Alexander-Fyn-Sanguinarian

snatched off his hat, clutching it to his chest when his master approached. Raven was unaffected by the frigid cold. “She’s in the carriage, my lord. She says she’s not coming out.”
    “Does she now?”
    “She says she heard a scream, my lord,” Hodder reported.
    “Nonsense!” Raven spoke so loudly that all the servants flinched.
    “But I thought I heard it myself, my lord,” Hodder said. “Aside from that the older lady backed her up.” Raven looked down at the man, his eyes glinting in the light from the flaming torch beside the door. He had a way of getting down into people’s faces that always had the desired effect. “Stupid of me, my lord, I do apologize, sir.”
    “Good,” Raven snapped.
    “She still won’t get out of the carriage, my lord.”
    “I’ll get her out.” He ran down the steps into the black, freezing night and grasped the door handle, all but wrenching the door from its hinges. “Get out of there, both of you!” he shouted into the depths.
    Piercing screams issued from both women, which only served to infuriate him further. Huddling together even deeper into the corner, the two women stared in horror at him, eyes wide, hands over their mouths. He knew his yellow eyes looked harsher in certain lights. His streaming hair fell forward over his shoulders as he reached a long arm inside to grab Evangeline’s wrist. She screamed again and clawed at him. For a moment he let go, pulling back his hand. She had drawn blood.
    “Now that provokes me.” His tone was dangerously low. “Get out before I remove you, Miss Rutledge. Get out of that carriage and into my castle.”

    36
    Fyn Alexander
    “I have changed my mind, sir. I want to return to London.”
    “It was never your decision to make! Get out!” His voice rose.
    “No, I won’t and you cannot make me, sir.” She sounded quite determined.
    “I can and I will. This is your last chance to get out with your dignity intact. I will count to five and you will get out.”
    “No, sir.”
    “One, two.”
    “You’re a heinous swine. A woman screamed in that castle. What did you do to her?”
    “Three, four.” He crossed his arms over his chest in an attitude of complete boredom, though his mouth was hard and his narrowed eyes never left the two women.
    “I won’t marry you and I won’t lie with you, you monster,”
    Evangeline said with less determination than the housekeeper. “I despise you.”
    “Five!”
    Held tightly as she was by Mrs. Brackett, Raven was able with no trouble whatever to break the stout woman’s strong grip and drag Evangeline toward the door where he took her by the waist lifting her out. Tossing the light bundle over his shoulder, he walked up the castle steps as she pounded on his back with her small fists.
    “I hope you’re not expecting me to carry the other one, my lord,”
    Hodder said doubtfully.
    “There’s no need. Where this one goes, she will follow.” A moment later Mrs. Brackett struggled out of the carriage, her hat askew, umbrella waving, following Raven up the steps into the castle.
    Inside, he told the footman, “Bolt the doors, bolt every door in the castle.” He looked at Munk, who stood over six feet tall. “You can reach the top bolts, Munk.”
    “Put that young lady down, you werewolf.” Mrs. Brackett came up behind Raven and was about to thump him with her fist.
    When he turned his steady gaze on her she thought better of it. “I Sanguinarian 37
    am not a werewolf, madam.”
    “Vampire, then, or goblin, evildoer of some sort. Whatever you are, you’re not a man, I know that much, not an ordinary man anyway. My God, you’re just like Miss Evie said, big and scary-looking with horrible eyes. I didn’t believe the poor little mite when she said you crept upon her twice, but now I see you’re capable of anything.”
    Raven set Evangeline on her feet, holding her upper arms to steady her. “You said that about me?” His voice was quiet, but not gentle. “That I have horrible eyes, that I scare you?”
    “Yes,” she whispered, staring up at him, her blue eyes wide.
    “There was a scream,” Mrs. Brackett declared. “A woman screamed just now. What’s going on in this place?” She looked first at Raven and then behind him at his staff gathered in silence waiting for orders—the footman, a handsome young man with a somber expression, and three maids all in dark dresses with white caps and aprons. Every one of them was silent, stiff-faced, tall and