Seduced by the Laird (Conquered Brides Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

purplish gray as dawn loomed.
    “Who?”
    “A middling party. Looks to be several guards and two nuns.”
    “Then why did ye wake me?” Gregor growled. “We’re at an abbey. Did it not occur to ye they are simply returning home?”
    Connor shook his head. “Nay, my laird. They could be. ’Tis only that the guards ride with their swords out as if expecting trouble.”
    Gregor wiped the sleep from his eyes and stood. Robert the Bruce had said they could expect trouble. What if the two women were not simply being escorted back to the abbey, but were in fact in trouble? Being held for ransom?
    Arriving in the dead of night at Melrose Abbey and Gregor’s unwillingness to step inside until dawn seemed to be a sign from above.
    “Then, we’d best greet them to see if there is trouble coming—or if they themselves are the trouble.” Gregor met the eyes of his men who had quickly woken, donning their weapons. “Pack up, we ride now.”
    Nothing like the threat of battle to wake a man in the morning. Exhilaration charged through Gregor’s extremities, as though a wild horse had seized his blood.

 
    Chapter Four

     
    “Melrose Abbey is in sight,” one of the guards told Kirstin as he returned from scouting.
    She nodded, trying to see through the gray haze of morning, and finding that the mist slowly lifting from the ground made it harder to see more than ten or twenty feet in front of her—hence the guards continued rounds ahead and back.
    They rode their horses at a steady clip along a road through a wood.
    “Tell me again why we had to leave in the middle of the night?” She stared hard at the guard, willing him to answer truthfully.
    But all he said, once more, was, “We had overstayed our welcome.”
    That meant trouble. But what kind she couldn’t be certain. She’d not heard any skirmish, nor had anyone banging down her door. The guards had ridden through the night with weapons drawn, which meant they expected whatever trouble it was, to follow.
    “Our good coin should have paid for our stay through the night, and very much been welcome,” Donna grumbled, lack of sleep taking away from her normal chipper self.
    Kirstin was also tired, but used to the lack of sleep. Years of waking throughout the night for prayers and from night terrors had caused her to become accustomed to exhaustion, not that it was a good thing.
    Patting Donna’s hand, Kirstin said, “As soon as we are within Melrose’s walls, I will explain to the Abbess and the Abbot that ye need your rest. Ye’re my companion, and dinna need to sit in on the meeting.”
    “Are ye certain?”
    “Aye.”
    An eerie prickle crept over the back of Kirstin’s neck just before the riderless horse of one of her guard’s broke through the mist.
    “Where is Owen?” the guard to her left, John, barked.
    Mouth dry, heart scaling her throat, Kirstin grabbed hold of the dagger at her waist and advised Donna to do the same.
    “What? Why?” Donna squeaked.
    Kirstin looked her dead in the eye and said, “If ye dinna, then ye’ll have no way to defend yourself. Owen was a capable rider. Something has happened to him, and…” Her voice trailed off as the hair on her forearms rose.
    They were being watched.
    She scanned the trees, waiting for whoever was stalking them to make themselves known. Wings flapped as a cluster of birds vacated a tree to the right. On the left, the sound of a branch cracking, and beyond that a vacant, soundless void.
    Kirstin held her breath as the four guards she had left did their best to surround her and Donna.
    Why hadn’t she fought harder to stay at the abbey on Skye where she was safe?
    “Show yourself,” John shouted. “We can hear ye.”
    Men materialized from seemingly every direction, melting from the trees, the mist, the air. Owen, too, appeared, a warrior’s arm wrapped around his neck, a knife at his throat.
    “Good morning,” said their leader, his voice calm and familiar.
    Eyes widening, a ghost sat his