Sweet Madness: A Veiled Seduction Novel by Heather Snow Page A

the wars. “Are extreme high feelings an indication of madness?” he asked, curious.
    Pen didn’t look at him. “They can be,” she said vaguely.
    “Well, no worries on that count. I have never been anything like that. If fact, the only person I’ve known who could be described as such was”—a sick feeling flooded him, leaving a sour taste on the back of his tongue—“Michael.”
    He stopped walking.
    She did not.
    “Penelope.”
    She stuttered to a halt at his command, but she didn’t turn back to face him for a long moment. When she did, her normally peach complexion had washed white, making the redness on the tip of her nose stand out like a cherry.
    His sick feeling worsened.
    “Are you saying my cousin was mad?”

Chapter Five
    “M ad?” Penelope echoed, unable to say anything else as her mind whirled.
    Gabriel’s eyes flashed bright as he narrowed them on her face. There was an intensity in his gaze that reminded her so much of Michael that it hurt to look upon him.
    “Of course not.” But her voice sounded unconvincing even to her own ears.
    How had their conversation turned so fast? She’d been cautiously thrilled by the progress they’d been making. But then he’d figured out exactly where her questions were leading and turned them on her with knifelike precision. She hadn’t even known she’d been cut until her heart started bleeding.
    She wouldn’t discuss Michael with anyone. She would not.
    “I believe we’ve accomplished enough for this morning,” she said, relieved when her voice didn’t tremble. “I suggest we go back to the manor and warm ourselves. You can get some rest, and we can start again this afternoon.”
    She tugged the hood of her cloak back up, shielding her face from him as she turned to retreat. Now that her heart was sliced open, every painful memory she’d worked so hard to put behind her seethed in her chest, stinging just enough to let her know they were still there. Waiting for her to uncage them. She needed to be alone when they broke free.
    “No.”
    His voice rang with such command that Penelope immediately stilled. Gabriel closed the distance between them, coming up behind her. She didn’t have to see him to know. She
felt
him, the way a blind woman sensed things she could not see. She heard the scrape of leather and cloth, smelled subtle hints of sandalwood and sage on the breeze, and her body tingled with the realization that he was close by.
    “You will answer my question. Was my cousin mad?”
    She whirled. Even though she’d known he would be there, his nearness startled her, sending a shimmer of alarm through her. No . . . not alarm, she thought. Awareness. Of him. As a man.
    Oh, no. Her head shook of its own accord. No, no. That was completely unacceptable.
    Gabriel’s eyes narrowed further upon her. He thought she was denying his demand, she realized.
    Better that than the truth.
    She backed away from him. “That isn’t relevant,” she said as she turned back toward Vickering Place and started off at a fast clip.
    “The hell it isn’t!” he called after her. “Michael and I share the same blood. If he was crazed, then my madness could be inherited.”
    Penelope kept walking. It wasn’t long before she spotted Carter. The attendant must have given up on following them, as he was sitting on the stump of a felled tree, waiting for them to return. He leapt to his feet as she neared, his face twisting first with an “about time” expression and then with confusion as his eyes darted from her to Gabriel—who she assumed was still some distance behind her.
    Let Carter make himself useful and see that Gabriel made it back to the manor safely.
    “Penelope, wait!” Gabriel’s voice and footsteps were muffled by her cloak’s hood, but it sounded as though he were coming up fast. A second set of footfalls echoed those, letting her know Carter was close behind. Good. Gabriel wouldn’t wish to air his private family business in front of