The Raven's Revenge by Gina Black Read Free Book Online

at him seriously, and then cast her eyes downward. “There is just one concern I must discuss with you.”
    “Yes?”
    “’Tis just that… I mean… You would not…?”
    He could see her discomfort as she forced the words out.
    “That is, while we are on the road…could you not…?” She toyed with the collar of her dress. “I mean I would like to get to London straight away, and if we have to stop while you hold up coaches…well…”
    Comprehension finally dawned on Nicholas. “Do not fear, mistress,” he raised her chin with a forefinger until she looked straight into his eyes. “For now, at least, my outlaw days are behind me. And I have business to attend in London that I have avoided overlong.”
    He could see it was not her collar she fingered, but a piece of green ribbon, its color incongruously bright against her black dress. It was just such a ribbon as women used to hold a keepsake from a lover. He should know; he’d given several away himself.
    Could he have misjudged her completely? Might this drab Puritan miss be traveling to London to meet a lover and not a cousin?
    “What is this?” he teased. “A bit of bright underplummage? Is this sparrow really a canary in disguise?”
    He let his hand trail down her neck, and gave the ribbon a tug. She gasped as he pulled it out of her bodice.
    Just as he suspected, there was something attached, but it was not what he had expected. Nicholas stared at the familiar old Chinese coin, warm in his hand.
    My lucky piece .
    Katherine deftly took it from his grasp and tucked it back into her dress. Fingers hovering protectively at the base of her throat, she eyed him warily as she moved away from him.
    Nicholas cursed himself for treating her like one of the court ladies instead of a Puritan miss, and tried to make up for it with his fullest and most charming smile. “I was not going to steal it.”
    “’Tisn’t proper for you to be so free with my person.”
    “And a charming person it is too,” he made a courtly bow and straightened. “How did you come by such an item?”
    “I found it in the cottage with other bits and pieces. Why do you ask?”
    “It is from China. I am surprised to see it here. ’Tis an odd trinket for a Puritan lass.”
    “Puritan?” Her mouth took a firm line. “You say I am a Puritan because I look like one. What you truly see is an obedient daughter. But I will not be one for much longer.” She sighed and looked towards the stream. A bird had discovered the bits of bread.
    “Just who may you be, Mr. Eddington?”
    “Naught but a simple outlaw.”
    “I think there is nothing simple about you. Are you a thief? No, I do not think so. You are an odd highwayman to be sure, for, by all accounts, you leave items of true value with their owners. Are you a noble, or a commoner? Perhaps one of the gentry? Are you English-born? There is something decidedly foreign about you. Be you Catholic or Protestant?”
    Nicholas gave a wry smile. “If you must know, I was raised on the Book of Common Prayer, but I do not consider myself a religious man.”
    “And what of your gang? Why did they leave you to die and not return for you, or bring aid?”
    “There is a simple answer to that. I have no gang.”
    Katherine blinked. “But I had heard—“
    “One should not always believe what one is told.”

    * * *

    Later, several hours after Katherine had left, Nicholas stood in the doorway of the cottage and watched the stars twinkle in the night sky. He named for himself the various constellations and reflected on what had happened.
    When he’d come back to England, he’d been uncertain of what he really wanted. Of course, he had promised his father he would get Ashfield back—a promise he meant to keep. But as to whether he really wanted it, that was a question to which he had no answer. 
    Since arriving on England’s shores, his goal had become quite clear. Nicholas tightened his fingers on the doorframe sending a shock of pain to