The Dark Lady Read Online Free PDF Page A

His heart burnedwith the pain of it. Shadows smudged her eyes and he could smell the laudanum upon her breath. How bloody much had they given her?
    Enough to leave her lost in the nightmares of the past. Enough to torture her for an eternity. Her fingertips dug into his biceps. Her lips pursed as if she was trying to say something. She swallowed. “Ian?”
    He nodded quickly. Relief pummeled him so fiercely it was painful. “Yes, Eva, yes. It’s Ian.”
    “Why are you here?” She pushed at him slightly, hands moving from his arms to press against his chest. “You have to go,” she whispered urgently. She pushed at him again, her touch more desperate, more forceful. “They might try to keep you here.”
    Even now, she thought of others before herself. Even now, she placed his safety before her own. He clasped her to him, careful lest she break right before his gaze. “No, Eva. They could never. I’m taking you with me.”
    Her eyes darted to the door, then back to him as if she didn’t understand. “Leave? Here?”
    “Yes,” he said firmly. “Forever.”
    Tears filled her eyes. “You’re lying again. Please don’t lie. They told me I’d never be well enough to go.”
    His heart wrenched. He’d told her only one lie in all the years they’d known each other. To hear her mention it now in her state was nearly his undoing. He had told her and Hamilton’s father that he would protect his friend. It had not been true. Hamilton was never coming home.
    That venture, meant to recapture friendship and honor, had ended in death and misery. But he wouldn’t allow his own shortcomings to dictate Eva’s fate any longer.
    He commanded the pain away and smoothed her hair back, short though it was, and murmured against hertemple, “Sweetheart, you never should have been here at all.”
    “Oh, yes.” She nodded jerkily against him. “Yes, I should.” Her voice shook and her slender fingers twisted into his linen shirt. “I did something terrible, Ian. Terrible.” Her lashes and tears brushed against his neck. “You must leave me here.” Her entire body tensed against his. “To pay for what I’ve done.”
    “None of that. Come, now,” he soothed, not daring to think overlong on the accident that had broken her mind. He took one of her icy, soot-marked hands in his and enveloped it lightly. “I promise, I will help you.”
    She nodded again, but strangely, at the same time, she said, “No one can, Ian. No one.”
    He drew her carefully back against his chest. She was wrong, so very wrong. Never in his life had anything felt more right than his helping her. Even here, where so many women had been left to die, with her pressed against him, he knew that he would rescue her—no matter the cost.

Chapter 4
    England
Sixteen years earlier
    I an’s fingers curled, empty of his toy elephant. It had been a gift from his father after a long journey with the new governor general of India. His father had said that they’d hunted many tigers, but the elephants had been the most interesting. Big, funny-looking things with noses as long as flagpoles.
    Ian missed the gift very much, but he’d given it away to someone who needed it more. He stared up at the wide stairs, half hearing the whispered voices of his new guardian, Lord Carin, and the solicitor making the last arrangements for his stay at Carridan Hall.
    Ian looked down at the dirty gray light that poured in the tall parlor windows, spilling over his feet. He had a scuff on his boot. Mama would not have liked that at all. Swallowing back the ache in his throat, Ian bent over and rubbed at the mark on his black shoe, but it wouldn’t come free. He frowned. And much to his dismay, a tear slipped out his eye and down his cheek.
    “Hello?”
    Horror-struck to be caught crying like a baby, he whipped his head up and dashed a hand over his eyes. He blinked as he spotted the girl standing not more than twofeet away. She’d sneaked up on him like a fairy creature. She