Dawns Everlastin' (former title: Dusk Before Dawn) Book 2 Read Free Page A

please...." She affected a sickeningly sweet smile.
"...please forgive my ill mood."
    "Tea, Miss Bennett?"
    "No thank you, Mr . Ingliss. What I
really need is a telephone."
    Raking a slow, measuring
look over her, Roan gave a shake of his head. "No phone. No
electricity."
    Laura crossed half the
distance to the marble coffee table in front of the settee. "You
can't be serious!"
    "Aye, lass." His gaze lifted
to the portrait. "No' long ago, a Yank abou' yer age came to this
bloody place. She died here. When the house is verra, verra still,
you can feel her presence—"
    "Oh shut up! I don't believe
in ghosts."
    His unsettling gaze searched
her features. "Yer car's beyond repair. And if the howlin' o' the
wind is any indication, the storm's worsenin'. I would say a good
part o' yer vacation is goin' to be spent wi'in these
walls."
    "Why are you trying to
frighten me?"
    "I doubt the boogeymon could
frighten you, Miss Bennett. But you see, I know this house and the powers tha'
control it. Old Lannie is undoubtedly derivin' some perverse
pleasure in burdenin' me wi' you and the laddies."
    "Burdening you!"
    Laura hastened to the side
of the settee, her hands balled at her sides. Bright splotches of
red stained her cheeks. The wild disarray of her short curly hair
lent her a look of almost comical madness. "I need to get to
Edinburgh."
    Roan's eyes rolled up to
deliver her an amused look. "Be serious. I'm no' abou' to risk ma
life ou' in this storm."
    "Then who can I contact who
would be willing to help me?"
    Shifting his gaze to the
coffee table, he ran his hands up and down his face. "I've no
idea."
    "I don't believe
you."
    Releasing a short burst of
breath, he got to his feet and faced her. His eyebrows drew down in
an angry scowl as he informed, "Believe this, lass: if it were in
ma power to send you and yer sons on yer way, you'd've been gone
hours ago."
    "They're my
nephews."
    "Ma condolences," he
grumbled. Seating himself, he propped his feet atop the coffee
table, one ankle crossing the other. Despite his determination to
ignore the twitching of his skin, he crossed his arms against his
chest and rubbed the irritating sensation moving along his
flesh.
    Laura gulped past the
tightness in her throat. It was obvious the direct approach wasn't
going to work. Taking a deep, fortifying breath, she said in her
most beguiling tone, "I need help. Please, Mr. Ingliss, you must
help me."
    His eyes closed and he
lowered his head. Laura stared down at him, using all her willpower
not to succumb to the tears pressing at the back of her eyes. This
arrogant stranger had no idea how hard it was for her to ask help
of anyone. But she was frightened, not of the woman who supposedly
haunted this house, but of what to do about the three lively
spirits asleep on the second floor.
    This man kept his
heartstrings well secreted from outsiders, but she had to find
them, even if it meant groveling.
    "My sister-in-law died
giving birth to Alby," she blurted, and rushed on, "Jack, my
brother, remarried a little over a year ago; a nineteen-year-old
British girl named Carrie Wilks. Eleven months ago, Jack suffered a
stroke and died within a few days."
    Tipping her head to one
side, she looked to see if she'd spurred the slightest reaction in
him.
    Nothing?
    "He was thirty-seven," she
added, but to her chagrin, it came out sounding like a cold-hearted
afterthought.
    Her heart slowly rose into
her throat. His silence was a blaring indication that he wasn't
going to make this easy.
    "We weren't a close family,"
she went on, a genuine tremor in her tone. "I...didn't even come to
England to attend his funeral. Neither did my parents. They
couldn't bring themselves to interrupt their Hawaiian vacation, and
I was...engrossed in a project at work."
    Ahh. His shoulders jerked.
He is actually listening.
    "Two weeks ago, Carrie
called. I'd never spoken to her before that day. She was crying,
pleading with me to come for a visit. She claimed the boys were
having a