Free Secrets of the Highwayman by Sara Mackenzie Page B

him a slow, angry longing for vengeance.
    “You won’t get away with it,” Nathaniel told the voice. “Not this time. This time I’m going to stop you.”

Nine
    Melanie had found antiseptic and tweezers in the antiquated bathroom. Now she stood by the mullioned windows in the big upstairs room, head bent over her throbbing palm, trying to decide on the best way to extract the splinter. It was deep, but it looked as if it was all in one piece. She leaned closer, adjusting her grip on the tweezers. If she could just get hold of the end and ease it—
    “Can I help, Melanie?”
    His voice directly behind her startled her so much that the tweezers jerked violently, driving the splinter farther into her flesh. “Ow!” She spun around, heart thumping wildly, furious that he’d crept up on her.
    Nathaniel Raven, with his hazel eyes gleaming wickedly and his mouth quirked up into an equally wicked smile, stared at Melanie.
    “My apologies,” he said politely. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” His gaze dropped to her hand. Before shecould begin to tell him what she thought of him, he’d taken her palm in a gentle but firm grip. “How did this happen?” he asked, brushing one finger lightly over the injury.
    She should stop him, but his presence, his touch paralyzed her. “The wooden gate into the garden,” she said, watching him closely.
    He held her eyes a moment longer, and then returned to his examination.
    “You are real then?” she blurted.
    He gave a deep chuckle, lifting her hand to the light.
    “Where did you go?” she asked, as much to distract herself from the unreality of the situation, and his warm touch, as because she wanted an answer.
    “There’s another way into the grounds, a little farther along the wall—a gate for livestock. I went that way. I would have told you where I was going, but you were too busy talking to yourself. Then I saw you with a man.” He raised a dark eyebrow, waiting.
    “That was Eddie,” she said. Her faculties seemed to be returning to normal—at least her heart had stopped racing—although with him standing so close it was difficult to breathe evenly. Ridiculous schoolgirl stuff. She’d have to get control of it before he noticed, if he hadn’t already. “Eddie’s the caretaker.”
    “He looked more like a play actor.”
    “You mean the jacket?” Melanie smiled. “You’re not exactly dressed inconspicuously yourself.”
    “Oh?”
    “Well…you look like Mr. Darcy.”
    “I am dressed like a gentleman, Melanie.”
    “Is that what you—oh!”
    Nathaniel had bent his head over her palm again and suddenly raised it to his mouth. His tongue found the splinter. Startled, she tried to pull away, but he was gripping her too tightly. White teeth closed on the protruding end of the splinter and pulled. It came out smoothly, and although Melanie hissed, the pain was minimal, and she was more surprised than hurt. Well, to be honest, she was shocked.
    What he had just done seemed so… primitive.
    Melanie couldn’t imagine any of the men she knew doing that; they’d be either too squeamish or too diffident.
    Nathaniel Raven was holding her palm to the light, a frown between his brows as he checked to see whether or not there was any of the splinter remaining, and then, with a satisfied grunt, he released her.
    Melanie automatically reached for the antiseptic and applied it. “Thank you. I-I was beginning to think I’d imagined you,” she said, screwing the lid back onto the bottle. She laughed nervously, in a girly way she hadn’t done for years. Oh God …She resurrected her no-nonsense look and fixed him with it. “Perhaps in a minute I’ll wake up at home in bed in London. What do you think?”
    He had been watching her apply the antiseptic with interest, and now he took the small bottle from her, turning it over in his hands, examining the label. “No, you didn’t dream me,” he said, twisting the lid for himself and sniffing the contents with a