The Hellion and the Highlander Read Online Free PDF Page A

this morning and could at least lift his hands, he was still weak enough that he couldn’t even fend off an old woman. That was a bitter brew to swallow for a warrior like him, he acknowledged, as she leaned forward with a cold, damp cloth in hand.
    Kade scowled, but he closed his eyes just seconds before she laid the cloth over them. The harsh sunlight spilling through his open shutters was immediately blocked out, and he sighed with relief as the cool damp soaked into the skin around his eyes, soothing away some of the aching that had come on while he’d been talking with his men and Will.
    “Feels better, doesn’t it?” the old crow challenged.
    When Kade merely grunted, she chuckled her amusement, the sound the closest to a cackle that he’d ever heard. It made him wish once again that Averill was there.
    When he’d awakened at the crack of dawn, Kade had been less than pleased to find the old harpy at his bedside instead of Will’s sister. Where Averill’s voice had been sweet and soothing, this woman’s was testy and sharp, and her care had been a bit less than gentle so far. She’d handled him like a side of beef as she’d gone about washing him and rolling him about to change the bedding. The whole experience had been unpleasant and humiliating for a man used to fending for himself, and he was quite sure that had Averill been here to tend to those tasks, it would have been a different ordeal entirely.
    Even worse, after all that, all the old woman would allow him to consume was broth and mead. Kade wanted solid food. He wanted to start rebuilding his strength. However, when he’d said as much, she’d merely announced that Lady Averill had ordered that he wasn’t yet allowed solid food. Apparently, the maid was loyal to Averill and her orders. Certainly, none of his griping or demands had moved her to go against them.
    The sound of the door opening caught his ear, and Kade almost held his breath as he waited to hear who it was. A small smile of relief almost graced his lips when he smelled spice and flowersand heard Averill’s soft voice greeting Mabs. The soft patter of her footsteps followed.
    “Oh, dear,” she exclaimed, sounding as if she were right next to the bed. “Why the cold compress? Are his eyes still bothering him, Mabs?”
    “Nay,” Kade said at once, but the soft growl was drowned out by Mabs’s voice as she said, “Aye. After being closed so long, they are not yet adjusted to the light. Keep the cold compress on him as long as you can today. ’Twill help speed his healing.”
    Kade scowled as he heard Averill’s murmured agreement, then listened as the women moved off toward the door. They were talking softly, but after a moment they fell silent, and there was the sound of the door opening and closing.
    “Well.” Averill’s voice flowed over him as soft and sweet as he remembered. There was a quiet rustle as she seated herself, and Kade smiled and inhaled the scent that drifted to him on the air. And then she asked, “Are you feeling better this morning?”
    Kade lifted his hand, intending to remove the cloth covering his eyes so that he could see her, but she caught it and urged the hand back down to the bed.
    “Best just to leave the compress for now. It may help your eyesight return more quickly,” she said. As soft as the words were, there was steel beneath them, and her grip on his hand was firm before she released it. She then patted it, and added, cheerfully, “Besides, there’s nothing worth seeing here anyway, just a bed, a chair, the fireplace, and some sunlight.”
    “There’s you,” Kade said quietly, and it brought a soft laugh that had a wry edge to it.
    “Believe me, I am hardly worth risking a headache to see,” she assured him.
    Kade frowned at her words, recalling waking to her lamenting over her father’s efforts to marry her off and the cruel insults of the men he’d chosen. It made him more curious than ever to see her, but he left the compress