Tess and the Highlander Read Online Free PDF Page A

in the front. Her
fingers were clumsy and her skin actually hurt as she peeled away
the soaked layers and crawled under the blanket. She felt the
intense weariness again weighing her down. And it was so cold. She
just wanted to go to sleep and forget about everything.
    Pulling her knees tightly against her chest, she
closed her eyes.
     
    Thin shafts of light from a number of breaks in the
roof cut through the dim haze. Crouching beside the opening he had
climbed through, Colin glanced about with bewilderment at the large
open space. Yesterday, he had thought it was just a room used for
storage when he’d peered in. Now it occurred to him that the loft
was a veritable treasure trove…if one considered junk to be
treasure.
    But it was also the most organized midden he’d ever
laid eyes on.
    Colin couldn’t stand up completely beneath the low,
sloping roof, and as he moved carefully in the dim light, he ducked
under ropes that had been strung from one end wall to the
other.
    Hundreds of castoff items, if not more, were
stacked on the floor in orderly rows. A cracked flute. A rusted
helmet of a design he’d never seen. A pilgrim’s bottle that looked
usable. A mortar without the pestle. Some kind of clan banner with
all the colors bleached out. A rusted chain shirt. Most looked like
things that might have been washed ashore from sinking ships.
    Colin suddenly remembered the shivering
young woman below and left his perusal of this room for another
time.
    Against one of the end walls, he spied
neatly folded piles of what looked to be ancient, wool blankets
beside a worn sea chest. A couple of moth-eaten woolen cloaks sat
on the chest. Laying them aside, he pushed open the large chest and
stared.
    On top, an ornately wrought golden cross,
encrusted with bright jewels, caught his attention. The piece was
magnificent. He picked it up and looked at it. The cross hung from
a short gold chain. The length of it was only suitable for a child.
He remembered the pieces of mending he’d seen downstairs before.
Carefully replacing the cross, he eyed a young girl’s dainty shoes.
Next to them lay two small combs. There were other items in the
chest, but his thoughts were once again drawn to the wet lass in
the room beneath him. He left everything as he’d found it and
closed the chest.
    Looking around, he spotted two woman’s dresses
hanging from a couple of pegs. Colin grabbed for one of them and
started for the ladder before pausing. Going back, he took a few of
the woolen blankets and one of the cloaks, too.
    The fire had taken the worst of the chill off the
chamber by the time he descended.
    “I hope this will do. ’Twas no easy task finding it
up there amid the…”
    His words trailed off. Wet clothes had been cast off
beside the bed, and the young woman seemed to be sound asleep.
Colin was well aware of what too many hours in the cold could do to
a person. He stocked the hearth with more driftwood and moved again
to her side. He touched her forehead. She was still very cold, and
her breathing struck him as shallow and labored.
    “You can put this other dress on yourself…when you
are ready.” He spread the extra blankets on top of her and placed
the dry dress within her reach.
    Colin pushed the wet strands of hair out of her face
and, for the first time, really looked at her. Dark long lashes lay
peacefully against skin that had been gently kissed by the sun. He
stared at the perfect symmetry of eyes that he remembered were so
large and dark. She had a straight nose and full lips. With her
thick, dark waves of hair flowing down over her shoulders, Colin
could imagine she would look like a mermaid. She was young, but
very beautiful, and he couldn’t understand for the life of him what
she was doing on this island.
    Colin saw her shiver again. Gently, he touched the
smooth skin of her face to make certain she was warming up. She
rolled onto her side and clasped his hand between her own and laid
her cheek on it. The simple