Free When Sparks Fly by Sabrina Jeffries

to hunt for a Yule log tomorrow, and that will be exhausting.”
    â€œSleep well, my dear,” her aunt said softly.
    Ellie pressed a kiss to her cheek, then headed into the next room. But as she settled into bed beside Meg, the mystery of the previous baron’s death continued to absorb her.
    The very idea of Lord Thorncliff arranging his ­brother’s death was so unfair! She couldn’t believe it. She wouldn’t believe it. Nonetheless, she spent a restless night in lurid imaginings that only ended when she fell into a dreamless sleep in the wee hours of the morn.
    When she awakened, she realized two things at once. She’d slept later than usual. And the house was quiet. Too quiet, given that the boys generally woke at dawn. Even Meg was missing, although a peek into Aunt Alys’s room revealed her curled up with her mother, having a story read to her.
    â€œWhere are the boys?” Ellie asked.
    Aunt Alys looked up. “Outside, I imagine. Percy said that’s where they were going while they waited for breakfast. I told them to let you sleep.”
    Had the boys headed into the woods alone? Surely not. It wasn’t like them to go so far without breakfast. But a niggling sense that something was wrong made her rush to the window in her room that overlooked the woods in back. As she threw open the casement, she heard a roar that was unmistakably his lordship’s.
    Oh, no, the stone barn. A quick glance showed the boys frozen in their tracks at the door as his lordship stalked toward them. Bother it all, that wasn’t good.
    After throwing her cloak over her night rail and buttoning it up swiftly, she shoved her feet into her half boots. Then she fairly flew down the stairs and out along the path to where the barn squatted a short distance away. As she neared the group, she spotted the barn door’s padlock, with what looked like a wire hanging out of it. They’d tried to pick the lock? He was going to kill them!
    Lord Thorncliff hoisted Percy and Charlie in the air by the backs of their coats. As Tim stayed well out of his reach, he raged at them all. “Do you never listen to anyone, you fools? I said not to go near it, and I meant it! By God, I’ll cane every one of you for this—”
    â€œMy lord, please!” she cried, hurrying forward.
    As he turned a wild-­eyed gaze on her, she stopped short, remembering the terror on his face when he’d ranted about why they must stay away from the barn. What had he said? That he kept things in there because too many people have access to things at the mine. There’s too much chance for a visitor or a stranger to get hurt.
    Like his brother?
    Oh, Lord, that’s why the idea of anyone going near his explosives enraged him. And probably why he was experimenting to find safer ways to use them, ways that she and the children were jeopardizing by their mere presence here, since he seemed reluctant to work on his experiments while they were his guests.
    How could she blame him for being angry at the children? He was trying to keep them safe.
    â€œI have to punish them,” he said in a hollow voice, his eyes fixed on her.
    She swallowed. “Yes, you’re right.”
    He blinked.
    â€œWhat?” Percy cried as he squirmed in the baron’s grasp. “Ellie, you can’t let him cane us!”
    Glaring at Percy, she crossed her arms over her chest. Aunt Alys wouldn’t be happy about this, but neither would she want to see her boys blown to bits. “He warned you not to go near it. He couldn’t have made it more clear. You were the ones who didn’t heed his warnings.”
    â€œI told you we should have waited!” Tim cried at the two older boys. “I told you he hadn’t left the manor yet!”
    Lord Thorncliff’s face flushed a mottled red. “You thought to avoid me, did you?” He shook Percy. “Young fools—thank God I had to fetch something