Whispers at Midnight Read Online Free PDF Page B

caught her breath quickly. Ryne was
practicing his debauchery on her. He was evidently a man who knew
and enjoyed the magnetism he had for women. No doubt they flocked
to him like hens to a wriggling worm. She had seen such
performances played out around her mother, both on the stage and
off. She had no intention of preening her feathers for Ryne
Sullivan. With a sudden jerk Amanda stepped out of the doorway and
out of reach of Ryne’s gentle touch.
    A sound that was both a gasp and a shriek
escaped her. Ryne had his foot planted firmly on the trailing edge
of her blanket. It peeled quickly from her shoulders and dropped to
the floor, leaving her naked as a new moon to his searching
eyes.
    A smile played lightly upon Ryne’s lips as
Amanda covered her breasts awkwardly with her arms and whirled to
shield herself from his view. A moment later she felt the soft
fleece of the blanket floating over her bare shoulders, and Ryne’s
soft laughter feathered her ears.
    “Lost your wrap, m’lady,” he crooned,
letting his lips brush against the fragrant curls at her nape.
    Burning with embarrassment and anger, Amanda
bit back words a lady shouldn’t utter. Had he deliberately. . . ?
No, surely not. Surely even Ryne Sullivan could not be that much a
rogue. She gathered her courage and turned to face those mocking
blue eyes. Instead she met emptiness and silence.
    A moment later she heard his light laughter
and the clack of his footsteps on the stairs. Maggie’s shrill voice
joined the deep, mellow tones of Ryne’s. Amanda heard him say a few
words of appeasement and heard them both laughing until their
voices faded away. Then abruptly they were gone, and an odd
emptiness descended with the heavy silence that once again filled
Wicklow.
    Amanda went quietly to the hall window when
she heard a loose shutter rattle and pound against the outer brick
wall of the house. She welcomed the disturbance; it brought back a
sound of life to the house. From below, the anxious neighing of a
horse joined the sudden howling of the wind as heavy drops of rain
began to fall.
    She peered out in time to see Ryne hook a
lantern to the side of his carriage. He had tied his team close to
the house rather than sheltering them in the stable, making it
clear his visit to Wicklow was not meant to be a long one.
    Ryne, a dark, lean figure in his black garb,
took a moment to stroke the arched neck of each horse before he
sprang into the carriage and took up the reins of the handsome pair
of dappled grays. Amanda saw Maggie’s pale arm slip from beneath
her cloak and wrap familiarly about Ryne’s thigh. She looked away
as he snapped the reins, and without cracking his whip over the
horses’ backs, started the team down the sloping lane that led to
the main road.
    The carriage was out of sight when Amanda
looked out again, a bit sadly. She had hoped they could all be
friends, but that seemed an impossibility with Ryne. Perhaps
Gardner would be more civil.
    She left the window as the drops grew
heavier. All day the rain had been threatening and now that the
downpour had come, her elation vanished. But no, that had happened
when she saw Ryne. What a joke he would be sharing with that Maggie
at her expense. Why had the scoundrel come along to spoil her mood?
Amanda held the blanket firmly around her shoulders. She could
still feel those dark, flaming eyes skimming her body.
    Nerves stretched beyond endurance, Amanda
returned to the bedroom and drew back the covers on the narrow bed.
Ryne’s bed, she thought, discarding her blanket and climbing
between the crisp linen sheets. She couldn’t fault him for coming
here. He must have expected the house to be his. Or his to share
with Gardner. And she had come much earlier than she had told them
she would.
    Her letter to Gardner had said she would
arrive in September, but it had taken only a few months to settle
her mother’s estate. She gave a brittle laugh that sounded lost in
the darkness. Settling the estate