Highland Song Read Online Free PDF Page A

trees. Good Lord but she wanted to set the little mare to a gallop.
     
    Minutes passed before she turned and led Gypsy toward what she hoped would provide a small amount of shelter from the bitter cold. Luck seemed to guide her, even as she almost fell asleep in the saddle. She found a place to camp at the base of a cliff. There was shelter from the elements, a small spring set amid grass and ferns, and a view of the surrounding countryside. The fog which seemed to come and go was so dense now she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face.
     
    "All I need is someone to protect my back while I sleep. My own personal body guard," she murmured thoughtfully. "Too bad someone like that doesn't exist."
     
    Hours passed by and complete darkness settled in before Lainie finally spread her bedroll on the hard dirt. A brisk wind had swept the fog away and a slender thread of moon had just cleared the treetops.
     
    Loneliness burrowed deep into her, becoming a darkness in her soul. Even after she left the MacPherson castle seeking new surroundings and hoping to put the past behind her, she could not remember feeling this alone and vulnerable. Lainie tended to her horse, ate a cold supper, and fell into the meager bedroll she had put together for this last mission, never expecting to be using the threadbare blankets. She was asleep immediately, too exhausted by the sorrow and danger of the past to keep her eyes open.
     
    When at last the sun rose and she opened her eyes, the dark-haired stranger with the vivid green eyes and fast hands was calmly going through her saddlebags. His back turned to her, he didn’t seem to care if she knew he was rummaging through her possessions.
     
    Lainie’s first waking thought was that she was still asleep and this was a nightmare, because the man’s reproving eyes had haunted her sleep, making her twist and turn endlessly. She couldn't set aside the feelings of guilt either. She had pushed the limits and now it seemed she would pay the price.
     
    In her dreams, she had tried to get closer to the handsome stranger, hoping he might be that miracle from God. She hoped he would be the one man who would guard her at night and ride beside her during the day. Each time she was reminded of a man just like her brothers. But each time she was close enough to talk to him, she saw him don a mask as if hiding from her, then he would turn his back and walk away leaving her alone and more vulnerable than she’d ever felt before.
     
    She knew he was nothing like her brothers. He was a man who would take what he wanted and leave her to live with the shame.
     
    Now that Lainie was awake, the last thing she wanted was to get closer to the dangerous man with the vivid green eyes. She reminded herself there were few men on this earth a woman could trust. Trying for subtlety, she began to ease her hand toward the dirk she had strapped to her leg. Since the day Bertram attacked her, she had never slept without the dirk--never been without a weapon--never forgotten the horror of that day.
     
    Through shuttered lashes, and breath held tight in her lungs, Lainie studied the early morning intruder. She tried to keep the shudders sweeping down her spine at bay as well as the trembling of her hands. She steadied her nerves and fought to breathe slowly, pretending sleep. She didn’t shift her position in any noticeable way. She didn’t want the man with the lightning fast hands who was so calmly rummaging through her possessions to know she was awake. She remembered all too well the deadly violence he could unleash so easily and so very quickly.
     
    She heard a slight whisper of noise as the man pulled his hand out of the saddlebag. Papers fell through his fingers as he dug deeper and found more of the same in the early morning light.
     
    The sight of the papers spread all around him and a sealed document she’d not given to the highlanders she’d been working with because she’d wanted her brother to read it