Dark Hero; A Gothic Romance (Reluctant Heroes) Read Online Free Page B

Dark Hero; A Gothic Romance (Reluctant Heroes)
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lad.
There’s over ten pounds here.”
    Money. With Barnaby, it was always about the money.
    Disgusted by his mentor’s greed, Kieran closed his eyes and
tried to recall the fleeting impression he experienced moments ago of O’Rourke
dressed in black holding a bloody sword in his hand. He had a silk sheath tied
around his head, a mask of sorts, pushed up over his brow. Hard blue eyes
stared back at Kieran in the vision, daring him to give the warrior a reason to
run him through. Sails furled behind the man. The smell of sulfur choked the
air as black smoke billowed up ominously behind the dark clad figure.
    “He wasn’t a highwayman.” Kieran murmured, gesturing toward
the empty portal where the mysterious stranger exited moments earlier.
“O’Rourke was pirate.”
     
     

 
     
    Chapter
Three
     
     
    Three years later, August 1798, Rural England
    Elizabeth delivered the laundry packets, collected her fees
and stopped at the mercantile to purchase a bit of sugar. It was a luxury they
couldn’t afford, but it would cheer Old Sheila. And at her great age Sheila
deserved any indulgence they could give her before she passed into the
Summerland, the Celtic place of the Dead.
    Today was Elizabeth’s eighteenth birthday. It was also the
Festival of Lughnassa according to the Celtic calendar. Sheila always said that
it was fortunate Elizabeth was born on the day honoring the Celtic god of the
sun, as she was the last ray of hope for the O’Flahertys.
    Elizabeth didn’t believe in the old ways. She’d outgrown the
fanciful stories her grandmother told of fairies and elementals long ago, when
her mother died and her childhood ended. She pretended to believe, to keep her
grandmother happy and give the old woman a sense of purpose as she passed on her
peculiar knowledge. Elizabeth escorted the old woman out into the clearing in
the woods every full moon and watched over her as she performed her mysterious
rituals. Then she would guide the dear old woman home again. Fairytales no
longer appealed to Elizabeth, nor did the presumption that one could change
their circumstances by chanting over a handful of herbs under a full moon. She
believed in hard work, in foraging for wood to light their hearth, not
enchanted sprites or mysterious brownies who did favors for mortals in need.
    And wasn’t the proof of her conviction in her hand? She
clutched the small packet in her fist, bought from her pay for laundering
shirts for the bachelors in town. They couldn’t afford a real feast in honor of
the Celtic god Lugh but tonight Granny Sheila would have sugar in her tea!
    Captain Fletcher provided them with a roof over their heads
and that was all they could say about the dilapidated cottage he took them to
years ago on that cold December night. It turned out that Sheila O’Flaherty
provided the perfect foil for the captain’s schemes. He could hide in the
country without fear of the authorities ever finding him, for what connection
would an old Irish woman and her two grandchildren have with a notorious
gambler wanted for murdering a viscount’s son?
    The captain came home a sparse few days out of each month,
when his luck ran out. The arrangement gave the siblings a measure of freedom
that few could boast of at such a young age. Sheila taught Elizabeth how to
cook. They raised a garden and kept a few chickens to sell the eggs. They took
in laundry and mending. Michael acquired odd jobs with the blacksmith and the
butcher. Recently, he’d been given a position as stable boy at the Hamilton
Estate up the road.
    Ah, life might even be called good. Except Captain Fletcher
was scheming again. As Elizabeth came of an age to be properly married, he was
busy trying to secure a match for her from among his gaming associates in the
hope of settling some of his debts.
    Elizabeth was determined to evade his snare. She had it all
worked out in her head. She’d run away before she’d agree to such an unsavory
match. She would take Sheila

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