Read Online A Dangerous Courtship by Lindsay Randall - Free Book Online Page A

to harm—or worse, meet up with the wild dogs—Julian doubled back, heading for the pillar where the boy had tucked away the package.
    Julian had it in his hands in a matter of moments. The thing was small, bound with twine and wrapped tight in sheepskin. There was nothing to note for whom the packet had been placed here or who had sent the boy to deliver it.
    As Julian surveyed the package a premonition whipped up his spine, causing the hairs at the back of his neck to tingle. He knew a strong sensation that there was yet another intruder about.
    Gad, who and his brother wasn't at Fountains this night? he wondered.
    His gaze surveyed the misty area, and though he saw no one his gut instincts told him he was not alone.
    Holding the bundle tight in one fist, Julian darted for the relative cover of one of the abbey's walls. Out of the corner of his right eye, he spied the shadow of a figure. The person waved one arm—quickly, as though directing the course of another—then drew back into the shadows.
    Damn. There was more than just one other person about.
    Reaching the wall, Julian pressed beside it, then began to inch his way to the opening of what was once a door. Just as he reached it, intending to steal through, a strong, behemoth of a man rounded it, ramming hard into Julian with his bull-like shoulder, forcing him back against the stone.
    Quick as a flash, the brute slammed one meaty fist into Julian's right eye, another into his midsection, then grabbed him by the hair, yanking up his head when Julian would have doubled over from lack of air, and slammed his head back against the stone.
    "Evenin'," he said, a feral gleam in his mud-brown eyes, his breath reeking of rot. "It be Fate come visitin' this night." He rammed his mighty knee into Julian's groin, then grabbed Julian by the neck, hitting his head against the stone, again, again, and then a third time.
    Pain exploded in Julian's brain, and the brute's ugly face swam before his eyes. To his credit, Julian didn't black out, though he feared he would if the brute continued his murderous assault.
    A second marauder stepped out of the mist.
    The brute glanced back at his companion. "He's got it, Nate. Right here in his hand," he said.
    The bundle—they were after the bloody bundle!
    Julian briefly considered handing it over lest this brute's beating destroy his hearing—or worse. But a vision of Veronica swept through his mind, and Julian instinctively tightened his hand about the sheepskin, deciding these two miscreants could go to Jericho.
    The second marauder noted Julian's reaction. "Relax, cove," he said. "It ain't the bundle we wants. We already had a look-see inside when we hauled 'at snivelin' lad off the stagecoach w' it an' tol' him he'd be hog feed if he didn't leads us t' where he was t' place it t'night. No, it was the bloke comin' to reach for 'at package what's we want'd." He smiled malevolently. "Guess, 'at would be, you eh?"
    "Who the devil are you?" Julian demanded.
    "Shut yer trap and listen up," said the burly brute of the punishing fists and accurate knee.
    To bring his point home, the vile being brought up one elbow and slammed it into Julian's mouth, splitting his lip open, at the same time ramming his other fist up against the underside of his chin. Julian's head snapped back, his back teeth piercing his tongue.
    Julian stifled a grunt of pain. Blood immediately spilled from his split lip and trickled from the corner of his mouth while his right eye, having been bashed earlier, began to swell.
    "Don't much matter who we are," said the man called Nate. "Findin' somethin' what's missin' is all we're tryin't' do. Now you just best make it easy on yerself and tell us where 'at 'spensive baubble be hidd' n. A lotta blunt be paid fer it, and our employer, 'e don't take kindly t' bein' hoax'd."
    Julian, dazed now and wondering how he would extricate himself from these ruffians, stared bleary eyed at the fiends. "I... I don't know... wh-what you're