How to Handle a Highlander (Hot Highlanders) Read Online Free PDF Page B

sleepless night.”
    “She’ll do her duty,” Bari promised.
    “She nearly retched upon me boots when she got a good look at me, lad!” He laughed good and long but dissolved into a coughing fit. “Nae that I care. She’ll settle in, and it will be me pleasure to break her to ride. But ye’ll mind me, lad, on the matter of Gahan Sutherland. There will be no poisoning beneath me roof. I’ve enough trouble with the king.”
    “Does it matter how he dies?”
    “Aye, lad, it does. I’m a Highlander, even if age has had her way with me. The Matheson will ride out with ye because it will increase our lands. Until then, me overlord’s son is welcome here.”
    “His bastard, ye mean,” Bari grumbled.
    “But one the earl acknowledges. That makes all the difference, and ye know it,” Achaius insisted. “When ye add in the fact that the earl has only the one legitimate son, well now, his bastard becomes even more important. Especially when there seem to be no others. I hear Norris has no children either. The Sutherland blood is getting thin, it seems. He would nae be the first bastard getting a title in the Highlands. Besides, it will be good to have the union witnessed. The earl will nae argue if his own son was here and did nae stop it from happening.”
    Bari nodded. “True. Since ye are planning to keep me here, I hope yer maids are friendly.”
    Achaius waved him toward the door and reached for his mug again. He really was ancient-looking, but Bari didn’t bother concerning himself with that. He was laird of the Matheson, and that was what interested him. Sisters were meant to be used to further the clan’s interest.
    Even Sandra had known that.
    ***
    No one seemed to want to deal with her. Moira reluctantly watched the man holding Athena take the bird off to the yard. She had to curtail the impulse to keep the hawk with her. Just because she longed for companionship didn’t mean she had the right to deprive Athena of supper.
    But no one else came near her. Moira stood in the hallway. Through an arched doorway she could see the Great Hall filled with tables and benches. Women were busy setting out baskets of bread for the evening meal. They stole peeks at her, but no one invited her in. Since she was to wed the laird, she really didn’t need an invitation, but it felt wrong to enter where she had not been bidden.
    She sighed and chastised herself. Her current lack of courage wouldn’t do. Respect was earned. At least true respect was, and she wasn’t interested in the false sort that she’d witnessed Sandra getting.
    Moira shifted away from the great hall, walking slowly down the hallway to get a look at her new home. To begin with, she’d get a sense of where things were. The light was dim now and the shadows growing deeper. The lamps in the passageways were not yet lit, but the window shutters were still open to let the fresh air in.
    “Inspecting yer new possession?”
    She recognized Gahan’s voice instantly. It was slightly unnerving how swiftly she identified him.
    “Yer sister would have found it beneath her,” he added.
    Gahan parted from the shadow of a doorway. The hall was farther behind her than she’d realized; the setting of the supper table was now only a dim buzz. A strange twist of excitement went through her belly, startling her. But it also left a bitter taste in her mouth, because she realized she preferred Gahan to her groom.
    It was knowledge she could have done well without.
    “Nae that I’d expect any less of any woman wedding such an old man,” Gahan informed her.
    His tone was condescending at best, and it irritated her. He was her better. The fine weave of his kilt and the silver buttons running up the sides of his knee-high boots showed off just how much his father gave him. She should have kept her mouth shut, but her pride flared up and she propped her hand onto her hip.
    “And will yer father give ye any choice when he contracts a bride for ye?” she questioned