The Craving (Rogues of Scotland #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

for Ronan to realize that she had stopped, so he was a couple of paces ahead before he paused and turned to look at her.
    Her gray eyes blazed with fury as the wind whipped at the strands of her auburn hair that had come loose of the simple braid. “You think I’m lying. Me!”
    Ronan shifted the basket to his other hand and braced himself. First there was anger, and then women cried. He hoped Meg wouldn’t shed any tears. It would ruin everything. “Two other women have sent me back.”
    “I don’t know how I called you out of the mirror, so it just goes to show that I don’t know how to send you back. Plus I told you I wouldn’t. Obviously, you take a woman’s word as nothing.”
    “It was a woman who put me in the mirror.”
    Meg’s eyes widened in annoyance. “Oh, well then never mind that you refused to wed her granddaughter after bedding her.”
    “I didna kill Ana,” Ronan said in a low voice. He was surprised at the anger that rose up so quickly. He was many things, but he wasn’t a murderer.
    The ire evaporated from Meg’s face instantly. “You’re right. You didn’t. Ana was weak. Men regularly go back on vows and seduce women with false promises, and we survive. Ana should have as well. Men aren’t worth the time, and they certainly aren’t worth our souls.”
    Ronan could only stare after Meg as she walked past him onto the worn road from the castle. There had been something in her voice, a note of regret and desolation that was like a sword through his gut. 
    He wanted to know what had happened to her, but more than that, he wanted to know who had hurt her. She was a gentle spirit, but he had glimpsed the fire and passion in her gaze. She was a beauty waiting to break through the chains holding her back.
    With little effort, Ronan caught up with Meg. They walked in silence for a while. He kept going over what she had said in his mind. There was no doubt some man had forsaken her. Had he stolen her innocence and refused to marry her?
    The idea made Ronan grip the handle of the basket so hard that it creaked in protest. Gradually, he loosened his hand until he had his rage under control.
    “You doona trust men,” he said into the silence. “Why are you trusting me, lass?”
    She looked at him with wide gray eyes and smiled tightly. “Oh, I don’t.”
    “I doona understand. Why let me have my freedom then? Why allow me to sleep in the castle, to work and eat there?”
    They came to a small rundown cottage, and Meg stopped and reached into the basket. “You didn’t hurt me, Ronan, and everyone needs a second chance to build their lives.”
    “Is that what you’re doing? Building your life?”
    She laughed, but the sound was forced. “Nay. Mine was over before it ever began.”
    He could only watch as she knocked on the cottage door and handed cheese and a loaf of bread to a woman so bent with age she couldn’t stand straight.
    There were no more words as he walked beside her to the next cottage where five small children gathered around her before she could even get to the door.
    The pleasure on her face as she interacted with them was evident. Meg was a woman made to be a mother. She nourished and encouraged as if it were second nature. And the children responded to her.
    For once, he was looking at a woman as something more than a source of pleasure. He was seeing Meg, really seeing her. It was something new, and it felt as if the earth had been yanked out from beneath him.
    Women were all the same. Weren’t they?
    Weeks ago he would have said yes, but after meeting Meg and coming to know her, he was reevaluating his ideas. She hadn’t manipulated him into giving her anything. She hadn’t cried or used her body.
    She had, however, given him the one thing he wanted above all – freedom. While asking for nothing in return.
    Was that why he felt compelled to remain near her? Was that why he desired her as deeply as he did? 
    She may have acted differently than any other woman he