Tangled Hearts Read Online Free PDF Page B

own.”
    Dory felt her stomach pitch as her heart dropped into it. “I was wrong about you, Ewan Brody. You might play the part of a warrior full of honor, but at the first difficulty you break your oath.”
    He walked to the small glass window looking out onto the bailey. “I’m no fool who would surrender my head for a beautiful lass.”
    “Beautiful?” she whispered.
    He huffed and turned. “Just because,” he indicated her there on the bed, “ye look like that, all soft and lovely, doesn’t mean ye can trick me to do a dead man’s errand.”
    Soft and lovely? No one had ever called her anything close to beautiful. Well, there were the drunken hoots from sailors at port, but then they’d end up slit, stabbed, or knocked unconscious by Will or the captain. God, what would she do without them?
    “You swore to help me with my family issues. They are my family.”
    His stare pierced her, his handsome face hard as the granite face of a mountain.
    “If they die, I’ll have no one.” She swallowed hard, caught in the line of his gaze. “Please… don’t abandon me.”
    It was difficult to tell in the low light, and it happened so quickly, but Dory swore the warrior flinched. His hands contracted into tight fists. If she could touch him, she could tell what was going on inside him physically. He wouldn’t even know that she could read him like that, and it might tell her something. She slid off the bed slowly and leaned forward. Before she could touch him, he grunted and strode toward the door.
    “I don’t abandon helpless lasses. We leave for London before dawn.”

Chapter Three
    5 September of the Year our Lord God, 1517
    Dearest Katharine,
    He says he poisoned the queen and thus prevented her from conceiving another after Princess Mary, yet there is no proof. Have him stay close to Henry, gaining acceptance into the king’s inner circle. We will yet have our day.
    Yours forever,
    Rowland
    Dory covered her nose with the edge of her shawl as the stench of rotting flesh washed over her on an errant breeze. With a silent exhale and twirl of her finger next to her leg, she sent the breeze blowing the other way to carry the smell of her father, the decaying corpse, away. A quick glance showed that neither of the Highlanders noticed.
    What terrible luck. Not only was her father dead and unable to help her, Rowland Boswell’s royal summons rang of King Henry’s fury. The corpse would be treated like that of a traitor. If Henry’s anger wasn’t assuaged on a dead man, it could bubble over to scald his only living blood relation.
    The three of them agreed she should keep her relation to Boswell a secret. It would be wise for her to have no connection to the corpse at all, but there wasn’t another way to reach the king or the Tower. Traveling with the two Highlanders was the quickest way there. Although she didn’t have any idea what she would do once they arrived. How much would the warrior help her?
    Dory’s glance ran down Ewan where he strode beside the horses, his boots crunching on pebbles in the dawn light. Her heart thumped sporadically at the display of muscles through the linen shirt. Her fingers ached to test the hardness of his arms. Hours of sword play had molded him into a formidable warrior. Legs strong and well-sculpted led to a firm, rounded backside.
    “I can understand bringing the dog,” Ewan said and gestured to the fluffy, light brown mongrel trotting next to him. He turned back to look at them riding on the cart seat. Dory’s eyes shot up in case Ewan noticed where her gaze had rested. She released her breath as he looked to Searc. “But the cat, too?”
    Searc shrugged and glanced at his feet where a small tabby cat slept in a Rosewood bathing sheet. “It’s still a kitten,” Searc said. “Ye don’t abandon lasses and I don’t abandon beasties.”
    Ewan grumbled something in Gaelic and Searc reached down to rub the purring kitten. “Aye, but mine doesn’t scratch.”
    Dory