Highland Champion Read Online Free PDF

young Kester and then hurried away. Liam watched the youth stare after her and heard him sigh. Obviously, the boy was old enough to suffer an infatuation with a woman. Liam supposed he ought to find some comfort in that for it revealed that he was not the only one bewitched by Keira. However, he thought grimly when the boy finally turned his way, Kester was not gambling with his life.

CHAPTER 3
    A fortnight of deception, Keira mused as she finished collecting herbs from the monastery garden and started back toward the cottage. That was how she saw the time she had spent with Sir Liam Cameron. To be completely fair to herself, she supposed she could say it was more like ten days of deception, for Liam had been mostly unconscious, then resting, for four days. It was as his mind had begun to clear and they had actually begun to talk to each other about more than his injuries that the deception had truly begun.
    She shook her head over her own foolishness. Deception was necessary. In a way, it was an act of self-preservation. She had to keep herself at a distance from him in any way that she could. It was impossible to leave him as he still needed care, but in all other ways, she had to keep a wall between them. If she revealed any of her confused but intensifying feelings for him and he responded in even the smallest way, she feared she would be lost. The man was proving to be all she could ever want, but he was far above her touch.
    There was also Ardgleann and its people to consider. To help them, she had to hold fast to a lie. Duncan had made her swear to it shortly before his death. That was not a vow she could risk breaking. There was not even any room for compromise, a way for her to get what she was craving more each day and yet keep her vow to her murdered husband.
    Setting her basket down as she neared the well by the cottage, Keira went to clean herself of the dirt she had accumulated while collecting herbs from the garden. She had felt compelled to work in the garden for a while in payment for the herbs she harvested, and it showed. What little vanity she possessed would not allow her to go into the cottage where Sir Liam rested without at least attempting to look her best.
    “Foolish woman,” she muttered to herself as she drew up a bucket of water.
    “Aye, that ye are. Ye thought ye could continue to tempt a mon to madness and nay pay the consequences.”
    Keira silently cursed as she turned to face Brother Paul. The man looked flushed, a little wild-eyed, and dangerous. She was neatly trapped between him and the well, armed with only the rag she had just dampened to clean herself. This, she thought, could be unpleasant for he did not look as if he was in the mood to listen to reason.
     
    Liam sat on the edge of the bed and scowled at the cottage door. He was restless. Most of his other injuries had healed, but his broken leg kept him trapped. Although he had spent the morning hobbling around on his crutch, hoping to gain some semblance of grace while using it, he was not tired. He was bored. There was nothing to do and no one to talk to, so he sat there wondering when Keira would return. It was a sad end for a man who had never had to wait upon any woman before, he mused, and briefly smiled at the vanity of such thoughts.
    Holding himself at a safe distance from Keira was proving as difficult as he had thought it would be, and it was not because she was the only woman around. She fascinated him as much as she aroused him. It was a dangerous combination. The more he watched her, the more beautiful she became. He knew she was holding fast to some secrets, and he wanted to know each and every one.
    The fact that she was trying to keep a distance from him as well was not helpinghim all that much. Instead, it worked to intrigue him. Liam knew she was not doing so intentionally, but that air of mystery around her kept pulling at him, tempting him to step over the boundaries he had set for himself. Even reminding