Read Online The Cursed One by Ronda Thompson - Free Book Online Page A

she’d been practicing her needlepoint when she’d been a gangly girl instead of trying to show her
younger brother up at one masculine sport after another. Then she could possibly sit and stitch to give herself something to do.
    Tea sounded heavenly and she almost leaned across the settee to nudge Mora awake and ask her to prepare her a cup. Amelia stopped herself, realizing that it was time she learned to do for herself. At least until they were safely away from Collingsworth Manor. Fixing tea wasn’t so very difficult. Amelia felt certain she could manage.
    She ignored the fact that earlier she thought she could dress herself without help, as well. Besides being humiliating, the memory was laced with thoughts of Lord Gabriel. The feel of his warm hands against her skin, the thrill of having him kiss her, of having him desire her. And as he had said, whatever happened in that brief moment of insanity, it was wrong. Wickedly, deliciously, wrong.
    Amelia rose from the settee. She moved toward the parlor door but stopped before Gabriel. In sleep, his features relaxed, he resembled more the young man in the portrait that hung in the parlor of the Wulf townhome. A lock of hair hung over one eye and she was tempted to reach out and push it aside. Why these tender feelings for a stranger? Why couldn’t she have felt them for poor Robert?
    What she needed was a distraction. Tea, she recalled, and made her way through the house to the kitchen. The stove was still stoked from the modest dinner Mora had prepared earlier. A kettle already sat upon the stove. Amelia touched the lid and jerked her hand back. She stuck her burning finger into her
mouth. She glanced outside and marveled at how bright the moon shone down and how well she could see in the darkness. As she recalled the shadows she’d seen earlier, her gaze scanned the tree line closest to the house.
    A second later her heart nearly stopped beating. There, among the thick vegetation, she made out the shape of a man. A moment later he staggered forth into the yard. She saw him quite clearly in the moonlight.
    â€œRobert,” she breathed. “Wulf!” Amelia called. “Lord Gabriel!”
    Gabriel was beside her in a heartbeat. “What?”
    Amelia pointed. “Look, it’s Robert.”
    Robert stumbled into the yard. He went to his knees, holding out a hand as if beseeching Amelia.
    â€œStay here,” Lord Gabriel said, then he was gone.
    Stay here? What if it really was Robert this time? Amelia had never seen his body. Maybe Lord Gabriel had been mistaken. Maybe Robert hadn’t been dead. Amelia rushed after Gabriel. Mora had stirred and now stood at the door, her eyes wide.
    â€œHe told me to bolt the door behind him,” she said. “What is happening?”
    â€œStay here,” Amelia repeated Gabriel’s instruction to her. “Keep watch for our return, but if you see anything or anyone else, bolt the door.”
    Amelia rushed out. She ran around the house to see Lord Gabriel standing a few feet from the man, his pistol drawn.
    â€œNo!” she screamed. Amelia ran to Lord Gabriel and placed a hand upon his arm. “I believe it truly is Robert. He needs our help!”

    â€œGet back to the house!” Wulf growled. “It is not Robert, Amelia. Robert is dead.”
    How could he be so certain? The man looked like Robert to Amelia. Then he called to her.
    â€œAmelia.”
    Hackles rose on the back of her neck. It was the same voice she’d heard in the darkness upon her wedding night. Amelia stumbled back a step.
    Gabriel cocked the pistol. “Who are you?” he demanded.
    The man with Robert’s face did not answer. His eyes glittered strangely in the darkness. Then he did speak, or rather, he peeled back his lips and growled. His coat gaped open and Amelia saw the blood that stained his shirt. Blood, she suspected, that came from the wound where Gabriel Wulf had shot