Make Me Love You by Johanna Lindsey Read Free Book Online Page A

was two stories high. Oil paintings lined the white walls above the dark wood wainscoting. Brooke saw that they were portraits of men and women, a few of whom were wearing clothes that dated to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. She assumed they were the viscount’s ancestors.
    A large crystal chandelier was in the center of the hall, but so high up a servant would have to climb a tall ladder to light it, so she doubted it was used often. They passed several sets of double doors, which no doubt led to parlors and the dining room, before they came to the grand staircase.
    Splashes of color on the white walls made her glance back at the foyer. The round stained-glass window above the front door threw beams of blue, red, and yellow light on the white walls. The window did indeed have a design—the head of a wolf baring its teeth. Brooke assumed the emblem was part of the family crest—the wolf’s head because of their name. But why had they chosen the image of a ferocious wolf? Perhaps the current Lord Wolfe had a sense of humor and had had the window made as a way of poking fun at the fanciful rumors. But, on second thought, she figured he probably didn’t like the rumor that he howled on the moors any more than he liked the one about his being cursed and doomed to die young.
    At the top of the stairs, Gabriel Biscane led them to the right, down a wide carpeted hallway that had doors on only one side. These rooms would face the back of the property, Brooke realized. Soon they turned a corner and headed down another corridor that led back to the front of the house. Herea few of the doors on both sides of the corridor had been left open to let in light. The house certainly had many bedrooms and was bigger than it appeared from outside. At the end of the corridor, Gabriel stopped at a circular stairway. Brooke guessed it led to the tower room he’d mentioned. She hadn’t thought he was serious about putting her there until that moment.
    She tensed, waiting, but he didn’t move, just stared at the dark winding stairs in front of them for a long moment. Then without a word he turned about and marched them back down the corridor and returned to the other. As he passed the door at the end, he glanced back at Brooke and Alfreda and put a finger to his lips, suggesting they needed to be quiet, and moved to the next door, just to the right of the stairs. Brooke was reminded of what had happened to her as a child when she’d disturbed her father’s solitude upstairs. She’d only done it once. Lessons had been learned quickly in that house.
    Gabriel entered the room, walked across it, and opened the two windows to let in some fresh air. Brooke followed him, wanting to see the view. She’d been right. The tall hedges she’d seen from a distance surrounded a large parklike area behind the house with bright green lawns and pathways bordered by beds of roses and other pretty flowers. There were a few shade trees with benches beneath their leafy, green canopies and a tiny pond. Lampposts were placed here and there to light the way at night or just look pretty from the house. Right in the center was indeed a maze, not huge, but with hedges so tall she couldn’t see the pathways inside it from her window. Too bad. She would have liked to memorize them before venturing into it, and she would be doing that—if they were staying.
    Before Gabriel left, he said in a whisper, “I will bear the brunt of his wrath for not putting you where he ordered, butI’d rather not wake him just yet, so do try to be as quiet as you can so he doesn’t hear you in here.”
    Appalled that he hadn’t been joking about the tower, Brooke replied, “Please, I’d prefer another room not so close to his, even one in that tower.”
    He smiled, apparently not as worried about the lord’s wrath as he’d sounded. “Nonsense. Most of the rooms up here aren’t cleaned regularly unless guests are staying in them. This is the only unoccupied room that