Read Christmas at Ravencrest: A Dark Hero Christmas Short (Reluctant Heroes) for Free Online Page A

gardens every night, they do. Holding hands, and then he kisses her. Or sometimes she kisses him first. Isn’t that disgusting? Do you think they’ll marry? Can you tell them not to be kissing no more?”
    “Gavin! ” Elizabeth chastened. “What did you do to yourself?” Some of the mysterious spots were smearing onto her hand as she touched them. They were painted on. “What is this trick you’ve played on me?”
    “ I told you, they made me do it. She painted them speckles on me. It was to draw you out of the house, mum. They didn’t think you’d come out here to see me otherwise.”
    “Of course I would .” She stood and rumpled his brown hair. “What is this red substance?”
    “Juice, from the truckle berries out back.” The boy confessed.
    Elizabeth went to the small washstand. She poured water into the basin with her good hand and dipped a cloth into it. Returning to the bed where the boy sat, she began wiping the red berry juice from his face and neck. He sat quietly, allowing his mistress to wash his false spots away. “Why did you play such a nasty trick on me? Gavin, this was not funny. It was very naughty.”
    “We were just following orders, my lady. Don’t be mad at us. His lordship set us to it.”
    Elizabeth stopped scrubbing his arm. Donovan put them up to this ? She stared sternly at him. “You aren’t making this up. I will ask his lordship, so don’t lie to me.”
    “I’m not lying, my lady.” His lip quivered. A rush of tears rimmed his eyes.
    She set the cloth asid e, deciding it best to let his brother clean him thus. Yes, now that she remembered it, Donovan did have some berries and a bowl of red liquid on his worktable when she’d visited him a few hours earlier. What was he about? Vexing man. It was a prank, clearly.
    Donovan was not the sort of man to stoop to such antics.
    “Why did they lure me out here with the pretense of you being ill?”
    Gavin shrugged, and looked away from her. He seemed determined to avoid her gaze. “He just said we were supposed to keep you busy today, Madame. Don’t tell ‘im I told you.”
    “ Put on your shirt, young man. Tell Sally she is to supervise you and Danny in your preparation for the party tomorrow night. I want you boys to bathe, comb your hair and have your face scrubbed clean. I expect you both to be wearing your best clothes. Understood?”
    “Yes, mum.” Gavin quickly shrugged in to his shirt. The freckles sprinkled over his nose and cheeks were more pronounced now that he’d had his face freshly scrubbed. “I have a surprise for you, my lady. A Christmas surprise. It’s hidden in the stables. Can I show it to you, mum?”
    Despite her annoyance over the prank, Elizabeth wanted to hug the little boy.
    He was speaking again . She wanted to cry. She wanted to laugh. And she wanted to shake him and his accomplices for frightening her so with their pretense of an impending illness.
    She nodded her agreement and followed him to the main room. The guilty couple stood side by side, looking down at their shoes so as not to have to gaze directly at their mistress.
    “Y ou two have much to account for.” She said as she stood before them.
    “Yes, Madame.” Johnny agr eed, reluctantly meeting her eyes. He looked very sorry indeed. “As my brother said, his lordship put us up to it.”
    “ Do you have any idea how frightened I was? Good heavens, I’ve an entire family wounded or ailing and then you give me news that a member of the staff might have a dangerous illness? Have a care. And mind that your brothers are scrubbed from stem to stern for tomorrow night’s ball and presentable.”
    The pair no dded and mumbled apologies to Elizabeth.
    “Now th en, Gavin, show me this surprise of yours.” She said brightly to the child, taking his hand. Donovan would get an earful from her. The man was behaving most strangely today.
    Gavin led Elizabeth to the back of the stables to an empty stall with clean, fresh hay on the floor.