Wicked Read Free Page B

they will return my guardian to me. You’ll see.”
    He rose quickly. “You cannot go alone!”
    “I don’t intend to,” she assured him dryly. “We must head home first, and I must change. And you, too, must change.”
    “Me?”
    “Indeed!”
    “Change?”
    “Perception is everything, Ralph,” she told him sagely. He looked puzzled. “Never mind. Come along. I think we need to hurry.” She froze suddenly, turning back on him. “Ralph, no one knows, right? No one knows that the Earl of Carlyle has Tristan?”
    “No one but me. And you now, of course.”
    She felt a cold clutch of bony fingers encircling her heart, reaching into her throat. Good God, no matter what kind of a beast he was considered to be, the Earl of Carlyle couldn’t simply…murder a man.
    “Ralph, we must move, and quickly!” she said, catching his arm and dragging him along.
    “T HE GENTLEMAN is resting nicely,” Evelyn Prior said, coming into the den. She fell into one of the huge upholstered wingback chairs that sat before the fire. Beside her, the master of the house had taken a position in the matching chair, brooding as he stared into the flames and scratched the huge head of his Irish wolfhound, Ajax.
    Brian Stirling, Earl of Carlyle, looked over at her, brows knitted, deep in thought. After a moment, he said, “How badly is he hurt?”
    “Oh, not badly, I dare say. The physician said that he was merely shaken and sore, and he didn’t believe the manhad broken any bones, though he did acquire some bruising from climbing the walls, then falling. But I think he’ll be fine in a few days’ time.”
    “He will not be crawling about the house in the night?”
    Evelyn smiled. “Good heavens, no. Corwin is on guard in the hallway. And as you know, we keep the crypts locked tight. Only you and I have keys to the gates below. Even if he were to wander, there would be nothing he could find. And he won’t wander. Since he was in some pain, he has been given a good dose of laudanum.”
    “He won’t wander. Corwin will see to that,” Brian said with certainty. His staff at Carlyle Castle was small, far too small for the upkeep of such a property. Everyone here was not just in service, but considered a friend. And each man and woman was loyal to the core—far more than appearances would imply.
    “You are right, of course. Corwin will be entirely diligent,” Evelyn agreed.
    “What do you think possessed the man to do such a thing?” Brian asked. He turned his gaze from the flames to Evelyn once again. “The grounds themselves are so overgrown, a veritable jungle. It’s amazing he would risk a trek through them.”
    “And the estate was so beautifully kept when your parents were alive!” she murmured.
    “A year of English rain, my dear, can do wonders,” Brian said. “So we have a jungle and wildlife! What would make him risk it?”
    “The promise of great riches to be stolen,” she said.
    “You don’t believe that the man is working for someone, do you?” he asked sharply.
    She lifted her hands helplessly. “Honestly? No, I believe he came to steal something of value, and nothing more. Yet, is it possible that he’s working for someone, seekingto find out what you have and what you know? Yes, it’s possible.”
    “I’ll find out tomorrow,” Brian said. He knew the sound of his voice was chilling. He hadn’t meant for it to be so, but as far as Carlyle Castle and his current activities went, he did feel a certain ruthlessness. He was embittered, he admitted, feeling a strong right to be so. There was more than the problem of the past to be solved. There was the future.
    Evelyn looked at him anxiously, worried about his tone. “He has said that his name is Tristan Montgomery. And he swears that he was acting alone, though you already know that, since you were with Corwin and Shelby when he was found.”
    “Yes, I know. He also claimed to have merely ‘stumbled’ onto the castle grounds. How one stumbles over a