The Soft Whisper of Dreams Read Online Free Page A

Swiftly, he looked away. Three years was a long time without a woman, but he didn’t think that was what caused his body’s instinctive reaction. There was definitely something special about her.
    When he looked up again she happened to be staring in his direction. He noticed that she had green eyes, slightly slanted like those of a cat, and they widened as if she could read his thoughts clearly. A blush spread over her features and she stood up abruptly.
    ‘What time is lunch, Kayla? I’m starving.’
    Alex stared after her until Jago recalled him to his duties. He reflected later that coming home had been both easier and more difficult than he’d imagined, but he would never again take his freedom for granted.
     
     

 
    Chapter Four
     
    ‘Auntie Maddie, it’s time to wake up. Stop pretending you’re asleep, I can tell you’re not really.’
    Maddie was rudely awakened from a blessedly dreamless sleep the next morning by Nell, who waltzed into her room without so much as a knock. Maddie buried her head under the covers.
    ‘Go away, your horrible child, it can’t possibly be morning yet,’ she groaned.
    Nell giggled. Like everyone else in the house, she was quite used to the fact that Maddie was most definitely not a morning person.
    ‘Mummy sent me to say that we’re going to a fair and you have to get up straight away or we’ll go without you.’ Nell tugged at the covers from the bottom end of the bed and Maddie hung on for dear life.
    ‘Go ahead. I’m quite comfortable here and I grew out of going to fun fairs years ago.’
    ‘Oh, don’t be such a grump, Auntie Maddie, it’ll be fun,’ Nell insisted, and succeeded in partly uncovering her victim. ‘And it’s not a fun fair, it’s a country fair. We’re all going, Uncle Alex too.’
    If that had been meant as an inducement, it failed dismally. In fact, it had quite the reverse effect on Maddie. She’d been deeply disturbed by the desire she had seen lurking in Wes’s brother’s blue eyes the previous day, and even more so by her own reaction to him. When he’d looked at her like that, her body had tingled and she’d felt herself grow hot under his gaze. She could understand why he would react in such a way to a woman he’d never met – after all he’d been in jail for three whole years – but as for herself there was no excuse. None whatsoever. Especially after the recent David debacle.
    ‘Hmph,’ was all she replied now, but Nell was nothing if not tenacious. When all else failed she resorted to jumping on Maddie and tickling her, until there was nothing for it but to capitulate. ‘All right, all right, I’ll go and have a shower. I’ll be down in a while.’
    ‘Okay.’ Nell jumped off the bed, obviously satisfied with a job well done. ‘You’d better hurry. Annie is making breakfast. It smells really good.’
    ‘Doesn’t it always?’ One of the greatest perils of visiting Kayla and Wes was the threat to her waistline. Maddie never understood how Kayla could live with Annie and not get incredibly fat.
    Nell just giggled again and left, closing the door behind her. Maddie headed for the bathroom. ‘Well, I’m up now, so I might as well go,’ she muttered. But a little voice inside her insisted that perhaps she was doing it so she could spend more time with Alex and get to know him better. This made her angry with herself, and she turned on the shower with more force than was strictly necessary. The last thing I need at the moment is a relationship, especially with a former criminal, even if he is handsome as sin!
     
    The country fair was well attended, despite the continuing heatwave, and the party made their way through the milling throng slowly. Wes carried Edmund in some sort of a backpack contraption, leaving Kayla free to deal with the other children. Jago, however, attached himself like a leech to his newly discovered uncle, whom he seemed to idolise already. Alex obligingly hefted him onto his shoulders, and the