Read Online Midnight Secrets by Jennifer St Giles - Free Book Online Page A

fullness of his mouth, the height and breadth of him in person loomed larger than life, even more so than the painting. Only the fire in his dragon green eyes gleamed brighter than his picture, and I noted a sharper, more sinister edge to him, as if he could very well be a vamp—
    I mentally shook the ridiculous thought away.
    “Why the pistol?”
    I swallowed and shut my eyes. “Protection. The scandal.” Heat flooded my face.
    “Look at me, lass.” He pressed his gloved fingers to my chin.
    I met his gaze with trepidation. How could I so unashamedly lead another person to such untruths?
    His thumb caressed my cheek and a different sensation besides that of fear, coiled inside of me. The unknown emotion gripped me just as strongly as my terror had, but left me wanting to know what his ungloved touch would feel like against my cheek.
    Whatever he looked for, he must have found it in my gaze, for he lifted the pistol from my breast and stepped slightly back, releasing my chin. “You’ll not need a weapon in my home, so I will keep it safe for you for now. Before you go, I want to know why you were eavesdropping on my father and Sir Warwick.”
    “I…got lost. I wanted a book to read.”
    “And you thought making use of the library a servant’s right?”
    I shook my head no and lowered my gaze, feeling the sting in his question, but then couldn’t stay silent. “Don’t you think servants thirst to know things?”
    “Perhaps,” he said oddly. “The library is down the opposite corridor from here.”
    I nodded, starting to back away from him.
    “I’ll escort you.”
    “That’s not necessary.”
    “You know the way?” He lifted a brow, clearly questioning the validity of everything I’d just said. His gaze bore down on me, and I backed away faster even though he didn’t move.
    “No. I just…don’t think I’ll be able to read after…this. I’d like to retire now.”
    A ghost of a smile seemed to curve his lips, but it came and left so quickly that I thought I imagined it. I kept backing up until I felt the door behind me and found the doorknob. Opening it, I winced at the pain from my blisters. Just before I escaped, he spoke so softly I almost didn’t hear him. “Perhaps you’ll meet me there some night.”
    I immediately dismissed the words. Never would I do such an outrageous thing as meet a man alone at night. I moved so quickly with my blood roaring in my ears and my thoughts running so wildly that I didn’t see anything of what I passed on my return to my room. Once there, I pressed the door firmly closed and tried to draw an easy breath, but I couldn’t. I was too vulnerable. My body burned and shivered in places too intimate to acknowledge.
    Bridget slept, softly snoring, completely oblivious to my tumultuous state. I wanted to shake her awake so I wouldn’t be alone with him , the feel of him, the exotic scent of him, the presence of him that seem to cling to every corner of my mind and body as if a magic spell had been cast over my person. But I was too ashamed to have anyone know, too shocked to speak about the surging, unknown feeling that had coiled inside of me the moment my terror had fled.
    Moonlight spilled through the open window, allowing me enough light to see, and I grabbed a spindly chair from a corner, propping it beneath the doorknob. The precaution made me feel only marginally better. For in truth, I had little fear he had followed me. And the vulnerability preying on me had little to do with what might happen and everything to do with what had happened.
    I’d dismally failed in my first investigative venture. The man had stolen my father’s pistol! He’d touched me, almost intimately, had held me at gunpoint no less, and I was too enamored by the man to even think about Mary and what may have happened to her.
    Stripping off my dress in a disgusted huff, I slipped beneath the worn blanket of my cot and willed myself to forget everything and go to sleep, yet