Moonstone Read Online Free PDF Page B

woods?”
    Rhiannon’s Scottish mother used to sing to her in Gaelic. Rhiannon had always been captivated by the dips and eddies of the language. “I do not know.”
    "But you speak it fluently .”
    Leave it to Alice to press her for an answer. “Nothing. I-I do not know.” Rhiannon shivered. “He may speak with a different dialect than I.”
    “But . . .”
    “I said I do not know.”
    Alice frowned and remained silent. Rhiannon didn’t like lying to her. But she wasn’t ready to talk about it.
     
    * * *
     
    William entered Rhiannon’s chamber behind her, leaving the door open so as not to alarm her. Connor stood in the corridor to keep any curious servants at bay.
    William turned to face her.
    Rhiannon crossed her arms over her rib cage, her chin lifted. Burgundy hair tumbled in a riot of waves down her arms, bits of moss and twig stuck in it.
    He laughed.
    “What are you looking at?” she asked.
    “You have twigs in your hair.”
    She ran her hands over her messy waves. “You should not be here.” She tossed a twig aside. “Leave.”
    “I am guarding you.” He unbuckled his sword harness and shrugged out of it, then propped it against the wall.
    “ So I do not leave?” Rhiannon said. 
    “So you dinna hurt yourself.” William met her gaze. “And so that no one hurts you.”
    Rhiannon broke eye contact.
    “We are grateful for your protection, my laird,” Alice said.
    At least someone was. “Thank you.”
    William unsheathed his sgian dubh and another knife, leaving them in plain sight of Rhiannon, hoping she’d be more comfortable knowing that he was unarmed, and she had easy access to his weapons. “I have to take care of your lip and your scratches,” he said.
    “ We are safer with him here, my lady.” Alice nodded. “He will not hurt you.”
    Rhiannon rubbed her sore arm. “Alice is a good judge of character. She has not failed me yet. Do be sure she is right about you.” Her green eyes bore through him.
    William ducked his head. “I will endeavor not to disappoint you, my lady.”
    “ You will need supplies, my laird.” Alice scurried across the chamber, returning with a pitcher of water, a needle, thread, scissors, and a flask, setting them on a little round table. Next, she placed a basin on the table and tore up a sheet for rags. Alice seemed eager to have him minister to her lady.
    All the while, Rhiannon stared him down.
    William smiled and pulled out a chair. “Sit.”
    “My lady, please,” Alice said. 
    “My lip is fine.”
    “’Tis too deep,” William said. “It willna heal properly on its own.”
    “Alice can stitch my lip.”
    “I’ll need Alice to hold you steady, unless you would rather I did that,” William said.
    Her eyes narrowed. “None of this is necessary. It hardly hurts at all.” She touched it with the tip of her tongue and winced. “Not at all.”
    “Contrary woman.” He rattled the chair. “Sit.”
    “Please,” Alice said, straining the words until Rhiannon reached for the chair and sank into it. She kept her gaze on William in a non-verbal warning.
    He pulled up the other chair and sat before her, then cleaned the needle and thread with spirits from the flask. “Have you ever had stitches before?”
    “Once, when I fell off a horse. My father stitched the cut on my leg.”
    “Were the two of you close?” He moved to tip her face up, but Rhiannon jerked back before his fingers made contact.
    He wasn’t sure how to reach the real woman beneath her pain. Words meant little to one who couldn’t trust, and touching her was sketchy at best.
    “Alice,” he said. “Hold her head steady.”
          “Aye, my laird.” She stood behind Rhiannon, her hands on either side of Rhiannon’s face. William wondered if the maid’s tiny fingers were strong enough. “Dinna let go.”
         Alice nodded and William threaded the needle. He took up the flask, bringing it to Rhiannon’s mouth. “Drink first.”
    “Nay .”
    “I know your