Midnight Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page B

and would have been carried away by the multitude of books filling the massive shelves if I had not seen the painting first. The impact of the image literally stole my breath, and I stepped back from the life-sized portrait hanging above the mantel of a massive stone hearth.
    His green eyes, so vibrantly realistic, stared directly at me from beneath dark brows over a chiseled nose and roughly hewn jaw. He wore a black suit, white ruffled shirt, and had a black cape flung over one shoulder. In one black-gloved hand he held a silver walking stick with what I thought was a fanged snake on its tip. But as I moved closer, I saw it was a dragon that curled up the cane. A force greater than my own will held me captive before him. Had he needed the night to hide his sins?
    It was the first portrait I’d seen done of someone in the moonlight. Dark shadows surrounded him on all sides. He held his free hand fisted at his side, expressing anger or…pain? A haunting moon and an eerie black sky sharpened the edge of darkness to his character. Even so, the sensual charisma emanating from him would have brought a vibrant warmth to his picture had it not been for the cynical, almost cold smile barely curving his full lips.
    “He canna go out into the daylight, they say. It’s whispered that he is a vampire.”

Chapter Three
     
    I nearly jumped from my skin. I hadn’t heard Bridget leave her post guarding the door to join me in the room before Sean Killdaren’s portrait.
    “Surely not.” I choked out the words, my throat too constricted to add a scoffing laugh to the nonsense. For even I, the voice of reason among my wildly imaginative family, could readily believe Bridget’s gossip, provided the man was anything like his portrait. Thankfully, that was something I doubted. The artist had to have embellished the facts. There was no way this was a realistic depiction of the man.
    “Whot if it were true?” Bridget asked softly, gazing at the picture so raptly that a fissure of doubt snaked inside of me. “Whot if ’e was a vampire? Would ya let him claim ya? Would ya live forever in the dark o ’the night to be with him?”
    A full minute passed before I could assert myself. I shook my head. “No. No man could be that magnetic. No man could have such a mesmerizing appeal as to lure a woman to live forever in darkness. Why do they say he can’t go into the daylight?”
    “It kills him, is whot I’ve ’eard. Daylight kills vampires, right?”
    “I suppose. Does that have anything to do with the curse?”
    Behind us the door opened and we whirled around.
    “Blimey, we’re caught,” Bridget whispered.
    Instead of Mrs. Frye’s dour countenance and the doom that would have surely followed, two richly dressed gentlemen entered the room. One man looked somewhat like the portrait of Sean Killdaren except less dynamic, with graying temples and bleary blue eyes. The other man, completely gray-haired, sported a fashionable mustache and monocle, and carried a silver walking stick. Both wore top hats, morning coats, and pale trousers. “It’s the Earl of Dartraven, the Killdaren’s father and his cohort,” Bridget said under her breath.
    “My Lord, Sir Warwick.” Bridget immediately fell into a curtsy.
    Keeping silent, I lowered my gaze and curtsied as well.
    “Up with you, child. Flora is it?” asked the Earl of Dartraven.
    “Dartraven, your memory so lacks these days, it’s a wonder you can still distinguish a horse from an ass. Flora of the golden locks left our service, if you recall. This is Bridget, and a new maid if I’m not mistaken. Am I right?”
    “Beg your pardon, my name is Cassie, my lord, Sir Warwick.” I mimicked Bridget’s tone and kept my gaze downcast.
    “Well, maids, have Mrs. Frye serve tea.” The earl waved his hand, dismissing us as he turned to his friend. “Remembering tedious details is exactly why I tolerate your odious presence, Warwick. And I can tell an ass from a horse easily. I’ve not