Highland Wedding Read Online Free PDF Page B

garment and, with a soft cry, she started to fall. Nathan tried to catch her, but she took him down with her. Being on the very edge of a small rise they started to roll. She tried to get out of Nathan’s way but he tumbled over her, then she over him. When they came to rest at the base of the rise, Nathan landed on top of her. It was a full moment before Islaen was able to catch her breath. Then she began to curse a laughing Nathan and struggled to push him off of her.
    When he finally moved, it was only to lie at her side still laughing. She could hear her other brothers laughing too, their laughter growing louder as they approached. Hearing Iain call her, she closed her eyes and wished heartily that, by some great miracle, she could simply disappear. It was a shame, she mused, that intense embarrassment could not be immediately fatal.
    Iain was unaware of any trouble until the king, his voice trembling with amusement, pointed it out. He gaped at the sight of his betrothed tumbling down the small hill, her slim stockinged legs well displayed. By the time her brother got off of her, Iain was hurrying to Islaen’s side. He had to fight the urge to laugh, something made very difficult by the king’s amusement and Islaen’s brothers’ hilarity. For one brief instant her stillness bothered him, but then he saw how tightly her eyes were shut and how she had clenched her hands into small fists. He reached down and gently grasped her by the arm, ready to help her stand.
    “Come along, Islaen, ye dinnae appear hurt.”
    Hearing the laughter he could not fully keep out of his voice, Islaen was very reluctant to look at him. “Nay, I think I will but lie here until I disappear.”
    “I ken how ye feel, lass, but it willnae happen.”
    “Nay, I wager not,” she murmured and opened her eyes.
    As he helped her to her feet she decided that his eyes, when touched with laughter, were beautiful. She stood quietly letting him tidy her up as if she were a small child as she wondered if she could bring that light to his eyes more often, preferably without having to embarrass herself.
    “How did ye come to have such a tumble?” he asked.
    “Wearing that cursed houppelande,” Nathan answered as he handed her one of hershoes that had fallen off.
    “An it causes ye trouble why do ye wear it?”
    After glaring at Nathan, Islaen put her shoe back on with Iain’s support and answered softly, “I wore it for ye.”
    “For me?”
    “Aye. ’Tis the fashion and I wished to show ye that I can be as fashionable as all the ladies dancing after ye.”
    “Weel, I havenae noticed so many but ye need not go to such reckless lengths, wee Islaen,” he teased and started to remove her now disheveled houppelande. “I care little about such foolish trappings.”
    “Oh. Ye mean I near broke my neck for naught?” She flushed with embarrassment when the king himself laughed, for she had thought her words soft enough to be private.
    Iain restrained his own laughter with an effort. She flattered him with her attempt to appear the most fashionable of ladies and he did not wish to reward that with laughter, a laughter she could wrongly interpret as mockery. It also amused him that she so openly admitted her ploy, harmless as it was. She was honest almost to a fault.
    When they returned to the castle, Iain watched Islaen hurried away by Meg and sighed. Everything about the girl seemed to tug at him. She seemed to promise all he had ever wanted in a mate. It was going to prove to be a severe trial to maintain any distance between them but he would have to. Wondering why that thought should depress him, Iain suddenly realized that he had been neatly encircled by her brothers.
    After pondering seven shades of red hair for a moment, he asked, “Did ye wish to speak with me?”
    Duncan, the eldest of the seven at seven and twenty, growled, “Aye, about our wee sister.”
    “That is a surprise.”
    “We havenae much to say,” Duncan continued, ignoring