Once Upon a Romance 02 - As The Last Petal Falls Read Online Free PDF Page A

believe her. She had a fine-boned face and a patrician nose that could easily have come from one of the high families of Albion. He wondered where they found her. “No need to glower. It’s a good story. A young woman running away from a forced marriage isn’t implausible, and you certainly sold it well. But the little voice in my head tells me you’re lying.” And for the past twelve years he’d trusted that little voice implicitly.
    “Would the little voice care to elaborate precisely why?” Her eyes glittered with irritation, while her voice dripped sarcasm.
    “No need to mock me, lass. It isn’t as though I’m the only one who talks about things that aren’t really there.”
    “I assure you, I never speak of things that—”
    “Really?” he broke in. “How are the sparkles?” He smirked at her and saw her spine stiffen.
    “What?”
    “The sparkles. You know, swirly golden sparkles? You kept talking about them.”
    “Clearly I was drunk and hallucinating.” She spoke through a clenched jaw. “They’re gone now. What
do
you make that vile beverage out of?”
    “Pine needles and bread mold.”
    The look on her face was priceless, but her retort came swiftly.
    “You don’t happen to add raw sewage to it, do you?”
    “Now that you mention it—” he almost laughed, but caught himself and turned away to attend to the tea. The kettle began to hiss, and he dropped a bundle of herbs into a mug and then filled it to the brim with boiling water. “This should taste slightly better, but only slightly. Once it’s cool enough, drink it down.”
    The lass clutched the mug in the long tapered fingers of her good hand, and he watched her blow across the surface of the tea. She finally lowered her eyelashes, taking her murderous glare off of him, but he kept staring at her, his lips twisting in a grimace born of bitter amusement. He wondered if he would have been convinced that she was nothing but a spoiled heiress, if he hadn’t seen her arm set. The woman who never screamed while her bones were realigned just didn’t seem like the same person as the petulant girl who spoke casually about running away from home.
    “Tell me the rest of your tale. How did you end up outside?”
    Fain leaned his weight against the bed and studied the violet-eyed lass who grated out a tale about being chased by wolves and thrown from her horse during her bid for freedom. He didn’t believe her, but he was sure another man would have. She was beautiful. She was sincere. And he was convinced in his bones that she was lying. Her clothes, person, even the casual grace with which she shrugged her shoulder… all were consistent with her story, but it didn’t matter. Someone must have gone through a lot of effort to set this up, which made him wonder what exactly his enemies were planning on doing with the information she retrieved.
    “Well, Miss Wellesley, that is an amazing story. Your tea should be cool enough to drink, now.” He spoke blandly, but she raised her eyebrows so high that they almost disappeared beneath the dark fall of her hair.
    “You really don’t believe me.” She sounded bewildered.
    “I’ve a suspicious mind. Tell me, though, where were you bound?”
    “Inisle, of course.” She took a cautious sip of her tea, and made a face. That was to be expected; all of Connelly’s healing concoctions were foul. As she slowly drank, she kept speaking. “I want to know what happened to my mother, and I want to meet my kin.”
    “Right.” He acknowledged what she said without giving any sort of indication that he accepted it in the slightest, and the lass rolled her eyes.
    “Fine, don’t believe me. After all, I’m sure you get any number of hapless goose girls and lost milk maidens who stumble upon your keep and instantly claim to be wealthy women who have lost their way. It must happen all the time. I bet you’re knee deep in stranded young women. Your cynicism is
completely
understandable.”
    Fain