The Highlander's Conquest Read Online Free PDF

around indicating nothing but air. “There’s no one here. What danger could there have been?”
    “My lady,” he said, sounding exasperated. “Surely you se e the blood upon the hound’ s snout?”
    “Aye.” She’d thought Frosty simply banged it on a branch.
    “There was someone here.” He pointed to the ground. “See there? The ground is all disrupted. Looks like multiple people judging from the boot tracks. ”
    Aliah glanced toward where he pointed. Sure enough the leaves and dirt were scattered, and deep impressions marred the earth as though a fight had occurred. Footprints and paw prints were pressed into the forest floor. And a piece of fabric. She bent down to retrieve it. ’Twas dirty and stiff, with a few drops of blood.
    “May I?” Blane asked, holding out his hand.
    She nodded and stepped forward, handing him the scrap. Chills swept over her. Frosty had been trying to protect her, but from who?
    Sir Blane frowned deeply, the scowl cutting creases into his forehead. “’Tis part of someone’s tunic, is my guess. English.”
    “An outlaw?” she asked.
    “Aye, most likely. ’Tis not safe for us to travel so openly it would appear. They may follow us.”
    The rest of his men melted from the shadows, shaking their heads.
    “Damn,” Blane muttered, his jaw muscles tightening. “They’ve found no one.”
    Aliah swallowed. “Are there many outlaws in these parts?”
    Blane stared hard at her, a bit of surprise showing on his face. “Are you not aware of that already?”
    “I’d been told but…”
    “You did not listen.”
    She nodded, biting her lip and feeling as though she were a petulant child receiving a scolding.
    “You are impulsive, Lady Aliah. ’Tis a flaw that could have gotten you killed this afternoon.”
    Mortification wh irl ed through her. His words hurt. How many times had her father sa id those very same words? She could not argue, for she knew them to be true. Far too often she acted before thinking. And far too often she or someone else suffered from it.
    Lowering her gaze to her dog, she patted him on top of his head. “Good boy,” she whispered.
    She refused to look at Sir Blane. So far, she had not made a very good go of this trip. Quite honestly, she wasn’t sure the rest of their journey would be so uneventful either. Bad luck seemed to follow her in spades.
    “My lady, if you will remount Gunnar, we must be on our way. I do not know how many were with the man your dog attacked and I don’t want to wait around for an ambush.”
    Aliah shook her head. “You should be on Gunnar. Mad Maiden is no horse for a knight.” Guilt riddled her for allowing him to ride the afflicted horse. Perhaps if he’d been upon his own mount he could have caught the outlaw s who’d been stalking them in the first place.
    Fire burned in his eyes as he stared at her. “Your horse’s name is Mad Maiden?”
    A flush crept over her neck and cheeks. “Aye.”
    Sir Blane just shook his head, then chuckled softly. “Fitting. ” He blew out a breath. “ Mount up, we must depart.”
    “But your horse, surely he will be of more use to you.”
    “I shan’t have you riding Mad Maiden, my lady. If we pass by an inn, I shall pay them for a new mount and have them return your mare to Mowbray Manor.”
    A thought occurred to her. “We could ride together. I did so many times with my brother Samuel. I wouldn’t want Mad Maiden to slow us down.”
    “Eager to reach your father and sister?” He raised a brow.
    “And keen to be away from danger.” With Glenda telling her some things that were true and other things that weren’t, Aliah suddenly felt a little lost. She appeared to know so little about the world. Certainly, she wasn’t naïve enough to think that outlaws did not exist, but she also did not think they attacked just anyone. L ooking around her party, she would have thought they were ordinary folks. None of them looked to o rich, and what would an outlaw have to gain from