Move Heaven and Earth Read Online Free PDF Page B

to you as a normal, functioning human being. When you came to my home and convinced me to help Lord Rand, you gave me free hand, remember? You promised—”
    “I know what I promised, but I didn’t expect you would leave him exposed to the elements overnight.”
    “Neither did I, but desperate circumstances require desperate measures.”
    They stared at each other, neither willing to give way.
    “I won’t let you kill him,” Garth insisted.
    “But it would be such a tidy reprieve.” Garth gasped, and she pressed him. “You wouldn’t have to bear the tantrums and the rudeness and the disappointment of seeing your brother reduced to a cripple.”
    “How dare you? I want my brother regardless of his condition!”
    His outrage revealed very clearly why he had resorted to deception to get her to Clairmont Court. He would have done anything to bring her, for he would do anythingfor his brother. She reminded him, “He’ll be more agreeable when he’s housebroken.”
    “But I’m not going to have him put down, regardless of our success!”
    “Good,” she said mildly.
    His eyes narrowed as he realized how she had tricked him, and he rubbed his face with stained hands. “You’re a clever miss.”
    “I’ll need free rein to train Lord Rand, when he’s been resourceful enough to train all of you.” Garth chortled, not at all offended, and she asked, “How long until sunset?”
    “Probably three hours.”
    “If he’s not in sight in two hours, we’ll send someone to get him.”
    “You mean you think he can get himself back up to the manor without help?”
    “What do you think?”
    “I think he…well, I think…” Garth paused. “I always said Rand could do anything he set his mind to. I guess it’s a question of whether he’ll set his mind to staying there, or coming home.”
    “I don’t know your brother well, but my guess is he’ll stay on the cliffs until he’s chilled, then come back on his own schedule.” She smiled. “Just to show me he can.”
    Garth scratched the back of his head. “You might be good for Rand.”
    She dipped in a curtsy. “Thank you, kind sir.”
    “You might be good for all of us.”
    She didn’t appreciate that comment as she should. It recalled Rand’s accusation on the cliff—that she’d come to win a duke. She stepped forward with determination. “He looks very strong.”
    “He is. He hates this helplessness, and he insists on doing everything possible for himself.”
    “Then you think he can make it back?”
    “Oh, yes.”
    “And you don’t think—” she hesitated, hating to put the thought into his mind, but she needed more reassurance than her own instincts, “he would consider throwing himself off the cliff?”
    Garth laughed out loud. “Rand? Never. Rand thrives on a challenge, always has. As I told you when I met you before—and coaxed you here—I’m surprised he’s still so disturbed about his condition. It doesn’t seem consistent with his character, somehow, but I suppose none of us knows how long the process of recovery should take. Do we?”
    She could see the manor clearly now. Someone had placed boards over the shattered windows in Rand’s room, but even with that bizarre addition the structure no longer looked like an architect’s experiment. It looked only like a place to rest. “I certainly don’t.”
    A couple came out onto the terrace. Sylvan recognized the dark clothes of the vicar she’d seen inside, and she presumed the woman to be his wife. He held her firmly as she stumbled down the stairs, and Sylvan wondered if she drank.
    Garth insisted, “You know more than anyone, so Dr. Moreland says.”
    When the couple gained the flat ground, the vicar shook his wife, then marched her down the drive with the firmness of a perturbed father. Sylvan didn’t envy the wife—she’d dealt with her own perturbed father. “Dr. Moreland was a sneak to tell you that.”
    “He said he’d never seen a woman work so hard to heal the