By Love Unveiled Read Online Free Page A

hood and tied on her mask, all because of that cursed earl. Thanks to him, she didn’t know when she could discard them for good.
    As she headed off for the wagon, a thin stranger a bit older than her aunt emerged from the darkness at the other end of the street. When he saw her, he called out, “You, in the mask! Be you the gypsy healer they call Mina?”
    She nodded. “And who are you, sir?”
    “My name is William Crashaw,” he said as he approached, “and I’m valet to the Earl of Falkham. You must come at once. It’s a matter of great urgency. His lordship lies wounded and needs your help.”
    A cold chill gripped her. She didn’t dare risk goingto that man’s aid, even if he wasn’t the villain who’d brought about Father’s ruin. “I’m sorry, I just spent several hours birthing twins. Why don’t you ask Mr. Tibbett to help you?”
    “He’s not at his shop,” the man clipped out. “And we’ve no time to waste. Two men attacked my master on the road, and one stabbed him clear through the thigh. His very life is in peril.”
    Oh, dear. She couldn’t let a man die, no matter what the risk. Besides, if he was that gravely hurt, he wouldn’t be paying her much mind. “Very well. Take me to him.”
    But as they reached the top of the hill and she caught sight of her old home, she had second thoughts. Her mind swam with memories of coming home late at night with her mother after staying by a child’s sickbed, of returning with her father from an evening’s merriment at a friend’s estate. This earl had possibly plotted Father’s arrest, perhaps even his death. Why should she help him?
    Besides, she’d never dressed a serious wound, though she’d watched Father do it hundreds of times. And this of all wounds! If she wasn’t successful, she would be doubly in danger—from the king’s soldiers and his lordship’s friends.
    She hesitated at the point where the road forked off toward Falkham House.
    William faced her with a fierce scowl. “See here, miss, I’d send someone for Bodger if he didn’t live so far away. The men at the tavern said you would be a greater help to my master. But if you can’t do it, I’ll takemy chances with the surgeon. I can’t have you make a mistake that might cost the earl his leg.”
    Bodger! That horrible surgeon had caused the loss of more lives than he’d saved. In any case, she still wasn’t certain that the earl had been responsible for Father’s arrest. If Lord Falkham died because of her reticence and proved to be blameless, she could never live with herself.
    She steadied her nerve. “If you let Bodger cut on him, he’ll be more fit for the grave than anything else. With me, he at least has a chance of survival.”
    Her calm voice seemed to settle William’s mind. “Come on, then.” He strode on. “We’re wasting precious time.”
    In moments, they were entering Falkham House. She walked through the familiar rooms, her throat tight and raw with the pain of memory. The long hall on the second floor had been refurbished, but that was all she could observe before several booming curses rent the silence.
    She raced into the master bedroom from which the sound came, only to be greeted by a sight that filled her with horror. The earl sat against the headboard of his bed with his legs stretched out in front of him and his face contorted in pain as a servant poured something onto his leg. Nearby, a kettle hung in the fireplace, and she could smell boiling oil.
    She forgot the crimes she attributed to Lord Falkham, forgot the danger she risked by helping him. All she could see was a bumbling idiot using an outmoded and needlessly painful method of cleansing the wound.
    “If another drop of that hits his skin,” she threatened as she snatched the cup away from the old man, “I’ll boil you in that kettle!”
    “But we got to burn the poison away,” the servant protested, visibly recoiling from the masked figure in black who dashed the cup to the