Read 02 Madoc for Free Online Page A

a fire,” he said.
    Going over to the pot-belly stove, Madoc grabbed several pieces of newspaper from the stack and, crumpling them up, shoved them inside along with some kindling. Reaching for the box of long-handled matches on the shelf above the stove, he lit one and held the flame to the newspaper. Needing to go outside for some logs now that he’d gotten the fire going, he closed the door to the stove and turned to head for the door, only to pause in mid-step when he caught sight of Shayna.
    She was huddled beneath the blanket, shivering and watching him with a glazed expression. Fool woman, he thought. She was lucky she hadn’t ended up dead running out in the middle of a snowstorm like that. Shaking his head, Madoc opened the door and stepped out onto the porch.
    Outside, the snow was coming down even harder and didn’t look like it was going to let up any time soon. Which meant that he and Shayna were probably going to be stuck in the cabin until it stopped. Great, he thought.
    Of course, he wouldn’t be in this position right now if he had just left Shayna Matthews cuffed, Madoc told himself angrily as he stacked logs into his arms. He’d gone after her as soon as he realized she was missing, but when he hadn’t caught up with her right away, it quickly became apparent that she had more of a head start than he’d first thought. Furious with himself for letting a prisoner in his custody escape, he’d spent the next half hour trying to find her. But the snow had been falling hard and fast, and it was just by luck that he’d come across Shayna’s trail at all. Even then, it had taken awhile to find her. If she hadn’t stumbled across the cabin, they might both be in trouble by now.
    His arms full, Madoc turned and went back inside the cabin with the logs. Though Shayna was still wrapped up in the blanket, she didn’t look like she was shivering anymore, he noticed. Setting the logs down beside the stove, he added a couple to the fire, and then turned his attention to the cabinets. While he wasn’t all that hungry after the big meal he’d had at the diner, he had no doubt that Shayna could do with something warm. He just hoped there was something in the cabin to eat.
    Though the first two cabinets were empty, he was relieved to find that the third held a jar of instant coffee as well as half a dozen cans of soup and several cans of fruit. It wasn’t much, but it would do, he thought. The cans were covered in dust, but seemed to be in good condition. Grabbing one of the cans of soup, he opened it and poured the contents into a pot. He gave it a sniff test, decide it was still good, and then set it on the stove to heat.
    While he waited for the soup to warm up, Madoc took Shayna’s wet shirt and jeans, and draped them over the backs of the chairs closest to the stove so that they would be able to dry. When that was done, he checked the soup and found that it was already bubbling. Taking two mugs from the shelf, he wiped them out with his shirt and poured a generous amount of soup into both of them.
    Mugs in hand, he walked over to where Shayna was sitting on the bed and held one out to her. “Drink this,” he said.
    As Shayna reached out to take the mug, the blanket slipped from one shoulder, and Madoc caught a glimpse of the tops of her breasts before she pulled it back up. “Thank you,” she said softly.
    Madoc said nothing in reply, only watched while she drank the soup. When she had finished, he took the mug from her and set in down on the table alongside his own.
    “Are you feeling warmer now?” he asked, turning back to her.
    She nodded. “A little,” she said quietly, but he could see that she was getting back to her normal self. “You still look like you’re cold, though,” she added after a moment.
    Madoc frowned at her observation. The cabin was taking a long time to heat up, he supposed. He hadn’t realized it, but now that Shayna had mentioned it, he had to admit that he was a little