Read Lone Wolfe for Free Online Page B

twisting path through the woods, the first fat drops
began to fall.
                 An
hour later, freshly showered and dressed in comfortable trackie bottoms and a
T-shirt, Mollie started through her father’s things. She’d picked the least
emotional of his possessions: boxes of old bills and paperwork that had never
managed to be filed. Yet even these held their own poignancy; Mollie gazed at
her father’s crabbed handwriting on one of the papers. He’d been jotting notes
about a new rose hybrid on the back of a warning that the electricity would be
turned off if a payment wasn’t made. She thought of the crumpled notes William
Wolfe had thrown at her father, and how he’d picked them up. Her heart twisted
inside her.
                 As
if on cue, the lights flickered and then went out, and Mollie was once again
left in darkness. She sat there in disbelief, the notice still in her hand.
Then anger—unreasonable, unrelenting fury—took over. First the tree surgeon was
cancelled. Now the electricity was turned off—again! If Jacob Wolfe had changed
his mind about having her stay here, he could have just said.
                 Without
even thinking about what she was doing, Mollie yanked on her wellies. She
reached for her torch and her parka and slammed out into the night.
                 It
had been pouring all afternoon, and the deluge from the heavens had not
stopped. Despite her rain gear, Mollie was soaked in seconds. She didn’t care.
Righteous indignation spurred her onwards, stalking through the trees, all the
way up to the manor house steps. She knocked on the door as hard as she could,
but the sound was lost in the wind and the rain. She knocked again, and again,
sensing, knowing , that Jacob was
home, despite the darkened windows. And even if he wasn’t, she refused to slink
back to her servant quarters yet again. She wouldn’t be stopped by a closed
door. Not this time. With a satisfying loud thwack, Mollie kicked the door.
                 ‘Owl’ The door swung open, and hobbling
on one foot, she practically fell into Jacob’s arms.
                 ‘Are
you all right?’ Unruffled as ever, he righted her, his hands
running down her arms, pausing on her waist and then examining her calves and
feet. Even in her outrage and pain, Mollie registered a curious tingle
as he touched her, so lightly, so impersonally, yet with obvious concern, his
fingers deft and sure. ‘Did you break a bone?’ She thought she detected the
tiniest trace of amusement in his voice, yet she had to be mistaken. His touch
and his expression were both impersonal, emotionless.
                 ‘No,
I just stubbed my toe,’ she snapped. She stepped away from him and those light,
capable hands. He reached behind her to close the door.
                 ‘Is
something the matter?’ Jacob inquired, and Mollie let out a sharp laugh.
                 ‘I’ll
say something’s the matter! Why did you cancel the tree surgeon I’d arranged?
He’s booked solid through June, and I only got the appointment by calling in a
favour. And if you had to cancel, you could have at least told me—’
                 ‘I’m
sorry,’ Jacob replied coolly. ‘I’m afraid it was an oversight. I was in London
for the day on business and I had all my calls routed through my office. My
assistant must have cancelled the appointment.’
                 ‘Oh.’
Mollie didn’t know what to say after that. She found herself imagining the
assistant, some sexy, polished city girl in red lipstick and kitten heels.
‘Well, why did you turn off the electricity?’ she finally demanded, blustering
once again. ‘If you’d changed your mind about me, you could just—’
                 ‘ I turned off the electricity?’ Now Jacob
looked truly amused. ‘I’m afraid I don’t have that much authority. The wind and
the waves do not obey me.’