Sea of Fire Read Online Free

glanced up to see Hannah enter the parlor carrying a well-filled glass of brandy, which she handed to him. “How is she?” he asked, accepting the drink.
    “The powder put her to sleep all right. Poor child. I guess I would assume the worst, too, if I read what she told me the note said. Yet, it doesn’t necessarily mean Mr. Corry is dead. Do ye think?”
    “Hannah, I don’t know what to think. My brother’s actions are strange, to say the least, and don’t fit his character, but I know he wrote this. I’ll just have to find him.” He swallowed a large gulp of the brandy.
    “Thanks for the drink. You could have thrown me out as Elizabeth suggested you do.”
    “Regardless of what yer brother may have said, he don’t strike me that same way.”
    He gave her a weak smile at the offhanded compliment to his brother. What had his brother Adam done? True, he had been extremely despondent since the death of his wife a year ago, but Christian never thought he’d go to the extreme he apparently had. If only he could find him and sit him down and talk to him. He was sure there was a valid explanation for everything.
    “Can you tell me anything at all you remember about Adam?” he asked, “especially the last night when he called on Elizabeth.”
    “He was always a gentleman, but we never struck up any lengthy conversations, though the two spent most of their time here, or with Charlotte Godfrey and her friends. As far as I know, nothing unusual happened the last night she saw him.” She paused and placed her hands on her hips. “That is, unless ye mean his asking her to marry him.”
    The statement brought him to his feet. “Bloody hell. The situation is getting worse by the minute.”
    “Elizabeth Louise Corry is a prize for any man, and don’t ye be forgetting it. I think ‘tis time ye did take yer leave.” Hannah defended Elizabeth.
    “It’s not what I meant at all. It’s just that none of this makes sense. My brother left our estates in North Ireland to come to Dublin to secure a structure that would be appropriate for an orphanage. I’ve learned that no one has seen him in the last two months except Elizabeth and her friends.” He took another swallow of brandy, set the glass down on a side table and put on his coat to leave.
    “What are ye going to do?” Hannah asked. She followed him from the parlor.
    “I don’t know. Right now, I’m going back to our family town house to think about all this. I’ll call on Elizabeth again in a day or so. Hopefully, she will have calmed down and will remember some detail that will enable me to locate my brother.”
    “Aye,” Hannah agreed. “Maybe if ye find Adam ye’ll obtain more information on her da.”
    He pursed his lips. “I expect to do just that. In the meanwhile, here’s my card. If you think of anything, please send word to me.” He placed his hat atop his head and saw himself out the front entryway.
    * * * *
    Elizabeth, though still dressed in her day clothes from earlier, shivered from the cold chill in the air and instantly lay still on her bed in the darkness. She sensed someone was in her room only seconds before a hand clamped over her mouth and face. She struggled against the act and tried to scream, but her voice failed her.
    “I’m going to remove my hand,” her assailant whispered. He kept her pinned to the bed. “If you call for help or raise your voice, I’ll run the tip of this along your throat. Understand?”
    Even in the dark of her bedchamber, the metal from the dagger threateningly gleamed before her. She nodded. He released his hand from her mouth.
    The man rummaged through a chest of drawers near the bed with his free hand while he guarded her with the knife in the other.
    He wore a black cloth mask over his eyes and nose like one would wear for a masquerade. He was dressed as a mariner, yet he smelled more of tobacco than fish or the sea.
    “Tell me where the molds are and I’ll be gone,” he ordered, in a smooth,