Tangled (Handfasting) Read Online Free PDF

whispered.
“Thank you. I’d not have your people frightened of me.”
    He
continued to watch the people below.  “Our people.”  He corrected but did not
push. “I will need to speak to the lass. Will you come with me?”
    “There’s
nothing I can do.”  Her life was changing, too fast. She couldn’t take it in,
worried that she would never be the same, would never be able to return to her
own without being a stranger. “I wouldn’t know what to do, Bold, but yes I will
sit with you as long as you don’t need me to speak.”
    He
turned on her, with a fierceness that startled. “You promised a handfast, a year
and a day as my wife, a laird’s wife.  You’d not be so small as to skirt
that?”  Voice lower, softer, he added.  “You knew where she was, you’ll know
what questions to ask that I would not think of.”
    No , she thought. No,
no, no . She was not like that, in either sense.  She was not one to skirt
what needed doing but this was not her land, her people.  Even more so, she was
not one to go finding lost lasses. “I’m not fey, have never done such a thing
before. There’s no promise it will happen again.”
    “Once
was enough.”  He rose, Maggie still in his arms. “But questions can wait until
tomorrow. We’ll leave Ysenda to her parents for now and get you back to the
castle. You’re still mending, need your rest.
    Maggie
pushed out of his arms and eyed the horse she’d been riding.
    “Here,”
he lifted her again.
    “Stop.”
She wrestled from his hold.
    “Just
helping you mount.”
    “I’ll
walk.”
    “No,”
he caught her by the waist, “you’ll ride, one more time.”  He settled her on
the back of the animal.  “We don’t know what happened with Ysenda, or who
attacked us in the woods, but if they decide to come again, escape is easier on
a horse.” He handed her the reigns and looked toward the people coming back up
onto the rise.
    “What
about you?”
    “I’d
best see to Ysenda and her family.  If they want to go home they’ll need a
guard around their cottage.”
    Maggie
looked to the people and saw the lad from the courtyard.  The one Bold had
spoken with.  The boy headed their way.  Talorc noticed him too, signaling for
the lad to wait where he was.
    “Get
yourself back to the castle.”  He nodded to one of his men.  “Bryson will see
you stay safe.” 
    She
watched him walk away, toward the lad, surprised when he took his arm and bent
his head so the two could speak closely, privately.
    “Who
is that lad?”  Maggie asked Bryson.
    “Lad?” 
He asked.
    “Aye,
the one speaking with Bold.”
    Bryson
took the reins from her and started walking away.  “That’s just Seonaid.”
    “Seonaid?
That’s a girl’s name.” 
    “Aye.”
    Maggie
looked back over her shoulder at Talorc and the lad. Things were even more
different at Glen Toric than home if they gave girls names to boys.
     
     
    Bold
listened to Seonaid as he watched Ysenda, her parents and half his clan, move
up to the high ground.
    “She’s
worn to the bone, Bold, and badly bruised but she’s alive.”
    “Has
she said anything?”
    “No,
crying is all.”
    “Not
lost.”  It wasn’t a question. This far from home, it wasn’t likely.  He thought
of Maggie’s dream.
    “She
thinks she killed someone.  That much did come clear.”
    “That
little thing?” He scowled, relieved she was safe even as fury, that she hadn’t
been, that she had needed to kill, raged.
     “.
. . a mite of thing, weak and frightened and a dark cloud is pressing closer
and closer” The threat was not gone.
    “See
to them, Seonaid, Ysenda and her family. Convince them to come back to Glen
Toric.”  He ordered.
    “They’ll
be wanting to go home.”
    “That
they might, but we need to be sure they’re safe.  Their cottage is beyond
everything else.  I’ll send them with a guard.  That will take time to organize
and need time to do so.”
    “Men
have gone looking for the