LORD OF DUNKEATHE Read Online Free PDF Page A

like to change my gown before I meet him."
    "We've only been allotted two small chambers," the nobleman grumbled.
    "I'm sure that once you explain what we require, he'll gladly provide it. You are Lord Chesleigh, after all."
    With that, the young woman put out her slender hand for him to help her, the golden rings on her fingers flashing in the sunlight. Rising with regal dignity, half crouching because of the canvas covering, she had to bend over before setting foot on the stool another servant hastened to set in place.
    To give the beauty her due, she managed to invest even that activity with grace and dignity. As she straightened, her gown fell into smooth, fluid folds below her slender waist and the golden embroidery of her gown twinkled in the sunlight, while the gilded girdle about her slender hips shone. With her other hand, she held
    up her dress, exposing one delicate leather slipper before she stepped onto the ground.
    It seemed almost a wonder she would deign to walk on anything so ordinary as cobblestones.
    Lord Chesleigh glanced at the soldier. "Ask Martleby where the baggage of Lord Chesleigh and his daughter should go, and see that it's taken there."
    "Yes, my lord."
    Lord Chesleigh ran an imperious gaze over the man. "And be quick about it."
    The Norman lord then swept past the soldier as if getting within three feet of him might stain his garments. His daughter followed at a more graceful pace.
    Instead of tending to their baggage, however, or calling for assistance, the soldier turned and started toward Riona.
    She tried not to squirm or give any sign of dismay, even if she was dismayed. And excited. Which she shouldn't be. She should try to be dignified when she explained that she wasn't a servant or merchant come to trade.
    He stopped about a foot from her wagon and regarded her steadily with dark, inscrutable eyes whose gaze never wavered.
    Again, she felt entrapped by it, and him. Although the sensation should have been unpleasant, it wasn't. It was...thrilling.
    "Would you like me to help you with your baggage, too?" he asked in that deep, slightly husky voice that seemed to offer its own temptations, and convey more than a simple question.
    What, in the name of the saints and Scotland, had come over her?
    Before she could give an answer—any answer—a movement on the wall walk above made them both glance up at the guard there. With a look akin to panic directed toward the man on the ground, the guard immediately snapped to attention, and Riona realized this fellow facing her was most definitely not a common foot soldier.
    A relatively young and handsome man who looked like he'd been trained in arms and combat, and one of whom all the hirelings seemed afraid....
    Of course.
    "No, thank you, Sir Nicholas," she replied, giving him no sign that she was puzzled and curious. "I'm sure you've got plenty of other things to do."
    His brows lowered. "As a matter of fact, I do."
    "Then please, don't linger here chatting with me. My uncle and I can manage our baggage quite well."
    The man she was now quite sure was Sir Nicholas of Dunkeathe bowed stiffly, then turned on his heel and strode away, leaving Riona to ponder why a Norman nobleman would pretend he was not.
    A SHORT TIME LATER, the lord of Dunkeathe stood looking out the narrow arched window of his solar surveying the yard below, which was now almost clear of wagons, horses and guests.
    The room was as austere as the man himself. No tapestries graced the smooth stone walls. An unpainted wooden chest with leather hinges and bronze lock that held the dthe rolls and accounts of the estate stood against the wall. The rest of the furnishings were likewise simple and plain, and the floor was bare. On a table near the door stood the only articles of any beauty—a silver carafe and two finely worked silver goblets.
    His hands clasped behind his back, Nicholas watched the young woman who had guessed who he was, or perhaps found out some other way. Since he'd