Ian's Rose: Book One of The Mackintoshes and McLarens Read Online Free PDF Page A

burning anger.
    A moment passed before she realized Frederick had someone tossed over his shoulder like a sack of leeks. Her eyes widened in time with the door she pulled open. Frederick entered the room swiftly and tossed his brother into a chair near one of the tables that held her fabrics.
    “What happened to him?” Rose blurted out as she rushed to kneel before the man she loved for reasons no one could fathom.
    ’Twas then Frederick noticed his beautiful wife sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. She shot to her feet and repeated Rose’s question. In a flash, the two women were fluttering about the room, grabbing an ewer and linen cloths, hammering Frederick with too many questions to count.
    “Are we under siege?” Aggie asked as she held the ewer over Ian’s lap.
    “I did no’ hear the warnin’ bells,” Rose said as she dipped a linen cloth into the water and began wiping the blood from Ian’s face.
    Aggie stared blankly at her husband. “Why are ye j-just standin’ there? Ye should be defendin’ the k-keep!”
    Frederick held up his hands. “There be no attack against the keep.”
    Rose paused her ministrations. “Then what happened? Did he take a fall?” She looked as vexed as she was concerned.
    “Rose,” Ian whispered her name almost reverently. “The most beautiful woman I ever laid eyes on.”
    With a furrowed brow she turned her attention back to Ian. His face bore an expression of devout love and adoration. “Never has a sweeter, more bonny woman ever graced God’s earth.” His voice was scratchy, his tone quite sad. As if he’d lost her to the black death and was remembering her fondly.
    “He’s been drinkin’,” Aggie pointed out as if that answered a multitude of questions.
    Annoyed, Rose asked once again, “What happened?”
    Looking up at his older brother, Ian answered. “He was keepin’ his word to ye.”
    Perplexed, the two women looked to Frederick for an explanation. Hopefully one that made more sense than Ian’s.
    “’Tis no less than I deserve,” Ian slurred before Frederick could respond. “A Mackintosh ne’er breaks his word, ye see.”
    Neither Rose nor Aggie had any earthly idea what the drunken man meant.
    “What is he goin’ on about?” Rose demanded.
    Frederick ran a hand through his ginger hair before answering. “I made a promise to ye more than a year ago, that if Ian ever hurt ye or played ye false, I’d kill him with me bare hands.”
    Aggie closed her eyes and took a deep breath while Rose was clearly appalled. “ Ye did this to him?”
    “He hurt ye and he took back his proposal. Ye’ve been cryin’ fer days now, lass,” he reminded her gently. “I was merely keepin’ me word when me brother broke his.”
    “I be ready to accept me fate,” Ian told Rose. He took her hand in his. “I ne’er loved a woman as I have loved ye. I want ye to go on with yer life. Do no’ pine fer me or mourn me loss.”
    Rose withdrew her hand from his with the level of disgust she would feel had she just fallen in a pile of warm horse dung. “Ye can no’ be serious!” she exclaimed. She didn’t know which of these two men confounded or angered her more. At the moment, they were tied for first.
    “He must kill me,” Ian told her. “He must keep his word because I did no’ keep mine.”
    She eyed them both speculatively for a long moment. The more she stood waiting for one of them to tell her this was nothing more than a jest, the angrier she became. Once Aggie took notice of Rose’s furious glower, the way her skin had turned red, Aggie suddenly swore she heard her babe, Ada, crying. Setting the bowl on the table, she scurried to her feet. “Ada needs me, as does Ailrig.”
    Pausing at the door, Aggie looked back to her friend. “Ye may strangle Ian, but please, do no’ harm me husband. I still need him, as do me children.” She did not wait for a response before hurrying out of the room and closing the door behind her.
    Once she was