Ravished by a Highlander Read Online Free PDF Page B

knees and huge swords dangling from their hips. What were they doing at St. Christopher’s? Were they truly
     bringing her someplace safe, or to her enemies? Either way, she could not stay with them. If they were innocent, she would
     likely get them killed. She could ask them boldly if her enemy had sent them but they would not tell her the truth.
    Grief clouded her thoughts, but not enough to make her trust the one who might or might not have rescued her. How had her
     enemies found her even before the coronation? Someone had informed them. But who?
    The sisters had never kept the truth from her. Davina knew why she had been taken from her mother’s arms as a babe, abandoned
     by her father, and sent off to St. Christopher’s. She understood the value of her existence, for twice now it had cost her
     everything she loved. When Edward had arrived at the Abbey from King Charles’s court, he had told her of the men who sought
     her demise. And dear God, there were many. Though his warnings birthed a fear in Davina that was almost palpable, she understood
     his reasons for telling her. Ignorance of one’s foe was as dangerous as facing them on a battlefield. And so, she lived in
     uncertainty and unease, always aware of the danger around her.
    In the fading light, she watched Rob walk toward the pebbly brook and bend to the water’s edge where she’d washed the soot
     out of her own hair earlier. He scooped some water up in his hands to wash his face. His wound needed cleaning, but Davina
     was thankful that he didn’t remove his clothing to bathe. She had lived among many men in her life, but not a single one of
     them emanated such raw strength as this one, nor were any of them as broad of shoulder as he. She was certain it was the primitive
     belted plaid swinging about his bare knees when he stood to his feet that helped accentuate the comparison—the dusty skins
     wrapped around his calves—one, with the hilt of a dagger sticking out of it—that bore testimony to his vigor. This man spent
     his days doing more than sitting idle with his comrades, drinking and waiting for battle to come to him. Following him with
     her gaze as he turned from the stream and moved around the campsite, she found his gait easy and confident with the kind of
     pride carried by generations before him. When he angled his head to look at her and found her staring at him, she swung her
     gaze to a nearby tree.
    “Ye know, lass,” he said, and she was aware of him moving toward her. “If my sister could be as quiet as ye are fer but a
     quarter of the time, she’d likely have found a husband by now.”
    Squatting now before a pile of embers to her right, Will let out a low snicker. He was temptation incarnate, that one, Davina
     thought when he glanced at her and winked. As darkly intriguing as a wolf, with pale gray eyes and a set of fangs to match.
    “Leave Mairi oot of this,” said the boy who had defied Rob so boldly when he was told to go to England. He looked to be about
     nine and ten, lean bodied and quite at ease on his mount on the way here. Dark, silky waves eclipsed eyes that were a dozen
     different shades of green and golden brown, smoldering eyes that burned with a sense of purpose almost as intense as Rob’s.
     “Ye both know why she hasna’ wed.”
    “Aye, Colin,” Will laughed, sprinkling twigs over the building flames. “The men are afraid o’ her.”
    “I believe Colin is referring to my brother Connor.”
    “I am referrin’ to him, as well, Finn. Though I dinna’ blame Connor fer fleein’ to England.” Will’s eyes gleamed above the
     flames, playful and teasing on the young man whose visage alone had made Davina almost forget—for just an instant—the horrors
     of the day.
    When she’d first set eyes on the one called Finn she thought it might be possible that God had sent one of His fairest, undoubtedly
     Scottish, angels to save her. His hair was pin-straight and almost as pale as hers beneath