Taming Rafe Read Online Free Page B

growled in a deep voice.
    She kicked out, and her attacker grunted as she made contact. “May, run!” she yelled, kicking again.
    He shifted off her, and as she struggled to her knees she glimpsed tousled blond hair and a scar. Crying out again, she swung her fist into his face as hard as she could.
    He grabbed her arm, yanking her off balance again. “Ouch! Don’t—”
    Felicity rammed his chest with an elbow, and he backed off and raised a hand as though to ward her off.
    “Get out!” Flinging her hair out of her face, she shoved at him again. He was kneeling on her skirt, keeping her pinned to the floor. He intercepted her arm as she struck at him again, and twisted it behind her before she could even gasp.
    “Look,” he panted into her hair. “I’m sor—”
    He jerked forward and collapsed on top of her. May stood behind him, a dented copper tea kettle gripped in both hands.
    Felicity squirmed out from under her attacker and grabbed a stout stick of firewood as she scrambled to her feet. “I told you to run, May,” she managed, her heart hammering madly.
    “You wouldn’t have,” her sister said, boldly tapping the man’s head with the tea kettle again. Itbonked hollowly. “Do you think I killed him?”
    “I shouldn’t think so,” Felicity answered, looking at him more closely. He’d fallen on his face, and blood trickled from the back of his skull onto the floor. “Good Lord. Help me tie him up, and then we’ll send someone for the constable.”
    “Send who?”
    “Whom,” she automatically corrected.
    “Send whom?” May repeated.
    Oh, dear—she had no one to send. “Send me, I suppose. Both of us.” Felicity glanced up at May. “Run to the stable and get some rope. Hurry.”
    “All right.” May handed over the kettle. “Here. Bash him with this if he moves.”
    Felicity stifled an entirely inappropriate grin. “Thank you, my dear.”
    Once May had gone, Felicity studied her attacker. Her first sense had been correct—he was definitely tall, and lean though well-muscled. Golden-blond, disheveled hair hung into his face, so she couldn’t see what he looked like. His clothing surprised her. He dressed like a gentleman—one in need of a change of clothes and a shave and bath, but a gentleman, nonetheless.
    He groaned and she jumped, instinctively thwacking him across the head again. The man jerked and went still.
    Felicity shuddered. Horrified that she might have finished him off, she leaned down closer to his face. After a moment she heard his soft breathing, and sighed in relief. It didn’t look as though they’d ever be able to pound the teakettle back into shape again, though.
    “Here,” May panted, running in with several long coils of rope draped across her slim shoulders. “It’s all I could find.”
    “It’ll do nicely.” Felicity took a length, thenknelt beside the man. She pulled one arm behind his back, while May did the same with his other. She looped the rope around his wrists and tied it as tightly as she could, then knotted it again for good luck. He wore no rings, and while several of his fingers were callused, neither did they look to be the hands of a farmer.
    “I’ve got his feet done,” May said a moment later, sitting back.
    Apparently May had studied sailors’ knots in her spare time, because Felicity couldn’t make heads or tails of where the ropes began or ended. “They look very sturdy,” she complimented, eyeing her sister. May seemed to be enjoying this rather too much.
    “What now?”
    “Well, I suppose we should turn him over and finish the job. I don’t want him getting loose while we’re gone into Pelford.”
    She took his shoulders, pulling hard against his weight, while May turned his legs. With another pained groan her attacker slowly rolled onto his back, his head thunking solidly against the floor again. “Oh, dear,” she muttered, almost feeling sorry for the poor brute. Felicity looked down at his face for the first time.