Grasso, Patricia by Love in a Mist Read Free Book Online Page A

him.
    Richard raised his fist to strike, snarling, "I want to see your pained expression when you swallow your teeth." Suddenly, he groaned and collapsed. Dead weight.
    "Did you kill him?" Hew asked, staring up at his brother.
    "Gave him a love tap is all," Odo answered, lifting the earl so that Hew could slide from beneath him. "He'll be waking from his nap soon enough."
    "And sounding the alarm," Hew said, touching his neck as though he already felt the noose tightening. "We must slow him down."
    Odo considered the problem for a long moment and finally said, "Stealing his horse will give us the time we need to collect Keely and leave the area."
    "Are we adding horse-thieving to highway robbery?" Hew groaned.
    "Cheer up," Odo replied. "The English can only hang you once."
    The two Welshmen began divesting the earl of his valuables. Before leaving, Hew pulled one of the magical carnelian stones from his pocket. He placed it in the palm of the earl's left hand and closed his fingers around it.
    "So Keely won't scold us if she ever discovers what we've done," Hew explained, catching his brother's questioning look.
    "Take his boots too," Odo ordered. "Walking barefoot to Ludlow will give us plenty of time."
    Odo and Hew mounted their horses. With the earl's horse in tow, they disappeared into the safety of Shropshire Forest.
    Some time later Richard opened his eyes, stared up at the clear blue sky, and then sat up slowly. He reached for the back of his aching head and looked around in confusion. Where was his horse? And boots?
    "Bloody buggers," he swore.
    He glanced at the brandy-colored stone clutched in his left hand. Was this their payment for stealing his possessions? Beside him on the ground sat his hat.
    With the stone in one hand and the hat in the other, Richard got to his feet. The stone would forever serve as a reminder of the villains and what they'd done to him.
    If ever I get my hands on them, Richard promised himself, I'll make them wish they'd died in infancy.
    With that, Richard began the most humiliating task of his life—the walk to Ludlow Castle. "Ouch!" He reached down and dislodged a jagged stone from between his toes, then straightened and started walking again.
    The bastards had taught him an important lesson,
    Richard decided. When he finally reached Ireland, he would always remember to guard his back. But lesson or no, the villains would pay for their crime against him.
    So busy was Richard planning the myriad forms his revenge could take that he arrived at Ludlow Castle in record time. Only the Talbot men-at-arms' laughter yanked him out of his wholly satisfying daydream of revenge.
    Richard marched proudly across the lowered drawbridge, through the outer bailey, and into the inner courtyard. Though his face flamed with hot embarrassment, the Earl of Basildon pretended deafness to the shouts of laughter he evoked in passing.
    "What the bloody hell are you doing, Devereux?" The growl belonged to Robert Talbot.
    Richard turned toward the growl and arched a copper brow at the Duke of Ludlow's imposing figure. "I've come to court Morgana, Your Grace."
    "You walked barefoot from Leicester?"
    "I've been robbed, you blockhead!" Richard shouted, shaking his hat at the duke. None but one still dared laugh at the earl.
    A throaty chuckle drew their attention. "Why, Tally," drawled the Countess of Cheshire, "Devereux has the cutest pair of-—" The duke's hand snaked out and covered her mouth, leaving her thought unfinished.
    "I do apologize for the inconvenience. Of course you're welcome to my wardrobe," Robert Talbot said as he escorted the earl inside. "We'll catch the culprit and hang him—you can be certain of that."
    "Search the area for two giants," Richard said.
    "Giants?" Talbot echoed, unable to credit what he was hearing.
    "I mean, two rather large men," Richard amended. "They spoke with an accent, probably Welsh."
    "Most unusual," Talbot replied.
    Morgana Talbot stood in the entrance to the great