were staring into the saloon as if you were very, very thirsty, and then when Miss Arrington appeared, you forgot all about your craving for a drink and stood there all moony eyed with your tongue hanging out and drool running down your chin."
    "I am never moony eyed," he said calmly, regaining his composure with little apparent effort. In fact, he seemed to hold his head higher and his spine straighter. Proud. Self-assured. Haughty. "My tongue was not hanging out. And I do not drool."
    "There was definitely drool," she countered with a touch of humor in her voice.
    Amazingly enough, a moment later Declan Harper smiled and shook his head. His hard face softened as he broke into an unabashed grin, his dark eyes twinkling mischievously, and she could see a hint of the boy her grandmother had known. In that moment Matilda decided she liked him. A man who could laugh at himself was rare indeed.
    "I will need several days, Mr. Harper."
    She expected him to make a quick escape, his question answered, but he stayed beside her. "Fair enough, Miss Candy. You can call me Declan, if you like." He made the offer in a rather offhand manner, but she sensed it was an important gesture.
    "All right. Declan." She liked the way the name rolled off her tongue, different and foreign and somehow tasty. "And you may call me Matilda."
    He barely withheld a smile. "So tell me, Matilda. Do you think you can find that recipe for hard molasses candy?"
    "You really want it?" she asked, genuinely surprised. "I thought that request was just a ruse to get me alone so you could ply me for information about love potions for your Miss Arrington."
    He glanced at her sharply, studying, scrutinizing. Then he softened. "No. That candy was one of my few good childhood memories of this place. Hard molasses candy and your grandmother."
    They walked a bit further, and still he didn't leave her side. He seemed quite content to walk with her, and she decided she didn't mind the company.
    "If you have no other pleasant memories of Tanglewood," she asked, "then why are you here?"
    He didn't answer the question. "All in good time, Matilda. All in good time," he said softly. "You're the only one I've told about my previous residence here. I hope you'll keep my secret."
    "Mr.—Declan," she said, "I am the keeper of all of Tanglewood's secrets. I can surely keep yours."
    He glanced at her and gave her a small smile. His eyes were so dark and deep, she had a feeling she'd never know all of his secrets. "Somehow I knew I could trust you."
    As they reached the edge of town, he stopped. She stopped with him. "You have such a long way to walk. Can I give you a ride? I don't have a buggy, yet, but my horse can easily carry two."
    She shook her head. "No, thank you. I don't care for horses, and they care for me even less."
    He didn't believe her. She saw the skepticism and the question in his eyes, the subtle tightening of his lips. Did he think her refusal was a rejection of some sort? Yes, he did, she saw.
    "Horses throw me," she explained, for some reason wanting Declan to know that she was not spurning him, knowing it was important. "Always. They simply don't like me, and therefore I don't like them. My refusal to ride seems perfectly reasonable to me," she added