Vampire in the Woods (Merlin's Hoods Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

sounded at the door, interrupting her. Alison hurried to the door, opened it, and let two young men into the room. The first was Louis—a local woodcutter—and the second was Geoffrey, the son of Piers, the senior woodcutter in the forest. Both were little older than sixteen. Angeline gave them her most welcoming smile and gestured toward the table.
    “Gentlemen! Just in time to join us for lunch, if you will. Adela has made her wonderful rabbit stew.”
    Louis shook his head quickly. “No, Madam Angeline, we cannot.”
    Angeline gave him the look that brooked no nonsense—one she’d perfected over the years—and gestured again toward the table. “I insist. Adela has made plenty, as usual, and there’s far more than we’ll be able to eat on our own. It will just go to waste.”
    Beyond that, though she didn’t say it, she knew that Piers and Geoffrey—and Louis, for that matter—rarely ate well. Although Piers and Geoffrey had been on their own for some time, and knew very well how to cook for themselves, the lack of a woman in that particular household meant that they ate dried venison and drank water more often than they had warm meals. Geoffrey was a growing boy, and needed good nutrition. She’d had them over to her hearth more often than not, attempting to replace Piers’ wife, who’d died some years earlier in a tragic accident.
    Louis, on the other hand, came from a broken home. Angeline had met his mother and didn’t think she took very good care of her only child.
    Neither of the boys, however, seemed inclined to sit down. In fact, if Angeline wasn’t mistaken they seemed rather … rushed. Distressed.
    “Yes, do stay,” Adela said suddenly.
    Angeline looked up to see the girl moving quickly toward the table, two additional bowls of stew already in her hands. The girl had a heart of gold, she thought, and would do well at caring for whoever came to her hearth. Just as Angeline always had.
    Alison, on the other hand, was preening as though she were preparing for a ball, dragging her fingers through her hair and attempting to put some order to her clothing. She still wore her muddy training garments, as they’d just come in from the outdoors, and Angeline could see that this was mortifying the girl beyond comprehension.
    Angeline turned her eyes back to Louis and Geoffrey, wondering which of the two Alison had set her eyes on. It was surprising, honestly; she’d always assumed that the girl thought herself too good for a woodcutter. Perhaps she should find this revelation refreshing. Somehow, though, the idea that Alison preened when young men entered the room rubbed her the wrong way, and she narrowed her eyes.
    “There’s more than enough to go around,” Adela said, echoing her mother’s statement and giving her sister a sharp look of reprisal. “Besides—” She flashed a quick grin. “—You two rarely eat enough, and I suspect you can use all the energy you can get your hands on.” She indicated the door with a quick nod, and Angeline looked up to see that both Louis and Geoffrey had come with their axes. The tools now leaned up against the wall just inside the door.
    One of the blades was clearly marked with blood.
    “Louis,” she said quietly, addressing the older and more adventurous of the two boys. “What’s going on? I’ve never known you to use your axe as a weapon before, and that does not look like tree sap.”
    The boy took a deep, shuddering breath, and Angeline could see now that they’d come for more than just a wood delivery. “A dead man in the woods, Madam Angeline,” he said quickly. “And animals feeding on him. Animals that didn’t look like proper animals. We came upon the scene and turned, seeking to get away. They attacked us before we could.”
    “We used the axes to beat them off and ran for your cottage,” Geoffrey added. “But they saw where we went. I suspect they’ll be here at any moment.”
    “ Merde ,” Angeline breathed. Suddenly she was