Linda Needham Read Online Free PDF Page B

far more intelligent than Rufus or any of the others, doubtless aware that sparing the castle would only add to his coffers.
    Which made him all the more dangerous. The sort who would keep careful watch on everything she did.
    “My lady! My lady!”
    “Leod!” The agile old man boxed and protested every step as he was led by the elbows through the crowd. “Take care with him!”
    “Are you all right, my lady?” Leod climbed up onto the dais, threw himself between Talia and de Monteneau, and glared up at the towering warrior.
    “I’m quite fine, Leod.” She stood and put herself between Leod and His Lordship. “How are the children? Brenna can be difficult during these raids.”
    “Oh, they all be fine, my lady. The young ones slept through it all.” Which, finally, soothed her fears, because Leod was a lion when it came to protecting her family.
    De Monteneau rose and stood directly behind her, a wall of heat and smoke and leather, surpassingly tall. “There’s your proof, madam,” he said softly.
    Leod glared up at de Monteneau, his hand athis dagger. “And who be you, sir? Who is he, my lady?”
    Who, indeed?
    “It’s all right, Leod. This is Alexander de Monteneau. He’s the new lord of Carrisford.”
    Leod gave a good snort. “Is he, now?”
    Knowing Leod’s stubborn, squint-eyed challenge all too well, Talia turned him on his heels. “Now please go back and stay with the children.”
    “You’re sure you’ll be all right, my lady? He’s a big one, he is,” Leod said, loud enough for all to hear. “Bigger’n any of the others.”
    And quicker.
    And wiser.
    And far, far more handsome. A stray thought that went fluttering through her chest.
    “You gonna marry him?” Leod whispered.
    Dear God! Had de Monteneau heard? Her ears filled with the slamming of her pulse.
    Not that it mattered; she’d marry the man over her dead body.
    “Please go, Leod. Hurry.” Talia watched Leod dodge through the crowd, leaving her with a dark crimson blush, unable to look at de Monteneau.
    But he seemed not to have heard Leod’s ridiculous question. “We’re done here for now, Dougal. Settle the men into the barracks, and I’ll see you back here at daybreak.”
    De Monteneau turned to his men, gave a nodded salute, and they broke into another bellowed cheer that hung in the rafters as the hall emptied.
    “So. Am I finally free to go as well, my lord guardian?”
    He eyed her for a very long time, then relaxed, as though the battle was won and he believed he was settling into her castle for good. “You’re free to show me to the keep.”
    The family quarters? “The keep, my lord? Tonight? Why? It’s late and—”
    “And I want to see to my chamber.”
    Talia’s heart stopped. “Your chamber? In the keep? But Rufus housed himself in the Red Tower—”
    “I am not Rufus.” He bent to her, his gaze steely cold and dangerous. “You’ll do well remembering that, Lady Talia. Now, take me to the keep.”
    He hooked Talia’s elbow and pulled her through the great hall and out the door.
    Toward the keep. Her home.
    Her heart.
    “I’m sorry, my lord,” Talia said, trying to disengage her elbow from his grip. But he only pulled her against his side and kept walking. “You see, there’s no chamber made up for you at the moment. My own chamber is—”
    “Available, madam?”
    Where the devil was all this unseemly blushingcoming from all of a sudden? Every word the man spoke seemed to take on wholly improper textures.
    He was steel and leather and a soft kind of heat that forced its way through the seams of her gown.
    Talia stopped beside the well and turned on him. “My chamber is not available to you, my lord. You can take the…uh…the solar.”
    In the shifting shadows of the courtyard, she could see the hardening of his jaw.
    “You’ll soon learn, madam, that I’ll take whatever I please, whenever, whether you will it or not.”

Chapter 4
    D eceptive woman. Her every word, every breath as