Border Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

hunting lodge you call a manor." She jumped from the bed and strolled naked across the room. When she reached the washstand, she picked up the water pitcher and shook it. "This is empty. There are no clean towels, and that lazy Dora hasn't brought me anything to eat."
    With no housekeeper, Malcolm needed someone to take the staff in hand. With Alpin MacKay here—He stopped the thought. A solution blazed in his mind.
    Rising from the bed, he walked to the door. "I'll tell Alexander to saddle your horse. You'll have to pack yourself."
    Rosina stared, her shoulders slumped. "You're truly sending me away?"
    "Aye." He opened the door.
    "What about the messages Saladin brings from the north?"
    "I'll bring them to you, as always."
    Cupping her hands beneath her breasts as if offering them to him, she said, "Will I see you before then?"
    Under normal circumstances he would have taken her in his arms. Instead, he lied. "Of course. You're too beautiful to leave to your own devices."
    "Devices?" she hissed.
    He stepped into the hall and pulled the door dosed just as the pitcher crashed against it.
    Alexander stood at the top of the stairs. "The lass is in a temper."
    "She'll get over it. Take her back to Carvoran Manor, and send her a bolt of blue China silk and a case of sherry."
    Alexander toyed with a carved thistle that decorated the wooden banister. "Aye, my lord, but there's something you ought to know…"
    Past surprises and short on patience, Malcolm again lamented the absence of Mrs. Elliott. At least he could depend on her. "What is it, Alexander? And if you tell me the men are complaining because the neeps 'n' tatties were cold or the mutton tough, I'll put them to clearing fields."
    That brought a smile to the soldier's face. Standing straighter, he hooked his thumbs in the belt that secured his kilt. "'Tis Lady Alpin's maid. She's… ah… not what you'd expect."
    A commotion sounded on the stairs. Malcolm walked to the landing, but stopped in his tracks.
    Gliding up the stairs was the most unusual woman he'd ever seen on Scottish soil. Standing as tall as Alexander, the maid wore a gathered skirt and full-sleeved tapered bodice of cotton batiste dyed yellow with bold slashes of red and blue. A matching turban covered most of her black hair. Atop the turban she carried a small barrel.
    On the landing, she curtsied and inclined her head, her swanlike neck making the simple gesture of obeisance an exercise in grace. So keen was her balance, the keg barely moved.
    Stupefied, Malcolm studied her ebony skin and deep brown eyes, his mind awash with thoughts of his friend Saladin. What would the Moor say when he returned to find a nubile African woman in Kildalton Castle?
    Considering the chaos his own life had become, the answer made Malcolm smile. "You are Elanna, I believe."
    "Betcha that. The gods, they sing happy, happy song on the day I was born."
    Her speech contained a number of accents; beneath the musical quality of her Barbadian English, he heard a clipped, guttural sound. "I hope you aren't homesick for Barbados."
    "I am Ashanti," she said, lifting her chin. Then she held out the barrel. "I make you a gift of the water of Barbados."
    Alexander intercepted the barrel, tucking it under his arm as if it were a sack of wheat.
    "You were born in Africa?"
    She stood as still as a statue. "Same as many Ashanti girt children, I was stolen from my people. In Barbados market, Bimshire Charles bought me from a slave trader."
    Fascinated by her innate pride, Malcolm said, "What is Bimshire?"
    "Bajan name for Englishman."
    "Bajan is the language of Barbados?"
    "You plenty smart white man."
    According to Charles, Alpin had badly botched the matter of freeing the slaves at Paradise Plantation five years ago. Since she obviously owned this woman, Malcolm read the worst into the vagary. Alpin had been disloyal.
    Thinking of the number of women in his household, he decided to put aside his curiosity over Alpin and Elanna until Rosina