Page 10 of Wolfhaven

“You’re one to talk,” he snapped. “That cottage is hardly fit for human habitation.”

“I am a peasant, not a duke. I am permitted to have low standards. You, sir, are a conundrum. Now, what form of sustenance will I find in your kitchen? A raw deer carcass, perhaps?” Miss Ballard propped her chin on her fist with an impish gleam in her eye.

“What’s left of a loaf of bread, some cheese, and cured ham.” He threw back the blanket. “I’ll fetch it.”

“No, you will not.” Abruptly she stood. The chair legs scraped on the wood parquet floor. “Getting you up the stairs once was hard enough. You stay there.”

She departed and returned several minutes later with all three objects arrayed on the silver platter that had fallen off the wall, now clean and free of dust. When she set it across his knees, his stomach rumbled ravenously. He bit a chunk of the stale bread and chewed with pure determination.

“Go easy, your lordship,” she said, eyeing him.

“Gareth,” he snarled between bites. “Or Lucan, if my given name is too familiar for your liking.”

She tipped her head to stare at him. “Are you always this surly?”

He merely grunted in response.

“I suppose the lord of the manor has returned at last to restore this mansion to its former glory,” she mused while he ate, surveying the extent of the damage. “A monumental task lies ahead of you.”

He shook his head and had to finish the bite he’d just taken before choking out, “I’m not here to restore this hellhole. I’m here to finish destroying it.”

Miss Ballard’s striking eyes flared wide.

Chapter 6

Evaine

“I am here to inventory what can be sold off before I have the building condemned. I intend to relinquish the family claim to the estate in payment of back taxes. Let the crown deal with this hellhole,” Lord Lucan said in a low tone that reminded her of a wolf’s warning growl.

Evaine swallowed her astonishment. In the candlelight, he was more hideous and yet more human than he had seemed when he came to her clearing earlier.

“I only meant to stay for a day,” he continued when she said nothing in response. “Everything conspires to keep me here. First the delayed train. Then the difficulty of securing a horse when I arrived in the village. Now you,” he grumbled petulantly. “I have made a list, but there is much more to do. I fear I shall be stuck here for at least a week. Perhaps longer.”

“Certainly longer,” Evaine said firmly. “Your head injury means you need weeks of rest. Can someone drive out to collect you and take you home?”

“No,” he said. “This is the last time I ever intend to set foot on this property. I didn’t want to come in person, but without a list of any valuable items that might appeal to a collector, I couldn’t interest any auction houses in coming out. I needed to gather information first. Fucking American robber barons buying up half of Europe,” he muttered darkly.

Evaine licked her lips. She didn’t exactly want to spend more time with this strange man and his dark secrets, but she sensed an opportunity. “I could help you with your inventory.”

His piercing gaze cut to her. She held herself very still. Waiting with bated breath.

“I suppose you must be literate if you were carrying around that foraging book.”

Ass. “Indeed, I am well educated enough to recognize a Rembrandt when I saw one. A Caravaggio, too. There was a Chinese vase in the kitchen that could be worth a great deal. I pray no one has been actually using it to hold flowers, assuming it’s authentic.”

“How valuable?” he demanded with suspicion.

“At least a thousand pounds.” Evaine guessed with a shrug, feigning nonchalance. She needed to convince him that she could help him in his strange endeavor. “An Imperial Peachbloom Glaze vase is highly sought-after. If it’s not a fake,” she added.

“You’re hired,” he said. “We start tomorrow. Now get out of my house and let me sleep.”

“Promise me you won’t do anything stupid like attempt to go downstairs,” she said.

“I make no vows to women,” he said tersely. “Of any sort.”

“I can see why you’re not married, then.” She bit back a smile when he made a grunt that bordered upon a chuckle.

“Most people would say it’s because of my face.”