Rebellion & In From The Cold Read Online Free PDF Page A

the music of laughter, rich with the burr of Scotland. Ignoring the horse’s dancing impatience, she gripped the bridle and turned up a face that made Brigham’s mouth turn dry. “I’ve had the fidgets all day and should have known you were the cause. We had no word you were coming. Did you forget how to write or were you too lazy?”
    “A fine way to greet your brother.” Coll would have bent down to kiss her, but her face was swimming in front of his eyes. “The least you can do is show some manners to my friend. Brigham Langston, Lord Ashburn, my sister, Serena.”
    Not hard to look at? For once, Brigham thought, Coll hadn’t exaggerated. Far from it. “Miss MacGregor.”
    But Serena didn’t spare him a glance. “Coll, what is it? You’re hurt.” Even as she reached for him he slid from the saddle to her feet. “Oh, God, what’s this?” She pushed aside his coat and found the hastily bound wound.
    “It’s opened again.” Brigham knelt beside her. “We should get him inside.”
    Serena’s head shot up as she raked Brigham with rapier-sharp green eyes. It wasn’t fear in them, but fury. “Take your hands off him, English swine.” She shoved him aside and cradled her brother against her breast. With her own plaid she pressed against the wound to slow the bleeding. “How is it my brother comes home near death and you ride in with your fine sword sheathed and nary a scratch?”
    Coll might have underplayed her beauty, Brigham decided as his mouth set, but not her temperament. “I think that’s best explained after Coll’s seen to.”
    “Take your explanations back to London.” When he gathered Coll up to carry him, she all but pounced on him. “Leave him be, damn you. I won’t have you touching what’s mine.”
    He let his gaze run up and down her until her cheeks glowed. “Believe me, madam,” he said, stiffly polite, “I’ve no desire to. If you’ll see to the horses, Miss MacGregor, I’ll take your brother in.”
    She started to speak again, but one look at Coll’s white face had her biting back the words. With his greatcoat flapping around him and Coll in his arms, Brigham started toward the house.
    Serena remembered the last time an Englishman had walked into her home. Snatching the reins of both horses, she hurried after Brigham, cursing him.

Chapter 2
    There was little time for introductions. Brigham was greeted at the door by a gangly black-haired serving girl who ran off wringing her hands and shouting for Lady MacGregor. Fiona came in, her cheeks flushed from the kitchen fire. At the sight of her son unconscious in the arms of a stranger, she went pale.
    “Coll. Is he—”
    “No, my lady, but the wound’s severe.”
    With one very slender hand, she touched her son’s face. “Please, if you’d bring him upstairs.” She went ahead, calling out orders for water and bandages. “In here.” After pushing open a door, she looked over Brigham’s shoulder. “Gwen, thank God. Coll’s been wounded.”
    Gwen, smaller and more delicately built than her mother and sister, hurried into the room. “Light the lamps, Molly,” she told the serving girl. “I’ll need plenty of light.” She was already pressing a hand to her brother’s brow. “He’s feverish.” His blood stained the plaid and ran red on the linen. “Can you help me take off his clothes?”
    With a nod, Brigham began to work with her. She coolly sent for medicines and bowls of water; stacks of linen were rushed in. The young girl didn’t swoon at the sword wound as Brigham had feared, but competently began to clean and treat it. Even under her gentle hands, Coll began to mutter and thrash.
    “Hold this, if you please.” Gwen gestured for Brigham to hold the pad she’d made against the wound while she poured syrup of poppies into a wooden cup. Fiona supported her son’s head while Gwen eased the potion past his lips. She murmured to him as she sat again and stitched up the wound without