The Reluctant Highland Groom Read Online Free PDF Page A

stables both burned. The great house survived, but parts were burned to the ground.”
     
    Damn.
     
    “ And they were already facing trouble for the winter,” Ramsey added. “This may be a death blow.”
     
    Alec gritted his teeth. The McHughs were a vulnerable clan since Zeke’s death, and now with Connor’s murder, the remaining families wouldn’t make it through the coming winter. And there was no space readily available on Munro land to take the survivors. Nearly forty families would die before the spring if left on their own.
     
    It was a wicked, albeit masterful stroke by the Gunns. They had struck hard and swift, and doubtless thought they’d eliminated any resistance the McHughs might provide in the future.
     
    Meanwhile, the last McHugh clung to life.
     
    “ What can we do?” Alec asked, thinking of the woman lying in bed upstairs. “It might do the folk well to see Cara alive. Do they know she’s survived?”
     
    “ Not yet,” Logan said. “We thought it best to let the Gunns think the McHughs gone entirely. If they learn they missed one, who’s to say they won’t launch an attack on us next, or worse yet, leap upon her when she does at last travel home?”
     
    “ Then you leave her people without hope.”
     
    Ramsey sighed. “What would you have me do, brother?”
     
    Alec had no better suggestions at the moment, though he thought there must yet be some way to turn the situation to their advantage.
     
    Damn the Gunns! How had they been allowed to grow so strong and do so much damage? “Why have we not struck against them before? How could this happen?”
     
    “ We grew complacent,” Logan growled.
     
    Ramsey spun around. “We did no such thing! We can hardly help that their numbers are greater than ours—and that they’ve enjoyed good harvests while we’ve struggled. If Da were here, he’d…”
     
    But their father was not there, and had not been there for years. The Gunns had taken him, too.
     
    Alec closed his hand into a fist. “They will pay one day,” he said quietly. “They will. The rivers will flow with the blood of the Gunns, and Scotland will be better off for it.”
     
    “ Aye,” Logan murmured.
     
    Ramsey didn’t say anything, but he nodded slightly.
     
    Alec let out a heavy breath and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll see to the lady,” he said.
     
    “ She needs rest, Alec…”
     
    “ She also needs to know what happened to her home.”
     
    Alec could think of a great many things he’d rather do than make this particular visit. Enjoy a cup of wine by the fire, for one, or perhaps indulge in a much-needed ride across the hills.
     
    For now, though, he had unhappy tidings to bring to Cara. She was awake and asking about her home, and while the healer advised him against it, Alec could not bring himself to lie to her any longer. She needed to know.
     
    It was not a good conversation.
     
    She did not take the news well, and had to be restrained and given a sleep draught when she had tried to walk back to her home, ill health and all. The night in the damp, cold weather had given her a fearsome fever and chills that left her beautiful face ashen and clammy.
     
    But when Alec had gently explained to her all that had happened to her people that fateful day, she pushed the covers away and tried to knock him aside when he blocked the doorway.
     
    “ To hell with you, Alec Munro,” she said in a broken whisper, her voice frail from the sickness. “My people need me and you’ll not keep me here any longer.”
     
    “ Cara, you must rest. You’re still healing...”
     
    But she pushed him aside, staggering out of bed and toward the door. He gaped after her, astonished that she’d made it a foot, much less all the way across the room. She had courage, this one; courage, and a will to go on.
     
    Of course she does. She’d been brandishing a claymore when he found her, hadn’t she? She didn’t know how to properly wield it, but he’d no