Highlander Avenged Read Online Free PDF Page B

would only be a distraction from his duty.
    She startled him when she laid a large portion of the moss over the wound and bound it in place with the long strip of linen she had used before. She had him back in his tunic almost before he knew what she was up to. When she stepped back from him he immediately missed the feel of her hands, even though there had been nothing even slightly flirtatious in her touch.
    “We should away,” she said, and he was glad to notice that the trembling was completely gone and only a ghost of the haunted look was left in her eyes. She was truly a strong lass.
    “Aye, you are surely missed by now.” He awkwardly tucked his tunic back into his belted plaid. “Does your family always let you roam the bens by yourself?”
    The last wisps of sadness left her eyes, and were replaced now by a snap of temper. He grinned at her, which won him a scowl.
    “Aye, they do. Until lately there has been no danger to us on our own land.”
    “And yet they let you wander by yourself now that things are indeed dangerous?” He could not stop himself from asking, any more than he could stop the spurt of anger at her kin for not protecting her better. It was a good thing he was with her when they’d met that soldier. He did not want to think what might have happened to her if she had been alone upon that path.
    And then he remembered the screech she had let out as she felled the man. The woman . . . Jeanette . . . was stronger and more cunning than she looked. His anger was replaced by a warm feeling that had him smiling at her. He stood, a little more wobbly on his feet than he was comfortable with, but he held his good hand out to her. She looked at his hand, then placed hers in it, palm to palm. He closed his fingers around hers and gently pulled her up to her feet, holding on to her for just a moment longer than was necessary.
    “Let’s away, then,” he said.
    The lass had her lip caught between her teeth again and Malcolm had to stop himself from reaching out to touch her. He tried to fist both hands, and pain shot through his arm, reminding him forcefully of where his attention needed to be.
    “Do you think it safe to take the trail again?” she asked, looking across the clearing at a small path. “It will take us far less time to reach the castle that way than it will by cutting through the forest.”
    He considered how far they had come from where they had met the soldier, but those other voices he had heard made him uneasy that the soldier Jeanette had felled was not the only one nearby. “Let us go to the trail, but we will listen and watch before we step out of our cover, and we must be ready to abandon it at the first hint of anyone else about.”
    She nodded and led him down the path, stopping just before they reached the main trail again. He edged out, looking up and down the trail and listening for long moments. Finally, he nodded and they silently set out on the trail.
    Not long afterward, they came to a spot in the trail that opened up, revealing a long, narrow loch, a deeper blue than the late-spring sky, and, sitting before it, the battered remains of a ruined castle.
    “That is not—,” he said, stopping in his tracks.
    Jeanette stopped beside him and, for a moment, stared into the distance, though whether she looked at the ruins or somewhere else, he couldn’t tell. He took a moment to look more carefully at the place. One whole side of the curtain wall, nearest the loch, was gone, though he could not see the foot of it to tell if it was a rubble pile, or was removed completely. And on the left, inside the wall that still stood, were the burnt-out remains of a large building—probably the great hall. A single tower stood opposite the burnt building and it at least did not appear damaged, but closer examination might prove him wrong in that estimation. There was no way this castle could support anyone, let alone keep them safe.
    “That cannot be your home,” he said,