Lone Wolfe by Kate Hewitt Read Free Book Online

He glanced around the foyer, and suddenly Mollie saw
just how dark the manor was. She noticed the torch in Jacob’s hand, and
understood, far too late, that the electricity must be off in the manor as
well.
                 It
was a storm , for heaven’s sake. Even
though she was shivering with cold, her cheeks reddened. She was a complete
idiot, coming in here full of fury, and for what? Jacob had a reason for
everything.
                 ‘Oh.’
She shifted, and muddy water leaked out of a ripped seam in her boot. She
stared at the spreading stain on the rug, and saw that Jacob was looking at it
too. ‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled, feeling both foolish and stupid. ‘I jumped to
some awful conclusions.’
                 ‘So
it would appear.’ Jacob let the silence tick on rather uncomfortably as he
gazed at her for a moment, and Mollie suffered through
it. Perhaps this would be her penance. ‘Well, I can hardly send you out in that
storm the way you are now,’ he said, sounding resigned. ‘Fortunately the
plumbing has already been repaired. Why don’t you dry off upstairs? Have a bath
if you like. You can change into something of Annabelle’s.’
                 Mollie’s
eyes widened as an array of images cartwheeled across her brain. ‘I couldn’t—’
                 ‘Why not?’ Jacob challenged blandly. ‘Surely there’s nothing
waiting for you back at your cottage? I was just making myself some dinner. I
only got back from London an hour ago. You are free to join me.’
                 Free,
not welcome. Mollie was under no illusion that Jacob actually wanted her
company. She was an obligation; perhaps she always had been. Perhaps that was
what lay behind the cheque she still hadn’t cashed, as well as the commission
he’d given her. Just his wretched sense of duty.
                 Yet
he obviously hadn’t felt any sense of duty to his family; why should he feel it
for her? Confused by her own thoughts, Mollie found herself nodding.
                 ‘All
right, I will. Thank you,’ she said, and heard the challenge in her voice.
Maybe now was the time for the clarity and closure she wanted. Maybe now she’d
get some answers.
                 ‘Good.
You know the way?’
                 Mollie
nodded again, and Jacob turned from here. ‘Take all the time you need. I’ll
meet you in the kitchen when you’re done. Don’t forget your torch.’
                 Without
waiting for her to respond, he walked away, swallowed by the darkness.
                 As
he stalked down the hall back to the kitchen, Jacob wondered why he’d just
invited Mollie Parker to share his dinner. He wished he hadn’t. He didn’t want
any company, and certainly not hers. She gazed at him with an unsettling mix of
judgement and compassion, and he needed neither. He refused to explain himself
to her, yet he couldn’t stand the thought of her jumping to more asinine
conclusions.
                 She’d
assumed he’d turned off the electricity again, just as she assumed he’d walked
out on his family to follow his own selfish desires. He saw the condemnation
and contempt in her eyes, had heard it in her voice that first night.
                 You may have run out on Wolfe Manor, but
that doesn’t mean the rest of us did .
                 Jacob
closed his mind to the memory. There was no point in thinking of it, of her,
because he had enough people to apologise to and enough sins to atone for
without adding Mollie Parker to the list. He’d give her dinner and send her on
her way.
                 Yet
even as he made that resolution, another thought, treacherous and sly, slipped
into his mind.
                 You invited her here because you want to see
her. Want to talk to her. You want her .
                 He’d
avoided her this past week for too many