Free By Love Unveiled by Deborah Martin Page B

passion in his eyes died as quickly as it had been born. “ ’Tis no unwilling maiden who trembles in my arms.”
    Though her body still throbbed with the feelings he’d roused in her, she would never let him know it. “I met your price. And now you demand another?”
    Her matter-of-fact tone forced a scowl to his face, but at least he released her. “You talk like a fishwife discussing her wares, but that kiss was more than payment. An honest woman would admit it.”
    “And an honorable man would acknowledge that the bargain was met and would torment me no more with his whims.”
    He raked her body with a thorough glance, and wherever his gaze lighted, her skin heated. His eyes lifted at last to her lips, which she knew were swollen and red from his kiss.
    So as he watched, she deliberately wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
    He stiffened. Pivoting away, he snatched up the bags of plants and thrust them at her. “Take them and get off my land.”
    But when she reached for them, he closed his fingers around her wrists.
    “Run back to your aunt, to your poultices and patients,” he ground out. “But next time I find you lurking where you shouldn’t, I won’t take a mere kiss for payment. Next time the stakes will be far higher.”
    With that, he released her. Then he gave a mocking bow, whirled on his heels, and stalked from the garden, leaving her to stand there vainly attempting to still the frenzied beating of her heart.

Chapter Six
    The jury, passing on the prisoner’s life,
    May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two
    Guiltier than him they try.
    —Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
    T wo days had passed and still Garett couldn’t banish Mina from his mind. As he rode Cerberus briskly down the road bordering his fields, he cursed himself for his obsession.
    But he knew what caused it. When she’d shed her cloak, she hadn’t revealed her secrets, and her secrecy plagued him. One moment he believed her a perfect innocent, and the next he wondered if she worked for his uncle.
    And if she did?
    Then she was dangerous. She distracted him from his purpose, and that wasn’t acceptable, for he meant to revenge himself on his uncle no matter what the cost. Returning to Falkham hadn’t lessened that determination one whit.
    His vengeance had begun with his appearance before the House of Lords to regain his lands. Although thecircumstances of his exile hadn’t been revealed, his sudden return had spawned rumors, which Garett and Will had fed with truths. Those rumors were even now growing to assurances, and it wouldn’t be long before society would draw the right conclusions about Tearle. As suspicion of the man’s duplicity spread, his uncle would soon find it difficult to show his face in public.
    Then Garett could begin tightening the noose. Already he was carefully laying the groundwork. And soon, very soon—
    The sound of men shouting pierced the afternoon quiet. Jerking Cerberus about, Garett spotted tendrils of smoke curling upward. Damn it all, his fields were afire! As a scream rent the air, he spurred his stallion into a run.
    Oh, God, not again. Ten years hadn’t dimmed his memory of that day on the road with his parents, of Will keeping him from running out of the woods where they’d gone to relieve themselves while the soldiers—
    He forced the past from his mind as he galloped up to the scorched patch of field from which smoke still rose. A curse escaped him when he saw the stranger lying motionless, his shirt and doublet drenched in blood.
    The two fellows shouting at each other worked for Garett. The taller one, a villager named Ashton hired to aid in the harvest, still gripped a bloody sword, which he brandished at the tenant of the fields in question.
    Garett dismounted. “Stop this madness!”
    Ashton jerked about, his sword at the ready, but heblanched and dropped his weapon when he recognized his master. “Milord, I didn’t realize—”
    “Tell me what happened,” Garett