The Pursuit Read Online Free PDF

manor. He’d never wandered quite that far as a child to see for himself, though.
    “I learned to swim in this pond,” he volunteered, still reluctant to leave just yet. “A friend I used to meet here taught me, after teasing me mercilessly that I’d been coming here without knowing how.”
    She looked surprised. “How ironic. M’Uncle Johnny brought me here when I was six tae teach me as well. Much easier tae learn in placid water than in the ocean. I’ve been bringing m’cousins here for the same thing e’er since.”
    That was quite a distance to travel just to teach children to swim, especially when most people considered it an unnecessary skill to have, unless they planned to earn their living from the ocean…. Cousins? He peered at the two girls in the water again. They really looked nothing like Melissa. And for her to have bornethem, she’d have to be much older than she appeared to be.
    He said as much. “They’re not your daughters?”
    She followed his gaze. She didn’t laugh, but he could see in her light green eyes, when she looked at him again, that she wanted to.
    “And here I was thinking we’d established that I’m only nine m’self.” She grinned. “I’m also thinking m’da would be going on a rampage, were I tae start having bairns afore I get m’self wed.”
    It was the oddest sensation for him, to be so thoroughly embarrassed, fighting another blush, yet at the same moment be so utterly thrilled. She wasn’t married. She was available for a…closer acquaintance.
    “My apologies,” he offered. “You just seemed like a family enjoying an outing.”
    “Aye, and we are, just no’ that closely related. This is actually only the second time I’ve met these cousins o’ mine, the first time their mother has allowed them tae come up the Highlands for a visit. O’ course, I’ve so many cousins, ’tis doubtful I’ll e’er be meeting them all.”
    Which was the case with many large families, and some not so large. He had cousins of the third and fourth generation as well on the Ross side that he’d never met, since they’d moved to other countries.
    Lincoln nodded. It was time to go. In fact, he’d prefer to be gone before the man woke up and possibly ruined this first meeting of theirs. But hedidn’t mind leaving now that he was sure he would see her again. And he would.
    “I’ve intruded long enough,” he said, turning toward his horse. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Miss MacGregor. Until the next time, I bid you good day.”

Five
    M ELISSA stared dreamily out at the countryside rolling past the open carriage, without really seeing any of it. The trip would take twice as long in a carriage, which was why she usually rode her own mount when she visited her grandfather. But she was too distracted today to care, which was also why she’d asked the uncle who was escorting her home to fetch a carriage for it, since distraction and riding a frisky horse didn’t mix well.
    Who would have thought that a childhood fear, which she knew was silly but still harbored nonetheless, would be responsible for such an exciting outcome to an otherwise uneventful day? It began with meeting her Uncle Johnny’s two daughters for the second time—the first time had been on a trip to the Lowlands with several of her uncles three years ago. Johnny had been trying to get the care of them since they were born, buttheir mother refused to give them up to him. She would only allow him to visit them in the Lowlands where she lived, and had never let them come to him until now.
    But Johnny wasn’t the only one of her uncles to have such difficulties. Many of them had children spread out all over Scotland. They’d taken after her grandfather in that respect. But unlike their father, who had gathered all his sons to him for raising, not all of those sons were that lucky with their own bairns. Some of the women they’d dallied with were insisting on marriage before they’d give up their