The Magic of His Touch (May Day Mischief) by Barbara Monajem Read Free Book Online Page B

would happen. I should have known better than to try such a fool’s trick,
but I won’t let you be trapped by it.” She stumbled again, caught herself and
hurried on. “I won’t get with child, so there’s no harm done.”
    “It’s not a matter of harm,” he said. “It’s a matter of doing
what’s right, and that’s marriage.”
    She gave an audible shudder. “Oh, this is dreadful. Everything
has gone from bad to worse, and—”
    She stopped so abruptly he almost bumped into her. “What—?”
    “Shh!” She put up a hand and whispered, “What is Lucasta doing
out at this time of night?”
    Sure enough, his temporary fiancée was standing in the herb
garden in the moonlight, muttering to herself. “I don’t know, but I’ll go talk
to her right now.”
    “No!” Peony’s fingers dug into his shirtsleeves like desperate
little claws, dragging him behind a pear tree. “Please don’t. Please don’t. I shan’t be able to bear it. I can’t
marry you, and don’t you see? If you ask my father, they’ll never forgive me if
I say no.”
    “Very well,” he said slowly. “I shan’t speak to your father.” For now .
    “And you won’t break off the engagement with Lucasta until
she’s ready.”
    “Lucasta is ready whenever I am, and vice versa. That was our
agreement.”
    “Perhaps, but if you break it off, it will make life difficult
for her,” Peony hissed. “For no reason at all, because I cannot marry you.”
    “Why the devil not?”
    Her face puckered with such anguish that he couldn’t press
her—but he damn well intended to find out what was going on. “Very well, I won’t
break it off.” Yet .
    He watched Peony go into the herb garden. Once the women had
disappeared together around the back of the house, he slipped in by the side
door and quickly navigated the stairs and corridors, which didn’t seem
convoluted to him. Soon he was knocking at the door of Lord Elderwood’s room. If
anyone could sort out the so-called magical aspect of this tangle, it was
he.
    Elderwood opened the door in his shirtsleeves, looking at first
surprised and then wary. “What do you want?”
    “A few words,” Alexis said. “In private,” he added, when
Elderwood didn’t invite him in. “Christ, David, do you have a woman in there?
Can’t you keep your cock in your breeches for two nights in a row?”
    “Only when I choose to.” He looked uncharacteristically
strained. “Alexis, I’m tired. We can talk later.”
    “This is important. It won’t take long, and you’re certain to
be vastly interested.” He didn’t bother to stifle
his irritation with his old friend. “It’s about magic.”
    “You wish to discuss magic?” Elderwood peered at Alexis as if
he suspected he’d gone mad, and opened the door wide at last. “My dear fellow,
what has come over you?”
    Alexis stalked into the room and glanced around, thankful to
find no giggling housemaid in the bed. He’d thought that laughter in the wood
had been Elderwood, but perhaps not. “Is there a custom—a folk custom, I suppose
you’d say—where a woman rolls naked in a meadow?”
    “Rolling in the dew? Yes, on May Day morning, to call her true
love to her side. Why do you ask?”
    Alexis pondered. The only person who had come to Peony’s side
was...him.
    Something akin to consternation crossed Elderwood’s face. “Can
it be...that you came upon a woman doing exactly that yesterday morning?”
    Alexis had fallen in love with Peony, and she wouldn’t have
succumbed to his advances unless she felt the same way...so what had gone
wrong?
    “You did!” Elderwood said, taking his silence for assent. “Do
you mean to tell me who, or should I annoy you by guessing?” He paused, an
uncharacteristic frown crinkling his brow. “Somehow, I can’t see Miss Barnes
indulging in anything remotely connected with magic.”
    “Lucasta? No, of course not.”
    Elderwood laughed. “Then who was she? You may count on my
discretion. I’m much