Highland Promise Read Online Free PDF

might know.
    Anne let out a little growl and wrapped her shawl tighter around her body.  If she could get warm she could sleep for a while…
     
    “What in blazes are you about?”
    Malcom had come back from his ride to find Anne gone.  The night had fallen with nary a star and his fear had increased with every passing moment.  No one else seemed to worry over her absence, saying she was often gone in the evening and he should just leave her alone, but he couldn’t get the fear out of his head. 
    On top of everything else, Fiona had dogged his steps until he’d had the nerve to dismiss her outright and assure her that he would secure her and advantageous match as soon as things settled down.  She hadn’t taken that declaration as well as he had hoped and his cheek still burned from the proof of her outrage.  He had wanted to find Anne and if he were honest, he had wanted to kiss her again.  Her taste on his lips was still intoxicating even after hours on horseback.  That kiss had caused something in the air to change, in his heart maybe too.  That seemed the only time she wasn’t repulsed by him.  She had melted into him like a lover and his body had responded like a boy with his first woman, but she had vanished and no one seemed to be the least bit concerned.
    He had to find her.
    What he would do after he did, he didn’t know, but he had to know she was safe.
    Alan had hinted that Anne had been seen with one of the village boys and Malcom had felt his neck go red at the thought of her with another man. 
    There was no way though.  He had felt her innocence when he’d held her, unless she was better at lying than he thought, Allen was just torturing him.
    John had suggested he look in the paddock and by the stream, but she was nowhere.  He had worked himself into a right good panic when his mother suggested he look in the hay loft. 
    That’s where he found her curled up like a child and fast asleep.  There she lay slumbering peacefully while he had been going out of his mind with worry.
    He spoke more harshly than he’d meant, as was his habit with Anne, and she sat up startled and blinked like an owl.  Straw stuck out of her messy hair and Malcom had never seen anything so beautiful in his life.
    “What?  Who’s there?”  Her voice trembled from fright or maybe with cold.
    “What are ye doin in the loft when there is a perfectly good bed in the house?”
    “Malcom?”
    “Answer the question Anne.”  He snapped.
    “I...I fell asleep reading.  I like to come out here to…”
    “To what?  Escape chores?”  He wanted to gentle his voice, but it was beyond him.  Then he heard her sniffle.
    “Anne?”
    “No.  I come here to escape, that much is true, but not the work.”
    He walked toward her.  The dim light from the moon gave him just enough light to see her dark form.  He sat beside her in the darkness.  Before he could stop the thought his arm rested around her and pulled her close.  She was cold and the thought burned through him.  How many nights had she suffered the cold just to get away...from what?  What was so terrible inside that had driven her to sleeping in the loft of a barn?
    “Escape what lass?”  He said in a whisper.
“Everything.  Moira knows something about me that she won’t say.  Everyone looks at me like I have a disease.  I didn’t ask for my life to be turned upside down and I don’t understand why I am in danger in London.  I don’t understand why you hated me on sight and even now when I have worked so hard to earn my keep here…”  Her words trailed off and her body shook with her sadness.
    She was shredding him.  With every sniffle, every little hiccup he felt new slices to his body.  He did the only thing he knew to do.  He kissed her, offering her comfort in the only way he knew.
    Anne sighed against his lips and set him afire.
    “Oh Anne, I don’t hate you lass.  I could never hate you.  You have bewitched me and I can’t