Laird of the Mist Read Online Free PDF

even cried out when Ennis’s wife removed the arrow from her flesh. When she turned her head to look at him, her eyes blazed with anger and tears.
    Unprepared for the effect the sight of her had on him, he cursed himself for wanting to take her in his arms and comfort her.

 

    Chapter Four
    K ATE WAS RIPPED from her dreams of being cradled in the arms of her rescuer and came awake with a choking gasp. With painful clarity, she remembered being shot. She looked around the unfamiliar bothy, with understanding dawning on her that she’d been taken from her home, as well. And not by some knight of the realm, but by a MacGregor! There was little she could do now, fighting the dizzying effect of herbs, no doubt fed to her by the woman standing over her and wiping Kate’s blood from her own hands with a small cloth. Or by that horrendous whiskey, as deadly as her rescuer . . . er . . . abductor. Good God, she’d been abducted! Where was her captor? She asked the woman, who gave her no answers, save for a reassuring pat before she hurried for the door. MacGregors! Kate’s head reeled. Was it only this morn that her uncle was warning her about them? Pity she had wounded the laird in the leg. She ought to have sliced open his spine like they had done to her father.
    She turned her face toward the door when she heard someone enter. She hated this man’s clan for terrorizing her kin for so many years, but she had to have been daft to lift a meager dagger against him. Why, he was even taller than Robert, and solidly built beneath a shirt of dyed saffron and belted plaid. He moved with the confidence of a conqueror. Two wide bands of brown hide encircled his wrists. Dried blood caked his bare knee and disappeared beneath the rim of his kidskin boot. But even the slight limp from his wound did naught to thwart his dominating presence. He paused for a moment, his eyes settling on her like a tempest, turbulent and dangerous.
    Kate leaped from the table and stumbled back against the wall. Let all of Scotland fear the MacGregors. She would not! Her eyes darted around the room for something with which to hit him. She picked up a stool with her uninjured arm and raised it to ward him off. She fought a moment of sheer panic when he picked up his steps again. Pain resonated though her body, but she was not about to stand here and allow him to kill her without a fight. Gritting her teeth, she squeezed her eyes shut and swung.
    When her stool came to a dead halt, she opened her eyes to find the chieftain’s broad fingers closed around one wooden leg. He towered over her, so relentlessly compelling, his gaze on her so unforgiving.
    “Ye will cease tryin’ to do me bodily harm,” he warned, taking a step even closer. “Or I’ll be forced to confine ye.”
    “I mean to kill you.” Kate stared up at him and gave the stool another tug.
    Her would-be weapon flew across the room and crashed into the trivet with a mighty clang. Kate barely had time to startle before he swooped down and caught her in his arms. He lifted her to his chest, cradling her in a stone embrace. She struggled to free herself, but to no avail.
    “Where are you taking me? Unhand me!” she demanded more forcefully when he did not answer right away.
    “I’m bringin’ ye to the bed.”
    Kate froze. Did he mean to ravish her? Aye, he had threatened to do the like earlier, had he not? She turned to look at the small mattress in the corner and fought to quell the drum of her heart. “If you dare touch me, I will rip out your heart.”
    “How might ye do that?” he asked, sounding somewhat amused. “With yer teeth?”
    Kate wished she had the fortitude to do just that. She stiffened. It was true she could never overtake him with one arm. She reasoned she could not even fight him with two. She tried appealing to his sense of honor, hoping he possessed some. “I’m betrothed,” she lied.
    He peered down at her and then scowled for all he was worth, his eyes darkening