Free If He's Noble (Wherlocke Book 7) (Paranormal Historical Romance) by Hannah Howell Page A

it startled Smudge.”
    “So she tossed you.”
    “I fell, lost my grip when she bucked in alarm.”
    Bened gave her a look that silently asked just how gullible she thought he was. “Of course. Tell me, how close was this shot?”
    “Not close at all. It hit a tree several feet behind us.”
    “Would it, perhaps, have been a tree you had just ridden by?”
    “Perhaps he mistook us for game?”
    “Strange-looking game. Sounds as if he might need spectacles too. Very strong ones. Or he was a man who had little practice shooting at moving targets or one who even thought you might pause for a moment to admire the tree.” He could not fully suppress a smile when she growled at him.
    “If someone was trying to kill me, then why did he leave me lying in the road? I would have been a very easy kill. As it was I had only just roused myself when I heard a carriage coming. I got out of the way then.”
    The image of her sprawled in the road while a carriage raced toward her chilled Bened to the bone. “He did not check on you because he believed the carriage would finish the job he had begun. I believe that if you think back, each and every problem you have had in finding Simeon can be attributed to intentional interference.” Her shoulders slumped and he resisted the urge to comfort her. She knew he was right and it was past time she faced the dangerous days ahead of her with a sharp, clear eye.
    “She knew what I was about from the beginning. When she did not get blamed for Papa’s death, she probably began to immediately plot the many ways she could get rid of me and Simeon.” Primrose shook her head. “Long years of resentment and envy have twisted her mind. It was always there. That ability to be rid of anything and anyone in her way or which annoyed her, has always been there. It was just never turned against us before.”
    “The death of your father made her see the chance to get everything.”
    “Which makes it even more plausible that she killed him when he threatened to take away what she had managed to hang on to, all through his generosity. And she would only kill the man who held the purse if she believed she could soon get it all.”
    “True and that is truly a shame. He sounds as if he was a good man.”
    “He was. He did not much like his own brother and certainly not his wife but he did as he felt honor and family duty demanded and took them in when they were in trouble. That she may have killed him, the one person who actually helped her, only makes her crimes more heinous.” Primrose took a deep breath and let it out slowly, releasing the heavy grief that could still swamp her when thinking of her father. “Is your father still alive?”
    “Aye, although whenever we all gather he claims we will be the death of him.” Bened had to smile when he thought of his father complaining about his lively brood. “I tell him it is our mother we should all worry about since he made her bear so many big fellows.”
    “No sisters?”
    “Only the women my brothers have chosen. Good choices each one. And six nephews. Only one niece.”
    “And very spoiled, I suspect, with so many watching out for her.”
    He laughed as he thought of little Angharad who, at just five, was already ruling the whole family. One tear fell from her big brown eyes and every male Vaughn within reach groveled to make her smile. “Oh, very spoiled indeed but, fortunately, she shows signs of having a very good heart, so we do worry when she wields her power over all of us.”
    He abruptly shut up before he rambled on about his large family anymore. It suddenly occurred to him that he was boasting a little, perhaps even trying to catch her interest with the size and closeness of his family. Considering all she was facing now, he decided it might be just a little cruel to continue.
    A movement in the trees on the left side of the road caught his attention and he decided he needed to check it out more closely. “Keep riding and pay no