After Midnight Read Online Free Page A

should make the best of the situation."
    Emily sat straighter in her chair, smiling. "You mean the Gutenberg?"
    He pointed with one slender finger. "Wait until you see it, my dear."
    If Emily hadn't known better, she would have thought the Scotsman was flirting with her. Not that she'd ever had much experience with that. She left all the cooing and eyelash batting to Ruth.
    "Let me tell you how I obtained the masterpiece," he said.
    She leaned forward, filled with excitement. She could tell by the sparkle in his dark eyes that he was as fascinated by the rare Bible as she was. At this moment she could have cared less if Gordon Fraser thought he was a vampire or President McKinley.
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Chapter Three

     
    "I think he likes you." Ruth giggled and snuggled deeper beneath the down bedcovers. The chamber was dark save for the light of the fire in the fireplace. The long case clock on the landing outside their door struck ten.
    Emily slid closer to her friend in the big bed so that they might share body warmth. The wind howled outside and the fire crackled and spit as it was fed from the gusts blowing down the chimney. "Oh, he does not. He was merely being polite."
    "Polite, my fangs." Ruth pushed up on one elbow to face Emily. "I saw the way his brown eyes twinkled. The way his hand
accidentally
touched yours when he poured you more wine. He'd have rattled on all night about those old dusty books if I'd not fallen asleep with my face in the pudding."
    "You're being ridiculous." Emily rolled onto her side to face Ruth. Despite the cold Highland air, she was toasty warm beneath the weight of the quilts. "He was only being polite. We share the same interests."
    "Each other?" Ruth purred.
    Emily flopped down on her back. Ruth knew her too well, better sometimes than she knew herself. She was captivated by Gordon Fraser, as much for his mind as his striking good looks. But she wasn't ready to admit that attraction, not to Ruth, not even to herself. "Ruth. I am a professional woman. I do not form
interests
in my employers." She cut her eyes at Ruth. "And certainly not my vampire employers."
    Ruth burst into a fit of giggles and fell onto the mattress, kicking her legs wildly. "A vampire! Can you believe he actually said that with a straight face? I think he was hurt that we didn't believe him."
    Emily elbowed her companion. "Ruth, hush. You're too loud. What if he hears you?"
    Ruth popped up in the bed again. "You mean, what if Igor hears. Next thing you know," she said in a spooky voice, "he'll be crawling up the sides of the castle wall in haste to tell his master."
    "Ruth!" Emily tried to sound appalled, but a moment later, she was laughing with her. "It really is quite funny," she whispered. "Gordon Fraser a vampire… a rather handsome vampire," she dared.
    "A minor eccentricity," Ruth said. "Considering the man's obvious virility. I'd take him for myself, but he's not my type. I prefer a more… physical man."
    Emily tugged the bedcovers to her chin and stared at the canopy overhead. The light and dark shadows thrown from the fireplace made eerie patterns on the rich fabric. Suddenly she was a little frightened, not of the eerie castle, or the hulking Angus, but by her own feelings.
    "I'm telling you," Ruth whispered as her laughter subsided. "This one may be your prince."
     
    Gordon sat in a chair beneath a reading lamp and attempted to concentrate on the copy of
The Canterbury Tales
he'd just acquired from Great Britain. He strove to hear the beauty of the cadence of Chaucer's middle English, but to no avail. Each time he tackled another stanza, Miss Emily MacDougal, the American, interfered. No matter how he tried to push her from his thoughts, she slipped in again, all bright-eyed, warm, despite her businesslike attitude, and filled with the same love of books he possessed.
    Finally, in exasperation, Gordon set aside the book and retrieved the snifter of brandy Angus had brought him.
    "Ye would want another book, master?"