THE FOREST LORD By Susan Krinard

Her crude words were effective. Eden’s fingers curled into fists. “If what you say is true,” she said, “then everything I have come to believe during these past months is a lie. Everything but Donal.”

Claudia saw the lingering doubt in her eyes. A part of the girl was desperate to believe that love could exist between a mortal woman and a creature such as Hern.

“Do you remember when we first came to Hartsmere, Eden, and witnessed the sad state of the dale? When your father defied the Forest Lord, he ended many years of prosperity. But Bradwell also lost his fortune, all the luck that had sustained the Flemings for centuries. Hern ruined your father, Eden. He punished many innocents who had never offended him. He can destroy you just as surely. Once he has what he came for, he will take your son and abandon you.”

Eden stumbled to a trellis decked with an autumn rose and rested her forehead against it, heedless of the thorns. Perhaps she welcomed the pain.

“Should I believe you?” she whispered. “You say you tell me this for my sake, but your feelings… surely there is more to them than fear for me.” She turned from the trellis, unaware of the trickle of blood on her brow. “There is something personal in your hatred, is there not?”

Claudia pressed her hand to her breast and let tears fill her eyes. “Have I failed you so badly that you question me thus? Is it not personal that this monster drove my foolish brother to near insanity and, for all we know, to his death in some foreign country? Is it not personal that he took your innocence and forced you into an odious marriage with Winstowe—you, whom I love above anyone on this earth?” She felt for her handkerchief. “I have seen what he can do, Eden. I cannot let him make my nephew into the monster he is. I will not let him finish what he began.”

Eden sat beside her and touched Claudia’s rigid fingers.

“I have hurt you,” she said, her voice as calm as a windless dusk. “I am sorry. What shall we do?”

Claudia savored her bitter victory in the privacy of her own heart. “Trust me,” she said. “I will help you to save Donal. And the first thing we must do is leave Hartsmere and return to London.”

“How will that save Donal? He will simply follow—”

“No, Eden. These creatures are not the gods they once claimed to be. For a thousand years or more, Hern has been bound to the forest of Hartsmere. He cannot leave it for long, or he grows weak. The farther he goes from the forest, the more his powers—his life—drain from him. And like all his kind, he cannot touch iron without suffering great pain and risking death. He will not follow.” She stood and took Eden’s arm. “You will not be alone in London, my dear girl. Just an hour ago Lord Rushborough confided to me that he intends to remove to London for a few weeks before returning to his estates in Kent. He has invited us both to stay with his sister in Mayfair should we choose to visit before Christmas.”

“But he must… you must understand that I have no intention of—”

“He adores you, Eden. That is why he has been so patient. But he also told me that if you choose not to accept his invitation this time, he will trouble you no longer.”

From the look on Eden’s face, she was quite troubled enough without the complications presented by the marquess. But it was her supreme vulnerability that would aid Lord Rushborough in winning the affection she had thus far denied him.

After all, who else could Eden go to now? What else, except her former life?

“Come,” Claudia said. “We must leave for Hartsmere immediately if we wish to prepare for a morning departure.”

Eden did not glance up the fell as Claudia led her into the house.

Chapter 19

The weather was unseasonably violent on the morning they left Hartsmere.

Snow fell in great gouts from the sky, as if nature itself conspired to keep them from escaping. It was seldom, the servants said, that snow fell in October, and never so steadily.