Black Raven's Lady: Highland Lairds Trilogy Read Online Free PDF Page A

entire crew.”
    R AINE GAZED AROUND Keir’s private quarters and waited in trepidation. She’d seen him watching from the quarterdeck above them, as his uncle had helped her clamber up the ladder. ’Twas an embarrassingly clumsy process, with Macraith lifting her up from the swaying boat below, while another seaman pulled her up over the gunwale and onto the main deck. Had she weighed ten pounds more or were the men any less strong, Raine was certain they’d never have gotten her aboard.
    Macraith had led her to the captain’s cabin where he dropped Raine’s bag and satchel on its ornate Turkistan rug and left her in ominous silence. The apprehension in Macraith’s solemn brown eyes told her the coming interview with his volatile nephew wasn’t going to be pleasant.
    She didn’t have long to wait. Nor near enough time to gather her wits and fabricate a suitably heart-wrenching story.
    Keir MacNeil stormed in and kicked the cabin door shut with the heel of his boot. He moved swiftly across the floor to stand in front of her, planted his hands on his hips and leaned down, bringing his face closer to hers. The battle scar that ran through his right eyebrow and across the broken bridge of his nose heightened the sinister cast of his blunt features.
    “Are you happy now?” he demanded before she had a chance to say a word. “Are you completely satisfied, Raine Cameron, now that you’ve gotten your way? Now that you’ve put yourself in jeopardy and burdened me with your safety in one fell swoop? And all to help some woman who’ll probably deliver her baby before you even arrive.”
    Raine retreated two small steps, halting when the back of her knees bumped against the edge of his large bed. She attempted to swallow, but her mouth had gone dry. When she tried to speak, her upper lip stuck to her front teeth and she was forced to run her tongue across them. “You were the one who insisted I transfer to the Raven ,” she pointed out. Suddenly breathless, she forged ahead between gasps for air. “I would have . . . much preferred . . . to stay . . . under the protection . . . of Colin MacRath.”
    Keir straightened and folded his powerful arms across his chest. His words came drenched in scorn. “Oh, aye! You’d have enjoyed that, wouldn’t you? To stay on board the Hawk, where you could twist that impressionable lad around your wee finger.”
    Refusing to back down, Raine looked her tormenter straight in the eye. “Colin’s a grown man and captain of his ship. He can make his own decisions.”
    “Not when I’m bloody commander of the squadron, he can’t,” Keir gritted.
    They were interrupted by a polite tap on the door.
    “Come in, Macraith,” Keir called over his shoulder. “You can see for yourself I haven’t strangled her—yet.”
    Macraith entered, his worried gaze moving from one to the other, as though to assure himself that the young lady was holding her own. But he waited in cautious silence, clearly used to riding out his nephew’s intermittent bouts of temper.
    “Well, go on,” Keir told his uncle, with a wave of his hand. “Say what you’ve come to say on Lady Raine’s behalf. I can see it in your eyes. You’re about to defend the indefensible.”
    “Err . . . I was about to suggest that the lass can have my cabin. I’ll bunk with the ship’s quartermaster, sir. ’Twill be no trouble. No trouble, at all.”
    Keir looked up at the ceiling and shook his head in apparent exasperation. “An excellent suggestion, Macraith. Because I sure as hell am not giving up my quarters.” He grinned malevolently as his gaze ensnared Raine’s. “Unless, of course, you’d like to share them with me.”
    “You’re an ogre,” she said quietly. “You always have been. And you always will be.”
    “At last, we are in complete agreement, Lady Raine.”
    T HAT EVENING K EIR and Macraith sat at the intricately carved oak table used for dining in the captain’s quarters, waiting for the