Lord of the Black Isle Read Online Free PDF Page A

time floating aboot and visiting wi’ all and sundry.”
    â€œNo, you just go around pestering helpless and defenseless women.”
    â€œDo I now? Ha’ ye seen any of those helpless, defenseless women aboot?” He looked around, as if searching. “I should like to see what one looks like.”
    He was venturing off into a direction where she did not want to go, so she changed the subject. “Then how do you know he suffers as well?”
    â€œâ€™Twas merely an observation I made. I can observe without making my presence known.”
    â€œApparently,” she said, quite huffily.
    â€œâ€˜Heav’n has no Rage like Love to Hatred turn’d, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn’d.’”
    â€œObviously quoted by a female friend of yours,” she said, fighting the urge to smile. He laughed and she refused to think about just how wonderful his deeply baritone laugh was, and then she wondered if he could read her mind and decided not to go there.
    â€œYe are still miffed that I didna pay ye the same number o’ visits as I did Isobella?”
    â€œYou can barely call a couple of short twirls through my life a visit. And you did show a strong preference for visiting my twin.”
    â€œThat wouldna be yer eyes of green talking now, would it?”
    â€œWell, the two of you were rather chummy, while I was left with the MacLeans for ages without a clue as to what was going on…”
    â€œâ€™Twas not yer time for me to involve myself wi’ ye.”
    â€œOh, now I get it. One must suffer horribly before you pay them a call.”
    â€œNay, I didna visit ye much because it wasna yer time, and I dinna recall yer horrible bouts o’ suffering.”
    â€œI may not have suffered, per se, but I’m the one who got all the grief, while Izzy was living a relatively relaxed life. If you remember, I spent most of my time in the clutches of Angus MacLean, as his captive. There was even an opportunity for Izzy to follow her archaeological calling, while I was never afforded anything equal, and before you say that the treating of Alysandir and Braden were opportunities for me to practice medicine, they definitely were merely isolated events.”
    â€œAnd I seem to recollect the MacLean having ye doon to the great hall to sup wi’ him on many an occasion. And ye had yer freedom to go about Duart Castle at will, did ye not?”
    She purposefully ignored that last question. “I’m not going to put a dog in that fight,” she said, “but I will say that I think you owe me.”
    He gave her that look, which she was becoming accustomed to, when he raised his brows and his face bore an expression that lay somewhere between amusement and being amazed at her gall. “And what would it take to soothe yer ruffled feathers and cause ye to purr like a kitten?”
    She gazed off for a moment and lifted her eyes skyward, as if seeking some sort of divine suggestion, then she said, “I was thinking that something given in recompense for my having the short end of the straw—and before you disagree with that, let me remind you that not only was I held prisoner while Izzy was free as a breeze, but she also married the man of her dreams, while I had mine cruelly yanked out of my life before we could wed.”
    â€œMayhap ye are taking the cart afore the horse, fer yer fate is not always in my hands, and the time for a turning point in yer life may lie in yer future, not in the events of the past. Mayhap ye should consider that instead of allowing things to happen, ye might endeavor to influence yer future by making wise choices.”
    She felt like she had been hit in the face with a pie. She was speechless. “I get the feeling you are referring to my staying at Màrrach and letting things happen, rather than leaving here and making a new life for myself.”
    â€œI believe yer contemporary way of putting it would be, if