The Lady and the Knight (Highland Brides) Read Online Free PDF

fool, he believed her. If she were part of a plan to abduct Lord Haldane's child, she would surely be with her accomplices now and well on her way to demanding ransom for the child.
    He had not been thinking clearly since he'd found the women's dead bodies, that much was certain. Had he been lucid he would have questioned the brigand he found, instead of killing him outright.
    Bernadette's scream had done nothing to steady his thinking. Hope had surged through him.
    Perhaps someone had survived the attack, he'd thought. But the woman had not seen him as a savior but as a villain, and had attacked him. Once again he'd been given no time to think, but only to react, to assume, and to act on those assumptions. And he'd been trained to assume the worst. Thus, in his mind, the woman had become an abductor. The theory held some logic. After all, he'd never found the baby's body, only scraps of cloth and patches of blood.
    A noise crackled behind him. Survival instincts crashed to the fore. In an instant, his sword was in his hand and he was facing the onslaught. But his horse Mettle was the only menace that charged from the woods.
    Boden released a shaky breath and returned Black Adder to its place at his side. "No need to fear," he said. Reaching into the pouch that hung from his belt, he brought forth a chunk of dark bread for the horse. There was little hope the great, dappled charger would come when called, and no hope that he would make such a spectacular entrance if a treat wasn't forthcoming. Little wonder he was so damned fat.
    Boden turned his attention back to Bernadette. She stopped her backward retreat abruptly, her eyes wide. "Your ride is here," she said. "I'll just be on my way."
    Boden almost grinned as he grasped Mettle's trailing reins. "You'll come with me, lady."
    "I've done nothing wrong."
    "So you've said. But you are a woman. Of that I am fairly certain. Tis my duty to protect you."
    "Protect me? Is that what ye've been doing?"
    He chuckled. "Surely a scrapper like you wouldn't let a few idle threats worry her," he said.
    "After all, you got in more than your share of licks." He grimaced at the blood on his arm and tried not to think how his neck must look.
    She winced as her gaze followed his. "They are... only flesh wounds," she assured him.
    "True," he said. "But tis my flesh and I rather like to keep it intact whenever possible. Still, you're a woman and I'm a knight."
    "A—a knight?"
    He turned to see that her expression looked as surprised as her voice sounded. "Aye. And sworn to protect the... weak and the mild."
    Her gaze swept to his bloodied arm again. Darkness had settled in with only the last remnants of dusk clinging to the western sky.
    "You're a knight?" she repeated.
    He frowned at her surprise. Surely it wasn't warranted. His sleeveless mail shirt evidenced fine Oriental craftsmanship. His sword was made of Spanish steel, his steed bred for a king. Without knowing the circumstances of his birth, why would she be shocked by his title? "Aye," he said, peeved by the thought. "Come. You'll ride in front."
    "I... fear I must decline." She took a step back and shook her head, but he was fresh out of patience and snatched her to him.
    "Come," he gritted through his teeth and pushed her and the child aboard the gray. "I owe you a kindness."
    She perched with both legs on one side while he mounted behind her. Her body felt stiff against his. The saddle was too small for them both, but he dare not stay afoot much longer, for the memory of decaying bodies sat heavy in his stomach. The fact that two of them had been women had only made his anger greater. Admittedly, it had also made his reasoning less than sound.
    After his initial shock, he had hoped the baby might have survived somehow. Even if the babe had been taken for ransom, it would have been a blessing. But such was not the case. The duke's heir must have perished and been dragged from his mother by a wild animal.
    The baby cried suddenly,