The Highlander's Woman (The Reckless Rockwoods #3) Read Online Free PDF

than a close family friend.”
    “Close friend?” she sneered and glared at him for being so obtuse where the other woman was concerned. “From Miss Bensmore’s manner tonight, I would have supposed your relationship much more intimate.”
    “You go too far, Patience.” Fury made his voice hard and flat.
    “Do I? The woman made it quite obvious you had only to ask and she would slip into your bed,” she bit out as fear and suspicion became an insidious vine snaking its way through her.
    “You do no’ have much faith in your husband’s love, Lady Patience.” The formal address stung. He’d never spoken to her like this before. His expression was grim, and she saw the flicker of painful disappointment in his dark eyes.
    “No more than you have in me when I point out the obvious,” she snapped as she fought to keep the tears out of her voice. She turned away from Julian and moved toward the bed, but he followed her, the heat of him warming her back. His fingers trailed a light path across her shoulder.
    “I love you, Patience. I have since the moment I first laid eyes on you.”
    “That is the crux of the problem,” she bit out as she whirled around to face him. “We barely know each other.”
    Patience shook her head. How could she make Julian understand how painful the evening had been for her—how inadequate she felt, even now when she was with him? Throughout the night his father had quietly pointed out Una’s qualities to Patience. Virtues, the man had made clear, she lacked.
    Julian and Una shared a common past, and the woman didn’t have an ounce of English blood. The woman had flirted openly with Julian and ignored Patience. Something the Crianlarich had encouraged by having Una share tales of when she and Julian were children. Patience had been the only one excluded from the stories Una had regaled everyone with this evening.
    Even Julian’s younger sister Muireall had heard of Julian’s and Una’s escapades before tonight. This evening’s dinner party had illustrated just how out of place and unwelcome Patience was at Crianlarich Castle. Worst of all, it made her believe the old adage of marrying in haste only to repent at leisure was true in their case. They barely knew anything about each other.
    “We have the rest of our lives to learn about each other, mo ghràdh ,” he said with quiet reassurance.
    “But she already knows all about you. She knows your past. I don’t. Una Bensmore knows what makes you happy. I saw that tonight when you laughed at almost everything she said,” Patience said as her voice quavered. “I understand now what your father meant when he said I’m unworthy to bear the MacTavish name.”
    “Unworthy—I do no’ give a damn what my father says,” Julian snarled as he closed the distance between. His large hands tenderly cupped her face. “You are more than worthy of bearing my name, Patience. You have Stewart blood in you, and do no’ forget that. But the only thing that really matters is that you make me happy simply by the fact that you chose me.”
    Patience was abruptly jerked back into the present by the quiet knock on the bedroom door. Maggie, her maid, entered the room when Patience called out for the servant to enter. Patience forced a smile to her lips, and gestured toward the tray.
    “I’m done with breakfast, Maggie.”
    “Yes, my lady.” The maid picked up the tray then turned toward her. “Shall I come back to help you dress, Lady Patience?”
    “No, I can manage. Thank you,” Patience said in a distracted voice.
    She barely heard the maid leave the room. All she could see in her mind’s eye was Una staring up at her with a triumphant expression on her face. Until this moment, Patience had not realized how insecure her father-in-law’s vicious insinuations had made her feel about her marriage. Inwardly, she’d told herself to dismiss the man’s cruel words. She’d worked hard to forget the innuendos the laird had levied in her