Read Her Master's Touch for Free Online Page B

around the coals like
multi-colored sparks. From every direction came the sounds of
night: cicadas with their ceaseless whirring, frogs croaking in
unison, the brain-fever bird screaming an ascending brain-fever,
brain-fever, brain-fever.
    She inhaled the incense of night, the breath
of the wind carrying with it a blend of verbena and mignonette and
warm earth. Pressing her hand to the soil, she felt the heat of the
day against her palm. Scooping up some dirt, she formed a round
flat cake, as if making a dirt pie...
    ‘ Humpti-tumpti gir giya phat...'
    " Ayah ?" she said aloud, then wondered
why she'd done so. When she was a child, at Shanti Bhavan ,
she knew she'd had an Indian ayah , but she had no
recollection of the woman. But the string of words had come as if
from Ayah ' s lips. Faceless, elusive Ayah .
‘ Humpti-tumpti gir... Humpti-tum... Hum... ’ She closed her
eyes, grappling for the phrase, but it was slipping away. And
moments later, all that captured her attention was the dirt cake
she held in her hand. Eyeing it indifferently, she tossed away.
    Unlashing a small knife from a sheath
strapped to her leg, she began slicing corks into thin wheels until
a mound of round disks rose beside her cutting board. She tossed
the corks into the grease and stirred, then allowed them to soak.
She had just set the spoon aside when Lord Ravencroft appeared.
Peering into the kettle, he said, "What's this?"
    "Corks for the mice, my lord," she
replied.
    He crouched and sat back on his heels.
Lifting her knife from the cutting board, he tipped it toward the
lantern. The carved ivory handle shone, and the blade flashed
bright. He studied it more closely. "The workmanship is good," he
said. "Where did you get it?"
    "It belonged to my mother," Eliza
replied.
    Damon touched the knife tip to his finger and
a drop of blood emerged. "Wicked little devil," he said. "Is this
what you use for—" he lifted a questioning brow "—tattoos?"
    "No," Eliza replied, "I use this." She pulled
a bamboo tube as thin as an artist's brush from her knot of hair,
sending black tresses tumbling about her shoulder. Twisting off a
cap on one end of the tube, she removed a bamboo needle. "And these
are my dyes." She raised the gold chain around her neck. Vials hung
from it like colorful glass baubles.
    He eyed her dubiously. "Who are your
customers?"
    "Mostly Hindu girls," she said. "They
decorate their arms with flowers and animals."
    Damon returned the knife. "Would you tattoo
me?"
    Eliza slipped her knife into the sheath
lashed to her leg. "Perhaps sometime."
    "How about now?"
    She looked at him with a start. She'd done
many tattoos by lamplight, but never alone with a man in the
seclusion of woods. "It's dark here."
    "I'll hold the lantern." Eyes, black as
night, danced with fiery sparks. "I insist."
    Eliza shifted nervously. The thought of
pricking the skin of Lord Ravencroft made her chest feel tight...
breathless, in fact. "Very well," she said, her voice shaky. "Where
do you want the tattoo, and what kind of design would you
like?"
    Damon shrugged out of his shirt. His eyes
flickered with amusement as he placed a hand over his heart and
said, "I want it here. And I want you to tattoo the name,
Eliza."
    She stared at his broad muscular chest. The
thought of her hands on his bare flesh brought flutters in her
belly and a warm flush in her cheeks. "My lord, I could not do
that," she said. "What would... Begum Mara think?"
    " Begum Mara and I have parted
company."
    "You have?" His words made Eliza warm all
over. It also made her feel uneasy. Lord Ravencroft was without a
mistress. And his eyes shone far too bright. Obviously he'd planned
this little parley. Perhaps had designs on her this evening. But
what he requested was out of the question. "I still cannot tattoo
my name over your heart," she said. "Tattoos are permanent. It
could be awkward for you... at certain times."
    Damon's eyes held amusement. "Then, what do
you suggest I have you place here?"