Read Online The O'Madden: A Novella (The Celtic Legends Series) by Lisa Ann Verge - Free Book Online Page A

thin the herd.” The other boot clattered to the floor. “Or is the meat cursed, as well?”
    “I haven’t the faintest idea.”
    “We’ll see to it then.” He ran his fingers through his hair then planted his palms on his thighs. “The villagers need that tribute more than we do, that was plain enough to see. We’ll make do this winter.”
    “I supp ose,” she said softly, “we will.”
    Something in the husk of her voice drew his gaze to her. She’d uncrossed her arms, and as he watched she looked at him with eyes he’d not seen since Samhain Eve.
    Inside him something stirred to life, a slumbering hope he’d held onto despite all reason.
    “Ah, Garrick.” Her gaze dipped, and then rose again, shining. “For all its foolishness, it was a fine thing you did this afternoon.”
    Something shimmered between them, a gleaming thread of hope and expectation—so fragile and uncertain that he was afraid to move, even to speak, lest he shatter it. Looking at her reminded him of a sleek Irish wolfhound which had come free of its cage one day upon the Wexford docks. It had taken hours for him to corner the she-hound. When he did, the creature had looked up at him with the same mixture of fear and hope and skittish expectation.
    “I’m thinking,” he said, nodding to the bath lofting steam between them, “ that the bath is big enough for the two of us.”
    “ The bath is barely big enough for you.” Dusky lashes dipped over those silver eyes. “Don’t I know that well enough.”
    Her words emboldened him to rise to his feet and take a careful step toward her. He wanted her with a fierceness that caused him to ache right down to the soles of his feet. “There are times when a man and a woman can take the space of one, lass—”
    “If you want a woman,” she whispered, “don’t ask me to find you one.”
    “Y ou know it’s only you I want.”
    “Don’t, Garrick.”
    “Haven’t we waited long enough?”
    “ This thing between us must never be, even if I did see the finer side of an Englishman this day.” She trailed her fingers across the rim of the tub. “Perhaps it’s best you see to your own bath tonight.”
    “Don’t leave.”
    “I must.”
    Maeve crossed the room. Garrick watched her stif f back, silently willing her to stop and turn and come into his arms. He curled his hands into fists, forcing himself not to run after her. In such things as this, he knew that a woman must come of her own will.
    He took one step toward her anyway. She curled her hand over the handle of the door. She pulled.
    Nothing happened.
    Frowning, s he pulled on the door again. He watched her take the handle in two hands and give it a good yank.
    The door didn’t budge.
    “It’s locked.” She blurted the words, louder than necessary.
    “It can’t be locked,” he said . “The lock is on this side of the door, and it’s not fastened.”
    She yanked again. “Then i t’s stuck.”
    “That door doesn’t stick. I can hardly keep it closed at night.”
    She planted her fists on her hips , eyeing it fiercely. “It’s the weather, then. When the rain threatens, everything seems to stick.”  She turned narrowed eyes on him. “You won’t even offer to help me?”
    “ I don’t want you to leave.” 
    Garrick didn’t move as she struggled to pull the door open again. The warped, scarred old door didn’t budge. He knew it didn’t make sense. The bolt had long rusted and he could see from here that it wasn’t locked. It couldn’t be blocked from the outside, either, because the door opened inward.
    A bubble of laughter threatened on his lips . “The curse can work two ways, lass. It can work against even you.”
    What a strange twist of luck . He felt breathless, filled up with new energy. He wasn’t a fool to let another opportunity pass him by, no matter what forces were at work. He crossed the distance that separated them and flattened the palm of his hand on the door, right over the curve of her