Free ROOK AND RAVEN: The Celtic Kingdom Trilogy Book One by Julie Harvey Delcourt Page A

for tonight.  Based on Tamworth’s hurry Sebastian could probably expect this to be his last night to be free to do as he pleased. Tamworth might also not have had time to propose yet again; hopefully. This could actually be an opportunity for a clear field.  
    He continued up the street toward the brightly lit mansion only to see a coach pull up and Jessy come down the steps.  He stopped and leaned against the rail of a neighboring house to watch her.  He saw her turnabout and look around her curiously and he knew she had felt him watching her.  She didn’t see him and so he was free to follow her with his eyes.  She was even more of a feast for the eyes than he had remembered.  She had been lovely as a coltish girl but as a woman she was stunning and clearly aristocratic.  He had been a simpleton to treat her as anything other than the lady she was.  There had always been a sense of imperious self-confidence about her even when up to her knees in mud digging mussels or with a fishing pole in her hand.
    He discerned the coat of arms on the coach and suddenly wanted to haul her out.  It was a definite feeling of possessiveness and something much worse; he wanted to deny it was jealousy but the green eyed monster was roaring.  He had rushed here from David’s house intent on speaking with her.  Did he follow her or not?  Where was she going on her own in that coach when the Duke was obviously off on some pressing business?  Was she going home?  Should he follow her there or wait until tomorrow?  Not knowing when he would have this chance to speak with her again he decided to follow.  “You fellow!” he approached a footman. “Where is that coach headed?”
    The footman looked a bit furtive and strangely reticent.  Sebastian held out a crown and repeated his question.  The footman’s eyes nearly popped at the largesse and he glanced about again before speaking.
    “The lady is heading to Bridge House milord,” he said as if the words were being dragged from him and were barely audible.
    “The devil you say!” he couldn’t contain his surprise.  He didn’t believe that place had changed much over the years so just what the bloody hell was she doing going there?  
    “Get me a hackney fellow, quickly!” he ordered.
    “Yes milord, right away!” and the young man bounded off to call one.  It arrived almost immediately and Sebastian was rattling away in pursuit.
    “If you believe in devils,” a more senior footman pronounced quietly, “I’d say one was after Mrs. Powers as we speak. God help the sweet lady!”
    Sebastian found himself in a black introspection as the coach headed closer to the river.   He had spilled all the unpleasant truth to David, even the parts the Foreign Office would not want anyone outside their secretive circles to know.  It had been painful not to mention embarrassing at certain points.  As much as he had shared with David, David had also been highly informative in his own right.
    David had made him realize there was much he had not known, much that he had not really considered.  She had given, he had taken, and when he had finally got the nerve to do what he had thought the right thing, he had been stopped; forcibly.  He hadn’t been good enough for her then, he knew that now, but the last years had changed him deeply, and he hoped, for the better. 
    It was a miracle she had not only survived, but prospered.  Questions remained as to why she felt impelled to run away like that, but he had every intention of finding out.  Had his mother confronted her?  Threatened to reveal she was no longer a virgin? He could only be grateful she had people like David and the Powers family to act as her guardian angels.  That didn’t mean if
    Michael Powers were alive he wouldn’t want to wring his neck.  The thought of her carrying another man’s name made him ill and he refused to think of another man’s hands on her, no matter how good that man might have