Bride for a Knight Read Online Free PDF Page B

such courtly verse.
    Even so, he released her from his mind, his gaze falling on another glimmer of brightness. This one as earthy and real as the Highlands, welcome enough to flood him with memories. Bringing salvation, and again, the eye-stinging tightness of chest and throat that had plagued him every heather mile since leaving Cuidrach.
    A malaise that worsened the farther north he’d ridden.
    Setting his jaw, he sat up straighter and swiped the dampness from his cheeks, his stare fixed on the thick, whitewashed walls of a small, hump-backed cot house just visible through a copse of ancient Caledonian pines a bit farther down the long, rock-strewn slope. Peat smoke curled in thin blue tendrils from the cottage’s stone-hung thatched roof and if he listened hard, he was certain he’d hear the bleating of sheep. Perhaps even a few faint strains of fiddle music.
    And if he really concentrated, he might even catch a savory whiff of beef marrow broth or mutton stew.
    For the cot-house was Hughie Mac’s. A man already older than stone in Jamie’s youth, Hughie Mac’s gnome-like body was as twisted and gnarled as the Scots pines sheltering his cottage. But Hughie also had twinkling, smiling eyes. And he’d once been Jamie’s grandfather’s favored herd boy; a lad prized for his herding talent, but even more for the magic he could make on the strings of a fiddle.
    The warm welcome and ready smile he’d always had for Jamie, especially when his world had seemed at its darkest.
    For two pins, Jamie would ride there now, hammer on Hughie’s door, and if the grizzled herder answered, he’d crush him in a hug that lasted till the morrow.
    Hughie would greet him kindly.
    His da’s reception remained to be seen.
    And it made him mighty edgy. Especially since glimpsing the faery. So he squared his shoulders and rode on, eager to be done with it. Digging in his heels, he sent his garron plunging down the rough, broken hillside and straight through his da’s cattle, his passage startling the lumbering beasts.
    A tall, hooded figure stared at him in horror from the edge of the protesting, scattering herd.
    A tall, hooded
female
figure.
    Jamie’s jaw slipped and for one crazy mad moment, he wondered if she, too, was of the fey. Or if Hughie Mac still had a way with bonny lassies. But as he spurred toward the woman, he could see she was mortal as the day.
    And without doubt the plainest creature he’d e’er set eyes on.
    She was also the most terrified.
    “Dinna come near me!” she shrieked, backing away. “No closer—I pray you!”
    Jamie prayed, too.
    His heart thundering as the most unchivalrous corner of his soul pleaded the saints that this Valkyrie wouldn’t prove to be Aveline Matheson.
    The proximity of Fairmaiden Castle made it a distinct possibility.
    Nevertheless, he pulled up in front of her and swung down from the saddle. His honor demanded no less. But to his amazement, her eyes flew even wider and she flung up a hand as if warding off a horde of flying banshees.
    “Have mercy!” she wailed this time, her face blanching in the light of the rising moon. “I—”
    “You must be one of the Fairmaiden lasses.” Jamie took her by the arms, seeking to soothe her. “You’ve no need to fear me. See you” —he jerked his head in Cuillin’s direction—“what fiend o’ the hills would ride about with an aged, half-blind dog? I am James of the Heather, come home to—”
    “Praise God!” She blinked at him, her color slowly returning. “I-I thought you were Neill.”
    Jamie swallowed hard on hearing his brother’s name. He’d been thinking about his brothers ever since crossing onto Macpherson land.
    Speaking about them, even just one, was something he wasn’t sure he could do.
    Not yet.
    But his knightly vows and Valkyrie’s misted eyes had him reaching to brush the tears from her face.
    “You knew Neill?” he probed, the name costing him dearly.
    She flinched and bit down on her lip as she