Lady of Heaven Read Online Free PDF Page A

pea-sized drops as Morgan pushed thoughts
of her ex-husband from her mind.  She rose from the cold, hard stone bench and
wandered to the great entry, watching the sky as the rain came down. Pulling
her hood down over her forehead, she had her head down, fairly blinded by the
rain, as she trudged off.
     “I’ve never
been up here before. It’s really lovely.”
    The voice came
from behind. Morgan whirled around, hands out defensively as if she was about
to take someone’s head off. Fox Henredon was standing a few feet behind her, his
hands suddenly lifting when he saw she was preparing to throw a punch. The
smile on his face vanished.
    “Easy,” he
admonished. “Sorry I startled you. I thought you heard me coming.”
    Heart in her
throat, Morgan lowered her hands and exhaled sharply. It took her a moment to
recover as she lifted both eyes and a hand to the sky.
    “How could I
have heard you?” she asked the obvious. “All I can hear is rain.”
    Fox shoved his
hands in his pockets.  “Point taken.”
    Shock faded, now
she was irritated at the man for sneaking up on her. “How did you get here?”
    He pointed in
the general direction of Heaven’s Gate. “I walked up the road from the house.”
    She glanced over
at the dirt road that came in from the west side of the castle; it had been
behind her so he had literally walked up on her blind side. Her clear brown
gaze returned to him, regarding him carefully.
    “Did my mother
tell you I was up here?”
    He nodded. “She
did.”
    “Why are you
here?”
    Fox could see
that her expression was laced with suspicion. Suddenly, the shoe was on the
other foot and he was the unwelcome visitor in her world.  In hindsight, he
realized he had been rather excited to see her again and was moderately
disappointed that she did feel the same way.  He’d even changed shirts before
coming.  Why was he here? It had seemed like a good idea at the time but
gazing into her wary face, he was coming to re-think his strategy.  He was
coming to feel defensive.
    “I came because
I had to chase you out of my office so quickly,” he said, not really knowing
where to start. He gave up trying to give her a pretty explanation and went for
the truth. “Look; I’m sorry if I was rude earlier. I shouldn’t have called you
dishonest about the purpose for your visit. Once you explained everything to
me, I saw your logic.  I came because I wanted to apologize for being abrupt
with something that is obviously important to you.  Plus, I was hoping you’d
let me take another look at that journal. It’s not often we come across records
like that and I’d love to see it again.”
    Morgan watched
him carefully, his apologetic body language and the sincerity of his tone.  It
took her a moment to realize the man didn’t have a rain coat on; he was wearing
a turtleneck and a leather jacket but his head was soaked.  More than that, it
gave her a second look at what a truly stunning male specimen he was; her first
impression at the museum hadn’t been wrong.
    He was easily
six and a half feet tall, maybe more, with black eyes and black hair that was
neatly cut and combed, and his biceps had to be larger in circumference than
her waist. She thought she might have seen him somewhere on the cover of a
romance novel because that’s clearly where he belonged. But the truth was that
she was baffled to see him, handsome or not, and wasn’t quite sure what to say.
    “You came all
the way out here to tell me this?” she clarified. “All you had to do was pick
up the phone.”
    “If I called, I
wouldn’t have the chance to see the journal.”
    “You seem more
interested in the journal than in the papyrus.”
    He shrugged his
enormous shoulders. “Not really.  I’m interested in both.”
    She eyed him,
eventually cocking her head. “You told me you were too busy to translate it.”
    He drew in a
soft breath, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets as he realized this
wasn’t going to be