The Firebrand Read Online Free PDF

with for the English firebrand will be any harsher than hanging her in a cage from the top of Kisimul Castle on a midwinter’s eve.”
    “Humph! That was nothing!” She waited for Wyntoun to open the door for her and then glanced back at him. “And you’ll find out soon enough that Adrianne has no fear of heights or anything else. Putting her out there was only a test of her skill. When I had her suspended in the Great Hall, it took her only a few hours before she’d worked herself free and was climbing down the rope on the far side of the Hall. I believe the cold must have slowed her down a wee bit tonight.”
    Wyntoun frowned at the old woman’s serious expression, unsure whether her words had been spoken in jest…or out of admiration.
    “Have no worries, Aunt. I shall see to it that she is safely united with her kin.”
    “Very well! I’m done with it.” The nun waved a hand at her nephew and stepped into the narrow gangway, pushing Ian ahead of her toward the ladder leading to the deck. “Lead on, you hulking oaf. I want to get my feet on solid ground again.”
    Wyntoun walked back inside the cabin and, as he closed the door behind him, his eyes never left the open casket on his desk.
    “Far easier than I would have ever thought.”
    Wyntoun sat himself at the desk, picked up the packet, and broke the seal without a moment’s hesitation. Unwrapping the leather, he gazed for a moment at the contents. A letter addressed to Adrianne Percy on fine parchment...and smaller folded packet of vellum.
    He pushed aside the letter and reached for the folded vellum. Carefully opening it, he stared at the marks and symbols on the sheet.
    The map. Well, part of it, anyway, he decided.
    “Tiberius!” he whispered.
    There was no warning. Suddenly, he felt the cutting edge of the dagger pressed tightly against his throat, the woman’s small hand having taken a firm grip on his hair.
    Wyntoun dropped the map on the table.
    “Very good, clackdish! But you know you shouldn’t be touching things that don’t belong to you!”

CHAPTER 4
     
    Adrianne’s hand kept a steady pressure with the small dagger as her eyes glanced over the map on the table before the Highlander. He turned his head slightly and the weapon cut into his skin. Blood beaded up on the taut skin of his neck.
    “The next time you move will be the last time.”
    In spite of the trickle of blood now running down into the neck of his black shirt, Adrianne knew that her threat had not struck fear into the knight’s heart. In fact, as green eyes turned and looked up at her, she wondered whether he was taking her seriously at all. His intense gaze swept downward from her face, taking in what he could see of the rest of her, and Adrianne suddenly felt her skin grow warm under his bold scrutiny.
    Anger quickly replaced surprise, and she jerked his head backward, holding tight to his short black hair.
    “Do not push your...” She paused as men could be heard passing the cabin door.
    “Do not push what, wee one?”
    He turned in the chair, and Adrianne quickly sidestepped to keep her advantage.
    “Stop your moving, or I’ll cut your throat. I swear I will!” Wyntoun MacLean in the flesh was clearly a great deal more dangerous than she had anticipated while hanging in her cage off Kisimul Castle’s wall. And though the shade of green was darker, he had the predatory gaze of a cat on the hunt.
    “And then what?”
    “I...I have no time for these games. Be quick now. Wrap everything you took out in the leather again.”
    The Highlander not only ignored her command, he sat back in the chair, stretching his booted legs before him. The muscles in his tanned face relaxed, one corner of his mouth quirking upward insolently. The rogue even had the nerve to look bored.
    She jerked his hair even harder, wiping the smirk off his face.
    “I gave you a specific order. Now, if you wish to live long enough to see the first rays of dawn--”
    The small dagger flew out of