Tangled Hearts Read Online Free PDF Page A

“This and that.”
    “This and that what, exactly?”
    “I would think a big, strong man like you would be up to just about any task, especially helping a little woman like myself.”
    “Aye, I am.”
    “Wonderful!” She leapt up.
    He followed her as she turned to enter the manor. “Ye haven’t said what ye need help with yet.”
    “I need to go to London,” she said and illuminated the entryway with a chestnut-sized ball of blue light.
    “We, too, are headed there.” He could certainly watch over her as they journeyed to London. “I can give ye a ride, but ye can’t be blowing hats off and glowing. ’Twill get us all on a pyre.”
    She stared at him in the blue glow and then slowly let it die away, leaving just enough natural light to show her solid stance.
    He nodded. “If ye can promise not to use yer magic—”
    “I have no magic,” she said. “If you take me to London, get me to court, I am but a simple maid.”
    Och, she would never be a simple maid. He paused, listening to the feathering of her breath in the empty house. His face heated as he recalled the gentle roundness of her backside as he’d kept her over Gaoth’s back. And here they stood, completely alone. If he wasn’t an honorable man, she’d be in definite jeopardy. The thought of her asking help from some disreputable man tightened his jaw. Nay, he wouldn’t—couldn’t—abandon her; although she didn’t know that.
    “I am journeying to Hampton Court on the outskirts of London,” he said.
    She inhaled quickly. “Is King Henry there?”
    “Aye, we have business with him.”
    He watched her silhouette bounce up in silent excitement.
    “I am not certain if we will stay there or at an inn, but I will find ye rooms for the length of time we are in London.” Perhaps she needed help finding other family members. That shouldn’t be too difficult.
    “I have business with King Henry as well,” she said. “Urgent business. I was hoping my father…”
    Ewan felt the heaviness of guilt again at having blurted out that her father was dead and rotting on the back of the cart out front. “As long as ye keep yer breezes and blue glow to yerself, I swear to help ye resolve whatever ye wanted yer father to help ye with.”
    She paused in the shadows. Grateful enough for a kiss, perhaps? Though things had started off altogether wrong, this situation could be salvaged. She was the bonniest lass he’d ever seen and though he usually liked his ladies sweet and calm, there was something amazing about this Pandora Wyatt—or whatever name she wished to use.
    “Do Scotsmen hold to their promises?” she asked cautiously.
    Bloody hell! “I certainly do. My oath is solid as the earth below this great house.”
    “You could change your mind, abandon me to the wolves of court,” she said, her voice timid, almost fearful.
    “I said,” he repeated with force, “and I swear, on my life and honor as a warrior of Druim, as long as ye act like a normal lass, I will help ye resolve yer family issues.”
    “Wonderful,” she breathed, and hiked her skirts high to tap up the steps. If there weren’t so many shadows, he’d be able to see her ankles at least. But he’d forbade her use of the light.
    “Aye, we will be busy in London,” she said.
    What was she talking about? Tension began to roll through his shoulders. She didn’t sound so fearful right now. In fact, she sounded victorious.
    “Exactly what were ye going to ask yer father to do?”
    She stopped at the top landing and looked back down at him, the moonlight through the broken clouds illuminating her face through the foyer window. Her lovely lips formed a saucy smile. “We’ll be freeing Captain Bart and Will from the tower.”
    “What?” he yelled.
    “You promised,” she threw back and skipped down the hall.
    The lighthearted, teasing lilt in her voice broke his restraint. Tricked. He’d bloody been tricked!
    …
    The warrior charged up the stairs like a whale chasing a seal