Who's Riding Red? by Liliana Hart Read Free Book Online

her.
    She scrubbed her body from head to toe and washed her hair with the soap Wulf had given her. Once she was clean, she sat on the grassy bank, finger-combing her hair as her body dried beneath the heat of the sun.
    By the time she stood to leave, the sun was just beneath the edge of the trees and the sky had taken a pinkish hue. Nothing good could come from being caught in the woods after dark. She grabbed the roots she’d cleaned earlier and ran back up the path to the cottage, her body primed in anticipation of seeing Wulf once more.
    But when she entered the cottage, she found herself completely alone. She was confused by the disappointment that coursed through her body. Shouldn’t she have been more afraid? Logically, fear should have been the emotion most prevalent, but something had happened to her body the moment she’d been cut by one of the wolves. Caution and fear no longer existed. Not even the threat of her own death could make her cower in the presence of her lover.
    She knew she had to find a way to escape, and if she was ever going to break the hold Wulf had on her then she knew she must also find a way to kill him. But she’d use the time she had until then to enjoy the pleasures he could bring her body.
    Phillipa hung the roots in the larder next to the other herbs and took stock of what the kitchen had to offer. She had no experience in the kitchen, but it looked as if they had everything they could possibly need for several months. Even as she had the thought her stomach rumbled.
    “No time like the present,” she said, foraging for something she could fix easily.
    She settled on a crusty loaf of round bread and some cheese. Once she’d filled her stomach she decided to explore the cottage. So far she’d only seen the front parlor, the kitchen, a small library and the large bedroom at the back of the house. She’d completely overlooked the upstairs in her exhaustion the day before.
    She found a thick candle and some matches in a drawer and lit it with shaking hands. The banister was smooth under her hand as she walked up the steps. Anticipation gathered in her breast, though she didn’t know why. Perhaps because she was going through another’s home, snooping through private rooms, and she didn’t know the consequences of doing such a thing. Would Wulf be angry? Or would he want her to treat the cottage as her own?
    The first door on the left was a small bedroom, sparsely furnished and lacking in color or frivolity. As she continued opening the five doors on the left side of the hallway, she found no changes to the rooms. They were all identical, down to the way the sheets were folded back on the bed and the angle of the washstand in the corner.
    Her palms were damp as she started opening the doors on the right side of the hallway. There were only two, but still she hesitated as her hand gripped the knob. Her pulse fluttered in her neck and she took a deep breath as she pushed the first door open.
    Disappointment filled her as she held up her candle and saw the large room was empty. There were no windows in this room, and her candle barely penetrated the darkness, so she walked further in the room.
    Curiosity filled her. The floor was wood and polished to a gleam, but it sloped toward the center where a strange drain sat in the middle of the floor. As she walked the perimeter of the room, she noticed the manacles attached to the walls and the chains hanging from the ceiling. Her breath had quickened and she practically ran back to the door to escape the frightening room. It was obviously a dungeon of some sort, and she hoped she never had to experience it herself.
    She closed the door behind her and walked a few steps to the other door on that side of the hallway. Nothing in her wildest imagination could come up with anything worse than what she’d found in the other room, so she gathered her courage and pushed open the door.
    She knew as soon as she stepped inside the room that she wasn’t