Taming the Heiress Read Online Free PDF Page A

well," Dougal commiserated. A tousle-haired man wearing the baggy jacket, trousers, and boots of a fisherman joined the young woman. She smiled up at him even as she snatched the shirttails of the smallest of the bold climbers, plucking the blond-haired boy off the headland slope. The child leaped down beside her and took her hand.
    Watching the girl greet what must be her family, Dougal felt an unexpected stab of disappointment, as if he shared Alan's dream—as if he had found his sea fairy and she was beyond his reach. Then Alan asked about the next day's plans, and Dougal replied, all the while watching the girl.
    Glancing out at the sea then, he narrowed his eyes against the sunset glare on the waves. Breezes stirred his hair as he looked toward Sgeir Caran.
    Only a mile from the island, the massive black rock was easily visible, thrusting up through the waves, silhouetted against the golden sky. Sgeir Caran was the largest formation in a half-mile-long archipelago of the Caran Reef, whose rocks littered the sea like thorns. Many of the points were treacherously hidden below the constant sweep of the Atlantic.
    Mostly Dougal thought of Sgeir Caran in terms of the work challenges it presented, its geology, the weather, the physics of wind and wave force. But sometimes, at moments when the light was extraordinary or the mist deep, the rock seemed otherworldly, an ancient portal for legends and magic. He would never forget the night he had nearly died out there, the night when water horses and a sea fairy had saved him. That magic lingered, though he would never understand it.
    Fool, he told himself, turning away. He needed his attention on the here and now. Hard enough to work out on Sgeir Caran every day without dreaming idly of lost moments.
    "She will find you," Alan said.
    Dougal turned, startled. "What?"
    "The Baroness of Strathlin. When she hears we're about to quarry stone from her island, she'll come after you."
    "There's little Lady Strathlin can do now but accept it."
    "At least she's far away in Edinburgh."
    "Aye, but I hear she keeps a manor house on the other side of the island. She'll have to come here sooner or later. I mean to meet her when she does."
    "She will whaup yer head for being a great loon and causing her such grief. Old hag," Alan muttered.
    "I was invited to a soiree at her home in a few weeks. She can whaup me there at her convenience."
    "Fought you every step of the way, she has."
    "Her solicitors have done the real fighting."
    "She canna be bothered, eh? She has nearly two million pounds, they say!" Alan shook his head in disbelief. "Your own fine inheritance is a wee sum compared to that."
    "Huh. Well, she gives freely to charities, and she assisted in the costs after the bridge collapsed last year."
    "You're a fair man, Dougal Stewart. Truth is, she canna find it in her cold heart to be generous about the Caran light. We need contributions. Those Fresnel lenses you ordered for the tower will be devilish expensive. 'Twill raise the whole cost to nearly sixty thousand pounds by the time we are done."
    "We have interested investors in Edinburgh. If I attend Lady Strathlin's soiree, I can try to tap them for commitments. As for the lady, she would never invest in this herself."
    "Hell's own gale, she is. But you do not run from storms."
    "All we need is good luck and good weather to finish the job." Dougal turned to see Norrie MacNeill looking toward him. The old man lifted a hand, and Dougal waved. Moments later, the fisherman and the girl crossed the beach toward them.
    Graceful, poised, lovely, she held his attention. All else seemed to fade. He heard the rush of the sea in his ears, and his heart beat hard and fast. He thought of his dreams of the sea fairy, and the sudden longing he felt had crushing strength.
    Whoever the girl was, he told himself, she was real—and he had best collect his wits.
    * * *
    He looked like a pirate, dark and wild, hands at his waist and booted foot propped on